Republic of the Philippines

Speed Computer College

Sorsogon City
SY 2016-2017
1st Semester

Preliminary Project
in
World History and
Languages
Submitted to:

Mr. Gilbert Ferreras

-Instructor-

Submitted by:

Aldrin Ray B. Huenda

-BSIT 2-

1. Research the life of Hypatia using both books and the Internet. Write an
essay concerning her historical significance.
Hypatia of Alexandria, as depicted in Agora, reveals a story of a great philosopher and
teacher. Residing from Alexandria, Hypatia lived in the midst of a quest for governing power
which involved a shift towards the ideals of Christianity. It was through this push towards
Christianity that the governing powers, aimed at the annihilation of ritual paganism.
Hypatia was the first women to make a substantial contribution to the development of
mathematics. The movie Agora states that Hypatia was the daughter of the mathematician
philosopher Theon of Alexandria and it is fairly certain that she studied mathematics under
the guidance and instruction of her father. It is rather remarkable that Hypatia also became
head of the Platonist school at Alexandria in about 400 AD wherein she lectured on
mathematics and philosophy. Throughout the years, Hypatia came to symbolize learning and
also science and astronomy which the early Christians identified with paganism.
Hypatias significance has more to do with inspiration than any theory or principle that
she has passed along to generations. Hypatia lived in a world where women seldom had the
sort of education that she had and if they did, they did not instruct men.
Another significance is that Hypatia also provides an important example of how
Christians could be as oppressive and harsh as pagans often have the reputation for being. The
event in history that could justify this is when Cyril who is a Christian is so eager to have
pagan teaching eliminated from Alexandria that he had a single woman murdered which was
Hypatia.

2. Research and write a critique of the historical accuracy of the film/movie

(Agora) answering the following question: Given the fact that the audience
will take away from this film an impression of the historical events and
figures portrayed in the movie, do you think that on the whole, this film
improves the viewers understanding of the history of the 4 th and 5th
centuries?

The portrayal of women as teachers is more or less accurate in the movie. Hypatia was
not the first female philosopher in the Hellenistic world nor was she the last a generation later
there was another famous female teacher who worked in Alexandria named Aedisia.

Much of the films depiction of pagans Christians and Jews has some historical basis, as
Alexandria had long been a city of often violent clashes between factions and religious groups.
The film invents an attack on the Jews by Cyrils faction that provokes a Jewish response.
Historically it actually was the Jews that struck first.

There were also scenes which are inaccurate to written history of Alexandria. There is
zero evidence that Hypatia had any connection with the Serapeum in any way. In the movie,
Hypatia is depicted as an innovative thinker making new discoveries like the discovery of
inertia and the elliptical orbit of earth to sun. In fact, we have no evidence that she was
anything like this, though she was a respected skilled mathematician and philosopher.

This movie also makes her death into some kind of parable about reason versus
fundamentalism. It does this by distorting history. The death of Hypatia was about politics, not
learning or reason. Her death did not usher in a decline in learning and an age of Christian
ignorance as the movie depicts, instead in existing evidences, Alexandria continued to be a
centre of learning and the home of renowned pagan and Christian scholars.

Ive watched a lot of historical movies in my life. As with any movie, handle the history
presented on this one with great care and check it against the sources. The director of the film

tries to be a parable about fundamentalism but he presents a highly distorted picture of events
in Hypatias time to achieve this. The director could still have produced a great film without
distorting such historical events as it appears a bit misleading to some viewers especially those
who are not into some interest about checking evidences and real events depicted in the movie.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie. It showed Alexandria going down to road to intellectual
ruin lead by the drumbeat of the Christians. The people who made the movie got that right.