@@ -11,9 +11,9 @@ ''Picture from The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt.''
When the Christians destroyed the Library of Alexandria under Theodosius in 391 and 396CE, the librarian was Theon (or variously Theron). We can imagine his and his daughter Hypatia's feelings as some 500 000 scrolls representing hundreds of years of collection and research were destroyed. This was a forerunner of the end of "The Golden Age". Many have argued that the death of Hypatia, only 25 years later introduced the real "dark ages" as the last light of reason was extinguished with her death.
-Certainly, due to the deliberate destruction of all things perceived as anti- or even, "not sufficiently pro-" Christian, we don't know very much about her, and of that, much of what we do know was written by her enemies. Yet she was such a btilliant
beacon that even they could not entirely hide the fact that Hypatia was something quite exceptional. Nicephorus, Philostorgius and Socrates Scholasticus (who wrote an eccleciastical history in the 5th Century infra) mention her, and even these church apologists and manufacturers of pseudographica praised her characteristics and scholarship even as they damned her values. A few surviving letters by one of her former students who she taught neoplatonic ideas, Synesius of Cyrene (infra) and later Bishop of Ptolmais (who helped create the doctrine of the Trinity) provide some background and a few quotations, such as those used here.
+Certainly, due to the deliberate destruction of all things perceived as anti- or even, "not sufficiently pro-" Christian, we don't know very much about her, and of that, much of what we do know was written by her enemies. Yet she was such a brilliant
beacon that even they could not entirely hide the fact that Hypatia was something quite exceptional. Nicephorus, Philostorgius and Socrates Scholasticus (who wrote an eccleciastical history in the 5th Century infra) mention her, and even these church apologists and manufacturers of pseudographica praised her characteristics and scholarship even as they damned her values. A few surviving letters by one of her former students who she taught neoplatonic ideas, Synesius of Cyrene (infra) and later Bishop of Ptolmais (who helped create the doctrine of the Trinity) provide some background and a few quotations, such as those used here.
And then there was silence. For a long time. Many centuries later (1510ish) Raphael would allegedly submit a draft of his work, "The School of Athens", to the church fathers.
[http://virus.lucifer.com/bbs/attachments/schoolofathens.jpg]
@@ -82,9 +82,9 @@ # [Hypatia, Elbert Hubbard, Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. X, Great Teachers|http://poly.polyamory.org/~howard/Hypatia/Hubbard_1928.html] A reasonably well written if somewhat unreliable read.
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Hypatia has been discussed on multiple occasions on the [Church of Virus|ChurchOfVirus] BBS and list. See also [http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Hypatia.html] and [http://poly.polyamory.org/~howard/Hypatia/Hubbard_1928.html].
-A beautiful lady by all accounts, a philosopher, an engineer, an erudite and eloquent conversionalist
, an intellectual leader, and the first woman known to have made a significant contribution to mathematics. Murdered by the Christians in March 415 CE, just a few years after they had burnt down the Library of Alexandria. She taught Neoplatonics and came to represent Science and Mathematics - or as the Christians called it, "paganism," which was why they murdered her. Her death marked the marked the start of the diaspora of the scholars of Alexandria, the loss of much ancient knowledge and technology, and the beginning of the rule of Christianity, appropriately known as the "Dark Ages." Despite her writings having been destroyed, the memory of her has endured through the ages. A life so bright that not even the Dark Ages could supress her memory completely.
+A beautiful lady by all accounts, a philosopher, an engineer, an erudite and eloquent conversationalist
, an intellectual leader, and the first woman known to have made a significant contribution to mathematics. Murdered by the Christians in March 415 CE, just a few years after they had burnt down the Library of Alexandria. She taught Neoplatonics and came to represent Science and Mathematics - or as the Christians called it, "paganism," which was why they murdered her. Her death marked the marked the start of the diaspora of the scholars of Alexandria, the loss of much ancient knowledge and technology, and the beginning of the rule of Christianity, appropriately known as the "Dark Ages." Despite her writings having been destroyed, the memory of her has endured through the ages. A life so bright that not even the Dark Ages could supress her memory completely.
One relevant quote and a cross reference. The cross reference is the post "RE: virus: saints", Hermit, 2001-04-07. And the
Quote: "All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final. Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrong is better than not to think at all! Fable should be taught as fable, myth as myth, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truth is horrifying! Men will fight for superstition as quickly as for truth -- even more so, since a superstition is intangible you can't get at it, but truth is a point of view, and is so changeable!" Hypatia 370-415 C.E.
