Hipparchia: The Woman Who Attacked Ancient Greece’s Norms With Public Sex and Philosophy

Digital recreation of Hipparchia, the audacious Cynic philosopher, who challenged societal norms successful past Athens. Credit: Greek Reporter archive.

Most radical successful ancient Greece’s illustrious metropolis of Athens understood that women were expected to walk astir of their clip astatine home, attending to their husbands and children, arsenic good arsenic their household affairs. However, determination was a pistillate named Hipparchia who decided to provoke everyone, shocking each citizen, and upending the societal norms and expectations successful this large past Greek city.

Hipparchia went truthful acold arsenic to marque herself a spectacle for everyone to see, admire, oregon detest, depending connected however they perceived the relation of women successful their city-state.

Hipparchia was calved affluent but decided to travel a antithetic path

Many aboriginal writers judge that Hipparchia was calved astir 350 BC into 1 of the wealthiest Thracian families, surviving successful a luxurious household and having everything a noble household would privation astatine the time. If that were true, rather literally, she could unrecorded a beingness wherever your biggest interest should person been which silk formal to deterioration to the adjacent symposium, alternatively than however to find nutrient to past the day.

It is harmless to presume that her parents astir apt had her full beingness planned for her, arsenic each affluent household that respected itself did with their pistillate offspring: Arrange a respectable marriage, get her a bully house, and possibly springiness her immoderate embroidery to walk her never-ending escaped time; Standard things for a pistillate of her class.

But past she met Crates of Thebes.

Roman partition coating of Hipparchia and Crates. Credit: Unknown, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

Crates was a known Cynic philosopher, but bash not get confused with the modern “bitter and sarcastic” explanation of it. He was a proper, prolific Cynic philosopher with everything that this rubric brought with it.

For those who don’t cognize what that looked like, the Cynics were these chaotic philosophers who fundamentally lived their lives nether the rule of disregarding wholly everything nine tells them. Money? Pointless. Status? Ridiculous. Expensive clothes? Toss them. These were virtually radical who wanted to unrecorded similar dogs.

Yes, that is not an exaggeration. The connection cynic comes from the past Greek connection for dog, ‘κύων’ (cyon)—refusing to obey thing related to the human-made societal norms.

Understandably, astir radical thought they were crazy. However, Hipparchia thought they were brilliant.

Hipparchia’s eventual rebellion

Hipparchia admired Cynic doctrine a lot. So much, we mightiness say, that she dove into its halfway headfirst. She became a pistillate who gave up her monolithic inheritance, stripped disconnected her fancy and costly clothes, and started surviving connected the streets. As you tin imagine, this beingness wasn’t casual and decidedly wasn’t what she had experienced arsenic a kid of a affluent family. Hipparchia begged for food, slept outdoors arsenic a stateless person, and got into philosophical arguments with random radical successful the marketplace, who were passing her by.

And past she joined Crates.

Understandably, her household was horrified. They tried everything to marque her alteration her beingness attitude, hoping that it was conscionable a signifier she would turn retired of. Legend has it that Hipparchia was truthful determined not to instrumentality to her old, “normal” beingness that she really threatened to termination herself if they didn’t fto her wed him.

What is adjacent much absorbing is that Hipparchia and Crates not lone got joined but besides had intimate intercourse successful public, according to Sextus Empiricus. In wide daylight. In beforehand of everyone. Yes, conscionable similar dogs. And yes, this was not due to the fact that they were drunk oregon nether immoderate influence. It was deliberate. It was a well-thought-out philosophical connection against each societal normal Athens held dear.

The ungraded indispensable person been incredible, arsenic Athens was a nine wherever women were expected to beryllium modest, quiet, and mostly invisible. Hipparchia, connected the different hand, was loud, shameless, and intolerable to ignore.

Although the Cynics sometimes enjoyed shocking others with their choices, they besides genuinely believed that astir quality misery arose from wanting things radical don’t truly need. Diogenes, the astir celebrated Cynic, supposedly lived successful a tube and told Alexander the Great to get retired of his sunlight, truthful you recognize the grade of their indifference to everything unnatural.

Hipparchia, though, took this doctrine to its utmost extreme. Every time she spent connected the streets of Athens was a calculated connection of rejection of everything her nine valued and enjoyed. While different affluent women were disquieted astir their furnishings and reputations, she was actively destroying everything similar that. While radical were doing everything successful their powerfulness to accumulate possessions, she was giving everything away.

Quite literally, she made herself into a walking contradiction of everything radical expected from a woman. And that was precisely the constituent she wanted to make.

Engraving of Hipparchia and Crates from the Touchstone of the Wedding Ring by Jacob Cats. Depicted successful 17th-century clothing, Crates tries to dissuade Hipparchia from her affections for him by pointing to his caput to amusement however disfigured helium is. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

Why is Hipparchia truthful iconic?

As with astir things successful life, the Cynic question yet faded away. However, Hipparchia’s beingness near specified an indelible people connected Athens that radical inactive speech astir her, astir 2,500 years later. There’s thing astir her determination to unrecorded her beingness the mode she wanted that continues to propulsion radical in, adjacent aft each these centuries.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that she fought the combat we each effort to avoid, the 1 betwixt fitting successful and being existent to ourselves. How galore of america person felt trapped by different people’s expectations? How galore times person we wanted to propulsion it each distant and unrecorded connected our ain terms, distant from rules and regulations we don’t similar oregon understand?

Hipparchia really did it. She looked astatine everything her nine offered her: wealth, comfort, status, and said, “No thanks.” She chose poverty, discomfort, and ungraded instead. She didn’t bash that due to the fact that of a misfortune oregon an accident, but due to the fact that she thought it was the lone honorable mode to live.

Hipparchia was astir apt close astir galore things. The wealthiness and presumption that past Athenians (and let’s beryllium honest, astir of america today) pursuit truthful desperately, however overmuch of it really makes america happy? How overmuch of it is conscionable an elaborate performance, an enactment of showing disconnected connected societal media oregon successful the neighborhood?

She considered each that hollow, and dissimilar different philosophers successful past Greece who wrote treatises oregon gave lectures (at slightest arsenic acold arsenic we know), Hipparchia chose alternatively simply to unrecorded differently. And that quality was truthful big, truthful uncomfortable, that radical are inactive talking astir it implicit 23 centuries later.

That takes the benignant of courageousness astir of america don’t have. Most of america are excessively frightened of what others mightiness think, excessively attached to our comfortableness zones, excessively disquieted astir our reputations. Hipparchia threw each of that distant for the accidental to unrecorded authentically.

Whether you deliberation she was superb oregon brainsick (she mightiness person been both), you person to admit she was brave. In a satellite that demanded women beryllium quiescent and invisible, she made herself intolerable to ignore.