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Hypatia: Philosopher and Symbol

© Frederic Giacobazzi

The known facts about her are scant. And separating the facts from the legend challenges today's scholars.

The dates of her life are in dispute, sometimes given as 370? - 415? A.D. She was the daughter of a mathematician and philosopher famous in his time, although her fame has come to surpass that of her father. All of her writings are lost except for titles and only a few surviving references to three major treatises on geometry and algebra and one on astronomy. She is reputed to have invented several tools, including an instrument for distilling water, an instrument to measure the specific gravity of water, an astrolabe, and a planisphere. She followed in the footsteps of her father and became a teacher at the Library of Alexandria, later founding a school of Neoplatonism. Legend has it both that she was beautiful and that letters arriving in Alexandria addressed simply to "the philosopher" were delivered to her. According to most accounts, she died violently, joining the company of of other thinkers, from Pythagoras to Socrates to Bruno, martyred for their beliefs. She was brutally murdered by Nitrian monks, a fanatical sect of Christians who were supporters of Cyril (later St. Cyril), Patriarch of Alexandria.

She is Hypatia, and she has become both a symbol and a cause, often unconnected with the realities of her life and ideas. To atheists and freethinkers, her story exemplifies the intolerance of fanatical religion. To feminists, her martyrdom represents the oppression endured throughout history by women who have sought to reach beyond the narrow confines of socially acceptable roles. To students of philosophy, she has become the symbolic marginalized pre-modern woman philosopher, her memory defaced by time, chance, and prejudice. Leave it to the staid Cambridge History of Philosophy to suggest yet another reason for Hypatia's lasting fame:

The fact that - according to ancient report - Hypatia was not only a brilliant person, but a beautiful one who aroused the erotic passion of (at least) one student, and that she was stripped naked before being slaughtered seem to have contributed to the revival of interest in her.

Hmmm, got that?

Nonetheless, in one of the best resources concerning Hypatia on the Web, "The Primary Sources for the Life and Work of Hypatia of Alexandria," Michael A. B. Deakin of Monash University (included in the source list below), observes, "The life of Hypatia of Alexandria depends on a small amount of primary material, and anything going outside that is either fiction or speculation and in a good account should be flagged as such."

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