The
mathematician and
philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was the daughter of the mathematician
Theon Alexandricus (c. 335 – c. 405).
[10] She was educated in
Athens. Around AD 400, she became head of the Platonist school at Alexandria,
[11][12][13] where she imparted the knowledge of
Plato and
Aristotle to students, including pagans, Christians, and foreigners.
[4][14][15]
Although contemporary 5th-century sources identify Hypatia of Alexandria as a practitioner and teacher of the philosophy of Plato and Plotinus, two hundred years later, the 7th-century Egyptian Coptic bishop
John of Nikiû identified her as a Hellenistic
pagan and that "she was devoted at all times to
magic,
astrolabes and instruments of music, and she beguiled many people through her
Satanic wiles".
[16][17] However, not all Christians were as hostile towards her: some Christians even used Hypatia as symbolic of
Virtue.
[4] The contemporary Christian historiographer
Socrates Scholasticus described her in
Ecclesiastical History:
There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time. Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared in public in the presence of the magistrates. Neither did she feel abashed in going to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more.
[4]
Hypatia corresponded with former pupil
Synesius of Cyrene, who was tutored by her in the philosophical school of
Platonism and later became bishop of
Ptolemais in AD 410, an exponent of the Christian
Holy Trinity doctrine.
[18] Together with the references by the pagan philosopher
Damascius, these are the extant records left by Hypatia's pupils at the Platonist school of Alexandria
