Seleucid Empire
|
1,325,000 sq. mi.
|
Ptolemaic Egypt
|
386,560 sq. mi.
|
cp. Alexander's Empire
|
2,100,000 sq. mi.
|
cp. Roman Empire
|
2,200,000 sq. mi.
|
founded and laid out by Alexander the Great, ca. 333-332 BC
"Out of
the tossing sea where it breaks on the beaches of Egypt
Rises an isle from the waters: the name
that men give it is Pharos."
(Homer, Odyssey 4.354-355)
population explosion: larger than Carthage within a generation, largest
city in the world by 234
largest Jewish population (Septuagint produced with patronage of
Ptolemy II)
the Hippodamean (=grid)
city plan: residential, public,
racial (cf. Austin 232/292)
orientation on a main axis
Pharos lighthouse
Strabo's
description of Alexandria (technically Roman, but will give you some
idea)
archaeological problems:
#1,
#2
Why Alexandria?
location, location, location
commercially and militarily advantageous
"isle of Greekness in a non-Greek sea": Greek city with Greek
components, Hellenization, Greek + non-Greek (e. g., Temple of Isis)
Ptolemaic Alexandria
Ptolemy I Soter>>Museum/Temple of the Muses
Ptolemy II Philadelphus>>Library
The Library
"In the polyglot land of
Egypt, many
now find pasturage as endowed scribblers, endlessly quarreling in the
birdcage of the Muses."
Callimachus (ca.
305-240)
from Cyrene
chief librarian or bibliographer (120 volumes)? royal tutor?
mega biblion, mega kakon -
what does that even mean?
Aitia, Iambs, Epigrams, Hecale, Hymns
Select quotations:
"Fatten your flocks, but keep your muse slender." (allusion)
"Drive your wagons on untrodden fields."
"I abhor all common things."
first great Western
academic rivalry with former student...
...Apollonius of Rhodes
(ca. 270-after 246)
not from Rhodes but Alexandria or Naucratis, possibly Greco-Egyptian
chief librarian, tutor to Ptolemy III Euergetes I
Argonautica, On Cities and Islands
and Their Changes of Name
Select quotations:
"Callimachus: filth, cheater, wooden-brained.
Guilty: he who wrote Callimachus's
Aitia."
Others
Theocritus (see course packet #6):
Idylls
Herondas, mimes, frequently sexual
Aratus,
Phaenomena, on
astronomy, in epic poetry
Lycophron,
Alexandra,
prophecy uttered by Cassandra
what kind of literature is
this? What does this say about the Hellenistic Age?
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Updated 3-29-08,
bolmarcich[at]mail.utexas.edu