Murder of Hypatia Sanford L. Drob
The biggest fattest religious and social evil that curses humanity is one simple and very foolish notion: A Patriarchal Order of Things.
Right Wing Evangelicals are part and parcel of this. If you do not understand that the Republican Party sees its own survival as a matter of catering to the very evangelicals who are pointedly looking the other way when it comes to the sitting American President, then you are too naive for you own good. Worse, you are too naive for the highest good of your country.
“There was a woman at Alexandria named Hypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, who made such attainments in literature and science, as to far surpass all the philosophers of her own time.
Having succeeded to the school of Plato and Plotinus, she explained the principles of philosophy to her auditors, many of whom came from a distance to receive her instructions. On account of the self-possession and ease of manner, which she had acquired in consequence of the cultivation of her mind, she not infrequently appeared in public in presence of the magistrates.
Neither did she feel abashed in coming to an assembly of men. For all men on account of her extraordinary dignity and virtue admired her the more.
Yet even she fell a victim to the political jealousy which at that time prevailed. For as she had frequent interviews with Orestes, it was calumniously reported among the Christian populace, that it was she who prevented Orestes from being reconciled to the bishop.
Some of them therefore, hurried away by a fierce and bigoted zeal, whose ringleader was a reader named Peter, waylaid her returning home, and dragging her from her carriage, they took her to the church called Caesareum, where they completely stripped her, and then murdered her with tiles.
After tearing her body in pieces, they took her mangled limbs to a place called Cinaron, and there burnt them. This affair brought not the least opprobrium, not only upon Cyril, but also upon the whole Alexandrian church.
And surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort. This happened in the month of March during Lent, in the fourth year of Cyril’s episcopate, under the tenth consulate of Honorius, and the sixth of Theodosius [AD 415].” – Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History (VII.15)
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/patriarchy-134102395x-56aa23945f9b58b7d000f9de.jpg)
“Definition: A patriarchy is a social system in which family systems or entire societies are organized around the idea of father-rule, where males are the primary authority figures.- thoughtco.com”
“As culture evolved, the patriarchal society grew increasingly misogynistic. Ancient Greece played a large role in the increase of patriarchal practices. A primary democracy can be seen in ancient Greece called the polis. This gave men somewhat equal rights; compared to the aristocracy they had known before.
As men gained equal rights, women lost many of theirs. The family had before been a biological unit, but now took the form of a political and economic unit. Wives and mothers became obligatory, and women who did not follow the traditional functions faced legal consequences. Women were the legal wards of either her father or husband and had no rights of their own; they could not inherit property. A woman during this time did not even have custody over her children as they belonged to her husband.
Additionally, if a woman committed adultery, they would either be banished or executed where men, who would occasionally suffer penalties, had many legal sexual outlets. There were highly trained courtesans and male and female prostitutes (Radek).
As men were able to find sexual freedom with these outlets, most women could not leave their homes without permission from a father or husband. – Women’s Resource Center, U of Colorado
To what?
Well, to the narcissistic male ego that is threatened by an understanding that women are not property over whom men have stewardship of course!
Prior to the persecution of women as witches and heretics there occurred a most obscene and deliberate murder of a woman known as Hypatia who – in every respect – was superior to most if not all men in her time.
As we read and listen to the modern patriarchs persecute the most recent victim with verbal violence and even physical threats, are we not reminded of Hypatia?
The following paragraphs bring to mind the words of Republican patriarchs led by their chief misogynist Donald Trump and the double-talking senators publicly trying to ram their candidate right past any scrutiny of his own misogyny.
Can you not hear and see in the words and actions of the Republican political partisans a patriarchal abuse of women that shames every man in this country?
