In a time of war, political division, and conspiracy, along with everyday cares as disease and natural disasters, the whole point of studying the inner workings of law, politics, and morality, even the effects of art and music, was remedial-- a way of fixing a world out of joint.
Charles King, Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah
IMG_0303A Jacques Blanchard 1600-1638 Paris Le Pape Nicolas V ouvrant le caveau de St Franois Pope Nicolas V opening the vault of St Francis1630 Orle'ans Muse'e des Beaux Arts
(Image by jean louis mazieres from flickr) Details DMCA
This is the early fifth century A. D., and the city of Alexandria, writes historian Catherine Nixey, is a hot site for intellectuals. Philosophers, poets, astronomers, doctors, rhetoricians, and sophists hung out there. The city had a growing library that books from all kinds of authors. The ruler of Alexandria made sure of it. He sent out to all corners, requesting works by poets and writers and historians. Mathematicians.
Hypathia, a "brilliant" mathematician, lived in Alexandria. She is described as a "beauty," however, Hypathia dedicated her herself to "the life of the mind." Rather than fuss with "'tumbling curls,'" she "dressed in the austere and concealing uniform of a philosopher's cloak." In addition, as Nixey points out, Hypathia's lectures were open to Christians and non-Christians.
Nonetheless, tension between Christians and non-Christians grew tense, and was made worse by a new bishop, Cyril, a "thug." He sought power. The power to enforce the removal of Jews who lived in Alexandria forever, but there was a "smoldering" dislike of Jews Cyril capitalized on to justify the recruitment of his "mob of parabalani" and anyone else who could be brutal enough.
The bishop changed the atmosphere in Alexandria. The monks, as Nixey tells us, objected and attempted to defend the city before they, too, were "fiery" sent away.
It would seem obvious that Cyril is running the show here, but the town decided to look above, behind, and around Cyril in search for a scapegoat. And who might that be? Looking to Hypathia, the citizens considered her use of "symbols" and "astrolabes." Wasn't she the tool of the devil?
On March A. D. 415, Hypathia is blocked by a mob "of believers in God" on her way to the market. Under the guidance of a church magistrate, "a perfect believer in all respects in Jesus Christ, Hypathia is dragged from her chariot and taken to a church, were she is stripped of her robe. Using shards of broken glass, she is flayed, and her eyes gouged. After she dies, Hypathia is thrown onto a pyre and burned.
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