SYMHC Classics: Hypatia

This 2013 episode covers Hypatia, one of the earliest female mathematicians and astronomers. Though she wasn't the very first, she was among the greatest. At the time of her murder, she was the foremost mathematician and astronomer in the West, and possibly in the world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello and Happy Saturday. Listener Sheila wrote in recently and
suggested an episode on Hypatia. That is an episode we
have already done, and it's from long enough ago that
some of the podcast apps don't even show it in
our feed anymore, in case folks are not aware, Just
as an Fyi, various apps have a cap on the
number of episodes that stay in the feed, and that

(00:23):
limit isn't something that's within our control. So if that's
an app you used, we cannot really assist on the
old ones coming back in unless we run it as
a classic. The episodes are all available in the iHeartRadio
app and on the iHeartRadio website, although those are not
searchable by individual episode topic. Anyway, we are bringing out

(00:44):
that past Hypatia episode as today's Saturday Classic. Just the
note upfront that this episode does include some discussion of
her murder and that murder was particularly gruesome. This episode
came out on August fifth, twenty thirteen. Welcome to Stuff
You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello

(01:13):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and
I'm Holly Frye, and today we're going to talk about
a very influential and awesome lady mathematician and astronomer. Her
name was Hypatia and she lived in Alexandria. She was
a mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, and although none of her

(01:34):
original writings have survived until today, we do know that
she wrote at least one book on astronomy and two
on math. She also taught and lectured, and she developed
a whole following of her own devoted students, and she
really helped preserve the knowledge of other scholars like Euclid
and Ptolemy. She was one of the earliest female mathematicians

(01:58):
and astronomers, and even though she wasn't the very first
woman ever to study these fields, she was definitely the
best known woman in antiquity to pursue them. She was
also among the greatest. At the time of her murder,
she was the foremost mathematician and astronomer in the West
and possibly in the entire world. Goha Patia, I know

(02:19):
she's fantastic. Uh. There's no clear record of when Hypatia
was born. Her year of birth used to often be
cited as three seventy, but today most scholars will generally
say it was closer to three fifty or three fifty five,
but it's still all pretty speculative. It's based on events
we know she and her father witnessed and how old
they might have been at the time, and also the

(02:40):
age of her most famous pupil, Sinsius of Syrene. We
also know basically nothing about her early life, and we
don't know who her mother was. It's possible that Hypatia
had a brother named Epiphanius. His name crops up in
some of her father's writings, but he might have just
been a favorite student of her father's. The translation could

(03:02):
really go either way. Hypatia's father, Theon, was also a
mathematician and astronomer, and he was the last known member
of the Alexandrian Museum. This museum was not a building
of exhibits and collections as we would think of a
museum today. It was more akin to a university or
a research center, and it also housed the Fame Library
at Alexandria, which contained about half a million scrolls, including

(03:26):
Aristotle's entire personal collection, archives of Greek plays, original editions
of scholarly writings, et cetera. And when people came to
the library, they would copy any scrolls they had with
them and leave them there. Most of the physical buildings
that made up the museum were actually destroyed by two
seventy two, and it's unclear exactly when the library was destroyed,

(03:49):
but its work in preservation and education actually continued for
quite a while after that. Yes, there was a lot
of destruction and rebuilding and moving things around, so it's
a little unclear exactly when all of those buildings. Yeah,
the title way, it's really fuzzy, yes, but the work
that the museum was doing in terms of educating people
and preserving knowledge did continue on for quite a while

(04:12):
after the buildings were probably also all gone. Theon's own
work was also really about preservation and teaching. Euclid's works
survived in part thanks to Theon's efforts. One of Euclid's
most important and influential works was called Elements, and until
the nineteenth century, the only edition of this book that

(04:33):
existed was Theon's edition. Theon also wrote commentaries on some
of Ptolemy's works. These were basically copies of the original
piece with explanations and additional notes. So while Theon wasn't
like a groundbreaking new mathematician coming up with all kinds
of new mathematical concepts. He was really preserving ideas of

(04:56):
earlier mathematicians and making sure that they survived for later
generations still learn from. So he's the first archivist, and
maybe not the first, but that was really what his
work was all about. Yeah, Theon and Hypatia also work together.
It's actually possible that book three of his commentary on
Ptolemy's Alma Jest, which is a thirteen volume astronomical manual,

(05:17):
was really written by Hypatia. His inscription says it was
quote prepared by her. So yes, it's a little unclear
whether she did the actual writing on it. So it's
possible that writing of hers exists, but we don't really
know this was really hers or her father's, or how
exactly she was involved in creating it. Yeah, the attribution
is not absolute on that one. Right, when Theon died,

(05:40):
he was regarded as the world's foremost mathematician, and after
his death that distinction passed on to his daughter. She
continued on with his tradition of teaching and preserving mathematical
knowledge and writing her own books and commentaries, and in
point of fact, according to historical accounts, Hypatia far surpassed

(06:00):
her father's accomplishments. She was said to be profoundly intelligent.
She was articulate, prudent, community minded, and atop it all
off apparently also beautiful. Yeah, full package. Socrates Scholasticus, also
known as Socrates of Constantinople, not the classical philosopher Socrates,
a different person with the same name, described her this

(06:22):
way quote. There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia,
daughter of the philosopher Theon, who had made such attainments
in literature and science as to far surpass all the
philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school
of Plato and Platinus, she explained the principles of philosophy
to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance

(06:44):
to receive her instructions. On account of the self possession
and ease of manner which she had acquired in consequence
of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared
in public in presence of the magistrates. Neither did she
feel abashed and coming to an assembly of men for
all men, on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue

(07:06):
admired her, the more high praise. She was extremely highly respected. Yeah,
there are many people who, for one reason or another
did not like her that those reasons also often boiled
down to religion, but even zo like, the praise of
her mind and her ability and her presentation is pretty
much universal among all accounts. If only everyone could enjoy

(07:29):
such delights, I know, I mean, that's really that's incredibly
high praise. I can't think of a single like public
figure now that you could say that. Of right, there's
no one that's universally like everyone respects them, even if
they disagree with them. There's always some you know, ra
ra about the whole thing, right anyway. We also know
from surviving letters that Hypatia had the skill and knowledge

(07:51):
to craft scientific devices like astrolabes and what was called
a hydroscope. Although we're not sure what the hydroscope did exactly,
we just know there was a thing called that, yes,
and that had to do with astronomy, and that she
could figure out how to make one. Primary sources almost

(08:16):
unanimously describe her as never marrying and leading an entirely
celibate life, so much so that the one reference that
does exist to her having a husband named Isidorus is
mostly written off as an error today. There was also
a historical person named Isidorus, but he died before she lived.
She was definitely not married to that guy. Like there

(08:37):
has been no other candidate for who this Isidorus might
have been. So pretty much all the scholars who look
at all of this think that, like that was one
person's error in writing a biography of her, because everyone
else right, And we do know that those kinds of
errors happen in transcription when people are copying down records
into other books and stuff. It happens all the time

(08:59):
in history. Yes, that's part of sort of unraveling history.
A lot of the time is figuring out which accounts
are factual and which ones are either embellished or accidentally incorrect.
Right from the early encyclopedia known as the Suda, there's
a quote that says she was so very beautiful and
attractive that one of those who attended her lectures fell

(09:22):
in love with her. He was not able to contain
his desire, but he informed her of his condition. Ignorant
reports say Hypatia relieved him of his disease by music,
but truth proclaims that music failed to have any effect.
She brought some of her female rags and threw them
before him, showing him the sign of her unclean origin,
and said, you love this, o youth, and there is

(09:42):
nothing beautiful about it. His soul was turned away by
shame and surprise at the unpleasant sight, and he was
brought to his right mind. I love this story so much.
I both love it and have that. You know, Hi, Patia,
You're so smart. Why are you got to hate this
thing about yourself? Well, and that one of the books

(10:04):
that I read about Hypatia did get into that about
how to a modern woman's ear? Yeah, you do, kind of.
But when you look historically at the world of women's
bodies and women's physiology, even at the time that like
a girl's first period was sometimes viewed as a magical thing.

(10:27):
So this whole story may be more about power than
about look how gross this is? Yeah. Well, And she
also was moving in circles that were almost entirely males,
so that probably informed her view on things. I were
in Highpatia's shoes, and I wanted a dude to get
away from me. That might be a thing that might

(10:48):
be a weapon at my disposal. Yeah. Sadly, Hypatia lived
at a time when the intellectual life in which she
so obviously excelled was quickly crumbling into hearing, and her
life and her accomplishments are often overshadowed by her death,
and understanding how that came to be requires some understanding

(11:08):
of what was going on politically and socially in Alexandria
at the time. The Greek city of Alexandria had been
founded in Egypt during the reign of Alexander the Great
about six hundred years before Hypatia's birth in three point
thirty one BCE. It really quickly became a renowned place
of learning, knowledge, literature, and culture. It was really one

(11:29):
of the great intellectual centers of the world. Ptolemy was
Alexandria's founder and first ruler, and Ptolemy sort of co
opted the Egyptian god Serapis, which was a god of
the underworld, as a son god to be worshiped in Alexandria,
and he built a temple to him. That temple will
be important in just a bit. Rome annexed Alexandria in

(11:53):
eighty BCE, and it continued to be governed by the
Pharaohs until Cleopatra's death fifty years later, Although it became
governed by Rome at this point, Alexandria really continued to
be a heavily Greek city with very Greek traditions and culture.
Before the advent of Christianity, both Pagans and Jews lived

(12:13):
in Alexandria, and Christianity was introduced to Alexandria very early
in the religion's history. The Apostle Mark founded the first
Christian church in Alexandria in the year forty eight, and
Christianity spread over the next few hundred years, becoming the
dominant and eventually official religion of the Roman Empire. By
the time Hypatia was born, things were not going well

(12:36):
in Alexandria. Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism, which was kind of
a blanket characterization for people who were neither Christian nor Jewish,
they were not coexisting harmoniously. There was really a lot
of hostility among the religions, and the Roman Empire at
the same time was in decline. On top of that,

(12:56):
ongoing civil wars were leading to the destruction of Alexandria's
life and other important buildings, and all of the knowledge
that they contained. In three hundred and sixty four, the
Roman Empire split into the Eastern and Western Empires, and
Alexandria became part of the Eastern Empire, and life there

(13:16):
started to go rather sharply downhill. There was constant conflict
between the people of different religions and philosophies, and the
civil government was constantly at odds with the leadership of
all of these various religions, so it was really just
a hotbed and a morass of anger and dismay so much,
and there was also internal strife within Christianity as well.

(13:40):
Was still a relatively new religion at this point, and
some people were considering some views to be orthodox and
others heretical. Without getting into too long of a digression
on the particulars, the Orthodox Christians were the ones who
believed everything outlined in the Nicene Creed, which was originally
drafted in the Council of Nicea in three twenty five.

(14:02):
The quote heretical Christians disagreed with one or more of
the specific tenants that's laid out in the Nicene Creed.
The Nicing Creed was further revised and expanded over the
next one hundred and twenty five years and it's still
one of the major statements of orthodox faith in Christianity today.
So there was really huge strife within Christianity between the

(14:23):
people who believed all of the Nicing Creed and the
people who took issue with one or more parts of it. Yeah,
you're a heretic by virtue of disagreeing with one part
of it. Basically, that was pretty much what was going on. Yeah,
it was a pretty black and white split. Yeah. Well,
and the nicing Creed was basically set down as in
the official this is what we believe statement. That's basically
what it is. And so the people who did not

(14:44):
believe in one of those things were viewed with all
kinds of like heretical anger, suspicion, and confision and contempt
are totally what was going on. In three ninety one,
the emperor ordered that all pagan temples be destroyed. Theophilis,

(15:07):
the archbishop, carried these orders out and he destroyed the
Temple to Syrapus that Ptolemy had built, which at this
point was being used to house the last remnants of
the museum's work. Most scholars really mark this as the
final nail in the museum's coffin, like this was really
the end of that institution. Yeah, that appears to be
when the work of the museum ceased, even though the

(15:29):
buildings themselves were pretty much gone before that. In four twelve,
Theophilus's nephew, Cyril, who later became Saint Cyril of Alexandria,
succeeded him as the archbishop. Cyril was even less tolerant
of other religions than his uncle had been, and he
was constantly fighting with Arrestes, who was the Prefect basically

(15:50):
Alexandria's governor, and Arrestes was also Christian, but he was
a more tolerant flavor of Christian than Saint Cyril was.
At this point, tensions in Alexandria, which had already been
high yeah for many years at this point, really started
to escalate. And then two years later, a group of

(16:11):
Jewish extremists massacred a number of Christians by setting fire
to one of the major churches in the middle of
the night and then slaughtered the Christians who came to
try to put out the fire. In response, Cyril decided
to drive the Jews out of Alexandria, and riots immediately followed.
Attempts at reconciliation failed, and tensions between Cyril and the

(16:32):
Christians versus Arrestes and the secular government just got worse
and worse. At one point, a monk named Ammonius tried
to kill Arrestes by throwing a stone at his head
during a brawl. Ammonius was then arrested and tortured to
death over the objections of a lot of his followers.
Cyril canonized Ammonius, which sort of implicated him in this

(16:55):
whole assassination attempt. This did not reflect well on Cyril,
and Arrestes came out looking like the victor in the
whole situation. So, to bring it all back to Hypatia,
we knew, or we know that Hypatian Arrestes knew one another.
Arrestes often came to her for advice and counsel, so

(17:15):
in the aftermath of the dispute between Cyril and Arrestes,
Hypatia apparently became something of a target for Christian zealots.
She was also a Neoplatonist, so she fell under that
broad pagan umbrella and was consequently a target for persecution.
Right she apparently didn't write down a lot of her
philosophical writing. She lectured a lot, but didn't record a

(17:37):
lot of that in writing, so we don't know a
lot of the particulars of what her beliefs were. That
everyone pretty much agrees that she was a neoplatonist, and
since she got lumped in with the bigger quote pagan group,
sorting out any of it is probably a little bit
yeah of a trick. Yeah, So, in March of four
fifteen or possibly four sixteen, during Lent, a mob of

(18:01):
Christian zealots led by a man named Peter the Lector,
attacked the carriage that Hypatia was traveling in. They pulled
her out of it and dragged her into a nearby church,
and once there they stripped her naked and beat her
to death with roof tiles. After that, they dismembered her
body and burned the pieces. We'll just let that sit

(18:22):
for a minute. Yeah, it's so gruesome and savage. It's
gruesome and savage, and it's like all of the accounts,
some of them kind of used different words for what
was used to beat her to death, but the account
is pretty much the same in all the historical sources. Okay,

(18:42):
Mathematics Professor Ari Blanki theorizes a more specific cause for
the mob's targeting of Hypatia that it actually had to
do with when to celebrate Easter, which according to the
First Council of Nicea, falls on the first Sunday after
the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.
Thanks to its astronomical tradition, Alexandria was responsible for setting

(19:05):
the exact dates for Easter, which the rest of Rome followed.
But Blanki speculates that Hypatia calculated that the equinox would
fall on a different date than the one Alexandria was
actually using, which would embarrass the Alexandrian Church and cause
it to lose face before the rest of Rome. So
it's really much more of an astronomy intrigue story from

(19:26):
that point of view, right, And that is one of
those things that I can see where we would get
to that conclusion, but it's not something that is actually
cited in any of the historical sources. But Alexandria and
the rest of Rome did celebrate Easter on two completely
different dates, yeah, in four seventeen. So if this did,

(19:49):
if it was a precursor, that seems to be a
little piece of evidence but it's not something that's actually
referenced in historical sources. Yeah, it's like a piece together.
It's a fairly well thought out theory based on circumstantial evidence,
yet there's no hard case file on it. Right, And
regardless of what the root cause was for Hypatia to
be targeted, the general consensus today is also that Saint

(20:12):
Cyril as he later became, was not directly involved in
her death, but that his actions did really inflame the
tensions that led up to it. After Hypatia's death, the
tradition of education and knowledge in Alexandria pretty much died out.
Most of what remains of the scholarly traditions of Alexandria

(20:33):
we have is thanks to the Arabs, who captured Alexandria
roughly two hundred years after all of this was over,
and many of the Greek documents that still exist are
in the form of translations into Arabic. Yes, and it's
not that suddenly everyone was stupid after Hypatia died, but
she had really been, at that point the keystone in

(20:55):
this intellectual tradition, and once she died, there was not
an immediate new person to take over. And based on
what the climate was like socially and politically in Alexandria
at that point, other cities easily moved into like into
a higher rung of you know, what's the smartest place, right,

(21:17):
because it was not a good time to be a
scholar in Alexandria anymore. In the words of the poet
Palladus of Alexandria, writing in the fourth or fifth century,
quote revered Hypatia ornament of learning, stainless star of wise teaching.
When I see THEE and thy discourse, I worship THEE

(21:38):
looking on the starry house of the Virgin, for thy
business is in heaven. So pretty huh. It's a lovely
memorial to her. Yeah, she comes up frequently in lists
of important women in science and philosophy. Yeah, well she should. Yes,

(22:00):
so as we said before, there, you know, there were
certainly female scholars before Hypatia, but she was the first, uh,
especially in the Western world, truly famous female scholar about
whom we have a pretty large amount of information. Yeah,
I love her. It is not surprising at all that

(22:21):
now there are you know, there are journals, academic journals
named after her, conferences and things like that. So thanks
so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this
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(22:42):
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(23:06):
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