VII · Hypatia and the Last Schools · March 415 CE

The murder of Hypatia

Known · AttestedKnown · AttestedHer murderLegend · Told storyAny link to the Library

Hypatia, Theon's daughter, who revised her father's work on Ptolemy and taught Plato to the city's elite, is killed by a Christian mob in the feud between the prefect Orestes and Bishop Cyril. No ancient source connects her with the Library.

What the evidence supports: The link to the Library is modern. Her death did not end Alexandrian philosophy: the schools taught on for two centuries.

The witnesses

Hypatia and the LibraryThe ancient witnesses tell who she was and how she died, and none of them connects her with a library. The tellers who did came more than thirteen centuries later.
WitnessWrittenReferenceWhat it saysReadings
SynesiusNames it, no numberc. 395–413 CELetters 10, 15, 16, 46, 81, 124, 154Her pupil writes to her as teacher, for advice and for instruments.none
The event: March 415 CE
PhilostorgiusNames it, no numberc. 425–433 CEChurch History 8.9Says she was killed by the party of the homoousians.none
Socrates ScholasticusNames it, no numberc. 440 CEChurch History 7.13–15The fullest and nearest account: her teaching, the feud of Orestes and Cyril, the mob.none
DamasciusNames it, no numberc. 520–529 CEPhilosophical History fr. 43 Athanassiadi Quoted by Suda υ 166.A pagan philosopher's account, preserved in the Suda.none
John of NikiuNames it, no numberc. 680–700 CEChronicle 84.87–103Hostile: calls her a sorceress who beguiled the prefect.none
John TolandTeller of a legend1720Hypatia 1720Makes her a learned martyr torn apart by the clergy.none
VoltaireTeller of a legendfrom 1736Essays and the Dictionnaire philosophique from 1736Retells her death as a crime of fanaticism.none
Edward GibbonTeller of a legend1788Decline and Fall, ch. 47 1788Shapes the modern story of her death.none
Charles KingsleyTeller of a legend1853Hypatia 1853A novel of her last years.none
Carl SaganTeller of a legend1980Cosmos 1980Joins her death to the end of the Library.none
Alejandro AmenábarTeller of a legend2009Agora 2009A film that puts her at the sack of the Serapeum.none

Who and what

Told stories

Legend: told story

Hypatia, the last librarian

Carl Sagan's Cosmos ends its account of the Library's destruction with Hypatia's death, and so joins the two; later tellers make her its last librarian. Cosmos is the latest date for the link; who first made it is still to be dated from Watts 2017.

Told by Carl Sagan, Cosmos, 1980, more than fifteen centuries after her death

What the evidence supports

No ancient source supports it. Hypatia taught mathematics and Platonism in Alexandria and was killed by a Christian mob in March 415; no ancient source connects her with the Library or with any library, and the Serapeum had fallen more than twenty years before.

Sources (3)
  • Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 7.13–15
  • E. J. Watts, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)
  • M. Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995)
The Hall of Told Stories
Legend: told story

The end of ancient science

John Toland's Hypatia (1720) makes her a most learned and virtuous woman torn to pieces by the clergy of Alexandria. Voltaire and Gibbon follow him, and later tellers make her death the end of ancient science.

Told by John Toland, Hypatia, 1720, some thirteen centuries after her death

What the evidence supports

Her murder is attested; it was part of a feud between the prefect and the bishop. The schools of Alexandria went on teaching Plato, Aristotle and mathematics for two centuries after her.

Sources (3)
  • Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 7.15
  • E. J. Watts, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)
  • E. J. Watts, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006)
The Hall of Told Stories

In the show

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Sources (7)
  • Socrates Scholasticus, Church History 7.13–15
  • Damascius, Philosophical History fr. 43 Athanassiadi (Suda υ 166)
  • Philostorgius, Church History 8.9
  • John of Nikiu, Chronicle 84.87–103
  • Synesius, Letters 10, 15, 16, 46, 81, 124, 154
  • M. Dzielska, Hypatia of Alexandria (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995)
  • E. J. Watts, Hypatia: The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017)