Hypatia was a Neoplatonist who lived in Alexandria in the late Roman Empire. Egypt had been integrated into the Roman sphere for centuries at that time. If "Wes

Hypatia was a Neoplatonist who lived in Alexandria in the late Roman Empire. Egypt had been integrated into the Roman sphere for centuries at that time. If "Western" implies a connection with the Greco-Roman tradition, which it often does, then Hypatia certainly seems to fit that. The modern notion of the "Middle East" being distinct from "the West" was less strong at that time because the Western world was more of a Mediterranean world; cultures in north Africa and the Levant were more integrated with Europe during the Roman period and even for centuries afterward. It was the rise of the Islamic Empire and its disruption of trade routes with Europe that more strongly created that distinction. I say this as someone not particularly emotionally invested in the idea of "claiming" Hypatia for the West or anything like that. To tell the truth, the story of Hypatia has turned into a modern myth in various ways -- like the story of Galileo -- in which we end up coloring it with our own narratives. If anyone is interested in details about Hypatia's life, I recommend reading this post which responds to the typical modern narrative about Hypatia: http://tofspot.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-herstory-of-hypatia.html http://tofspot.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-herstory-of-hypatia.... I also recommend the more detailed series of posts by the same author, which gets into the political/social issues of the day, which is more interesting than you might think: https://tofspot.blogspot.com/2015/02/hypatia-part-i-mean-streets-of-old.html https://tofspot.blogspot.com/2015/02/hypatia-part-i-mean-str...