Hypatia

Life

Hypatia was the daughter of Theon, a mathematician and astronomer at Alexandria, who trained her himself. She became the leading philosopher of the city, teaching the ideas of Plato and Plotinus to students who travelled from across the eastern Mediterranean, pagans and Christians alike. She was admired for her learning and self-control and was consulted by the city’s leaders.

Work

None of her writings survives under her own name, but ancient sources say she wrote commentaries on the Arithmetica of Diophantus and the Conics of Apollonius, and she probably helped her father edit Ptolemy’s great astronomical work, the Almagest. Letters from her student Synesius, later a bishop, show her advising on the construction of an astrolabe and a hydrometer.

Death and legend

In AD 415 Alexandria was torn by a bitter feud between the Roman prefect Orestes and the bishop Cyril. Hypatia was seen as an ally of Orestes, and a Christian mob dragged her from her carriage and murdered her. Her story has been retold ever since, most recently in the film Agora, and she remains a symbol of learning and of women in science.