Hypatia

I was rather surprised by this statue in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. The work, made in 1873 by Howard Roberts, a native of Philadelphia, seems an odd way to represent Hypatia of Alexandria, the fifth-century Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. It hardly looks like a jacket picture for the author of a commentary on Diophantus’s 13 volume Arithmetica, or on Apollonius of Perga’s treatise on conic sections. Strikes me as more of a “Hello sailor” pose! However the sculpture was actually inspired by Charles Kingsley’s 1853 novel, Hypatia, which is based on the life of the same person. (Available at Project Gutenberg.) Set in the city of Alexandria in A.D. 415, the book tells the story of Hypatia, who, upholding the Roman Empire’s ancient pagan beliefs, dies at the hands of a bunch of monks who back her into a church and strip off her clothing before making an anti-martyr of her. Note at her feet a crucifix and censer. “We have ways of making a Christian out…