Sosipatra as a Child and Student

This chapter describes what the early life of Sosipatra might have been like. It reviews the handful of details Eunapius gives about her early years and unique education by itinerant Chaldean daemons and contextualizes these by considering how other girls of Sosipatra’s class and time might have been raised and educated. To understand her education and life, it helps to know three principles about the ancient worldview: events are shaped by external invisible forces; events and actions are the products of multiple interacting agents; and all things, human and nonhuman, visible and invisible, seek to be brought into accord. Education in this Platonic lineage ideally meant assimilation to the cosmos in general and to divinity in particular.

Introduction

This book is about Sosipatra of Pergamum, a female philosopher who lived in the fourth century CE, a time when the Roman world was undergoing remarkable political, cultural (in particular religious), and even economic changes. Born into a wealthy family near Ephesus, Sosipatra played a critical role in exemplifying the kind of philosophical life that would best allow for the continued existence of Iamblichan Platonism in a Christianized world where the more problematic aspects of theurgy were downplayed or effaced in favor of an approach that maintained a clear understanding of cosmic hierarchy, despite believing humans can participate in divinity in a number of ways. She also acted as a point of critical contrast to the Christian ideal of the virginal or celibate female ascetic, as she married and had children. She ultimately led her own philosophy school in Pergamum.

Sosipatra as a Wife, Mother, and Widow

This chapter explores what Sosipatra’s late adolescent/early adult life might have been from her betrothal to Eustathius to the time when she began teaching in Pergamum. It describes family life for someone such as Sosipatra. It will endeavor to answer questions such as what her household responsibilities would have been, what difficulties and dangers she may have faced in bringing her children into the world and bringing them up, what role might she have played in their education, and so forth. It uses what is known from the late ancient eastern Empire about adolescence, betrothal, marriage, childbirth and childrearing, and widowhood to weave a plausible picture of the life of Sosipatra.

Sosipatra as a Theurgist and Oracle

Sosipatra’s story is punctuated by a number of marvelous events, in particular, prophetic moments where she relates either knowledge at a distance or of future happenings. This chapter situates these moments in the larger frame of late ancient theurgy and “magic.” To explain Sosipatra’s identity as a divine woman and the relationship of her status to various kinds of religious activity or ritual in addition to philosophical expertise and aptitude, this chapter discusses the variety of ritual expertise represented among holy men and women in antiquity in general and among various figures in Eunapius’s narrative in particular. This will illuminate the relationship between theurgy and philosophy for Eunapius. Ritual activities and practices, divination being the most important of these, were not considered irrational or at odds with philosophical forms of reasoning. Rather they were understood in the Iamblichean milieu to be by their very nature complementary to reason, and the culmination and transcendence of rationality.

Conclusion

Sosipatra’s life helps us to understand important facets of elite women’s lives in the late ancient world in general. The wealth of both Christian and non-Christian women allowed them a range of opportunities for being cultural and intellectual leaders. However, by the end of the fourth century, non-Christian women had to be more careful about their philosophical views and their leadership activities, as we see in the case of Hypatia of Alexandria. Similarly, diversity in Christian theologizing was also subject to critique and persecution. Sosipatra is one of the last female Platonists we have record of from the ancient world.

Sosipatra as a Teacher

Upon losing her husband, Sosipatra moved to Pergamum and opened her own philosophy school. This chapter explores what her school might have been like from its structure, student body, and curriculum. For a late ancient philosophy school in the Platonist tradition, students lived near or with their teacher, following prescribed study of Aristotle and Plato, and discussing these works. Their main goal was to live with and learn from one teacher. Such teachers were often considered holy as well as gifted teachers who inspired devotion as much as desire for intellectual stimulation in their followers. Sosipatra certainly fits this description as her educational pedigree and virtuosity signal some sort of divine inspiration as the source of her knowledge and wisdom. Eunapius’s estimation of Sosipatra’s superiority as a teacher indicates that he wished his readers to think of her as a leading light in the Iamblichean lineage when it came to teaching on standard Platonic topics.