Hypatia

Hypatia was a mathematician, astronomer and Neoplatonist philosopher who taught in Alexandria in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. She was respected for her learning and became an adviser to members of the city’s educated political elite.

In 415 Hypatia was seized and killed by a Christian mob during a period of intense conflict involving the patriarch Cyril and the imperial prefect Orestes. Her murder became an enduring symbol in later debates about religious violence, classical learning and the position of women in intellectual life.

In Faith L. Justice’s Hypatia, Hypatia: Her Life and Times is a non-fiction collection of essays examining the evidence for the Alexandrian philosopher, mathematician and teacher who was murdered in 415 CE. Faith L. Justice separates late antique testimony from later legend, considering what can reasonably be known about Hypatia’s education, public reputation, teaching, scientific work and relationship with the city’s governing elite.