- Lady Reason mentions a woman named Maiden Manto, who learned how to tell the future by looking at the guts of animals that had been cut open. That's gross, but apparently the Italian city of Mantua was named after her.
- Here, Lady Reason speaks about a woman named Medea and a queen named Circe.
- Medea was a sorceress who knew how to change the weather with her spells. It's not quite clear here whether Pizan knows the difference between Greek myth and actual historical fact, but she seems to mash them all together anyway, just for fun.
- Circe, in the meantime, was also a sorceress who could turn men into pigs and birds. You'll probably want to watch out if you ever run into her.
- Once Christine has heard enough examples of learned women and sorceresses, she asks Lady Reason whether any women have ever been responsible for discovering new realms of knowledge.
- Lady Reason replies that it was a woman who wrote the first laws of modern civilization and who taught people to stop living like barbarians. Another woman invented the modern alphabet (meaning the one whose letters you're reading right now).
- Lady Reason next tells the story of Minerva, a maiden of Greece who was so smart that people thought she was a goddess. She invented new kinds of writing and math, along with a technique for gathering wool and making cloth.
- Oh yeah, and she also invented flutes, fifes, and all wind instruments. As you can probably tell, Pizan is definitely stretching the realm of historical fact on this one. All modern accounts would suggest that Minerva was a character from Greek/Roman myth that never actually existed.
- Minerva rose to such a high place of importance in Roman culture that the Romans eventually created images of her after her death and placed her among their gods.
- Lady Reason moves on to the story of Queen Ceres, who was the first to discover agriculture in general—in other words, Pizan credits her with discovering how to plant seeds and grow crops. Plus she invented all the first tools for doing this work. Basically, this woman invented all modern civilization. Again, Christine de Pizan might be stretching on this one.
- But then again, it's not like people in the 1400s could Google the facts and find out which ones were true.