much to tell of her, but
that her history was already generally known.

Not without distinction were also Myia's sisters, of whom Arignote
attained a great reputation as a philosopher and writer of epigrams,
while Damo distinguished herself by her fidelity to her father's dying
request. The story goes that he consigned to her his most precious
treasure,--his memoirs,--with the injunction that she should keep them
secret from all who were not of the family. Though offered large sums
for them, she never yielded, preferring poverty to disobedience. At her
death she turned the works over to her daughter Bistalia, with the same
mandate her father had given herself. The granddaughter remained equally
faithful, and these invaluable works perished with the family. Some
ancient writers mention as another daughter of Pythagoras, Theano the
Younger, of Thurii, but, according to Suidas, she was a daughter of
Lycophron. She was a clever philosopher and a prolific authoress.

Other Pythagorean Women of whom we know more than the mere name are
Phintys, Perictyone, Melissa, Ptolemais, and Timycha. Phintys wrote a
book _On Womanly Virtue_; Perictyone--often erroneously identified with
the mother of Plato--composed a work _On Wisdom_, much prized by
Aristotle, and another _Concerning the Harmony of Women_,--that is,
concerning the accord of life and thought, of feelings and actions, the
right relations between body and spirit. Fragments of these works show
the Pythagorean idea concerning the mission of woman. They connect the
duties of woman with the propensities and faculties peculiarly her own.
To the men, they leave the defence of the country and the administration
of public affairs; to the women, they assign the government of the
home, the guardianship of the family hearth, and the education of
children. Personality is regarded as the dominating virtue of
man--chastity, of woman.

Melissa is known only by a short fragment on feminine love of adornment;
and Ptolemais was a specialist in music and an authority on the
Pythagorean theory of music in its relation to life. Of Timycha we have
a characteristic story. She lived in the time of Dionysius of Syracuse.
A party of Pythagorean pilgrims, while on their way to Metapontum to
celebrate certain rites, were attacked by a band of Syracusans. They at
first fled; but when they saw they must pass through a field of beans,
they suddenly stopped and fought till the last one was killed. The