Airbrushing History: Hypatia's Disciple

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The people who made the film Agora about the legendary heroine of science, Hypatia of Alexandria, did not want to make an anti-Christian movie. This is probably why they omitted key features of the history of the times. In an effort to not offend the sensibilities of people who would not watch the film in the first place, they insulted the intelligence of the audience that would view it. We can uncover the most important key event by looking at another historic figure portrayed in the film: Synesius of Cyrene, the source of much that is known about Hypatia.

Synesius was elected to the metropolitan see of Pentapolis, a collection of Greek colonial cities on the coast of what is now Eastern Libya. He had never attended a formal training program in the relatively recent tradition of Christian orthodoxy. He lacked experience in any priestly office of the Church. He openly admitted to heretical views and insisted that he would not abandon them as chief bishop for the region. His election was confirmed by Archbishop Theophilus despite all of these disqualifications. He had something that the Church needed and its corrupt leaders were willing to bend the rules to obtain it.

Agora shows Synesius opposing the antihero Cyril in his political machinations to accumulate power and influence. The history records show Synesius as dead by then. The records also show something left out of the film: a contest for the seat of archbishop after the death of Theophilus. The power struggle would have made the film too long and too unflattering to the orthodox cause. A significant portion of the orthodox opposed the ordination of Cyril.

The movie also omits the expulsion of heterodox clerics which preceded the pogroms against Jews depicted in the film. In his expulsion order, Synesius accuses the Eunomians of "stealing" souls from orthodoxy. This reveals his slave owning mindset as he attempts to keep the Christian congregation from escaping the Orthodox plantation. This charming piece of history was left out of Alice Gardner's account of the life of Synesius as she added some anti-heterodox fluff to rationalize this self-defeating move on the part of Synesius. It is no wonder that Hypatia did not respond to the letters of Synesius after this vicious and unwise power play.

What do you think of the way that history is airbrushed in order to conceal the sinister nature of Christian orthodoxy?

Comments

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Biggest airbrushing: Hyapatia was at least 60 years old when she died, not Rachel Weiss's comely Hollywood preserved 41.

Good point.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

The other characters also did not seem to age much between the 390's and the 410's.

Re: Good point.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

And we all know how good Egyptian dental hygiene was in the 5th c.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

I think we can forgive that dramatic license.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Helen Mirren isn't good enough actress, or something?

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Sorry she was far busier making classics such as the remake of Arthur.

(GAG)

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it Michael Caine who couldn't attend the Oscars, where he won for Best Actor for Hannah and Her Sisters, because he was filming Jaws: The Revenge?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Bigger airbrushing: nobody in the film speaks the kind of Greek that would have been spoken in the 5th Century, particularly by the learned people of the time. It's just like how the real Julius Caesar did not speak British English with an RP accent.

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Well, not every movie can be Apocolypto or The Passion of the Christ.

Ah, yes...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... The Passion was one of the saddest depictions of the subject I have ever seen. Much of it is based on an apocryphal gospel. I was amazed that anyone would consider it to be "awesome," but many did. Like Blair Witch, it made me physically sick. Unlike Blair Witch, I found little of merit in it after rumination.

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

At least they didn't sex her up.

[soliloquy76.livejournal.com]

I've seen Agora, and it doesn't paint a flattering picture of early Christianity. So I'm not sure it was intentially trying to "airbrush history." The story was about Hypatia, not Synesius, and they had limited time to tell her story. Not to mention pacing issues, etc.

We see this in historical movies all the time. I don't think there's a concerted effort to rewrite history, but more about telling an interesting story.

The level...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... of unflattery is pretty tame. The most sinister element in the film is the Parabalani. They were deliberately portrayed to appear to like the Taliban. The Taliban do not flatter Islam. The film would have told a more interesting story if it showed more of the viciousness of the attacks on heretical Christians.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Not least because to be historically accurate everyone would have had to speak varying dialects of Greek and heathenry would have included the disembowelment of animals, gaudily painted buildings that make the eyes bleed, the hatred by Christians and Greeks to Jews in Ancient Egypt, with Alexandria having one of the largest Jewish communities of its day, *and* it would have had to bring up awkward realities like the heathens accepting and in fact inventing the ideas of the astronomer Ptolemy.

People tend to overstate the degree to which Late Antiquity Hellenism was big on the learning thing.

Learned Greeks...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... with any courage ventured away from Greece. A significant number of the students at the schools in Athens came from outside of Roman territory.

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

Was watching Agora just today on cable for the first time, LOL. I couldn't help but notice many ways in which it failed as a film, although I didn't realize it was very inaccurate historically as well. Still it was somewhat enjoyable to watch.

I agree.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

I had a blast with it. I especially appreciated some of the subtle aspects like the fragile dependence on an underclass for the survival of affluent morons.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Rotten tomatoes audiences give the movie a 64 percent approval. It has 51 for critics, not too shabby for such arcane material.

It is not so...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... arcane. They did a pretty good job of popularizing science with a story of romantic and political intrigue.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Agora overstates the degree of anti-intellectualism in 4th Century Christianity. Once the pagan leaders were persecuted into oblivion the Church felt insofar as it prevented any learning outside its rather totalitarian restrictions on what was and wasn't permissible, learning was all right. There's a reason Islam was the center of learning in the early Medieval period and that reason starts with c and ends with y and is a synonym for being a religion of partisans of a translated word meaning annointed.

That Islam, which arose from the more learning-phobic climate of early state Christianity was that pro-learning argues that the Abrahamic ideal has nothing to restrict learning. Judaism's history argues this more decisively, but it tends to be ignored relative to the other two.

I could see...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... the exiled heretics fading off into the barbarous territories of pre-Muslim Africa, Arabia, and Persia.

[hikarugenji.livejournal.com]

What you saw in Christianity was an initial period that was very open to intellectualism and learning, in the way they adopted a lot of current "science" and philosophy of the period -- Aristotle, Neoplatonism, etc. But after this initial period things stultified and they stopped being so open to new things. The 4th century was still before the New Testament had even been fully canonized and defined.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

No, what you saw was a new bunch of repressive murderous sonsobitches replacing Diocletian and Galerius's murderous brutality with the new and improved version. Christianity rose through brute force, no more and no less, and unlike Islam Christianity was initially very fond on ensuring that reality became what it wanted it to be. It was not very successful at this for the first millennium of trying, though.

From an orthodox...

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

... perspective, Early Christianity was basically heresy. The orthodox could not corner the market on Jesus until they obtained the power of the state. Once they cornered the market, they started to pare away at the vine until it no longer bore any fruit. "Defining" the canon became a process of book burning and altering the definition of key words to suit orthodox aesthetics and power principles.

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Loved Rachel Weisz in Agora. All I could say about this.