Most people in ancient Greece’s illustrious city of Athens understood that women were expected to spend most of their time at home, attending to their husbands and children, as well as their household affairs. However, there was a woman named Hipparchia who decided to provoke everyone, shocking every citizen, and upending the societal norms and expectations in this great ancient Greek city.
Hipparchia went so far as to make herself a spectacle for everyone to see, admire, or detest, depending on how they perceived the role of women in their city-state.
Hipparchia was born rich but decided to follow a different path
Many later writers believe that Hipparchia was born around 350 BC into one of the wealthiest Thracian families, living in a luxurious household and having everything a noble family would want at the time. If that were true, quite literally, she could live a life where your biggest worry should have been which silk dress to wear to the next symposium, rather than how to find food to survive the day.
It is safe to assume that her parents probably had her whole life planned for her, as every wealthy family that respected itself did with their female offspring: Arrange a respectable marriage, get her a nice house, and maybe give her some embroidery to pass her never-ending free time; Standard things for a woman of her class.
But then she met Crates of Thebes.
Crates was a known Cynic philosopher, but do not get confused with the modern “bitter and sarcastic” definition of it. He was a proper, prolific Cynic philosopher with everything that this title brought with it.
For those who don’t know what that looked like, the Cynics were these wild philosophers who basically lived their lives under the principle of disregarding completely everything society tells them. Money? Pointless. Status? Ridiculous. Expensive clothes? Toss them. These were literally people who wanted to live like dogs.
Yes, that is not an exaggeration. The word cynic comes from the ancient Greek word for dog, ‘κύων’ (cyon)—refusing to obey anything related to the human-made societal norms.
Understandably, most people thought they were crazy. However, Hipparchia thought they were brilliant.
Hipparchia’s ultimate rebellion
Hipparchia admired Cynic philosophy a lot. So much, we might say, that she dove into its core headfirst. She became a woman who gave up her massive inheritance, stripped off her fancy and expensive clothes, and started living on the streets. As you can imagine, this life wasn’t easy and definitely wasn’t what she had experienced as a child of a wealthy family. Hipparchia begged for food, slept outdoors as a homeless person, and got into philosophical arguments with random people in the marketplace, who were passing her by.
And then she married Crates.
Understandably, her family was horrified. They tried everything to make her change her life attitude, hoping that it was just a phase she would grow out of. Legend has it that Hipparchia was so determined not to return to her old, “normal” life that she actually threatened to kill herself if they didn’t let her marry him.
What is even more interesting is that Hipparchia and Crates not only got married but also had intimate intercourse in public, according to Sextus Empiricus. In broad daylight. In front of everyone. Yes, just like dogs. And yes, this was not because they were drunk or under some influence. It was deliberate. It was a well-thought-out philosophical statement against every social convention Athens held dear.
The scandal must have been incredible, as Athens was a society where women were supposed to be modest, quiet, and mostly invisible. Hipparchia, on the other hand, was loud, shameless, and impossible to ignore.
Although the Cynics sometimes enjoyed shocking others with their choices, they also genuinely believed that most human misery arose from wanting things people don’t really need. Diogenes, the most famous Cynic, supposedly lived in a barrel and told Alexander the Great to get out of his sunlight, so you understand the extent of their indifference to everything unnatural.
Hipparchia, though, took this philosophy to its utmost extreme. Every day she spent on the streets of Athens was a calculated statement of rejection of everything her society valued and enjoyed. While other wealthy women were worried about their furniture and reputations, she was actively destroying everything like that. While people were doing everything in their power to accumulate possessions, she was giving everything away.
Quite literally, she made herself into a walking contradiction of everything people expected from a woman. And that was exactly the point she wanted to make.
Why is Hipparchia so iconic?
As with most things in life, the Cynic movement eventually faded away. However, Hipparchia’s life left such an indelible mark on Athens that people still talk about her, almost 2,500 years later. There’s something about her determination to live her life the way she wanted that continues to pull people in, even after all these centuries.
Maybe it’s because she fought the fight we all try to avoid, the one between fitting in and being true to ourselves. How many of us have felt trapped by other people’s expectations? How many times have we wanted to throw it all away and live on our own terms, away from rules and regulations we don’t like or understand?
Hipparchia actually did it. She looked at everything her society offered her: wealth, comfort, status, and said, “No thanks.” She chose poverty, discomfort, and scandal instead. She didn’t do that because of a misfortune or an accident, but because she thought it was the only honest way to live.
Hipparchia was probably right about many things. The wealth and status that ancient Athenians (and let’s be honest, most of us today) chase so desperately, how much of it actually makes us happy? How much of it is just an elaborate performance, an act of showing off on social media or in the neighborhood?
She considered all that hollow, and unlike other philosophers in ancient Greece who wrote treatises or gave lectures (at least as far as we know), Hipparchia chose instead simply to live differently. And that difference was so big, so uncomfortable, that people are still talking about it over 23 centuries later.
That takes the kind of courage most of us don’t have. Most of us are too scared of what others might think, too attached to our comfort zones, too worried about our reputations. Hipparchia threw all of that away for the chance to live authentically.
Whether you think she was brilliant or crazy (she might have been both), you have to admit she was brave. In a world that demanded women be quiet and invisible, she made herself impossible to ignore.
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