Hypatia: Knowledge and Power in Alexandria

100 Lives That Shaped the World · Episode 31

• Historical Biographies
• 40 min
• Ages 12–99
• 10 chapters

About this audiobook

A biography of Hypatia as mathematician, editor, philosopher, teacher, and civic adviser in a divided late Roman Alexandria, ending with her political murder and contested afterlife.

Why it's worth a listen

It recovers what the sparse sources support while correcting the invented image of a lone scientist killed for defending the Library of Alexandria.

A question to keep

How did Hypatia become powerful through teaching and knowledge, and why did later ages repeatedly remake the meaning of her murder?

Based on the book by Emma's Library, published by Emma's Library

Chapters

1. A Teacher in a Divided City
2. Alexandria After the Great Library
3. A Life Preserved by Others
4. Mathematics as Editing and Teaching
5. Neoplatonism in Public
6. Synesius and Instruments
7. Orestes, Cyril, and Urban Power
8. The Murder
9. Martyr for Whose Story
10. What Her Lost Work Still Teaches