Hypatia

Agora

Hypatia

c. 355–415

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

Her writings are lost, but she taught that mathematics and astronomy are a path toward the philosophy of Plato and Plotinus.

Placement

Hellenistic, Roman & Late Antique · West Asia & North Africa · Science, Metaphysics, Epistemology

Mathematician, astronomer and head of a Neoplatonic school in Alexandria, murdered by a Christian mob in 415. None of her writings survives under her name; her pupil Synesius praises her as a teacher of philosophy.

Key ideas

Neoplatonic teaching in Alexandria
Mathematics as a path to philosophy
Commentaries on Diophantus and Apollonius (lost; traces possibly in the Arabic Diophantus)

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Influence

Influenced by 2

Plato

influenced by ✓
Hypatia taught Plato and Aristotle in Alexandria; the church historian Socrates says she headed the Platonist school descending from Plotinus (Ecclesiastical History VII.15). Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History VII.15; Synesius, Letters; E. J. Watts, Hypatia (2017)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Plato › 428–348 BCE
Plotinus

influenced by ✓
The church historian Socrates says Hypatia succeeded to the Platonist school derived from Plotinus; her own writings were mathematical, and her philosophical teaching is known through Synesius. Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History VII.15; Synesius, Letters; E. J. Watts, Hypatia (2017)
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata · InPhO
Plotinus › 204–270

Works

c. 400Commentary on Diophantus’ Arithmetica
A lost commentary attested by the Suda; some scholars think traces of it survive in the Arabic version of Diophantus.

Position

Hypatia belonged to the Alexandrian branch of Neoplatonism. Ancient sources credit her with commentaries on Diophantus’ “Arithmetica”, Apollonius’ “Conics” and Ptolemy’s astronomical tables; none survives under her name. Her teaching, as far as Synesius’ letters show it, led pupils through mathematics and astronomy to the contemplation of the divine, and it was open to pagans and Christians alike. Her death made her a symbol – for Enlightenment writers of reason destroyed by fanaticism, for others a feminist martyr – and much written about her is projection. What is secure is that she was the leading teacher of philosophy in Alexandria in her generation.

Life & context

Hypatia (c. 355–415) was the daughter of the mathematician Theon of Alexandria and taught mathematics, astronomy and Platonic philosophy in the city, drawing pupils from across the eastern Mediterranean, among them the later bishop Synesius of Cyrene. In March 415, during a conflict between the prefect Orestes and bishop Cyril, she was seized by a Christian crowd and killed. Her birth year is uncertain; some scholars put it around 350 or 370.