HYPATIA, (Lat.from Daughter of Theon, an astronomer and mathe matician of Alexandria and head of the Neo Platonic school in that city. early in the fifth 'century. She is famed alike for her beauty. her purity, her wisdom. and her tragic fate. Iler father gave her the best training the philosophy of the time eon hi furnish. and she succeeded him as lecturer at lexandria ; her fame drew stu dents from all parts of the East. where the in fluence of Greek thought and knowledge was felt. The citizens of Alexandria were proud of her, and such reliance was placed upon her judgment and sagacity that the magistrates used to consult her on important eases. Amon"' those who were most intimate with her was Orestes. prefect of the city. At this time the Bishop of Alexandria was Cyril (q.v.). whom and Orestes there had arisen a dissension on the question of jurisdiction. "It was commonly reported among the Christians," says Socrates, the Church his torian, "that it was by her 1101111'1We he (Orestes] was prevented from tieing reconciled with Cyril. Soffit` of them, therefore, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, harried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal. entered iota a conspiracy against
her; and observing her as she returned home in a carriage, they dragged her from it and carried her to a church called C;esarenni, where they completely stripped her and then murdered her with shells. After tearing her body to pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron. and there burned them," This I in March, 415. As at the time S•ncsius (q.v.) met her (abont 31)5) she had been for twenty years a fanants lecturer, and as she lived twenty years after that, she itinst have been at least sixty old when murdered. but in legend and fic tion she is represented as of unfaded physical charm. She is the heroine of Charles kimislev's Ilypatia, or New Foes with an Old 1S53). SyneF4as has preserved a few of her leittirs. Con sult Meyer. //y/urtia eon Alexandria, ein Itritrag zur aesehiehte des Neuplatonisnlus (Heidelberg, 1SSG).