"History is written by the Victors." - Winston Churchill
The story of human civilization is littered with examples which prove that our historic records are just a version of events carefully selected and presented by the victor. And this victor, without a question, has always been a man. Such is the sorry state of affairs that an entire half of human society has been denied the right of self-expression and freedom of thought for centuries, just based on a random & natural genetic outcome. And whenever a woman has stepped up to challenge this rigged system, she has been summarily suppressed, shunned & publicly vilified. No matter what their internal differences, men have gone out of the way to unite and fight against this singular threat to their dominance.
This is a story of a woman in the 4th century CE, who was doomed because of her own brilliance - Hypatia. I got introduced to Hypatia through the book I am currently reading- 'The Swerve: How the World Became Modern' by Stephan Greenblatt.
Hypatia was a Greek born, raised in Alexandria, Egypt. Imagine a world where social order is paramount and religious dogma is the law of the land. All the high posts in magistrate, education and religious matters are held by men. Now imagine yourself as a woman in such a society.
The contemporary Christian historian Socrates of Constantinople described her as follows in his 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."
It was said that Hypatia wore a philosopher's robes (known as Tribon) in public, as a male would. She drove her own chariot, sailed her own boat, rode a horse alone out into the deserts around Alexandria. She could stand and speak before thousands of men with confidence and authority. Before she was twenty, she surpassed her famous father in mathematics and astronomy. Science, as we know it now, did not exist in 400 CE. Mathematics mingled with divination, cosmology and astronomy went hand in hand with astrology. Alchemy was a secret 'science' that did indeed work with metals and their property, but its deeper truer purpose was the manipulation of the 'spirit'. In the mystery teachings, and Hypatia was a leading teacher of the ancient mysteries, alchemy was practiced with her inner circle in an attempt to reach the Divine. So, now it's easy to see why many men perceived her as a threat- a young, beautiful, intelligent, mysterious & risk taking philosopher. Jealous with her intellect and threatened by her charm, her enemies would whisper to each other that she must be a witch. But never openly in the public.
Alexandria was going through a religious turmoil at the time. There were 3 different groups co-existing for centuries in Alexandria- Jews, Christians and Hellenistic Pagans. Hypatia was a Pagan who were thought of at that time as practitioners of black magic. Ciril- an ardent opposer of Jews and Pagans - was recently appointed as the patriarch of Alexandria by the Roman Empire. The moment he took over Alaxandria, violent skirmishes broke out at the theater, in the streets, and in front of churches and synagogues. Jews taunted and threw stones at Christians; Christians broke into and plundered Jewish shops and homes. Cyril demanded the expulsion of the city’s large Jewish population. Alexandria’s governor Orestes, a moderate Christian, refused, and this refusal was supported by the city’s pagan intellectual elite whose most distinguished representative was the influential and immensely learned Hypatia.
Hypatia’s support to Orestes may have set the unstoppable chain reaction that led to her demise. Ciril started circulating rumors that Hypatia's absorption in astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy proves that she is a witch, practicing black magic.
In March 415 the crowd, whipped into a frenzy by one of Cyril’s henchmen, erupted. Returning to her house from a temple, Hypatia was lynched from her chariot and taken to a church that was formerly a temple to the emperor. There, after she was publicly stripped, her skin was flayed off with broken bits of pottery. The mob then dragged her corpse outside the city walls and burned it.
Their hero Cyril was eventually rewarded with sainthood.
Hypatia's murder was symbolic of the Alexandria's intellectual atrophy & eventual downfall. Even with a privileged background & high social connections, a woman could not make it in the ancient world. I quiver to think of all those women who were not so privileged; what must have been their fate?
We owe everything to all those forgotten women... The silent underground streams who have mad the ground above greener...
The story of human civilization is littered with examples which prove that our historic records are just a version of events carefully selected and presented by the victor. And this victor, without a question, has always been a man. Such is the sorry state of affairs that an entire half of human society has been denied the right of self-expression and freedom of thought for centuries, just based on a random & natural genetic outcome. And whenever a woman has stepped up to challenge this rigged system, she has been summarily suppressed, shunned & publicly vilified. No matter what their internal differences, men have gone out of the way to unite and fight against this singular threat to their dominance.
This is a story of a woman in the 4th century CE, who was doomed because of her own brilliance - Hypatia. I got introduced to Hypatia through the book I am currently reading- 'The Swerve: How the World Became Modern' by Stephan Greenblatt.
Hypatia was a Greek born, raised in Alexandria, Egypt. Imagine a world where social order is paramount and religious dogma is the law of the land. All the high posts in magistrate, education and religious matters are held by men. Now imagine yourself as a woman in such a society.
The contemporary Christian historian Socrates of Constantinople described her as follows in his 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."
It was said that Hypatia wore a philosopher's robes (known as Tribon) in public, as a male would. She drove her own chariot, sailed her own boat, rode a horse alone out into the deserts around Alexandria. She could stand and speak before thousands of men with confidence and authority. Before she was twenty, she surpassed her famous father in mathematics and astronomy. Science, as we know it now, did not exist in 400 CE. Mathematics mingled with divination, cosmology and astronomy went hand in hand with astrology. Alchemy was a secret 'science' that did indeed work with metals and their property, but its deeper truer purpose was the manipulation of the 'spirit'. In the mystery teachings, and Hypatia was a leading teacher of the ancient mysteries, alchemy was practiced with her inner circle in an attempt to reach the Divine. So, now it's easy to see why many men perceived her as a threat- a young, beautiful, intelligent, mysterious & risk taking philosopher. Jealous with her intellect and threatened by her charm, her enemies would whisper to each other that she must be a witch. But never openly in the public.
Alexandria was going through a religious turmoil at the time. There were 3 different groups co-existing for centuries in Alexandria- Jews, Christians and Hellenistic Pagans. Hypatia was a Pagan who were thought of at that time as practitioners of black magic. Ciril- an ardent opposer of Jews and Pagans - was recently appointed as the patriarch of Alexandria by the Roman Empire. The moment he took over Alaxandria, violent skirmishes broke out at the theater, in the streets, and in front of churches and synagogues. Jews taunted and threw stones at Christians; Christians broke into and plundered Jewish shops and homes. Cyril demanded the expulsion of the city’s large Jewish population. Alexandria’s governor Orestes, a moderate Christian, refused, and this refusal was supported by the city’s pagan intellectual elite whose most distinguished representative was the influential and immensely learned Hypatia.
Hypatia’s support to Orestes may have set the unstoppable chain reaction that led to her demise. Ciril started circulating rumors that Hypatia's absorption in astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy proves that she is a witch, practicing black magic.
In March 415 the crowd, whipped into a frenzy by one of Cyril’s henchmen, erupted. Returning to her house from a temple, Hypatia was lynched from her chariot and taken to a church that was formerly a temple to the emperor. There, after she was publicly stripped, her skin was flayed off with broken bits of pottery. The mob then dragged her corpse outside the city walls and burned it.
Their hero Cyril was eventually rewarded with sainthood.
Hypatia's murder was symbolic of the Alexandria's intellectual atrophy & eventual downfall. Even with a privileged background & high social connections, a woman could not make it in the ancient world. I quiver to think of all those women who were not so privileged; what must have been their fate?
We owe everything to all those forgotten women... The silent underground streams who have mad the ground above greener...
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| The roll call by Elizabeth Thompson (1874) Reference: The Lady Vanishes- Revisionist History by Malcolm Gladwell http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/01-the-lady-vanishes |
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