Hypatia of Alexandria: v. 8 (Revealing Antiquity) - Hardcover

Dzielska, Maria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674437756 ISBN 13: 9780674437753

Verlag: Harvard University Press, 1995

Inhaltsangabe

Book by Dzielska Maria

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Críticas

A pithy and engaging attempt to state what we actually know about Hypatia. -- Carlin Romano "Philadelphia Inquirer" This gem of academic detective work may be the last word on a subject that has fascinated for centuries. -- Anthony Gottlieb "New York Times Book Review" Historians and patristic scholars as well as general readers should be grateful to Dzielska for this book which clarifies a dark and interesting spot in Church history. Through a subtle reading of the ancient sources, Dzielska reconstructs a powerful and persuasive account of Hypatia's life. She also addresses the difficult task of describing her philosophy...with engagement and finesse. -- Wilbur Knorr "Science" Like Cleopatra, Mary Magdalene, Joan of Arc...Hypatia has been retailored to suit the psychic needs of anybody retrospecting her, rational, romantic, nostalgic, or loony. In this book Dzielska demystifies Hypatia, sifting patiently through the original sources, from the "Sud" lexicon to the correspondence of Synesius of Cyrene. -- John Leonard "Nation" History fades to myth. Dzielska's aim in this book is to peel away those mythical images of Hypatia to examine the reality beneath. The result is a splendid example of demythologizing scholarship... It deserves to be read by anyone studying ancient gender or her time period and is a delight to read, in a translation which is light and natural. -- Richard Hawley "Classical Review" "Hypatia of Alexandria" is a clearly written, tightly focused book... In contrast to a number of earlier writers on Hypatia, Maria Dzielska is meticulous about disentangling fact from speculation; meticulous, too, about documenting her sources and leading her readers, via her footnotes, to a variety of interesting discussions about the various points at issue. -- J.J. MacIntosh "ISIS" Maria Dzielska has finally brought us definitive and sober research into who that grand historic figure really was, the circumstances of her life and scholarship, and the dynamics that led to her death. We shall be permanently indebted to Dzielska for her thorough research and for her highly readable book...If you are a historian, Greco-Roman scholar, Egyptologist, anthropologist, psychologist, theologian or a thoughtful person in any field who likes a good read...buy this book! -- J. Harold Ellens "Biblical Archaeology Review" Dzielska...provides here an exemplary 'retrieval' of the life and achievements of Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 335-415). Dzielska traces in detail the modern literary tradition of Hypatia--from the Enlightenment authors who claimed her as the last of the great pagan neoplatonists, through Victorian novelist Charles Kingsley, to today's feminists...The author portrays the close circle of her students and provides the context for her public lectures; she concludes with 35 sober pages on the 'life and death of Hypatia, ' interpreting her death as a kind of witch-burning in the transition from pagan Empire to Christian state. Dzielska is meticulous in her pursuit of facts from the widely scattered sources...The book as a whole is a model of feminist scholarship in its sorting out of legend from facts. Hypatia, an exceptional philosopher, mathematician and high profile public figure of late fourth and early fifth century Alexandria, ironically owes her fame in history to the violent and politically contentious nature of her death in 415 AD. From the moment she was brutally murdered by a mob of angry Christians, Hypatia became a legend, a figure who has ever since been used and manipulated by artists, writers, poets and feminists. Maria Dzielska in "Hypatia of Alexandria," explores who Hypatia was, what she believed, why she was killed and what she has come to symbolize in the centuries since...Dzielska's discussion of Hypatia has contributed to the understanding of women in late antiquity. Hypatia was an exceptional woman and has been of particular benefit to those interested in Christian and Roman/Hellenic history. The ideas commonly held regarding Hypatia have been strongly influenced and shaped by a tradition which used Hypatia as a symbol for its own attitudes and beliefs. Such details have created a veil over the true figure of Hypatia. This has effectively been removed by Dzielska revealing the historical Hypatia, an extraordinary woman, without the benefit of legend. -- P. Murphy "Ancient History"

Reseña del editor

Hypatia - mathematician, Neoplatonist and renowned beauty - was brutally murdered by a mob of Christians in Alexandria in 415. This volume searches behind the legend to provide a new perspective on Hypatia's life and death. Historians and poets, Victorian novelists and contemporary feminists have seen Hypatia as a symbol - of the waning of classical culture and freedom of inquiry, of the rise of fanatical Christianity or of sexual freedom. This text suggests that certain versions of Hypatia's legend have served to distort the true story. In order to correct this, it provides an examination of the culture of Alexandria of Hypatia, with its Library and Museion, pagan cults and the pontificate of Saint Cyril, Jewish community and Greek culture, and circles of philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers, and militant Christians. Drawing on the letters of Hypatia's pupil, Synesius of Cyrene, the book constructs a picture of the young philosopher's disciples and her teaching. Finally it draws on various sources to examine the facts surrounding Hypatia's cruel death, clarifying what the murder tells us about the tensions of this tumultuous era.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Harvard University Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0674437756
• ISBN 13: 9780674437753
• Einband: Tapa dura
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 176