Hypatia
...ht to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.” As Hypatia grew older, she had many marriage proposals but only involved herself in short term affairs. It was said that no man ever lived up to her mental abilities. She though said to have remained celibate her entire life. Always confused by what men though was so wonderful about the female body. She once was said to have gathered rags “stained during her period” and gave them to a man saying, “This is what you love, young man, it isn’t beautiful!” Hypatia became a wonderful teacher and public speaker because she could take the most complicated topic and explain it so simplistically. She was taught everything she knew in the land of Alexandria, which was the center of learning during this time. Scholars and intellects would travel from all over to exchange thoughts and ideas. Because of this she was very lucky. She became one of the most admired teachers of the time. She became the head of Neo-platonic school in Alexandria about 400 A.D. Though most of her work was lost but what we do know is from letters she wrote to one of her students, Synesius of Cyrene, who was a philosopher and later became a Christian bishop. Also there were many references to her work in other mathematician and astronomers texts. Hypatia taught mathematics and astronomy. Mostly Hypatia wrote commentaries on other texts on her subjects of interests. Her commentaries include: A Commentary on the Arithmetica of Diophantus A Commentary on the Almagest- which was the third book her father wrote. A Commentary on the conics of Apollonious- which divided cones into different parts by a plane. Basically she made original commentaries easier to understand which made resulted in these commentaries lasting many more years then they would have on their own. Through her correspondence with Synesius we know that she invented a device called an astrolabe, which is an instrument that determines the altitude of the stars and the planets. ...