Summary: Hypatia Of Alexandria

Hypatia of Alexandria is mentioned in our textbook, Math through the Ages, in regards to being the daughter of Theon, who was a famous Greek mathematician and professor known for his commentaries on other’s works. The book mentions that Hypatia wrote commentaries on her father’s work as well as on Apollonius’s Conics and on Diophantus’s Arithmetic. Hypatia was a famous teacher of Platonic philosophy in Alexandria but unfortunately became entangled in a power struggle between the Prefect Orestes and the Archbishop and she was beat to death by a mob (1).

There are a few discrepancies between the MacTutor website and the Dictionary of Scientific Biography website. For the most part, the big, main, events that took place in Hypatia’s life are

She came to symbolize learning and science which the early Christians identified with paganism. She ended up being in the middle of a feud between the patriarch and prefect of Alexandria. In other words, she was in the middle of a feud between church and state. Hypatia was friends with the prefect, Orestes, and was blamed by Cyril, the patriarch, for keeping Orestes against his views, and that along with her philosophical views led to her becoming the focal point of riots between Christians and non-Christians. She was eventually beat to death by a mob of Christians who were supporters of the patriarch. Some say the patriarch ordered her death, and others say the Christians wanted to show their support and loyalty to the patriarch and conducted her death on their own. Whichever may be the true, the truth is that Hypatia was drug from her home, down the street to a church, and beat to death with the tiles from the renovations. Her body was then torn apart and burned in celebration. Cyril was declared a saint by the church for his efforts in suppressing paganism. Hypatia’s death was a mark in history delineating the age of paganism from the age of Christianity. The primary sources of her murder, even from the Christian’s who were hostile to her and claimed she was a witch, say she was a woman known for her generosity, love of learning, and expertise in teaching so the news of her death was very sad to many of the people in Alexandria. In the aftermath of her death, the University of Alexandria was attacked and burned on orders from Cyril and pagan temples were torn down (4 and