Hypatia | Death, Facts & Biography

Hypatia was born around 355 in Alexandria, Egypt, a part of the Roman empire. At that time, Alexandria was an attraction for intellectuals and culturally different people. She was much ahead of her time. She is the first woman who greatly contributed to mathematics, philosophy and astronomy. Although she was intelligent, smart, and innovative, her death attracted much attention. This piece will shed some light on the facts about Hypatia. 

Early Life 

She was born to the Theon of Alexandria. Theon was a leading mathematician and philosopher, and he took the responsibility of training and educating his daughter. She was his only child, and he mentored her and taught her maths and science. 

Theon wanted to train her to be the perfect human. For him, there was no difference between man and woman. 

Under the guidance of her father, Hypatia developed and became a prominent scholar and teacher. Just like her father, she became a professor at the University of Alexandria and became an advisor to the city leaders. 

Her persona and public speaking attracted many people. People from all over the Mediterranean used to visit to listen to her lectures and to be her student. She used to teach Christians and Pagans. One of her prominent Christian students was Synesius of Cyrene, who was later to become the Bishop. 

She had taught her students how to use Astrolabe, a device which she had invented.   

Hypatia Contributions to Mathematics

Hypatia’s ability to break complex problems into easy and understandable small parts made her popular among students. She has written various books on Mathematics and invented various devices. However, all her contributions were burned down and were not easy to recover. Her correspondence and letter with her pupils gave an account of her contributions.   

There are no records of her independent research. She assisted her father in his work and later on continued his research. 

Few of Hypatia contributions to mathematics:

• She helped her father in his research of Euclid’s Elements

• She wrote about Apollonius of Perga

• She wrote an article on Diophantus of Alexandria’s Arithmetic. A number theory whose solution she suggested by the use of algebra  

• She constructed devices like Astrolabe. It is in the shape of a miniature universe; it was used for finding out the time during the day, sunset and sunrise   

• Another device she built was the Hydrometer. It helped in finding out the density of the liquid.  All her works were lost over time.

Hypatia Philosophy

She was also a philosopher. Along with Maths and astronomy, she also taught the teachings of Plato. She was a Neoplatonist and, at that time, considered Pagan by Christians.

The main belief of Neoplatonism is that there is a supreme power and everything else derives energy and power from it. It was more focused on the spiritual world and gave low importance to the material world.  

For Hypatia, mathematics played an important role in her philosophy. For her, numbers are spiritual and hold great power and divine messages. Thus for Neoplatonists, mathematics was a path to spiritualism.   

Reason for Murder of Hypatia

Hypatia met her untimely death around 415 at the hands of the Christian extremists. 

With the success and popularity of Hypatia, she even created foes because of her philosophy. At that time, Christianity was a rising religion and was gaining popularity.  And they considered Neoplatonism as Paganism. There was religious turmoil during that time in Alexandria between Christian, Jews and Pagans. 

Archbishop Cyril was a quarrelsome person and was against secular views. He considered Hypatia a threat to Christianity. He blamed her for influencing Orestes, the governor of Alexandria. Cyril accused Hypatia of turning Orestes against Christianity. He considered her a witch and practitioner of witchcraft and black magic.

She received numerous threats, but she was never scared and continued her teaching and research work nonetheless. One day, when she was on her way to give a lecture, a group of Christian extremists attacked her chariot and dragged her around the city and murdered her. This incident was a disaster for Alexandria. It started to experience a decline in intellectuals. Slowly, Roman, Greek, and philosophers left the city. 

Conclusion

When women didn’t have access to education, Hypatia became a Scholar and professor at the Alexandra university. Even though she was respected and loved but her Pagan belief led to her painful demise

Maybe facts about Hypatia are difficult to construct back. A woman who stood head to head with men and led the path for women’s development. She didn’t give up on her beliefs and rational mind in adversity. Her demise made her a hero in the modern world. She is considered a symbol of feminism around the world.