Syracusans shortly after came upon Mylias of Croton and his wife,
Timycha, who, on account of her delicate condition, had been left behind
by the rest of their party. They were arrested and brought before the
tyrant. Dionysius promised them liberty and an escort to their
destination if they would tell him why the deceased Pythagoreans refused
to tread on the beans. But they refused to tell. Dionysius's curiosity
was all the more excited, and he had the husband taken aside, that he
might question the wife alone, feeling convinced that he could compel
her to answer his question. Threatened with the torture, and fearing
lest in her weakness she might be overcome, Timycha bit out her tongue
rather than reveal the secrets of her order.

In these Pythagorean Women, we observe the perfect blending of
intellectual beauty with moral elevation. Perhaps no later age has
presented a higher ideal of feminine perfection. Their system of culture
taught them how to pursue at the same time the most abstruse
philosophical speculations and the most insignificant duties of
practical life, and the higher learning in their hands never led to a
sacrifice of true womanliness.

Passing from Croton to Athens, Socrates, the father of the various
philosophical schools, had no female disciples, so far as we are
informed; but he is credited with saying that he learned the ait of love
from the priestess Diotima, and that of eloquence from Aspasia. Xenophon
also recounts a lengthy conversation of Socrates with the hetsera
Theodota concerning the art of winning men. His most eminent disciple,
Plato, had numerous pupils of the gentler sex. Plato possessed in large
measure the _ewig weibliche_, which Goethe deems an essential element in
all great men. As a young man he was given to composing love poems, but
the names of his youthful sweethearts are not known. His visits to
Southern Italy made him sympathetic with woman's literary aspirations;
and when he opened the door of the Academy to them, women flocked to his
lecture room from various cities of Hellas. It was the first known
instance in Athens of women engaging in philosophy.

The female members of the Academy did not attain to such distinction as
did the Pythagorean Women. The latter were of Dorian blood, and lived,
according to the rules of their order, in the greatest simplicity and
industry; the former were chiefly of Ionian stock and were more inclined
to lives of ease and luxury. Consequentl