Hypatia – Myths and History
The story often told about Hypatia of Alexandria was that she was a great scientist, rationalist and scholar who was brutally murdered by a mob of Christians who hated her knowledge and learning, with her death ushering in the Dark Ages. But this story is mostly nonsense and the real history is far more complex and much more interesting. Contrary to the myths, she was not a modern-style scientist, she was far from an atheist or what we would regard as a rationalist and her murder was due to the complex city politics of her day, not some hatred of science and scholarship.
For those who prefer the audio version, the Podcast edition is now up on Buzzsprout or available on most podcast platforms. Or you can listen to it on the History for Atheists podcast page.
Further Reading
Alan Cameron, “Hypatia: Life, Death, and Works” in Wandering Poets and Other Essays on Late Greek Literature and Philosophy, pp. 37-80, (Oxford, 2016)
Thony Christie, “Hypatia – What do we Really Know?”, Renaissance Mathematicus, 2019
Maria Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria, (Harvard, 1995)
Peter Gainsford, “Cosmos #3 – Hypatia and the Library”, Kiwi Hellenist, 2018
Christopher Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict (John Hopkins, 1997)
Spencer Alexander McDaniel, “Who was Hypatia Really?”, Tales of Times Forgotten, 2018
Edward J. Watts, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher, (Oxford, 2017)
Bryan J. Whitfield, “The Beauty of Reasoning: A Reexamination of Hypatia of Alexandria”, The Mathematics Educator, Vol.6:1 (1995), pp. 14-21
5 thoughts on “Hypatia – Myths and History”
As always, very informative. Lots of new stuff I’d not gleaned from previous articles on Hypatia (or maybe my sieve like memory let them go).
And indeed more interesting than the ‘Once upon a time, …’ version. And kind of terrifying. Alexandria must have been a scary place at times with politics like that.
As always Tim an excellent piece of myth busting and debunking. Only one criticism on the supposed origin of the astrolabe but I’ve decided to write a blog post about it when I get out of my Reha clinic, so you’ll have to wait!
A brief note on the origins of the astrolabe #histsci #histtech
https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2024/04/15/origins-of-the-astrolabe/
Good mythbusting. Good pedagogics. I could only come up with one very minor thing than it would be closer to the truth as we know it.
Concerning Hypathia being depicted as a young and beautiful woman at the mercy of a mob
“Which tells us more about those 19th century painters and writers than it does about history.”
I would say that it says more about the audience of those writers and painters. Few 19th century painters or writers could consider their own preferences first.