Hypatia

Hypatia (in ancient Greek: Ὑπᾰτία and in Latin: Hypatia; Alexandria, 355 or 370- ibid., March 415 or 416) was a Greek Neoplatonic philosopher and teacher, born in Egypt, who excelled in the fields of mathematics and astronomy, member and head of the Neoplatonic School of Alexandria at the beginning of the 5th century. Follower of Plotinus, she cultivated logical studies and exact sciences, leading an ascetic life. She educated a select school of Christian and pagan aristocrats who held high positions, including Bishop Synesius of Cyrene —who maintained an important correspondence with her—, Hesychius of Alexandria, and Orestes, prefect of Egypt at the time of her death. she.

Daughter and disciple of the astronomer Theon, Hypatia was one of the first female mathematicians in history. She wrote on geometry, algebra and astronomy, improved the design of primitive astrolabes —instruments for determining the positions of the stars on the vault light blue—and invented a hydrometer, which is why she is considered a pioneer in the history of women in science.

Hypatia was murdered at the age of 45 or 60 (depending on her correct date of birth), lynched by a Christian mob. The motivation of the assassins and their connection with the ecclesiastical authority have been the subject of many debates. The assassination occurred in a context of tensions between the Christian cult and other religions, against declining paganism and political struggles between the different factions of the Church, the Alexandrian patriarchate and the imperial power, represented in Egypt by the prefect Orestes, former student of the philosopher. Sócrates Scholasticus, the historian closest to the facts, affirms that the death of Hypatia was the cause of "not a little opprobrium" for the patriarch Cyril and the church of Alexandria, and later sources, both pagan and Christian, directly attribute the crime to him., so many historians consider Cyril's involvement likely, although the debate about it is still open.

Her singular character as a woman dedicated to thought and teaching in late antiquity, her fidelity to her philosophy and principles at the time of the rise of Theodosian Catholicism as the new religion of the Roman State, and her death at the hands of Christians have given her bestowed great fame. The figure of Hypatia has become a true myth: since the time of the Enlightenment she has been presented as a "martyr of science", a victim of religious fanaticism and a symbol of the end of classical thought before the advance of Christianity. However, it is now noted that his assassination was an exceptional case and that, in fact, the Alexandrian Neoplatonic school, progressively Christianized, flourished until the middle of the 7th century.

For their part, feminist movements have vindicated her as a paradigm of a liberated woman, even sexually, although, according to the Suda, she was married to another philosopher —named Isidoro— and remained a virgin. It has also been associated with the Library of Alexandria, although there is no reference linking the two: the Ptolemaic Great Library is believed to have disappeared at an uncertain time in the 3rd, or perhaps 4th century, and its successor, the Library -daughter of the Serapeus, was occupied and plundered by the Christians in 391 d. c.

Biography

Youth

Hypatia was born in Alexandria, capital of the Roman diocese of Egypt, in the middle of the IV century, in 370, according to some references, and in 355, according to others. But given that his disciple Synesius of Cyrene was born around 375 and that it was not natural for the time for the teacher to be the same age as his disciple, the latter date seems the most correct. Her mother is a mystery and there are no theories of who she could be. It is known that her father was Theon of Alexandria, a famous mathematician and astronomer, highly appreciated by his contemporaries, who probably must have worked and taught at the Serapeum Library, successor to the legendary Ptolemaic Great Library. Hypatia, for her part, was educated in an academic and cultured environment, dominated by the Alexandrian Neoplatonic school, and learned mathematics and astronomy from her father, who also transmitted her passion for the search for the unknown. In the philosophical field, it is not known who exactly was his teacher, but Damascio, the last scholar of the Academy of Athens and a contemporary of Hypatia, proposes the philosopher Isidore. In his education, Theon did not want him to only cultivate the mind, but placed special emphasis on Hypatia's body being just as healthy. This is why he made her give rowing and horse riding classes. These studies were complemented by a highly valued virtue during the Roman Empire: public speaking. Theon is credited with the following words addressed to Hypatia: «all formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and should never be accepted by themselves by people as the end. Reserve your right to think, because even thinking wrongly is better than not thinking at all."

Hipatia young

According to the 16th century pagan philosopher VI Damascius, the Alexandrian teacher was "of a nobler nature than her father, [ and] she was not satisfied with the knowledge that comes from the mathematical sciences, into which she had been introduced by him, but devoted herself to the other philosophical sciences with great dedication». Hypatia also learned about the history of the different religions that were known at that time, about the thought of philosophers and about the principles of teaching. Some authors defend that Hypatia traveled to Athens and Rome to complete her training. Faced with this, another part of the academic community denies that there is evidence of this in the sources and therefore affirms that the philosopher was born, grew up and died in Alexandria, without ever having left the city. Damascio stated that "in addition After achieving the highest degree of practical virtue in the art of teaching, she was fair and wise, and remained a virgin throughout her life", a fact confirmed by the Suda, a Byzantine encyclopedia from the XI, which however adds that she was "the wife of Isidore the Philosopher". Damascio himself refers to an anecdote that illustrates the attitude of Hypatia before sex: when a disciple confessed that he was in love with her, the philosopher threw him a cloth stained with her menstrual blood, spitting at him: "You are in love with this, and there is nothing beautiful about it." Damascio himself provides us with another version according to which Hypatia advised the student to guide those passions s to something truly beneficial: music. Whatever her reaction, Hypatia achieved her goal, since the boy decided to forget the matter.

Since there were both Christians and pagans in her school, and given the tolerance of the Alexandrian religious authorities towards the activities of the philosopher, who was unmolested in her lessons, it seems unlikely that Hypatia was a militant pagan. She did not participate in pagan rituals or festivities and rather it seems that she considered herself a pagan because of the admiration she paid to Greek culture and with it to philosophy. Jay Bregman, from the University of California, after analyzing the work of Sinesius of Cyrene, concludes that it is likely that Hypatia adhered to the Porfirian variant of Neoplatonism, opposed to the Iamblichus theurgy and the practice of ancient Hellenic cults. Because of this, this current was particularly pleasing to Christian eyes.

Hypatia's school

By around the year 400 the philosopher had become a leader of the Alexandrian Neoplatonists, and, according to the Suda, she dedicated herself to teaching, focusing on the works of Plato and Aristotle. However, if there is a source that has enlightened historians about the content of this historical character's lessons, that is the compilation of the epistles of Synesius of Cyrene.

Among his students there were Christians, such as the aforementioned Synesius of Cyrene (later Bishop of Ptolemaida between 409 and 413), belonging to a rich and powerful family, who maintained a great friendship with his teacher.

Sinesius left a lot of information about Hypatia in writing. He referred to her as "the authentic teacher of the mysteries of philosophy" Thanks to him we know her works, although none have been preserved. He addressed letters 10, 15, 16, 46, 81, 124 and 154 of her correspondence to Hypatia. In this correspondence the names of several students of Hypatia who were his fellow students are mentioned: Synesius' younger brother, named Euoptio, his uncle Alexander, Herculianus, of whom he was a great friend, and whom he considered "the best of men"., Olympius, a wealthy landowner from Seleucia Pieria, a friend of Synesius, Ision, an intimate of Synesius, Hesychius of Alexandria, a grammarian and governor of Upper Libya, and his brother Eutropius, the sophist Athanasius, Gaius, a relative of Synesius, the grammarian Theodosius and the priest Theotechnos, and some Peter and Syrus, as well as the future imperial prefect of Egypt, Orestes. A few other names mentioned in the Synesian letters have been proposed, but there is no evidence for this. In any case, it should be noted that his students were a close-knit group of pagan and Christian aristocrats, some of whom held high positions. It is likely that the aforementioned Herculian was the brother of Flavio Taurus Seleucus Cyrus, a prominent member of the Imperial Court, who later he became prefect of the sacred cubicle, urban prefect of Constantinople, praetorian prefect of the East (439) and consul (441), becoming the most powerful man in the Eastern Empire after Emperor Theodosius II himself. Despite the mixture of cults professed by his disciples, at no time did Hypatia treat Christians differently than the rest. There were also no palpable tensions between the two groups. The fights that occurred throughout the city, in Hypatia's school were forgotten.

Hypatia's students came from all over the Mediterranean to receive her lessons. All of them had in common their belonging to the wealthy classes, which made it easier for them to later reach relevant positions in the Empire. In one of Sinesio's epistles, it is shown how the students wanted the content of the classes to be secret, something that has made it difficult to know what was taught in them after the fact and that distanced her from the town, which did not appreciate Hypatia or had nothing in common with her.

Sinesius himself eloquently manifests the devotion that Hypatia aroused in his disciples: in letter 16 of his epistolary he greeted her as "mother, sister and teacher, as well as benefactor and all that is honored both in name and in fact". In a way, her students considered her the successor of Plato. Some even thought that Hypatia had been chosen by God to carry out the mission of discovering the mysteries of philosophy. This sense of sanctification was intensified by her virgin status. Hypatia demanded a lot of herself in everything related to moral virtues, among which "sofrosine" stood out, which was a virtue that all Hellenic philosophers aspired to achieve, especially those who privileged the world immaterial and spiritual

Egypt at the beginning of the 5th century

The Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria on an icon.

Egypt was home to one of the most important Christian communities in the Empire, and the Patriarch of Alexandria enjoyed the greatest prestige and influence, along with his colleagues in Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople, and Rome. However, the theoretical primacy of Rome did not translate into supreme authority. During the fourth and fifth centuries, doctrinal conflicts and power struggles between the patriarchates, especially between Alexandria and Constantinople, were constant.

Theodosius I the Great had made Christianity a state religion by the Edict of Thessalonica in 380, imposing Nicene orthodoxy. The effect was intensified by the Edict of Constantinople ten years later, which prohibited all non-Christian activities, including religious practices in the private sphere. This provoked the reaction of both the pagans and the different interpretations of Christianity, now officially converted into heresies to be persecuted and eradicated. Throughout the following decades, great controversies and disputes took place between the different factions of Christians, which sometimes escalated to violence. At first, the lessons of the philosopher were not affected during the bishopric of Theophilus, since Hypatia did not interfere in the affairs of pagans and Christians. However, with the succession of Theophilus by Bishop Cyril, Neoplatonic philosophers such as Hypatia soon came under heavy pressure. Some converted to Christianity, but Hypatia did not consent to it, despite the advice of her friends, such as Orestes, the Augustan prefect and his student, who had been baptized in Constantinople before going to carry out his position in Egypt. Despite her paganism, Hypatia had the esteem and protection of these Christian intellectual elites, and even 120 years after her death the historian Sócrates Scholasticus, highly valued for her impartiality, considered her, despite her religion, a " model of virtue. Orestes was advised by Hypatia in political and municipal affairs, and the Suda confirms that Hypatia was popular as an adviser to the highest magistracies of Alexandria: "Clad in the cloak of the philosophers, making her way in the middle of the city, she publicly explained the writings of Plato, or Aristotle, or any philosopher, to all who would listen (...) The magistrates used to consult her first for their administration of the affairs of the city...».

In the days of the energetic Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria Theophilus (385-412), who, according to his friend Synesius of Cyrene, had as much influence among the upper classes of Alexandria as Hypatia herself, an event occurred that changed the course of Alexandria Theophilus enjoyed immense power, and in 391 with the aforementioned Edict he obtained from Emperor Theodosius an order to demolish the pagan temples of his city, including the Mithraeus and the Serapeum, which caused bloody riots between pagans and Christians. he supposes that it was then that the latter's library, successor to the great Library of Alexandria, was looted, or at least emptied. In 416, the Hispano-Roman theologian and historian Paulo Orosio viewed his remains with great sadness, stating that "his cabinets empty of books were looted by men of our time." Hypatia avoided participating in the defense of the Serapeum and confronting Theophilus, whose great The enemy was the Antiochene John Chrysostom, a disciple of the pagan rector Libanius and patriarch of Constantinople, who tried to submit him to his authority. Theophilus won his great victory over Chrysostom at the Synod of the Holm Oak in 403, achieving his deposition and exile.

Despite all that was said against it, following these riots Theophilus' episcopate brought to Alexandria a social tranquility unknown for most of the century IV, teeming with bloody riots. In addition, Teófilo built a series of large and luxurious constructions, which astonished his contemporaries, scandalized his enemies, and earned him the sympathy of the working class, who found employment and salary.

Theophilus died on October 17, 412, and Archdeacon Timothy and Cyril, son of a sister of Theophilus, competed for his succession. It was not a trivial dispute for purely religious reasons, since the influential Alexandrian patriarchate was capable of interrupting grain shipments to the imperial capital and enjoyed immense wealth, which had allowed Theophilus to carry out his constructions. In addition, Egypt was home to one of the largest and most organized Christian communities in the Empire. Abundance, the commander of the imperial forces in Egypt (dux militum Aegypti) , supported Timothy against Cyril, since the imperial court wanted to save itself trouble by avoiding the election of another anti-Constantinopolitan militant like Theophilus. However, Cyril achieved patriarchy thanks to the good memory left by his uncle (who would become a saint of the Coptic Church) and the antipathy of the Alexandrians towards everything that came from Constantinople.

Cirilo's episcopate shows remarkable continuity with Theophilus's politics, although the former would be even more intransigent than the latter, meddling to a great extent in local government affairs. In any case, both shared the pressure against pagans, heretics and Jews, the maintenance of the support of the great monastic communities, the cultivation of the alliance with Rome and the opposition by all means to the growing influence of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, intimate ally of the imperial throne. He began by persecuting the Novatians, despite Theodosius the Great's edict of toleration for them in 381. He seized all their sacred objects, and took all his possessions from the Novatian bishop Theopompus. thus a series of confrontations and a bitter hostility between the Patriarch of Alexandria and the imperial prefect Orestes, who saw in the powerful bishop a detractor of the absolute power and authority of the Emperor.

During the anti-Jewish riots that took place in those years, stirred up by Cyril, Orestes tried to protect the children of Israel, but, after a series of incidents of great violence, Cyril managed to expel them and allowed their property to be stolen by the crowd. In general, a visceral hatred between the two religious denominations prevailed at that time in the Middle East, producing attacks in both directions.

Orestes informed the Emperor of the Patriarch's actions, and, judging by the account of Socrates Scholasticus, he should have requested the deposition and banishment of Cyril, who then sought reconciliation with the imperial prefect. To do this, he sent a commission of representatives who asked him to submit to the New Testament, to which he refused. Then 500 monks came from the desert of Nitria to protect the Patriarch from him, and they started a sedition. Seeing the prefect, who was traveling in a cart, they pounced on him, calling him an idol worshiper and pagan and insulting him. The prefect shouted that he was a Christian and had been baptized by the Patriarch of Constantinople himself. One of the monks, named Ammonius, wounded Orestes with a stone to the head, for which he was arrested, tortured, and killed. Cyril buried his corpse in a church and gave him martyr honors, with which the rupture between the Patriarch and the imperial representative was complete, thus beginning a confrontation between civil and religious power that would entail serious consequences for the philosopher.

The Death of Hypatia

Illustration of Louis Figuier in Vies des savants illustres, depuis l'antiquité jusqu'au dix-neuvième siècle of 1866, which represents the author's imagination of how the assault against Hipatia could have been.

Odoardo Tabacchi sculpture that represents Hipatia moments before his death.

Then the rumor began to spread among the Christians of Alexandria that the cause of the discord between Cyril and Orestes was the influential Hypatia, friend and adviser of her former student and, presumably, opposed to the abuses of religious power. Sócrates Scholastico recounts that, in the middle of Lent, a group of fanatics led by a reader named Pedro pounced on the philosopher while she was returning home in a carriage, beat her and dragged her throughout the city until they reached Cesáreo, a great temple built by Augustus after his victory over Marco Antonio and converted into the cathedral of Alexandria. There, after stripping her naked, they beat her with stones and tiles until she was dismembered and her remains were paraded in triumph through the city until they reached the Cinareo (by its name, it is supposed to be a crematorium), where they were cremated. Although it remains unclear if his age was 45 or 60 years, José María Blázquez Martínez favors the latter option. There are other versions of the events regarding his death. Edgar Serna points out that she's been murdered by Christians who felt threatened by her scholarship, learning, and depth of scientific knowledge. This event seems to be a point of contention."

The historian closest to the facts, Socrates Scholasticus —highly valued for his equanimity— links Cyril to the murder of Hypatia, stating that "this event caused considerable shame both to Cyril and to the church of the Alexandrians". According to this author, there is nothing more opposed to the spirit of Christianity than the crime and the murderers of Hypatia, they acted out of a furious impetus and not by the "divine" zeal that characterizes and legitimizes acts of religious violence. The others sources narrate the event in a similar way. The contemporary Arian historian Philostorgius limited himself to blaming the Homousians, faithful to the Nicene creed. On the other hand, the Polish historian Dzielska assures that the murder of Hypatia had nothing to do with religious motives, but basically It was a death caused by political issues: Cyril wanted to win the fight against Orestes in order to influence more local power.

An exalted Coptic bishop of the VIII century, John of Nikiû, considered her a dangerous, responsible witch in full Arab occupation of the conflict between Christians and Jews and between Orestes and Cyril. He considered that the death of Hypatia was not accidental but desired by the Alexandrian bishop and considered it a justified response to the philosopher's provocations.

The Byzantine historian of the VI century John Malalas was wrong when he stated that Hypatia was burned alive (she was burned after death), but he admitted Cyril's induction and also blamed the very nature of the inhabitants of Alexandria, violent and "accustomed to all license".

John of Ephesus said at the same time that they were a horde of barbarians "inspired by Satan" and Cyril himself reproached the Alexandrians for their rebellious and quarrelsome character in his Easter homily in the year 419. In fact, a few years later In 422, Orestes's successor as imperial prefect, Callisto, was killed in a new tumult. It has also been suggested that the mob was driven mad by the rigors of the Lenten fast.

Finally, the entry referring to Hypatia in the monumental Byzantine encyclopedia of the XI century known as the Suda —following Damascio— he also attributes the responsibility for the crime to Cyril's envy for the great masses of followers that the philosopher had and to the rebellious character of the Alexandrians, but he gives an additional key to understand the sad death of the philosopher equating it to the cruel murders of two bishops imposed on the Alexandrians by the imperial court in Constantinople: the Arian George of Cappadocia (d. 361) and the Chalcedonian Proterius (d. 457). The former was tied to a camel, torn to pieces and their remains burned; and the second dragged through the streets and thrown into the fire, murders very similar to that of Hypatia herself.

There has been some intriguing speculation that Cyril had contacts with Hypatia through his former student Bishop Synesius of Cyrene, a friend of his late uncle Patriarch Theophilus. Synesius's death in 413 may partly explain the sudden Hypatia's entry into local politics and her opposition to the Patriarchy. In any case, with the sources available to us, it is still a mere conjecture.

Regarding the motivation that Cirilo may have had to order or induce the death of the philosopher, historians have concluded the confluence of at least five motives:

• The bishop's own intolerance towards paganism and neoplatonism, which had so much influenced arrianism.
• The friendship and influence of the philosopher on the imperial prefect Orestes and the high classes of Alexandria.
• The desires to avenge the death of the Ammon monk, ordered by Orestes, perhaps advised by his ex-master.
• Hipatia's hostility towards Theophilus and her nephew for the destruction of the Serapeo and the looting of her library in 391, which could possibly lead her to the clash between the imperial prefect and the patriarch.
• The desire to send a serious warning to Orestes, through the death of someone as close as Hipatia.

It has been argued that it is unlikely that a politician as seasoned as Cyril would carry out such a counterproductive action and that it proved pernicious for the interests of the powerful Alexandrian patriarchate. Christopher Haas of Johns Hopkins University concludes that, with the sources we currently have, "we will never know if Cyril himself orchestrated the attack, or if, as in the attack on Orestes, certain supporters unilaterally decided to fight for patriarchy."

María Dzielska points out, however, that, even if the crime happened behind his back, Cirilo must be held responsible to a large extent, for being the instigator of the campaign against the philosopher, as a means of combating the imperial prefect and his political faction, contrary to the excesses of the Patriarchate. Whatever his motivation, the figure of Bishop Cirilo was marked by this fact in the history books.

Consequences

Although in History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell said that after the death of Hypatia, "Alexandria was no longer troubled by philosophers", the truth is that there continued to be other philosophers such as Proclus, Simplicio and John Philoponus. Hellenic religiosity did not end the philosopher, nor did Greek philosophy and mathematics. In fact, after her assassination, Hierocles the Philosopher initiated a new branch of eclectic Neoplatonism in the Alexandrian city. In addition, at this time the presence of Neoplatonist saints stands out.

Hypatia's death caused a stir. After the cruel murder, Orestes reported the facts and called on Constantinople to intervene. The Suda states that Emperor Theodosius II initially wanted to punish Cyril, both for justice and for being a great protector of philosophical teachings (whose own wife, Eudocia, was a philosopher of Athenian origin), but, in the end, the imperial reaction was limited to withdrawing from the Patriarch the 500 monks, called parabolans, who served as his guard, which has led some historians to suppose that it was these and not the populace mentioned in all the sources, those responsible for the assassination of the philosopher. The measure was, however, rescinded after two years, further allowing their number to be increased to 600. That Cyril fared so well was possibly due to the influence of the Emperor's sister, the Augustan Pulcheria, a devout Christian of great ascendancy. about his brother, in whose name he ruled while he was engaged in intellectual pursuits.

According to all sources, the assassination of the philosopher was a shameful crime for Christians and reduced the political influence of the Alexandrian patriarchate. After Hypatia's death, his relations with the Imperial Court softened and the veneration of the monk Ammonius disappeared, since the Alexandrians themselves recognized that he had deserved death for his attack and not for having been forced to renege. of Christ. Cyril was unable to prevent his doctrinal rival, Nestorius, from enjoying imperial favor and being elected Patriarch of Constantinople in 428, but he was finally deposed at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Having become one of the most influential figures in the Church, his death in 444 he was declared a saint and is considered one of the Doctors of the Church due to his extensive doctrinal work.

After this event, peace returned to Alexandria. There were no more violent acts against the pagan philosophers of Alexandria, whose School remained active until the seventh century, without its activity being interrupted even by the closure of the Academy of Athens in the time of Justinian I (529).

However, current research doubts that Hypatia was contrary to Christianity, and try to frame her death in the accumulation of political tensions that existed in Alexandria due to the fall of the Roman Empire.

Works

Hypatia helped her father Theon in his work, being one of his main collaborators, sources mention that she would surpass her father's knowledge. In addition, Hypatia stood out for her work as a commentator, these comments allowed us to approach the past and made it easier for the students to learn from her.

None of his works have been preserved, but they are known thanks to his disciples, such as Synesius of Cyrene or Hesychius of Alexandria, the Hebrew.

• Comment to the Arithmetic in 13 books by Diofanto of Alexandria. Hipatia will improve the models of algebraic equations.
• Astronomical canon.
• Commentary to the Conical Sections of Apolonius of Perga, his most important work.
• Astronomical tables: review of astronomer Claudio Tolomeo, known for its inclusion in the Astronomical canon Hesiquio. Hipatia will update the tolemaic tables, and this will affect the idea posed by Tolomeo, as Hipatia poses the most valid sthic year than the tropic year. What stands out from this commentary to Tolomeo's Syntax Mathematica in the third book is that, at first it was considered that it was a simple correction to the one already made by his father, yet historian Cameron believes it is a new text written by Hipatia, meaning that his works have not been completely lost.
• Editing your father's comment to The Elements from Euclides. Hipatia appears in the text as a disciple.

Letter from Sinesio to Hipatia, image of the second page of the two letters to Hipatia included in the first printed edition of the works of Sinesio (edited and printed by Adrián Turnèbe in 1553; Institute Archives of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

He had an influence on some very important Greek works such as:

1. The arithmetic of Diofanto of Alexandria: Based on algebraic equation solutions and on the theory of numbers.
2. Elements of Euclides
3. Treaty of the conicals of Apolonio de Perge: They present the curves that arise when cutting a cone at planes of different inclinations. They may arise hyperbola, parable, ellipse...

In addition, Hypatia came to learn the operation and construction of the Astrolabe and other useful instruments for astronomy, since she was very interested in taking theory to the practical field, something that she instilled in her students. The design of this instrument has been found in the letters to Synesius of Cyrene, however, it does not correspond to the philosopher's century, having passed from Ptolemy, to Theon, and finally to Hypatia.

In addition to mapping celestial bodies, making a planisphere, he also became interested in mechanics. It is known that he invented a still, a device to measure the water level and a graduated hydrometer to measure the relative density of liquids, precursor of the current aerometer, described by Sinesio de Cirene:

...is a cylindrical tube with the shape and dimensions of a flute, which in a straight line carries some incisions to determine the weight of the liquids. For one of the ends it closes a cone, adapted in identical position, so that the base of both, the cone and the tube is common. When the tube is immersed in the liquid, which is like a flute, it will remain straight, and it is possible to count the incisions, which are the ones that make known the weight.

Sinesio de Cirene, Letter 15, to Hipatia.

Synesius also defended her as the inventor of the astrolabe, although earlier astrolabes predated Hypatia's model by at least a century—and her own father was famous for his treatise on them.

Legacy

Late Antiquity

Shortly after his death, a forged letter attacking Christianity was published in his name. Several decades later, at the beginning of the VI century, the pagan philosopher Damascius, the last scholar of the Academy of Athens, went into exile in Persia after its closure by Justinian I in 529 and practically a contemporary of Hypatia, he directly blamed the Christians and was the first to expressly attribute the crime to the patriarch Cyril, attributing it to his jealousy of Hypatia's influence on the urban oligarchy. The scholar was based on a fragment of Socrates Scholastic to affirm that it was jealousy that drove the bishop. By having such manifest intentionality, Damascio is a problematic source. Brian Whitfield considers that he acted "eager to exploit the scandal of Hypatia's death", and that with it begins a long series of malicious manipulations of historical facts in order to turn Hypatia into a martyr of Hellenism, a victim of evildoers. Christians—much like another mythologized character, Emperor Julian the Apostate. This contrasted with the campaign that the patriarch Cyril had waged after the assassination of Hypatia, according to which the death of the woman was the first step for the fight against paganism. This question has been taken up by many authors, but despised by others, since Hypatia was not actually a practicing pagan.

For a long time it was held that one of the epigrams of the Palatine Anthology, attributed to the poet Palladas, was dedicated to Hypatia:

'Oταν βλκπω σε, προσκυυν hung, καίο,ς λόγους,

τ marginς παρθ
ε marginς ο,ραν,ν γίρ κεστι σο, τργγματα,
,πατεία σέμνη, ων λόγων ε,μορφία,

φχραντον φστρ.ν εωος σος παιδεσεως.

Revered Hipatia, ornament of knowledge,

immaculate star of wise formation,
When I see you and your speech,
I love you looking at the heavenly home of the Virgin,

because your chores are in heaven.

- Palatine anthology, IX, 400.

However, Georg Luck, a professor emeritus at Harvard University, strongly argued that the poem was not by Palladas and had nothing to do with the philosopher. For Luck it would only be the epitaph that another poet, Panolbio, dedicated according to the Suda to Hypatia, daughter of a high-ranking imperial official in the second half of the century V, the prefect of the Erythrian praetorium and founder of a church in honor of the Virgin: the "home of the Virgin", a poetic figure repeated throughout Byzantine poetry.

With the Christianization of the Philosophical School of Alexandria in the time of Justinian I, Hypatia's weight among pagan philosophers was counterbalanced by the figure of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, to whom a great monastery was consecrated on Sinai. The link between the two is also perceived in that Catalina's story highlights her erudition in mathematics, geometry and astronomy, aspects that scholars believe derive from Hypatia's biography. On the other hand, near the ancient city of Laodicea, in Anatolia, there was a church with an inscription indicating that it was consecrated to "Saint Hypatia Catherine". This last fact has led historians to think that, in Indeed, it was someone else and not Hypatia of Alexandria, the philosopher. She was, in fact, a common name at the time.

Modern World

Hypatia1867 photograph, by Julia Margaret Cameron.

Cover of the novel Hypatia, illustrated by Edmund H. Garrett.

In the 14th century, the Byzantine historian Nicephorus Gregoras described the learned and virtuous empress Eudoxia Makrembolitissa (1021-96), wife of Constantine X Ducas and Romano IV Diogenes, as "second Hypatia". This is because at the end of the Byzantine Empire, women who excelled in philosophy and science were called that, which means the recognition of the virtues of Hypatia, among which erudition stood out.

In his Memoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique... (1693), the Jansenist abbé Le Nain de Tillemont exonerated Cyril considering how counterproductive this crime was, something unbecoming of as cunning a politician as the Patriarch was.

In the early 18th century century, Deist scholar John Toland used his death as the basis for a lengthy anti-Catholic pamphlet titled " Hypatia, or the story of one of the most beautiful, virtuous, cultured and distinguished ladies in all respects; that she was torn to pieces by the clergy of Alexandria to satisfy the pride, envy, and cruelty of its archbishop, commonly but undeservedly called Saint Cyril", where he describes her as "incarnation of beauty and knowledge", arguing that men should "to be forever ashamed that one could be found among them so brutal and savage as to, instead of being intoxicated with the admiration of such beauty and wisdom, stain their hands in the most barbarous manner with the blood of Hypatia, and their impious souls with the stigma of having committed a sacrilegious crime". Toland's work is considered one of the most influential in the formation of the myth of Hypatia. Its publication led to Thomas Lewis writing a rebuttal in 1721: 'The story of Hypatia, the most reckless teacher of Alexandria: slain and torn to pieces by the mob, in defense of St Cyril and the Alexandrian clergy. Of the slanders of Mr. Toland". Despite this response, Toland achieved great popularity and diffusion among the intellectuals of the Enlightenment, such as Voltaire.

Another Jansenist abbot, Claude Pierre Goujet, also made a great defense of Saint Cyril in his letter included in volumes V and VI of the Continuation des Mémoires de litterature et d'histoire, by Fr. Desmolets (1728). For his part, Voltaire used the philosopher to make clear her dislike for the Church, considering Hypatia's death "a bestial murder perpetrated by Cyril's tonsured hounds, with a band of fanatics behind him." ». With this he intended to demonstrate that religious fanaticism produced the extermination of geniuses and the slavery of spirits. In his particular hostility to everything Christian, the English historian Edward Gibbon indicated that Cyril was so jealous of his influence and popularity that he "encouraged, or accepted, the sacrifice of a virgin, professing the religion of the Greeks". and he was never punished for such a crime, since "superstition perhaps better expiates the blood of a virgin than the banishment of a saint." Gibbon made Cyril guilty not only of the death of Hypatia, but of all the problems in Egypt at the time, without citing sources.

With the irruption of Romanticism, the [[XIX century]] marked the rise of the literary myth of Hypatia. In 1827 the Italian Countess Diodata Saluzzo Roero suggested in Ipazia ovvero delle Filosofie, a poem in two volumes, the extravagant theory that Hypatia was actually converted to Christianity by Cyril, but that she was murdered by a « treacherous priest. For her part, Charles Leconte de Lisle published a poem entitled Hypatie (1847), in which the philosopher was another victim of a world, the Old, that was fading. In a second version, from 1874, the "historical necessity" was already replaced by the attack against Christianity. In the poem, a Hypatia in love with the beauty of the universe faces the dogmatic and dogmatic Bishop Cirilo. Also at this time we have artistic manifestations of Hypatia, which make her known beyond her books. Odoardo Tabacchi would represent a very young Hypatia at the moment just before she was murdered. They would also highlight paintings such as that of the Englishman William Mitchell, with a Hypatia very similar to the way in which Aphrodite is represented.

British writer Charles Kingsley produced a picturesque fictional novel in 1853 entitled Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face, which portrayed the scholar, actually nearly old when she died, as a young "underdog, pretentious and erotic heroine", who embodied "the spirit of Plato and the body of Aphrodite". The philosopher presents in the novel a visceral hatred for Christianity and is reciprocated by the envious and despotic Cirilo, who tries to sabotage her classes. The prefect Orestes, a dipsomaniac schemer, involves the philosopher in her ambitions for the imperial throne, proposing marriage. Hypatia ends up disillusioned with him as the conflict between the bishop and the prefect grows, and she ends up suffering a spiritual crisis just before her murder, being converted by a Jewish Christian named Rafael Aben-Ezra. The central idea is that of Hypatia as an icon of a world of classical harmony that vanishes before the advance of a superstitious religion that enslaves reason.

Contemporary references

An actress, possibly Mary Anderson, on the main role of the play Hypatia, circa 1900.

Hipatia, imagined by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Charles William Mitchell (1885).

• In adventure Fábula de Venice (1977), of the comic character Corto Maltés, created by Hugo Pratt, Hipatia appears presiding an intellectual salon in pre-fascist Italy, as one of the characteristic anachronisms of this series of comics.
• Mario Luzi published in 1978 a drama titled Book of Ipaziainsisting on the tragedy of the philosopher as a symbol of the irreversible decadence of the classical world, and from a Christian interpretation, his death is not the result of the new Faith, but of the evil and the crime inherent in the multitudes.
• Feminist artist Judy Chicago included Hipatia in the "first wing" of her installation The Dinner Party (1979).
• Carl Sagan, in chapter 13 of his series Cosmos: A personal journey (1980) treated the death of Hipatia and the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. According to Sagan, "In 415, when he was going to work, he fell into the hands of a fanatic mob of Cyril's parishioners. They ripped her out of the carriage, broke her clothes, and, armed with sea shells, desolated her by breaking her bones' flesh. His remains were burned, his deeds destroyed, his name forgotten."
• There are two important feminist magazines that owe their name to the Alexandrian philosopher: Hypatia: Feminist Studies, published in Athens since 1984, e Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, published since 1986 by the Indiana University Press. The latter published two years later an article by the poet and novelist Ursule Molinaro, "A Christian Martyr in Reverse – Hypatia: 370-415 A.D", mixing reality and fiction. In the article the virgin Hipatia is considered a woman without sexual restraint, lover of Orestes, and it is precisely this disinhibited behavior that leads the envious and repressed Cyril to order his murder. Molinaro states that his death pointed out “the end of a time when women were still valued for their intelligence,” and that Christianity limited freedom of thought and imposed on women a model of conduct “based on submission and devoid of pleasure”.
• In 1988, the German novelist Arnulf Zitelmann published another novel about the Alexandrian philosopher, “a martyr of misogyny”, abounding in the blackest topics of clerical obscurantism.
• Canadian novels Rennaissance in Paganie (1987), André Ferreti, e Hypatie ou le fin des dieux (1989), by Jean Marcel, follow the trail of the works of Kingsley and Zitelmann.
• Hypatia Cade, prodigy girl and main character of the science fiction novel The Ship Who Searched (1992), of Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey, owes its name to the famous philosopher.
• In 1996 Maria Dzielska, Professor of Old History at the Jaguelonic University of Krakow, published an extensive biography, Hipatia of Alexandria, trying to establish the truth of the facts narrated by the sources and myth built around them, which in his opinion mixes the historical reality with the most rude falsehood.
• In 1997, the Spanish writer José María Menéndez López briefly recreates his life in the short story Hipatia (Mathematics, Astronoma, Physics and Pro Philosopher)which is part of Apocryphs.
• The experimental theatrical work The Five Hysterical Girls Theorem (Theorem of the Five Hispanic Girls), of Rinne Groff (2000) presents a character named Hypatia who lives in silence, fearing to suffer the fate of his play.
• Baudolino, protagonist of Umberto Eco’s homonymous novel (2000), found a society isolated from women similar to satires, all of which were called Hipatia.
• The series of novels by the "Herederos of Alexandria" (2003 -) written by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer, includes fictional references to the conversion of Hipatia to Christianity and its subsequent correspondence with John Chrysostom and St. Augustine.
• Melanta, protagonist of the novel The bitch of Alexandria (2003) by Pilar Pedraza, is a neo-platin philosopher modeled on the character of Hipatia.
• Hypatia is the name of a Mindnave (the computer of a spacecraft), built like the actual Hipatia, in The Boy Who Would Live Forever (2004), a novel by Frederik Pohl.
• Remembering Hypatiaby Brian Trent (2005), novel about his life and death.
• Hypatia is a recurring character in the youth fiction series Danger BoyMark London Williams, in which her fictitious teenage daughter, Thea, has a prominent role.
• Hypatia Sans Pro is a type of lyrics so called in your honor.
• Egyptian writer Yūsuf Zaydān published in 2008 a novel entitled Azazīl Riwayah about an Egyptian monk in a period when “Christians used to tyranny the pagans and demolish their temples” [sic], in which the death of Hipatia plays a fundamental role. The book has been highly criticized by the Christian community of Egypt.
• Agora, film written and directed by Alexander Amenábar, deals with the life of Hipatia, a slave of Hipatia who falls in love with it and the religious revolts in Alexandria. Hipatia is played by Rachel Weisz; the film was released on October 9, 2009.
• The garden of Hipatia (2009), by Olalla García, is a historical novel focused on the last years of life of Hipatia. The protagonist is Atanasio de Cirene, a student of the philosopher who is involved in the turbulent struggles of power that shocked Alexandria and provoked a wave of tumults in the streets.
• Hypatia and eternity (2009), by Ramón Galí is a novel that combines history and science-fiction, with Hipatia de Alejandría as protagonist. In it, the wise Alexandrian rises after being murdered, introducing himself into the minds of the most influential characters of another alternative story.
• Hipatia of Alexandria (2009), by Carmen García, Laura Ruiz, Lídia Puigvert and Lourdes Rue. A plural team of scientists reveals the truth about the first scientist.^{[chuckles]required]}
• The Dream of Hipatia (2009) novel by José Calvo Poyato, Professor of History. It has reference to real places and texts of the time, as well as the events that were unleashed between the fourth and fifth centuries.
• Die for Alexandria (2009), by Eliana E. Abdala, a novel that relates the last days of Hipatia. Editorial Group Norma. Buenos Aires. ISBN 978-987-545-537
• In the penultimate episode of the television series The Good PlaceHipathy is interpreted by Lisa Kudrow as one of the few philosophies that were admitted to the good place, by the fact that they did not defend slavery.
• The European Science Prize has adopted the name of Hipatia to honor the capabilities of this Antiquity philosopher.

Astronomy

The Rimae HypatiaAfter the crater Moltke (photo taken by Apollo 10).

The asteroid (238) Hypatia (discovered in 1884) and the lunar crater Hypatia were named in his honor. The latter is located next to the craters that remind Theon of Smyrna, and the patriarchs Cyril and Theophilus. With some measurements of 28 x 41 km, it is located at 4.3°S and 22.6°E of the lunar meridian. About 70 km north of the crater lies a 180 km long channel system called Rimae Hypatia, one degree south of the lunar equator, along the Mare Tranquillitatis.

In October 2013, a comet that collided with Earth 28 million years ago was found in the Sahara Desert and named Hypatia.