A Martyr for Philosophy
Hypatia of Alexandria was a Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer and mathematician who is hailed as the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well-recorded. She was beloved by the people of Alexandria and she advised and taught the city’s elite, earning a reputation unheard of for women at the time. Yet this popular and intelligent philosopher would lose her life at the hands of a bloodthirsty mob, and her horrific death has continued to fascinate the world ever since.
It has been estimated that Hypatia was born around 350 370 CE (although recent scholars have typically settled on the year 355 CE) in Alexandria, Egypt, in the Eastern Roman Empire. While we do not know who Hypatia’s mother was, we know that her father was Theon of Alexandria, an accomplished mathematician and astronomer who was the last attested member of the Alexandrian Museum.
Theon gave his daughter an education that was usually reserved for sons, teaching Hypatia all about philosophy, mathematics and astronomy — in his Historia Ecclesiastica, Greek historian Philostorgius said that Hypatia “was so well educated in mathematics by her father that she far surpassed her teacher, and especially in astronomy”.
Considering this, it’s hardly a surprise that Hypatia rose to become the city’s foremost scholar, delivering lectures in both her home and in public lecture halls, with listeners travelling
