The story of a great Pagan Scholar and mathematician, Hypatia:





Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all
Hypatia (c. 350-370? – 415) AD

So then once it happened that Cyril who was bishop of the opposing faction, passing by the house of Hypatia, saw that there was a great pushing and shoving against the doors, "of men and horses together, some approaching, some departing, and some standing by. When he asked what crowd this was and what the tumult at the house was, he heard from those who followed that the philosopher Hypatia was now speaking and that it was her house. When he learned this, his soul was bitten with envy, so that he immediately plotted her death, a most unholy of all deaths. For as she came out as usual many close-packed ferocious men, truly despicable, fearing neither the eye of the gods nor the vengeance of men, killed the philosopher, inflicting this very great pollution and shame on their homeland.


Hypatia of Alexandria (350-370 to 415 AD) was one of the first women to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics. Hypatia was the daughter of the mathematician and philosopher Theon of Alexandria and it is fairly certain that she studied mathematics under the guidance and instruction of her father. Hypatia became head of the Platonist school at Alexandria in about 400 AD. There and in Athens she lectured on mathematics and in particular the philosophy of Neoplatonism. Hypatia based her teachings on those of Plotinus, the founder of Neoplatonism, and Iamblichus who was a developer of Neoplatonism around 300 AD. She was described by all commentators as a charismatic teacher (and also very beauty) and hundreds of students visited her lectures.


The mathematician and philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria was the daughter of the mathematician Theon Alexandricus (ca. 335–405) and last librarian of the Library of Alexandria in the Museum of Alexandria. She was educated at Athens and in Italy; at about AD 400, she became head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, where she imparted the knowledge of Plato and Aristotle to any student; the pupils included pagans, Christians, and foreigners The contemporary 5th-century sources do not identify Hypatia of Alexandria as practicant of any religion, but, 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". Nonetheless, despite the historical record, the Christians later used Hypatia as symbolic of Virtue. The Byzantine Suda encyclopaedia reported that Hypatia was "the wife of Isidore the Philosopher" (apparently Isidore of Alexandria);however, Isidore of Alexandria was not born until long after Hypatia's death, and no other philosopher of that name contemporary with Hypatia is known. Moreover, the Suda also stated that "she remained a virgin" and that she rejected a suitor with her menstrual rags, saying that they demonstrated "nothing beautiful" about carnal desire.

Hypatia was known more for the work she did in mathematics, primarily for her work on the ideas of conic sections introduced by Apollonius. She edited the work On the Conics of Apollonius, which divided cones into different parts by a plane. This concept developed the ideas of hyperbolas, parabolas, and ellipses. With Hypatia's work on this important book, she made the concepts easier to understand, thus making the work survive through many centuries. Hypatia was the first woman to have such a profound impact on the survival of early thought in mathematics.

The hydrometer (also called an aerometer) an instrument used to determine the density of fluids is considered an invention of Hypatia.



Hypatia corresponded with former pupil Synesius of Cyrene, who became bishop of Ptolemais in AD 410; and an author of the Christian Holy Trinity doctrine derived from the Platonic education he received from her.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. 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.”

—Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History


Hypatia came to symbolize learning and science which the early Christians identified with paganism. In 412 AD Cyril (later St Cyril) became patriarch of Alexandria. However, the Roman prefect of Alexandria was Orestes and Cyril and Orestes became bitter political rivals as church and state fought for control. Hypatia was a friend of Orestes and this, together with prejudice against her philosophical views, which were seen by Christians to be pagan, led to Hypatia becoming the focal point of riots between Christians and non-Christians.



Death:

She was murdered by Christians who felt threatened by her scholarship, learning, and depth of scientific knowledge.

On a fatal day, in the holy season of Lent, Hypatia was torn from her chariot, stripped her completely nak.ed, and as she cried for help, they dragged her to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the reader (alias Peter the Lector) and a troop of savage and merciless christian fanatics: her flesh was scraped from her bones with sharp oyster-shells, and after tearing her body in pieces, her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames.

Her murder coincided with the death of the pagan world. In 391 A.D., the largest repository of knowledge in the ancient world, the Library of Alexandria, was burned by a crowd of fanatic monks under the leadership of the Christian Archbishop Theophilus. The end of the Olympic games and Plato’s Academy closed by Justinian at 529 AD are a sign of this decline. Hypatias death marks the end of progress in science for about 1000 years.






Many of the surviving works commonly attributed to Hypatia are believed to have been collaborative works with her father, Theon Alexandricus, this kind of authorial uncertainty being typical for female philosophers in Antiquity.

A partial list of Hypatia's works:


A commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by Diophantus.
A commentary on the Conics of Apollonius.
Edited the existing version of Ptolemy's Almagest.
Edited her father's commentary on Euclid's Elements.
She wrote a text "The Astronomical Canon."




Though she was ra.ped and murdered, her spirit still lives on in our souls as a constant reminder of the trials we have undergone. Xtians Beware.

I wish you would talk of the countless number of Twins sacrificed to satisfy some pagan god, that would have made more pagan sense.

twins sacrifice is related to the Yoruba peoples ONLY and this too is a false claim, possibly spread by xtian missionaries. Twin sacrifice is a myth since the Yoruba respected twins to such an extent that they were  said to be the most spoilt children of the lot. The Yoruba still have the highest number of twins in the world, as an ethnic group. The Yorubas revered twins so much so that in fact, one of the deities is the ibeji twins, as  a result of which they have been blessed with the highest twin expectancy.

also remember this vedah. this here, Hypatia, was an embodiment of education and she selflessly imparted eduacation to Pagan as-well-as no Pagan students. As a Pagan, I value education as my God, not just because of religion, but because i have undergone many hardships myself. In fact, if i am alive, its just beacause of education. i have gone a long way from my childhood in a mud shack. If you are a man who values eduaction, you wouldnt make a mockery out of this. I am yet to see a concrete seriousness here on Nairaland.

The xtians thorughout the pages of history, have always sought to push us backwards. No wonder our Nigeria is so backward. Neither do we value education, nor do we value God.

haba your position seems to change with the whether you were the same person that defended killing of twins, now you call it a myth. I only asked that you should have talked of the countless number of twins that were killed by paganism.

^give me an example. and I think i explained this phenomena in detail before. i dont see why you are bringing it up. is that your way of a backlash because it is very lame since the muslims are the most murderous people to ever set foot on this planet. i dont need to quote history for that. it is a known fact and is still happening in our accursed days.

Never knew this was already here before the whole truth was revealed and is still being revealed.