Speaker 1: Hello and Happy Saturday. Listener Sheila wrote in recently and
Speaker 1: suggested an episode on Hypatia. That is an episode we
Speaker 1: have already done, and it's from long enough ago that
Speaker 1: some of the podcast apps don't even show it in
Speaker 1: our feed anymore, in case folks are not aware, Just
Speaker 1: as an Fyi, various apps have a cap on the
Speaker 1: number of episodes that stay in the feed, and that
Speaker 1: limit isn't something that's within our control. So if that's
Speaker 1: an app you used, we cannot really assist on the
Speaker 1: old ones coming back in unless we run it as
Speaker 1: a classic. The episodes are all available in the iHeartRadio
Speaker 1: app and on the iHeartRadio website, although those are not
Speaker 1: searchable by individual episode topic. Anyway, we are bringing out
Speaker 1: that past Hypatia episode as today's Saturday Classic. Just the
Speaker 1: note upfront that this episode does include some discussion of
Speaker 1: her murder and that murder was particularly gruesome. This episode
Speaker 1: came out on August fifth, twenty thirteen. Welcome to Stuff
Speaker 1: You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and
Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frye, and today we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: a very influential and awesome lady mathematician and astronomer. Her
Speaker 1: name was Hypatia and she lived in Alexandria. She was
Speaker 1: a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, and although none of her
Speaker 1: original writings have survived until today, we do know that
Speaker 1: she wrote at least one book on astronomy and two
Speaker 1: on math. She also taught and lectured, and she developed
Speaker 1: a whole following of her own devoted students, and she
Speaker 1: really helped preserve the knowledge of other scholars like Euclid
Speaker 1: and Ptolemy. She was one of the earliest female mathematicians
Speaker 1: and astronomers, and even though she wasn't the very first
Speaker 1: woman ever to study these fields, she was definitely the
Speaker 1: best known woman in antiquity to pursue them. She was
Speaker 1: also among the greatest. At the time of her murder,
Speaker 1: she was the foremost mathematician and astronomer in the West
Speaker 1: and possibly in the entire world. Goha Patia, I know
Speaker 1: she's fantastic. Uh. There's no clear record of when Hypatia
Speaker 1: was born. Her year of birth used to often be
Speaker 1: cited as three seventy, but today most scholars will generally
Speaker 1: say it was closer to three fifty or three fifty five,
Speaker 1: but it's still all pretty speculative. It's based on events
Speaker 1: we know she and her father witnessed and how old
Speaker 1: they might have been at the time, and also the
Speaker 1: age of her most famous pupil, Sinsius of Syrene. We
Speaker 1: also know basically nothing about her early life, and we
Speaker 1: don't know who her mother was. It's possible that Hypatia
Speaker 1: had a brother named Epiphanius. His name crops up in
Speaker 1: some of her father's writings, but he might have just
Speaker 1: been a favorite student of her father's. The translation could
Speaker 1: really go either way. Hypatia's father, Theon, was also a
Speaker 1: mathematician and astronomer, and he was the last known member
Speaker 1: of the Alexandrian Museum. This museum was not a building
Speaker 1: of exhibits and collections as we would think of a
Speaker 1: museum today. It was more akin to a university or
Speaker 1: a research center, and it also housed the Fame Library
Speaker 1: at Alexandria, which contained about half a million scrolls, including
Speaker 1: Aristotle's entire personal collection, archives of Greek plays, original editions
Speaker 1: of scholarly writings, et cetera. And when people came to
Speaker 1: the library, they would copy any scrolls they had with
Speaker 1: them and leave them there. Most of the physical buildings
Speaker 1: that made up the museum were actually destroyed by two
Speaker 1: seventy two, and it's unclear exactly when the library was destroyed,
Speaker 1: but its work in preservation and education actually continued for
Speaker 1: quite a while after that. Yes, there was a lot
Speaker 1: of destruction and rebuilding and moving things around, so it's
Speaker 1: a little unclear exactly when all of those buildings. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the title way, it's really fuzzy, yes, but the work
Speaker 1: that the museum was doing in terms of educating people
Speaker 1: and preserving knowledge did continue on for quite a while
Speaker 1: after the buildings were probably also all gone. Theon's own
Speaker 1: work was also really about preservation and teaching. Euclid's works
Speaker 1: survived in part thanks to Theon's efforts. One of Euclid's
Speaker 1: most important and influential works was called Elements, and until
Speaker 1: the nineteenth century, the only edition of this book that
Speaker 1: existed was Theon's edition. Theon also wrote commentaries on some
Speaker 1: of Ptolemy's works. These were basically copies of the original
Speaker 1: piece with explanations and additional notes. So while Theon wasn't
Speaker 1: like a groundbreaking new mathematician coming up with all kinds
Speaker 1: of new mathematical concepts. He was really preserving ideas of
Speaker 1: earlier mathematicians and making sure that they survived for later
Speaker 1: generations still learn from. So he's the first archivist, and
Speaker 1: maybe not the first, but that was really what his
Speaker 1: work was all about. Yeah, Theon and Hypatia also work together.
Speaker 1: It's actually possible that book three of his commentary on
Speaker 1: Ptolemy's Alma Jest, which is a thirteen volume astronomical manual,
Speaker 1: was really written by Hypatia. His inscription says it was
Speaker 1: quote prepared by her. So yes, it's a little unclear
Speaker 1: whether she did the actual writing on it. So it's
Speaker 1: possible that writing of hers exists, but we don't really
Speaker 1: know this was really hers or her father's, or how
Speaker 1: exactly she was involved in creating it. Yeah, the attribution
Speaker 1: is not absolute on that one. Right, when Theon died,
Speaker 1: he was regarded as the world's foremost mathematician, and after
Speaker 1: his death that distinction passed on to his daughter. She
Speaker 1: continued on with his tradition of teaching and preserving mathematical
Speaker 1: knowledge and writing her own books and commentaries, and in
Speaker 1: point of fact, according to historical accounts, Hypatia far surpassed
Speaker 1: her father's accomplishments. She was said to be profoundly intelligent.
Speaker 1: She was articulate, prudent, community minded, and atop it all
Speaker 1: off apparently also beautiful. Yeah, full package. Socrates Scholasticus, also
Speaker 1: known as Socrates of Constantinople, not the classical philosopher Socrates,
Speaker 1: a different person with the same name, described her this
Speaker 1: way quote. There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia,
Speaker 1: daughter of the philosopher Theon, who had made such attainments
Speaker 1: in literature and science as to far surpass all the
Speaker 1: philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school
Speaker 1: of Plato and Platinus, she explained the principles of philosophy
Speaker 1: to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance
Speaker 1: to receive her instructions. On account of the self possession
Speaker 1: and ease of manner which she had acquired in consequence
Speaker 1: of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared
Speaker 1: in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she
Speaker 1: feel abashed and coming to an assembly of men for
Speaker 1: all men, on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue
Speaker 1: admired her, the more high praise. She was extremely highly respected. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there are many people who, for one reason or another
Speaker 1: did not like her that those reasons also often boiled
Speaker 1: down to religion, but even zo like, the praise of
Speaker 1: her mind and her ability and her presentation is pretty
Speaker 1: much universal among all accounts. If only everyone could enjoy
Speaker 1: such delights, I know, I mean, that's really that's incredibly
Speaker 1: high praise. I can't think of a single like public
Speaker 1: figure now that you could say that. Of right, there's
Speaker 1: no one that's universally like everyone respects them, even if
Speaker 1: they disagree with them. There's always some you know, ra
Speaker 1: ra about the whole thing, right anyway. We also know
Speaker 1: from surviving letters that Hypatia had the skill and knowledge
Speaker 1: to craft scientific devices like astrolabes and what was called
Speaker 1: a hydroscope. Although we're not sure what the hydroscope did exactly,
Speaker 1: we just know there was a thing called that, yes,
Speaker 1: and that had to do with astronomy, and that she
Speaker 1: could figure out how to make one. Primary sources almost
Speaker 1: unanimously describe her as never marrying and leading an entirely
Speaker 1: celibate life, so much so that the one reference that
Speaker 1: does exist to her having a husband named Isidorus is
Speaker 1: mostly written off as an error today. There was also
Speaker 1: a historical person named Isidorus, but he died before she lived.
Speaker 1: She was definitely not married to that guy. Like there
Speaker 1: has been no other candidate for who this Isidorus might
Speaker 1: have been. So pretty much all the scholars who look
Speaker 1: at all of this think that, like that was one
Speaker 1: person's error in writing a biography of her, because everyone
Speaker 1: else right, And we do know that those kinds of
Speaker 1: errors happen in transcription when people are copying down records
Speaker 1: into other books and stuff. It happens all the time
Speaker 1: in history. Yes, that's part of sort of unraveling history.
Speaker 1: A lot of the time is figuring out which accounts
Speaker 1: are factual and which ones are either embellished or accidentally incorrect.
Speaker 1: Right from the early encyclopedia known as the Suda, there's
Speaker 1: a quote that says she was so very beautiful and
Speaker 1: attractive that one of those who attended her lectures fell
Speaker 1: in love with her. He was not able to contain
Speaker 1: his desire, but he informed her of his condition. Ignorant
Speaker 1: reports say Hypatia relieved him of his disease by music,
Speaker 1: but truth proclaims that music failed to have any effect.
Speaker 1: She brought some of her female rags and threw them
Speaker 1: before him, showing him the sign of her unclean origin,
Speaker 1: and said, you love this, o youth, and there is
Speaker 1: nothing beautiful about it. His soul was turned away by
Speaker 1: shame and surprise at the unpleasant sight, and he was
Speaker 1: brought to his right mind. I love this story so much.
Speaker 1: I both love it and have that. You know, Hi, Patia,
Speaker 1: You're so smart. Why are you got to hate this
Speaker 1: thing about yourself? Well, and that one of the books
Speaker 1: that I read about Hypatia did get into that about
Speaker 1: how to a modern woman's ear? Yeah, you do, kind of.
Speaker 1: But when you look historically at the world of women's
Speaker 1: bodies and women's physiology, even at the time that like
Speaker 1: a girl's first period was sometimes viewed as a magical thing.
Speaker 1: So this whole story may be more about power than
Speaker 1: about look how gross this is? Yeah. Well, And she
Speaker 1: also was moving in circles that were almost entirely males,
Speaker 1: so that probably informed her view on things. I were
Speaker 1: in Highpatia's shoes, and I wanted a dude to get
Speaker 1: away from me. That might be a thing that might
Speaker 1: be a weapon at my disposal. Yeah. Sadly, Hypatia lived
Speaker 1: at a time when the intellectual life in which she
Speaker 1: so obviously excelled was quickly crumbling into hearing, and her
Speaker 1: life and her accomplishments are often overshadowed by her death,
Speaker 1: and understanding how that came to be requires some understanding
Speaker 1: of what was going on politically and socially in Alexandria
Speaker 1: at the time. The Greek city of Alexandria had been
Speaker 1: founded in Egypt during the reign of Alexander the Great
Speaker 1: about six hundred years before Hypatia's birth in three point
Speaker 1: thirty one BCE. It really quickly became a renowned place
Speaker 1: of learning, knowledge, literature, and culture. It was really one
Speaker 1: of the great intellectual centers of the world. Ptolemy was
Speaker 1: Alexandria's founder and first ruler, and Ptolemy sort of co
Speaker 1: opted the Egyptian god Serapis, which was a god of
Speaker 1: the underworld, as a son god to be worshiped in Alexandria,
Speaker 1: and he built a temple to him. That temple will
Speaker 1: be important in just a bit. Rome annexed Alexandria in
Speaker 1: eighty BCE, and it continued to be governed by the
Speaker 1: Pharaohs until Cleopatra's death fifty years later, Although it became
Speaker 1: governed by Rome at this point, Alexandria really continued to
Speaker 1: be a heavily Greek city with very Greek traditions and culture.
Speaker 1: Before the advent of Christianity, both Pagans and Jews lived
Speaker 1: in Alexandria, and Christianity was introduced to Alexandria very early
Speaker 1: in the religion's history. The Apostle Mark founded the first
Speaker 1: Christian church in Alexandria in the year forty eight, and
Speaker 1: Christianity spread over the next few hundred years, becoming the
Speaker 1: dominant and eventually official religion of the Roman Empire. By
Speaker 1: the time Hypatia was born, things were not going well
Speaker 1: in Alexandria. Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism, which was kind of
Speaker 1: a blanket characterization for people who were neither Christian nor Jewish,
Speaker 1: they were not coexisting harmoniously. There was really a lot
Speaker 1: of hostility among the religions, and the Roman Empire at
Speaker 1: the same time was in decline. On top of that,
Speaker 1: ongoing civil wars were leading to the destruction of Alexandria's
Speaker 1: life and other important buildings, and all of the knowledge
Speaker 1: that they contained. In three hundred and sixty four, the
Speaker 1: Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Empires, and
Speaker 1: Alexandria became part of the Eastern Empire, and life there
Speaker 1: started to go rather sharply downhill. There was constant conflict
Speaker 1: between the people of different religions and philosophies, and the
Speaker 1: civil government was constantly at odds with the leadership of
Speaker 1: all of these various religions, so it was really just
Speaker 1: a hotbed and a morass of anger and dismay so much,
Speaker 1: and there was also internal strife within Christianity as well.
Speaker 1: Was still a relatively new religion at this point, and
Speaker 1: some people were considering some views to be orthodox and
Speaker 1: others heretical. Without getting into too long of a digression
Speaker 1: on the particulars, the Orthodox Christians were the ones who
Speaker 1: believed everything outlined in the Nicene Creed, which was originally
Speaker 1: drafted in the Council of Nicea in three twenty five.
Speaker 1: The quote heretical Christians disagreed with one or more of
Speaker 1: the specific tenants that's laid out in the Nicene Creed.
Speaker 1: The Nicing Creed was further revised and expanded over the
Speaker 1: next one hundred and twenty five years and it's still
Speaker 1: one of the major statements of orthodox faith in Christianity today.
Speaker 1: So there was really huge strife within Christianity between the
Speaker 1: people who believed all of the Nicing Creed and the
Speaker 1: people who took issue with one or more parts of it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're a heretic by virtue of disagreeing with one part
Speaker 1: of it. Basically, that was pretty much what was going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a pretty black and white split. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: and the nicing Creed was basically set down as in
Speaker 1: the official this is what we believe statement. That's basically
Speaker 1: what it is. And so the people who did not
Speaker 1: believe in one of those things were viewed with all
Speaker 1: kinds of like heretical anger, suspicion, and confision and contempt
Speaker 1: are totally what was going on. In three ninety one,
Speaker 1: the emperor ordered that all pagan temples be destroyed. Theophilis,
Speaker 1: the archbishop, carried these orders out and he destroyed the
Speaker 1: Temple to Syrapus that Ptolemy had built, which at this
Speaker 1: point was being used to house the last remnants of
Speaker 1: the museum's work. Most scholars really mark this as the
Speaker 1: final nail in the museum's coffin, like this was really
Speaker 1: the end of that institution. Yeah, that appears to be
Speaker 1: when the work of the museum ceased, even though the
Speaker 1: buildings themselves were pretty much gone before that. In four twelve,
Speaker 1: Theophilus's nephew, Cyril, who later became Saint Cyril of Alexandria,
Speaker 1: succeeded him as the archbishop. Cyril was even less tolerant
Speaker 1: of other religions than his uncle had been, and he
Speaker 1: was constantly fighting with Arrestes, who was the Prefect basically
Speaker 1: Alexandria's governor, and Arrestes was also Christian, but he was
Speaker 1: a more tolerant flavor of Christian than Saint Cyril was.
Speaker 1: At this point, tensions in Alexandria, which had already been
Speaker 1: high yeah for many years at this point, really started
Speaker 1: to escalate. And then two years later, a group of
Speaker 1: Jewish extremists massacred a number of Christians by setting fire
Speaker 1: to one of the major churches in the middle of
Speaker 1: the night and then slaughtered the Christians who came to
Speaker 1: try to put out the fire. In response, Cyril decided
Speaker 1: to drive the Jews out of Alexandria, and riots immediately followed.
Speaker 1: Attempts at reconciliation failed, and tensions between Cyril and the
Speaker 1: Christians versus Arrestes and the secular government just got worse
Speaker 1: and worse. At one point, a monk named Ammonius tried
Speaker 1: to kill Arrestes by throwing a stone at his head
Speaker 1: during a brawl. Ammonius was then arrested and tortured to
Speaker 1: death over the objections of a lot of his followers.
Speaker 1: Cyril canonized Ammonius, which sort of implicated him in this
Speaker 1: whole assassination attempt. This did not reflect well on Cyril,
Speaker 1: and Arrestes came out looking like the victor in the
Speaker 1: whole situation. So, to bring it all back to Hypatia,
Speaker 1: we knew, or we know that Hypatian Arrestes knew one another.
Speaker 1: Arrestes often came to her for advice and counsel, so
Speaker 1: in the aftermath of the dispute between Cyril and Arrestes,
Speaker 1: Hypatia apparently became something of a target for Christian zealots.
Speaker 1: She was also a Neoplatonist, so she fell under that
Speaker 1: broad pagan umbrella and was consequently a target for persecution.
Speaker 1: Right she apparently didn't write down a lot of her
Speaker 1: philosophical writing. She lectured a lot, but didn't record a
Speaker 1: lot of that in writing, so we don't know a
Speaker 1: lot of the particulars of what her beliefs were. That
Speaker 1: everyone pretty much agrees that she was a neoplatonist, and
Speaker 1: since she got lumped in with the bigger quote pagan group,
Speaker 1: sorting out any of it is probably a little bit
Speaker 1: yeah of a trick. Yeah, So, in March of four
Speaker 1: fifteen or possibly four sixteen, during Lent, a mob of
Speaker 1: Christian zealots led by a man named Peter the Lector,
Speaker 1: attacked the carriage that Hypatia was traveling in. They pulled
Speaker 1: her out of it and dragged her into a nearby church,
Speaker 1: and once there they stripped her naked and beat her
Speaker 1: to death with roof tiles. After that, they dismembered her
Speaker 1: body and burned the pieces. We'll just let that sit
Speaker 1: for a minute. Yeah, it's so gruesome and savage. It's
Speaker 1: gruesome and savage, and it's like all of the accounts,
Speaker 1: some of them kind of used different words for what
Speaker 1: was used to beat her to death, but the account
Speaker 1: is pretty much the same in all the historical sources. Okay,
Speaker 1: Mathematics Professor Ari Blanki theorizes a more specific cause for
Speaker 1: the mob's targeting of Hypatia that it actually had to
Speaker 1: do with when to celebrate Easter, which according to the
Speaker 1: First Council of Nicea, falls on the first Sunday after
Speaker 1: the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
Speaker 1: Thanks to its astronomical tradition, Alexandria was responsible for setting
Speaker 1: the exact dates for Easter, which the rest of Rome followed.
Speaker 1: But Blanki speculates that Hypatia calculated that the equinox would
Speaker 1: fall on a different date than the one Alexandria was
Speaker 1: actually using, which would embarrass the Alexandrian Church and cause
Speaker 1: it to lose face before the rest of Rome. So
Speaker 1: it's really much more of an astronomy intrigue story from
Speaker 1: that point of view, right, And that is one of
Speaker 1: those things that I can see where we would get
Speaker 1: to that conclusion, but it's not something that is actually
Speaker 1: cited in any of the historical sources. But Alexandria and
Speaker 1: the rest of Rome did celebrate Easter on two completely
Speaker 1: different dates, yeah, in four seventeen. So if this did,
Speaker 1: if it was a precursor, that seems to be a
Speaker 1: little piece of evidence but it's not something that's actually
Speaker 1: referenced in historical sources. Yeah, it's like a piece together.
Speaker 1: It's a fairly well thought out theory based on circumstantial evidence,
Speaker 1: yet there's no hard case file on it. Right, And
Speaker 1: regardless of what the root cause was for Hypatia to
Speaker 1: be targeted, the general consensus today is also that Saint
Speaker 1: Cyril as he later became, was not directly involved in
Speaker 1: her death, but that his actions did really inflame the
Speaker 1: tensions that led up to it. After Hypatia's death, the
Speaker 1: tradition of education and knowledge in Alexandria pretty much died out.
Speaker 1: Most of what remains of the scholarly traditions of Alexandria
Speaker 1: we have is thanks to the Arabs, who captured Alexandria
Speaker 1: roughly two hundred years after all of this was over,
Speaker 1: and many of the Greek documents that still exist are
Speaker 1: in the form of translations into Arabic. Yes, and it's
Speaker 1: not that suddenly everyone was stupid after Hypatia died, but
Speaker 1: she had really been, at that point the keystone in
Speaker 1: this intellectual tradition, and once she died, there was not
Speaker 1: an immediate new person to take over. And based on
Speaker 1: what the climate was like socially and politically in Alexandria
Speaker 1: at that point, other cities easily moved into like into
Speaker 1: a higher rung of you know, what's the smartest place, right,
Speaker 1: because it was not a good time to be a
Speaker 1: scholar in Alexandria anymore. In the words of the poet
Speaker 1: Palladus of Alexandria, writing in the fourth or fifth century,
Speaker 1: quote revered Hypatia ornament of learning, stainless star of wise teaching.
Speaker 1: When I see THEE and thy discourse, I worship THEE
Speaker 1: looking on the starry house of the Virgin, for thy
Speaker 1: business is in heaven. So pretty huh. It's a lovely
Speaker 1: memorial to her. Yeah, she comes up frequently in lists
Speaker 1: of important women in science and philosophy. Yeah, well she should. Yes,
Speaker 1: so as we said before, there, you know, there were
Speaker 1: certainly female scholars before Hypatia, but she was the first, uh,
Speaker 1: especially in the Western world, truly famous female scholar about
Speaker 1: whom we have a pretty large amount of information. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love her. It is not surprising at all that
Speaker 1: now there are you know, there are journals, academic journals
Speaker 1: named after her, conferences and things like that. So thanks
Speaker 1: so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this
Speaker 1: episode is out of the archive, if you heard an
Speaker 1: email address or a Facebook RL or something similar over
Speaker 1: the course of the show, that could be obsolete now.
Speaker 1: Our current email address is History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
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