HISTORY
The Murder of Ancient Alexandria’s Greatest Scholar
Hypatia’s death resulted in the decline of the city’s role as a centre of learning
“Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token save it from that ruin which, except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and young, would be inevitable.”— Hannah Arendt, ‘The Crisis in Education’
Education is at the centre of everything that advances goodness in the world. It helps derive meaningfulness behind everything. In life, it becomes imperative that we keep learning. Furthermore, taking responsibility for educating oneself and spreading knowledge helps life evolve individually and benefit humankind collectively.
Ancient scholars have always focussed on the importance of education. It is through this that they made incredible inventions and historical discoveries — some of which we still wonder about. In all, the ancient scholars laid a foundation for education to transcend, transform, and broaden its horizons through each evolutionary cycle.
Hypatia, the great female scholar of Ancient Alexandria, was one of the great thinkers of ancient times. She was also one of the first women to teach mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. Despite being renowned as a great teacher and wise scholar, Hypatia is remembered more because of her violent death, the moment which ended the city’s role as the centre of learning.
The Philosophical Life of Hypatia
In 415 CE, the city of Alexandria witnessed a fight between the Bishop and the Governor who rose in disagreement over the behaviour of a militia of monks. The altercation ended with “witchcraft” accusations directed towards one of the city’s most influential figures: Hypatia of Alexandria.
Born around 355 AD in Alexandria, then part of the Egyptian province of the Eastern Roman Empire and intellectual centre, Hypatia’s life and works detailed the existence of knowledge. She was a prominent mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and advisor to the leaders of the city. Her dramatic life has been the subject of much dispute and has acquired almost legendary status.
While none of Hypatia’s writings survives to this day, the works of her contemporaries and students shed some light on the noble qualities that made her stand tall as an eminent scholar, being admired as a teacher, and also to what eventually marked her downfall.
Hypatia’s father, Theon, was also a renowned figure in ancient times. He was an accomplished mathematician, astronomer and the last attested member of the Alexandrian Museum. Her mother remains an unknown mystery. Hypatia, likely being the only child, was educated by her father himself.
Theon of Alexandria is best remembered for his role in preserving Euclid’s Elements, having also written and discussed Ptolemy’s Almagest and Handy Tables extensively. Hypatia helped him write commentaries on these works while also writing her own works, thereby becoming a powerful woman in a culture dominated by male thinkers. In the later stages of adulthood, the extraordinary knowledge attained made Hypatia outstand her father in mathematics and philosophy.
The strong intellectual base made her the city’s foremost scholar and granted her the position of Head of the Platonic School, similar to the modern university. To broaden the horizons of knowledge, she wrote math textbooks, constructed scientific instruments, and developed efficient long division methods. Nevertheless, her most significant contributions to intellectual life in Alexandria came through her philosophical teachings.
Hypatia’s philosophy was phenomenally inspired by Aristotle and Plato's legacy as well as from the great mathematician Pythagoras and the mystical philosopher Plotinus. Altogether, the convergence and amalgamation of these intellectual and inspirational influences gave origin to a philosophical school of thought called Neoplatonism, an ideology that presents a comprehensive understanding of the universe and the individual human beings placed in it.
For the Neoplatonists, the subject of mathematics had a metaphysical (or spiritual) aspect, divided among the four branches of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. The fundamentals of these subjects mentioned that the numbers were the sacred language of the universe that helps establish a higher purpose to attain unity.
Hypatia’s philosophy was that of a Neoplatonist. She was thus seen as a pagan, a term for the traditional Roman belief before Christianity. She was not religiously inclined and hence worshipped no religious deities. Her ideas depicted multiple religious viewpoints. Also, the philosophy of her life made her embrace the celibacy.
Her Neoplatonism was concerned with achieving higher unity with the cosmic force known as “the One,” an underlying reality that is partially accessible through human power of abstraction from the platonic forms, which in turn, are the abstractions from the world of everyday reality. Those times marked her identity as the centuries genuine female philosopher.
Hypatia’s teachings fostered a nonpartisan environment that inspired student groups who were Christians, Jews, and Pagans and who travelled from the empire’s most distant places to seek knowledge and gain intelligent insights.
She always hoped to create an environment where both Christianity and Neoplatonism could exist peacefully and function cooperatively. In her attempt, she never distinguished people on a religious basis and instead tried to establish harmony through the virtues of knowledge.
The Conflicts That Brought About Hypatia’s End
At that time, in 412 AD, the city of Alexandria was facing a religious divide, and a political turmoil was continuously enveloping the city and enraging the masses. The archbishop, Theophilus, destroyed Alexandria’s great library and was later succeeded by his nephew, Cyril, who followed his uncle’s traditions of spreading hostility among other religions.
Thereafter, Christianity became the Empire’s state religion and Cyril, the local archbishop, gained unparalleled political power. Through the acquisition of religious authority, Cyril commanded the zealous militias of Christian monks to harass the Jewish population and to destroy the pagan temples.
In the event of brutal tortures, Cyril, who became the head of the city’s main religious body also intervened on the secular authority of Orestes, the then Roman Governor and a moderate Christian. The interference aroused a dispute between the two men over the struggle for power that eventually became the subject of a bitter public feud. Since Hypatia was regarded as a learned, wise, and impartial figure, Governor Orestes consulted her for guidance, after which she advised him to act with fairness and restraint.
Unfortunately, Cyril’s group of monks ignited a riot that badly injured Orestes and that ultimately tortured the leader to death. After the sad debacle, Cyril and his followers accused Hypatia of practising witchcraft, turning Orestes against Christianity. A rumour was also spread that she had prevented the reconciliation and settling of the differences between Orestes and Cyril. Here, Cyril’s role in Hypatia’s death has remained unclear.
In reality, Hypatia was simply an easy target much because of her outspoken nature on non-Christian philosophy, Neoplatonism, and the fact that she so often remained unguarded.
In March 415 AD, when Hypatia travelled through the city to her home, the mob of Christian zealots led by a lector named Peter dragged her from the carriage and brutally murdered, dismembered and burned her. It’s such a sad irony that she became the victim of political and religious fanaticism that ultimately cost her own life.
Hypatia’s tragic end left the empire in deep shock, however, her love for wisdom and contributions towards it made her new identity as the martyr of Philosophy.
After Hypatia’s death, many philosophers of Greek and Roman traditions fled that brought down the city’s role as a centre of great learning. In an authentic sense, the spirit of intellectual life, inquisitiveness, openness suffered a setback after Hypatia’s demise. Not only was she a universal genius but also a humanitarian at heart and her legendary legacy continues to shine evergreen, remaining deeply inspiring even in modern times.
Hypatia, the affectionately admired Pagan philosopher of Alexandria, has long been acknowledged as the beacon of light who surpassed the traditionalistic old ways to triumph into the intellectual new. In his book, Hypatia of Alexandria, the writer Michael Deakin mentioned about Hypatia’s personality and her everlasting aura:
“Almost alone, virtually the last academic, she stood for intellectual values, for rigorous mathematics, ascetic Neoplatonism, the crucial role of the mind, and the voice of temperance and moderation in civic life.”
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