Hypatia (Alexandria of Egypt, c. 355–415) was a philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician of the Alexandrian School, one of the major centers of Hellenistic culture in the late Roman Empire. The daughter of the philosopher Theon, only very scant information about her has come down to us, mainly through her disciple Synesius (Synesius of Cyrene, c. 370–413) and a few references in some ancient sources (Philostorgius, Damascius). Since none of her writings have survived, we cannot know what her original contributions to mathematics, astronomy, or philosophy may have been. We do know from Synesius, however, that in 393 Hypatia was at the head of the Museum of Alexandria, probably the most important academic institution of the Hellenistic world, and this testifies to the esteem in which she was held by her contemporaries. According to later chronicles, both Christian (Socrates Scholasticus, John of Nikiu) and pagan (Damascius), she was killed during a riot by the parabalani (a kind of Christian militia), allegedly at the instigation of Bishop Cyril (370–444, Patriarch of Alexandria, later canonized). In hindsight, her murder can be placed within the final phase of the conflict in the late Roman Empire between pagans and Christians, the latter being strongly supported by Emperor Theodosius and his successors (the Theodosian decrees of 391 and 392 had sanctioned the prohibition of all pagan worship).
Hypatia’s story has been recounted—inevitably in a somewhat fictionalized way, given the almost total lack of sources—in the Spanish film Agora (directed by Alejandro Amenábar, 2009). In Italy the film was released only in 2010, following a press campaign (at the time, the undersigned also signed a petition calling for the film to be released in Italy) and amid considerable controversy.
The reason for this intervention is that a few days ago an article by the writer Dacia Maraini appeared in Corriere Newsentitled “The Scientist Hypatia and the Women of Today”, in which Hypatia’s story is briefly outlined and a parallel is drawn between her figure and the condition of women today. The occasion was a prize awarded to the writer, a prize named precisely after Hypatia (congratulations). I fully agree with the content of the article and with its conclusions:
… Today, in 2022, Iranian religious fanatics, in the name of a jealous and punitive God, arrest, flog, and shoot women in the face and genitals because, like Hypatia, they claim a freedom of study and thought not allowed by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. What can we learn from this? That faith is a wonderful act of love, but it must be kept absolutely separate from institutional power. When one tries to impose it—deciding not only people’s behavior but even their thoughts and words, especially those of women—one inevitably falls into hatred and brutality.
It is not necessary, however, in order to support the author’s arguments, to fall into historical inaccuracies. I will quote a couple of sentences reported in the article:
… It is to her that we owe the invention of the astrolabe and the hydroscope, experimental instruments for the mathematical study of the heavens. She is the first scientist to theorize something unheard of for the time: namely that the Earth is not the center of the universe but a planet that revolves around the Sun in a universe full of other planets…
We do not know whether Hypatia ever supported the thesis of a Sun-centered system with the Earth revolving around it on an elliptical orbit; we do know, however, that the heliocentric theory had already been proposed by Aristarchus of Samos (2nd century BC) and later supported by Seleucus of Seleucia. As for the invention of the astrolabe, the matter is more complex: Eratosthenes invented the armillary sphere around 255 BC; Hipparchus of Nicaea (2nd century BC) devised the anaphoric clock (a kind of precursor of the astrolabe); finally, the invention of the so-called “small astrolabe” is attributed to Theon of Alexandria, Hypatia’s father. The instrument was certainly known to Hypatia, as attested by Synesius. With regard to the hydroscope (by this term we mean the instrument used to measure weights by immersion in water, not a device for exploring the sea floor), its invention is entirely uncertain, but we do know that Synesius asked Hypatia (Letter XV) to build one for him, providing a detailed description of it.
In conclusion, it is not necessary to exaggerate the achievements of a woman scientist (and philosopher) of the past in order to support the rights of women.
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