The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to AlexanderUniversity of California Press, 2001 M12 4 - 360 páginas The Egyptians mesmerized the ancient Greeks for scores of years. The Greek literature and art of the classical period are especially thick with representations of Egypt and Egyptians. Yet despite numerous firsthand contacts with Egypt, Greek writers constructed their own Egypt, one that differed in significant ways from actual Egyptian history, society, and culture. Informed by recent work on orientalism and colonialism, this book unravels the significance of these misrepresentations of Egypt in the Greek cultural imagination in the fifth and fourth centuries B.C.E. Looking in particular at issues of identity, otherness, and cultural anxiety, Phiroze Vasunia shows how Greek authors constructed an image of Egypt that reflected their own attitudes and prejudices about Greece itself. He focuses his discussion on Aeschylus Suppliants; Book 2 of Herodotus; Euripides' Helen; Plato's Phaedrus, Timaeus, and Critias; and Isocrates' Busiris. Reconstructing the history of the bias that informed these writings, Vasunia shows that Egypt in these works was shaped in relation to Greek institutions, values, and ideas on such subjects as gender and sexuality, death, writing, and political and ethnic identity. This study traces the tendentiousness of Greek representations by introducing comparative Egyptian material, thus interrogating the Greek texts and authors from a cross-cultural perspective. A final chapter also considers the invasion of Egypt by Alexander the Great and shows how he exploited and revised the discursive tradition in his conquest of the country. Firmly and knowledgeably rooted in classical studies and the ancient sources, this study takes a broad look at the issue of cross-cultural exchange in antiquity by framing it within the perspective of contemporary cultural studies. In addition, this provocative and original work shows how Greek writers made possible literary Europe's most persistent and adaptable obsession: the barbarian. |
Contenido
THE TRAGIC EGYPTIAN | 33 |
SPACE AND OTHERNESS | 75 |
IN AN ANTIQUE LAND | 110 |
WRITING EGYPTIAN WRITING | 136 |
READING ISOCRATES BUSIRIS | 183 |
PLATOS EGYPTIAN STORY | 216 |
ALEXANDERS CONQUEST AND THE FORCE OF TRADITION | 248 |
Fragmentary Greek Historians on Egypt | 289 |
Abbreviations | 307 |
337 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
The Gift of the Nile: Hellenizing Egypt from Aeschylus to Alexander Phiroze Vasunia Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Términos y frases comunes
Aeschylus Alexander Alexander's Ammon ancient antiquity appears Aristagoras Aristotle Arrian Assmann Athenian Athens Atlantis authors barbarian Busiris chapter city-states claim classical contemporary context Critias cultural Danaids Danaus death dialogues Diodorus discourse discussion Egyp Egypt Egyptian history Egyptian king Egyptian priests Egyptian writing Eudoxus Euripides evidence FGrHist fifth century foreign fourth century genre gods Greece Greek writers Hartog Hecateus Helen Heracles Herodotus hieroglyphic human sacrifice images inscription Isis and Osiris Isocrates land language marriage Memphis Menelaus monumental myth narrative Naukratis Nearchus Nile Nile's orientation Osiris Paris parody passage period Persian Phaedrus pharaoh philosophical Plato play Plutarch political Polycrates proto-Athens Psammetichus pyramids refer representations rhetoric river rodotus Saïs says scholars Sesostris sexual Socrates Solon sources space speech Stephanus of Byzantium story Strabo Suppliants temple Theoclymenus Theuth Thoth tian Timaeus tion tragedy Translated Vidal-Naquet women word written Zeus καὶ
Referencias a este libro
'Never Had the Like Occurred': Egypt's View of Its Past William John Tait Sin vista previa disponible - 2003 |