Editing Hypatia (section)

===Twentieth century===
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| image1            = Hypatia (1900 Play).png
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| caption1          = An actress, possibly [[Mary Anderson (actress, born 1859)|Mary Anderson]], in the title role of the play ''Hypatia'', {{circa}} 1900. Similarities between this image and the Gaspard portrait at right indicate this one may have served as a model for the Gaspard.{{sfn|Booth|2017|pages=25–26, 28}}
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| caption2          = This fictional portrait of Hypatia by Jules Maurice Gaspard, originally the illustration for [[Elbert Hubbard]]'s 1908 fictional biography, has now become the most iconic and widely reproduced image of her.{{sfn|Deakin|2007|page=163}}{{sfn|Cohen|2008|page=47}}{{sfn|Booth|2017|pages=25–26}}
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In 1908, American writer [[Elbert Hubbard]] published a putative biography of Hypatia in his series ''Little Journeys to the Homes of Great Teachers''. The book is almost entirely a work of fiction.{{sfn|Deakin|2007|page=163}}{{sfn|Cohen|2008|pages=47–48}} In it, Hubbard writes that Theon established a program of physical exercise for his daughter, involving "fishing, horseback-riding, and rowing".{{sfn|Cohen|2008|page=48}} He states that Theon taught Hypatia to "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than to never think at all."{{sfn|Cohen|2008|page=48}} Hubbard also writes that, as a young woman, Hypatia traveled to Athens, where she studied under [[Plutarch of Athens]]. All of this supposed biographical information, however, is completely fictional and is not found in any ancient source. Hubbard even attributes to Hypatia numerous completely fabricated quotations in which she presents modern, rationalist views.{{sfn|Cohen|2008|page=48}} The cover illustration for the book, a drawing of Hypatia by artist Jules Maurice Gaspard showing her as a beautiful young woman with her wavy hair tied back in the classical style, has now become the most iconic and widely reproduced image of her.{{sfn|Deakin|2007|page=163}}{{sfn|Cohen|2008|page=47}}{{sfn|Booth|2017|pages=25–26}}

Around the same time, Hypatia was adopted by [[Feminism|feminists]], and her life and death began to be viewed in the light of the [[women's rights]] movement.{{sfn|Dzielska|1996|page=16}} The author Carlo Pascal wrote in 1908 that her murder was an anti-feminist act and brought about a change in the treatment of women, as well as the decline of the [[Mediterranean]] civilization in general.{{sfn|Booth|2017|page=25}} [[Dora Russell]] published a book on the inadequate education of women and inequality with the title ''Hypatia or Woman and Knowledge'' in 1925.{{sfn|Booth|2017|pages=26–27}} The prologue explains why she chose the title:{{sfn|Booth|2017|pages=26–27}} "Hypatia was a university lecturer denounced by Church dignitaries and torn to pieces by Christians. Such will probably be the fate of this book."{{sfn|Booth|2017|page=27}} Hypatia's death became symbolic for some historians. For example, Kathleen Wider proposes that the murder of Hypatia marked the end of [[Classical antiquity]],<ref>{{citation | jstor=3810062| title=Women Philosophers in the Ancient Greek World: Donning the Mantle| journal=Hypatia| volume=1| issue=1| pages=21–62| last1=Wider| first1=Kathleen| year=1986| doi=10.1111/j.1527-2001.1986.tb00521.x| s2cid=144952549}}</ref> and [[Stephen Greenblatt]] writes that her murder "effectively marked the downfall of Alexandrian intellectual life".<ref>Greenblatt, ''The Swerve: how the world became modern'' 2011:93.</ref> On the other hand, [[Christian Wildberg]] notes that [[Hellenistic philosophy]] continued to flourish in the 5th and 6th centuries, and perhaps until the age of [[Justinian I]].<ref>[[Christian Wildberg]], in [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/stories/2009/2530998.htm#transcript Hypatia of Alexandria – a philosophical martyr], ''The Philosopher's Zone'', ABC Radio National (4 April 2009)</ref>{{sfn|Dzielska|1996|p=105}}

{{rquote|right|Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fantasies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth–often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you can not get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.|Made-up quote attributed to Hypatia in [[Elbert Hubbard]]'s 1908 fictional biography of her, along with several other similarly spurious quotations{{sfn|Cohen|2008|page=48}}}}

Falsehoods and misconceptions about Hypatia continued to proliferate throughout the late twentieth century.{{sfn|Cohen|2008|pages=47–48}} Though Hubbard's fictional biography may have been intended for children,{{sfn|Cohen|2008|page=47}} Lynn M. Osen relied on it as her main source in her influential 1974 article on Hypatia in her 1974 book ''[[Women in Mathematics (book)|Women in Mathematics]]''.{{sfn|Cohen|2008|pages=47–48}} [[Fordham University]] used Hubbard's biography as the main source of information about Hypatia in a medieval history course.{{sfn|Deakin|2007|page=163}}{{sfn|Cohen|2008|pages=47–48}} [[Carl Sagan]]'s 1980 [[PBS]] series ''[[Cosmos: A Personal Voyage]]'' relates a heavily fictionalized retelling of Hypatia's death, which results in the "[[Library of Alexandria|Great Library of Alexandria]]" being burned by militant Christians.{{sfn|Theodore|2016|page=183}} In actuality, though Christians led by Theophilus did destroy the Serapeum in 391 AD, the Library of Alexandria had already ceased to exist in any recognizable form centuries prior to Hypatia's birth.{{sfn|Theodore|2016|pages=182–183}} As a female intellectual, Hypatia became a role model for modern intelligent women and two feminist journals were named after her: the Greek journal ''Hypatia: Feminist Studies'' was launched in Athens in 1984, and ''[[Hypatia (journal)|Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy]]'' in the United States in 1986.{{sfn|Dzielska|1996|page=16}} In the [[United Kingdom]], the Hypatia Trust maintains a library and archive of feminine literary, artistic and scientific work; and, sponsors the Hypatia-in-the-Woods women's retreat in [[Washington (State)|Washington]], United States.{{sfn|Booth|2017|page=27}}

[[Judy Chicago]]'s large-scale art piece ''[[The Dinner Party]]'' awards Hypatia a [[table setting]].<ref>{{citation|title=Reading the Language of "The Dinner Party"|first=Carol|last=Snyder|journal=Woman's Art Journal|volume=1|issue=2|date=1980–1981|pages=30–34|jstor= 1358081|quote=Among the raised images distributed on the first two wings of the table are two with broken edges—the Hypatia and Petronilla da Meath plates. Chicago confirmed my reading of the broken edge as a reference to the violent deaths both women suffered"|doi=10.2307/1358081}}.</ref>{{sfn|Booth|2017|page=22}} The table runner depicts Hellenistic goddesses weeping over her death.{{sfn|Booth|2017|page=25}} Chicago states that the social unrest leading to Hypatia's murder resulted from Roman patriarchy and mistreatment of women and that this ongoing unrest can only be brought to an end through the restoration of an original, primeval matriarchy.{{sfn|Booth|2017|pages=22–23}} She (anachronistically and incorrectly) concludes that Hypatia's writings were burned in the Library of Alexandria when it was destroyed.{{sfn|Booth|2017|page=25}} Major works of twentieth century literature contain references to Hypatia,{{sfn|Booth|2017|pages=14–30}} including [[Marcel Proust]]'s volume "Within a Budding Grove" from ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]'', and [[Iain Pears]]'s ''[[The Dream of Scipio (novel)|The Dream of Scipio]]''.{{sfn|Booth|2017|page=15}}