Theano (born c. 546 B.C.), the wife of the Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras, ran the Pythagorean school in southern Italy in the late sixth century B.C. following her husband's death. She is credited with having written treatises on mathematics, physics, medicine, and child psychology. Her most important work is said to have been an elucidation of the principle of the Golden Mean.

Theano's husband, Pythagoras (c. 582--500 B.C.), was inspired one of the most influential sects in the ancient world. Best known for devising the Pythagorean Theorem---which states that the sum of the squares of the sides of a right triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse---Pythagoras was considered the greatest scientist of antiquity by classical Greek scholars and is considered to have been the first mathematician. However, given that Pythagoras lived seven generations before Plato, most of the information about him comes...