Hypatia of Alexandria

By Mark Steer

Hypatia of Alexandria
(c.355-415 AD)

The Richard Dawkins of the classical world, Hypatia of Alexandria was a scholar of great repute. In fact she was the first female scientist whose life was documented in any detail. Her achievements were many, her defence of science against religion staunch, and her death grisly.

The daughter of Theon, Hypatia was educated from an early age and travelled widely throughout the Mediterranean studying the teachings of Plato and Aristotle. By 400 AD she had forged such a reputation that she became head of the Platonist school in Alexandria.

During her life she wrote many books, some in collaboration with her father. These included thirteen volumes of commentary on the Arithmetica of Diophantus, the “father of algebra”.

Hypatia is also credited (although some would say wrongly) with the invention of the hydrometer - a device for measuring the density of liquids in relation to water - and the plane astrolabe, a rudimentary computer for determining the positions of the stars, planets and sun. The astrolabe consisted of a pair of rotating discs made of open-work metal, rotating one on top of the other around a removable peg. Hypatia perfected the device to the point where it could accurately solve problems in spherical astronomy.

The great standing she received in Alexandria meant that Hypatia ended up ruffling a few feathers. During her lifetime, religious fanaticism was on the rise and the Christian bishop of Alexandria, Cyril, vowed in 412 to rid Alexandria of ‘neo-Platonist heretics’. Though urged by her friends to renounce her paganism and philosophy, Hypatia refused. Three years later she was murdered by a gang of zealots. Socrates Scholasticus described how she was pulled from her chariot, dragged through the streets and stripped naked before having her skin cut off with sharpened oyster shells. Once dead, Hypatia's body was quartered and burned.

Some historians mark Hypatia’s death as being the tipping point as the Enlightenment plunged into the Dark Ages. It would be another thousand years before the science that Hypatia lived - and died - for could once again start to flourish. Dawkins, you better watch out!

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