This journey I've been taking through time and the world of mind began in 1986 when I first encountered Dr Carl Sagan's astonishing book "COSMOS" (later a TV series on NOVA). Here I encountered for the first time, an historical tale of such monumental significance that I could not believe I had never heard of this pivotal event. An assassination which set the stage for all that would come after, right up to and including our modern age.
Dr. Sagan was referring to the Great Library of Alexandria and the last director of that library, Hypatia, "...whose martyrdom was bound up with the destruction of the library in 415 AD." There is, in his telling, a sense of anguish and deep regret that the perpetrators of this attack were able to effect this cultural lobotomy and cut the whole of humanity off from its collective accomplishments in the arts, literature and sciences, effectively making an end of history.
The circumstances surrounding this crime against humanity only become clear in the greater context of the failing Roman Empire and the rise of the Roman Christian Church which would come to supplant it. The History of the world up to that time was the story of what came to be called Paganism, in all its varied forms. The newly legitimized church, grated toleration by Emperor Constantine in the early years of the 4th C. A.D. had grown in influence throughout the ancient world. This was especially true in Alexandria, where Alexander the Great's policy of respect for all gods and cultures had allowed a lively community of scientists, artists and creative minds to flourish, particularly within the Library and Museum since their formation around 300 B.C.
Hypatia was very much at the centre of this early research institute and oversaw the functioning of the Library, chaired the NeoPlatonic school of philosophy, and gave regular lectures on Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics. Her influence in the pagan world would bring her into conflict with the Archbishop of Alexandria, (later to be canonized as St. Cyril). It was his animosity which led to her being attacked by a fanatical mob during Easter week of 415 AD. She was dragged from her chariot while returning from a lecture, stripped and flayed in the streets, her bones broken by paving stones, carried into the church where her remains were burned and her ashes thrown into the Nile. Her written works remain lost, though there are writings by some of her students and contemporaries who held her in the highest esteem.
The Great Library and its collection of handwritten scrolls, representing a collection of all works from around the world amassed over 700 years was utterly demolished and the writings lost or scattered. The immediate effect was an age of darkness, intolerance and superstition lasting a thousand years, till the Age of Discovery and the Renaissance began to loosen the intellectual restraints imposed by the church and the divinely-ordained temporal feudal rulers of the western world.
Today's world still bears the stigma and scars of the millennium of fanatical repression, inquisition and persecution of those who delve or dabble in the realm of science, philosophy and the arts.
That is why I felt I had to tell this story in the most complete and compelling way I know. As an ongoing work of new-media interactive musical theatre.
Dr. Sagan was referring to the Great Library of Alexandria and the last director of that library, Hypatia, "...whose martyrdom was bound up with the destruction of the library in 415 AD." There is, in his telling, a sense of anguish and deep regret that the perpetrators of this attack were able to effect this cultural lobotomy and cut the whole of humanity off from its collective accomplishments in the arts, literature and sciences, effectively making an end of history.
The circumstances surrounding this crime against humanity only become clear in the greater context of the failing Roman Empire and the rise of the Roman Christian Church which would come to supplant it. The History of the world up to that time was the story of what came to be called Paganism, in all its varied forms. The newly legitimized church, grated toleration by Emperor Constantine in the early years of the 4th C. A.D. had grown in influence throughout the ancient world. This was especially true in Alexandria, where Alexander the Great's policy of respect for all gods and cultures had allowed a lively community of scientists, artists and creative minds to flourish, particularly within the Library and Museum since their formation around 300 B.C.
Hypatia was very much at the centre of this early research institute and oversaw the functioning of the Library, chaired the NeoPlatonic school of philosophy, and gave regular lectures on Mathematics, Astronomy and Physics. Her influence in the pagan world would bring her into conflict with the Archbishop of Alexandria, (later to be canonized as St. Cyril). It was his animosity which led to her being attacked by a fanatical mob during Easter week of 415 AD. She was dragged from her chariot while returning from a lecture, stripped and flayed in the streets, her bones broken by paving stones, carried into the church where her remains were burned and her ashes thrown into the Nile. Her written works remain lost, though there are writings by some of her students and contemporaries who held her in the highest esteem.
The Great Library and its collection of handwritten scrolls, representing a collection of all works from around the world amassed over 700 years was utterly demolished and the writings lost or scattered. The immediate effect was an age of darkness, intolerance and superstition lasting a thousand years, till the Age of Discovery and the Renaissance began to loosen the intellectual restraints imposed by the church and the divinely-ordained temporal feudal rulers of the western world.
Today's world still bears the stigma and scars of the millennium of fanatical repression, inquisition and persecution of those who delve or dabble in the realm of science, philosophy and the arts.
That is why I felt I had to tell this story in the most complete and compelling way I know. As an ongoing work of new-media interactive musical theatre.
