Sivan, 'Hypatia of Alexandria', Bryn Mawr Classical Review 9507
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/bmcr/bmcr-9507-sivan-hypatia
@@@@95.7.7, Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria
Maria Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria. Revealing Antiquity no.8
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995. Pp. viii + 225
with index. ISBN 0-674-43775-6 $29.95
Reviewed by Hagith S. Sivan -- University of Kansas
Harvard's series Revealing Antiquity has presented the English-
speaking reader with a number of translations from several European
languages. A recent addition is Hypatia of Alexandria by Maria
Dzielska of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Much of the research
for this study was carried out at Dumbarton Oaks in 1990, and the work was
"adapted and translated [presumably from Polish] from the unpublished
manuscript" by F. Lyra. D. also is the author of Hypatia z
Aleksandrii (Cracow: Nakl. Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego, 1993).
There are several attractive features as one takes up this book: the
jacket illustration shows a work of Jim Dine (a curious but not altogether
inappropriate illustration of the service which contemporary art may
render to the classics); the general format and print are pleasing; and
the translation, as far as I can judge, is well done.
The closest that D. comes to stating the purpose of this slim volume is
a note in the preface: "I became filled with admiration for Hypatia's soul
and mind, I felt a need to learn more about this extraordinary Alexandrian
woman, scholar, and philosopher whose life and spiritual individuality
have sustained interest in her for many centuries" (p.vii). If D.
intended to produce a biography based on a consideration of the meagre
sources available, the book, within these limits, certainly achieves its
purpose. It is, on the whole, a useful introduction to Hypatia, her work,
her students, and her death. It also highlights the difficulties involved
in composing a biography of a person about whom we are remarkably
ill-informed.
The book begins with a brief survey of modern literary works, each with
its own embroidery, which have taken their inspiration from the story of
Hypatia. The list of sources, however, is far from complete: computerised
services such as the OCLC, for example, offer a staggering number of works
incorporating the title "Hypatia". Among these one discovers "The Hypatia
Club of Wichita" in my own state of Kansas, founded in 1886 as a women's
literary society.
D. shows that each author and every age has an Hypatia of its own -- a
fictitious creature made to serve the purposes of author and audience.
And here, the author perhaps has underestimated the influence of Charles
Kingsley's famed book, Hypatia, or New Foes with an Old Face, first
published in 1853 and reprinted many times since, which provides a rather
shrewd assessment of Hypatia's Alexandria. As for the historical Hypatia,
she, according to D., is largely due to Synesius of Cyrene, who in fact
threatens to supplant his teacher Hypatia as the main subject of this
study.
The second of the three chapters, "Hypatia and Her Circle," is devoted
to a reconstructed list of her students. D.'s treatment, largely
prosopographical, points to a handful of men about whom we know on the
whole very little and whose links with Hypatia are often rather tenuous.
We simply do not have the information to generate a reconstruction of a
network as Paul Petit has done for Libanius of Antioch and his students.
This section of the book inspires many questions. Did contacts with
Hypatia the teacher exert any influence over the students' choice of
career? How did her teaching relate to her position as a public figure in
the city? To what extent did her students give her visibility which
other, indeed most, women did not enjoy? How did a highly educated woman
with a school and a scholarly following operate in an environment largely
dominated by male "amicitia"? And here, Robert Kaster's model discussion
of the grammarian in the society of Late Antiquity could have served as a
useful guide.
One responsibility of teachers was to furnish letters of reference to
facilitate the admission of students to the right social circles and to
the job market. They also used their influence in other ways. Synesius
provides evidence indicating that Hypatia, too, provided such patronage on
the basis of her connections (p. 41). One case involved both Hypatia and
Theophilus, the bishop of Alexandria, as potential patrons of a man who
had lost his estate. Here is a suggestive link between two outstanding
public figures in late Roman Alexandria, and one which implies that when
in need, an individual did not make distinctions of creed (or gender) if
he had to enlist the help of either civic or religious community leaders.
What sort of circle, then, radiated from Hypatia? As a mentor she was
regarded, by Synesius at least, as "sacred" and "divine", epithets which
reflect admiration if not downright adulation (cf. Julian on the "most
divine" Iamblichus, Ep. 98, Bidez). She certainly became a model
of unattainable intellectual and moral virtues for her disciples, even
when the latter had to be acquired through somewhat unorthodox methods
(nicely illustrated by her display of sanitary napkins, presumably
drenched with blood, to cure a pupil of infatuation for her).
Can we reconstruct a "school" out of this group? The term requires
elucidation, particularly because Hypatia did not hold an official chair
(p. 57). It also would have been useful to explore other schools in
Alexandria at that time and the careers of a few contemporary
edukatoi, if only to highlight the unique place that Hypatia carved
out for herself.
Hypatia's teaching methods are again a matter of conjecture. She kept a
"secret schedule" of teaching (p. 58), a puzzling expression (at least foo
an ordinary academic), which implies a special bond between teacher and
some students. She clearly inspired them with a sense of exclusivity, as
can be surmised from the tone in which Synesius addressed his school
friends. Perhaps his intellectual snobbery can be traced to his
Alexandrian days.
Furthermore, where, precisely, did Hypatia teach? The sources offer a
few tantalising observations which, in spite of their obscurity, emphasise
one aspect of Hypatia's teaching style, namely its public character. Not
unlike a Socrates, Hypatia was evidently willing to explain philosophy to
whomever cared to listen. D. vehemently denies any such ready
availability (p. 57), but this sort of public appearance must have made
Hypatia into a highly visible and well-known public figure and could
contribute to a better understanding of her end.
The precise content of Hypatia's teaching can only be surmised. D. is
good in her attempt to reconstruct the teaching areas (p. 46f.) and
rightly supports Alan Cameron's emphasis on the wide range of the texts
examined, including local Egyptian myths which Synesius, of course, so
effectively used in his orations at the imperial court. The impact of
Hypatia's thought on the intellectual formation of her students, or more
precisely on that of Syne-sius, is equally difficult to assess in the
absence of Hypatia's writings and of a detailed analysis of Synesius'.
Synesius also provides a curious testimony to his family's continuing
educational affiliation with the school of Hypatia: apparently no less
than three members (Synesius, his brother and his uncle) studied with her.
What is even more significant is the Christian affiliation of nearly all
her attested or hypothetical students. This would suggest that quality
education was still valued above the specific religious affiliation of the
educator.
Assuming that Hypatia drew students from affluent backgrounds and from
well-connected families, can we further assume that she "occupied a strong
political and social as well as cultural position in Alexandria"? (p.
38). Perhaps. The role of philosophers as highly visible conveyers of
public opinion has been recently expounded by Peter Brown in his Power
and Persuasion. Hypatia's circle included key political figures in the
city, a circumstance which contributed to her civic and social standing.
Her public lectures, in this case, served as a means of communication with
the widest possible audience. Did they also draw people away from church
services and episcopal sermons?
In the third and last chapter the life and death of Hypatia are
recounted. The first part of the chapter speculates about her date of
birth (c. 355?) and that of her father (c. 335?), as well as about her
intellectual formation in the house of Theon. Once more we see how ill
informed we are about Hypatia's "life"--we do not even know her mother's
name. Can we assume, for example, that her father wished to found an
educational dynasty, based on the availability of a worthy heir? There
were several such dynasties in the professorial world of Late Antiquity
although, to the best of my knowledge, Hypatia is the only daughter to
have inherited a father's mantle. The absence of Hypatia from the
philosophical biographies of Eunapius makes the reconstruction of a
Hypatian biography even more difficult.
Inevitably, the emphasis of the chapter falls on Hypatia's death, an
event which all the sources commemorated with greater or lesser attention
to details. Hypatia's gruesome end, told with relish by the
ecclesiastical historian Socrates, highlights the increasing role which
the bishops of Alexandria assumed in the city. While the identity of her
assailants cannot be established, the planning of the murder has been laid
at the door of Cyril, elected bishop of Alexandria in 412.
From the very start of his episcopal career Cyril had flexed his
muscles in a blatant campaign to establish his control over not only the
ecclesiastical but also the civil affairs of the city. He led a Christian
mob against the synagogues, drove the Jewish population away, and invited
his followers to seize their property (K. Holum, Theodosian Empresses
[Berkeley 1982], 98). This was a gamble, but under Pulcheria's pious
auspices Cyril exploited the anti-semiticism of the court at
Constantinople and got away with a lame excuse. This hardening of the
imperial policies vis-a-vis the Jewish communities is reflected in the
legislation: CTh 16.8.9 of CE 393 tried to curb the looting and
destruction of synagogues, but CTh 16.8.22, of 415, shows how this
enlightened approach had been reversed.
The violent, unauthorised, and forced expulsion of the Alexandrian Jews
also produced a clash of interests between the bishop and the highest
civil authority in Egypt, the prefect Orestes. I doubt, however, whether
Hypatia "shared with Orestes the conviction that the authority of bishops
should not extend to areas meant for imperial and municipal
administration" (p. 88). Other than her attested friendship with the
prefect, we have no idea of her opinions regarding the roles of the church
and state with regard to municipal policies.
Whoever was responsible for the public campaign that was launched
against Hypatia shortly before her death attempted at first to undermine
her position with accusations of magic and witchcraft. How many were
convinced by such a banal stratagem is unclear, nor was Hypatia brought to
trial. Perhaps the failure of this campaign brought the more extreme
reaction of resorting to physical violence. More curious, and worthy of
further exploration, is the supposed connection between Hypatia's murder
and the Jewish-Christian conflict in the city in 414.
After Cyril gained the first round in the "truceless war" which raged
between his followers and the local authorities in Alexandria, Orestes
continued to be a target of abuse and even of physical assaults (Holum,
op. cit. 99). Cyril's aim was apparently to dislodge the prefect
and to secure the appointment of a more malleable candidate. Since
Orestes survived the repeated attacks on his person, his office, and even
his alleged paganism, Cyril had to devise different strategies. It may
not be a coincidence that the fatal attack on Hypatia was launched and
executed in public, with a degree of violence that can be interpreted as a
deliberate campaign to terrorise Orestes. According to Socrates, the
actual murder took place in a church which had once been a temple.
Evidently, once more Cyril's dangerous game paid off. The murder of
Hypatia galvanised the city council to send a delegation to the imperial
court, apparently to demand a curb on Cyril's more lawless subordinates.
The reaction of the court did not differ from its stand in Jewish affairs.
It granted partial and limited relief only, and withdrew even this
concession to public order less than two years later (CTh 16.2.42;
43; with Holum, Empresses, 99-100). Cyril was thus firmly
entrenched in his position not only as the ecclesiastical leader of Egypt
but also as a power in imperial politics. Here, an analysis of the
Orestes-Cyril episode could have benefitted from the recent Ambrose of
Milan of Neil McLynn, who highlights the intricacies of the relations
between bishops and emperors against the background of Milanese politics.
The scene of Hypatia's murder raises further questions about the nature
of her "paganism" and of late ancient "paganism" in Alexandria. Just how
"pagan" was Hypatia in a city where militant paganism found expressions in
passionate defence of pagan monuments like the Serapeum and in bitter
verbal attacks on Christianity? How does Hypatia fit into the "pagan"
intellectual community which produced poets like Claudian and Palladas and
possibly even historians like Ammianus Marcellinus? How did Hypatia's
death affect the relationships between the pagan and the Christian
communities in the city, if at all? D. assumes that Hypatia's absence
from the Serapeum episode indicates her non-militant paganism. Perhaps.
It is rather ironic in this case that she, and the Serapeum, came to so
violent an end.
Hypatia lived during a turbulent period in the history of the late
empire. We are therefore entitled to ask how a biography of a person
whose life, in spite of impressive intellectual attainments, largely
passed in the margins of major events and far from imperial centers of
power, can enhance our understanding of her society and her era?
One approach would be to analyse Hypatia's recorded activities against
the information which we have regarding female literacy, the social role
and involvement of women in major contemporary trends, and the issue of
women in public. The violent reaction of Cyril's dedicated henchmen to
Hypatia in public is, to a degree, reminiscent of a similarly violent
incident which befell another woman, Poemenia, (in the 380s or 390s) and a
comparison of the two incidents is not without its uses.
Poemenia, an affluent and pious Christian lady embarked on a pilgrimage
to Egypt in order to pay her respects to the holy men of the day, the
famed monks of the Egyptian desert (Palladius, HL 35). On her way to
Alexandria, and not far from the city, her considerable entourage
(including a private priest) was attacked by a mob who may not have liked
this sort of public display of female piety. In the brawl which ensued,
Poemenia's followers suffered injuries and even death.
Both Poemenia and Hypatia did not conform to the prevalent expectations
of how women, Christian or intellectual, should behave. The display of
conspicuous charity toward monks, like that of Melania the Elder in Egypt
in the 370s, might be acceptable, but public appearances of the sort that
Poemenia and Hypatia provided clearly were not. Here, then, are three
contemporary women, each in the public eye, but each evoking a different
type of reaction from male observers.
Another approach might be to examine the climate of violence in
contemporary Alexandria where not only humans but also buildings were
often under attack. Indeed, the aggression displayed towards Hypatia and
Poemenia hardly seems an exception against a long record of aggressive
violence emerging from all segments of society.
Furthermore, in Hypatia's case one needs further to ask how female
teachers practised their profession. In other words, how did advanced
female literacy function in a society which put a premium on male
education and literacy? Hypatia, of course, is not the only woman
intellectual of whom we have some information, but her public teaching
sets her apart from Christian female authors like Proba, whose biblical
cento circulated primarily among younger members of her own family,
the Anicii (Sivan, Vigiliae Christianae, 1993). Jerome's complex
intellectual exchange with his female correspondents and patrons shows his
own struggle with the idea of a woman as a teacher in public. Hypatia's
success, therefore, may have created hostility in Alexandrian circles
which preferred to restrict the woman educator to her own home or monastic
establishment.
And what of Hypatia's reputation for dedicated virginity in an age that
put such a premium on sexual renunciation? Aside from a curious late
story which marries her off to Isidore, a famed philosopher and teacher in
the middle of the fifth century, all the sources agree on Hypatia's moral
stand and uncompromised celibacy. Why, then, was a virginal vocation in an
intellectual public figure so unpalatable to the very same crowd which
paid homage to the sanctified virgins of the desert?
Here, as elsewhere, the answer may lie in the prominence of Hypatia as
a public figure rather than in her "paganism". Did she invite martyrdom
by maintaining her way of life in spite of mounting opposition? Her
activities do not reflect an image of a militant "paganism" but her
constant visibility, as well as her close association with the
representatives of the imperial government, contributed to the formation
of a mythical Hypatia, a woman formidable enough to undermine the bishop
of Alexandria, and enchanting enough to capture the imagination of
generations of artists and readers.