Themista of Lampsacus

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    I just got The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus through interlibrary loan yesterday and started with the chapter on women in the Garden. The author, within a few pages in the chapter, brought up the fact that some scholars identify a statue of St. Hippolytus in the Vatican as having originally been a statue of Themista of Lampsacus due to the obvious women's double hem and sandals and characteristic throne. The statue, as it is seen today, is pieced together from various fragments, but the throne and base are one piece.

    I found one open access article that talks about this:

    A Heavily Bearded Philosopher in Women's Underwear. Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Identity of the So-called Hippolytus Statue. In: Louvain Studies 44 (2021), 340-364 (Open Access)
    Strictly speaking, the so-called Hippolytus statue should not exist. This free-standing, full-size sculpture of a bearded philosopher, supplied with Christian…
    www.academia.edu

    Or Google [Themista Hippolytus] and you'll get more resources.

    I was completely unaware of this prior to The Invention and Gendering of Epicurus so I am very much looking forward to reading the book.

    So Leontion wrote something against Theophrastus I believe we have heard -- do we know anything in particular associated with Themista (or as to specifically why Epicurus was praising her?)


    Themista of Lampsacus - Wikipedia

    Themista of Lampsacus (Greek: Θεμίστη), the wife of Leonteus, was a student of Epicurus, early in the 3rd century BC.[1] Epicurus' school was unusual in the 3rd century, in that it allowed women to attend, and we also hear of Leontion attending Epicurus' school around the same time. Cicero ridicules Epicurus for writing "countless volumes in praise of Themista," instead of more worthy men such as Miltiades, Themistocles or Epaminondas.[2] Themista and Leonteus named their son Epicurus.[3]

    Notes[edit]

    1. ^ Diogenes Laertius, x. 25, 26
    2. ^ Cicero, De Finibus, 2. 21. 68
    3. ^ Diogenes Laertius, x. 26

    Correct, the top half of the statue is not original to the base/chair/legs.

    Per Pamela Gordon: According to Margherita Guarducci, lower half is 2nd c.CE Roman copy of Greek original, most of upper half is from another statue, head and arms belong to try another era, and the entire figure was "restored" in the 16th c.

    Quote

    In the school of Epicurus I never heard one mention of Lycurgus, Solon, Miltiades, Themistocles, Epaminondas, who are always on the lips of the other philosophers. And now that we Romans too have begun to treat of these themes, what a marvellous roll of great men will our friend Atticus supply to us from his store-houses of learning! Would it not be better to talk of these than to devote those bulky volumes to Themista? Let us leave that sort of thing to the Greeks. True we owe to them philosophy and all the liberal sciences; yet there are topics not permitted to us, that are allowable for them. Battle rages between the Stoics and the Peripatetics. One school declares that nothing is good but Moral Worth, the other that, while it assigns the greatest, and by far the greatest, value to Morality, yet still some bodily and external things are good. Here is an honourable quarrel, fought out in high debate! For the whole dispute turns on the true worth of virtue. But when one argues with your [Epicurean] friends, one has to listen to a great deal about even the grosser forms of pleasure! Epicurus is always harping upon them!

    Cicero, De Finibus, book 2

    I wonder if she died some time before Epicurus. Their practice of memorializing the dead through books of praise would explain Cicero's complaint. Then there is that connection between the names Leontion and Leontius. Perhaps Leontion was the daughter of Themista and Leontius. Impossible to say at this distance.

    I seem to recall finding mention of Leontion in the Greek Anthology, I'll have to check when I get home.

    Quote

    ANONYMOUS: I, THE pencil, was silver when I came from the fire, but in thy hands I have become golden likewise. So, charming Leontion, hath Athena well gifted thee with supremacy in art, and Cypris with supremacy in beauty.

    Book 16 of the Planudean Anthology.

    Quote from Joshua
    Quote

    ANONYMOUS: I, THE pencil, was silver when I came from the fire, but in thy hands I have become golden likewise. So, charming Leontion, hath Athena well gifted thee with supremacy in art, and Cypris with supremacy in beauty.

    Book 16 of the Planudean Anthology.

    Oh! Cypris is another name for Aphrodite! So Leontion has been given art (τέχνης*) by Athena and beauty by Aphrodite! I get it now.

    *

    craft, skill, trade

    art

    cunning, wile

    Quote from Joshua

    Aphrodite was born of foam off Cythera, but went to Cyprus. Both islands had cultic sites dedicated to her. Athena was born from Zeus' head, but is associated also with the island of Rhodes.

    For additional info...

    https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html

    "According to Hesiod and the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite, the goddess after rising from the foam first approached the island of Cythera, and thence went to Cyprus,..."

    ATHENA - Greek Goddess of Wisdom, War & Crafts
    Athena was the ancient Greek goddess of wisdom and good counsel, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour, weaving, pottery and various other crafts. She…
    www.theoi.com

    "ATHENE (Athena) was the Olympian goddess of wisdom and good counsel, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour, weaving, pottery and various other crafts."

    Here's the old discussion with Elli about Cyprus - it seems it was started by an engraving in a copy of Lucretius.

    Post

    RE: Versions of the Text of Lucretius - 1743 Daniel Browne Edition - Unknown Translator

    This question isn't chargeable to Epicurus or Lucretius, certainly, because the engraving in this photo is only a couple of hundred years old. But I wonder why, in this portrayal made for the opening of Lucretius Book One, the artist decided to feature a map of CYPRUS at the bottom left of the drawing. And specifically - it says Cyprus - in case anyone didn't recognize the shape. Is Cyprus a particularly delightful place, or something? Or thought to be so in old England? Or is there in fact a…
    Cassius
    October 11, 2019 at 11:25 AM

    And I added an edit note above - we are talking about Aphrodite and not Athena.

    ^^ It's all myth anyway, so there are conflicting birth narratives for many deities. Everybody wanted to be associated with them. From the Theoi site:

    Quote

    PARENTS

    APHRODI′TE (Aphroditê), one of the great Olympian divinities, was, according to the popular and poetical notions of the Greeks, the goddess of love and beauty. Some traditions stated that she had sprung from the foam (aphros) of the sea, which had gathered around the mutilated parts of Uranus, that had been thrown into the sea by Kronos after he had unmanned his father. (Hesiod. Theog. 190; compare Anadyomene.) With the exception of the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite there is no trace of this legend in Homer, and according to him Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. (Il. v. 370, &c., xx. 105.) Later traditions call her a daughter of Kronos and Euonyme, or of Uranus and Hemera. (Cic. De Nat. Deor. iii. 23; Natal. Com. iv. 13.) ... According to Hesiod and the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite, the goddess after rising from the foam first approached the island of Cythera, and thence went to Cyprus, and as she was walking on the sea-coast flowers sprang up under her feet, and Eros and Himeros accompanied her to the assembly of the other great gods, all of whom were struck with admiration and love when she appeared, and her surpassing beauty made every one desire to have her for his wife.

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