Gibbon在《罗马帝国衰亡史》中对Hypatia被残害过程的描述比影片所呈现的更为凄惨：“torn from her chariot, stripped naked, dragged to the church, and inhumanly butchered by the hands of Peter the Reader, and a trooped of savage and merciless fanatics: her flesh was scraped from her bones with sharp oyster-shells and her quivering limbs were delivered to the flames.” 自此，如罗素所说：“Alexandria was no longer troubled by philosophers.” 总的来说，影片触动我的只有Hypatia，那些宗教冲突和异端审判导致的屠杀悲剧，我无法relate any more，因为那些是男人发动的战争、造成的惨剧，而女人只是牺牲品。此外，尽管我很喜欢Oscar，但他饰演的Orestes我是真喜欢不起来，他不理解Hypatia对真理的追求，只想娶她占有她，到最后他也只把Hypatia视为他政治生涯上的绊脚石，连对他对基督教的信仰也是权宜之计。
