Accidental Death of a Professor. On a Recent Book on Hypatia (E.J. Watts, Hypatia. The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. i-xii, 1-205)

A review of the volume by E.J. Watts (Hypatia. The Life and Legend of an Ancient Philosopher, Oxford 2017), the present essay reassesses the Hypatiasfrage, starting from the old sources about the Alexandrian philosopher and her murder. The reviewer disagrees with Watts’ reinterpretation about (1) chronology and works; (2) relevance of mysteries in Hypatia’s teaching; (3) Hypatia’s political role in Alexandria; most of all, she shows evidence of a different reconstruction of her murder, which was all but incidental.

 

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