Sdphrosyne in the Texts Ascribed to Pythagorean Women

I. A Treatise by Phintys, On the Sophrosyne of a Woman^[1145]

In its introduction, the treatise On the Sophrosyne of a Woman explicitly takes up the moral-philosophical topos of “the good woman”: “In sum, it is necessary for a good woman also to be well-behaved [κοσμίαν]; for with­out virtue she might never become such.”^[1146] Abiding by the title of this treatise, which may or may not be original, the author then defines the primary virtue of “the good woman” in this thesis statement:^[1147] “And the supreme virtue [μάλιστα άρετά] of a woman is sdphrosyne; for by this [virtue] she will be able both to honor and to love her own husband.”^[1148] With this assertion, the author positions the inseparable connection be­tween feminine sdphrosyne and the marriage relationship as the governing principle for all other manifestations of womanly virtue.

Therefore, it is necessary for a woman who is being educated to gain knowledge about sophrosyne: from how many and what kinds of things does this good thing come to [ma­turity in] a woman. So then I say [it comes] from these five: first, from the sanctity and piety with respect to the marriage bed; second, from the adornment of her body; third, from the expeditions from her own house; fourth, from not engaging in secret orgiastic rites and great mother celebrations; and fifth, in being discreet and moderate in the sacri­fice to the deity. But of these the greatest and most essential cause of sophrosyne is to be uncorrupted with respect to the marriage bed, and not to have intercourse with a 22

strange man.

To reiterate, for a woman to acquire the “supreme virtue” of sophrosyne, she must first and foremost remain sexually faithful to her husband. In this text, threats of divine and legal punishments are inscribed in order to dis­suade a woman from extra-marital sex: she is warned especially not to dis­avow her marital promise to join her husband “in a life partnership and in the procreation of children according to the law.”^{[1150] [1151] In order to persuade a woman toward sophrosyne in this pre-DNA-testing society, the hoped-for consequence of her wifely faithfulness is promised: “But the best adorn­ment and foremost glory of a married woman is that her sophrosyne to­ward her husband is testified to through her own children, if they bear the image of the likeness of the father who begot them.”[1152] Indeed, such a result would be noticeably apparent evidence of a woman’s sexual fidelity to her husband.}

Here I suggest a modification of Malherbe’s assessment of this trea­tise’s concept of sophrosyne. Twice he states that On the Sophrosyne of a Woman views the purpose of marital sex as “procreation.”^[1153] While On the Sophrosyne does point out that a woman’s marriage vow is for “a life part­nership and for the procreation of children according to the law,” and alt­hough this may very well be the implicit viewpoint of the discourse, still it does not explicitly state that having children is the first or only purpose of sexual intercourse within a marriage. Certainly bearing children who re­semble their legitimate father signals a woman’s sophrosyne, but again that does not mean that marital sex has procreation as its only objective. What lies beneath this particular aspect of the topos is whether a virtuous woman was expected to gain any other benefit, such as physical enjoyment or companionship from marital sex.^[1154] But On the Sophrosyne does not ad­dress female sexuality in this context, although it does emphasize the “life partnership” of a marriage.

The four other enactments of the woman’s sophrosyne - her modest adornment, “expeditions” from her house, not participating in “women’s rituals,” and proper sacrifices to the gods - radiate out from the central source of marital faithfulness, and are meant to reinforce the public, social perception that this wife is indeed not sexually “mixed up” (to translate the word apiKTOv) with any man other than her husband.^[1155] In this culture, as in others, clothing, jewelry, and cosmetics signify social position but also a woman’s sexual availability or inaccessibility. Her modest adornment en­sures that “she will provide honor both for her life-partner and for her­self.”^[1156] Similarly, going out of her house requires a woman to behave with reserve, not drawing attention to herself by leaving during the shadowy hours^[1157] which might suggest a sexual assignation, but to go out only “in order to perform public sacrifices to the founding-god of the city on behalf of herself and her husband and her whole house,”^[1158] or for an approved so­cial event, or to purchase a household necessity. The wording of these in­structions remind the reader that the very fashion in which a woman makes “expeditions” from the house could intimate that she is not sophron be­cause she is not being faithful to “her husband.” Adding the admonition “to abstain from orgiastic rites and great mother celebrations,”^[1159] the author cites the illegality of these events, along with the negative examples that women might become drunk and/or subject to ecstatic experiences, so that once again, a woman’s control of her sexual desires is linked to her mani­festation of sophrosyne. The treatise ends succinctly with this statement: “But it is necessary for the one who is the mistress of the house and who presides over the house to be sophron and untouched in all respects.”^[1160]

II. The Letter Melissa to Kleareta

The epistolary occasion of the letter Melissa to Kleareta^[1161] sets the stage for the author to give the recipient advice on how she might acquire sophrosyne, and the contents of the letter adhere to the contours of the top­os of “the good woman.”

Melissa to Kleareta.

It appears to me that of yourself^[1162] you have most good attributes. For your earnest wish­ing to hear about a wife's decorous behavior gives a good hope that you are going to grow old^[1163] in accordance with virtue. Therefore, the sophron and married woman^[1164] must belong to her lawful husband, being adorned with silence but not very craftily, and [she must] be dressed in clothing that is whitened and clean and simple, but not very expen­sive or excessive; for she ought to avoid garments of purple cloth, and that shot through with purple and gold, since this sort is useful to the hetairai for their hunting of more men. But the adornment that belongs to the woman who is well pleasing to her very own [husband] is her way of life, and not her robes. For the married woman must appear fair of form to her own husband, but not to the neighbors. On the one hand, you should have a blush as a sign of modesty on your face instead of rouge, and, on the other, goodness and the height of decorum and instead of gold and emeralds, for the woman who strives for sophrosyne should not be enthusiastic for the extravagance of clothing, but for the management of her household. And she should please her own husband by making his wishes complete, for the wishes of her husband ought to be an unwritten law for the dec­orous woman, according to which she must live. And she must consider that, along with herself, her orderly behavior has been offered as her best and greatest dowry-gift, for she must trust in the beauty and wealth of her soul rather than in that of her looks and pos­sessions; for jealousy and sickness take away from the latter, but the former are present in good order even to death.^[1165]

The first word encountered in “Melissa’s” letter is the sender’s name in the nominative case, and this authorial pseudonym prepares the reader to in­terpret the epistolary contents. While there are no known female Pythago­reans named “Melissa,” the name carries strong positive associations in many ancient sources.

The aspect of bee-behavior especially pertinent to the content of Melis­sa to Kleareta is that bees were thought to model sdphrosyne. As Sarah B. Pomeroy states: “The bee was famous for purity and abstinence. Ancient entomologists did not understand the sexual reproduction of bees; there­fore, they associated this insect with chastity.”^[1171] Aelian explicitly links the bee to sdphrosyne as well as to the Pythagorean way of life:

But a bee lives a pure life, and would not at any time eat a living thing. It does not need Pythagoras as a counselor, not at all; it is enough for the flowers to be food for it. And it has the highest rank when it comes to sophrosyne. At any rate, it hates luxury and delica­cy. And the evidence is that it pursues the man anointed with perfume and strikes as if making a fatal battle. It recognizes the man that comes from licentious intercourse, and indeed pursues that man as its worst enemy.^[1172]

These elements of Aelian’s depiction of bee-nature are quite apt for inter­preting Melissa to Kleareta: both his evocation of Pythagorean practices as well as the perception of apian sdphrosyne, which denounced luxury and delicacy, while opposing adultery, correspond to the worldview of Melis­sa’s epistolary advice.

As in the treatise ascribed to Phintys, in this short letter female sdphrosyne is enacted first of all by a woman’s marital faithfulness: she ought “to belong to her lawful husband,” a thought which is later devel­oped as “she should please her own husband by making his wishes com­plete.” The author also introduces the issue of wifely adornment, which re­lies on some of the same logic as On the Sophrosyne. Both texts advocate “shame” (αισχύνη) or “modesty” (αιδώ?) as the proper adornment for women,^[1173] while decrying any display of luxury in clothing, jewelry,^[1174] or cosmetics. However, Melissa to Kleareta overtly asserts that the wife’s choice of modest adornment shows that she is sexually active only with her husband, and that she is not, as are the hetairai, on the hunt for “more men.” The justification offered to support this paraenesis regarding adornment is an appeal to social convention: only one man has the right to view a woman’s fair-form (εύμορφον),^[1175] and that is her husband, because her body should not be revealed to “the neighbors.” The paraenetic instruc­tion reinforces a high sexual standard for the wife, while providing some sly humor about the potential exposure of her body to unspecified other men. If this is a teasing remark, addressed to a newly-married, and thus presumably newly-sexually active, young woman, then the advice that immediately follows - “you should have a blush as a sign of modesty on your face instead of rouge” - could continue the bantering tone of sexual innuendo.^[1176]

In Melissa to Kleareta, the feminine virtue of sdphrosyne applies to a woman’s larger domestic context in that “the woman who strives for sdphrosyne should not be enthusiastic for the extravagance of clothing, but for the management of her household.” While the main focus of the wife’s sdphrdn behavior is her husband, this bit of advice evokes her role as de- spoina, so that the virtue of sophrosyne is strongly linked to that aspect of a wife’s occupation. Since the Roman household also included children, we might infer that a woman’s mothering role is also being evoked. How­ever, in this letter there is no obvious connection made between sophrosyne and procreation as the supposed purpose of marital sex; there are no references to child-bearing or child-rearing.

The letter comes to a graceful close with a renewed urging to focus on inner moral beauty rather than on externals, since the “beauty and wealth of her ‘soul’” will endure until death, while the beauty and wealth of “her looks and her possessions” are only temporary, being easily affected by “jealousy and illness.” While this expresses the ancient philosophical commonplace that one’s inner virtuous character is demonstrated in mod­est outer adornment, at the same time the antithesis makes another link be­tween the woman’s virtue and her role as wife: “her orderly behavior has been offered as her best and greatest dowry-gift.”

In summary, the letter’s advocacy of a feminine kind of sophrosyne is cleverly supported by the authorial pseudonym: Μέλισσα. First, there is the connection of honey-bees, melissai, with Pythagoreans, so that what­ever advice is given here aspires to the stamp of approval of that esteemed philosophical movement. Then, the reports of the sexual purity of bees, their chastity and their hatred of luxury and of licentious intercourse corre­spond to the paraenesis of this letter, and remind the reader that for a woman to exhibit sophrosyne she absolutely must remain sexually faithful to her own husband.

C.