Human Intelligence

Episode
Collectors: Pamphila
Broadcast Info
2025 (13 mins)
Description
Naomi Alderman examines the intelligence and sharp humour of an ancient Greek historian known as Pamphila of Epidaurus. She was a female historian working in a society that believed women were constitutionally unsuited to the rational and peculiarly masculine task of recording facts for posterity. She wrote thirty-three volumes of her famed Historical Commentaries from her home. She wrote for fun, organising her material in a free and easy mix, like ‘embroidery’. We have none of her original writings, just reported fragments, but she gave us cultural history as we know it today, centuries ahead of time.
Genre
History

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Human Intelligence". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/251959 (Accessed 24 Dec 2025)