For interest's sake...
From
<http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Hypatia-Ancient-Alexandri
as-Great-Female-Scholar.html>:
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Hypatia, Ancient Alexandria's Great Female Scholar
An avowed paganist in a time of religious strife, Hypatia was also one
of the first women to study math, astronomy and philosophy
* By Sarah Zielinski
* Smithsonian.com, March 15, 2010
One day on the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, in the year 415 or 416, a
mob of Christian zealots led by Peter the Lector accosted a woman's
carriage and dragged her from it and into a church, where they
stripped her and beat her to death with roofing tiles. They then 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 more for her
violent death, her dramatic life is a fascinating lens through which
we may view the plight of science in an era of religious and sectarian
conflict.
Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C., the city of Alexandria
quickly grew into a center of culture and learning for the ancient
world. At its heart was the museum, a type of university, whose
collection of more than a half-million scrolls was housed in the
library of Alexandria.
Alexandria underwent a slow decline beginning in 48 B.C., when Julius
Caesar conquered the city for Rome and accidentally burned down the
library. (It was then rebuilt.) By 364, when the Roman Empire split
and Alexandria became part of the eastern half, the city was beset by
fighting among 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 the archbishop
Theophilus acted on orders from the Roman emperor to destroy all pagan
temples. Theophilus tore down the temple of Serapis, which may have
housed the last 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 writing has survived. His commentary (a copy of a
classical work that incorporates explanatory notes) on Euclid's
Elements was the only known version of that cardinal 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-scholars long
held that she was born in 370 but modern historians believe 350 to be
more likely. The identity of her mother is a complete mystery, and
Hypatia may have had a brother, Epiphanius, though he may have been
only Theon's favorite pupil.
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-centric model for the universe that wouldn't be overturned
until the time of Copernicus and Galileo-was actually the work of
Hypatia.
She was a mathematician and astronomer in her own right, writing
commentaries of her own and teaching a succession of students from her
home. Letters from one of these students, Synesius, indicate that
these lessons included how to design an astrolabe, a kind of portable
astronomical calculator that would be used until the 19th century.
Beyond her father's areas of expertise, Hypatia established herself as
a philosopher in what is now known as the Neoplatonic school, a belief
system in which everything emanates from the One. (Her student
Synesius would become a bishop in the Christian church and incorporate
Neoplatonic principles into the doctrine of the Trinity.) Her public
lectures were popular and drew crowds. "Donning [the robe of a
scholar], the lady made appearances around the center of the city,
expounding in public to those willing to listen on Plato or
Aristotle," the philosopher Damascius wrote after her death.
Hypatia never married and likely led 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, in her actions
prudent and public-spirited, and the rest of the city gave her
suitable welcome and accorded her 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 in 412 by his nephew, Cyril, who
continued his uncle's tradition of hostilities toward other faiths.
(One of his first actions was to close and plunder the churches
belonging to the Novatian Christian sect.)
With Cyril the head of the main religious body of the city and Orestes
in charge of the civil government, a fight began over who controlled
Alexandria. Orestes was a Christian, but he did not want to cede power
to the church. The struggle for power reached its peak following a
massacre of Christians by Jewish extremists, when Cyril led a crowd
that expelled all Jews from the city and looted their homes and
temples. Orestes protested to the Roman government in Constantinople.
When Orestes refused Cyril's attempts at reconciliation, Cyril's monks
tried unsuccessfully to assassinate him.
Hypatia, however, was an easier target. She was a pagan who publicly
spoke about a non-Christian philosophy, Neoplatonism, and she was less
likely to be protected by guards than the now-prepared Orestes. A
rumor spread that she was preventing Orestes and Cyril from settling
their differences. From there, Peter the Lector and his mob took
action and Hypatia met her tragic end.
Cyril's role in Hypatia's death has never been clear. "Those whose
affiliations lead them to venerate his memory exonerate him;
anticlericals and their ilk delight in condemning the man," Michael
Deakin wrote in his 2007 book Hypatia of Alexandria.
Meanwhile, Hypatia has become a symbol for feminists, a martyr to
pagans and atheists and a character in fiction. Voltaire used her to
condemn the church and religion. The English clergyman Charles
Kingsley made her the subject of a mid-Victorian romance. And she is
the heroine, played by Rachel Weisz, in the Spanish movie Agora, which
will be released later this year in the United States. The film tells
the fictional story of Hypatia as she struggles to save the library
from 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 a victim of religious fanaticism, but Hypatia remains an
inspiration even in modern times.
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