Hypatia

(b. Alexandria, Egypt, ca. 370; d. Alexandria, 415)

mathematics, philosophy.

Hypatia, the first woman in history to have lectured and written critical works on the most advanced mathematics of her day, was the daughter and pupil of the mathematician Theon of Alexandria. It is believed that she assisted him in writing his eleven-part treatise on Ptolemy’s Almagest and possibly in formulating the revised and improved version of Euclid’s Elements that is the basis of all modern editions of the work. According to Suidas she composed commentaries not only on the Almagest but also on Diophantus’ Arithmetica and Apollonius’ Conic Sections. None of them survives.

Although accurate documentation of Hypatia’s activities is lacking, it is known that she lectured in her native city on mathematics and on the NeoPlatonic doctrines of Plotinus and Iamblichus and that about A.D. 400 she became head of the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria. Her classes attracted many distinguished men, among them Synesius of Cyrene, later bishop of Ptolemais. Several of his letters to Hypatia are extant, They are full of chivalrous admiration and reverence. In one he asks her how to construct an astrolabe and a hydroscope.

In spite of her association with Synesius and other Christians, Hypatia’s Neoplatonic philosophy and the freedom of her ways seemed a pagan influence to the Christian community of Alexandria. Prejudice was strengthened by her friendship with Orestes, Roman prefect of the city and political enemy of Cyril, bishop of Alexandria. The mounting hostility culminated in her murder by a fanatic mob. None of her writings was preserved; but the general loss of Hellenic sources must be blamed on repeated book-burning episodes rather than on lynching. The great Alexandrian library had been burned by Roman soldiers long before Hypatia’s day, and during her lifetime the valuable library in the temple of Serapis was sacked by an Alexandrian mob.

Hypatia has been the subject of much romantic drama and fiction, including the 1853 novelHypatiaor New Foes With an Old Face, by Charles Kingsley. Such works have perpetuated the legend that she was not only intellectual but also beautiful, eloquent, and modest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See T. L. Heath, History of Greek Mathematics, II (Oxford, 1921), 528-529; A. W. Richeson, “Hypatia of Alexandria,” in National Mathematics Magazine, 15, no 2 (Nov. 1940), 74-82; Socrates Scholastics, Ecclesiastical History, VII (London, 1853), 15; Suidae Lexicon, Ada Adler, ed., I (Leipzig, 1928), 618; B. L. van der Waerden,Science Awakening (New York, 1961), 290.

Edna E. Kramer