Why hypios thinks Hypatia of Alexandria would have been a great Solver and deserves to be the star of Agora:

1. Widespread interests.  Hypatia was a mathematician, Platonist philosopher, astronomer, teacher, and editor, and made connections across disciplines.  Michael Deakin, author of Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr, argues that Hypatia’s conception of mathematics as a “profoundly sacred pursuit” was formed by her understanding of Platonic ideals.  The most creative solutions come from people with diverse backgrounds, as our first Solver told hypios here.

2. Experience solving problems. She’s credited with inventing the hydroscope (her best-known work, used to measure the specific gravity of liquids), a device to measure the level of water, a distillation system, and several astronomy charts.  One of her former students insisted that she also invented the astrolabe, used to measure stars’ positions, but earlier models than hers have since been discovered.

3. She taught others to solve problems.  Hypatia taught from home and gave lectures throughout Alexandria.  She was known as a charismatic teacher who would accept students from any religion.  Rumor has it that some of her students fell for their beautiful, brilliant teacher, a storyline that’s been covered by several fictional treatments of Hypatia’s life.

4. Great at networking. Deakin calls her an “intellectual-around-town” with friends in high places, including Orestes, the prefect of Alexandria.  Contemporary historian Socrates Scholasticus wrote that Hypatia “not infrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates,” and her education and virtue made her confident in “going to an assembly of men.”  Her connections probably protected her from volatile political conditions in turn-of-the (5th) -century Alexandria, which Deakin compares to troubled cities like today’s Tehran or Kabul.  And we know that collaboration between great minds is often the key to success in problem-solving.

5. Worked well with others and was willing to learn.  Hypatia’s first collaborator was her father Theon, a mathematician at the Museum of Alexandria.  He taught her mathematics; she edited his commentary on Euclid’s Elements; they exercised together every day.  (She also wrote commentaries on Apollonius’s Conics and Diophantus’s Arithmetica and a volume called The Astronomical Canon, which could have been her work or collaborations with Theon.)  Hypatia’s student Synesius went on to become bishop of Cyrene, but continued to send her his manuscripts to correct and approve.

6. Witch, saint, virgin, martyr. Hypatia was actually a witch!  She used her mathematical knowledge and magic to hypnotize others, particularly her well-placed political friends, and spread her pagan ideas…at least according to an Ethiopic manuscript and contemporary Christian accounts cited by Deakin.  (Though solving problems with intelligence often does seem magical.)

The legend of St. Catherine of Alexandria, medieval patron saint of philosophy, is strikingly similar to Hypatia’s story: both were beautiful, intelligent women who were known for their chastity and met gruesome deaths.  Though Catherine supposedly lived 100 years before Hypatia, details of her life did not emerge until much later.  In his 1957 book Alexandria: The Golden City, historian Harold Davis argues that St. Catherine was invented as a Christian counterpart to Hypatia.

Other accounts paint Hypatia as a martyr, whether to “feminine intellect” or paganism.  She was not murdered for her beliefs, but killed by a violent Christian mob incited by the bishop of Alexandria, who, ironically, later became St. Cyril.

We certainly don’t expect this level of commitment from our Solvers.  Martyr or not, though, Hypatia was a devoted intellectual who deserves recognition.

And she’s certainly getting recognition in the new film Agora by Alejandro Amenábar.   Even if the film takes a few liberties with her life (love triangle with Orestes and a slave, anyone?), there’s nothing like a blockbuster to make great mathematical and philosophical achievements that much sexier.

If an interest in Agora led you to this post, well, our interest in Alejandro Amenábar led us to write it!  His Open Your Eyes is a favorite of hypios’ philosophers because it’s about the eternal question of the existence of the outer world (and a beautiful formulation of the same problem that’s central to The Matrix, Dark City, The Truman Show, and earlier, the Cartesian demon and brain-in-the-vat scenarios).*  He’s also made Thesis, about snuff films and the dangerous attraction of violence, and the incredibly smart The Others.

Needless to say, we’re really excited about the release of Agora—one of our favorite filmmakers is giving this woman the attention she deserves.  (Not to mention that we hypsters are also fans of her familiar-sounding name and think she would have liked hypios.)

*FYI, Open Your Eyes was later remade as (the inferior) Vanilla Sky, which Amenábar wrote but did not direct.

Photo of ‘Hypatia’ by Julia Margaret Cameron, circa 1867.  (Via wikimedia commons.)