Three Scientists of the Ancient World

Anaxagoras, Archimedes, Hypatia

These plays cover one thousand years of the ancient world from the golden age of Athens to 5th century Alexandria. The protagonists are Anaxagoras, Archimedes and Hypatia, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers. All three of them came into conflict with the prevalent views of the time. Anaxagoras maintained that the sun was a big burning rock of the size of the Peleponnesus. He was condemned to death on the charge of impiety. Archimedes, the first example of the efficacy of technology combined with science, built fortifications that could withstand the might of the Roman Army. His popular fame rests on him shouting Eureka and jumping naked out of his bath when he discovered the laws of Hydrostatics. He is also known by his statement: give me a fixed point and I shall move the Earth. Hypatia was a philosopher and mathematician, a believer in the old faith. She was hacked to death by a bunch of monks at the instigation of Cyril, a Saint of the Christian Church.