Hypatia of Alexandria

Rachel Weisz as Hypatia of Alexandria - Still from the film 'Agora'

Attribution: Rachel Weisz as Hypatia - Still from the film 'Agora'

360 - Mar 415

Martyred Philosopher, Mathematician, Astronomer and Feminist Pioneer

Relationship	People
Associated	Cyril of Alexandria, Orestes

Hypatia was a 4th and 5th century AD philosopher, mathematician, astrologer and scientist, and one of the most famous female intellectuals in history.

She was born in Alexandria, Egypt around 350 AD, the daughter of Theon, who was the curator of the Museum of Alexandria, an important seat of learning in the Roman Empire. Theon schooled Hypatia as his star pupil from a young age, and she demonstrated a remarkable aptitude for maths, philosophy, astronomy and technological sciences. After travelling to Athens and Italy to further her studies, she returned to Alexandria, where she became a highly-respected teacher, lecturer, writer and inventor. She penned many well-thought-of commentaries in collaboration with her father, and was appointed Director of the Neoplatonist School of Alexandria in 400 AD. Hypatia was by all accounts (although few of them survive) extremely beautiful, and had many suitors from the great and good of Alexandria society, but she rejected them all, and reportedly remained chaste throughout her life.

As well as being a leading female intellectual, Hypatia was also a pagan. Both things were treated with deep contempt by Christian zealots, who were becoming increasingly powerful in Alexandria and the Roman Empire. Taking violent exception to her beliefs and status - or perhaps simply acting on the orders of the priest Cyril, a political adversary of Hypatia's friend the Prefect Orestes - Hypatia was one day pulled from her carriage by an angry mob, dragged to a nearby church, stripped naked, then brutally beaten and maimed to death, before her corpse was burned. All of her works were later burned too and erased from history altogether.

Her death is often regarded as one of the final defeats for enlightened thought ahead of the Dark Ages; certainly no female would achieve as highly again in the field of science until as late as the 18th century. History remembers Hypatia fondly, and she has been enshrined in various works of art and literature - from Raphael's painting The School of Athens, at the Vatican in Rome, to the movie Agora by Alejandro Amenábar, which portrays the final days of her life.