Hypatia of Alexandria was remembered as an inspiring teacher of philosophy, a devoted pagan, and an important mathematician. While her violent death in 415 CE has brought her the most subsequent fame, she also lived an extraordinary life. This volume presents eleven original essays as well as new translations of all the primary sources on Hypatia.
Sixteen hundred years after her death (d. 415 CE), the legacy of Hypatia of Alexandria's life, teaching, and especially her violent demise, continue to influence modern culture. Through a series of focused articles, this volume takes a fresh look at the most well-known ancient female philosopher under three aspects: first, through the evidence provided by her most famous pupil, Synesius of Cyrene; next, by placing her in her late antique cultural context, and, finally, through analysis of her reception both ancient and modern. Though the sources are meager, Hypatia's influence on her students and wider culture guaranteed that she remained an important figure throughout the centuries, albeit one ranging from chaste Neoplatonist to conniving witch. Along with its eleven new essays, this volume also includes a new translation of all the principal ancient sources touching on Hypatia.
Survey of contents
Dawn LaValle Norman/Alex Petkas: Introduction: The Timeliness of Hypatia
Hypatia and Synesius
Alex Petkas: Hypatia and the Desert: A Late Antique Defense of Classicism –
Helmut Seng: Desire and Despair: Synesius, Hypatia, and No Consolation of Philosophy –
Henriette Harich-Schwarzbauer: Synesius' Letters to Hypatia: On the »End« of a Philosopher-Friendship and its Timelessness
Hypatia in Context
Walter F. Beers: Bloody Iuvenalia: Hypatia, Pulcheria Augusta, and the Beginnings of Cyril of Alexandria's Episcopate –
Mareile Haase: The Shattered Icon: An Alternative Reading of Hypatia's Killing –
David Frankfurter: The Private Devotions of Intellectual Hellenes –
Sebastian Gertz: 'A Mere Geometer?' Hypatia in the Context of Alexandrian Neoplatonism
Hypatia in her Ancient and Modern Reception
Joshua Fincher: Hypatia's Sisters? Gender and the Triumph of Knowledge in Nonnus' Dionysiaca –
Victoria Leonard: The Ideal (Bleeding?) Female: Hypatia of Alexandria and Distorting Patriarchal Narratives –
Edward Watts: Hypatia and her Eighteenth-Century Reception –
Cédric Scheidegger Laemmle: Starring Hypatia: Amenábar's Agora and the Tropology of Reception
Dawn LaValle Norman/Alex Petkas: Appendix A: Translation of Primary Sources on Hypatia –
Mareile Haase: Appendix B: Hypatia's Death According to Socrates, Hist. eccl. 7.15: A Textual Commentary
