- MODERN EUROPEAN WOMEN 81
Hypatia. There are two primary sources for information about the life of Hypatia.
One is a passage in a seven-book history of the Christian Church written by Socrates
Scholasticus, who was a contemporary of Hypatia but lived in Constantinople; the
other is an article in the Suda, an encyclopedia compiled at the end of the tenth
century, some five centuries after Hypatia.^7 In addition, several letters of Synesius,
bishop of Ptolemais (in what is now Libya), who was a disciple of Hypatia, were
written to her or mention her, always in terms of high respect. In one letter
he requests her, being in the "big city," to procure him a scientific instrument
(hygrometer) not available in the less urban area where he lived. In another he
asks her judgment on whether to publish two books that he had written, saying
If you decree that I ought to publish my book, I will dedicate it to
orators and philosophers together. The first it will please, and to
the other it will be useful, provided of course that it is not rejected
by you, who are really able to pass judgment. If it does not seem
to you worthy of Greek ears, if, like Aristotle, you prize truth more
than friendship, a close and profound darkness will overshadow it,
and mankind will never hear it mentioned. [Fitzgerald, 1926]
The account of Hypatia's life written by Socrates Scholasticus occupies Chap-
ter 15 of Book 7 of his Ecclesastical History. Socrates Scholasticus describes Hy-
patia as the pre-eminent philosopher of Alexandria in her own time and a pillar of
Alexandrian society, who entertained the elite of the city in her home. Among that
elite was the Roman procurator Orestes. There was considerable strife at the time
among Christians, Jews, and pagans in Alexandria; Cyril, the bishop of Alexan-
dria, was apparently in conflict with Orestes. According to Socrates, a rumor was
spread that Hypatia prevented Orestes from being reconciled with Cyril. This ru-
mor caused some of the more volatile members of the Christian community to seize
Hypatia and murder her in March of 415.
The Suda devotes a long article to Hypatia, repeating in essence what was
related by Socrates Scholasticus. It says, however, that Hypatia was the wife of the
philosopher Isodoros, which is definitely not the case, since Isodoros lived at a later
time. The Suda assigns the blame for her death to Cyril himself.
Yet another eight centuries passed, and Edward Gibbon came to write the story
in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapter XLVII). In Gibbon's version
Cyril's responsibility for the death of Hypatia is reported as fact, and the murder
itself is described with certain gory details for which there is no factual basis. (The
version given by Socrates Scholasticus is revolting enough and did not need the
additional horror invented by Gibbon.)
A fictionalized version of Hypatia's life can be found in a nineteenth-century
novel by Charles Kingsley, bearing the title Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face.
What facts are known were organized into an article by Michael Deakin (1994) and
a study of her life by Maria Dzielska (1995).
3. Modern European women
Women first began to break into the intellectual world of modern Europe in the
eighteenth century, mingling with the educated society of their communities, but
not allowed to attend the meetings of scientific societies. The eighteenth century
(^7) This work bears the traditional name Suidas, erroneously thought to be the name of the person
who compiled it.