Hipparchia the Cynic
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Hipparchia the Cynic was a female Greek philosopher said to have been born around 340 BC.
Little is known about Hipparchia, for several reasons. First, she was a member of the unpopular Cynic school, and second she was a woman and as such not supposed to be involved in what the Ancient Greeks perceived as the male pursuit of philosophy. These two factors are thought to have contributed to the fact that her writings were not preserved. As such, our knowledge of Hipparchia comes from mentions of her in the surviving works of other philosophers.
Hipparchia was married to another Cynic philosopher named Crates and in doing so chose the Cynic lifestyle. This means that she chose a life void of material possessions and artificial social conventions. For most Cynics this included marriage because of the cynic belief in rejecting social and political order in order to become an unconventional citizen of the universe. However their union could be reinterpreted as a rejection of having to conform to the beliefs of the cynics thus being an act of cynicism.
Another Cynic belief followed by Hipparchia was shamelessness. According to St. Augustine, Hipparchia and her husband were said to follow this so closely that they consummated their marriage by having sex on a public porch. Finally after putting down Theodorus he proceeded to strip her of her robe however she showed no alarm from this act because of this belief in shamelessness.
