Aganice
1875 BCE
Cosmology

Little is known of Aganice except that she lived about 1875 BCE and was a member of the court of Pharaoh Sestoris in Egypt . There are some claims that she was his daughter but she is not so named as being in the Royal family pyramid

She sought wisdom through natural philosophy and astrology. She studied globes and constellations in order to predict future events. It is reported that she computed the positions of the planets.

NOTE: There is a woman scientist with this name cited in a letter by Caroline Herschel who studied science (knowledge). This may or may not be the same Aganice but it is generally believed to be this same woman.

Others in Herschel's list below eg, Hypatia and Hildegard are also philosophers (lovers of wisdom) who studied natural philosophy and/or mathematics.

Letter from Caroline Herschel (1750-1848):

William is away, and I am minding the heavens. I have discovered eight new comets and three nebulae never before seen by man, and I am preparing an Index to Flamsteed's observations, together with a catalogue of 560 stars omitted from the British Catalogue, plus a list of errata in that publication. William says I have a way with numbers, so I handle all the necessary reductions and calculations. I also plan every night's observation schedule, for he says my intuition helps me turn the telescope to discover star cluster after star cluster.

I have helped him polish the mirrors and lenses of our new telescope. It is the largest in existence. Can you imagine the thrill of turning it to some new corner of the heavens to see something never before seen from earth? I actually like that he is busy with the Royal society and his club, for when I finish my other work I can spend all night sweeping the heavens.

Sometimes when I am alone in the dark, and the universe reveals yet another secret, I say the names of my long, lost sisters, forgotten in the books that record our science —

Aganice of Thessaly,
Hypatia,
Hildegard,
Catherina Hevelius,
Maria Agnesi

-- as if the stars themselves could remember. Did you know that Hildegard proposed a heliocentric universe 300 years before Copernicus? that she wrote of universal gravitation 500 years before Newton? But who would listen to her? She was just a nun, a woman.

What is our age, if that age was dark? As for my name, it will also be forgotten, but I am not accused of being a sorceress, like Aganice, and the Christians do not threaten to drag me to church, to murder me, like they did Hyptia of Alexandria, the eloquent, young woman who devised the instruments used to accurately measure the position and motion of heavenly bodies.

However long we live, life is short, so I work. And however important man becomes, he is nothing compared to the stars. There are secrets, dear sister, and it is for us to reveal them. Your name, like mine, is a song.

Write soon ,
Caroline

Sources

Aganice at Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party

This page was updated October 25, 2014