Calypso’s Oath helps us to take a fresh look at several well-known texts from classical antiquity. We discover that Homer’s character Calypso is not an egoistic sex bomb, but a kind, intelligent woman with a highly developed moral sense; her protests against a double standard and her view that rationality and empathy together form the basis of proper moral conduct are surprisingly modern. Authorities on ethics such as Socrates, Cicero, Seneca and Augustine seem to take double standards for granted. In their thinking rationality plays the chief role and empathy receives very little attention. These philosophers laid the foundation for the development of one-sided views in the history of philosophy, in which women are for the most part forgotten minor players. It is high time we put an end to these biased traditions in philosophy and start to pay attention to the insights of women philosophers, from early champions of equal rights, such as Hipparchia and Olympe de Gouges, to present day thinkers, such as Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir and Martha Nussbaum.

For students, professors, and for anyone interested in the history of philosophy.

Dr. Maja Pellikaan-Engel (1937) is a classicist and a philosopher. She lives in Bergen, Holland.