A Neoplatonist philosopher , she belonged to the mathematical tradition of the Academy of Athens represented by Eudoxus of Cnidus ; [ 11 ] she followed the school of the 3rd century thinker Plotinus , discouraging empirical enquiry and encouraging logical and mathematical studies.
Hypatia was the daughter of Theon , who was her teacher and the last known mathematician associated with the Museum of Alexandria.
Although Hypatia was herself a pagan , she was respected by a number of Christians, and later held up by Christian authors as a symbol of virtue. Hypatia maintained correspondence with her former pupil Synesius of Cyrene , who c. Many of the works commonly attributed to Hypatia are believed to have been collaborative works with her father, Theon Alexandricus; this kind of authorial uncertainty being typical for the situation of feminine philosophy in Antiquity.
A partial list of specific accomplishments:. Her contributions to science are reputed to include the charting of celestial bodies [ 6 ] and the invention of the hydrometer , [ 26 ] used to determine the relative density and gravity of liquids.
Her pupil Synesius , bishop of Cyrene, wrote a letter defending her as the inventor of the astrolabe , although earlier astrolabes predate Hypatia's model by at least a century - and her father had gained fame for his treatise on the subject. Believed to have been the reason for the strained relationship between the Imperial Prefect Orestes and the Bishop Cyril , Hypatia attracted the ire of a Christian population eager to see the two reconciled.
