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2) "After studying the epigram some scholars, such as Wolfgang Meyer, have inferred that there were two Hypatias: Theon's daughter, at the turn of the fourth and fifth centuries, and Erythrius' daughter, in the second half of the fifth century. This conclusion, however, is only partly correct, for we know that there were more women named Hypatia, including a benefactress of the church in the mid-fifth century . . . . The name was by no means uncommon, and it was not confined to pagan women." page 23
3) "This brief survey indicates that Hypatia's closest, most loyal students were people who later held high imperial or ecclesiastical positions. Of even greater significance is evidence that agents of the imperial power arriving in Alexandria became close acquaintances of Hypatia and most likely attended her lectures." page 38
4) "Moving in high government circles, surrounded by imperial and town dignitaries and by wealthy, well-born, and influential students, Hypatia must have had some voice in town affairs and have influenced political and social life in Alexandria." page 41
5) "But their diverse places of origin do much to confirm the testimony of our chief historian, Socrates Scholasticusm to the effect that "everyone who wanted to study philosophy flocked to her from all directions." " page 44
6) "Thus, close association with Hypatia did not prevent Synesius from strengthening his ties with Christianity (both in Alexandria and in Cyrene); just as spiritual rapport with Theophilus, a Christian marriage, baptism, and a growing affirmation of his faith did not alter his attitude toward his woman teacher. Epistle 154, his longest letter to Hypatia, dates from the end of 404 or 406, its affectionate tone apparently undiminished by his recently established association with the church.
The reborn and deepened religiously of the student did not change the teacher's attitude toward him. Neither do we notice that his close affiliation with Hypatia provoked any conflicts with Bishop Theophilus." page 46
7) ". . . . for Damascius reports that her mathematical achievements were highly appreciated at the beginning of the sixth century . . ." page 55
8) "Socrates' much-disputed claim that Hypatia "succeeded to the Platonic school derived from Plotinus" probably means that she was conducting a small educational establishment of a closed philosophical circle, which in her day was common practice among renowned philosophers." page 56
9) "This means that Hypatia was teaching publicly in the sense that - besides teaching a narrow circle of "initiates" - she also delivered lectures for a wider public." page 57
"This type of lecture Hypatia may have also conducted outside her house, in various lecture halls of the city." page 57
10) "This proud Greek aristocrat (as Kingsley correctly characterized her), though clad in the modest mantle of the philosopher, gathered around her a circle of young adepts living in a moral order circumscribed by philosophy, convinced that they were made of better clay than others." pages 60-61
11) ". . . neither Hypatia nor her well-born friends would intervene with influential figures on behalf of individuals from lower strata of society." page 61
12) "Hypatia must have shared Synesius' views: breathing air filled with the highest ideas of Hellenic paideia, they scorned monks because the latter rejected the Hellenic traditions. Thus it seems fairly certain that in Alexandria Hypatia's intellectual views and her circle's isolation were not universally well regarded." page 61- 62
13) "Cameron correctly observes that "for all his enthusiasm for the Chaldean Oracles and his talk of 'ineffable mysteries' Synesius was essentially a cultural rather than a religious Hellenist. So indeed was Hypatia. Nowhere in the sources is she identified as a devout pagan, and her lectures, though described in mystical-religious terms, did not include theurgic ritualism so characteristic of groups cultivating the post-Iamblichan tradition of philosophy." page 63
14) "In my view, a far more powerful reason for the secrecy of Hypatia's circle than its elitism was the depth of the experiences they shared." page 64
15) "Church historians today express great respect for Cyril as a theologian and dogmatist, but his contemporaries perceived him differently. The source describe him an impetuous, power-hungry man more relentless in pursuit of authority than his predecessor and uncle; he aroused strong opposition in Egypt." page 84
16) "Socrates, to whom we owe our knowledge about these events, remarks that Cryil's election brought a gradual but significant extension of episcopal authority to public, municipal affairs. He began with a battle for the purity of the faith by moving against groups that did not hold orthodox beliefs. He expelled the Novatians from the city, closing their churches, confiscating their liturgical objects, and depriving their bishop of all rights.
Next he turned against the Jews. Socrates relates that in his action against them, Cyril took advantage of events initiated by the Jews themselves." page 85
17) Through her former students, "Hypatia's influence, then, reached as far as Constantinople, Syria, and Cyrene." page 89
18) "Damascius, who knew much more about Hypatia's important position in Alexandria than we do, did not hesitate to elaborate on this point: he states briefly and unequivocally that the whole city "doted on her and worshipped her." She was also showered with civic honors. Cyril could not even dream of such adulation; he was unwanted and disliked from the moment he ascended to the bishopric. He perceived his weakness, and he was afraid he might lose in the struggle against Orestes. But he also knew he had the backing of the clergy, the monks, some members of the intellectual elite (like Hierax), and perhaps, the city council. Finally, he could count on the pollon plethos who had helped him in the destruction of the Jewish dwellings.
These were the men who supported the patriarch's cause, who would not hesitate to undertake action to save it. Hypatia was neither popular nor celebrated among the Alexandrian populace at large. Together with her students she separated herself from the demos; she did not direct her energy teaching to the masses, and she had no influence among them. Nor were there any reasons for the pagan groups in the city to consider her an allay; they remembered her lack of interest in traditional beliefs during their most recent struggle to preserve the Hellenic religion.
Cryil's people found a way to exploit Hypatia's detachment from the common people: they devised a subtle scheme of negative propaganda among the urban mob. John of Nikiu relates that they portrayed her as a witch and imputed to her the worst type of sorcery - black magic - which drew the severest punishment not only in the legal system of the Christian empire; it was as old as the Twelve Tables. Rumors of the practice of black magic spawned devastating fear among ordinary people, who were accordingly ever ready to take violent and ruthless action against sorcerers.
Alexandrians thus learned that the famous woman philosopher was in reality an abominable messenger of hell, "devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes, and instruments of music." The ecclesiastical propagandists thus imbued one tendentious little story about a sorceress with information about Hypatia's mathematical and astronomical research, her philosophical and religious interests, and anecdotes circulating about her in the city. To authenticate the information about Hypatia's forbidden practices it sufficed to refer to her father's preoccupation with astrology and magic, his writings on the interpretation of dreams, and the Alexandrians astrologists' calls at their house Heychius, aware of what lay at the core of the people's agitation, states unequivocally that it was astronomy that sealed her fate - understood, of course, as astrology alloyed with black magic and divination.
Through such manipulations Hypatia was presented as a dangerous witch casting satanic spells on many people of the city: "she beguiled many people through [her] satanic wiles." " pages 90-91
19) "Relying on the most important sources and their analysis, we may thus state unequivocally that the conflict between Orestes and Cyril was concluded in a manner and for a reason known and used for ages: murder for a political purpose." page 94
20) "It was surely the parabolans, the patriarch's "guard," who committed the murder of Hypatia. They were the chief propagators of the falsehoods about her sorcery; it was they who appeared with the monks at Theophilus' side when he was destroying paganism in Alexandria, they who led the mob with which he attacked the Jewish quarters, and they who committed the violence at the Council of Ephesus." page 96
21) "But Cyril must be held to account for a great deal, even if we assume that the murder was contrived and executed by the parabolans, without his knowledge. For there is no doubt that he was a chief instigator of the campaign of defamation against Hypatia, fomenting prejudice and animosity against the woman philosopher, rousing fear about the consequences of her alleged black-magic spells on the prefect, the faithful of the Christian community, and indeed the whole city.
However directly or indirectly he was involved, Cyril violated the principles of the Christian moral order, which he was bound to nurture and uphold. . . . Cyril, his ambition thwarted, consumed by frustration and envy, became a dangerous man." page 97-98
22) "But the murder of Hypatia, a sixty-year-old woman, widely esteemed for her wisdom and ethical virtue, was not only an act of hatred but also a criminal offense warranting a swift and severe response from those charged with upholding the law. As Damascius asserts, that response never came; those who committed the crime went unpunished and brought notable disgrace upon their city.
It is not surprising that the source on Hypatia are so few, and so sparing and generally oblique in their accounts. One reason is surely the esoteric nature of her teaching (cultivated by her disciples). But the most important reason is that as early as the fourth century Christian historians had achieved predominance, and most likely they were ashamed to write about her fate. Although Damascius, one of the few remaining pagan authors, expresses horror at the thought of her last moments and claims that the Alexandrians remembered the event long afterward, others were not inclined to inform posterity about this painful event in the history of Alexandria and the Alexandrian church." page 99
23) "We have established that Hypatia was born about A.D. 355, and not, as customarily held, around 370. When she died in 415 she was of an advanced age, around sixty years old." page 102
"She was a resident of Alexandria, from a prominent family. Her father was a well-known scientist, a member of the Museion, a writer, a philosopher interested in Hermetic and Orphic tests." page 102
"Hypatia's private classes and public lectures also included mathematics and astronomy, which primed the mind for speculation on higher epistemological levels. Her lectures took place either at her house (where they sometimes attracted crowds of admirers) or in the city's lecture halls. Occasionally she participated in the activities of the polis, serving as an esteemed adviser on current issues to both municipal and visiting imperial officials. She possessed great moral authority; all our sources agree that she was a model of ethical courage, righteousness, veracity, civic devotion, and intellectual prowess." page 103
"These rigorous moral principles, when enrolled in the service of the secular faction in the conflict between the patriarch Cyril and the perfect Orestes, aroused alarm and fear in ecclesiastical circles." page 103-104
"Men in Cyril's employment assassinated Hypatia." page 104
"In any case it would have been difficult to challenge or persecute Hypatia on the basis of her paganism, for unlike her contemporary fellow philosophers, she was not an active, devoted pagan." page 105
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