| Alt: | painting of a profile of a woman with long hair wearing a toga-like garment |
| Caption: | Modern drawing of Aglaonice in the style of an ancient Attic Greek red-figure pyxis by the Eretria Painter. |
| Other Names: | Aganice of Thessaly |
| Era: | 2nd or 1st century BC |
| Known For: | Greek astronomer, thaumaturge |
Aglaonice or Aganice of Thessaly (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Ἀγλαονίκη, Aglaoníkē, compound of αγλαὸς (aglaòs) "luminous" and νίκη (nikē) "victory") was a Greek astronomer and thaumaturge of the 2nd or 1st century BC.[1] She is mentioned in the writings of Plutarch[2] and in the scholia to Apollonius of Rhodes[3] as a female astronomer and as the daughter of Hegetor (or Hegemon) of Thessaly. She was regarded as a sorceress for her (self-proclaimed) ability to 'make the moon disappear from the sky' (καθαιρεῖν τὴν σελήνην : kathaireĩn tìn selénen) which has been taken – first by Plutarch and subsequently by modern astronomers – to mean that she could predict the time and general area where a lunar eclipse would occur.[4]
Plutarch wrote that she was "thoroughly acquainted with the periods of the full moon when it is subject to eclipse, and, knowing beforehand the time when the moon was due to be overtaken by the earth's shadow, imposed upon the women, and made them all believe that she was drawing down the moon."[5] Peter Bicknell notes that in most lunar eclipses the Moon does not disappear completely, but simply takes on a reddish hue. The ancient sources which discuss Aglaonice do not describe such a change of colour and there is no suggestion that she failed to convince observers that she was able to draw down the Moon. Bicknell speculates that in the first and second centuries BC there was a period in which the Moon appeared significantly less bright during the lunar eclipse due to variations in solar activity, and this might explain this apparent inconsistency.
One of the craters on Venus is named after Aglaonice.[6] She is a character in the Jean Cocteau film Orpheus, where she is a friend of Eurydice.[7] She is a featured figure on Judy Chicago's installation piece The Dinner Party, being represented as one of the 999 names on the Heritage Floor.[8]