Phintys

Phintys was a Pythagorean philosopher, probably from the third century BC. She wrote a work on the correct behaviour of women, two extracts of which are preserved by Stobaeus.

According to Stobaeus, Phintys was the daughter of Callicrates,[1] who is otherwise unknown.[2] Holger Thesleff suggests that this Callicrates might be identified with Callicratidas, a Spartan general who died at the Battle of Arginusae.[3] If so, this would make Phintys a Spartan, and date her birth to the late fifth century BC, and her floruit to the fourth century. I. M. Plant considers this emendation "fanciful".[2] Iamblichus mentions Philtys in his list of female Pythagoreans;[4] he says that she was from Croton and that her father was called Theophrius. I. M. Plant believes that Iamblichus' Philtys, though also a Pythagorean and similarly named, is distinct from Stobaeus' Phintys.[2]

Two fragments attributed to Phintys are preserved in Stobaeus.[2] However, not all scholars agree that the fragments are authentic: Lefkowitz and Fant argue that the works attributed to female Pythagoreans, including Phintys, were actually rhetorical exercises written by men.[5] They are written in the Doric dialect, and amount to about 80 lines of prose.[6] The language used dates to around the fourth century BC, although some features of it appear to be deliberate archaisms; it was likely actually composed in the third century BC,[2] though a date as late as the second century AD was suggested by Friedrich Wilhelm in 1915.[7]

The fragments discuss the differences between men and women,[2] and argues for chastity as the most important virtue for women.[8] Phintys gives a series of ways that women ought to practice self-control, concluding that the most effective way is to only have sex with her husband in order to produce legitimate children.[9] Along with her defence of women's chastity, she argues that the practice of philosophy is appropriate for women as well as men.[2]