The Logos Scripture · Gospel of Aristippus

The Healing of Theodote

Gospel of Aristippus 3 · Third Witness: The Wave of Sovereignty, and Living in the Hour

This book is written at ease. Whoever reads it and does not laugh once has not read this book.

3.1There was a woman named Theodote, the most celebrated courtesan in Athens.

3.2Painters queued to paint her. No fewer than ten litters stood at her door each day.

3.3She had fallen into despair, because men loved only the beauty of her body and took no notice of the sharpness of her mind.

3.4She wept at the feet of Socrates and said:

3.5"I am the prisoner of my own beautiful flesh."

3.6Socrates raised her up and said, smiling:

3.7"Your beauty is a finely made instrument, Theodote."

3.8"Enjoy it. Use it to win your freedom."

3.9"But do not moor your name to a shore that time will certainly eat away."

3.10She asked back: "And when I am old?"

3.11The Teacher said: "When you are old, you will have no one left but yourself. So you had better make her acquaintance now."

3.12He opened with her a dance of dialectic beyond all praise.

3.13And proved to her that her mind was keener than the philosophers of any court.

3.14At parting she asked: "Teacher, will you come again?"

3.15The Teacher said: "If I have leisure. Though I suspect you will not need me much longer."

3.16Her despair went off like smoke.

3.17She saw that she could enjoy luxury without being possessed by it. From that hour her spirit was wholly unbound.