Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr

by Michael A.B. Deakin

In the late fourth and early fifth centuries of our era, Hypatia of Alexandria was the world's greatest living mathematician and astronomer. A strikingly beautiful woman and a devoted celibate, she lived in a city as turbulent and troubled as Baghdad or Beirut is today. She achieved fame not only in her special field, but also as a philosopher, religious thinker, and teacher who attracted a large popular following. Her life ended tragically in violence at the hands of a rampaging mob of Christian fanatics, who killed her for her "pagan" beliefs, some say at the instigation of St. Cyril of Alexandria.This is the first biography of Hypatia to integrate all aspects of her life. Mathematician Michael Deakin emphasizes that, though she was a philosopher, she was first and foremost a mathematician and astronomer of great accomplishment. In a fascinating narrative that brings to life a richly diverse ancient society, he describes her work so that the mathematics, presented in straightforward terms, finds its true place in the context of her life as a whole. Deakin supplies full detail on the historical, intellectual, and religious context of Hypatia's times. He also analyzes the pattern of her life and thought, and finally gives an account of the events leading up to her lynch-mob execution. Although this outrageous crime has made Hypatia a powerful symbol of intellectual freedom and feminist aspiration to this day, Deakin makes clear that the important intellectual contributions of her life's work should not be overshadowed by her tragic death.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Science, Feminism, Philosophy, Mathematics

231 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2007

Reviews

[Faith Justice · Rating 3 out of 5]

In doing my original research, for my novel Selene of Alexandria, I ran across Professor Deakin and his most useful website where he posted all the primary sources that mentioned Hypatia. Over the years, he spoke of her at conferences and wrote articles. Finally, in 2007 he published his book and I got to add another resource to my research shelf.

Deakin’s work differs from Hypatia of Alexandria by Maria Dzielska primarily in style and a little in content. Mathematician and Martyr, seems drier and more academic than Dzielska’s work, but is still very readable to the non-academic. Deakin lays out his book like a syllabus with discrete chapters and sub-chapters. He briefly covers the history of Alexandria, mathematics, philosophy and religious development, and the political scene during Hypatia’s life. He evaluates the sources, her death and her mathematics. In almost all ways, his interpretation of the sources varies little from Dzielska’s, including the earlier birth date. But he adds one important piece: Hypatia’s contributions to mathematics.

Deakin does a great job of looking at the sources and piecing together the clues to Hypatia’s work. Even a non-mathematician can follow his arguments and have a clear understanding of what she did or didn’t accomplish. He very considerately puts the more arcane mathematical discussions in his appendices, letting us choose how much we want to delve into the minutia of the Greek alphabet, and its relationship to numbers and long division. None of Hypatia’s writings on philosophy survive, but there are some slim clues to her mathematics and Deakin pulls them together for us:

"It may come as a disappointment to some to learn that although Hypatia was in her time the world's best mathematician, she cannot realistically be classed as one of the world's great mathematicians. However, if one considers that the times were not at all conducive to mathematical research, that the institutions that had supported such work were gone, and the mathematicians themselves were under great suspicion, then this should not really surprise us...

"All in all, we have a picture of a dedicated teacher, a versatile one whose interests embraced virtually the whole of mathematics of the time and extended beyond this to speculative philosophy and to scientific endeavor. We see in her life little of the compartmentalization of knowledge that such a recitation of achievement imposes upon modern ears. Rather, geometry was a route to the One, just as was a celibate lifestyle. Arithmetic and even astronomy were similarly sacred. We may well imagine that the conservation and transmission of knowledge was a matter of passionate concern for her...

"And yes, we would like to know more of her. So much is lost and is now quite irrecoverable. But the main outlines of her life and her accomplishment are clear and they command our admiration."

In summary, I liked both books. Taken together, they give a fuller picture than either alone. Dzielska adds the literary tradition and Deakin the mathematical. For anyone wanting the whole picture of Hypatia, Lady Philosopher of Alexandria, I’d recommend reading both.

This is part of a post on my blog where I review both Hypatia of Alexandria: Mathematician and Martyr and Hypatia of Alexandria.

[Meredith Fickes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really should only read if you are interested in mathmatics.

[Hannah Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who would have guessed that the greatest mathematician in the Roman Empire, at one time, was a woman? I will admit up front that I read this book after viewing Alejandro Amenábar’s 2009 film Agora, which presents a fictionalized version of the life and death of Hypatia, the famous female philosopher and mathematician of Alexandria. Anyone looking for a compact and unromanticized approach to a difficult time in history will enjoy this book. Deakin supplies concise summaries of philosophical, religious, and mathematical concepts without going into mind-bogging detail. Despite the scholarly and well-researched tone of Deakin’s prose, the bare bones of Hypatia’s story are nearly as dramatic as the fiction in Amenábar’s movie. Hypatia was a female scholar, she did make important mathematical and astronomical discoveries, she held a great deal of influence over important (male) political figures, and she was murdered at the command of a Christian bishop during a religious war that tore apart the city that had once been the shining beacon of the academic world.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately, there's just not a lot of primary sources surviving about Hypatia. The author makes it clear that he's working with limited information, and so I appreciate his decision to make the book just as much about Hypatia's mathematics and the prevalent philosophical traditions of the time as it is about her life. However, if you're expecting a biography (as I was) you're going to be disappointed. The author also included the primary sources that provide what information we have on Hypatia, so you can read them for yourself. A worthwhile read, especially if you're interested in Hypatia or her times, but not a very entertaining one.

[K.R. Gastreich · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Hypatia of Alexandria, Deakin does an excellent job of creating a complete picture of this remarkable mathematician for whom the historical records are scarce and incomplete.

I read this book with an eye toward using it in one of my classes, Women and Science, and came away ready to make it required reading for my students. Deakin's approach to documenting Hypatia's history is different from other popular histories that I've read. Rather than integrating the different aspects of her story into a single chronological whole, he separates out the historical, intellectual and religious context into digestible chunks. Only after completing his illustration of the temporal stage on which Hypatia's life and death took place does he present the scant information that survives regarding her achievements as a mathematician, philosopher and political figure. The approach works extraordinarily well.

About half the volume is dedicated to appendices and notes, and while this section is more disjunct than the primary text, it also makes for interesting reading. Here we are given the details of Hypatia's mathematics; the intriguing story of Pandrosion, another woman mathematician that preceded her; a comentary on the legend of St. Catherine; and (my personal favorite) translations of the original sources.

I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of the ancient world, women's history, women and science, and the conflicts that plagued the early Christian church.

[Annette · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have some knowledge of math and its history and I was quite interested in learning about Hypatia but this book was not the place to do it. The repeated prevarications and uncertainties distracted from the conclusions drawn.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

After only hearing mention of the name, I was curious to know more about Hypatia through my own reading instead of just in class and this seemed to be one of the better books on the subject. And yes, while Deakin does cover Hypatia's life and as much as we can learn from the little documentation around her, there were times when he seemed to be really pulling at straws for content. I enjoy the occasional biography and heavier reading in my life, but in comparison to other biographies, this seemed weakly constructed and unprofessional. The structure was methodical but partitioned off in small chapters that made it seem like he just wrote up his notes instead of integrating all of his research into one comprehensive biography. I understand there aren't many primary sources, but if that's the case, then maybe a book with the occasional reference isn't the best option? This isn't necessarily a bad book, just be aware before you read.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first word that comes to mind is "disjointed." While I appreciate the scholarly nature of the writing, I think it could have been presented in a way that would have been much more fluid and easy to follow. The first half was easily accessible, but the last half of the book was all notes and appendices, most of which could have been written into the bulk of the text.

Good content, poor presentation. Not recommended for those looking for an easy narrative to follow, but might interest those looking for a more scholarly read.

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This guy missed a great opportunity to examine a fascinating woman. Marion Meade needs to take this biography up and do it justice. He spent too much time on the math. I would have like more of the time period - to really place her in the culture and setting.

[Degenerate Chemist · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating book about Hypatia of Alexandria and her work. We know so little about Hypatia so it is no surprise that this book is short. The book can be split into two parts- the chapters talking about Hypatia and the appendices to those chapters. Both sections are fascinating and worth reading.

This book is mostly about the social conditions of 5th century Alexandria and the events that lead to Hypatia's murder. It details her work as a philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician.

This book is a bit hard to give a rating too. The author wants to make the facts of Hypatia's life and the specifics of her writing available to the general public. He does that admirably given the limited amount of primary sources he has to work with. At the same time this book gets very repetitive and the dry language doesn't help with accessibility for the general reader.

This is a good, well researched account. It does what the author set out to do. However, if your only interest is some general information on Hypatia you can probably skip this. Most of the "new" information in this book is making her work in mathematics available to the general public.

On the plus side this is a very quick read so its worth getting through your local library.

[Paulina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very succinct and academic book on Hypatia; which, while reliable, loses some of its appeal by not following a narrative, instead choosing to sketch out different sources and focus on the mathematics.

Hypatia's life was fascinating, despite us having so scant sources. What we know of her - as an esteemed philosopher, mathematician and astronomer in a time where women had little rights, who has chosen to stay unmarried (implicitly to protect these rights - although Michael Deakin certainly doesn't suggest that, while listing other famous women philosophers and mathematicians as 'wife of...'), and who has been typified as one of the first people to be murdered as a victim of a Christian witch hunt.

I am not sure if many people would like this book - it keeps to the facts and arguments at the expense of a certain kind of panache, and the author is definitely not gifted - the writing is very stilted, reminiscent of essays I've written shame-facedly at the university. But it is thorough and genuine, so there's that.

[Gabrielle Birchak · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say enough about the depth of this book. As I'm currently doing research on Hypatia, this is my primary go to for information. Deakin's information is exceptionally factual and perfectly presented. He thoroughly covers the social and political climate in 400 A.D.. Further, his data on the history of Alexandria is exceptionally accurate. I have now read this book more than five times. I had to purchase a second one because my first became dilapidated from notes, dog ears and Post Its. If you plan to do any research on Hypatia, I would recommend this one as your first read through.

[Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

To give credit where it is due, I think the author has done very well with very little. I respect his cautious conclusions that acknowledge the speculative nature of some aspects of her life. However, it read as less of a biography or book than a dry academic paper. Despite being a small book (especially if you discount the appendices), it became tedious. All this despite my love and adoration for Hypatia and excitement to read what I could about her. A respectable book, albeit stylistically lacking.

[Nicole Perkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

In a book of ten chapters, two of them actually (kind of) discuss Hypatia's life; the rest are about the men that supposedly influenced her work. I would love to read a well-written, well-researched biography of Hypatia. If anyone knows of one please let me know. (Maybe I have to write my own? That's a LOT of research...)

[Trizha Aquino · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciated that the author was straight up about how reading math is boring lmao

[Ginger Schiffmayer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I might be the only person to ever read this twice. This book is not good. The author is not familiar with Late Antiquity.

[Tanya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, I tried so hard to finish this book, and I only got 3 chapters in. This book should have been all that I would want in a book, math (I got through calculus in school so I should be able to be able to understand most of right?!) and stuff about Hypatia.

But no, the way this author talks to the audience was the most annoying voice that I ever had to read.

In the intro he stats that he wanted to write a book about Hypatia and math for the layman, so anyone could have a chance to know about her. But this is not for your average person. Maybe he would have gotten better through out the book, but I doubt it. He also has such a condescending tone to his writing, though I feel that he didn't do it on purpose. You could tell he was very excited about what he was writing about, he just wasn't very good about putting it into book format.

Maybe one day I will come back to this, cause I do want to view Hypatia from multiple people perspective, but probably not anytime soon.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very mathematical, less Hypatia than expected despite so little knowledge of her. But we must be content with any glimmers of her that we can get. Full review to come.

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Rating: 2.5 Stars

I hate math. I mean, I really hate it. It made me miserable for years. What made my misery ever worse is that my mom is really good at math, so I could never understand when she would try to explain my homework to me, and she could never understand why I couldn't understand her.

It might seem strange then, that I am completely obsessed with Hypatia, a mathematician who lived over 1500 years ago. Part of the allure I think, is that we know so little about it - kind of like Boudicca, another fabulously fierce heroine my daughter will some day know all about. Or, know as much as she can, given how little concrete information we have about either of these women.

And therein, of course, lies the problem. There is so little information about Hypatia herself, that one can hardly write an entire book about her, Instead, one would have to not only include the facts we do know, but give explanation of the times she lived in, the math and philosophy she worked on, and so forth.

That is exactly what the author does, and really it is almost too much. The math alone is very in-depth and academic. I am all for scholarly and academic texts, I read them often. But for someone like myself who is predisposed to hate math because that gene skipped me somehow, this was like reading a text book at times. I wanted to like this book and for it to be everything I was looking for, but it can't. That is no fault of the author, he did the best he could with the information he had to work with, but there is simply not enough know for certain to fill a book.

The author uses what sources still exist to flesh out Hypatia and at least give her a form - but in truth we do not even know what she looked liked. I appreciate though, that there is not a lot of conjecture here. In truth, very little of the book is about Hypatia. Without beating a dead horse too much, there just is not enough info.

So, I can really only recommend this one to people who love math. Hypatia is there of course, and we know what we can. Sadly though, that is not much and I fear that will never change.

[Paula Koneazny · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is probably better than just OK, but that's my mood at the moment. It serves its stated purpose in that Deakin reviews & convincingly interprets here all that it is known, which is very little, about 4th and early 5th century Hypatia of Alexandra, who was, if not the first, perhaps the most celebrated of women mathematicians, astronomers,& philosophers (she was all three)in the classical tradition. In fact, Deakin rates her as the most accomplished mathematician in the world at the time(apparently, mathematics was in a period of decline or quiescence in China & India, yet to fully develop in the Arabic world & undocumented in Persia). The Museum and libraries of Alexandria were "dying" at the end of the 4th c., under attack by an increasingly more powerful Christian worldview that saw mathematics as evil, confused astronomy with astrology, & denigrated Neo-platonic philosophy as taught by philosophers such as Hypatia. According to Deakin, this was not an era of original research, but one in which preservation & education were primary. Both Hypatia and her father Theon were known as teachers and commentators. Hypatia was murdered by a mob of monks in the year 416 (or thereabouts), dragged from her carriage (or high chair)& bludgeoned to death with roofing tiles (!). Her fragmented body was then burned. A martyr for the intellect, one could say.

[Timothy Finucane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a rather scholarly work, so if you're looking for some sort of detailed history of Hypatia, this isn't it. In fact, there is far too little evidence left to produce such a work. Instead, this book attempts to reconstruct the conditions of the time period she is thought to have lived and what we know of her work in mathematics and philosophy.

I was hoping for more historical information regarding the circumstances of her murder at the hands of the early christian church, but again, there is only a limited amount of evidence to paint a more detailed view.

Overall, if you are not put of by more scholarly writing this is a good book to understand a little bit about who Hypatia was, and the affect she had on the culture and conditions in which she lived.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hypatia, a Greek mathematician and philosopher, she surpassed all her contemporaries. Though renowned throughout Alexandria for her exceeding beauty, public teaching, and virtuous life, she was targeted for murder by a Christian mob. They tore her flesh (likely with oyster shells), before burning her limbs.

The author Deakin (also a mathematician) describes the life and times of this virgin martyr, what's know of her contributions, and ends with translations of source materials. A bit academic at times, but not bad.

Below is Charles William Mitchell's Painting "Hypatia" (1885):

[Philippa · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short read (half the book is mathematical equations, though to Deakin's credit he does add them as appendixes so the book can be read as a whole without them) i found his style of writing was very academic and sometimes to brief, given the shortness of the book (partly due to the lack of information on Hypatia) I think he could've expanded a little on the background information he gives. But over all I think he assess' the sources well (and also includes all primary sources as appendixes) and gives as good evaluation of Hypatia's life as possible, with such little information around her surviving.

[Robin Rivers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent source-based examination of the writings detailing Hypatia's life as well as the assessment of her written works. This book serves as a particularly useful reference tool when attempting to understand the view of Hypatia in antiquity and the lack of contemporary accounts related to her life and death. As English translations of the original writings are difficult to acquire, having excerpts and sometimes full accounts proved interesting and very revealing.

This was a library borrow for me. But, the content and treatment of the work is such that I'll be buying this one to keep on my own shelves.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book I didn't really finish - had it out of the library and had to return it quickly because it was new, but at the time enjoyed learning about a woman in history I'd known nothing of beforehand. I would probably finish this if I came across it in future but can't find a copy at the moment.

[Michael Lanstrum · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a interested, research book on the life and times of the Greek mathematician - Hypatia.

[Julie Lowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book well written

[Julie]

Used for "A Book Of Nonfiction" in 2014 Reading Bingo

[Autumn Skye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really difficult to get through.

[Doris Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

And. Extranoary. Book.