HYPATIA: The Last? Or The First?

written by Fred Van Lente drawn by Ryan Dunlavey colored by Adam Guzowski

ACTION SCIENTISTS: "HYPATIA!"

Written by Fred Van Lente // © 2014 FVL & Ryan Dunlavey, All Rights Reserved

ONE

moon only covers a sliver of the sun.
1. CAPTION: Science isn't a modern invention.

Panel 2: Same shot as panel one, except the shadow of the moon has moved halfway across the sun.

2. CAPTION: Our hunger to understand the world, to know why and how and what the essential nature of things are has been a part of

each one of us from our earliest days.

3. CAPTION: And so it was in the early days of humanity as a whole.

Panel 3: Same shot as panel one, except now the shadow of the moon is completely covering the sun, with a glowing nimbus around it. This is what is known as MAXIMUM ECLIPSE. Below them are the shadows of a bunch of CAVEMEN are waving their clubs and 2001 femur bones and such at it.

!Ryan, let's make these three panels VERTICAL, PAGE-HEIGHT, same size.
!Panel 1: Angle up in the sky as a SOLAR ECLIPSE begins. In this panel the shadow of the

4. CAPTION:

5. CAPTION:

6. CAVEMAN: 7. CAVEMAN:

!

Even in ancient times, people observed the workings of nature and wrote down what they saw.

To prehistoric peoples, eclipses might have been terrifying — looking like a giant dragon devouring the sun —

Gahhh! The world can't end! We just invented fire yesterday! I can see what's inside caves now!

TWO

1. CAPTION: 2. THEON:

3. THEON:
Panel 2: At his feet, his eight year old daughter, HYPATIA, makes a note with a stylus on a

!Panel 1: THEON OF ALEXANDRIA holds up an ASTROLABE and sights the sun by looking at the shadow of it through the "alidade." (It's dangerous to look directly at the sun even when it's eclipsed.) He's in the middle of an EGYPTIAN DESERT. We have no idea what Theon actually looked like; when in doubt, I always to turn to Raphael's School of Athens in the Vatican.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

WAX TABLET.

4. HYPATIA:

5. THEON (OFF):

6. HYPATIA:

7. THEON (OFF):

Capricon Six. Got it, Father.
Now remember, girl, what don't we do? Look directly at the sun.
And why don't we do that?

— but not for long.
So ... we have reached the maximum phase of the eclipse, at...

Capricorn Six.

Make a note of it, Hypatia.

Panel 3: Hypatia waves her eyes and screams as sunlight pierces into her eyes, burning

them out with smoke and flames. Theon chuckles at her performance. 8. HYPATIA: You'll burn your eyes out!
9. THEON: Ha, ha. Yes, quite.

Panel 4: PLEBES -- the working class of the Roman Empire (of which Alexandria, like the better part of the West at this point, are a part) -- cluster around Theon and Hypatia as they return home from their work. For good reference, see the couple on the far right here.

10. PLEBE WOMAN:

11. THEON:
12. PLEBE MAN: 13. CAPTION:

!

Theon! You can predict eclipses but can you tell me the name of the man I'll marry?

Ha ha, I am afraid it doesn't work that way, madam... Theon! What are my winning lotto numbers?!

Humanity's scientific knowledge was so good by AD 364 that Theon of Alexandria was able to predict a solar and a lunar eclipse.

THREE

1. HEADER COPY:

2. TITLE:
3. SUB-TITLE:

!Panel 1: BIG PANEL - NEAR SPLASH - The adult HYPATIA in her TRIGON ("scholar's") robe stands holding a silver (flat) ASTROLABE in one hand and is making a dotted ECLIPTIC with her other hand while Theon looks on, radiating (labeled) PATERNAL PRIDE.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

Theon was considered the greatest mathematician and scientist of his day, but even he said he was surpassed by his daughter, who we know as Action Scientist #1:

HYPATIA!

THE LAST OF THE FIRSTS!

Panel 2: Establishing shot of ancient ALEXANDRIA, with particular emphasis on its famous LIGHTHOUSE and LIBRARY/MUSEUM.

!I think it would be funny if we could fit some kind of modern-day museum ad/"Reading Is Fundamental" promo on the side of the museum, but maybe the shot's too small for it.

!I should point out two useful sources for this: The opening of the last episode of Cosmos has spectacular reference for Alexandria. There's also a film, Agora, about Hypatia's life, starring Rachel Weisz. I found it a tad dry, but it has spectacular reference for the city during this period.

4. CAPTION: Our story begins in Africa, in Egypt's Greek colony of Alexandria, then the center of learning for the Roman Empire,

!

and therefore the Western world.

FOUR-FIVE

1. CAPTION: Hypatia's father, Theon, was the last attested member of Alexandria's legendary Library, the storehouse of most of what

the Western world had learned since the invention of writing!

2. CAPTION: She grew up among stacks of scrolls heaving with the works of thinkers like Plato, Aristotle, Archimedes, Euclid...

Panel 2: This section is more of a traditional museum like we'd know in the 21st century, with exhibits and such. In the background is a bust of PTOLEMY, which comes alive to snark. In the foreground a now 12 year old or so Hypatia leans in to admire the main exhibit, which is am ARMILLARY SPHERE, aka a "spherical astrolabe," showing various celestial bodies orbiting a central Earth. Way more on this later!

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

The idea behind this DOUBLE-PAGE SPREAD, Ryan, is that it's one continuous shot of the cavernous interior of the Musuem, with Hypatia kind of prancing through it, and as she passes through each section she ages a few more years until by the last panel she's a young adult in her early twenties.

!Panel 1: Hypatia, looking as we saw her on Page Two, skips through the MASSIVE STACKS OF SCROLLS among the Library's collection.

!(Warning: Don't Google "Bust of Ptolemy" for reference or you'll just get a million busts of the kings of Egypt of the same name, it's confusing.)

3. CAPTION:
4. PTOLEMY BUST: 5. CAPTION:

6. CAPTION:

...and Ptolemy, the first great astronomer. The "P" is silent, Pfool!

Less than two centuries before Hypatia was born, Ptolemy had developed the widely accepted geocentric view of the solar system -- that placed Earth at the center!

He placed the sun fourth, between the planets Venus and Mars.

LETTERING NOTE - Have Line #7 be a small caption with an arrow pointing to the Earth in the Armillary Sphere.

7. CAPTION (SMALL):

MORE

!

(That's right — that's a round Earth. People in ancient times didn't think the world was flat. Eratosthenes of Cyrene calculated the size of the planet back in the third century B.C.!)

FOUR-FIVE, CON'D

!Panel 3: A sixteen year old Hypatia arrives at a small stage in one corner of the museum, where the "MATH BAND" plays -- a jazz combo comprised of a bunch of stereotypical nerds with togas, pocket protectors, acne and tape on their glasses. They play groovily while Hypatia dances in place, snapping her fingers.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

8. CAPTION: 9. CAPTION: 10. CAPTION:

In those days, science was considered a branch of mathematics -- along with music, but that's another story entirely!

Astronomy is a practical application of math because its objects are physical -- like sun, moon, planets -- and you can use it to build clocks and calendars and aid in navigation.

So while Ptolemy and Theon and, later, Hypatia would have been called mathematicians instead of scientists in their day, she really became a Jane of all trades!

Panel 4: Finally, the adult Hypatia speaks to an indoor ampitheater filled with young Greek students. (I will readily admit this is inspired from a scene in the film Agora. Hey, Ryan, maybe you should watch that...)

11. CAPTION:

12. CAPTION:

13. HYPATIA: 14. HYPATIA: 15. HYPATIA:

16. HYPATIA:

!

As an adult, Hypatia spoke and wrote on philosophy, religion, arithmetic, and geometry as well as astronomy.

But her primary fame came from her skill as a teacher — her inspirational skills became legendary!

How does science work?
Through a combination of observation and abstraction.

You gather data objectively until it forms a pattern, then you see if you can predict things using that pattern.

If you can, that means you got it right!

SIX

1. HYPATIA: First part — observation!

2. HYPATIA: For centuries, dating back before Ptolemy, people have been observing and writing down the positions of the stars in the

heavens.

Panel 2: Hypatia throws out her hands, and suddenly a spherical GRID -- the Celestial Sphere -- forms around the Earth, around which the celestial bodies are entrapped, like a spider's web!

3. HYPATIA: Next part — abstraction!

4. HYPATIA: Pretend that from where we're standing, the Earth, is a ball inside another ball we're looking on the inside of -- the

"celestial sphere!"

Panel 3: Cartoony, Ryanized Signs of the Zodiac appear superimposed on the sphere-grid. Since this is a 3D view of the Zodiac, let's make sure we show the Zodiac constellations inside the cartoons -- in the part of the sphere we're looking at, SAGITTARIUS (with the "teapot constellation" in star) is shooting an arrow to the butt of an annoyed CAPRICORN (with the stars of CAPRICORNUS inside). As much as possible show hints of other Signs revolving around the sphere all around the Earth -- in an ideal world, we can still see Hypatia down on the planet's surface.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

(Ryan, I can see 6-7 maybe working best as a DOUBLE-PAGE SPEAD. Your call.)

!Panel 1: Hypatia stands by herself on a small Earth (her feet planted around North Africa)

5. HYPATIA:

throws her drink in his face. 8. SLEAZY STAR:
9. SLEAZY STAR:
10. TRAMPY STAR:

!

If we think of heavenly objects moving around on the surface of that sphere, we can plot their locations using coordinates blocked off at every thirty degrees of "celestial latitude"!

The ancients named these division after their most famous constellations, or collections of stars that form a picture!

You know these best as the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac! Panel 4: SMALL INSET - In a dim STAR BAR, a SLEAZY STAR hits on a TRAMPY STAR. She

6. HYPATIA: 7. HYPATIA:

Hey, baby, what's your sign?
At 10pm on July 22, I'm at Capricorn Six-- Buzz off!

SEVEN

1. HYPATIA: 2. HYPATIA:

3. SUN:
4. HYPATIA:

5. HYPATIA:

!

!SPLASH: In a comics version of the Armillary Sphere, all the solar system objects whizz around Earth -- the Sun, remember, is fourth. They are all in RACE CARS, zipping around the central Earth wearing helmets. Hypatia is also spinning around in place on the Earth, getting dizzy, dizzy, dizzy.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

Next -- look for patterns!
When we plot heavenly bodies' movement along the sphere,

they form paths which we call orbits!

I FEEL THE NEED FOR SPEED!!!

Because we know the rate at which the planet is moving, or the moon revolves around the Earth, for example ...

... we can predict where any given object in our solar system will be — down to the hour!

EIGHT

1. HYPATIA:

2. HYPATIA: 3. HYPATIA: 4. STUDENTS:

!Panel 1: BIG PANEL: Cut back to the ampitheater classroom. Hypatia, hair frizzy, all dizzy and staggering from spinning, arranges the Armillary Sphere to demonstrate how an Eclipse works -- the Sun has a candle (or a small oil lamp in it) throwing light down on Earth, but the moon is in between the two, blocking the light!

So we know when moon will pass between the Sun and the Earth, causing the shadow of a solar eclipse!

That's how my father was able to observe one back in 364! This test with predictions proves our theory is accurate! Ooooooooooo...

Panel 2: After class, lovestruck ORESTES, the Roman PREFECT, and SYRENIUS, an early Christian BISHOP, bashfully give Hypatia apples, hearts bubbling up from their heads.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

5. CAPTION:

6. CAPTION:

! !

Hypatia's many admirers included Orestes, Alexandria's prefect — basically the mayor for the city who ruled it on behalf of the Roman Empire...

...and Syrenius of Cyrene, a former student of hers who became a bishop of the relatively new Christian Church in nearby Libya.

NINE

1. CAPTION: Syrenius did not believe his faith interfered with his love of science.

2. CAPTION: Together, he and Hypatia crafted a cutting-edge silver astrolabe to further astronomical calculations.

Panel 2: Detail on the Astrolabe. We can discuss this further, Ryan, but labeling various parts how the correspond to sections of the "astral sphere." Perhaps we can even separate the astrolabe into distinct plates, like this but floating above each other, like we were looking at the cross-section of a sandwich.

3. CAPTION: This device is essentially the celestial sphere flattened into a group of movable discs...

4. CAPTION: ...through which one may tell time, find stars and planets, their altitude, and where they rise in the night sky.

Panel 3: At the night sky on her terrace garden (q.v. Agora), Hypatia points the astrolabe at the night sky.

!Panel 1: Syrenius jumps up and down on the Celestial Sphere, flattening it. From beneath his feet Hypatia removes a completed gleaming silver ASTROLABE.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

5. CAPTION: 6. CAPTION:

!
!

!

Hypatia used this data gleaned through the astrolabe to improve Ptolemy's ancient star charts to the point where even Theon admitted his daughter's skill had far exceeded his own!

When Theon passed away, Hypatia inherited his mantle as the greatest scientist and mathematician in the world!

TEN

Panel 1: Zoom in more on Hypatia. She turns to us, shocked, when she hears:

1. CAPTION:

2. CAPTION:

3. HYPATIA:

Except — here's the crazy thing about the astrolabe — and all the ancients' astronomical work--

— its first premise is fundamentally wrong. WHA?

Panel 2: A corrected version of Page Seven, where we now see the Sun in the center of the

Solar System, bummed out, holding his racing helmet in his hand, while Earth and the other planets zip around him at breakkneck speeds.

4. CAPTION: 5. CAPTION:

6. CAPTION:

7. EARTH: 8. SUN:
9. CAPTION:

10. CAPTION:

There is no "celestial sphere." And Earth is most definitely not the center of the universe!

As Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus would demonstrate over one thousand years later -- after many more centuries of accumulated observations and resulting calculatons--

-- the Earth goes around the Sun, not the other way around, making it just one planet among many!

Ooh, yeah! Smell the burning rubber!

Aw.
That said, all of Hypatia's calculations about the movements of

the stars and heavens worked. The astrolabe worked.

Because it's relative to the observer's location, with only very slight alterations, the Ptolemic view of the universe is virtually indistinguishable from the correct, Copernican one!

Panel 3: Hypatia looks on a series of ORBITS and ELLIPSES drawn in a fairly common sandbox-type device used a lot by ancient mathematicians (and heavily featured in, yes, again, Agora).

11. CAPTION: Had she been allowed to, Hypatia, the greatest scientist of her day, might have been able to correct these errors.

12. CAPTION: After all, the tools she had available to her were largely the same as those known to Copernicus.

13. CAPTION: But it was not to be.

!

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

ELEVEN

1. CAPTION:

2. CAPTION: 3. CAPTION:

!Panel 1: An ANGRY MOB faces down Hypatia as she throws herself heroically in front a group of Roman Empire-era JEWS -- the Christians want to throw them out.

Panel 2: That same mob drags Hypatia down from the CARRIAGE she was using to ride through the city. Among the mob members is the guy who was pestering Theon at the beginning of the story, now an old man.

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

Cyril, the bishop of Alexandria, wanted to drive all non- Christians out of the city, particularly the Jews -- but the Roman prefect, Hypatia's friend Orestes, resisted.

It was widely believed circulated the prefect's close advisor, Hypatia, had counseled moderation.

Hypatia's student and collaborator Bishop Synesius died suddenly in AD 413, leaving her, a non-Christian teaching outside the confines of the Church, a politically vulnerable target.

4. CAPTION: 5. MOB #1:

6. MOB #2: 7. MOB #3:

In AD 415 a mob of fanatics dragged her from her carriage...

She's an astrologer and a witch! She knows when eclipses happen! She can predict the future!

Tell me my horoscope! Will I receive unexpected benefits from a new friend?!

YOU STILL HAVEN'T TOLD ME MY WINNING LOTTO NUMBERS!

Panel 3: In front of the Church, Hypatia hastily flips through the BIBLE lying on altar while the same mob prepares to stone her to death.

8. CAPTION:
9. HYPATIA:
10. HYPATIA (SMALL):

...and stoned her to death inside their church. Uh... It says right here "Thou shalt not kill"... Seems not really, y'know, a suggestion...

Panel 4: The Jews, Buddha, Santa Claus, and Yoda are all kicked out of Alexandria, bearing the crap on bags on their backs, as the temple BURNS in the background.

11. CAPTION: 12. CAPTION:

Bishop Cyril claimed he had no involvement in the attack, but he soon got his way and Alexandria was purged of all other faiths ... other ways of thinking.

The Library at Alexandria closed for good, and much of the knowledge that it stored -- including all of Hypatia's writings -- burned. 


TWELVE

Panel 1: Totally BLACK panel except for a pair of eyes -- one of whom has really bashed his feet and hurt himself.

Panel 2: The FLAT EARTH floating in space gets laughed at by the Sun and other (still round) Solar System objects.

5. CAPTION:
6. SUN:
7. FLAT EARTH: 8. CAPTION:

This was when the world became flat. Haw, haw! Loser!
Aw.

The advancement of science isn't an inevitable process. There can be setbacks, and the loss of Alexandria was one of the biggest.

Panel 3: Like Page Six, panel 1, but now three or four kids, from all around the world, stand at various parts of the globe, curious, staring up at the stars.

9. CAPTION:

10. CAPTION:

11. CAPTION:

As we saw with the astrolabe example, science's enemies aren't errors — but close-mindedness.

A refusal to see how things are when they conflict with how we want them to be.

But where human beings observe nature, and our curious about the world ... science never truly dies.

Panel 4: A modern-day girl looks up into the Heavens and sees the constellation of

HYPATIA smiling down on her.
12. CAPTION: The question is ... who next would bring it to life?

Action Scientists: HYPATIA

1. CAPTION: 2. CAPTION:

3. SFX:
4. OTHER SET OF EYES:

Hypatia's murder is often called the end of the "Hellenistic" period — an unprecedented wave of learning and culture —

The next thousand years would be known as "The Dark Ages".

CRASSH!

Careful – You really gotta watch where you step.

###