Customer Reviews

Hypatia of Alexandria (Revealing Antiquity)

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Those who have an interest in the Fourth Century are familiar with the name Hypatia of Alexandria. Unfortunately she has become a figure of legend and myth. Maria Dzielska's small, short book (106 pages, each about 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" ) first examines the various persons that made her a myth, as well as their motivations. It then goes to the source documents, sorts through the credibility of each, and then redraws our picture of Hypatia. (For example, most encyclopedias give Hypatia's date of birth as about 370. Dzielska builds a strong case that she was born about 15 years earlier than that, and was in her 60's when she was murdered). This book excels in distinguishing fact from fiction - in other words it is a work of historical research. Dzielska also points out where her knowledge ends and her inferences begin. This virtue - once known as humility - also contributes to the value of this book. As one would expect, it has an annotated bibliography ("Sources"), is fully footnoted, and includes a good index. Those whose interest in Hypatia involves "her meaning" may be disappointed; those who want the truth about her will find this a useful piece of research and analysis. Maria Dzielska's book could be used as a sourcebook on HOW historical figures are appropriated for the political or religious agendas of persons less interested in "the facts" than "making a point". This alone makes it of wider interest than it might otherwise appear.

For those who have never heard of Hypatia the back of this book gives you a quick summary of the woman:

'Hypatia - brilliant mathematician, eloquent Neoplatonist, and a woman renowned for her beauty - was brutally murdered by a mob of Christians in Alexandria in 415. She has been a legend ever since.'

This book is thin (106 pages, an additional forty to fifty provide sources, notes, and an index yet, despite its size, it manages to pull together a summary of Hypatia's life from the texts of the time by people lsuch as Socrates Scholasticus and Synesius.

Essentially, it's an interpretation of these historical texts that reconstructs who Hypatia was, how she lived, and why she was brutally murdered.

The book begins by examining the enduring legend of Hypatia by looking at the literary references in which she is portrayed (19th Century novels, and poetry) and continues to examine her by looking at the people who lived around here. Moving on, Dzielska looks at Hypatia herself from trying to determine the year of her birth to describing the terrible death to which she succumbed and, looks at who - ultimately - was responsible.* After looking at Hypatia, the author resolves the woman's history and offers a conclusion to her book.

It was certainly an interesting book in both the uncommon subject matter and the way that the life within was completely reconstructed from writings of the day as none of Hypatia's work is believed to exist anymore. It does not cover life in Alexandria or describe the Great Library but, as the title suggests, this is not about Alexandria - there will, no doubt, be books on that topic.

It's worth reading if a) you have an interest in philosophy or mathematics; or b) you are a feminist looking for a new heroine. (She was, afterall, the only major female of scientific note prior to Marie Curie.)

* She was stripped naked, dragged through the streets to a church, where many proceeded to strip the flesh from her bones using broken pottery. Her remains were then tossed on a fire.

I had placed this book on my wish list because it came to my attention through a friend with similar interests. He generously sent it to me, and I must say I enjoyed it. This is probably more for the individual interested in how historical research is done than for someone looking for an indepth account of the lady's life. Although it will give you a very realistic assessment of her life and times in the two concluding chapters, it gives a scholarly assessment of available primary resoureces as its foundation before doing so. And rightly so, since as the first chapter makes abundantly clear, a lot of sentimental nonsense has been written about the person of Hypatia on next to no basis at all. More than anything the character of Hypatia that is presented by these authors has been designed to illustrate some point of importance or some axe to grind by that individual author. Her actual personality and life history become secondary to those goals as she becomes the center of parable.

To be fair, I must admit at the outset that Hypatia of Alexandria is my all time favorite female in world history. That may make my review of this book a bit slanted. For those who may not be familiar w/Hyaptia, she was a neo-Platonic philosopher / astronomer / physicist / mathmatician (among other things) at the library of Alexandria shortly before it was burned to the ground by an angry mob. To back up: the library of Alexandria was the idea of one Alexander the Great. Although he never lived to see it, Alexander wanted a place where scholars from all over the world & from all cultures could come together & share knowledge. The dream was realized when one of his generals built the library. It is also good to keep in mind that had the library not been burned down (according to the late Carl Sagan the building had over 1 million scrolls at its height), we would likely have made it to the moon long before 1,000 A.D. The amount of scientific, literary and historical texts and data that were lost is nothing less than astounding. Hypatia was one of the last teachers to work at the library before its untimely destruction. It is said that she had the form of Aphrodite & the spirit of Plato. A truly remarkable woman, she excelled in sundry fields of intellectual endeavor at a time when women were supposed to be silent & were thought of as stupid. Read this book, especially you ladies in the world. Hypatia is a testament to the human greatness that lies in the heart of us all.

Socrates was executed by the state of Athens as a scapegoat for its defeat by the Spartans. His crime was being a free thinker in a short age of turmoil. He was however fondly remembered and documented. Hypatia was first brought to my attention by Carl Sagan in his television series Cosmos. She has often been represented as a pillar of wisdom in an age of growing dogma. Unlike with Socrates we know much less about her life and teachings. She is remembered precisely as a martyr who was sacrificed rather than executed by a literalist Christian mob inspired by "St" Cyril, apparently as she was regarded as a threat to Christendom and theology by certain regio-political figures. Enough material on her survived not least owing to the strong memories evoked at the manner of her despatch which turned her into a historical icon.

This excellent short well sourced book is a biographic scenography in the best sense of the word. It does not sadly cover the destruction of the great library or go into great length about the history and politics of 4th century Alexandria but it blows the cobwebs and embelishments that are associated with this enigmatic figure leaving a strong, uncompromising educated presence who would have been of extreme high standing to have obtained the death she received at the hands of bigots.

The importance of Hypatia is that she represents a phase in history where Greek religion was being destroyed by the then politicised Roman state religion. Hypatia represents a tragic victim of this dark phase when a great deal of knowledge was irrevocably lost (e.g.Gandy and Freke, the Jesus Mysteries etc.,).

To know the real Hypatia, and that phase of history, this is one of the best places to begin.

Prof. Dzielska unravels the real life and murder of Hypatia.
Instead of the legendary young virgin martyr for paganism, she sketches a, for the period, remarkable older woman and teacher of neoplatonism and tolerance.
Her murder was instigated by the vicious ploys of a jealous catholic archbishop and executed by his ignorant mob. It was a political murder.

This book should be read because it treats of an age-old conflict that still rages in the world today: the power struggle between the civil (secular) and religious authorities.

This small work is a difficult (based on very few original sources), but very convincing reconstitution of the life of one of the very few known remarkable women of that age. A revealing work.

Whether your interest is women scholars or female scientists in antiquity, Christian history or pagan philosophy, this book is a major eye-opener. Hypatia--and all her female colleagues--deserve to be remembered, and Dzielska deserves credit for helping preserve their story.

The author is an expert on the history of the Roman Empire, and describes well the dangerous nature of Alexandrian politics during the Greek and Roman periods. The bishop Cyril comes off as a powerhungry political figure who used religion for his own ends. There is evidence that Hypatia supported the prefect Orestes in opposition to him, and that Cyril mounted a slander campaign against her for this, and his political attacks on her are the more likely reason why she was murdered.

I find Maria Dzielska's book to be an honest survey of the scarce knowledge surrounding the enigmatic figure of Hypatia, and places her into the history and culture of the time. It sweeps away much of the myth surrounding her person. I highly recommend this book.

The other reviews highlighting the quality of scholarship are correct. It is an excellent book.

Still, I have a story that I would like to share. The copy that I read was borrowed from the local public library. What merits mention are the edits performed on the book by a previous patron. That person had systematically changed every occurrence of "pagan" with a lower case "p" to "Pagan" with an upper case "p" and penciled out "St." every time Dzielska referred to some personage as "Saint X." Whatever my annoyance at the defacement of the library's book, the result demonstrated to the subsequent reader how apparently neutral linguistic conventions can be construed as embodying a certain Christian religious viewpoint.

The contentious figure of Hypatia is dealt with as well as could be hoped given such scant extant documentation. The author, however, writes well and develops as clear a narrative line as possible and depicts the importance and probable conflicts of Hypatia's life without the mythologizing and hero worship sought after by those would would prefer her to be a 'feminist' or 'pagan martyr'. It is refreshing when historians show the complexity of history, which is amoral, and also acknowledge that our interpretations are often at best flawed given the passage of time. Reading this book will whet your appetite for further reading on the time period.