WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: Hypatia 0:00:02.400 --> 0:00:05.920 Hello and Happy Saturday. Listener Sheila wrote in recently and 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.319 suggested an episode on Hypatia. That is an episode we 0:00:09.400 --> 0:00:12.080 have already done, and it's from long enough ago that 0:00:12.240 --> 0:00:14.800 some of the podcast apps don't even show it in 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:18.160 our feed anymore, in case folks are not aware, Just 0:00:18.200 --> 0:00:21.319 as an Fyi, various apps have a cap on the 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.479 number of episodes that stay in the feed, and that 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.599 limit isn't something that's within our control. So if that's 0:00:26.600 --> 0:00:29.479 an app you used, we cannot really assist on the 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.880 old ones coming back in unless we run it as 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.720 a classic. The episodes are all available in the iHeartRadio 0:00:35.760 --> 0:00:38.879 app and on the iHeartRadio website, although those are not 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:44.320 searchable by individual episode topic. Anyway, we are bringing out 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:48.920 that past Hypatia episode as today's Saturday Classic. Just the 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.479 note upfront that this episode does include some discussion of 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:57.200 her murder and that murder was particularly gruesome. This episode 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:03.680 came out on August fifth, twenty thirteen. Welcome to Stuff 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:13.679 You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.840 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:19.440 I'm Holly Frye, and today we're going to talk about 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:26.640 a very influential and awesome lady mathematician and astronomer. Her 0:01:26.720 --> 0:01:30.440 name was Hypatia and she lived in Alexandria. She was 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:34.399 a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, and although none of her 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:38.680 original writings have survived until today, we do know that 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.119 she wrote at least one book on astronomy and two 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:45.680 on math. She also taught and lectured, and she developed 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:49.720 a whole following of her own devoted students, and she 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:54.200 really helped preserve the knowledge of other scholars like Euclid 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.120 and Ptolemy. She was one of the earliest female mathematicians 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.760 and astronomers, and even though she wasn't the very first 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:04.400 woman ever to study these fields, she was definitely the 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:08.160 best known woman in antiquity to pursue them. She was 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.240 also among the greatest. At the time of her murder, 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.640 she was the foremost mathematician and astronomer in the West 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.880 and possibly in the entire world. Goha Patia, I know 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:23.040 she's fantastic. Uh. There's no clear record of when Hypatia 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.200 was born. Her year of birth used to often be 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.480 cited as three seventy, but today most scholars will generally 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:32.040 say it was closer to three fifty or three fifty five, 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.440 but it's still all pretty speculative. It's based on events 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.200 we know she and her father witnessed and how old 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:40.280 they might have been at the time, and also the 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:44.560 age of her most famous pupil, Sinsius of Syrene. We 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.040 also know basically nothing about her early life, and we 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.320 don't know who her mother was. It's possible that Hypatia 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:55.960 had a brother named Epiphanius. His name crops up in 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:59.080 some of her father's writings, but he might have just 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.640 been a favorite student of her father's. The translation could 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.320 really go either way. Hypatia's father, Theon, was also a 0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.440 mathematician and astronomer, and he was the last known member 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:13.079 of the Alexandrian Museum. This museum was not a building 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.079 of exhibits and collections as we would think of a 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.799 museum today. It was more akin to a university or 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:22.160 a research center, and it also housed the Fame Library 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:26.239 at Alexandria, which contained about half a million scrolls, including 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:31.519 Aristotle's entire personal collection, archives of Greek plays, original editions 0:03:31.560 --> 0:03:34.760 of scholarly writings, et cetera. And when people came to 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.800 the library, they would copy any scrolls they had with 0:03:37.880 --> 0:03:42.000 them and leave them there. Most of the physical buildings 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.839 that made up the museum were actually destroyed by two 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:49.080 seventy two, and it's unclear exactly when the library was destroyed, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.320 but its work in preservation and education actually continued for 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.440 quite a while after that. Yes, there was a lot 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.520 of destruction and rebuilding and moving things around, so it's 0:03:58.520 --> 0:04:01.800 a little unclear exactly when all of those buildings. Yeah, 0:04:01.800 --> 0:04:05.080 the title way, it's really fuzzy, yes, but the work 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.160 that the museum was doing in terms of educating people 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.960 and preserving knowledge did continue on for quite a while 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:16.960 after the buildings were probably also all gone. Theon's own 0:04:17.000 --> 0:04:21.360 work was also really about preservation and teaching. Euclid's works 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:25.760 survived in part thanks to Theon's efforts. One of Euclid's 0:04:25.839 --> 0:04:29.719 most important and influential works was called Elements, and until 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:33.120 the nineteenth century, the only edition of this book that 0:04:33.240 --> 0:04:38.400 existed was Theon's edition. Theon also wrote commentaries on some 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.760 of Ptolemy's works. These were basically copies of the original 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:46.839 piece with explanations and additional notes. So while Theon wasn't 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:50.400 like a groundbreaking new mathematician coming up with all kinds 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:56.200 of new mathematical concepts. He was really preserving ideas of 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.440 earlier mathematicians and making sure that they survived for later 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.640 generations still learn from. So he's the first archivist, and 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.839 maybe not the first, but that was really what his 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.800 work was all about. Yeah, Theon and Hypatia also work together. 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:13.200 It's actually possible that book three of his commentary on 0:05:13.240 --> 0:05:17.159 Ptolemy's Alma Jest, which is a thirteen volume astronomical manual, 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.000 was really written by Hypatia. His inscription says it was 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:24.240 quote prepared by her. So yes, it's a little unclear 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:27.039 whether she did the actual writing on it. So it's 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.880 possible that writing of hers exists, but we don't really 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.120 know this was really hers or her father's, or how 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:36.599 exactly she was involved in creating it. Yeah, the attribution 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:39.920 is not absolute on that one. Right, when Theon died, 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:44.400 he was regarded as the world's foremost mathematician, and after 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:47.479 his death that distinction passed on to his daughter. She 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:51.760 continued on with his tradition of teaching and preserving mathematical 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:56.360 knowledge and writing her own books and commentaries, and in 0:05:56.400 --> 0:06:00.919 point of fact, according to historical accounts, Hypatia far surpassed 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.640 her father's accomplishments. She was said to be profoundly intelligent. 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:08.320 She was articulate, prudent, community minded, and atop it all 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:13.760 off apparently also beautiful. Yeah, full package. Socrates Scholasticus, also 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:19.040 known as Socrates of Constantinople, not the classical philosopher Socrates, 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.200 a different person with the same name, described her this 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:26.280 way quote. There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, 0:06:26.560 --> 0:06:30.000 daughter of the philosopher Theon, who had made such attainments 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.120 in literature and science as to far surpass all the 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:37.000 philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.560 of Plato and Platinus, she explained the principles of philosophy 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.560 to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.160 to receive her instructions. On account of the self possession 0:06:48.200 --> 0:06:51.320 and ease of manner which she had acquired in consequence 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:55.400 of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.200 in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.120 feel abashed and coming to an assembly of men for 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.160 all men, on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:11.080 admired her, the more high praise. She was extremely highly respected. Yeah, 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.040 there are many people who, for one reason or another 0:07:14.200 --> 0:07:17.560 did not like her that those reasons also often boiled 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:22.160 down to religion, but even zo like, the praise of 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.040 her mind and her ability and her presentation is pretty 0:07:25.080 --> 0:07:29.720 much universal among all accounts. If only everyone could enjoy 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.840 such delights, I know, I mean, that's really that's incredibly 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.520 high praise. I can't think of a single like public 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.720 figure now that you could say that. Of right, there's 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.840 no one that's universally like everyone respects them, even if 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.400 they disagree with them. There's always some you know, ra 0:07:45.560 --> 0:07:48.440 ra about the whole thing, right anyway. We also know 0:07:48.640 --> 0:07:51.640 from surviving letters that Hypatia had the skill and knowledge 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:55.680 to craft scientific devices like astrolabes and what was called 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.520 a hydroscope. Although we're not sure what the hydroscope did exactly, 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:01.720 we just know there was a thing called that, yes, 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:03.600 and that had to do with astronomy, and that she 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:16.200 could figure out how to make one. Primary sources almost 0:08:16.360 --> 0:08:19.800 unanimously describe her as never marrying and leading an entirely 0:08:19.840 --> 0:08:23.680 celibate life, so much so that the one reference that 0:08:23.760 --> 0:08:27.000 does exist to her having a husband named Isidorus is 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:29.920 mostly written off as an error today. There was also 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:34.520 a historical person named Isidorus, but he died before she lived. 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.520 She was definitely not married to that guy. Like there 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.480 has been no other candidate for who this Isidorus might 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.040 have been. So pretty much all the scholars who look 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.400 at all of this think that, like that was one 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.440 person's error in writing a biography of her, because everyone 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.559 else right, And we do know that those kinds of 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:57.520 errors happen in transcription when people are copying down records 0:08:57.559 --> 0:08:59.480 into other books and stuff. It happens all the time 0:08:59.520 --> 0:09:05.160 in history. Yes, that's part of sort of unraveling history. 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:07.079 A lot of the time is figuring out which accounts 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:11.280 are factual and which ones are either embellished or accidentally incorrect. 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:16.440 Right from the early encyclopedia known as the Suda, there's 0:09:16.440 --> 0:09:19.240 a quote that says she was so very beautiful and 0:09:19.280 --> 0:09:21.960 attractive that one of those who attended her lectures fell 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.360 in love with her. He was not able to contain 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.000 his desire, but he informed her of his condition. Ignorant 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:31.160 reports say Hypatia relieved him of his disease by music, 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:34.200 but truth proclaims that music failed to have any effect. 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.199 She brought some of her female rags and threw them 0:09:37.200 --> 0:09:39.960 before him, showing him the sign of her unclean origin, 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.600 and said, you love this, o youth, and there is 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:45.880 nothing beautiful about it. His soul was turned away by 0:09:45.920 --> 0:09:48.440 shame and surprise at the unpleasant sight, and he was 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.679 brought to his right mind. I love this story so much. 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:59.080 I both love it and have that. You know, Hi, Patia, 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:00.760 You're so smart. Why are you got to hate this 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:04.920 thing about yourself? Well, and that one of the books 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.559 that I read about Hypatia did get into that about 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:12.360 how to a modern woman's ear? Yeah, you do, kind of. 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:18.480 But when you look historically at the world of women's 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.640 bodies and women's physiology, even at the time that like 0:10:22.600 --> 0:10:26.079 a girl's first period was sometimes viewed as a magical thing. 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.160 So this whole story may be more about power than 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.320 about look how gross this is? Yeah. Well, And she 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:36.439 also was moving in circles that were almost entirely males, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:41.600 so that probably informed her view on things. I were 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:44.000 in Highpatia's shoes, and I wanted a dude to get 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:48.160 away from me. That might be a thing that might 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:54.600 be a weapon at my disposal. Yeah. Sadly, Hypatia lived 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:56.719 at a time when the intellectual life in which she 0:10:56.880 --> 0:11:01.360 so obviously excelled was quickly crumbling into hearing, and her 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:04.439 life and her accomplishments are often overshadowed by her death, 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.679 and understanding how that came to be requires some understanding 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.559 of what was going on politically and socially in Alexandria 0:11:11.559 --> 0:11:14.719 at the time. The Greek city of Alexandria had been 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.720 founded in Egypt during the reign of Alexander the Great 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:21.800 about six hundred years before Hypatia's birth in three point 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.560 thirty one BCE. It really quickly became a renowned place 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.880 of learning, knowledge, literature, and culture. It was really one 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:34.800 of the great intellectual centers of the world. Ptolemy was 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:39.199 Alexandria's founder and first ruler, and Ptolemy sort of co 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.000 opted the Egyptian god Serapis, which was a god of 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:45.400 the underworld, as a son god to be worshiped in Alexandria, 0:11:45.520 --> 0:11:47.839 and he built a temple to him. That temple will 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:52.800 be important in just a bit. Rome annexed Alexandria in 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:56.480 eighty BCE, and it continued to be governed by the 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:01.040 Pharaohs until Cleopatra's death fifty years later, Although it became 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:04.760 governed by Rome at this point, Alexandria really continued to 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:09.080 be a heavily Greek city with very Greek traditions and culture. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:13.840 Before the advent of Christianity, both Pagans and Jews lived 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:18.000 in Alexandria, and Christianity was introduced to Alexandria very early 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.680 in the religion's history. The Apostle Mark founded the first 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:25.760 Christian church in Alexandria in the year forty eight, and 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.800 Christianity spread over the next few hundred years, becoming the 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:33.000 dominant and eventually official religion of the Roman Empire. By 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.959 the time Hypatia was born, things were not going well 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:40.640 in Alexandria. Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism, which was kind of 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.640 a blanket characterization for people who were neither Christian nor Jewish, 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:49.720 they were not coexisting harmoniously. There was really a lot 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:53.080 of hostility among the religions, and the Roman Empire at 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.199 the same time was in decline. On top of that, 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:59.760 ongoing civil wars were leading to the destruction of Alexandria's 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:03.920 life and other important buildings, and all of the knowledge 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.920 that they contained. In three hundred and sixty four, the 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:12.440 Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Empires, and 0:13:12.520 --> 0:13:16.920 Alexandria became part of the Eastern Empire, and life there 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:21.280 started to go rather sharply downhill. There was constant conflict 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:24.600 between the people of different religions and philosophies, and the 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.080 civil government was constantly at odds with the leadership of 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:30.840 all of these various religions, so it was really just 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:35.280 a hotbed and a morass of anger and dismay so much, 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.880 and there was also internal strife within Christianity as well. 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:44.120 Was still a relatively new religion at this point, and 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.120 some people were considering some views to be orthodox and 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:51.559 others heretical. Without getting into too long of a digression 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:55.000 on the particulars, the Orthodox Christians were the ones who 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:59.360 believed everything outlined in the Nicene Creed, which was originally 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:01.960 drafted in the Council of Nicea in three twenty five. 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:06.400 The quote heretical Christians disagreed with one or more of 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:09.360 the specific tenants that's laid out in the Nicene Creed. 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.839 The Nicing Creed was further revised and expanded over the 0:14:12.880 --> 0:14:14.920 next one hundred and twenty five years and it's still 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.360 one of the major statements of orthodox faith in Christianity today. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:23.240 So there was really huge strife within Christianity between the 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:25.560 people who believed all of the Nicing Creed and the 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:30.120 people who took issue with one or more parts of it. Yeah, 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.640 you're a heretic by virtue of disagreeing with one part 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.280 of it. Basically, that was pretty much what was going on. Yeah, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.160 it was a pretty black and white split. Yeah. Well, 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.240 and the nicing Creed was basically set down as in 0:14:39.280 --> 0:14:42.400 the official this is what we believe statement. That's basically 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:44.520 what it is. And so the people who did not 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.800 believe in one of those things were viewed with all 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:52.320 kinds of like heretical anger, suspicion, and confision and contempt 0:14:52.440 --> 0:15:03.400 are totally what was going on. In three ninety one, 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:07.800 the emperor ordered that all pagan temples be destroyed. Theophilis, 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:11.160 the archbishop, carried these orders out and he destroyed the 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:14.040 Temple to Syrapus that Ptolemy had built, which at this 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:16.720 point was being used to house the last remnants of 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:20.440 the museum's work. Most scholars really mark this as the 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:23.360 final nail in the museum's coffin, like this was really 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:26.080 the end of that institution. Yeah, that appears to be 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.160 when the work of the museum ceased, even though the 0:15:29.200 --> 0:15:33.560 buildings themselves were pretty much gone before that. In four twelve, 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.600 Theophilus's nephew, Cyril, who later became Saint Cyril of Alexandria, 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:43.400 succeeded him as the archbishop. Cyril was even less tolerant 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.640 of other religions than his uncle had been, and he 0:15:45.760 --> 0:15:49.920 was constantly fighting with Arrestes, who was the Prefect basically 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:54.280 Alexandria's governor, and Arrestes was also Christian, but he was 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:59.280 a more tolerant flavor of Christian than Saint Cyril was. 0:16:00.280 --> 0:16:03.280 At this point, tensions in Alexandria, which had already been 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.840 high yeah for many years at this point, really started 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.040 to escalate. And then two years later, a group of 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:14.960 Jewish extremists massacred a number of Christians by setting fire 0:16:15.000 --> 0:16:16.840 to one of the major churches in the middle of 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:19.760 the night and then slaughtered the Christians who came to 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.120 try to put out the fire. In response, Cyril decided 0:16:23.160 --> 0:16:27.160 to drive the Jews out of Alexandria, and riots immediately followed. 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:32.440 Attempts at reconciliation failed, and tensions between Cyril and the 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:36.320 Christians versus Arrestes and the secular government just got worse 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:39.960 and worse. At one point, a monk named Ammonius tried 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.720 to kill Arrestes by throwing a stone at his head 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.720 during a brawl. Ammonius was then arrested and tortured to 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.720 death over the objections of a lot of his followers. 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:55.160 Cyril canonized Ammonius, which sort of implicated him in this 0:16:55.240 --> 0:17:00.000 whole assassination attempt. This did not reflect well on Cyril, 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.480 and Arrestes came out looking like the victor in the 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:07.680 whole situation. So, to bring it all back to Hypatia, 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:11.359 we knew, or we know that Hypatian Arrestes knew one another. 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.240 Arrestes often came to her for advice and counsel, so 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.520 in the aftermath of the dispute between Cyril and Arrestes, 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:23.040 Hypatia apparently became something of a target for Christian zealots. 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.439 She was also a Neoplatonist, so she fell under that 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.760 broad pagan umbrella and was consequently a target for persecution. 0:17:31.160 --> 0:17:33.760 Right she apparently didn't write down a lot of her 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:37.000 philosophical writing. She lectured a lot, but didn't record a 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.440 lot of that in writing, so we don't know a 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:42.480 lot of the particulars of what her beliefs were. That 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.800 everyone pretty much agrees that she was a neoplatonist, and 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.159 since she got lumped in with the bigger quote pagan group, 0:17:50.240 --> 0:17:52.560 sorting out any of it is probably a little bit 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.000 yeah of a trick. Yeah, So, in March of four 0:17:56.200 --> 0:18:00.960 fifteen or possibly four sixteen, during Lent, a mob of 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:04.000 Christian zealots led by a man named Peter the Lector, 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:08.359 attacked the carriage that Hypatia was traveling in. They pulled 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.119 her out of it and dragged her into a nearby church, 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.480 and once there they stripped her naked and beat her 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:18.000 to death with roof tiles. After that, they dismembered her 0:18:18.040 --> 0:18:22.000 body and burned the pieces. We'll just let that sit 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.680 for a minute. Yeah, it's so gruesome and savage. It's 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.800 gruesome and savage, and it's like all of the accounts, 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.760 some of them kind of used different words for what 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.480 was used to beat her to death, but the account 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:41.040 is pretty much the same in all the historical sources. Okay, 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:46.560 Mathematics Professor Ari Blanki theorizes a more specific cause for 0:18:46.600 --> 0:18:49.720 the mob's targeting of Hypatia that it actually had to 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.639 do with when to celebrate Easter, which according to the 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:56.640 First Council of Nicea, falls on the first Sunday after 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:59.959 the first full moon on or after the spring equinox. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:05.040 Thanks to its astronomical tradition, Alexandria was responsible for setting 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:08.640 the exact dates for Easter, which the rest of Rome followed. 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.800 But Blanki speculates that Hypatia calculated that the equinox would 0:19:12.800 --> 0:19:15.399 fall on a different date than the one Alexandria was 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:19.760 actually using, which would embarrass the Alexandrian Church and cause 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:22.520 it to lose face before the rest of Rome. So 0:19:22.520 --> 0:19:26.240 it's really much more of an astronomy intrigue story from 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:28.600 that point of view, right, And that is one of 0:19:28.640 --> 0:19:31.919 those things that I can see where we would get 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:34.280 to that conclusion, but it's not something that is actually 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:40.359 cited in any of the historical sources. But Alexandria and 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.800 the rest of Rome did celebrate Easter on two completely 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:49.480 different dates, yeah, in four seventeen. So if this did, 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:51.720 if it was a precursor, that seems to be a 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.159 little piece of evidence but it's not something that's actually 0:19:54.200 --> 0:19:58.399 referenced in historical sources. Yeah, it's like a piece together. 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.680 It's a fairly well thought out theory based on circumstantial evidence, 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.399 yet there's no hard case file on it. Right, And 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:07.840 regardless of what the root cause was for Hypatia to 0:20:07.880 --> 0:20:12.040 be targeted, the general consensus today is also that Saint 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:16.280 Cyril as he later became, was not directly involved in 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:20.159 her death, but that his actions did really inflame the 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.800 tensions that led up to it. After Hypatia's death, the 0:20:24.840 --> 0:20:29.320 tradition of education and knowledge in Alexandria pretty much died out. 0:20:30.359 --> 0:20:33.440 Most of what remains of the scholarly traditions of Alexandria 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:37.200 we have is thanks to the Arabs, who captured Alexandria 0:20:38.080 --> 0:20:40.280 roughly two hundred years after all of this was over, 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.200 and many of the Greek documents that still exist are 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:48.200 in the form of translations into Arabic. Yes, and it's 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.240 not that suddenly everyone was stupid after Hypatia died, but 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:55.800 she had really been, at that point the keystone in 0:20:55.840 --> 0:20:59.639 this intellectual tradition, and once she died, there was not 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:02.560 an immediate new person to take over. And based on 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:07.080 what the climate was like socially and politically in Alexandria 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:12.880 at that point, other cities easily moved into like into 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:16.160 a higher rung of you know, what's the smartest place, right, 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.439 because it was not a good time to be a 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:24.639 scholar in Alexandria anymore. In the words of the poet 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.960 Palladus of Alexandria, writing in the fourth or fifth century, 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:34.479 quote revered Hypatia ornament of learning, stainless star of wise teaching. 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.960 When I see THEE and thy discourse, I worship THEE 0:21:38.520 --> 0:21:41.360 looking on the starry house of the Virgin, for thy 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:48.600 business is in heaven. So pretty huh. It's a lovely 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:53.920 memorial to her. Yeah, she comes up frequently in lists 0:21:53.960 --> 0:22:00.200 of important women in science and philosophy. Yeah, well she should. Yes, 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:03.080 so as we said before, there, you know, there were 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:07.399 certainly female scholars before Hypatia, but she was the first, uh, 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:13.480 especially in the Western world, truly famous female scholar about 0:22:13.520 --> 0:22:18.399 whom we have a pretty large amount of information. Yeah, 0:22:18.440 --> 0:22:21.800 I love her. It is not surprising at all that 0:22:21.920 --> 0:22:25.959 now there are you know, there are journals, academic journals 0:22:26.040 --> 0:22:34.600 named after her, conferences and things like that. So thanks 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:37.320 so much for joining us on this Saturday. 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