Hypatia de alejandria biography definition

And he not only did this, but he drew many believers to her, and he himself received the unbelievers at his house. According to Socrates Scholasticusduring the Christian season of Lent in Marcha mob of Christians under the leadership of a lector named Peter raided Hypatia's carriage as she was travelling home. Socrates Scholasticus presents Hypatia's murder as entirely politically motivated and makes no mention of any role that Hypatia's paganism might have played in her death.

For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop. The Canadian mathematician Ari Belenkiy has argued that Hypatia may have been involved in a controversy over the date of the Christian holiday of Easter and that she was killed on the vernal equinox while making astronomical observations.

Watts both dismiss this hypothesis, noting that there is absolutely no evidence in any ancient text to support any part of the hypothesis. Hypatia's death sent shockwaves throughout the empire; [ 40 ] [ ] for centuries, philosophers had been seen as effectively untouchable during the displays of public violence that sometimes occurred in Roman cities and the murder of a female philosopher at the hand of a mob was seen as "profoundly dangerous and destabilizing".

The Alexandrian council was alarmed at Cyril's conduct and sent an embassy to Constantinople. The investigation resulted in the emperors Honorius and Theodosius II issuing an edict in autumn ofwhich attempted to remove the parabalani from Cyril's power and instead place them under the authority of Orestes. Hypatia has been described as a universal genius[ ] but she was probably more of a teacher and commentator than an innovator.

Hypatia de alejandria biography definition: Hypatia (born c. – - March

The Ptolemaic model of the universe was geocentricmeaning it taught that the Sun revolved around the Earth. In the AlmagestPtolemy proposed a division problem for calculating the number of degrees swept out by the Sun in a single day as it orbits the Earth. In his early commentary, Theon had tried to improve upon Ptolemy's division calculation.

In the text edited by Hypatia, a tabular method is detailed. Hypatia wrote a commentary on Diophantus 's thirteen-volume Arithmeticawhich had been written sometime around the year AD. Cameron states that the most likely source of the additional material is Hypatia, since Hypatia is the only ancient writer known to have written a commentary on the Arithmetica and the additions appear to hypatia de alejandria biography definition the same methods used by her father Theon.

Heath argued that surviving text of Arithmetica is actually a school edition produced by Hypatia to aid her students. The consensus that Hypatia's commentary is the source of the additional material in the Arabic manuscripts of the Arithmetica has been challenged by Wilbur Knorra historian of mathematics, who argues that the interpolations are "of such low level as not to require any real mathematical insight" and that the author of the interpolations can only have been "an essentially trivial mind Hypatia also wrote a commentary on Apollonius of Perga 's work on conic sections[ 34 ] [ ] [ ] but this commentary is not extant.

Because of this, most scholars today recognize that Hypatia must have been among the leading mathematicians of her day. One of Synesius's letters describes Hypatia as having taught him how to construct a silver plane astrolabe as a gift for an official. It can also be used to predict where the stars and planets will be on any given date. The statement from Synesius's letter has sometimes been wrongly interpreted to mean that Hypatia invented the plane astrolabe, [ 37 ] [ ] but the plane astrolabe was in use at least years before Hypatia was born.

In another letter, Synesius requests Hypatia to construct him a "hydroscope", a device now known as a hydrometerto determine the density or specific gravity of liquids. Hydrometers were based on Archimedes ' 3rd century BC principles, may have been invented by him, and were being described by the 2nd century AD in a poem by the Roman author Remnius.

This reputation is either built on myth or hearsay as opposed to evidence. Either that or we are missing all of the evidence that would support it. Neoplatonism and paganism both survived for centuries after Hypatia's death, [ ] [ ] and new hypatia de alejandria biography definition lecture halls continued to be built in Alexandria after her death.

According to Watts, however, Hypatia had no appointed successor, no spouse, and no offspring [ ] [ ] and her sudden death not only left her legacy unprotected, but also triggered a backlash against her entire ideology. Instead, her death and the subsequent failure by the Christian government to impose justice on her killers destroyed that notion entirely and led future Neoplatonists such as Damascius to consider Christian bishops as "dangerous, jealous figures who were also utterly unphilosophical.

Shortly after Hypatia's murder, a forged anti-Christian letter appeared under her name. Hypatia's death was similar to those of Christian martyrs in Alexandria, who had been dragged through the streets during the Decian persecution in The Byzantine Suda encyclopedia contains a very long entry about Hypatia, which summarizes two different accounts of her life.

Most of the first eleven lines of the entry probably come from Hesychius 's Onomatologos[ ] but some parts are of unknown origin, including a claim that she was "the wife of Isidore the Philosopher" apparently Isidore of Alexandria. The Byzantine and Christian intellectual Photios c. Early eighteenth-century Deist scholar John Toland used the murder of Hypatia as the basis for an anti-Catholic tract, [ ] [ ] [ ] portraying Hypatia's death in the worst possible light by changing the story and inventing elements not found in any of the ancient sources.

Voltairein his Examen important de Milord Bolingbroke ou le tombeau de fanatisme interpreted Hypatia as a believer in "the laws of rational Nature" and "the capacities of the human mind free of dogmas " [ ] [ ] and described her death as "a bestial murder perpetrated by Cyril's tonsured hounds, with a fanatical gang at their heels". In his monumental work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empirethe English historian Edward Gibbon expanded on Toland and Voltaire's misleading portrayals by declaring Cyril as the sole cause of all evil in Alexandria at the beginning of the fifth century [ ] and construing Hypatia's murder as evidence to support his thesis that the rise of Christianity hastened the decline of the Roman Empire.

In the course of these heated debates, Hypatia tended to be cast aside and ignored, while the debates focused far more intently on the question of whether Peter the Lector had acted alone or under Cyril's orders. In the nineteenth century European literary authors spun the legend of Hypatia as part of neo-Hellenisma movement that romanticised ancient Greeks and their values.

In his Hypatie and Hypathie et CyrilleFrench poet Charles Leconte de Lisle portrayed Hypatia as the epitome of "vulnerable truth and beauty". In that time, there was a problem of power between church and stateHypatia was inclined to the state and to have liberal thoughts and advanced philosophical and scientific viewpoints and for this reason she was seen as a pagan woman, and she was the subject of disturbances between Christians and non-Christians.

The new bishop of Alexandria, Cyril called her a witchand it is believed that he was the one who sent her to be killed inHypatia was beaten, stripped naked, raped, dragged through the city and murdered by the Parabolanos, a group of fundamentalist monkssince they felt threatened by their knowledge and thought. This event led Alexandria to decline.

She wrote an annotated version of Diophantus Arithmetic. She made an important improvement of the astrolabe which improved its use in spherical astronomy. Hypatia also developed a device that was used to distil wateranother to measure the water level and a hydrometer to measure the density of a liquid. Hypatia always sought to defend her thought and philosophy as subjects unrelated to dogma and religions.

She never accepted blackmail from Christians. We can definitely say that she was a great woman who knew how to unite in a single being, thought, science and freedom, because for her, the movement of ideas was based on the essence of philosophy and the path to individual freedom. Cite this article Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

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Hypatia de alejandria biography definition: Hypatia, a mathematician, was an

Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia. History Encyclopedias almanacs transcripts and maps Hypatia of Alexandria. Hypatia of Alexandria gale. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. As one of the few women to achieve prominence in the male-dominated world of ancient philosophy, her life and work have been celebrated by those who seek to highlight the contributions of women to the history of science and philosophy.

Hypatia of Alexandria, a Neoplatonist philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer, was renowned for her intellect, tolerance, and influence during late antiquity. Print from the first page of The Graphic, 21 January Though a pagan, she was remarkably tolerant of Christians, and all her known students were Christian, including Synesius of Cyrene.

Synesius, later a bishop of Ptolemais, maintained a long correspondence with Hypatia, and his surviving letters are key sources about her life and teachings. He praised her as a philosopher of incredible reputation, devoted to apatheia, a state of emotional liberation. Synesius of Cyrene c. Born into a wealthy family near Cyrene, he became a prominent figure in early Christian thought.

Christian historians Socrates of Constantinople and Philostorgius also highlighted her intellectual achievements. Socrates described her as surpassing all contemporary philosophers, teaching principles of Plato and Plotinus, and engaging confidently in public assemblies, admired for her dignity and virtue. Philostorgius noted her exceptional mathematical abilities, while Hesychius of Alexandria credited her with extraordinary talent in astronomy.

Damascius, a later historian, emphasized her beauty, intelligence, and virtue, recounting her lifelong commitment to celibacy. According to his account, Hypatia rejected a suitor by displaying her menstrual rags, declaring his attraction was to physicality, not true beauty. This act deterred his pursuit, showcasing her sharp intellect and ability to assert her independence.

The death of Hypatia represents a broader cultural and intellectual transition from a world in which philosophical inquiry and rational thought were central to intellectual life, to one in which religious authority and dogma became dominant. This transition was not sudden or absolute, but it was marked by several key developments. First, the rise of Christianity brought with it a new way of thinking about knowledge and truth.

Hypatia de alejandria biography definition: Hypatia is famous for being

In the classical world, philosophers like Plato and Aristotle had sought to understand the nature of reality through reason and observation. They believed that the human mind was capable of grasping universal truths through the use of logic and evidence. However, Christian thinkers introduced the idea that certain truths could only be known through divine revelation.

This shift in epistemology had profound implications for the way knowledge was pursued and valued. Second, the institutionalization of Christianity led to the decline of the philosophical schools that had been the centers of intellectual life in the ancient world. Many of these schools were either closed or transformed into Christian institutions.

Hypatia de alejandria biography definition: Hypatia was one of the last

The famous Library of Alexandria, which had been a symbol of the classical intellectual tradition, was eventually destroyed, and with it, much of the knowledge that had been accumulated over centuries. Finally, the transition from philosophy to religion also involved a change in the way intellectual authority was understood. In the classical world, philosophers were seen as independent thinkers who could challenge established beliefs and offer new ways of understanding the world.

In the Christian world, however, intellectual authority was increasingly vested in the Church, and dissenting views were often suppressed.