MATHEMATICIAN

Life
Alexandrian Neoplatonist philosopher and mathematician, Hypatia was the daughter of the famous Greek mathematician Theon. After her early education in Alexandria, she studied in Athens with Proclus and Hierocles. On her return to Alexandria she began to teach philosophy and mathematics, lecturing not only from the works of Plato but also from Aristotle and all the most celebrated ancient thinkers. Her students included Troilus the Sophist, Hierocles and Synesius of Cyrene, who later became Bishop of Ptolemais. Hypatia is unique in the history of philosophy, for there has never been another woman philosopher either before or since. Historians praised her rare beauty, her exceptional intelligence, her courage and her skill in debate. Her principal interests seem to have been geometry (she was in fact known as the "Geometrician") and astronomy. Hypatia was barbarously murdered in 416, by a fanatical mob of the Christian followers of Patriarch Cyril of Alexandria who dragged her out of her house, paraded her through the streets, tore her clothes to shreds, hacked her body to pieces and threw them into a fire.


Work
Hypatia was also a practical scientist, and notably the inventor of an astrolabe (an instrument for determining the height of stars above the horizon) which Synesius constructed under her guidance.

Although her works are lost, the titles of some of them are known. These include:

"Commentary on Diophantus",

"Commentary on the Conics" of Apollonius of Perga

"Commentary on the Astronomical Canon": Correspondence with Synesius on a variety of scientific topics.