Pharyngula
Movie City News
Both are about a new(ish) film, to copy a little from from PZ Myers...
It's called Agora, and it's about Hypatia, who was a kind of non-Christian martyr, murdered by a religious mob. Here's one account of her death:
And in those days there appeared in Alexandria a female philosopher, a pagan named Hypatia, and she was devoted at all times to magic, astrolabes and instruments of music, and she beguiled many people through Satanic wiles...A multitude of believers in God arose under the guidance of Peter the magistrate...and they proceeded to seek for the pagan woman who had beguiled the people of the city and the prefect through her enchantments. And when they learnt the place where she was, they proceeded to her and found her...they dragged her along till they brought her to the great church, named Caesareum. Now this was in the days of the fast. And they tore off her clothing and dragged her...through the streets of the city till she died. And they carried her to a place named Cinaron, and they burned her body with fire.
I think I might be keeping a look-out for this.
I saw the movie last weekend in New York and loved Weisz's performance as Hypatia. Amenabar did distort some history in service to his art, but that's what artists do. I've posted a "history behind the film" on my blog (http://faithljustice.wordpress.com/)for those who want to know what really happened during this time period. I'd also recommend "Hypatia of Alexandria" by Maria Dzielska (Harvard University Press, 1995,) a very readable biography, for anyone who wants to know more about the historical Hypatia.
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