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The Brooklyn Museum

Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Cynisca




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Cynisca remporte le prix a la Course des Chars. From Mme. De Renneville, Biographie des femmes illustres de Rome, de la Grèce, et du Bas-Empire (Paris: Chez Parmantier, Libraire, 1825)

Cynisca
b. circa 440 B.C., Sparta, ancient Greece; date of death unknown

Cynisca was a Spartan princess and athlete. She competed in the Olympiads in the four-horse chariot races—as an owner and breeder of horses, not as a driver—and won in 396 and 392, becoming the first woman to win in the games. According to the Greek travel writer Pausanias (flourished A.D. 143–176), two monuments were erected in Olympia to commemorate Cynisca's victories, one of which featured a statue of her.

Related Place Setting

Aspasia

Related Heritage Floor Entries

Aglaonice
Agnodice
Arete of Cyrene
Aristoclea
Aspasia of Athens
Axiothea
Damo
Diotima
Elpinice
Euryleon
Hipparchia

Hippo
Lamia
Leontium
Nicobule
Perictyone
Phile
Salpe
Telesilla
Theano
Theoclea

Last updated January 29, 2007.
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