In the year 416 AD, a mob of Christian radicals stormed a carriage in the streets of Alexandria, dragged the women within into a nearby church, where they beat her with roofing tiles. Thus died Hypatia, the first great female scholar of mathematics, astronomy, and philosophy. She was, at the time of her death, head of the Neoplatonic School in the cosmopolitan city … but declared a Hellenistic pagan by the bloody-minded mob.

Daughter of a mathematician, she was born in Alexandria c. 370 AD. Being quite brilliant, she was sent off to be educated in Athens, returning to her home around 400 to become head of the well-respected school in Alexandria. There she lectured on mathematics and philosophy, assisted her father in his monumental commentary on Ptolemy’s 'Almagest,' and herself produced a new version of Euclid’s 'The Elements.'

But it was her dabbling with pagan tools such as astrolabes and musical instruments, as well as her willingness to accept anyone – including non-Christians and foreigners – into her school that brought approbation. Church leaders ranted about her “Satanic wiles” and worse, she ignored all those Biblical pronouncements about the proper behavior of women.

It all came to a head when Cyril (later “St. Cyril”) was appointed patriarch of Alexandria in 412, and promptly became a bitter political rival to Orestes, the Roman governor, as the church and state fought for control. Hypatia happened to be a friend of Orestes, as well as the city’s leading intellectual light … and female. She soon became the focal point of riots and fighting between Christians and non-Christians, and her murder soon followed.