Hypatia
by
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"I think you are doing the girl a great disservice by the way you are raising her," said the schoolmaster. "You should have never taught her to read. Like any other slave, the only contented woman is an ignorant woman. Once a woman learns how to reason and to think for herself, she becomes worthless and impossible to control. A woman should know nothing but how to serve her lord and master. It is a man’s world, and the way you have raised her, your daughter will never be satisfied with a woman’s place in it. Even if, by some miracle, she should be able to survive by her wits without a husband, she will be condemned to living out her days alone, constantly battling the forces arrayed against her. She just doesn’t fit in. Can’t you try to encourage her to be more normal?" "I have tried to persuade her to lower her standards," said Theon. "but she seems to realize that, at best, normalcy equals mediocrity. On numerous occasions I have suggested that she cultivate mediocrity in the interest of getting along as a woman in this world, but it seems she simply hasn’t an aptitude for it. Hypatia has many god-given gifts that it would be shameful to throw away simply because she is a girl. But with the gift comes the curse. Solitude is the fate of most outstanding minds; at times this will be a source of sorrow, but at other times it will be recognized as the lesser of two evils, for a wise person is usually least lonely when alone." "Well," said the schoolmaster, "since you seem unwilling to do what is best for your daughter, I will take it upon myself to terminate these misguided attempts to create a perfect woman – or a goddess. Your daughter is no longer welcome in my classes." "And why not?" asked Theon. "Because she is disruptive and undermines my authority, and because she is bad for the morale of the boys," said the schoolmaster. "She just doesn’t fit in." "Well, thank you for coming here and telling me this in person," said Theon, "instead of just throwing her out of class one day, unexpectedly. I love my daughter more than anything else in the world, and I do want what is best for her, but I respect her enough to allow her to make her own choices. She is wise beyond her years." After the schoolmaster had left, Hypatia put on a chiton and went over to Theon. "What was that all about?" asked Hypatia. "Darling, I’m sorry," said Theon. "It seems your schoolmaster doesn’t want you in his class anymore." "Why not?" asked the girl, who was visibly upset. "What did I do wrong?" "You didn’t do anything wrong, honey," said Theon. "I think he just feels threatened by you because you’re so much smarter than he is. He said you’re bad for morale, you undermine his authority, and you just don’t fit in." The little girl burst into tears and ran out the door. Niko ran after her. When he finally caught up with her, at the zoo, she was crying uncontrollably. He put his arm over her shoulder and she collapsed into his arms, sobbing against his shoulder as he tried to comfort her. "He’s right," cried Hypatia. "I don’t fit in. I never have, and I never will. I don’t think the same way others do. I see things differently. Sometimes I feel so alone. I don’t know what I would do without my mom and dad. They’re the only ones in the world that understand me and accept me the way that I am. They’re the only ones that really care." "I care, Hypatia," said Niko. "You’re very special, and I appreciate you all the more for it. I’m so lucky that I met you." "We didn’t really meet –" said Hypatia, her sobbing subsiding. Niko looked baffled. "– I caught you, don’t you remember?" continued Hypatia. This broke the spell, and caused them both to laugh. "Thank you, Niko," said Hypatia. "For what?" asked the boy. "For being you," said Hypatia, with a grin. For a while the two children wandered through the Menagerie, arm in arm, looking at the animals, eventually coming to a stop in front of a cage of Chimpanzees. This exhibit caught their attention because the keeper was in the cage with the apes, cleaning the cage. "I really don’t fit in," said Hypatia, looking sad again. "Look at that man in the cage full of apes," said Niko. "Hey mister! What are you doing in there? Somehow you don’t seem to belong in there – you just don’t fit in!" "Thanks, kid," shouted the keeper, "that’s the best compliment I’ve had all day." Niko looked expectantly at Hypatia with a sly grin. Hypatia smiled back at the boy through a veil of tears, her eyes sparkling like those rare sunbeams that penetrate the rain to make a rainbow. "Thank you," said Hypatia, as she gave the boy another hug. "You’re a good teacher. I have learned two important lessons today, one of them from you. Although I love to learn, I rarely find anyone my own age that I can learn from. You’d better watch out or I may never let you go." Niko smiled happily at the thought of being Hypatia’s captive for life. "Share with me what you have learned today, Hypatia," said Niko, "so that I may learn it too." "The first thing I learned today is that it’s not too smart to be too smart," said Hypatia. "It’s not enough to be modest about one’s intelligence – where intelligence is not appreciated it is actually necessary to hide it." Niko thought about this. He knew that, far from being appreciated, genius usually isn’t even recognized, for the simple reason that it takes one to know one. He had always thought this unfortunate. But now he realized that maybe it was a good thing, after all, that genius went unrecognized by all but other brilliant people, because genius can be impressive, even enviable, but it is never endearing. People who are not themselves brilliant – that is, the majority of people – find exceptional intelligence intimidating. And arousing the fear and envy of the majority is seldom wise. It seemed that, except on rare occasions when intelligent people met their equals and could let down their guard and be themselves, genius had to survive by stealth. "And the second thing you learned?" asked Niko. "That it’s all right to be different – that it’s all right not to fit in," said Hypatia. "I realize now that being told that one doesn’t fit in can be taken as a compliment – it doesn’t mean that you’re worthless because you don’t belong, it just means that you belong someplace else, where there are others of your kind who are capable of seeing your worth."
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About the Book
A suicide takes a detour through time, sending a melancholy present-day cynic to ancient Alexandria, Egypt, to learn the secrets of life and happiness from history’s greatest woman – the last, most brilliant defender of life-loving shameless pagan Greek culture. Exhaustively researched, unremittingly irreverent, and shockingly frank, this is the long-suppressed pagans’ side of the story of how the Church consolidated its power in that final confrontation between Faith and Reason which precipitated the Dark Ages. After having been silenced forever by the victor in the conflict, the ghost of paganism arises in these pages to fire a broadside on Christian morals and on modern-day laws and values. Hauntingly romantic, explicitly erotic, and daringly controversial, this is a story of first love, of sexual awakening, and of two lovers separated by time. Darkly humorous, intellectually engaging, and dangerously iconoclastic, it is also a portrait of genius, with trenchant psychological, social, and political commentary. Framed as an historical science-fiction adventure, Hypatia’s tragedy becomes surprisingly uplifting – perhaps even inspirational – as the tolerant, permissive, free-thinking ways of the ancients are resurrected to once again offer those without faith a rational basis for hope, a compelling philosophical alternative to religion, and a reason to go on living.
About the Author
Crippled by chronic and often severe depression, the author became captivated by Hypatia around 1980, when he first heard of her on Carl Sagan’s award-winning PBS series, Cosmos. Although she was arguably the greatest figure in history -- and certainly the most tragic -- the author wondered why it was, that almost nobody had ever heard of her. He resolved at that time to set matters right by writing a book about her. But the task proved daunting, for history has recorded little about her, and on first sight her story seemed too depressing to dwell upon. When his depression reached suicidal proportions, in 1991, the author decided to write his long-intended tribute to Hypatia as his swan song. As an agnostic humanist and a lover of astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy, he felt uniquely qualified to reconstruct the story from the point of view of this last great pagan natural philosopher -- history’s first female mathematician and astronomer. The intensive historical and philosophical research that he devoted to the project was the only thing that got the author through those times, and in the course of those dark years, his research brought him into contact with classical Greek culture, of which Hypatia was the last defender and he was smitten. He wondered, what made these noble, brilliant, freethinking people so creative, so alive, so in love with life? They, too, were without faith -- unwilling to deceive themselves for the sake of comfort -- yet they were happy. What was their secret that died with them? This book reveals the author’s answer to this question, arrived upon after nearly a decade devoted to disinterring the essence of pagan culture, which the Christians plowed under to pave the way for the Dark Ages. The message is one of hope, but hope derived from Reason, not mindless self-deceptive Faith. Over the years, one anti-depressant after another failed to alleviate the author’s melancholia, and so he has long stopped taking them, but where psychotropic drugs have failed, philosophy may have succeeded: the lessons that Hypatia has taught him seem to have diminished his capacity for dysphoria, for ever since he finished writing the book in 1999, he hasn’t been able to be properly depressed. Perhaps Hypatia’s gift can similarly stimulate, comfort, and inspire other freethinking spirits in their search for a new system of values, and help light the way to new hope and meaning. This, at least, is the author’s hope.