Hypatia, the Alexandrian, daughter of the philosopher Theon, a prominent mathematician and Neoplatonist philosopher, a woman renowned for her beauty and the goodness of her soul, was brutally murdered by a fanatical Christian mob in Alexandria in the year 415. Since then, she has become a legend and passed into history.

Poets, historians, novelists, saw Hypatia as the symbol of classical education and freedom of thought. They viewed her as the antithesis of religious fanaticism, associating her with the freedom of thought and spiritual elevation.

With her open mind, her insistence on Greek philosophy and education, and the radical lifestyle she followed, it was inevitable that she would come into conflict with the political and religious authority of Alexandria, exercised by the ambitious patriarch Cyril.

Through the letters sent to her by her devoted student, Synesius of Cyrene, the magnitude of her personality is clearly outlined. She was the genuine teacher of a group of scholars, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers. Her prestige was such that it attracted a significant crowd of devoted followers around her.

There is no doubt that Patriarch Cyril, who came into conflict with her, is responsible for her horrific murder. However, the social conditions of an era that had reached its end cannot be overlooked.