:history: :philosophy:

The school of Cynic philosophy is especially striking, with such picturesque members as Diogenes and Crates, who have been forever imprinted in our collective imagination. However, it is easy to overlook the woman who, in my opinion, made the most severe sacrifice for the dog’s lifestyle: Hipparchia of Maronea.

This post is a translation of my “Sobre Hiparquia de Maronea”. The translation may or may not be good. Hope it is the former.

Dog’s Love

It is normal (and common) to know Diogenes the dog. His anecdotes have transcended history and have become legends of doubtful truth. His disciples, the so-called cynics, managed to make names for themselves despite the great shadow cast by their teacher. This shadow can sometimes cause darkness that prevents us from seeing some lesser known, but equally interesting characters, like Hipparchia, one of the first women philosophers in history.

Cynicism is a very difficult lifestyle to follow. It is extremely complicated to renounce civilization and comfort to live with the utmost frugality imaginable, carrying only a few rags and a bowl of water a la Diogenes, a bowl that he himself renounced after seeing a child drink using his hands. That’s why it’s admirable that someone would be as devoted to this school as the students of the dog were, with the most notable of them being Crates of Thebes, the philanthropist. But what brings me to write today is not Diogenes himself nor his outstanding pupil, but a commonly forgotten woman, Hipparchia, who performed a feat of love that will be hard to surpass in the centuries to come.

As I said, it is hard to live as a cynic, but it is even harder to live as a cynic for someone else.

Hipparchia was the sister of Metrocles, also a cynic, who burnt his own works and of whom little is known today, except for an anecdote involving a public fart and his friendship with Crates. Fortunately, his sister’s life is better documented than his own.

We know from her that she was from a family neither poor nor rich and that she was interested in philosophy like Metrocles. When Hipparchia met Crates, her brother’s teacher, she fell deeply in love with him. The philosopher, as natural, tried to convince her to desist in her attempts to become his partner (remember that Crates spoke ill of love passions and considered that the cynic lifestyle was not suitable for women), but he was not able to make her give up on her efforts. Tired, Crates proposed to Hipparchia that he would accept her as his wife, but she should start living as a cynic to be with him. The young woman did not hesitate for a second, she tore her dress and went from the delicate ancient feminine life to the rough life of the homeless cosmopolitan, abandoning her family, possessions, personal relationships, pride and honor.

She received criticism for her way of dressing and behaving, as well as for all the sacrifices made. If it was already frowned upon for a man to perform what Diogenes Laertius called “acts of Dionysus and Demeter” in public, it is hard to imagine the criticism and violence that Hipparchia had to face. But her love for cynicism and for Crates, combined with undeniable mental toughness, allowed her to be a Cynic until death.

Little is known of her life after these events, as the records of the time, already scarce in origin, have been lost over the centuries. We do know that she wrote three books: “Philosophical Hypotheses”, “Epikeremas”, and “Questions to Theodorus the Atheist”, but only small texts from her are preserved, like the following extract:

I, Hipparchia chose not the tasks of rich-robed woman, but the manly life of the Cynic. Brooch-clasped tunics, well-clad shoes, and perfumed headscarves pleased me not; But with wallet and fellow staff, together with coarse cloak and bed of hard ground, My name shall be greater than Atalanta: for wisdom is better than mountain running.

They say that love can do anything, and Hipparchia shows us that this must be true, because she renounced her possessions, material and immaterial, for it. Hipparchia thus became not only one of the toughest women of the ancient age, demonstrating an ability to sacrifice unsurpassed by her contemporaries, but one of the best representatives of the Cynic school, and one of the first women philosophers ever recorded, an author in her biography of a love story worthy of a novel.

Recommended readings

• Diógenes Laercio y C. García Gual, La secta del perro. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2019.