3 important works of HIPARQUÍA

In a PROFESOR we are going to travel to Ancient Greece to talk about Hiparchia (346-300 BC) C.), one of the first Western philosophers and one of the main representatives of the cynical school. She current that she is characterized by expressing her opinion through mockery or irony and by not believing in the impulses that lead man in one way or another.

However, despite the fact that she was one of the most important philosophers of her time and that she wrote three books: Philosophical Hypotheses, Epiqueremas and Questions to Theodore, we know little about these, since they have not reached ours.

If you want to know the important works of Hipparchia, keep reading this lesson because here we tell you everything.

hyparchy, that she is one of the first philosophers, she represents a model of woman totally foreign to the one promoted in Ancient Greece (Athens), according to which the woman was a be inferior to the man who should remain in the domestic sphere, playing his role as mother and wife.

It is precisely in this context that the figure of our protagonist appears. A woman who was born in 346 B.C. c. in Maronea (Thrace) and who from very early on showed great interest in cynical philosophy. Hence, at the age of 15, she decided to enter the lifestyle of the cynical school of Crates of Thebes, whom she would later marry (kynogamy = dog marriage) despite her family's refusal.

“And so much was she in love with him, the noble virgin, that she chose him of her own free will, after having rejected younger and richer suitors.and althoughCrates would have discovered her back, that she had a notable hump, put the bag with the staff and the cloak on the floor and confessed to the girl that he was her furniture and her figure that she saw: that she should think about it, therefore, carefully, so that she would not later have cause for complaint, Hipparchia accepted without hesitation the proposition” Apuleius, Florida, 14

According Diogenes Laertius, who dedicates a chapter to it in his work Lives, opinions and sentences of the most important philosophers(S.III), she was a woman who participated in the same way as men in philosophical debates. Like the one he held with the philosopher Theodore the Athenaeus (philosopher of the Cyrenaic school) when the latter told him that he did not agree with the fact that that women devoted themselves to philosophy because they neglected her housework, to which it is said that she replied ironically and witty:

“Teodoro questioned: “Are you the one who left the cloth and shuttle?” He answered: "I am, do you think by chance, that I have seen little for myself in giving to science the time that I had to spend on cloth?" Diogenes Laertius, VI, 98

At his death, 310-300, the Cynics are said to have declared the annual festival of the kygogamy in his honor.

The work of Hipparquia has not reached us, however Diogenes Laertius (Lives, opinions and sentences, VI, 96-98) tells us that his style was similar to that of Plato which, above all, was dedicated to the development of the logic and that he wrote several works of a great philosophical quality, among which three stand out:

1. - philosophical hypotheses.
2. - Epiqueremas.
3. - Questions to Teodoro.

Likewise, his philosophical thought is introduced into the cynical stream (to which his brother also belonged metrocles), which is characterized by:

• The distrust and contempt towards imposed convictions in society, such as: fame, wealth, superficiality and power.
• The defense of equality between men and women.
• Development of The virtue as a means to happiness.
• mistrust of innocence, kindness and human sincerity.
• Life based on two principles: self sufficiency (autarkeia) and apathy (aptheia).
• They substitute the values ​​of civilization for those of nature: man is an animal and he needs nothing more than nature. Hence, they were defined as "the dog philosophers".
• His lifestyle is characterized by renunciation of material goods, lead a wandering life, close to nature and in which they cover only the basic needs.
• Criticism of the political model and to the institutions that governed the Greek cities.
• Rejection of the imposed domestic model (oíkos) and defense of Cynical Eros and Kynogamy, where the public/man-private/woman division disappears.

Finally, within Hipparchy's thought, we also have to talk about the defense of the equality between women and men. Well, we should point out that she lived freely, according to her will, away from the roles established for women and on equal terms with her husband. As well, established the Greek poet Antipater of Sidon (S. II a. C.) in his epigram "To women”:

“I, Hipparquia, did not follow the customs of the female sex, but with a manly heart I followed the strong dogs. I didn't like the cloak attached to the fibula, nor the shod foot, and my ribbon forgot the perfume. I go barefoot, with a cane, a dress covers my limbs and I have the hard earth instead of a bed. I am mistress of my life to know as much and more than hunting maenads”