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Sophia
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http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/hypatia.html
Hypatia was a mathematician, astronomer, and Platonic philosopher.
According to the Byzantine encyclopedia The Suda, her father Theon
was the last head of the Museum at Alexandria.
Hypatia's prominence was accentuated
by the fact that she was both female and pagan in an
increasingly Christian environment.
Shortly before her death,
Cyril was made the Christian bishop of Alexandria,
and a conflict arose between Cyril and the prefect Orestes.
Orestes was disliked by some Christians a
d was a friend of Hypatia,
and rumors started that Hypatia was to blame for the conflict.
In the spring of 415 C.E., the situation reached a tragic conclusion
when a band of Christia
n monks seized Hypatia on the street,
beat her, and dragged her body to a church where they mutilated
her flesh with sharp tiles and burned her remains.
Her works include:
A Commentary on the Arithmetica of Diophantus
A Commentary on the Conics of Apollonious
She edited the third book of her father's Commentary on the Almagest of Ptolemy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Resources
The Life of Hypatia from The Suda. This is the first ever English translation of this important source.
The Life of Hypatia by Socrates Scholasticus. This biography tells the story of her murder.
The Life of Hypatia by John, Bishop of Nikiu.
This
Christian writer spoke with approval of the murder of Hypatia
because "she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes,
and instruments of music."
`
``````````````````````````````````````````````
Of Hypatia the Female Philosopher.
THERE was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia,
daughter of the philosopher Theon,
who made such attainments
in literature and science,
as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time.
Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus,
she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors,
many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions.
On account of the self-possession and ease of manner,
which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind,
she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates.
Neither did she feel abashed in coming to an assembly of men.
For all men on
account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue
admired her the more.
Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy
which at that time prevailed.
For as she had frequent
interviews with Orestes,
it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace,
that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop.
Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal,
whose ringleader wa
s a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home,
and dragging her from her carriage,
they took her to the church called Caesareum,
where they completely stripped her,
and then murdered her with tiles.
After tearing her body in pieces,
they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron,
and there burnt them.
This affair brought not the least opprobrium,
not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church.
And surely nothing can be farther from t
he spirit of Christianity
than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort.
This happened in the month of March during Lent,
in the fourth year of Cyr
il's episcopate,
under the tenth consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius.
Translation as in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hypatia was a mathematician, astronomer, and Platonic philosopher.
According to the Byzantine encyclopedia The Suda, her father Theon
was the last head of the Museum at Alexandria.
Hypatia's prominence was accentuated
by the fact that she was both female and pagan in an
increasingly Christian environment.
Shortly before her death,
Cyril was made the Christian bishop of Alexandria,
and a conflict arose between Cyril and the prefect Orestes.
Orestes was disliked by some Christians a
d was a friend of Hypatia,
and rumors started that Hypatia was to blame for the conflict.
In the spring of 415 C.E., the situation reached a tragic conclusion
when a band of Christia
n monks seized Hypatia on the street,
beat her, and dragged her body to a church where they mutilated
her flesh with sharp tiles and burned her remains.
Her works include:
A Commentary on the Arithmetica of Diophantus
A Commentary on the Conics of Apollonious
She edited the third book of her father's Commentary on the Almagest of Ptolemy
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local Resources
The Life of Hypatia from The Suda. This is the first ever English translation of this important source.
The Life of Hypatia by Socrates Scholasticus. This biography tells the story of her murder.
The Life of Hypatia by John, Bishop of Nikiu.
This
Christian writer spoke with approval of the murder of Hypatia
because "she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes,
and instruments of music."
`
``````````````````````````````````````````````
Of Hypatia the Female Philosopher.
THERE was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia,
daughter of the philosopher Theon,
who made such attainments
in literature and science,
as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time.
Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus,
she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors,
many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions.
On account of the self-possession and ease of manner,
which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind,
she not unfrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates.
Neither did she feel abashed in coming to an assembly of men.
For all men on
account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue
admired her the more.
Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy
which at that time prevailed.
For as she had frequent
interviews with Orestes,
it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace,
that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop.
Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal,
whose ringleader wa
s a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home,
and dragging her from her carriage,
they took her to the church called Caesareum,
where they completely stripped her,
and then murdered her with tiles.
After tearing her body in pieces,
they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron,
and there burnt them.
This affair brought not the least opprobrium,
not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church.
And surely nothing can be farther from t
he spirit of Christianity
than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort.
This happened in the month of March during Lent,
in the fourth year of Cyr
il's episcopate,
under the tenth consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius.
Translation as in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------