Perictione, Mother of Metaphysics

This chapter focuses on On Wisdom, a metaphysical and epistemological treatise preserved in Stobaeus’ Anthology and ascribed to a Pythagorean woman named Perictione. In the two available fragments, Perictione makes two key statements: first, the purpose and function of a human being is the contemplation of the nature of all things. Second, wisdom is the highest-ranked human activity, for it enables us to grasp all kinds of things that are and brings us closer to the divine. This claim is supported by introducing a novel tripartition of theoretical sciences, where human wisdom is placed at the very top. On Wisdom is thus the rst metaphysical and epistemological treatise ascribed to a female author in the ancient Greek philosophical tradition.