06/05/25 Day 28/30

Ancient Greek Women Mathematicians you didn't know about

Αίθρα - Aethra (10th - 9th century BC), daughter of the king of Troizina Pitthea and mother of Theseus, knew mathematics in another capacity unknown to many. So sacred to the beginnings of the most cerebral science, Aethra taught arithmetic to the children of Troizina, with that complex awe-inspiring method, since there was no zero… and the numbers were symbolically complex, as their symbols required many repetitions.

Πολυγνώτη - Polygnoti (7th - 6th century BC) The historian Lovon Argeios mentions Polygnotis as a companion and student of Thalis. A scholar of many geometric theorems, it is said in Vitruvius' testimony, that she contributed to the simplification of arithmetic symbols by introducing the principle of acrophony. She managed this by introducing alphabetic letters that corresponded to each in the initial letter of the name of the number. Thus, Δ, the initial of Δέκα (ΤΕΝ), represents the number 10. X, the initial of Χίλια (Thousand), represents the number 1000 etc. According to Vitruvius, Polygnoti formulated and first proved the proposition "Εν κύκλω η εν τω ημικυκλίω γωνία ορθή εστίν" - "In the circle the angle in the hemi-circle is right angle."

Θεμιστόκλεια - Themistoklia (6th century BC). Diogenes the Laertius scholar-writer mentions it as Αριστόκλεια - Aristoclia or Θεόκλεια - Theoclia. Pythagoras took most of his moral principles from the Delphic priestess Themistoclia, who at the same time introduced him to the principles of arithmetic and geometry. According to the philosopher Aristoxenos (4th century BC), Themistoclia taught mathematics to those of the visitors of Delphi who had the relevant appeal. Legend has it that Themistoclia decorated the altar of Apollo with geometric shapes. According to Aristoxenos, Pythagoras admired the knowledge and wisdom of Themistoclia, a fact that prompted him to accept women later in his School.

Μελίσσα - Melissa (6th century BC). Pupil of Pythagoras. She was involved in the construction of regular polygons. Lovon Argeios writes about an unknown work of hers: "Ο Κύκλος Φυσίν - η Μελίσσα - Των Εγγραφομένων Πολυγώνων Απάντων Εστί". (The title translates to "The circle is always the basis of the written polygons" or so.)

Τυμίχα - Tymicha (6th century BC). Thymiha, wife of Crotonian Millios, was (according to Diogenes Laertius) a Spartan, born in Croton. From a very early age, she became a member of the Pythagorean community. Iamblichus mentions a book about "friend numbers". After the destruction of the school by the Democrats of Croton, Tymicha took refuge in Syracuse. The tyrant of Syracuse, Dionysios, demanded that Tymicha reveal to him the secrets of the Pythagorean teaching for a great reward. She flatly refused and even cut her own tongue with her teeth and spat in Dionysius' face. This fact is reported by Hippobotus and Neanthis.

Βιτάλη - Vitali or Vistala (6th – 5th century BC). Vitali was the daughter of Damos and granddaughter of Pythagoras, and an expert in Pythagorean mathematics. Before Pythagoras died, he entrusted her with the "memoirs", that is, the philosophical texts of her father.

Πανδροσίων ή Πάνδροσος - Pandrosion or Pandrossos (4th century AD). Alexandrian geometer, probably a student of Pappos, who dedicates to her the third book of the "Synagogue". Pandrosion divides geometric problems into three categories:" Three genera are of the problems in Geometry and these, levels are called, and the other linear ones."

Πυθαΐς - Pythais (2nd century BC). Geometer, daughter of the mathematician Zenodoros.

Αξιόθεα - Axiothea (4th century BC). She is also a student, like Lasthenia, of Plato's academy. She came to Athens from the Peloponnesian city of Fliounda. She showed a special interest in mathematics and natural philosophy, and later taught these sciences in Corinth and Athens.

Περικτιόνη - Periktioni (5th century BC). Pythagorean philosopher, writer, and mathematician. Various sources identify her with Perictioni, Plato's mother and Critius' daughter. Plato owes his first acquaintance with mathematics and philosophy to Perictioni.

Διοτίμα - Diotima from Mantineia (6th-5th century BC). In Plato's "Symposium", Socrates refers to the Teacher of Diotima, a priestess in Mantineia, who was a Pythagorean and a connoisseur of Pythagorean numerology. According to Xenophon, Diotima had no difficulty in understanding the most complex geometric theorems.

Iamblichos, in his work "On Pythagorean Life", saved the names of Pythagorean women who were connoisseurs of Pythagorean philosophy and Pythagorean mathematics. We have already mentioned some of them. The rest:

Ρυνδακώ - Rynthako

Οκκελώ - Okkelo

Χειλωνίς - Chilonis

Κρατησίκλεια - Kratisiklia

Λασθένια - Lasthenia

Αβροτέλεια - Avrotelia

Εχεκράτεια - Ehekratia

Θεανώ - Theano

Τυρσηνίς - Tyrsinis

Πεισιρρόδη - Pisirrodi

Θεαδούσα - Theathousa

Βοιώ - Voio

Βαβέλυκα - Vavelyka

Κλεαίχμα - Cleaihma

Νισθαιαδούσα - Nistheathousa

Νικαρέτη - Nikareti from Corinth

There are so many women whose contribution to science remains hidden. We should strive to find out about more of them! For more information, check out the books of the Greek philologist, lecturer, and professor of ancient Greek history and language, Anna Tziropoulou-Eustathiou.

my cat has arrived to wish you luck on exams! you can do it :)

Thor's Helmet taken by Chris DeCosta and Martin Pugh on February 28 2019

NGC 2359, also referred to as Thor's Helmet, is an emission nebula in the constellation Canis Major. At the heart of this nebula is a Wolf-Rayet star WR7, which is in this phase briefly before a supernova occurs.

The bubble appearance of this nebula is due to the strong stellar winds coming from WR7. These winds contribute to forming a complex structure, with a huge mass of ionized material. The high energy radiation coming from the star ionizes hydrogen to produce red light and doubly ionizes oxygen to produce blue light.

The gas absorbs and then reemits this light, leading to the name of "emission nebula".

my car

first day of winter break! i woke up early this morning for a meeting and it was still dark. then i witnessed one of the most beautiful sunrises i have ever seen. my entire room was orange

so glad finals are over :)

💕 28.01.2025 // I went to my english lecture then went home and tried to study a bit. My phone ran out of battery on my way home so I hadn't any podcast to listen to, didn't like it at all.

📖 Call me by your name - André Aciman (finished - my heart is fucking shattered, how will I ever recover from this istg)

🎧 TALLULAH - FAUVE

☕ 27.01.2025 // I completed my to do list and had a latte with a friend (Yes, we both took a latte ahah) 🩷

📖 X

🎧 The adults are talking - The Strokes

RANT APPROACHING!!!! continue at your own risk ⚠️

OH MY GOD I CANNOT put into WORDS how UNEXPECTED this is. and your like… what? but an 87 isn’t even that bad???

look, i’ve been writing narrative and fiction since i could speak. i don’t normally ask for feedback, so maybe that’s a point of growth but oh well. i write multiple short stories every month and write a page of narrative in my journal EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

in school, we typically only write literary analysis or argumentative or like DBQ style. but i switched to a writing class this semester and my teacher told us to write a mock common app essay.

YOUD THINK that with ALL the narrative writing i’ve done and ALLL the summer program apps i’ve had to write in the past years, THIS WOULD BE A PIECE OF CAKE.

i will be honest, i did struggle with this a bit, but by the time we got to the peer review stage, my classmates jaws DROPPED and they were like ITS SO GOOD (not to be egotistic but just to give you some context for the level of writing i thought i had)

so IMAGINE MY FACE WHEN I SEE THIS. NO JOKE this is the LOWEST essay grade i’ve gotten in my ENTIRE academic career in the past EIGHT YEARS (i’m in high school btw)

and i loon at my class and im like no way im in the middle of the pack. like what about the kid who wrote about being a capitalist overlord in minecraft? or the basic one that talks about a sports injury??? and these are the people with brain cells. like what about the people that posted themselves buying alcohol for a party while they are underage onto insta??? like cmon no way their essays got perfect grades

and for reference she’s not that harsh a grader. my teacher is the most chill person. she hands out candy and actually got me to participate in class and doesn’t even care if you get your work done.

and so i check my document to see what feedback she left me. no joke the only comments are small grammar mistakes, some flow issues that she pointed out, and suggestions to elaborate. YOURE TELLING ME that the only thing wrong with my essay is that YOU WANTED MORE????? like make it make sense

worse thing is that i was planning to have her write my letter of recommendation, so at least i have an excuse to go talk to her??? but like i don’t want to be one of her B level writers

at one point the only thing i can imagine that was wrong with it was that it could be TOO creative or TOO emotional. so much for wanting to go outside the box and actually improve myself as a writer….

maybe i’m wrong but it feels kind of like an issue just with school in general. like maybe my school especially, since people are just obsessed with grades teachers expect the bare minimum, cookie cutter assignments. they don’t want you to expand on your thinking and it only matters if it’s going to be on test.

whatever. i’ll probably update the situation when i talk to my english teacher. thanks for listening to my minuscule problems 💕

“the best revenge is massive success,"

who decided that both electric potential and electric potential energy were going to be a thing 😑 we need a serious discussion!

i’m back in the library and i’m actually getting some work done which is good! i’ve been feeling kind of down lately so focusing on homework has gotten a lot harder.

finals are coming up and all i want to do is watch arcane season 2 and rewatch voltron before it leaves netflix 😭 two more weeks….