H is for Hypatia
I've always wondered how fascinating it would be to live in a time at the beginning of science and discovery. The time when we had our great thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates. To be immersed in their schools of thought. How cool it would be to study humans, society, the heavens, and form some of the very first opinions on their meanings. To always be on a quest for knowledge and understanding. We don't hear about many women being in these first great thinking roles. However, we do have Hypatia.
Hypatia, was a Greek woman living in Alexandria Egypt. Her dates of birth and death are a bit of an estimate, but they range from 350 AD and 415 AD. She taught in the Great Library of Alexandria (Can you imagine! A woman at this point in history!). She is known as one of the first females of Mathematics. She was an atheist or more an advocate of science, at the time when Christianity was gaining it's foothold in the Roman Empire. Some think this is what ultimately lead to her brutal slaying. Others say it was more of political turmoil. Either, way her contributions to science and mathematics live on in infamy.
While I don't agree with all of her personal beliefs, I think it is awesome that women can date their intelligence and contributions to a time when the world was still trying to figure out if it was flat. That she had such a strong voice and was so respected for her time. That she stood up for what she believe in and was ultimately martyred for it.
I'm always interested in finding out what other people find inspiring so: What women in history or currently inspire you?
Recent history of course, but Princess Diana was a very special woman with wonderful values.
ReplyDeleteThank you,this was very interesting!
I recently watched a movie about her. It's called Agora and it stars Rachel Weisz. If you haven't already, you might want to check it out from Netflix. I didn't know anything about Hypatia until I watched it, and I was fascinated by her life.
ReplyDeleteThe sad fact is that there were probably many many more admirable women in history of whom we're probably not even aware.
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My friend wrote a novel inspired by her and that was my first exposure to her historically. It's humbling to know how hard women have fought for the freedoms we take for granted.
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I know very little about her but you've piqued my interest. Thanks. For me, there are so many women I admire that it would be hard to list just a few.
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How exciting to learn about a woman I had never before heard of. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad I read your post. I can see assigning a short research article to my daughter (who is homeschooled), who is studying this time period in world history at the moment. Thanks.
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