Last week, Nancy and I acquired a senior cat. It’s previous owner was a little elderly woman who had a stroke and unfortunately would not leave the nursing home. 

When we got the cat home, we wanted to change the cat’s name from Penny to something more appropriate. I wanted to give it an unusual name like, Artemis, or Athena, but nothing worked. Since they say you should wait a little while to see what a cat’s personally is, and then name it, we were in no hurry, especially since it was hard of hearing. But we could see the cat was intelligent, and a quick study. 

Then this morning I came up with a new name, Hypatia. Why Hypatia? Who was Hypatia?

Hypatia lived in Alexandria, Egypt from 370 to 415 AD. She was a brilliant woman; she was a Neoplatonist, taught mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and the sciences. She was probably the first feminist.

During its day, Alexandria was a cultural center of the known world. It held a great library, built by Ptolemy I. The library at Alexandria was the center of learning throughout the known world, and scholars from all over the world descended on the library, which held the  only editions of all the known works of famous people, to study its vast collection of manuscripts. 

This collection included works from the Pre-socratics to manuscripts of the latest scientists of the day, historians, and mathematicians including the only copies of Sophocles, Euclid, and so on. Most of these manuscripts could not be found anywhere else. They were the only copies. 

Hypatia was a popular teacher, loved by her students, and her education threatened the rulers of the day. They especially threatened Bishop Cyril, the head-Christian church leader of Alexandria. Her teachings contradicted the teachings of the Church. 

According to Scholar Wendy Slatkin, Hypatia ‘s father Theon refused to impose upon his daughter the traditional role assigned to women, and he raised her as one would have raised a son in the Greek tradition, by teaching her his own trade, mathematics and astronomy.

Finally Cyril had enough of this “uppity” woman. He set a mob of Christians after Hypatia. They stoned her to death in 415. Then this monster according to legend, set fire to the Library of Alexandria. He destroyed original manuscripts. Many works of writers like Sophocles and Euclid were lost. It was as if Hitler burnt the only copies of Shakespeare. Imagine the incredible loss to history,. 

Hypatia reminds us that there are many Bishop Cyrils around today. Christians and Republicans routinely banned and burn books. They want to keep “uppity” women in their place. Barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. 

Hypatia reminds us that we don’t learn from history. We don’t learn from Hypatia. As the old expression says, “Those that don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”