Hypatia of Alexandria Hypatia was born in 370 A. D. in Alexandria, Egypt. From that day on her life was one enriched with a passion for knowledge.
Then, Hypatia’s father whom himself was a mathematician, raised Hypatia in an environment of thought. Both of them formed a strong bond as he taught her his own knowledge and shared his passion in the search of answers to the unknown. Under her fathers discipline he developed a physical routine for her to ensure a healthy body as well as a highly functional mind. Her father instructed her on the different religions of the world and how to influence people with the power of words. Also taught her the fundamentals of teaching so she could be a profound orator. From the teachings of her father, she to became a mathematician and philosopher which she was recognized the head of the Neo-Platonist school of philosophy at Alexandria.
Due to her eloquence, modesty, and beauty, combined with her remarkable intellectual gifts, she attracted a large number of pupils. Her students were aristocratic young men, both Pagan and Christian, who rose to occupy influential civil and eccelestrastical positions. They considered Hypatia as their “divine guide” into the realm of philosophical and cosmic mysteries, which included mathematics. She combined the principles of free thinking and the ideal of pure living.
She was known for her prudence, moderation, and self control, and for her ease of manner and her beauty. She was recognized as an eloquent teacher and by 390 A. D. her circle of influence was well-established.
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Hypatia of Alexandria, written by Maria Dzielska is a book that highlights the fascinating life of the famous mathematician and philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria. Dzielska describes the life and time of Hypatia through many different sources and interpretations of history. She also describes the difficulties involved in producing a biography of a person about whom we are remarkably ill-informed. ...
She also symbolized learning and science which in time of Western history were largely identified by early Christians with Paganism. As such, she was the focal point in the tension and riots between Christians and non-Christians that racked more than once in Alexandria. In this time Cyril roused negative sentiment toward Orestes and Orestes was attacked by 500 Nit rian monks. Due to Cyril and his negativity and what he caused to happen to Orestes, Hypatia fell victim to the political hostilities due to being a close associate of Orestes and was undoubtedly defamed by Cyril. Admiration for her became resentment and she was perceived as an obstacle to the conciliation of Orestes and Cyril. Being as that, Cyril began planning Hypatia’s most crucial death.
In 415 A. D. , during Lent, while riding in her chariot through the streets of Alexandria, she was attacked upon by a fanatical mob of anti pagan Christians. The mob dragged her into the Caesar eum, then a Christian church where she was stripped naked and murdered. According to ancient accounts, her flesh was stripped from her bones, her body was mutilated and scattered throughout the streets, then burned piecemeal at a place called Cina ron. Due to her death many of her students migrated to Athens and the Neo-platonic school at Alexandria continued until the Arab invasion in 642 A.
D. Although she died her life’s work remained. Also later, Descartes, Newton, and Leibniz expanded on her work. The philosophers considered her a woman of great knowledge and an excellent teacher. The studies of Hypatia included astronomy, astrology, and mathematics. Letters by Synesius, one of Hypatia’s students, credited her with the invention of the astrolabe a device used in studying astronomy.
She was known more for her work in mathematics than in astronomy. She edited the work On the Conics of Apollonius, which divided cones into different parts by a plane. This concept developed ideas of hyperbolas, parabolas, and ellipses. With her work, she made the concepts easier to understand, thus making the work survive through many centuries. She wrote a treatise titled Astronomical Canon, presumably on the movements of the planets and a commentary on the algebraic work of Diophantus of Alexandria. She wrote On the Conics of Apollonius, in which she elaborated on Apollonius’ third-century B.
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C. theory of conic sections. She also worked on Ptolemy’s Al mages which her father had before worked on, which brought together disparate works to early Greeks in 13 volumes and served as a standard reference for astronomy. From Synesius’ letters Hypatia had an interest in scientific instruments as well. He asked her to have a hydroscope made for him which is an instrument for measuring the specific gravity of a liquid. Another one of which she was asked to make for him was the astrolabe which is used to measure the position of the stars and planets.
She was credited with the authorship for three major treatises on geometry and algebra and one on astronomy. She was of importance because of her teaching, her thoughts and input on things that were important to her that she thought others should know, and because of her beauty and intelligence. Also because of the words that she spoke bout religion for an example: “All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as find. Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.
To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing.” Of another importance would be that of her knowledge that compressed into her thoughts for an example: her one vital thought that she worked out was that “the young mind is plastic, impressionable, and accepts with out question all that is told.” From that she clearly saw knowledge as a distilled essence of our intuition, corroborated by experience. Reference: 1. Notable Mathematicians from Ancient Times to Present 2. New Standard Encyclopedia 3. web.
