Woman in Science / With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind

by J. A. Zahm

Has divinis linguis Helicon nutrivit mulieres
Hymnis, et Macedon Pierias scopulus,
Prexillam, Myro, Anytæ os, fœminam Homerum,
Lesbidum Sappho ornamentum capillatarum.
Erinnam, Telesillam nobilem, teque Corinna,
Strenuum Palladis scutum quæ cecinit.
Nossidem muliebri lingua, et dulsisonam Myrtin,
Omnes immortalium operatrices librorum.
Novem quidem Musas magnum cœlum, novem vero illas
Terra genuit hominibus, immortalem lætitiam.

[5] Cf. Poetriarum octo, Erinnæ, Myrus, Mytidis, Corinnæ, Telesillæ, Praxillæ, Nossidis, Anytæ fragmenta et elogia, by J. C. Wolf Hamburg, 1734. See also the charming memoir "Sappho" by H. T. Wharton, London, 1898, and Griechische Dicterinnen, by J. C. Poestion, Vienna, 1876.

[6] See Mulierum Græcarum quæ oratione prosa usæ sunt fragmenta et elogia Græce et Latine, by J. C. Wolf, London, 1739, Historia Mulierum Philosopharum, scriptore Ægidio Menagio, Lugduni, 1690, Griechische Philosophinnen, by J. C. Poestion, Norden, 1885, and Le Donne alle Scuole dei Filosofi Greci in Saggi e Note Critiche, by A. Chiappelli, Bologna, 1895.

[7] Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and Rome and Among the Early Christians, pp. 58 and 59, by James Donaldson, London, 1907.

[8] There were several hetæræ named Lais. One of them, apparently a native of Corinth, was celebrated throughout Greece as the most beautiful woman of her age.

[9] For information respecting the hetæræ the reader is referred to the Letters of Alciphron, to Lucian's Dialogues on courtesans, and more particularly to the Deipnosophists of Athenæus, Chap. XIII. See also The Lives and Opinions of the Ancient Philosophers, by Diogenes Laertius, Bohn Edition, London.

[10] Donaldson, op. cit., pp. 61 and 62.

Adolph Schmidt, one of the late biographers of Aspasia, accepts these statements as true and credits to Aspasia the making of both Pericles and Socrates. His views are also shared by other modern writers who have made a special study of the subject.

According to some writers an indirect allusion to Aspasia's intellectual superiority is found in the Medea of Euripedes in the following verses of the women's chorus:

"In subtle questions I full many a time
Have heretofore engaged, and this great point
Debated, whether woman should extend
Her search into abstruse and hidden truths.
But we too have a Muse, who with our sex
Associates to expound the mystic lore
Of wisdom, though she dwell not with us all."