Alexandri Hypatia Essay

Hypatia was a Greek mathematician, philosopher and astronomer. Her date of birth is still unknown nevertheless it is roughly estimated to be AD 370. She was born in Alexandria which was, after Rome, the second most important city in the Roman Empire at that time. Her father, “Theon”, was also a mathematician and an astronomer. He, along with his daughter, had a significant role in preserving the classical mathematical heritage of the Greek civilization. She is believed to have been killed at the age of 45 by a group of Christian bigots. Her murder was portrayed in the 2009 Spanish movie, “Agora”. In addition, her life was retold yet modified to some extent by the Egyptian novelist “Youssef Zidan” in his Booker winning novel, “Azazil”.
In the fourth century,
Alexandria vied with Athens as the greatest culture and learning center. Although the Royal Library of the city had been accidentally destroyed by fire, another library situated in a building called The Serapeum became the principal library of the city. Eventually the Serapeum with the library was destroyed at the request of Bishop “Theophilus” of Alexandria as it was a temple for worshipping the god “Serapis”. Greek Culture and civilization, defeated by the Christian dogmatism, were slowly but surely coming to an end.
Information about Hypatia’s early life is quite rare. She is assumed to have received the greater part of her early education from her father. She was also educated by the scholars in both the library and the museum of Alexandria which her father, Theon, was a member of. Whether she was educated in Athens or not is a matter of dispute among historians as she had been to Athens but we do not know if she did as a student or a visitor. She began lecturing in public in the early 380s on Mathematics, Astronomy and Philosophy. She was popular with her students and also a close friend to many important officials. Her public lectures garnered much interest. Her friendship with the governor of Alexandria “Orestes” lead eventually to her murder. Three centuries later, A Coptic bishop explained her murder as a punishment for being a pagan woman who beguiled the people of Alexandria by her satanic wiles.
Hypatia made great contributions to science and mathematics by presenting such rigorous commentaries on many well-known Greek works.
Those commentaries were the only way through which those works survived and reached us. She wrote a commentary on Apollonius’s Conics, Diophantus’s Arithmatic and an astronomical table. A letter from her student “Synesius” is considered in which he asked her to make him a hydrometer is considered evidence that she knew how to make it. In another letter, Synesius tells that he designed an astrolabe with the help of Hypatia. Tracing evidence lead historians to the conclusion that the theory and the details of the astrolabe’s construction was passed down from Theon to Hypatia, who applied them practically. Hypatia was also a philosopher. Her philosophy was Neoplatonic as she studied philosophy at the Neoplatonic school at Alexandria. Platonism is based on a belief that there are constant eternal realities which “Plato” called “Forms”. Some researchers could explain how Hypatia exceled at both Philosophy and Mathematics on the basis of the fact that Hypatia was Neoplatonic. Mathematics tends to abstract the materialistic world into mere ideas. Platonism has exactly the same
approach.
Hypatia’s murder marked, according to some historians, the end of the intellectual life in Alexandria, while according to others, it marked the beginning of the dark ages. Hypatia became a symbol for science and reason against dogmas and extremism. In today’s world, where dogmas fight each other and destroy fiercely our modern civilization and our humane values, we urgently need to take Hypatia as a role model. Hypatia had no weapon but science and passion yet she made a difference. If Hypatia could then we can.