Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 370 CE - March 415 CE) was a female philosopher and mathematician, born in Alexandria, Egypt possibly in 370 CE (although some scholars cite her birth as c. 350 CE). Little is known of her life but her dramatic death at the hands of Christian fanatics is well-documented.
She was the daughter of the mathematician Theon, the last Professor at the University of Alexandria, who tutored her in math, astronomy, and the philosophy of the day which, in modern times, would be considered science. Nothing is known of her mother and, as noted, there is little information about her life.
She was murdered in 415 CE by a Christian mob who attacked her on the streets of Alexandria. The primary sources, even those Christian writers who were hostile to her and claimed she was a witch, are generally sympathetic in recording her death as a tragedy. These accounts routinely depict Hypatia as a woman who was widely known for her generosity, love of learning, and expertise in teaching in the subjects of Neo-Platonism, mathematics, science, and philosophy
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Religious Intolerance and Death
Alexandria was still a great seat of learning in the early days of Christianity but, as the faith grew in adherents and power, became increasingly divided by fighting among religious factions. It is by no means an exaggeration to claim that Alexandria was destroyed as a centre of culture and learning by religious intolerance and Hypatia has come to symbolize this tragedy to the extent that her death has been cited as the end of the classical world.
The archbishop Cyril was routinely frustrated by Hypatia's popularity and her friendship with the prefect Orestes. The Christian chronicler John of Nikiu explains the situation from Cyril's point of view:
And in those days there appeared in Alexandria a female philosopher, a pagan named Hypatia, and she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes and instruments of music, and she beguiled many people through her satanic wiles. And the governor of the city [Orestes] honored her exceedingly for she had beguiled him through her magic. And he ceased attending church as had been his custom. (Deakin, 148)
The tensions increased when Orestes had a man named Hierax, a zealous Christian and one of Cyril's men, publicly punished for inciting violence. Hierax had slipped into a synagogue to spy on the Jewish community for Cyril in order to find any evidence of Jewish plans against Christians. When the Jews noticed him, they complained to Orestes and Heirax was taken and punished. This enraged Cyril who encouraged the Christian community to attack the Jews. The Jews were killed and the survivors expelled from the city while their possessions were appropriated by the Christians and the synagogues converted to churches. In the religious frenzy inspired by their “victories” over the Jews, the mob then went searching for Hypatia.
Hypatia's Murder
In 415 CE, on her way home from delivering her daily lectures at the university, Hypatia was attacked by this mob, consisting largely of Christian monks, dragged from her chariot down the street into a church, and was there stripped naked, beaten to death, and burned. The scholar Mangasar M. Mangasarian describes the scene as recorded by ancient historians:
The next morning, when Hypatia appeared in her chariot in front of her residence, suddenly five hundred men, all dressed in black and cowled, five hundred half-starved monks from the sands of the Egyptian desert — five hundred monks, soldiers of the cross — like a black hurricane, swooped down the street, boarded her chariot, and, pulling her off her seat, dragged her by the hair of her head into a — how shall I say the word? — into a church! Some historians intimate that the monks asked her to kiss the cross, to become a Christian and join the nunnery, if she wished her life spared. At any rate, these monks, under the leadership of St. Cyril's right-hand man, Peter the Reader, shamefully stripped her naked, and there, close to the altar and the cross, scraped her quivering flesh from her bones with oyster shells. The marble floor of the church was sprinkled with her warm blood. The altar, the cross, too, were bespattered, owing to the violence with which her limbs were torn, while the hands of the monks presented a sight too revolting to describe. The mutilated body, upon which the murderers feasted their fanatic hate, was then flung into the flames.
In the aftermath of Hypatia's death, the University of Alexandria was sacked and burned on orders from Cyril, pagan temples were torn down, and there was a mass exodus of intellectuals and artists from Alexandria. Cyril was later declared a saint by the church for his efforts in suppressing paganism and fighting for the true faith. Hypatia's death has long been recognized as a watershed mark in history delineating the classical age of paganism from the age of Christianity.
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