Hypatia of Alexandria (355-415 CE)
Pagan martyr? Neo-colonial palimpsest? Victim of assassination?
"A rumour was spread among the Christians, that the daughter of Theon (Hypatia) was the only obstacle to the reconciliation of the prefect and the archbishop; and that obstacle was speedily removed. On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia was torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the Reader and a troop of savage and merciless fanatics: her flesh was scraped from her bones with sharp oyster-shells and her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames." Edward Gibbon1, imperialist ideologue
In contemporary texts, Hypatia is represented as a feminist icon; as a defender of fair reason against foul religion; as a symbol of the demise of science and philosophy before the dark ages, a sleeping beauty whose lips were kissed awake by the princely renaissance, "between the dying and reviving Pagan world was the Christian Church -- that is to say, ten dark centuries,"2 despite the fundamental contributions made to human understanding by Islamic falsafah and science in the interim. In almost all of these representations, Hypatia is a palimpsest upon which is inscribed a neo-colonial Euro-American illusion of techno-ethical supremacy. By contrast, the historical person of Hypatia, the alleged inventor of the hydrometer -- at least, what still exists of her memory and thoughts and feelings -- is contested, whereas those who write upon or speak over her shredded corpse rarely do so with any substantial grasp of her historical-cultural location. Let us go then, you and I, when the evening is spread out against the sky, and read more about it, c/o one well sourced historically contextualised assessment on Hypatia's life.3
Hypatia was almost certainly born in 355, making her 60 when she died. Portraying her death as an assault on a young beautiful woman is thus very likely wrong. Moreover, her murder was largely a matter of local politics: an assassination provoked by her allegiance to Prefect Orestes. It is doubtful whether her political nemesis (Saint) Cyril was directly involved and her slaying was certainly in no way connected to his "anti-Pagan" drive. Hypatia was neither an active pagan, nor anti-Christian: indeed, many of her students were Christians; rather, she practiced a philosophy based on the Platonic system of thought, interpersonal ties and secret rites, with an emphasis on experiential spirituality, admitting a variety of traditions as legitimate.
It would also be inaccurate to represent her death as the terminus of Alexandrian science and philosophy, both of which continued to flourish after her death.
As for her status as a liberal feminist icon, Hypatia's philosophical virtues included a commitment to sexual abstention, which along with her aristocratic position, brilliant mind and general ethical veracity, guaranteed a deeply felt respect from her elite peers. The mob who ripped her apart most likely believed she was a witch, which may deem them femicidal, but their willingness to believe this propaganda was at least in part due to their ignorance of the philosophical traditions Hypatia revered throughout her life. She was neither the first victim of Alexandrian mob violence, nor the last.
(1) Edward Gibbon (1776-1788/1909-14) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London: Methuen) [Edited by J. B. Bury]
(2) Mangasarian, Mangasar Mugurditch (1915) The Martyrdom of Hypatia, Speech given to the Independent Religious Society at the Majestic Theater, Chicago, May 1915
(3) Maria Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria (London: Harvard University Press, 1996) [Trans. F. Lyra]