Birth
Born in Alexandria
Born in Alexandria to the mathematician Theon, who trained her in geometry and astronomy.
Words
“Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.”
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Hypatia led the Neoplatonist school of Alexandria, lectured on Plato and Aristotle to students who came from across the Mediterranean, and wrote commentaries on mathematics and astronomy that were used for centuries. She designed instruments, an astrolabe and a hydrometer among them, and held a position of unusual public authority for a woman of her age. In 415 she was caught in the violent politics between the city's prefect and its bishop and was murdered by a mob. Her death is often read as a closing of the ancient mind, though the truth is more tangled and more human.
