The Murder of Hypatia: The Pagan Noblewoman

Hypatia was the daughter of Theon of Alexandria, the last known teacher of the Mystery Schools.  She is thought to of been born in 370 C.E.  Theon was headmaster at the Museum of Alexandria.  The place was dedicated to a higher education of learning, embodying a “sacred art” of astronomy, lyric poetry, history and diverse subjects such as:  geometry, sacred dance, herbology, engineering, and medicine.

In the year 400, Hypatia assumed the chair of mathematics at the university school.  This was a salaried position, equivalent to professorship in a modern university.  She was known for her skill in theurgy, literally “god-working.”  When it came to debating ideas about the divine, “Hypatia eclipsed in argument every proponent of the Christian doctrines in Northern Egypt.  Her expertise in theology typified the Pagan intellectual class of Gnostics, “those who understand divine matters, knowing as the gods know.”  Her openness won her the admiration of the townsfolk. 

 The word philosophy means “love (philo) of wisdom (Sophia).”  To Gnostics, Sophia was a revered divinity, the goddess whose story they recounted in their sacred cosmology.  To the people of her time, Hypatia would have been wisdom incarnate.

The Mysteries provided a framework for education.  The gnostokio were prolific writers that produced a thousand scrolls stored in the Royal Library of Alexandria.  Hypatia is known to have written a treatise on arithmetic, commentaries on the Astronomical Canon of Ptolemy, and the conic sections of Apollonius of Perga.  None of her writings survive.

Hypatia was active in civic affairs dominated by men.  She was opposed by Cyril, the Christian bishop of Alexandria.  Cyril regarded her as a heretic and her very existence posed a threat to him.  Cyril would be rumored to of ordered her murder.  Her murder marked the end of Paganism and the dawn of the Dark Ages.

In March of 415, Hypatia entered a public square near the Cesarean Church where Christian Converts were known to gather.  She drove her own chariot, which was unheard of for a woman to do in that time.  Her path was blocked by a menacing crowd.  At the head of the group was Peter the Reader, whom was a believer of Christianity and whom admired Cyril.

Cyril’s protégés openly attacked Pagan doctrines.  One of his protégés was prosecuted by a local prefect that Hypatia had sided with.  Cyril had an axe to grind with Hypatia.  Peter exhorted the crowd to throw tiles at Hypatia and pull her from the chariot.  She struggled to free herself.  The crowd stripped off her robes.  The violence escalated as Peter the Reader fed the attack with shouts calling her a vile heretic and a witch.

Hypatia cried for help while members of the local populace stood by helplessly.  She was beaten and blood surrounded her body.  The mob dismembered her body and used razor-sharp oyster shells to remove her flesh.  When the men were done, they took the bones to a place called Cindron and burned them to ashes.

Cyril would become an important theologian known for formulating the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.  He was later canonized by the Church as one of the so-called Church Fathers, men whose theological polemics and histories of the One True Faith celebrate its triumph over “heretics” such as Hypatia.  The Roman Church’s mission was to annihilate all traces of Pagan and Gnostic literature.  The religious beliefs of the Christians also inspired and legitimated their genocidal acts towards non-Christians.  The cult of righteousness took root and spread it’s vileness to all parts of the world today.

Reference~ Not In His Image by John Lamb Lash