Het oog van de zon
Authors: Karel Verleyen en Frank Leys
Illustrator: André Sollie
Series: De Paarden van Heraion (2000)
and De Zilveren Dolk (2002)
Original language: Flamish
Translated into English: not
Published: March 1998
ISBN13: 9789065658456
Price: on sale for € 5.00
Age: from 12 years and up
Het Oog van de Zon (The Eye of the Sun) is no traditionally written Egyption history book, which by young people is often experienced as boring. It's an exciting story, within other stories have been woven in. It paints a vivid picture of the lives of young people in the period in which the Egyptian woman Hypatia (355-415) lived. She was the first female mathematician and she taught mathematics and philosophy to young people in her father's house in Alexandria.
Her father Theoon was a mathematician, employed by the Mouseion, the temple of the Muses (sciences and fine arts) and Library of Alexandria. Her father educated Hypatia and later on she also studied philosophie, astronomy and music.
About Hypathia many books are written although there are not a lot of reliable sources. Hypatia appeals to the imagination because her name is often mentioned in conjunction with the emancipation of women. But sadly Hypatia is mostly known for the gruesome way in which she was murdered.
Until we read Het oog van de zon (The eye of the sun) we did not come across this piece of Egyptian history for young adults. The book is written beautifully by two Belgian auteurs, Karel Verleyen and Frank Leys who also wrote together about Greek Mythology and Mesopotamian legends in this book series. We are sad to say this book is not translated into English. The wonderful illustrations are by Belgian artist André Sollie.
The Eye of the Sun (Het Oog van de Zon), an exciting mixture of fiction and truth, gets 3+ radiant stars from the young snazzie readers!