To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing.
—Hypatia
An inventor, mathematician, and philosopher, Hypatia (c. 370–415) was one of the most prolific women writers of the ancient world. Before her gruesome murder at the hands of a Christian mob, she was also a leading citizen of Alexandria, Egypt, and one of the city’s most influential teachers.
The daughter of Theon (c. 335–c. 405), a well-known teacher of mathematics, Hypatia was raised in one of the ancient world’s most important intellectual centers. Site of the famed great library, Alexandria was home to a diverse community of Greek-speaking Christian, Jewish, and pagan scholars.
Hypatia began her academic career as a collaborator with her father, editing or cowriting several math and astronomy books. She became a popular lecturer on science and philosophy in her own right and was named director of an Alexandria philosophy school in 400. Although she was nominally a pagan, among Hypatia’s students were many Christians, including two future bishops.
At a time when few women participated in higher education, Hypatia was an exceptionally rare figure. She drove her own chariot, dressed in the clothing of a male teacher, and corresponded with scholars across the Greek world. According to some accounts, she invented several scientific instruments, including an improved version of the astrolabe. A confidante of the city’s governor, she also acquired political influence during a time of increasingly bitter religious rivalry.
It was the religious disputes in the city that eventually cost Hypatia her life. According to ancient historians, Christians in the city suspected her of taking sides against them in a political dispute between the governor and the bishop. The bishop spread rumors that she was a witch, and one day while driving her chariot through the streets, she was accosted, stripped naked, brutally killed, and torn to pieces by the mob.
The murder of Hypatia has been seen as a pivotal event in world intellectual history—the end point of the ancient Greek philosophical tradition. Many scholars fled the city to avoid meeting the same fate; “after this,” as Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) wrote, “Alexandria was no longer troubled by philosophers.” She was roughly sixty years old at the time of her death.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- A feminist philosophy journal, Hypatia, is named after the ancient writer.
- Hypatia’s killers were never punished. Her main Christian antagonist in Alexandria, the bishop Cyril (c. 378–c. 444), was later named a saint.
- A movie about Hypatia called Agora, directed by Alejandro Amenábar (1972–) and starring Rachel Weisz (1970–) as the philosopher, was released in 2009.
