Hypatia Round-Up

Not our Hypatia (though she occasionally needs a little rounding up, generally when she's slithering into oblivion inside the furniture). Rather the one being portrayed in Agora, which, even if it may not see widespread theatrical release, will probably come to Santa Fe and Netflix eventually. The movie's now out there, and the web is rife with Hypatia-blogging. Here are a few perspectives:

• The Good, the Bad and the Silly: A review of the movie from a historical-accuracy perspective.
• The Perniciously Persistent Myths of Hypatia and the Great Library: A debunker's take.
• Agora: the “Reel” vs. the “Real”: A historical novelist's thoughts.
• A giant discussion of the history surrounding Hypatia: Bloody good, but many, many words.

The upshot for me: the movie is a movie of course, but attempts to reduce Hypatia's story to "Pagan vs. Christian" or "Enlightened Philisophy vs. Superstition" are historically naïve at best. Also, make sure you know the historical record regarding the Library of Alexandria. Also, Alexandria was a tough town and a weird, weird place, and Christianity did not change that.

The first link in this chain was Chas.