Ancient Scientists – Chapter 2: Hypatia

Science and religion share a complex history in a mutually independent relationship that has had its phases of appreciation and harmony as well as division and conflict. Among the diverse personalities of the ancient world, it is Hypatia, a female Greek philosopher, whose life most personifies the strained dynamics of these two institutions.

Hypatia, born circa 350 – 370 A.D., was the daughter of the mathematician and philosopher Theon of Alexandria. Her prowess in the fields of mathematics and philosophy were recognized at an early age and by 400 A.D. she was the head of the Platonist school at Alexandria. Hypatia lectured on mathematics and philosophy. Her teachings were based on those of Plotinus, a Neoplatonic philosopher whose beliefs resonated with an ultimate reality that was beyond the reach of thought or language. Plotinus believed that the objective of life was to achieve recognition of this ultimate reality.

Hypatia drew upon Plotinus’ ideas with a scientific emphasis rather synonymous to the goals of modern science in seeking a theory that may describe reality as a whole or a theory of everything. Her rise within the academic community accompanied the growth of religious diversity in Alexandria during a period of conflict between proponents of paganism and Christianity. These divisions were not important to Hypatia who willingly taught and harbored pupils from both factions.

One of the most famous among them was a man named Synesius. A future bishop of the city of Ptolemais, Synesius’ letters to Hypatia demonstrated a personality who was filled with admiration and reverence for her learning and scientific ability.

Among her contemporaries, Hypatia invited both jealousy and admiration as a charismatic teacher, scholar, and communicator. She would grow to have her fair share of detractors, and eventually, the haunting specter of religious intolerance that spread through frequent clashes between the Christian and Pagan factions would come to a head leading to the tragedy that was Hypatia’s death.

Being a close friend of the pagan prefect Orestes, Hypatia would be blamed by Cyril, the Christian Archbishop of Alexandria in 412 A.D., for “blocking” Orestes from accepting the “true faith.” Cyril’s claim was further extrapolated toward the public  where Hypatia was promoted as a stumbling block to those who would have accepted Christiniaty were it not for her immaculate ability in communicating difficult mathematical and philosophical concepts, identified as pagan ideas,  in an understandable manner. A few years later, Hypatia would be brutally murdered by a fanatical sect of Christians who were supporters of Cyril who felt threatened by her scholarship, learning, and depth of scientific knowledge. This event would become affiliated with the decline of the city of Alexandria as a major center of ancient learning.¹

Although Hypatia has been described as a universal genius, it is now understood that she was more a teacher and an efficient commentator and communicator of science rather than an innovator. In fact, there is no evidence that she ever published independent works on philosophy or mathematics.  This could be attributed to the cultural practice of her time when scholars focused on preserving classical mathematical works of the once glorious library of Alexandria and providing commentaries to further develop the arguments of their predecessors.

While it is commonly purported that all of Hypatia’s writings have been lost, modern scholars have discovered several works by her as extant. The authorial uncertainty that has followed Hypatia is reminiscent and typical to that of many female philosophers of the ancient world (a certain fashion of the same ambiguity has accompanied several prominent female scientists throughout the course of history).

It is now known that Hypatia did extensive commentary and directly corrected much of Ptolemy’s Almagest, one of the most influential scientific texts of all time, where Ptolemy canonized his geocentric model of the universe. Hypatia’s contribution to Ptolemy’s works involved an improved version of the long division algorithms that were required for the astronomical mappings of the motion of the stars, planets, and other celestial objects. Hypatia also produced a newer version of Euclid’s Elements and would do the same with various commentaries on Diophantus’ Arithmetica and on Apollonius’ Conics, cultivating a rich resume of contributions to mathematical and astronomical works.

Beyond her contributions to the fields of mathematics and astronomy, Hypatia was also reputed, via her letters to Synesius, to have invented the astrolabe, a stereographic projection of the celestial sphere onto a plane surface (think of the projection of the globe to a map), as well as the hydrometer, a device used to determine the density of liquids.

Modern historians have debunked the former, as astrolabes were indeed available long before Hypatia’s time while the latter has been attributed to its original inventor in Archimedes. It is argued that Synesius’ requests were more along the lines of seeking Hypatia to replicate said instruments via verbal description.

Her contributions to mathematics and astronomy aside, Hypatia is the unique profile of a compiler, editor, and preserver of scientific works alongside her reputation as among the great communicators and popularizers of science and philosophy. I first came across the name Hypatia in high school when I undertook the CEMC Mathematics contests provided by the University of Waterloo. These contests were named after famous mathematicians such as Galois, Fryer, Euclid etc. The Hypatia contest was usually geared toward senior high school students. Little did I know then, the history behind her name.

As the “last of the Hellenes,” Hypatia is now seen as an icon for women’s rights and a precursor to the feminist movement. Though she is remembered more for her violent death, Hypatia’s life is a dramatic reflection of the ever-dynamic relationship between religion and science in an era of sectarian conflict.

¹ It is to be noted that popular accounts of Hypatia state that her death coincided with the fall of the Library of Alexandria. This is wrong as it is understood that the library had already been destroyed several hundred years prior to Hypatia’s birth.  

References

[1] Hypatia of Alexandria
[2] Great Philosophers: Hypatia
[3] The Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria by M.M. Mangasarian
[4] Booth, Charlotte (2017), Hypatia: Mathematician, Philosopher, Myth, London: Fonthill Media.
[5] Theodore, Jonathan (2016), The Modern Cultural Myth of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Manchester, England: Palgrave, Macmillan.
[6] M A B Deakin, Hypatia and her mathematics, Amer. Math. Monthly 101 (3) (1994), 234-243.
[7] Deakin, M. (1996). Mathematician and martyr: A biography of Hypatia of Alexandria. Victoria, Australia: Department of Mathematics, Monash University, Clayton.