20 February 2019

#20 - Mathematics, and the Unbearable Lightness of Womanhood

Hypatia of Alexandria (350-415 AD) was a philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician

We always need more women teaching STEM.
Hypatia the Queen of Roman maths
rose to the challenge like a shining gem,
it didn’t save her from the bishop’s wrath.

A woman I may be, but I am wise
(like every woman who has come before).
I am no warring politician’s prize.
I hear the rebels knocking at my door.

We don’t know why they ripped her limb from limb
and scattered all her writings to the air.
It might have come from spite, a grudge, a whim.
The hardest sum to solve is hatred squared.

They tried to silence me, I think they failed:
My name is not a whisper but a wail!




Hypatia by Jules Maurice Gaspard

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