Andrea Rapp asked if Hypatia, keeper of the ancient library at Alexandria, Egypt, was Jewish. Sources on the Internet describe Hypatia as being a pagan, the daughter of Theon, author of Theon's Commentary on Ptolemy's Almagest. See "The Primary Sources for the Life and Work of Hypatia of Alexandria" by Michael A. B. Deakin (History of Mathematics Paper 63, August 1995, Mathematics Department, Monash University, Clayton 3168, Australia) http://www.polyamory.org/~howard/Hypatia/primary-sources.html A Google search reveals many references to Hypatia, including some referring to her as a pagan. See, e.g., "Hypatia" by Ginny Adair, Class of 1998 (Agnes Scott College), and sources cited there, including http://www.maa.org/pubs/Calc_articles/ma055.pdf As well as http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020113.html http://cosmopolis.com/people/hypatia.html http://www.cosmopolis.com/alexandria/hypatia-bio-john.html http://poly.polyamory.org/~howard/Hypatia/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_of_Alexandria http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/1995/95.07.07.html http://www.britannica.com/eb/print?eu=42725
Be well! Joseph I. Lauer Brooklyn, New York =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 at osu.edu AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org