Hypatia History o Math

Hypatia
of
Alexandria
Introduction
Major Accomplishment
Influences
Cause of Death
Legacy
“mhat shalam”
“Men will fight for
superstition quite as
quickly as for a living
truth- often more so,
since a superstition is so
intangible you cannot
get at it to refute it,
but truth is a point of
view, and so is
interchangeable.”
- Hypatia of Alexandria
INTRODUCTION
Hypatia of Alexandria was born in
Alexandria, Egypt, around 350 AD or 370AD
and lived until 415 AD
A scholar, the first recognized
women mathematician, astronomer and a
philosopher.
 the daughter of a mathematician and

philosopher Theon.
 She believed in the theories of Plato and Aristotle
and the philosophy of Neoplatonism.
 a charismatic teacher at the Library of Alexandria
 Married to Isidorous of Alexandria a philosopher
SCUOLA DI ATENE
Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Scuola di Atene (1509-1510), Stanza della Segnatura (Vaticano).

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MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
 She wrote a commentary on the 13th
volume of the famous Greek
mathematics text book, Diophantus’s
of Arithmetica. (a founder of modern
algebra)
 She edited Ptolemy's famous
astronomical works the 'Almagest'.
 She also made a commentary on a
famous work on Conics by 'Apollonius'.
CONICS
APOLONIUS OF PERGA
“This concept developed the ideas of

hyperbolas, parabolas, and ellipses.
With Hypatia's work on this important
book, she made the concepts easier
to understand, thus making the work
survive through many centuries.
Hypatia was the first woman to have
such a profound impact on the
survival of early thought in
mathematics.”
MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS
 She edited her father's commentary on
'Euclid's Elements‘.
“.. while making only inconsiderable additions to the
content of the "Elements", he endeavoured to
remove difficulties that might be felt by learners in
studying the book, as a modern editor might do in
editing a classical text-book for use in schools; and
there is no doubt that his edition was approved by
his pupils at Alexandria for whom it was written, as
well as by later Greeks who used it almost
exclusively...” -Heath
 She wrote a text "The Astronomical Canon."(Possibly
a new edition of Ptolemy's Handy Tables.)
She invented the plane
astrolabe, the graduated
brass hydrometer and
the hydroscope, with
Synesius of Greece, who
was her student and
later colleague
The astrolabe is an ancient
instrument that measures
the position of heavenly
bodie, stars and planets,
apparatus for distilling
water and an instrument
for measuring the density
of water.
“SUCH WORKS HAVE
PERPETUATED THE LEGEND
THAT SHE WAS NOT ONLY
INTELLECTUAL BUT ALSO
BEAUTIFUL, ELOQUENT, AND
MODEST.”
-KRAMER
INFLUENCES
 Hypatia became head of the Platonist
school at Alexandria in about 400 AD.
 She symbolises learning and science which
the early Christians identified with
paganism
 teaching the philosophy of Neoplatonism.
Hypatia based her teachings on those of
Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism,
and Iamblichus who was a developer of
Neoplatonism around 300 AD.
PLOTINUS
There is an ultimate reality which is beyond
the reach of thought or language. The object
of life was to aim at this ultimate reality
which could never be precisely described.
Plotinus further stressed that, “People did not
have the mental capacity to fully understand
both the ultimate reality itself or the
consequences of its existence.”
IAMBLICHUS
Distinguished the levels of
reality in a hierarchy of levels
beneath the ultimate reality.
There was a level of reality
corresponding to every
distinct thought of which the
human mind was capable.
CAUSE OF DEATH
 at the hand of a mob of Christian killed her
in, the year 415 AD in Alexandria, Egypt
 The cause of her death was instigated by
Saint Cyril of Alexandria rooted from a
political dispute between the clergy and the
governor of Alexandria (Orestes).
 A few years later, according to one report,
Hypatia was brutally murdered by the Nitrian
monks who were a fanatical sect of
Christians who were supporters of Cyril.
CAUSE OF DEATH
 What certainly seems indisputable is that she
was murdered by Christians who felt
threatened by her scholarship, learning, and
depth of scientific knowledge.
 Because of her association with Orestes, the
pagan prefect of Alexandria who opposed the
persecution of the Jews and other non-
Christians initiated by Bishop Cyril
CAUSE OF DEATH
 From the writings
 Socrates Scholasticus (5th century)
 John of Nikiû (7th century)
“. . . they dragged her along till they brought

her to the great church, named Caesareum.
Now this was in the days of the fast. And
they tore off her clothing and dragged her . .
. through the streets of the city till she died.
And they carried her to a place named
Cinaron, and they burned her body with
fire.”
LEGACY
 Late Antiquity to the Age of Reason
a forged anti-Christian letter.The
NeoPlatonist historian Damascius exploit the
scandal of Hypatia's death
Maria Dzielska proposes that the bishop's
body guards might have murdered Hypatia
in the 14th century, (1021–1096), the
second wife of Byzantine Emperor
Constantine X Doukas, appeared "second
Hypatia
Anti-Catholic tract Hypatia
LEGACY
 19th Century
 "literarylegend of Hypatia" began to rise
 In 1843, German authors Soldan and Heppe, History
of the Witchcraft Trials that Hypatia may have
been, in effect, the first famous “witch" punished
under Christian authority
 Charles Kingsley (best known as the author of The
Water Babies) made her the heroine of one of his
novels Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face in
(1853)
 In 1867, the early photograher Julia Margaret
Cameron created a portrait of the scholar as a
young woman.
LEGACY
Century
 20th
Fiction references appeared like "Madame Swann at Home,”
 Heirs of Alexandria series written by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer,
Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, gave a detailed speculative description of Hypatia's
death, linking it with the destruction of the Library of Alexandria. A more
scholarly historical study of her, Hypatia of Alexandria by Maria Dzielska
(translated into English by F. Lyra, published by Harvard University Press), was
named by Choice Magazine as an "Outstanding Academic Book of 1995, Philosophy
Category".
Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy, published since 1986 by
Indiana University Press. Judy Chicago's large-scale The Dinner Party awards her a
place-setting, and other artistic works draw on or are based on Hypatia.
Honored her in the sciences, especially astronomy.
238 Hypatia, a main belt asteroid discovered in 1884, was named for her. The
lunar crater Hypatia was named for her, in addition to craters named for her
father Theon and for Cyril. The 180 km Rimae Hypatia is located north of the
crater, one degree south of the equator, along the Mare Tranquillitatis.[51]
By the end of the 20th century Hypatia's name was applied to projects ranging in
scope from an Adobe typeface (Hypatia Sans Pro),[52] to a cooperative community
house in Madison, Wisconsin. A genus of moth also bears her name.
LEGACY
 21st Century
Her life is fictionalised by authors in many countries and languages.
 Examples are Ipazia, scienziata alessandrina by Adriano Petta Hypatia:
Scientist of Alexandria), and Hypatia y la eternidad by Ramon Galí, a
fanciful alternate history, in Spanish (2009).[53] The 2008 novel Azazīl, by
Egyptian Muslim author Dr. Yūsuf Zaydan, tells the story of the religious
conflict of that time through the eyes of a monk, including a substantial
section on Hypatia[54]; Zaydan's book has been criticized by
Christians in Egypt.[55] Her life is portrayed in the Malayalam novel
Francis Itty Cora (2009) by T. D Ramakrishnan.
 Hypatia: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Brian Trent; Flow Down Like Silver,
Hypatia of Alexandria (2009) by Ki Longfellow, The Secret Magdalene[57];
and The Plot to Save Socrates (2006) by Paul Levinson and his sequel
novelette "Unburning Alexandria" (2008).
 Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr (2007) is a brief -113
page- biography by Michael Deakin, with a focus on her mathematical
research. Hypatia has been considered a universal genius.
 The 2009 movie Agora
Hypatia was a pagan philosopher
that stood out between the women
of her time and developed areas
such astronomy and
mathematics. She was
persecuted, tortured and
murdered by a mob of christian
fanatics.
ALL HYPATIA'S WORK IS LOST EXCEPT FOR
ITS TITLES AND SOME REFERENCES TO IT.
NEVERTHELESS NO PURELY PHILOSOPHICAL
WORK IS KNOWN, ONLY WORK IN

MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. BASED ON
THIS SMALL AMOUNT OF EVIDENCE DEAKIN,
ARGUES THAT HYPATIA WAS AN EXCELLENT
COMPILER, EDITOR, AND PRESERVER OF
EARLIER MATHEMATICAL WORKS.
Reporter:
Mrs. Daisy Lynn J. Robin
“shukran”

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Hypatia

 the daughter of a mathematician and

Raffaello Sanzio (1483-1520), Scuola di Atene (1509-1510), Stanza della Segnatura (Vaticano).

“This concept developed the ideas of

“. . . they dragged her along till they brought

WORK IS KNOWN, ONLY WORK IN

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