A philosopher of the Neoplatonic school (like Hypathy and Sosipatra), famous for her beauty and virtue, Aedesia lived in Alexandria in the 5th century AD. After the death of her husband Hermias, she devoted herself to the education of her children, Ammonius (a famous Aristotle and Plato commentator) and Heliodorus, and to help the underprivileged. On the advice of her relative Syrianus, she followed her children to Athens, where she studied philosophy as a pupil of Proclus. Her eulogy was pronounced by Damascius, the last pupil of the Neoplatonist school, who admired Aedesia’s piety and charity.
