Sosipatra of Ephesus Quotes
Sosipatra of Ephesus was a fourth-century Greek Neoplatonist philosopher of late antiquity, whose teaching and prophetic activity in the city of Pergamum is recorded in Eunapius's Lives of the Sophists. Trained from childhood by two mysterious initiates of the Chaldaean tradition, she was widely consulted as a teacher of philosophy and as a clairvoyant, and Eunapius portrays her, alongside her younger contemporary Aedesius, as one of the leading intellectual figures of pagan Asia Minor in the years before the final triumph of Christianity. The quotes below are attributed to Sosipatra of Ephesus, organized by topic.
Sosipatra of Ephesus on God
-
Attributed to Sosipatra of Ephesus:
“The Chaldaean teachers gave me the alphabet of the divine; the work of reading is mine.”
Sosipatra of Ephesus on Knowledge
-
Attributed to Sosipatra of Ephesus:
“A woman may be the equal of her husband in philosophy and the superior of him in seeing.”
Sosipatra of Ephesus on Mind
-
Attributed to Sosipatra of Ephesus:
“The soul that has been rightly initiated remembers what the body's eyes have not yet seen.”
-
Attributed to Sosipatra of Ephesus:
“Philosophy and prophecy meet in the trained intellect, and not before.”
Sosipatra of Ephesus on Truth
-
Attributed to Sosipatra of Ephesus:
“What I see is what I have learned to see; what I have learned to see is what is.”