Challenging Gender Roles: Hypatia, Greek Anthology, 9.400

All of Heaven is Your Classroom, Hypatia

Name:   Palladas Date:   4th century CE Region:    Alexandria [modern Egypt] Citation:     Greek Anthology 9.400

Holy Hypatia,

Immaculate star of education,

Whenever I see you

I bow down in worship,

Revering you and your wisdom,

As if I were gazing at the starry house of the Maiden,

For all of Heaven is your classroom.

ὅταν βλέπω σε, προσκυνῶ, καὶ τοὺς λόγους, τῆς παρθένου τὸν οἶκον ἀστρῷον βλέπων εἰς οὐρανὸν γάρ ἐστί σου τὰ πράγματα, Ὑπατία σεμνή, τῶν λόγων εὐμορφία, ἄχραντον ἄστρον τῆς σοφῆς παιδεύσεως.

Colat necesse est literas, te qui videt Et virginalem spectat astrigeram domum: Negotium namque omne cum coelo tibi, Hypatia prudens, dulce sermonis decus, Sapientis artis sidus integerrimum. Translated into Latin by  Hugo Grotius

Palladas [4th century CE, modern Egypt] was a 4th c. CE poet and scholar who lived in Alexandria. Little is known about his life, but several of his poems were preserved in The Greek Anthology.