Hypatia was born c 350-70 and died in 415, often called Hypatia
of Alexandria was a Greek mathematician, astronomer and philosopher in Egypt
then part of the Byzantine Empire. She
was then the head of the Neoplatonic school at Alexandria where she taught philosophy
and astronomy.
One day, on the streets of Alexandria in 645 a mob of Christian
zealots, let by Peter the Lector accosted a woman’s carriage and dragged her
from it where they stripped her and beat her to death with roofing tiles. Then they tore her body apart and burned it.
Who was this woman and what was her crime? Hypatia was one of the last great thinkers of
ancient Alexandria and one of the first women to study and teach mathematics, astronomy,
and philosophy. Though she is remembered
for her tragic death, her dramatic life is a fascinating lens through which we may see
the plight of science in an era of religious and sectarian conflict.
Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BC the city of
Alexandria quickly grew into a center of culture and learning for the ancient
world. And its heart was the museum, a
type of university, whose collection of more than half-million scrolls were
homed in the Library of Alexandria.
Alexandria underwent a slow decline beginning in 48 BC when
Julius Caesar conquered the city for Rome and accidentally burned down the library,
but fortunately, it was rebuilt. By 364, the Roman
Empire split and Alexandria became part of the eastern half, and the city was beset
by fighting between Christians, Jews, and pagans. Further civil wars destroyed much of the
library’s contents. The last remnants likely
disappeared, along with the museum.
In 391, when archbishop Theophilus acted on orders from the Roman
emperor to destroy all pagan temples and Theophilus tore down the temple of Serapis,
which housed the bests scrolls, and built a church on the site.
The last known member of the museum was the mathematician
and astronomer, Theon, Hypatia’s father.
Some of Theon’s writings have survived. His commentary on Euclid’s Elements was the
only known version of his work on geometry until the 19th century. But little is known about his and Hypatia’s
family life, even Hypatia’s date of birth is contested, the identity of her mother
is a complete mystery and Hypatia may have had a brother, Epiphanius.
Theon taught mathematics and astronomy to his daughter, and
she collaborated on some of his commentaries.
It is thought that Book III of Theon’s version of Ptolemy’s Almagest the
treatise that established the Earth-centre model of the universe that wouldn’t
be overturned until the time of Copernicus and Galileo was actually the work of
Hypatia.
Beyond her father’s areas of expertise, Hypatia established
herself as a philosopher in what is now known as the Neoplatonist School, a
belief in which everything comes from the One. Her public lectures were popular and drew
crowds.
“Donning the role of a scholar, the lady made appearances
around the center of the city expounding in public to those willing to listen
on Plato and Aristotle,” the philosopher Damascus wrote after her death.
Hypatia never married and likely lived a celibate life, which
possibly was in keeping with Plato's ideas on the abolition of the family system.
The Suda lexicon, a 10th-century encyclopedia of
the Mediterranean world describes her as being “exceedingly beautiful and fair
of form, in speech articulate and logical and in her actions prudent and public-spirited and the city gave her a suitable welcome and accorded her with special
respect.”
Her admirers included Alexandria’s governor, Orestes. Her association with him would eventually lead
to her death.
Theophilus, the archbishop who destroyed the last of
Alexandria's Great Library, was succeeded by his nephew, Cyril, who continued his
uncle’s tradition of hostilities towards other faiths. With Cyril the head of the main religious
body and Orestis in charge of the civil government, the fight began over who
controlled Alexandria. Orestis was a
Christian but he did not want to cede power to the church.
The struggle for power reached its peak following the
massacres of Christians by Jewish extremists and Orestis protested to the Roman
government in Constantinople. When
Orestis refused Cyril’s attempts of reconciliation, Cyril’s monks tried
unsuccessfully to assassinate him.
Hypatia, however, was an easy target. She publicly spoke a non-Christian philosophy,
Neoplatonism, and she was less likely to be protected by guards than Orestis.
A rumor spread that
she was preventing Orestis and Cyril from settling their differences. From there,
Peter the Lector and his mob took action and Hypatia met with her tragic death.
Meanwhile, Hypatia has become a symbol for women, a martyr, and
a character of fiction. Voltaire used
her to condemn church and religion.
An English clergyman, Charles Kingsley, made her the subject
of a mid-Victorian romance and she is the heroine, plaid by Rachel Weisz, in
the Spanish film Agora (2009). The film
tells the fictional story of Hypatia as she struggled to save the library from
the Christian zealots.
Neither paganism nor scholarship died in Alexandria with Hypatia
but they certainly took a blow.
“Almost alone, virtually the last academic, she stood for
intellectual values for rigorous mathematics, ascetic Neoplatonism, the crucial
role of the mind and the voice of temperance and moderation in civic life”, Deakin
wrote. “She may have been the victim of
religious fanatism, but Hypatia remains an inspiration even in modern times”.
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