I don't know when this movie is supposed to be released in the US. I heard December 18th, but then I read this article from October 14th detailing the trouble finding a US distributor because of belief that it will have "limited appeal". Apparently the patriarchy has a problem with it.

It's the cinematic story of the last days of Hypatia, a mathematician and astronomer, and a pagan woman; a scholar in the ancient city of Alexandria. Some modern scholars consider her death to be the first "witch burning" of the long and brutal transition from pagan culture to christian rule. Socrates of Constantinople, an early church historian (c.380~) wrote of her death:

Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles. After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them.

This is from the Hypatia bio (via a pretty cool timeline of women's history)

Hypatia was the first notable woman in mathematics and philosophy. Her death brought an end to the position of Alexandria as the centre of scientific activity in the ancient world. Hypatia was murdered because her humanistic philosophical ideas were resented by the Church.

Hypatia was the daughter of a mathematician in Alexandria. She became the head of a Neoplatonist school of philosophy. She wrote commentaries on the 'Arithmetica' of Diophant and on the astronomical works of Ptolemy.

Learning and science was at that time identified by the early Christians with paganism. Hypatia was murdered by a fanatical mob of monks, which led to the departure of many scholars from Alexandria.

At 4:05 in the video here, Carl Sagan calls Hypatia the "last light of the library whose martyrdom is bound up with the destruction" of the Library of Alexandria. Later in his Cosmos series he says: 'It is as if the entire civilization had undergone some self-inflicted brain surgery, so that most of its memories, discoveries, ideas and passions were irrevocably wiped out.'

If you ask me, the brain surgeon was patriarchy, and much of the history destroyed was that of women.

*bonus* Patriarchy in action can be seen on the Hypatia talk page on wiki.

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3 Comments

October 28, 2009 10:59 AM

[0+]  FW said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbuEhwselE0

hmm, there's the trailer that didn't embed in my post. :( It's kinda triggery.

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October 28, 2009 9:01 PM

[0+]  Nancy Shrew said:

Ooh, I have a huge fascination with Hypatia, and Aspasia as well. It just makes me sad how little is known about ancient women compared to their male counterparts.

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October 31, 2009 9:45 AM

[0+]  Hypatia said:

Can't wait to see it!!!!

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