WISDOM
Gnosis
If wisdom is the understanding of the essence of beings and phenomena,
things that are and things that seem to be, and of the dynamics of
actions and relationships, making possible the prediction of events and
the achievement of specific goals, then the mythical archetype of this
concept in ancient Greek thought is of the female sex.
At the level of myth and religious practice, wisdom is a characteristic
feature of a series of female figures.
The first of these is Gaia, the 'first seer' the primeval mother of the
gods and human beings. Next comes Metis, the goddess of versatile
intelligence. Zeus married her before he became lord of the heavens and,
in order to acquire her knowledge, swallowed her while she was pregnant
with their child. Having thus gained Metis forever, he established his
authority.
To this group belongs Thetis, the wise lady of the sea; Demeter, the
great goddess who showed humans how to cultivate the fruit of the earth
and, by teaching them the Great Mysteries, liberated them from fear of
death; and, of course, Athena, the supreme goddess of civilisation.
Daughter of Metis and Zeus, born from the head of her omnipotent father,
protector and helper of civilising heroes, Athena Ergane, taught human
beings the art of the loom and the potter's wheel, invented the plough
and the bridle to help them, and fited out the first ship, bending the
wild forces of nature to the power of the mind.
In the sphere of myth we encounter two more wise figures who possess the
all-powerful knowledge of magic: Circe and Medea.
In sharp contrast with the world of myth, however, the strictly
patriarchal social system deprived Greek women of historical times of
the ability to gain an education, and attempted to debar them from
knowledge, as though fearing that in the hands of women it might be a
dangerous weapon.
Very few women succeeded in overcoming the almost insuperable obstacles
and reaping the fruit that was forbidden to them. Even fewer managed to
transcend the silent obscurity of the women's quarters, in which they
were imprisoned by the prejudices of centuries, and win recognition
amongst later generations, in their own name, for their achievements.
Whether named or anonymous, these women belong to three major groups :
priestesses, sorceresses and writers.
Thanks to their function, priestesses frequently became party to secret
knowledge of vital importance for society. And as the earthly
representatives of the gods, they were able to transcend restrictions
and taboos to acquire prestige and authority and win the respect of
their fellow citizens. The priestess in Plato's Symposium, the 'most
wise' Diotima, is an outstanding example.
Like the priestess's wisdom, that of the sorceress had a supernatural
character, though in this case it served the interests of the individual
rather than of the group, and threatened to overthrow law and order. The
sorceress was a negative, dark figure, the butt of the sarcasm of the
sceptics and a source of fear for the majority, one who transgressed
boundaries, challenged and was therefore punished, sometimes with death.
Women writers moved in a completely different sphere. They were usually
the children of wealthy families who succeeded in gaining an education
and articulating their own creative poetry. Tradition has preserved the
names of a number of poetesses and a few fragmentary verses - far too
few to assess their contribution, apart from Sappho, who was already a
legend by Plato's time.
