Crystal Quintero, Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
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| The great Hypatia of Alexandria played by Rachel Weisz in Agora (patheos.com) |
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| Fanatic Christian monks, the parabalani, drag off Hypatia to kill her (for Christ?) |
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| I'm black from Africa - Hypatia |
Hypatia was a mathematician,
Hellenistic Neo-Platonic philosopher, and astronomer who lived in
Alexandria, Egypt,
Africa, which was at that time a part of the Eastern Roman (
Byzantine) Empire.
She was born circa 350-370 AD and was murdered by a Christian mob in 415 AD. She had been the head of the Neoplatonic School at Alexandria, where she taught philosophy and astronomy.
Hypatia is the first female mathematician whose life is reasonably well recorded. She was renowned in her own lifetime as a great teacher and a wise counselor.
Although no writings directly written by her have survived, it is thought that she may have edited the surviving text of Ptolemy's
Almagest and possibly co-written some of the commentaries attributed to her famous mathematician father,
Theon of Alexandria.
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| The great African black female mathematician |
She also wrote a commentary on
Diophantus's 13-volume
Arithmetica, which may survive in part, having been interpolated into Diophantus's original text, and another commentary on Apollonius of Perga's treatise on conic sections, which has not survived.
She is known to have constructed astrolabes and hydrometers, though not the inventor of these, which were both in use long before she was born.
Although she herself was a
pagan, she was so tolerant towards Christians that she taught many, including
Synesius, the future bishop of
Ptolemais.
Rumors spread accusing her of preventing Orestes from reconciling with Cyril and, in March 415 AD, she was murdered by a
bloodthirsty Christian mob of monks known as the
parabalani under the leadership of a
lector named Peter, who murdered her in a temple with ceramic shards.
To add insult to injury (or perhaps to make up for her murder by
Christian fanatics), during the Middle Ages, Hypatia was co-opted and turned into a symbol of Christian virtue.
Scholars believe she was part of the basis for the legend of
St. Catherine of Alexandria. During the
Age of Enlightenment, she became a symbol of
opposition to
Catholicism (because Christians often use whatever means come to hand to achieve their imperial ends).
More
Hot Math?
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| Math heroine Danica McKellar |
Math may often seem daunting and unapproachable. It's that way even for professional mathematicians. Luckily, math can also be viewed as
hot and sexy.
On this program,
Danica McKellar discusses "hot math." Looks better in n-dimensions…
