Guest Gaia Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 Hypatia's murder is one of the things that permanently turned me away from abrahamic religions. However, in numerous internet sources I've read that she died a virgin. Is this really true, or are her "admirers" simply Christians in disguise? And I don't understand why she is coined "The Pagan Martyr". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted April 10, 2008 Share Posted April 10, 2008 From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_of_Alexandria Hypatia travelled to both Athens and Italy to study,[9] before becoming head of the Platonist school at Alexandria in approximately 400 AD,[10] and would teach Plato and Aristotle to anybody willing to listen,[11] including a number of Christians[12] and foreigners[8] who came to her classes. 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.[8] The Byzantine Suda controversially[13] declared her "the wife of Isidore the Philosopher"[11] but agreed she had remained a virgin.[14] 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. One day in March 415CE[23], during the season of Lent, her chariot was waylaid on her route home by a Christian mob, possibly Nitrian monks[23] led by a man identified only as "Peter". She was stripped naked and dragged through the streets to the newly christianised Caesareum church and killed. Some reports suggest she was flayed with ostrakois (literally, "oyster shells", though also used to refer to roof tiles or broken pottery) and set ablaze while still alive, though other accounts suggest those actions happened after her death. ----------------------------------- The above was cut and pasted out of context. Christians prefer their female saints to be a virgin. Chances are, and the way xtians lie about everything, she was anything but a virgin. I mean, look at the ending, she was attacked by a christian mob and murdered ... duh ... then, years later the Christians make her a saint out of guilt? I have no idea what passes for common sense among the church. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taphophilia Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 The word Pagan has a different meaning when addressing ancient religions. It means pre-Christian religions. Church leaders around the end of the 4th century began to use the term as a slur for the pre-Christian religions. Hypatia was a Neoplatoist, which means she was a Pagan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hereticzero Posted April 18, 2008 Share Posted April 18, 2008 The word 'pagan' means 'country dweller'--it comes from the Latin word, 'paganus'. Word History In ancient Rome a person living in a rural area or village was called paganus, a word derived from the Latin noun pagus, meaning "village, district." In time paganus came to refer to a civilian as opposed to a soldier. When Christianity became generally accepted in the towns and cities of the empire, paganus was used to refer to a villager who continued to worship the old gods. Christians used the term for anyone not of their faith or of the Jewish faith. The word in Old English for such a person was what is now heathen. In the 14th century, English borrowed the Latin paganus as pagan, and used it with the same meaning. In time both heathen and pagan also took on the meaning of "a person having no religion." --http://www.wordcentral.com/cgi-bin/student?pagan In the early church, it was 'in' to live in Rome, it was 'pagan' to live anywhere but Rome. The true believers lived in Rome and persecuted those living outside of Rome as pagans, including other believers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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