Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia of Alexandria by Dzielska, Maria. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780674437753.

Hypatia--brilliant mathematician, eloquent Neoplatonist, and a woman renowned for her beauty--was brutally murdered by a mob of Christians in Alexandria in 415. She has been a legend ever since. In this engrossing book, Maria Dzielska searches behind the legend to bring us the real story of Hypatias life and death, and new insight into her colorful world. Historians and poets, Victorian novelists and contemporary feminists have seen Hypatia as a symbol--of the waning of classical culture and freedom of inquiry, of the rise of fanatical Christianity, or of sexual freedom. Dzielska shows us why versions of Hypatias legend have served her champions purposes, and how they have distorted the true story. She takes us back to the Alexandria of Hypatias day, with its Library and Museion, pagan cults and the pontificate of Saint Cyril, thriving Jewish community and vibrant Greek culture, and circles of philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, and militant Christians. Drawing on the letters of Hypatias most prominent pupil, Synesius of Cyrene, Dzielska constructs a compelling picture of the young philosophers disciples and her teaching. Finally she plumbs her sources for the facts surrounding Hypatias cruel death, clarifying what the murder tells us about the tensions of this tumultuous era.