But her teachings introduced ideas that were different from Christianity, which was becoming the main religion people followed. When Cyril, a new Christian bishop, came to power in A. Thanks to Hypatia, women had a public voice for the first time and proved that they could have intelligent thoughts just like men did. Her notes on math and astronomy helped modern mathematicians and astronomers come up with advanced theories that are still used today. All rights reserved.
Personality Quizzes. Funny Fill-In. Amazing Animals. Weird But True! Party Animals. Theophilus tore down the temple of Serapis, which may have housed the last scrolls, and built a church on the site.
Theon taught mathematics and astronomy to his daughter, and she collaborated on some of his commentaries. She was a mathematician and astronomer in her own right, writing commentaries of her own and teaching a succession of students from her home. Letters from one of these students, Synesius, indicate that these lessons included how to design an astrolabe, a kind of portable astronomical calculator that would be used until the 19th century. Her student Synesius would become a bishop in the Christian church and incorporate Neoplatonic principles into the doctrine of the Trinity.
Her public lectures were popular and drew crowds. Her association with him would eventually lead to her death. One of his first actions was to close and plunder the churches belonging to the Novatian Christian sect.
With Cyril the head of the main religious body of the city and Orestes in charge of the civil government, a fight began over who controlled Alexandria. Orestes was a Christian, but he did not want to cede power to the church. The struggle for power reached its peak following a massacre of Christians by Jewish extremists, when Cyril led a crowd that expelled all Jews from the city and looted their homes and temples.
Orestes protested to the Roman government in Constantinople. It is rather remarkable that Hypatia became head of the Platonist school at Alexandria in about AD.
There she lectured on mathematics and philosophy, in particular teaching the philosophy of Neoplatonism. Hypatia based her teachings on those of Plotinus , the founder of Neoplatonism, and Iamblichus who was a developer of Neoplatonism around AD. Plotinus taught that there is an ultimate reality which is beyond the reach of thought or language.
The object of life was to aim at this ultimate reality which could never be precisely described. Plotinus stressed that people did not have the mental capacity to fully understand both the ultimate reality itself or the consequences of its existence. Iamblichus distinguished further levels of reality in a hierarchy of levels beneath the ultimate reality. There was a level of reality corresponding to every distinct thought of which the human mind was capable.
Hypatia taught these philosophical ideas with a greater scientific emphasis than earlier followers of Neoplatonism. She is described by all commentators as a charismatic teacher. Hypatia came to symbolise learning and science which the early Christians identified with paganism.
However, among the pupils whom she taught in Alexandria there were many prominent Christians. One of the most famous is Synesius of Cyrene who was later to become the Bishop of Ptolemais. Many of the letters that Synesius wrote to Hypatia have been preserved and we see someone who was filled with admiration and reverence for Hypatia's learning and scientific abilities.
In Cyril later St Cyril became patriarch of Alexandria. However the Roman prefect of Alexandria was Orestes and Cyril and Orestes became bitter political rivals as church and state fought for control.
0コメント