Mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, exquisite Hypatia (370? - 415 AD)
was head of the Neoplatonist school of philosophy in Alexandria, Egypt.
Her brutal death was mourned in the ancient world and she remains a symbol today.
Besides infuriating Christian archbishop Cyril
by advising and befriending his opponent,
Alexandrian prefect, Orestes,
Hypatia provoked Cyril and his partisans
by being an acclaimed pagan
who flouted her proper "woman's place."
So incensed Christians dragged her to their church;
and after, for a touch of piety,
tore her limb from limb,
then burned her remnants
- an early though effective form of censorship.
