The Centre of The Universe

Davus The Slavus :

Ammonius.

Does God Speak with you?

Ammonius :

All the time.

'Ammonius this', 'Ammonius that'.

'Ammonius, Ammonius, Ammonius'.

Today, he spoke to me so quickly, 

I had to ask him: "Slow Down".

Davus The Slavus :

Tell me something :

Do you ever think we're mistaken?

Ammonius :

Why?

Davus The Slavus :

I was forgiven...

But now, I can't forgive.

Ammonius :

Forgive? Who?

The Jews?

Davus The Slavus :

Well, Jesus pardoned them on The Cross.

Ammonius :

Jesus was God

and 

only He can show such clemency.

Bretheren :

How dare you compare yourself to God?

Ammonius :

Brother. We are Still Alive.

Why?

Because it was His Will to 

Save Us from The Stones.

God wants us here, doing What We Do.

Don't you believe in that anymore?

Agora movie 2009 - 

one of the best scenes of Rachel Weisz

Aspasius, The Slave :

Lady, you must not lose heart.

Today on the boat you made great progress.

Why do the wanderers bury their brightness so unexpectedly.

And what is worse, why does the Sun...

Why does it change size from summer to winter?

Aspasius, The Slave :

Perhaps because...

Sometimes it is nearer...

And other times it is further away.

But Aspasius, watch...

According to Aristarchus, 

The Sun must be at the center of everything.

With us, the Earth, traveling in a circle around it.

Therefore, and this is the key,

we're always at exactly...

The same... distance.

Now, if as you just said,

we accept the changes in distance,

then we are forced to add 

an epicycle to the Earth's orbit.

So it is going to be nearer

and then it's going to be further away.

But now we fall into

the same trap as Ptolemy.

Aspasius, The Slave :

Circle upon circles.

The Lady Hypatia :

Exactly!

So I just Do Not Know

How to Resolve This Conflict.

.....I mean, the only thing we could do is...

Displace The Sun from The Centre, and well...

Not to have A Centre.

It breaks My Heart, Aspasius.

So Tell Me, 

What Do I Do?

Aspasius, The Slave :

Rest, Lady.

The Lady Hypatia :

What if we dared to look at The World 

just as it is?

Let us shed for a moment 

every preconceived idea.

What shape would it show us?

What shape?

Aspasius, The Slave :

You once said that 

The Problem lies in 

The Inconsistency of The Sun.

The Lady Hypatia :

Yes I did, good, good...

Put it into words.

The Sun must be at The Centre,

since we revolve around it.

And at the same time,

in another position  since 

our distance from it varies.

Aspasius, The Slave :

Yes, exactly.

How?

How could it occupy

two positions at once?

How could it occupy

two positions at once?

How could it occupy

two positions at once?

Aspasius...

Yes, yes. There.

And then the other one here.

Keeping the same proportion.

Good. Very good.

Now, tie this end to that torch.

Aspasius --

I want you to imagine that this is The Earth.

And that each of these flames represent the two extreme positions of The Sun in relation to it.

In Winter and in Summer.

What would happen if both these

positions were the two Centres

of one and the same circle?

Aspasius, The Slave :

But it isn't possible, Mistress.

The Lady Hypatia :

Wait. What do we know about a circle?

We know that The Centre of A Circle is always 

the same distance from any point along its perimeter.

Exactly.

Yes, so...

What if I divide the center into two...

but What I Keep Constant is the sum 

of their two distances to the perimeter.

Alright, look. I'll show you.

Watch. As I move this rod along the cord,

as one segment increases

the other segment decreases,

and vice versa.

Therefore the sum of the two

is always going to be constant.

Do you see that?

Now, what if we apply this to 

The Movement of The Earth?

What...

figure...

....will we obtain?

An Ellipse!

With The Sun as one of its foci.

Because, what is a circle except 

a very special ellipse

whose foci have joined so close

together that they appear to be one.

.....perhaps, I'm completely raving, Aspasius.

I mean, why should this be so?

Maybe I'm just...

Maybe I'm...

What do you think?

Aspasius, The Slave :

...It could well be so, Mistress.

The Lady Hypatia :

Alright, well, um, we'll continue

with this tomorrow.

Get some sleep.

Aspasius, The Slave :

Good night, Mistress.

The Lady Hypatia :

Good night.

(she kisses him on The Head)

Thank you.

Circles

Hypatia, Daughter of Theron,

Philosopher of Alexandria :

Yesterday, many of you will have seen 

one of your colleagues 

present me with an aulos.

I accepted The Gift.

And today I wish to make him 

a gift of My Own in return.

This is for you.

It is The Blood of My cycle.

Orestes, you...

You say that you have 

found Harmony in Me.

Well, I am suggesting that you 

look elsewhere, because 

I think that there is 

little Harmony or...

Beauty in that.

Don't you agree?

.....Yesterday we were discussing

The Apollonian Cone.

We discussed The Circle,

The Ellipse, The Parabola.

Today we will discuss 

The Hyperbola.

Slave :

Lady! Forgive me, Lady --

Olympius requires Your Presence urgently 

in the Serapeum. You as well.

Davus The Slavus,

Christian Slave in The House of Theron :

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

How are we to enjoy them force feeding us 

The Faith accustomed to people who

 until recently were common outlaws?

Hypatia of Alexandria :

What's happening?

It's despicable. A sacrilege.

Christians have gathered in the Agora.

They are mocking The Gods.

Lex Luthor :

Now the secret to the height is the building material.

It's light metals which sway a bit in the wind.

Hmm.

And you know something about 

LexCorp metals, don't you, Miss Lane?

Lois Lane :

I've proven What You've Done.

Lex Luthor :

Wow, you're feisty.

Unfortunately, that will blow away --

Like sand in The Desert.

Lois Lane :

You're psychotic.

Lex Luthor :

That is a three-syllable word 

for any thought too big

for little minds.

Hmm. Next category : Circles.

Round and round and round 

they go to find Superman.

Wrong category, boy.

No, no, Triangles.

Yes, Euclid's triangle inequality.

The shortest distance between any 

two points is a straight path.

And I believe the straightest path to Superman 

is a pretty little road... Mmm.

Called Lois Lane.

Lois Lane :

You came back.

You came back.

Boy, do we have problems up here!

The Problem of... of Evil in The World.

Uh, the problem of absolute virtue.

I'll take you in without breaking you.

Which is more than you deserve.

The Problem of You on top of everything else.

You Above All.

Ah, because that's what God is.

Horus. Apollo.

Jehovah. Kal-El.

Clark Joseph Kent.

See, what we call ‘God’ depends upon our tribe, Clark-Joe.

Because God is tribal.

God takes sides.

No Man in The Sky intervened when I was a boy to deliver me from Daddy's fist and abominations. Mmm.

I figured out way back,

If God is all-powerful,

he cannot be all-good.

And if he is all-good,

then he cannot be all-powerful.

And neither can you be.

They need to see the fraud you are.

With their eyes.

The blood on your hands.

What have you done?

Hmm. And tonight, they will.

Yes. Because you, my friend, have a date. Hmm.

Across the bay.

Ripe fruit, his hate.

Two years growing.

But it did not take much to push him over, actually.

Little red notes, big bang.

‘You let your family die!’

And now you will fly to him.

And you will battle him.

To The Death.

Black and Blue.

Fight Night!

The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world.

God versus Man.

Day versus Night.

Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham.

You think I'll fight him for you?

Lex Luthor :

Hmm, yes, I do. I think you will fight-fight-fight for that special lady in your life.

She's safe on the ground.

How about you?

Lex Luthor :

Close, but I am not talking about Lois.

No. Every boy's special lady is His Mother.

Martha, Martha, Martha.

Hmm.

Why, The Mother of a Flying Demon must be A Witch.

The punishment for witches, what is that?

That's right.

Death by Fire.

Mmm.

Where is she?

Lex Luthor :

I don't know!

I would not let them tell me!

Uh-uh-uh!

If you kill me, Martha dies.

And if you fly away, mmm, Martha also dies.

But if you kill the Bat...

Martha lives.

There we go.

There we go. Hmm.

And now God bends to my will.

Ooh, now the cameras are waiting at your ship.

For the world to see the holes in the Holy.

Yes, the almighty comes clean about how dirty he is

when it counts.

To save Martha, bring me the head of the Bat.

Ah.

Mother of God, would you look at the time?

When you came here, you had an hour.

Now it's less.