Monday, January 4, 2021

Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia of Alexandria was an eminent scientist in Roman Alexandria at the turn of the 4th century AD. This accolade was accorded to her by contemporaries; remarkable for any scientist, it was exceptional for a woman. As a teacher, she drew pupils from across the empire to her lessons.


The date of birth for Hypatia is not known. Historians place it anywhere between 350 and 370 AD; currently most historians are agreed on 355 as the most probable date. As with everything in history, that may change without further notice. Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, a mathematician and philosopher who was head of the Museion School founded by Pharaoh Ptolemy I. 


Theon was a philosopher of the school of Plato and Plotinus believing that women had a brain and a mind. This in stark opposition to the teachings of Aristotle and the Christians. The Christian superstition of women without brains is still rampant today, just look at any Conservative Christian political party in the world.


Theon instructed his daughter in mathematics and philosophy and sent her to Athens to study with other eminent scientists of the time. She returned from her studies with an impressive array of knowledge in philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy. Returning from Athens, she started working and researching with her father.


A result of this collaboration was a commentary on Euclid’s Elements. This commentary is the most complete edition of Euclid’s writing to this day and it contains his statement of the principle of hypothesis, theory, and definition. Further commentaries include the Arithmetica of Diophantus and the Conica of Apollonius. She edited the Almagest of Ptolemy which was later commented on by Theon.


She was credited with the invention of the hydrometer (a device used to determine the relative density and gravity of liquids). In a contemporary letter, Bishop Synesius of Cyrene defended her as the inventor of the astrolabe. Given that astrolabes had been in use at the time for a hundred years, this seems like arrant nonsense. But I suppose the bishop was not writing for history, he was writing to a contemporary. What he probably meant was not the astrolabe but ‘The Astrolabe’, i.e. the one that everybody was using because it was so much better than the old ones. (I have nothing to prove it except that I don’t write letters for history either and would expect my recipient to know what I was talking about when I say Kindle.)


She was called to a teaching position by her father where she read philosophy. To understand this correctly, philosophy at the time included mathematics, mechanics, and astronomy. Her pupils included the later bishop of Cyrene, Synesius, as well as the later prefect of Alexandria, Orestes.


Hypatia belonged to the 'aristocracy', the elect few who could afford to learn reading and writing and indulge in science and research. As a member of this preferred class of people, it was no wonder she hobnobbed with the political and social elite of Alexandria. It was also no wonder that she got involved in the ongoing power struggle between church and state. While Emperor Constantine may have been enthralled by the Christian ideal of 'one god in heaven and me on earth', the same idea was percolating in the 'saintly' heads of Christian bishops (and 'me' is so conveniently applied to one self).


Hypatia was publicly murdered in 415 AD by a most Christian lynch mob. The contemporary historian Socrates Scholasticus used no uncertain terms in condemning the murder even while compiling a work of church history. Modern historians dither in accusing Bishop 'Saint' Cyril of Alexandria with the murder. Church historians refute any idea in that direction; atheists cite any kind of slander they might find against Cyril. I give the word to the attorney of the defense, Bishop John of Nikiu who wrote in the 7th century: '[After Hypatia's death] all the people surrounded the patriarch Cyril and named him 'the new Theophilus'; for he had destroyed the last remains of idolatry in the city.' With such a defense, who needs an accuser?


Further reading

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