which purports to be a historical account of the murder of the female philosopher Hypatia by a Christian mob in the early fifth century, of the destruction of the Great Library of Alexandria, and (more generally) of an alleged conflict that raged in the ancient world between Greek science and Christian faith.Probably none as apt as the 1st reader review currently up at imdb:
Atheists of the world, unite!Won't be seeing this one, as it's a prolonged attack on Christianity and I make it a rule never to pay to have a mob incited against me. Especially over events that never occurred, as David Hart explains:
The tale of a Christian destruction of the Great Library—so often told, so perniciously persistent—is a tale about something that never happened. By this, I do not mean that there is some divergence of learned opinion on the issue, or that the original sources leave us in some doubt as to the nature of the event. I mean that nothing of the sort ever occurred.According to Roman Chronicles, it was actually destroyed by Julius Caesar, in 48 BC, which effectively rules out any Christian collaboration, wouldn't you say?
The event in 391 AD this film allegedly depicts is not ancient book-burning, but the dismantling of the building (NOT the scrolls, which were already elsewhere) where a bunch of Christians had been martyred. Emperor Theodosius ordered the complex dismantled, but notably spared the actual murderers. So it was not one of the great inhumane acts of history. Yes, the building at one time had been the daughter library of the Great Library of Alexandria, but no, it wasn't housing any scrolls at the time of the dismantling.
we have fairly good accounts of that day, Christian and pagan, and absolutely none of them so much as hints at the destruction of any large collection of books. Not even Eunapius of Sardis—a pagan scholar who despised Christians and who would have wept over the loss of precious texts—suggests such a thing. This is not surprising, since there were probably no books there to be destroyed.Thank you very much, Mr. Gibbon, you old Christian-hating fox.
The pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus, describing the Serapeum not long before its demolition, had clearly spoken of its libraries as something no longer in existence. The truth of the matter is that the entire legend was the product of the imagination of Edward Gibbon, who bizarrely misread a single sentence from the Christian historian Orosius, and from it spun out a story that appears nowhere in the entire corpus of ancient historical sources.
The movie's also about the murder of Hypatia, a female philosopher, allegedly because she was an educated girl and Christians couldn't have that. You can follow the link to read what a load of old tosh that is at every level, but the nub of it is:
In the royal quarter [of Alexandria], pagans, Christians, and Jews generally studied together, shared a common intellectual culture, collaborated in scientific endeavor, and attended one another’s lectures. In the lower city, however, religious allegiance was often no more than a matter of tribal identity, and the various tribes often slaughtered one another with gay abandon.Sheesh. Is there not enough actual Christian malfeasance today and in history that we have to make stuff up in order to stir the warming pot of hate and dehumanization of me and my peeps? Or worse, force us to endure reviews like this:
"Agora" has drawn criticism from Catholic organizations for perceived slights against Christians, but its lack of condemnation of specific dogma makes the film's target seem to be fundamentalism in general. "Agora" is about many things, including Hypatia's pursuit of the secrets of heavenly orbits and the frequent fate of intellectual women in rigidly paternalistic societies. But the primary tragedy conveyed is that one of the casualties in a war of ideologies is knowledge.Ah, those touchy Catholics and their perceived slights.
Here's what I want to know, though. Look at what the film denounces and ask yourself where we have seen these things --and from whom-- in our own time.
a brutish horde of superstitious louts, who despised science and philosophy, and frequently acted to suppress both, and who also had a particularly low opinion of women.The superstitious destruction of a treasure of antiquity:
supposedly, one tragic day in a.d. 391, the Christians of Alexandria destroyed the city’s Great Library, burning its scrolls, annihilating the accumulated learning of centuries, and effectively inaugurating the “Dark Ages.”The refusal to educate women:
Thus also, in a.d. 415, a group of Christians murdered Hypatia (young and beautiful, of course, as well as brilliant), not only because of her wicked dedication to profane intellectual culture, but also because of the frowardness with which she had forgotten her proper place as a woman.The veil:
Apparently, there is a scene in the film in which Hypatia is forced to wear a veil, of a sort vaguely reminiscent of a burqa, which makes about as much sense in a film about late antique Alexandria as a scene set in a singles bar specializing in Hawaiian drinks.C'mon. Christians don't veil, except in Church. Is it possible Christians in the flick are merely a metaphor and Amenabar is trying to say something about Islam without ending up with a knife in his throat? Because the worst thing Christians are going to do to him is publicize his movie by boycotting it.
