A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(Ἱππαρχία), born at Maroneia, a town of Thrace. She lived about B. C. 328. She was the daughter of a family of wealth and distinction; but having been introduced by her brother Meteocles to Crates, an ugly and deformed Cynic [CRATES of THEBES], she conceived such a violent passion for him, that she informed her parents that if they refused to allow her to marry him, she should kill herself. They begged Crates to persuade her out of this strange fancy, and he certainly appears to have done his best to accomplish their wishes, since he exhibited to her his humpback and his wallet, saying, " Here is the bridegroom, and this is his fortune." Hipparchia, however, was quite satisfied, declaring that she could not find any where a handsomer or a richer spouse. They were accordingly married, and she assumed the Cynic dress and manners, and plunged into all possible excesses of eccentricity. Suidas says that she wrote some treatises, amongst others, questions addressed to Theodorus, surnamed the Atheist. There is an epigram on her by Antipater, in the Anthology, in which she is made to say, τῶν δὲ κυνῶν έλόμαν ῥωμαλέον βίοτον, and to pronounce herself as much superior to Atalanta as wisdom is better than hunting. (D. L. 6.96; Menage, Historia Mulierum Philosopharum 63; Brucker, Hist. Crit. Phil. 2.2. 8.)

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