Hypatia of Alexandria
A film by Patty Mooney
The philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and teacher of antiquity’s last great city of learning.
Hypatia of Alexandria brings to life one of antiquity’s most remarkable women, the philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and teacher who became a celebrated intellectual figure in Alexandria during the final centuries of the ancient world.
Through evocative imagery and historical atmosphere, filmmaker Patty Mooney imagines Hypatia in the city where she taught philosophy, explored mathematics and astronomy, and attracted students from across the Mediterranean world. Surrounded by scrolls, celestial instruments and the grandeur of ancient Alexandria, Hypatia emerges as a woman devoted to reason, learning and the pursuit of knowledge in an era of profound religious and political change.
- A film by
- Patty Mooney
- Setting
- Alexandria, Egypt, late 4th and early 5th century CE
- Studio
- New & Unique Videos®
Watch the film
Her work
Alexandria had been the Mediterranean’s capital of learning for seven centuries when Hypatia began to teach there. She carried that tradition in three directions at once.
The teacher
She led a school of Neoplatonist philosophy and lectured on Plato and Aristotle to students from across the Mediterranean. One of them, Synesius of Cyrene, went on writing to her for years after he left the city.
The mathematician
Trained by her father, the mathematician Theon, she worked on the central texts of Greek mathematics. Ancient sources credit her with commentaries on Diophantus’s Arithmetica and Apollonius’s Conics.
The astronomer
She worked with Theon on his edition of Ptolemy’s astronomy. When Synesius later described an astrolabe he had made, he credited what she had taught him.
Her life
The ancient world changed around her. Old institutions were fading, and the city’s religious and political rivalries were turning violent.
- c. 355–370 CE
Born in Alexandria, daughter of the mathematician and astronomer Theon.
- c. 400 CE
Teaching philosophy, mathematics and astronomy in Alexandria. Her students include Synesius of Cyrene, a future bishop.
- 415 CE
Hypatia’s life ends violently, when she is murdered by a mob during a period of intense civic and religious conflict.
More than sixteen centuries later, her name endures as a symbol of intellectual curiosity, independent thought and the enduring human desire to understand the universe.
About the film
- Title
- Hypatia of Alexandria
- Filmmaker
- Patty Mooney, multi-award-winning filmmaker, producer, editor and poet
- Subject
- Hypatia, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and teacher (died 415 CE)
- Studio
- New & Unique Videos®