THE MYTH
On the banks of the river Burotas, Jupiter, disguised as a swan, ravished beautiful Leda, wife of King Tyndareus. From that union she laid an egg from which were hatched Helen, Castor, and Pollux. Leda was consequently deified as the goddess Nemesis.

THE MATH
Hypatia (370-415)
Hypatia was head of the neoplatonist school of philosophy at Alexandria, and one of the most learned and eloquent teachers of antiquity. She wrote commentaries on Apollonius's Conics and several other works in mathematics, all of them now vanished. She was barbarously murdered by a mob of Christians who equated science and learning with paganism. The murder of Hypatia led many Greek scientists and mathematicians to leave Alexandria for Persia and Arab countries, particularly Baghdad. They saved many books from the library of Alexandria, such as Euclid's Elements and Ptolemy's Almagest.

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