On Philosophy and Catgirls

Got your attention?

Two women in history, about whom history preserves precious little, are Leontion and Hypatia. Leontion was a follower of Epicurus and a companion to Metrodorus, and formerly a hetaira (courtesan – high priced call girl). She is mainly remembered (and villified) for writing a polemic against Theophrastus, a student of Aristotle, which is lost. Her name means Lioness.

Fast forward several hundred years later in Alexandria. Hypatia, the Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician, and natural scientist, fatefully became involved in Alexandrian politics to support her friend Orestes against Cyril. A slander against her person is reported by Socrates Scholasticus, that “Hypatia was the lion in the path between a reconciliation between the Bishop (Cyril) and the Prefect (Orestes).” (Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria, pg. 87)

And this sums up so much of how I am, like a mother cat with her kits, willing to put herself in danger for those she cares for. As Epicurus said: “that, if need be, a friend will die for a friend.” And so I inhabit Second Life as a catgirl.