WHO IS HYPATIA?
Hypatia was born in Alexandria around 355 AD, her early learning concentrating on mathematics and astronomy. She edited and annotated works by such authors as Parge, Diophanius and Ptolemy and is credited with some early advances concerning the projection of the sphere and making scientific instruments. Her circle of colleagues and followers formed a community based on Neo-Platonic systems of thought and intellectual ties. Through private teaching and public lectures, her fame was such that she became the natural advisor on current issues far and wide. Hypatia was regarded as a model of ethical courage, righteousness, veracity, civic devotion and intellectual prowess. Over time her moral authority and political influence as well as her friendly alliance with the Prefect of Alexandria, Orestes, made her a threat to the Christian patriarch Cyril. Within the larger political upheavals of 415AD, she was assassinated.
