Submitted by V. Berlis, May 26, 2007 01:01

?HYPATIA of Alexandria (355-415 AD), a daughter of Creon the mathematician, studied in Athens and finally
became the head of the neo-Platonic school in Alexandria, where she preached the doctrines of Plotinus,
devoting herself also to astronomy and mechanics. Her eloquence and erudition, combined with rare beauty and modesty, attracted a great number of aristocratic disciples to her classroom. Her lectures displeased theChristians, however, so they tore her from her chariot, stripped her, and flogged her naked through the city. Tiring of this, they dragged her into a Christian Church, cut her to pieces with oyster shells, and finally burned the body piecemeal in the street.
"Talk sense to fools and they think you foolish." Heraclitus, 400 BC

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