Feminist Questions, and a Visit to Hypatias World

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Feminist Questions,and a Visit to Hypatias
World
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1. How are women and men both part of every
question affecting human society?

• Examples of questions why does war exist?, how
  is wealth created?, who are the most famous
  people in history?, how do people obtain their
  daily needs?, etc.
• If men and women are both part of every question,
  they must both be part of every answer too.

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2. In any situation, structure, or history, who
is excluded, marginalized, silenced, or erased?

• Look for multiple vectors, not just one - for
  instance, if women are marginalized, does that
  affect poor and rich women equally? Black and
  white women equally? Lesbians and heterosexual
  women equally? If all women are denied all
  education, the answer is no but if wealthy women
  have access to education, the equation changes.
  And if wealthy women only have access to
  education if they are married, the equation
  changes once again.

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3. Who set up this social system? Who benefits
from it? Who had no say in how it works?

• This may be the most significant of all the
  guidelines, because if you answer this one you
  have an angle to answer all the others.
• When asking this question, always look beyond the
  rationale of those who benefit from the system.

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3a. Example of Rationalization

• The metaphor that Hindu Brahmins (priests) have
  articulated for representing the caste system
  analogizes the social body to the human body.
  Note that neither the sudras (legs in this
  picture) nor the outcastes (not pictured, but you
  can imagine where/what they would be) designed
  this system, which benefits the head that
  developed it.

Illustration of Caste System, from ISKON website
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4. Who is structurally ensured to have their
interests represented? Who is structurally
ensured of having their interests ignored? Who
has to negotiate, and how, to have their
interests represented?

• Example While we in the US think we live with a
  one person, one vote system of democracy, are
  there people who get more political say than just
  their one vote? Consider, for instance, CEOs,
  lobbyists, homeless people, super delegates

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5. In any given system, who/what is at the
center, who/what is at the periphery/margin?
Can/does the periphery influence the center, and
vice-versa?
Periphery margin that which is marginalized
is often devalued. However, there may well be
more energy on the edge than in the center
consider how circular movement works
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6. What is the relation between the structure of
a system, and the personal relations within it?

• This is important as it defines the difference
  between structural inequality and personal
  animus.
• This question also lets us know that having good
  personal relations within a bad system is
  insufficient to address the social inequities
  having a good master does not justify slavery.

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7. Is there a distinction between the public and
private spheres?How is it articulated, and who
isassigned to each sphere?

• Remember that one of the key insights of the
  Womens Liberation Movement of the 1960s and
  1970s was the personal is the political
• Consider how pets are placed in the private
  sphere while feral dogs and cats are placed in
  the public sphere (albeit as a nuisance)

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8. What is natural? When the natural is defined,
what is made unnatural? Who names these
distinctions?

• Religious cosmologies often declare what is
  natural as well as what is out-of-harmony with
  the natural order.
• If womens function is cosmologically
  circumscribed as being about reproduction only,
  then biology destiny. Alternatively, this
  could be critiqued as a false naturalism
• Quote of shame Robert A. Wilson, author of
  Feminine Forever wrote that "The unpalatable
  truth must be faced that all postmenopausal women
  are castrates"

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Hypatias Alexandria
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Hypatia of Alexandria (ca. 360-415)

• Daughter of Theon
• A philosopher, teacher, astronomer, and leading
  citizen of a multi-cultural Alexandria
• Practitioner of Roman paganism
• Philosophically a neo-Platonist
• Brutally murdered by a mob of Christian monks

There is no known portrait of Hypatia, this one
is often used because it shows a middle-aged
woman of that time period..
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Hypatias father, Theon

• Hypatia was the daughter of the last head of the
  Library at Alexandria, the geometrician Theon
  (ca. 330-ca.405). Theon is most famous for
  editing the edition of Euclid that survived until
  modern times. The Library was closed by an edict
  of the Roman Emperor, meant to favor Christianity
  (which had become the official religion of the
  Empire in 315).

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Emperor Theodosius and the Decree of Bishop
Theophilus
Emperor Bishop Theodosius
Theophilus
standing
atop the
ruins of the
Serapeum

• In 391 the Christian Roman Emperor Theodosius
  declared all pagan temples must be destroyed
• Bishop Theophilus used this order to destroy the
  Serapeum, a principal part of the Library of
  Alexandria

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Neo-Platonism

• A panentheistic school of philosophic thought,
  launched by Plotinus (204-270).
• Neo-Platonism stresses the emanational sequencing
  of the universe, and provides for mystical union
  with the source of all existence.
• Neo-Platonism, while starting from Pagan sources,
  has been influential in Christianity, Judaism,
  and Islam, as well as hermetic schools of magic
  and American Transcendentalism
• Hypatia is one of the most significant ancient
  Neo-Platonists.

Bust of Plotinus
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The Astrolabe

• An instrument for mapping astronomical bodies in
  relation to earth
• Known from ancient times, and used in navigation
• Theon wrote a manual on how to use the
  instrument.
• Hypatia is credited with technological advances
  in the instrument, by her student Synesius of
  Cyrene (ca. 373 - ca. 414).

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Hypatia as a teacher

• Hypatia conducted classes in philosophy and
  science, probably from her house, as was the
  practice time then.
• Christians, Pagans, and likely Jews were among
  her students
• There is no evidence either way if her classes
  had men and women or were for males only the
  students whose names we know are all men, but
  that could well be epiphenomenal to how history
  is recorded

Scholarly re-imagining of one of the rooms of the
Library of Alexandria, based on its recent (2004)
rediscovery
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Synesius of Cyrene (ca. 373-ca. 414)

• Student of Hypatias
• His admiring letters to her are a chief primary
  source for her life
• He had been a Christian most of his life, but was
  still surprised when asked to serve as bishop of
  Cyrene he had to get special papal dispensations
  to soothe his philosophic conscience.
• He served as bishop during a time when Cyrene was
  under attack.
• Most scholars think he died before Hypatia,
  because it is unimaginable that he would have
  kept quiet about her death (as other bishops did).

The Palace of Apollonia, from which Synesius
likely ruled as bishop
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Hypatia as a Public Figure

• Hypatia was friends with the various civic
  officials, called Prefects, who governed
  Alexandria
• Her philosophy and scientific studies were
  intended for the upper-classes, which gave her
  politically significant contacts throughout the
  north African part of the Roman Empire.

Eastern Mediterranean part of Roman Empire,
showing Alexandria and Syrene
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Origen, Theophilus, and his nephew, Cyril of
Alexandria

• As bishop of Alexandria, Theophilus was in a
  position of structural importance as a leader at
  a time when Christian doctrine was being
  officially articulated through a series of
  conferences.
• He publicly opposed the Christian followers of
  the Neo-Platonic church father Origen (185-214)
• He was aided by his nephew and eventual
  successor, Cyril of Alexandria

Origen Cyril of Alexandria
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Cyril of Alexandria (ca. 378 - ca. 444)

• Cyril became bishop of Alexandria upon his uncle
  Theophilus death in 412 in a partisan and
  combative election.
• He quickly became embroiled in tense city
  politics.
• He encouraged a quarrel between Christians and
  Jews that resulted in the exile of the Jews from
  Alexandria.

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Orestes Cyril

• Alexandrias Prefect, Orestes, objected to what
  he saw as Cyrils power grab.
• Modern scholars think that Orestes and Cyril
  represented two different parties, one moderate
  and the other more dogmatic, among Christians
• Cyril praised Ammonius, a would-be assassin of
  Orestes, declaring him a saint after his
  execution.

Ammonius had thrown a rock at Orestes. It
hit the Prefect in the head. The Prefect
survived, Ammonius did not
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Desert Monks

• Orestes had reason to be concerned about Cyrils
  power, because the bishop had a rather large
  personal armed force at his disposal students of
  Christian theology and desert monks who came to
  the city for major feasts.
• Known as the parabola (parabolan/parabolia), they
  were nominally under the command of the bishop,
  but did not always wait for his orders.

The desert monks are romantically portrayed as
old men. But most were highly volatile youthful
men during the fourth fifth centuries
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The Conflict Thickens

• By the spring of 415, Orestes was looking for a
  way to reconcile with Cyril, probably in time for
  the Easter season
• Some sources allege that Hypatia, as a friend of
  Orestes, counseled him against any such
  rapprochement. He took this advice.
• Hypatia likely did not trust Cyril. As an
  intellectual alive when the Serapeum was
  dismantled, she would have known that the bishop
  did not respect her interests, nor those of her
  class, or of her philosophy.

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Bishop John of Nikiu, 7th century Christian
Chronicler

• John of Nikiu wrote of Hypatia she was devoted
  at all times to magic, astrolabes and instruments
  of music, and she beguiled many people through
  Satanic wiles. And the governor of the city
  honored her exceedingly for she had beguiled him
  through her magic. And he ceased attending church
  as had been his custom.And he not only did this,
  but he drew many believers to her, and he himself
  received the unbelievers at his house.
• If Orestes was not attending church, he may not
  have known that Cyril preached against Hypatia.

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A Horrifying Denoument

• A gang of parabolia intercepted Hypatia when she
  was riding in her chariot. They dragged her to a
  church, and murdered her by pulling the flesh
  from her body with tiles and/or shells.
• The murderers were never apprehended or
  prosecuted, though their identity was well-known.
  Orestes and Cyril reached a public compromise.
  Orestes never mentioned the murder of Hypatia in
  any official document.
• These events happened in 415.

The famous Caesareum was likely the church where
Hypatia was murdered. The site, too, of
Cleopatras suicide, it would still have had the
two tall obelisks, covered with hieroglyphics,
which now have been taken to London and New York,
todays imperial centers
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Ramifications of Hypatias Death

• No other pagan philosophers are associated
  with the city after her death.
• Her works were most likely destroyed at the very
  least they are lost to us, with their titles
  alone being known.
• Many, including Carl Sagan, feel that science
  itself was exiled from medieval Western culture
  with the violent death of Hypatia.

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Ramifications of Cyrils Victory

• While Cyril backs off from endorsing street
  violence later in his career, he is known for
  pugnacious theological disputations, primarily at
  the First Council of Ephesus, where he triumphed
  with arguments against the Nestorian heresy in
  431.
• Nestorians believed that Mary was not the mother
  to the divine part of Jesus, therefore calling
  into question the doctrine that Jesus was always
  fully human and fully divine.

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Cyrils Vision of Woman

• Cyril built his argument against the Nestorians
  by stressing that Mary was the Mother of God as
  well as the Mother of Jesus as a human being. He
  used the word Theotokos rather than
  Christotokos to describe her. All later
  Orthodox and Catholic theologies of Mary are
  dependant on the arguments made by Cyril.

Early Christian Catacomb painting of the Virgin
Mary with her son Jesus
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Cyrils Victory

• The first Christian historian who recorded
  Hypatias murder (ironically named Socrates!)
  said these events would disgrace Cyril.
• But since then, Cyril has had a legion of
  defenders, both academic and among the faithful.
• Cyril is a Saint in both the Roman Catholic and
  Eastern Orthodox churches

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Patriarchy in Cyrils Schizophrenic Theology of
Women

• Because male dominance still requires the
  presence of women, a tension in patriarchal
  societies exists between valorized, abstract
  imagined woman and devalued, actual living women
• The abstract Virgin Mary theorized by Cyril was
  more to his liking than Hypatia, a living woman
  with whom he disagreed.

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Tensions in Patriarchal Imagining of Women

• This gap between the abstracted ideal and living
  women generates other further dichotomies, such
  as virgin/whore, saint/witch, allegorical
  goddesses of wisdom contrasted with denying
  living women access to education.
• The murder of Hypatia by Cyrils parabolia is
  merely a dramatic example of a bifurcation we all
  know experientially. Consider the supermodel vs.
  actual women

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Catherine of Alexandria

• St. Catherine of Alexandria, for whom no historic
  evidence exists, was a highly honored saint
  through the second millennium of Christianity.
  Reputedly learned in both philosophy and
  theology, she was able to defend herself against
  pagan philosophers who tried to convert her away
  from Christianity. When she refuses to marry the
  Emperor, she is condemned to be torn apart on a
  torture wheel, but it breaks when she touches it
  her persecutors then behead her. The lack of
  historicity in the story (alleged to have
  happened in the 4th century) led to her being
  dropped from the list of saints in the twentieth
  century.

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There are Too Many Parallels

• HYPATIA
• Learned woman
• Virgin (allegedly)
• Philosopher
• Able to withstand proselytizing by enemies intent
  on killing her (a.k.a. Cyril and Theophilus
  before him)
• Torturously martyred

• CATHERINE
• Learned woman
• Virgin (allegedly)
• Philosopher/theologian
• Able to withstand proselytizing by enemies intent
  on killing her (Pagan philosophers of the
  Emperor)
• Torturously martyred

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How Catherine and Hypatia Differ

• Roman paganism and Neo-Platonism do not call for
  martyrs Christianitys entire narrative depends
  on martyrdom.
• Civil authority attacks Catherine religious
  authority attacked Hypatia.
• Catherines legend includes her reaching out to,
  and converting, many women Hypatias narrative
  contains no other female names.

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Why was Catherine Created?

• Many scholars have noticed the similarities in
  their stories, and believe that Catherine is
  either a Christian appropriation of an excellent
  martyr story they had created, or that
  Catherines story created a necessary foil to
  Hypatias life and death for a homogenous
  medieval European Christian culture (a culture
  which had created a refuge for intellectual women
  in convents).

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Why was Catherine Created?

• The invention of Catherine of Alexandria also
  illustrates a principle that undergirds the logic
  of oppression reversal and projection. An
  unattractive characteristic in ones self, or
  ones group, is dimly perceived, but not
  acknowledged by the one who has the flaw.
  Instead this same flaw is projected onto another
  individual or group. Once it has been projected
  outwards, it can be destroyed by destroying the
  other who holds the characteristic. Notice,
  for instance, how anti-Semitic discourse thinks
  Jewish people are greedy, or racist discourse
  claims Blacks are not intelligent. Clearly these
  are examples of projection, because all large
  social groups include individuals who are greedy,
  or not very bright. Yet this kind of projection
  is effective for the same reason there are
  always examples of the castigated characteristic
  among the target group as well as among the
  projectors, which lends credence to the
  accusations.

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Why was Catherine Created?

• In the case of Catherine of Alexandria, the good
  characteristics of Hypatia are assimilated into a
  Christian narrative, while the pagans and Roman
  civil authority are made into the tyrants who
  would silence learned women. Whether she was
  intended as a baptized version of Hypatias
  story, or as a counterweight to her, the meaning
  of Catherines story reverses (and erases) the
  meaning of Hypatias life and death.

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How You Know Cyril Won

• Hes called by the honorific title of Saint
• His name and theological deeds are widely known
  in Eastern Orthodox circles
• If youve ever heard Mary referred to by the name
  Mother of God, youve been influenced by
  Cyrils thought
• If youve ever heard of The Catherine Wheel,
  youve been influenced by the mythology of
  Catherine of Alexandria
• If youd heard of Hypatia before this class, you
  are the exception (or a philosophy major or
  womens studies student!)

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Hypatias Legacy

• Renaissance thinkers were aware of Hypatia, as
  noted by her presence here in Raphaels famous
  School of Athens
• Romantic thinkers portrayed her story in novels
  and paintings
• Bertrand Russells wife Dora Russell wrote on
  Hypatia
• As previously noted, Carl Sagan boosted her
  reputation via his fame as a popularizer of
  science in late twentieth-century America

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Hypatias Legacy

• Feminists have uncovered her numerous art works
  and philosophic tomes have cited her as an
  important foremother.
• Foremost among these was her inclusion in Judy
  Chicagos celebration of womens history, The
  Dinner Party (1979).

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Tough Questions

• Does the story of Hypatia illustrate
  exceptionalism?
• Who and what is marginalized in this story?
• Who and what is erased by this story not being
  common knowledge?
• What social systems are in play in this story,
  who set them up, and who benefits from them?
• Whose interests were heard?
• Is there a public/private split here?

There are no easy answers here some of these
questions would require extensive research to
determine.