Dossier VI Letters by Theano of Crotone (compilation by Lluïsa Merino Montes).

Θεανὼ Εὐβούλῃ

Θεανὼ Εὐβούλῃ [χαίρειν]1

Ἀκούω σε τὰ παιδία τρυφερῶς ἄγειν· ἔστι δὲ ἀγαθῆς μητρὸς οὐχ ἡ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἐπιμέλεια τῶν παίδων, ἀλλ’ ἡ πρὸς τὸ σῶφρον ἀγωγή. 

βλέπε οὖν μὴ οὐ φιλούσης, ἀλλὰ κολακευού σης ἔργον ποιήσῃς· συντρεφομένη γὰρ ἡδονὴ παισὶν ἀκολάστους ποιεῖ. τί γὰρ ἥδιον νέοις συνήθους ἡδονῆς; χρὴ οὖν, ὦ φίλη, τὴν τροφὴν τῶν παίδων μὴ διαστροφὴν ἔχειν. ἡ δὲ τροφὴ διαστροφὴ τῆς φύσεώς ἐστιν ὅταν φιλήδονοι μὲν ταῖς ψυχαῖς, ἡδυπαθεῖς δὲ τοῖς σώμασι γένωνται, καὶ ταῖς μὲν φυγόπονοι, τοῖς δὲ μαλακώτεροι.

Δεῖ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τὰ φοβερὰ γυμνάζειν τὰ τρεφόμενα, κἂν λυπηθῆναι κἂν πονῆσαι δέῃ, ἵνα μὴ τῶν παθῶν ᾖ δοῦλα τούτων καὶ περὶ τὰς ἡδονὰς λίχνα καὶ περὶ τοὺς πόνους ὀκνηρά, ἀλλ’ ἵνα τὰ καλὰ πρὸ πάντων τιμῶσιν, ὧν μὲν ἀπεχόμε νοι, τοῖς δὲ ἐμμένοντες. οὐδὲ πλησμονικὰ μὲν ταῖς τροφαῖς, πολυτελῆ δὲ ταῖς ἡδοναῖς, ἀκόλαστα δὲ ταῖς ἀνέδην παιδιαῖς αὐτὰ ποιεῖν, καὶ πᾶν μὲν λέγειν, πᾶν δ’ ἐπιτηδεύειν ἐᾶσαι, ἔτι δὲ φοβουμένην μέν, ἢν κλάιῃ, φιλοτιμουμένην δέ, ἢν γελᾷ, κἂν τὴν τροφὸν παίῃ κἄν σε κακῶς εἴπῃ γελῶσαν, καὶ τοῦ μὲν θέρους ψῦχος, τοῦ δὲ χειμῶνος καῦμα παρέχουσαν καὶ πο ὴν χλιδήν·

ὧν οἱ πενιχροί γε παῖδες οὐδενὸς πειρῶνται, καὶ τρέφονται μὲν ῥᾷον, αὔξονται δὲ οὐχ ἧσσον, διάκεινται δὲ παρὰ πολὺ κρεῖσσον.

Σὺ δ’οἷον Σαρδαναπά ου γονὴν τιθηνῇ τὰ τέκνα, τὴν τῶν ἀρρένων φύσιν θρύπτουσα ταῖς ἡδοναῖς. τί γὰρ ἂν ποιήσειέ τις παιδίον, ὃ ἂν μὴ τάχιον φάγῃ κλαίει, κἂν ἐσθίῃ, τὰ τερπνὰ τῶν ὄψων ζητεῖ, κἂν καῦμα <ᾖ>, παρίεται, κἂν ψῦχος πτωματίζει, κἂν ἐπιτιμᾷ τις, ἀντιμάχεται, κἂν μὴ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ὑπηρετῇ, λυπεῖται, κἂν μὴ μασᾶται δυσκολαίνει, καὶ κακοσχολεῖ πρὸς ἡδονὴν καὶ βαταλίζεται περιαγόμενον; 

Ἐπιμελῶς δή, ὦ φίλη, εἰδυῖα ὅτι τὰ σπαταλῶντα τῶν παιδίων, ὅταν ἀκμάσῃ πρὸς ἄνδρας, ἀνδράποδα γίνεται, τὰς τοιαύτας ἡδονὰς ἀφαίρει, καὶ τὴν τροφὴν αὐστηράν, μὴ τρυφερὰν οὕτω ποιοῦσα καὶ ἐῶσα καὶ λιμὸν καὶ δίψος ἐνεγκεῖν, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ψῦχος καὶ θάλπος καὶ αἰδῶ τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν συνηλίκων ἢ τῶν ἐπιστατῶν· οὕτω γὰρ καὶ γεννικὰ εἶναι συμβαίνει κατὰ ψυχὴν ἀνατεινόμενα ἢ ἐπιτιμώμενα. οἱ γὰρ πόνοι, φίλη, προϋποστυ φαί τινες τοῖς παισίν εἰσι τελειωθησομένης ἀρετῆς, αἷς ἐμβαφέντες ἀποχρώντως τὴν τῆς ἀρετῆς βαφὴν οἰκειότερον φέρουσιν. βλέπε οὖν, φίλη, μή, καθάπερ τῶν ἀμπέλων αἱ κακοτρο φούμεναι τὸν καρπὸν ἐ είπουσιν, καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς τρυφῆς οἱ παῖδες ὕβρεως καὶ πο ῆς ἀχρειότητος κακίαν γεννήσωσιν.

1 BOURLAND, A., Moral Education for Women in the Pastoral and Pythagorean Letters. Philosophers of the Household, Brill, Boston, 2013, pp. 379-380.

Greek text from:  https://www.hs-augsburg.de/~harsch/graeca/Chronologia/S_ante06/Theano/the_epi1.html   

       Theano to Euboule

Theano to Euboule: Greetings.

I hear that you are bringing up your children in luxury. The mark of a good mother is not concern for her children’s enjoyment, but training towards moderation. 

So watch you do not the work of an indulgent mother rather than a loving one. When pleasure and children are brought up together, it makes them undisciplined. For what  is sweeter to the young than accustomed pleasure? So, my friend, it is necessary that the raising of children is not their downfall. And luxury is the downfall of natural character whenever they become lovers of pleasure in their souls, and sweet sensations in their bodies, their souls shunning work, their bodies becoming softer. It is also necessary to exercise the children you are raising in what they fear, even if this inflicts pain and distress; so that they do not become slaves of what they experience, eager for pleasure and reluctant to face pain, but honour what is good above all, holding back from pleasure and standing up to pain. Don’t let them become completely full of food nor have their every pleasure gratified, nor be undisciplined in their childhood, nor allow them to say everything and try everything , especially if you are worried if they cry and take pride if they laugh, and laugh if they strike their nurse or abuse you, and if you provide coolness in summer and warmth in winter and every luxury. 

Poor children sample none of these things and they are raised well enough, and do not grew any less and become stronger by far.

But you nurse your children like the offspring of Sardanapalus, weakening his masculine nature with pleasure. For what would one do with a child who cries if he does not eat sooner, and if he eats seeks the delights of treats, and if he is hot wilts, and if he is cold collapses, and if someone criticises him responds by unhappy, and wastes his time on mischief for the pleasure of it, and wanders around to no good purpose?

Be careful, my friend, knowing that children who live with no restraint, when they grow up into men become slaves, and keep such pleasures from them. Make their food plain not sumptuous, and allow them to bear hunger and thirst, and even cold and heat, and feel ashamed among their peers or supervisors. For this is how it comes about that they are ennobled in spirit, whether they are being uplifted or downtrodden. For, my friend, labours are a hardening up process for children, during which virtue is perfected; those who have been sufficiently dipped in this process bear the bath of virtue as something which is natural to them. So look out, my friend, lest, just as vines which have been badly looked after produce little fruit, because of luxury your children produce the evil of hubris and complete worthlessness. Farewell.

English version from: Women Writers of Ancient Greece and Rome. An Anthology. Edited by I. M. Plant. University of Oklahoma Press. Norman

From the work of Theano, through the medieval manuscript tradition, 6 letters have been preserved that speak about the domestic functions of women, proper behaviour, motherhood and the upbringing and education of children... and are addressed to Eubule, to the physician Euclides, to Eurydice, to Callisto, to Nicostrate and, finally, to Timonides. Most of the texts that have come down to us from women of this period, perhaps because they were the most interesting to the religious men who preserved them, deal with moral or practical problems.

Some corpora, such as the Bibliotheca Augustana, also include a letter addressed to Rhodope (the so-called Letter VII) which, in reality, cannot be hers, since it poses a problem of anachronism: it quotes Plato's Parmenides, written in the 4th century BC, while Theano is from the 6th century BC. This reason, together with others of a philological nature, has led to the hypothesis that there was another Theano, known as Theano II.

Also attributed to him is a treatise, On Piety, of which a fragment of about 15 lines - preserved in the Stobaeus Anthology - contains a disquisition on number, a Pythagorean analogy between numbers and objects:

I have learned that many of the Greeks suppose Pythagoras said that everything came to be from number. This statement, however, poses a difficulty—how something that does not even exist is thought to beget things. But he did not say that things came to be from number, but according to number. For in number is the primary ordering, by virtue of whose presence, in the realm of things that can be counted, too, something takes its place as first, something as second, and the rest follow in order.

Like the other Pythagorean women, Theano thought that the Universe was governed by number: the search for perfection and harmony in forms and proportions led her to work on the golden number, which appears frequently in nature and was the first irrational number known to the Greeks: it was the result of dividing the length of the diagonal by the length of the side of the pentagon that appears in the sign of the Pythagorean school, the pentagram.

In Antiquity, numerous writings were attributed to him: the Suda attributes to him works under the titles of Pythagorean Apothegms (of which we have some), Advice to Women, On Pythagoras, On Virtue, which would have included the Theorem or doctrine of the golden ratio - according to Mary Ritter Beard - and Philosophical Commentaries, as well as a theory of numbers and a treatise on the construction of the universe, but nothing of these has survived.