Since that it's International Women's Day, I would like to post about one of my favourite Roman female historical figures, Hypatia...

 

Since that it's International Women's Day, I would like to post about one of my favourite Roman female historical figures,

Hypatia...

Only once before in our history was there the promise of a brilliant scientific civilization. Beneficiary of the Ionian Awakening, it had its citadel at the Library of Alexandria, where 2,000 years ago the best minds of antiquity established the foundations for the systematic study of mathematics, physics, biology, astronomy, literature, geography and medicine.

We build on those foundations still.

The Library was constructed and supported by the Ptolemys, the Greek kings who inherited the Egyptian portion of the empire of Alexander the Great. From the time of its creation in the third century B.C. until its destruction seven centuries later, it was the brain and heart of the ancient world.

The last scientist who worked in the Library was a mathematician, astronomer, physicist and the head of the Neoplatonic school of philosophy -- an extraordinary range of accomplishments for any individual in any age...Her name was Hypatia. She was born in Alexandria in 370 AD, At a time when women had few options and were treated as property, Hypatia moved freely and unselfconsciously through traditional male domains.

By all accounts she was a great beauty, she had many suitors but rejected all offers of marriage.

The Alexandria of Hypatia's time -- by then long under Roman rule -- was a city under grave strain. Slavery had sapped classical civilization of its vitality. The growing Christian Church was consolidating its power and attempting to eradicate pagan influence and culture. Hypatia stood at the epicenter of these mighty social forces. Cyril, the Archbishop of Alexandria, despised her because of her close friendship with the Roman governor, and because she was a symbol of learning and science, which were largely identified by the early Church with paganism In great personal danger, she continued to teach and publish, until, in the year 415 AD, on her way to work she was set upon by a fanatical mob of Cyril's parishioners. They dragged her from her chariot, tore off her clothes, and armed with abalone shells, flayed her flesh from her bones. Her remains were burned, her works obliterated, her name forgotten. Cyril was made a saint, the glory of the Alexandrian Library is a dim memory, Its last remnants were destroyed soon after Hypatia's death.

It was as if the entire civilization had undergone some self-inflicted brain surgery, and most of its memories, discoveries, ideas and passions were extinguished irrevocably, the loss was incalculable.

While ancient historians and commentors noted Hypatia's genius, it is only in recent years that her significance in philosophy is generally recognized.

The movie "Agora 2009" tells the story of Hypatia.