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| from Euphrosyne Doxiadis (1995): The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt |
Philosopher and mathematician; b. 355 (Alexandria), d. March 415 (Alexandria).
Hypatia was the daughter of Theon, a mathematician and head of the Mouseion (Museum) of Alexandria. Her exact date of birth is not known; some researchers place it at 370, others at 355. The life histories of some of her later students are better documented, and based on the assumption that they would have been several years younger than their teacher, the year 355 appears the more likely one.
Hypatia learned the basics of mathematics and astronomy from an early age. Being extremely gifted, she soon matched her father in understanding and insight. She also had an interest in philosophy and became the acknowledged head of of the school of philosophers who followed the scientific tradition of Plato, denounced as pagan by the growing Christian community of Alexandria.
No written works of Hypatia remain but much is known about her through letters of her student Synesius (the later Bishop of Ptolmais), whom she taught the use of the astrolabe and the hydroscope. The Suda encyclopaedia, which was compiled around 1000, reports Hypatia as the author of commentaries on the Arithmetica of Diophanus of Alexandria, the Conics of Apollonius of Perga, and on the astronomical works of Ptolemy. It describes a scene of someone seeing
There is thus no doubt that Hypatia was an outstanding philosopher, scientist and mathematician, who was held in high esteem and received students from places as far as Syria and Cyrene.
Alexandria was under constant turmoil at the time, caused by attempts of bishop Cyril (later Saint Cyril) to wrest control of the city's administration from the secular rule of the imperial prefect Orestes. Hypatia, whose wisdom was cherished by the municipal administration, tried to mediate by promoting consultation, tolerance and separation of religion and state.
But the followers of the church did not shy away from violence. In 415 monks assaulted Orestes and injured him severly. Orestes ordered the execution of the leader, and despite attempts by Cyril to style him into a martyr the public supported the decision. Cyril then claimed that Orestes was under the spell of Hypatia and said that she had studied magic and worked with the Satan. An inflamed crowd grabbed Hypatia, who was on her way home from lectures, killed her, dismembered her and burned the pieces outside the city walls. Orestes gave up his resistance and left Alexandria, which now fell into the hands of the church.
Hypatia holds a place of high honour in the history of science for upholding rational thought against religious zeal and paying for it with her life. Over the centuries she has been the object of much rumour and speculation. The historian Socrates Scholasticus described her murder in his "Ecclesiastical History", which he wrote only decades after her death, as the killing of an outstanding woman by "bigoted zeal." 200 years later the bishop of Nikiu promoted the Christian view of Satanic magic, demonstrated by the use of a scientific instrument (the astrolabe).
The 20th century has seen a revival of interest in Hypatia. The modern pagan movement of the European civilization tries to style Hypatia into its own martyr, while sections of the feminist movement attempt to portray her death as a result of her womanhood. These and other variations on her life cannot diminish her standing as an excellent scientist, an outstanding mathematician and a most eminent human being with a clear mind.
No images of Hypatia are known, but in the Fayum depression, a region of land reclaimed from swamps about 1850 BC, the Egyptian people had taken to the custom of covering the faces of mummies with portraits in the Roman style. Two of those portraits can give an idea what Hypatia might have looked like at her death and when she started her career at the Museum:
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| from Euphrosyne Doxiadis (1995): The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt |