Heidi Marx is Professor of Religion at the University of Manitoba and the author of Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority: Platonists, Priests, and Gnostics in the Third Century CE.

Sosipatra is educated by mysterious strangers. Widowed early, mother of three sons, she is a teacher and a seer. Can we believe the short account in Eunapius? Marx locates Sosipatra in her social context as an elite woman of the later fourth century, and in her intellectual and religious context as a philosopher endowed with spiritual powers.

• Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Sosipatra as a Child and Student Chapter Three: Sosipatra as a Wife, Mother, and Widow Chapter Four: Sosipatra as Teacher Chapter Five: Sosipatra as Theurgist and Oracle Chapter Six: Conclusion Appendix: Translation of Passages Relating to Sosipatra in Eunapius's Lives of the Philosophers and SophistsBibliography

Heidi Marx is Professor of Religion at the University of Manitoba and the author of Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority: Platonists, Priests, and Gnostics in the Third Century CE.

Sosipatra is educated by mysterious strangers. Widowed early, mother of three sons, she is a teacher and a seer. Can we believe the short account in Eunapius? Marx locates Sosipatra in her social context as an elite woman of the later fourth century, and in her intellectual and religious context as a philosopher endowed with spiritual powers.

• Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Sosipatra as a Child and Student Chapter Three: Sosipatra as a Wife, Mother, and Widow Chapter Four: Sosipatra as Teacher Chapter Five: Sosipatra as Theurgist and Oracle Chapter Six: Conclusion Appendix: Translation of Passages Relating to Sosipatra in Eunapius's Lives of the Philosophers and SophistsBibliography

Heidi Marx is Professor of Religion at the University of Manitoba and the author of Spiritual Taxonomies and Ritual Authority: Platonists, Priests, and Gnostics in the Third Century CE.

Sosipatra is educated by mysterious strangers. Widowed early, mother of three sons, she is a teacher and a seer. Can we believe the short account in Eunapius? Marx locates Sosipatra in her social context as an elite woman of the later fourth century, and in her intellectual and religious context as a philosopher endowed with spiritual powers.

• Chapter One: Introduction Chapter Two: Sosipatra as a Child and Student Chapter Three: Sosipatra as a Wife, Mother, and Widow Chapter Four: Sosipatra as Teacher Chapter Five: Sosipatra as Theurgist and Oracle Chapter Six: Conclusion Appendix: Translation of Passages Relating to Sosipatra in Eunapius's Lives of the Philosophers and SophistsBibliography