Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Zabkar 1988, 12526, on the negative confession (Spell 125). See also
Merkelbach 1993, 7184; he makes the intriguing suggestion that Diodorus is correctly
recording events and that elements that appear in funerary books may have been staged
as part of the funeral process.
89. See J. F. Quack, Das Buch vom Tempel und verwandte TexteEin Vorbericht,
Archiv fr Religionsgeschichte 2.1 (2000) 120. (I am grateful to L. Koenen for providing
me with a copy of this article.)
90. Both Eudoxus of Cnidus and Hecataeus offer the possibility of Greeks who read
some form of Egyptian.
91. Herodotus 2.102 and 106. C. Obsomer (Les campagnes de Ssostris dans
Hrodote [Brussels, 1989] 11524) discusses the traditional identication of the stele
with that of Nahr el-Kelb and suggests a better candidate, a Ramessid stele from Beth-
Chan. See 6879 on the Semna stele of Sesostris III.
actual practice. The most important feature of the Book of the Dead
spell 125, the so-called negative confessionwas a comprehensive de-
nial of any wrongdoing, recited at the moment of judgment before
Osiris. Elements of it, however, were employed as part of yearly temple
rituals for the living king
88
and also occurred in priestly oaths, some of
which now exist in both Demotic and Greek.
89
At the very least, the
passages in Diodorus indicate familiarity with these very common tomb
writings (however they may have been conveyed to our Greek sources).
It is possible to ask to what extent Greeks would have been able to read
Egyptian, but the question may not be particularly meaningful in the
ancient context. Few Egyptians read hieroglyphics, and even fewer hi-
eratic, but that did not mean that Egyptians were ignorant of their own
myths or of the ideologies of kingship. Moreover, those trained in the
reading of Egyptian texts (like Manetho) were precisely the Egyptians
that Greeks connected with the Ptolemaic court were most likely to
have encountered. Although the majority of Alexandrian Greeks would
not have been able to read Egyptian texts, it is certainly possible that
some did learn to read the stylized and formulaic hieroglyphics found
on royal monuments.
90
These texts are visually arresting, and the glyphs
themselves stimulate the hermeneutic impulse, as Herodotuss interest
in the stele supposedly erected by Sesostris in Syria demonstrates. It is
unclear what Herodotus actually saw, but he was interested enough to
learn from some source that on it Sesostris had used signs for female
genitalia to humiliate the conquered enemy.
91
Whether or not female
genitalia occur on the inscription Herodotus mentions, it seems he may
have been correct about the general principle. On the Semna stele of
Sesostris III, the phallus is mutilated . . . as a mark of dishonor char-
Conceptualizing Egypt 49
92. T. Hare, ReMembering Osiris: Number, Gender, and the Word in Ancient Egypt-
ian Representational Systems (Stanford, 1999) 10910; and Vasunia 2001, 143.
93. These include The Contendings of Horus and Seth, The Memphite Theology,
and The Story of Tefnut, or The Myth of the Suns Eye. Much Demotic material is
still unpublished. For the Inaros and Petubastis cycles of stories, see J. Taits discussion in
Greek Fiction: The Greek Novel in Context, ed. J. Morgan and R. Stoneman (London,
1994) 20322.
94. See, for example, Leaf and Bayelds commentary on Iliad 9.145.
acterizing the Nubians.
92
One nal point: neither ancient Greek nor
Egyptian culture was as dependent on literacy as we are today. Even the
literate employed scribes who read aloud to them and to whom they
would dictate their words. In this milieu, the most likely scenario for
the transmission of Egyptian written texts to interested Greeks was via
a trained, bilingual scribe who would be able to read a text in Egyptian
script and translate it into Greek. Even without the ability to read texts,
the consistency of visual representation from region to region as well as
from one medium to another combined with the considerable degree of
overlap between the written and visual guaranteed that a core of Egypt-
ian symbolic material must have been familiar to anyone living in the
country, just as it is for the tourist who visits Egypt today.
the ideology of egyptian kingship
A difculty for any discussion about the interrelatedness of Greek and
Egyptian myths within the Alexandrian context stems from the lack of
systematization of belief systems by the Egyptians themselves. Although
a series of prose narratives (anachronistically labeled short stories)
survive, and provide the rst extended narratives of Egyptian myths,
93
the Egyptians had no tradition of mythography. There are no hand-
books or epitomes to which we can turn, no rationalizing historians
and philosophers. Rather, the situation is analogous to that of the ar-
chaic or classical period in Greece, where a variety of sourcespoems,
plays, ceramics, friezesallow us to reconstruct the story of Heracles
or Jason and the Argonauts, but always with inconsistencies and
caveats. Commentators remind us that Homer, for example, reects a
different tradition about the daughter of Agamemnon (Iphianassa)
than Euripides.
94
Even within the same time period, there are alterna-
tives: in Euripides lost version of an Oedipus play, for example, Oedi-
pus continues to rule Thebes after the discovery of his incestuous mar-
50 Conceptualizing Egypt
95. C. Austin, Euripidis Fragmenta Nova (Berlin, 1968) 5965 = POxy. 27.2455.
96. Manetho may have attempted to do this, since he was writing for a Greek audi-
ence; so Blum 1991, 103.
97. Hornung 1982, 24041. Hornungs formulation of this view of Egyptian thinking
seems to have gained wide acceptance among Egyptologists. See especially his chapter
The Problem of Logic, pp. 23743.
riage, rather than wandering off blind and in exile.
95
The case with
Egyptian religious stories is similar. Disparate sources have allowed
scholars to reconstruct major themes and motifs, and there is ample ev-
idence in Egypts long written tradition for continuity as well as change
within these traditions, but no one source provides a clear, chronologi-
cal account of any particular tale.
96
Moreover, as Egyptologists are now
beginning to realize, Egyptian thinking about the divine does not follow
the logical constraints we are familiar with from Greek systemizations
of Egyptian myths. Gods and their functions resist neat description and
containment: the process is one of pleonasm and combination, of
both . . . and rather than either . . . or. Erik Hornung decribes it thus:
The order established by the creator god is characterized by two things
and thus by differentiation or diversity; this idea is incorporated in the
teaching that Egypt is the Two Lands and in a mass of other pairs that
can form a totality only if taken together. The greatest totality conceiv-
able is the existent and the non-existent, and in these dualistic terms
the divine is evidently both one and many.
Oppositions such as these are real, but the pairs do not cancel each
other out; they complement each other. A given x can be both a and not-
a. . . . The Egyptian script, in which individual signs had always been
able to be both picture and letter, illustrates how ancient this principle is.
I should emphasize that they were able to be, because we should not
exclude the possibility that the Egyptians had special cases in which a
particular given x was always a. For the Egyptians two times two is al-
ways four, never anything else. But the sky is a number of thingscow,
baldachin, water, womanit is the goddess Nut and the goddess Hathor,
and in syncretism a deity a is at the same time another, not-a.
97
For example, the sun-god, Re, can be linked in cult and iconography
with the ram-headed patron deity of Thebes, Amon, and designated
Amon-re; simultaneously he can be linked with the crocodile god of the
Fayum, Sobek, to produce Sobk-re, or even with the lord of the under-
world, Osiris. Ptah, the patron god of Memphis, identied by the
Greeks with Hephaestus, may in turn be conated with either Amon or
Re or both. Isis, the wife and sister of Osiris and mother of Horus, is
frequently joined with Hathor, the mother of Re, both of whom can be
Conceptualizing Egypt 51
98. Some early kings were even identifed by Seth-names rather than Horus-names.
See, for example, Kemp 1989, 5152. For an extended discussion of the role of Seth in
Egyptian thought, see Te Velde 1967.
99. See the so-called Memphite Theology; Lichtheim 1973, 54.
represented with cows horns. Neith, whom the Greeks identify with
Athena, is easily assimilated to both Isis and Hathor. While at rst
glance Horus and his archenemy, Seth, may appear to generate a con-
sistent set of structural oppositionsHorus-Seth, order-chaos, black
land (inundation)-red land (desert), water-destructive heatthese do
not hold in every case. Occasionally Horus and Seth, who is sometimes
his brother, more often his uncle, unite to destroy a common enemy. Or
Seth enacts a positive role in place of Horus.
98
Cosmogonic writing be-
haves similarly. The originary moment of creation can be described as
an act of divine masturbation or as the product of divine thought and
speechwhat the creator conceived in his mind he gave substance to by
the act of speaking.
99
These are not progressive phases in the develop-
ment of Egyptian thought, as earlier Egyptologists claimed them to be,
but formulations of two discrete ways of imagining creationas a
physical act/as an intellectual actwhich may be deployed simultane-
ously in poetry and religious art.
If the mythography of the divine has generated a cluster of affective
symbols that may be combinedfor western readersin paradoxical
and often unpredictable ways, Egyptian iconography surrounding king-
ship is much more stable. Temples and stelae regularly incorporate a
consistent and repetitive series of pharaonic motifs (such as the smit-
ing of the foe), motifs that became so familiar that Egyptian decora-
tive artists at all periods incorporate or even parody these elements in
other media. Royal representation aimed at symbolic samenesseach
pharaoh behaving exactly like his predecessor in the performance of a
series of ritualized acts that guaranteed maintainance of the cosmic and
social order. The explanation for this phenomenon is to be found in
Egyptian thinking about the cosmos and the kings relationship to it.
Hornung recently described the central governing principle of Egyptian
life, called maat, as follows:
Maat may be interpreted as truth, justice, authenticity, correctness, order,
and straightness. It is the norm that should govern all actions, the stan-
dard by which all deeds should be measured or judged. . . . The universal
sense of the term maat has no precise equivalent in any other lan-
guage. . . . Contemporary translations have consistently yielded length-
ier, more detailed denitions. H. Bonnet, for example, understands maat
52 Conceptualizing Egypt
100. Hornung 1992, 13638.
as correctness in the sense of an immanent lawfulness not only in the
natural and social order, but also in the sacred order, since the . . . motif
epitomizes all worship activities. . . . R. Anthes writes about maat . . .
Maat holds this small world together and makes it into a constitutive
part of world order. She [maat] is the bringing home of the harvest; she is
human integrity in thought, word, and deed; she is the loyal leadership of
government; she is the prayer and offering of the king to the god. Maat
encompasses all creation, human beings, the king, the god; she permeates
the economy, the administration, religious services, the law. All ows to-
gether in a single point of convergence: the king. He lives in Maat and
passes her on, not only to the sun god above, but also to his subjects
below.
100
Like Platos notion of justice in the Republic, maat is an activity that ex-
tends from the individual to the social: only through proper behavior
and active engagement of the individual can a harmonious cosmic
order be achieved. Although learning how to act in accordance with
maat was the responsibility of every Egyptian, whatever his or her
class, the king, at the top of the social and political hierarchy, bore the
heaviest obligation to maintain maat. Gods too participated in this or-
dering principle; the universe was constructed according to its guide-
lines. The opposite of maat or cosmic order was disorder or chaos, and
the two never achieved a harmonious balance but continually vied with
each other for dominion. Egyptian religious materialboth written
and pictorialconsists of the mythological exploration of this central
theme of cosmic harmony, and fundamental to the system was the role
of the king.
The Egyptian state at the time of the Ptolemaic takeover was a
theocracy, highly elaborated over two millennia, in which the king as
intermediary between the divine and human realms was essential to
create, maintain, and advance the elements of order over chaos and as
an instantiation of one or more of the gods themselves. Moreover, the
role of kingship had come to be reied; it was the ofce itself not the
person who occupied it that art and ceremony commemorated. Thus,
while any particular pharaoh was certainly recognized as mortal and
the product of human procreation by his attendant court and religious
advisors, nevertheless in ceremony and civic ideology he would be por-
trayed as the equal of the gods, a product of divine conception, or,
more accurately, as one in a line of human instantiations of a specic
Conceptualizing Egypt 53
101. Beckerath 1999, 2126.
102. The similarity to the Christian concept of Trinity has not gone unnoticed. See,
for instance, S. Morenz, Egyptian Religion, trans. Ann Keep (1973; reprint, Ithaca, N.Y.,
1992) 25557.
divine conception. In earlier dynastic times, the king was identied as
the Son of the Sun, Re, and continued to mark himself in this way
with a specic name, taken at the time of coronation.
101
But by the time
of the Ptolemies the pharaoh was also identied with Horus, the divine
rst king of Egypt. Over time his identication with both deities, Re
and Horus, in fact led to a conceptual trinity in Egyptian mythmak-
ingRe the god in heaven, Horus the king and the instantiation of the
god on earth, and nally Osiris the dead king, now lord of the under-
world, or night world.
102
The fact that all three of these deities may be
thought of as one yet simultaneously existing in discrete places and
with differentiated functions points to an essential difference between
Greek and Egyptian modes of religious thought. For Greeks, Zeus,
Apollo, and Hades are conceptually separate in identity as well as in
function, and kinship lines are clearly drawnZeus and Hades are
brothers; Apollo is the son of Zeus, never Hades, who is always and
only his uncle. The identication of the king with the sun-god, Re, as
well as with Horus, the rst divine king of Egypt, generated a series of
myths that proved fundamental within the religious imaginarycre-
ation, royal succession, and the maintainance of maat, that is, the tri-
umph of order over chaos. While each of these three is conceptually dis-
tinct and could be treated in this way, more often their iconographic
and mythic formulations come to function in all three realms simulta-
neously, so that the successful passing of rule from one king to another
could be seen also as an act of creation or of order triumphing over the
threat of chaos or both.
The centrality of the pharaohs relationship to the divine order was
thus often perceived as one of kinship, a kinship that over time came to
be elaborated in a myth of the insemination of the mother of the
pharaoh by a god, not by his human father. In the New Kingdom the
god in question was Amun-Re, the chief deity and patron of the capital
city, Thebes, who generally takes on the appearance of the human fa-
ther (though the visual representations are discrete about the actual
coupling). The best-preserved example is that of Hatshepsut, a women
who chose to rule not as regent, but as pharaoh in the Eighteenth Dy-
nasty. In the Hathor chapel of her mortuary temple at Deir-el-Bahari,
54 Conceptualizing Egypt
103. Kemp 1989, 198200, with an excellent illustration.
104. For a discussion of the birth myth, see H. Brunner, Die Geburt des Gottknigs:
Studien zur berlieferung eines altgyptischen Mythos, gyptologische Abhandlungen
10 (Wiesbaden, 1964); and J. Assman, Die Zeugung des Sohnes: Bild, Erzhlung und
das Problem des gyptischen Mythos, in Funktion und Leistungen des Mythos: Drei al-
torientalische Beispiele, ed. J. Assman et al., Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 48 (Gttingen,
1982) 1361. For a recent discussion, see OConnor and Silverman 1995, 7173.
Hatshepsuts mother is shown being led into the presence of the god
Amun-Re. He delicately extends to her the ankh or symbol of life so
that she conceives Hatshepsut, who is thus divinely sanctioned to rule.
Subsequently from the temple wall at Luxor comes a narrative of the
encounter of Amun-Re and Mutemwia, when she conceives Amen-
hotep III, expressed both pictorially and with attendant text. As the god
entered her sleeping chamber,
she woke on account of the divine fragrance and turned towards His
Majesty. He went straightway to her, he was aroused by her. He allowed
her to see him in his divine form, after he had come before her, so that she
rejoiced at seeing his perfection. His love, it entered her body. [After this
Amun declares] Amenhetep, prince of Thebes, is the name of this child
which I have placed in your womb.
103
This narrative of divine insemination was probably used by every
pharaoh, though the majority of extant examples are from monarchs
whose accession is irregular.
104
For Hatshepsut, obviously, as a woman
undertaking the particularly male role of pharaoh, or Amenhotep III,
who was the son, not of the pharaohs principal wife, but of a concu-
bine, the narrative functioned to identify each as the specially chosen
(though perhaps not obvious) new leader. Such birth stories could only
have been produced with the support of the priesthoods who controlled
the apparatus of ceremonial display. For Egyptians, any new ruler,
whether the legitimate son of the previous pharaoh or a usurper who
succeeded in maintaining power, would as a matter of course appear as
the son of Amun-Re in art and ritual, as the divinely conceived product
of a union between Amun and the pharaohs actual mother. In the cos-
mic context in which Egyptian religious and political rituals operate,
every pharaoh functioned in symbolic sameness, as a guarantor of the
order and stability of the world. On those occasions where a usurper
succeeded in retaining power, over time he too would be absorbed into
the life of the society and represented with the traditional iconography.
If he chose to accept the role and act as pharaoh, as conquerors were in-
Conceptualizing Egypt 55
105. Kemp 1989, 208.
106. Gwyn Grifths 1960, 4146.
clined to do, he would ultimately become indistinguishable from his
predecessors. Barry Kemp describes the process in this way:
The merging of the king with the god Amun and all his pageants had the
important consequence of drawing a line between politics and myth. The
royal succession could go badly wrong, some could even plot to kill the
king and replace him with another. . . . But behind visible reality lay an
immensely weighty edice of myth, festival, and grand architectural set-
ting that could absorb the petty vagaries of history and smooth out the
irregularities. It guaranteed the continuity of proper rule that was so im-
portant an element in the Egyptians thinking. In particular it could con-
vert usurpers (or new blood, depending on ones point of reference) into
models of legitimacy and tradition.
105
The pharaoh himself, at the time of the Ptolemaic takeover, was
linked in cult not only to the sun-god, Re, but to Horus-in-Chemmis (or
Horus-the-Child), who is, mythologically speaking, the rst king of
Egypt, and whose dening act of kingship in mythological time was to
unite the Two Lands, the term that Egyptians used to designate the
north (or Lower Egypt) and the south (or Upper Egypt). Horus also has
a dual iconography and conated mythology. Originally he appears to
have been a sky-god and was represented as either a falcon or a winged
disk. By the Late Period and especially in the Ptolemaic period, he is
merged with a younger Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. One of the
few myths that has survived in the form of an extended narrative simi-
lar to Greek myth accounts for the struggle between order and chaos in
anthropomorphic terms, that is, as a struggle between Horus and Seth.
Allusions to this struggle and its cosmic ramications are as old as the
Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, but a Ramessid papyrus provides a
series of episodes in which the two wound, mutilate, and trick each
other until their rivalry is nally settled by the gods who sit in judg-
ment. The tone often appears to be satirical; there is one homosexual
interlude, for example, which might have lost Horus the kingdom, but
his mother Isis intervenes to save the day.
106
The story of Horus is best
known to Greek scholars from Plutarchs On Isis and Osiris, which was
written some ve centuries after the period of our attention and has al-
most certainly been shaped into a coherent (in western terms) narrative
by Plutarch and his numerous Greek sources (among whom are
56 Conceptualizing Egypt
107. Lichtheim 1980, 11624.
108. In some versions Horus is born in Chemmis; in others he is brought there after
birth to be hidden. Elements of the story can be traced as far back as the Old Kingdom.
See A. H. Gardiner, Horus the Beh
.
detite, JEA 40 (1944) 2360; Goyon 1988, 2940,
for its prominence in the Ptolemaic period.
109. This incident takes place near Achmim in Upper Egypt and is probably why san-
dals led the Chemmitae to identify Perseus with Horus. See Lloyd 1976, 36869; 1969,
7986.
110. Gwyn Grifths 1960, 710.
Hecataeus of Abdera and Eudoxus). The discrete particulars of the tale,
however, can be seen in far older Egyptian material, like the Lamenta-
tions of Isis,
107
the friezes in the Edfu temple, or the hymns from the
Philae temple, as well as the mysteries celebrated at Papremis that
Herodotus mentions so discretely (2.5963).
The story is as follows: Isis and Osirislike Zeus and Herawere
siblings as well as husband and wife. Their brother, Seth, in jealousy,
cut up Osiriss body into several pieces and hid the parts in separate lo-
cations from the Delta to Byblos. Isis sailed through these regions and
patiently reassembled the body parts, binding them with linen wrap-
pings that produced Osiriss characteristic mummylike shape. Isis con-
ceived Horus after Osiriss death by means of Osiriss reanimated male
member, gave birth to Horus in secret, hid him in a papyrus thicket in
the area of Chemmis,
108
an island in the Delta populated only by poi-
sonous snakes and insects, by means of which Seth bites and nearly kills
the infant god. Horus is often represented being nursed by the goddess
Hathor in the form of a cow. Details of Isiss birth often stress her
lamentations when Horus is attacked, attendant goddesses who pro-
tect the newborn, and the loud noises that they make to distract anyone
intent on harm. In later versions of the myth, Horus is explicitly the son
of Osiris, who recognizes him and prepares him to ght his uncle, Seth,
to avenge his fathers death. There are many episodes to the struggle
in one, Seth steals Horuss eye; in another, Horus hunts and kills Seth,
who has turned himself into a hippopotamus, and then makes a pair of
sandals from his hide.
109
After a number of encounters, Horus is nally
recognized as the legitimate heir of his father, and the kingdom is given
into his keeping by the Ogdoad, or older cosmic deities. At maturity
Horus becomes the rst king of Egypt and the avenger of his father.
110
We saw in the New Kingdom that a theogamy of the sun-god (as
Amun-Re) with the pharaohs queen was sometimes represented on
temple walls. By the Late Period, this divine birth story was celebrated
in separate shrines built within larger temple complexes, called mam-
Conceptualizing Egypt 57
111. See Goyon 1988, 3436, with a series of illustrations of the divine birth and the
nursing of the child by a series of goddesses. The basic studies are Daumas 1958; E. Chas-
sinat, Les mammisi des temples gyptiens (Paris, 1958); and J. Junker and E. Winter, Das
Geburtshaus des Tempels der Isis in Phila (Vienna, 1961). See also A. Badawy, The Ar-
chitectural Symbolism of the Mammisi-Chapels in Egypt, C dE 38 (1963) 7890.
112. Arnold 1999; see pp. 619 for his plans of temple layouts and for the positions
of mammisi in relation to the central complex, and p. 20 for a map of Ptolemaic temples
built in the Delta.
113. Arnold 1999, 163.
114. See Rutherford 1998, 25053.
115. FGrH 1.305: Dn BoAtoi% perB tb Cerbn tp% LhtoP% Gsti npso% XAmbi% gnoma,
Arb toP \Apallvno%, Gsti dB a npso% metarsAh kaB peripleP kaB kinAetai DpD toP Edato%.
Chembis is a more accurate rendering of the Egyptian than Herodotuss Chemmis, but
the spelling Chemmis is used in virtually all the scholarly literature, so I have retained it.
misi. Friezes depicting the marriage of the goddess and the birth of the
divine child/pharaoh adorned the temples walls, and mystery plays
were staged that enacted these events of cosmogonic as well as political
signicance.
111
Birth shrines proliferated in the Ptolemaic period as the
focus of a royal cult in which the pharoah (as a young child) was asso-
ciated with the divine son of a variety of local divinities, though the Isis-
Osiris-Horus myth was the most prominent. These shrines were built
well into the Roman period, during which the emperors asssociated
themselves with the divine child. The Ptolemies built mammisi at Den-
dera, Edfu, and Philae; others were built in the Delta, though they have
not survived.
112
One such shrine is known to have been erected in the
precincts of the Serapeum in Memphis at least by the time of the fourth
Ptolemy, if not earlier.
113
From the number of private inscriptions dedi-
cated in the mammisi at Philae, it is possible that these temples were
open to the general public.
114
Even if access was restricted, they re-
mained a prominent feature of the Ptolemaic religious landscape and a
central location for the enactment of the rituals of divine kingship.
The birth story of Horus was so well-known that both Hecataeus of
Miletus and Herodotus record a version of it. A fragment of Hecataeus
mentions that in Buto by the shrine of Leto is an island, Chembis by
name, sacred to Apollo, and the island is aoat and sails around and
moves upon the water.
115
Herodotus provides more detail: he tells us
that Chemmis was a oating island located in a lake near an oracular
temple dedicated to Leto. On the island was a temple to Apollo.
Herodotus did not himself actually see the island oat, but provides
what he claims is the native explanation:
The Egyptians give this account of how the island came to oat: before it
began to oat Leto, one of the eight primal gods, lived in the city of Buto,
58 Conceptualizing Egypt
116. Gwyn Grifths (1960, 9396) is dependent on W. A. Heidel (Hecataeus and the
Egyptian Priests in Herodotus, Book II, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Mem-
oirs 18.2 [Boston, 1935] 100); and Lloyd (1988, 13946) on them both. S. West
(Herodotus Portrait of Hecataeus, JHS 111 [1991] 158 n. 2) expresses doubt at this
explanation, though she gives no reasons.
where her oracle now is, and having received Apollo, the son of Osiris, as
a sacred trust from Isis, she kept him safe by hiding him on the island that
at this point was said to oat (Dn tu nPn plvtu legomAnu nasi), when
Typhon came there searching everywhere for the son of Osiris. Apollo
and Artemis, they say, are the children of Isis and Dionysus, and Leto was
their nurse and savior. In Egyptian, Apollo is Horus, Demeter is Isis,
Artemis is Bubastis. (2.156)
Equally important as the occurrence of a myth central to pharaonic
kingship in Greek material is what it reveals about the process of recep-
tion, namely, the ways in which Greek and Egyptian myths were under-
going a degree of interpenetration. Gwyn Grifthss commentary on
this passage is instructive: he observes that a oating island specically
associated with the concealing of Horus is unknown in extant Egyptian
texts and suspects that what Herodotus reports was really the Egyptian
story of the birth of Horus-in-Chemmis contaminated with the Greek
legend of Apollo born on the island of Delos. He remarks that Ionian
Greek settlers of the fth century in Naucratis and Daphne, which is
near the supposed location of the island, were sure to have been famil-
iar with both legends, and in all likelihood they served up this conated
version for Herodotus.
116
Indeed, it is possible that the proliferation of
Horus temples in the Delta region under the Ptolemies was the direct
result of the Ptolemies capitalizing on the fact that Greeks could easily
identify this Egyptian legend with one of their own.
For Egyptians creation was imagined in terms of the inundating wa-
ters of the Nile as they receded each year to reveal hillocks of mud that
quickly teemed with life under a tropical sun. The moment when exis-
tence differentiated itself fromnonexistence was termed the rst time
and was represented as a mound or hill emerging from the watery void.
On this hill the creator rst manifested himselfan event that could be
represented iconographically as a child emerging from an egg or from
an opening bud of a lotus ower, or as a bird perched upon the
moundthen he created the world as well as the divine pantheon. The
place where creation began was given various namesprimeval hill,
sacred mound, place of coming forth,and its symbolism was po-
tent and ubiquitous in Egyptian writing as well as in artistic representa-
Conceptualizing Egypt 59
117. See, for example, Shafer 1997, 18.
118. See, for instance, Frankfort 1978, 15154; Lloyd 1976, 31819.
119. See Kemp 1989, 8588, for a discussion of the function of wordplay in the cre-
ation of religious ideology.
120. 2.73. Hecataeus of Miletus, too, apparently mentioned the phoenix; see FGrH 1
F324. See also Lloyds very full discussion of Herodotus 2.73 (1976, 31723).
tion. Every temple was supposedly erected upon a primeval hill,
117
and
to that end an articial lake was often included in the precinct to repli-
cate the primeval waters (this is what Herodotus saw in Chemmis). The
pyramid was intended to reproduce not only the shape of the primeval
hill, but also its ability to rejuvenate.
118
The hill was early fetishized as a
conical stone, called bn-bn. It was housed in a precinct known as the
Mansion of the Bn-bn in one of the oldest cities in Egypt, which the
Greeks named Heliopolis (Sun City) because it was sacred to the
sun-god. Via a series of verbal and iconic similarities the bn-bn could be
associated with the sun-god: wbn means to shine, and the stone
emerging from the waters resembled the sun rising on the eastern hori-
zon.
119
The sun-god, too, could be portrayed as emerging from an egg
that sat upon this hill, or as the bnw-bird (probably a heron) perched
upon the bn-bn.
It is this bnw-bird that stands behind the Greek story of the phoenix
as related by Herodotus.
120
He tells us that in rare intervals of ve hun-
dred years or so, upon the death of its parent, the phoenix carries its fa-
ther in a hollowed-out ball of myrrh shaped like an egg to the temple of
the Sun in Heliopolis (= the Mansion of the Bn-bn). Again this is reve-
latory of the process of reception: the bird, the egg, and Heliopolis (or
elements from the creation myth) have been combined with the tradi-
tional act that precedes successionthe son (the new pharaoh) presid-
ing over the mummication of his father (the dead pharaoh). The birth-
place of Horus, the rst king of Egypt and the prototype for the
pharaoh, was also imagined as the primeval hill, hence Horus too was a
type of the creator, and his birth the rst time. This event could be
conveyed by the image of Horus as a child or again by the Horus-falcon
within a papyrus swamp, and both of these images are deployed in the
birth shrines of the Late Period. In Herodotus the two are merged as
bird and son. Just as Horus presides over the burial of his father, Osiris,
whom he succeeds, so the Horus-falcon is represented with the ball of
myrrh in which his dead father/predecessor has been immured. More-
over, he conveys the dead parent to Heliopolis where the original bn-bn
or primeval hill is located. The hill substitutes for both the tomb and
60 Conceptualizing Egypt
121. For the identication of the deceased with the bnw-bird, see Book of the Dead,
Spells 8 and 84; and
Zabkar 1988, 94, for the identication of the phoenix with Osiris
and the pharaoh.
122. Assman 1995, 53.
the primeval hill on which rebirth takes place. The powers of resurrec-
tion that are often attributed to the phoenixto rise from his own
ashesstem from this rejuvenative quality of the primeval hill and by
association the tomb.
121
As we have seen with other sets of representa-
tions, for Egyptians the tomb, the bn-bn, and the primeval hill on the
one hand and the Horus child, the falcon, and the bnw-bird on the
other are not only symbols of but identical with each other. To enter
into the symbolic realm of any one part of the set activates all possible
meanings. For a Greek, however, the story of the phoenix demonstrates
the need to impose a linear narrative to which distinct and separable
meanings may be attached.
Just as they were linked with creation myths, Re and Horus are also
central in another signicant cluster of representationsthe theme of
order versus chaos. In Egyptian iconography the struggle between the
two is linked with both the daily cycle of the sun and the original mo-
ment of creation. The sun-god, Re, is often represented as sailing
through the night world in a celestial boat, where now, the enemy,
imagined as a giant serpent, threatens Res destruction, and with the
loss of the sun, the end of creation or nonexistence would ensue. Vari-
ous gods sail with the sun to ward off destruction, and solar hymns
from the New Kingdom and the Books of the Dead from the Late Pe-
riod contain ritual spells to be recited to aid Re in defeating his enemy.
Daily the sun repeats his struggles, and daily his enemy is defeated by
spells, represented iconographically by the serpent bound with ropes or
cut into pieces with knives. But,
the victory over Apophis [the serpent] is less a manifestation of strength
than of law and order, i.e., Maat. . . . The struggle takes on the nature of
a judgement that has been enforced, the confrontation between the sun
god and the enemy is like an act of jurisdiction. Re travels through the
sky justied. Apophis therefore not only embodies cosmic opposition
to light and movement, but also the principle of evil.
122
The serpent then, who is called Apep or Apop (Apophis in Greek),
comes to represent chaos, darkness, the absence of light, and nonbeing.
While defeated daily by the sun and his retinue, he also renews his
threats and must continue to be defeated for the natural, social, and
Conceptualizing Egypt 61
123. See Ritners discussion of symbolic reenactments (1993, 11942).
moral order to continue to exist and ourish. The relationship of chaos
to order, of being to nonbeing, is occasionally represented by the
ourobouros or a snake with its tail in its mouth surrounding a small
child, the symbol of birth or the newness of creation. From this it is an
easy step to the story of Horus the child in Chemmis. When Horus is
threatened by poisonous serpents, he either throttles or tramples on the
snakes. This event becomes, however, not simply the narrative of a
childish act, nor even of the triumph over Seth, who is responsible for
the attack of the serpents, but another instantiation of the victory of
order over chaos, or being over nonbeing.
The oldest and most enduring formula for representing the kings re-
lationship to maat in graphic art in Egypt is that known as smiting the
foe. The pharaoh, always larger than his surrounding attendants or
the enemy, strides forward, with one hand grasping the enemy by the
hair and with a club raised in the other as if to beat him upon the head.
The image is rst found in the predynastic period on the so-called
Narmer Palette and is ubiquitous throughout the dynastic period: py-
lons in Theban temples depict this event on a large scale, while jewelry
makers have even adopted the theme in small scale for royal pectorals.
The motif is so quintessentially Egyptian that the Nubian kings borrow
it and employ it on their own monuments well into the common era.
Within the symbolic realm, the iconography, of course, functions as
more than a reminder of the pharaohs prowess in war or even the dom-
inance of Egypt over its enemies. It marks rather the pharaoh as the
bringer of cosmic order out of chaos. Each individual pharaohs tri-
umph over a particular enemy replicates similar ordering acts in the
past and pregures those of the future, and thus the repetitiveness of
the iconography throughout history results not from lack of imagina-
tion or cultural stasis but is a deliberate attempt to express the belief
that each separate event partakes of a cosmic sameness, in a continuing
effort to maintain cosmic balance or maat.
123
A more explicit variation
of this theme portrays the pharaoh accompanied by tidy ranks of
Egyptian soldiers while the enemy ranks are represented as broken and
eeing, often trampled under the feet of the striding king. This order-
chaos theme, like the smiting of the foe, achieves the status of a clich in
Egyptian arthence as early as the Eighteenth Dynasty, a golden fan
base adapts the motif to a royal ostrich hunt, where the pharaoh now
62 Conceptualizing Egypt
124. For an illustration, see, for instance, The Treasures of Tutankhamun (New York,
1976) no. 18.
125. See LIMC 3.1, s.v. Bousiris; and 3.2, pls. 10, 11, 19, 23, and esp. 28. See also J.-
L. Durand and F. Lissarague, Mourir lautel: Remarques sur l imagerie du sacrice hu-
main dans la cramique antique, Archiv fr Religionsgeschichte 1 (1999) 33106.
126. Heracles may have been depicted in Egyptian-inspired scenes elsewhere; see
Jourdain-Annequin 1992, 74, pl. XIVa. In both Herodotus and Hecataeus (Diodorus) he
had Egyptian afliations or analogues. See also the discussion below, chapter 3.
127. Diodorus Siculus 1.88.5 ( = FGrH 264 F25.88.5). Much of this information is
also in Manetho (fr. 86 Waddell).
128. F. Vogel conjectured a lacuna in the text where he assumed the Egyptian name
for the multiform creatures would have been written. Burton (1972, 11011) rejects this,
arguing that diakosmoymAnoy% teratvdb% corresponds with dnomazomAnoy%. The mean-
strides forth with his faithful hunting dogs against a chaotic band of os-
triches, who subsequently end up as feathers in the fan.
124
Greeks were certainly familiar with these standard representations of
the pharaoh. In the sixth century a black-gure vase depicting Heracles
and Busiris, the Egyptian king who was notorious for sacricing for-
eigners on his altars, took advantage of this stock motif and inverted it.
On this vase, Heracles attacks the king and his followers in precisely
the manner of royal Egyptian depictions of the pharaoh routing the
foe.
125
To replace the pharaoh with Heracles on this vase appears to be
not so much parody, but a desire on the part of the vase painter to ap-
propriate for Heracles the properties of the pharaoh as the bearer of
order and civilized community.
126
Diodorus, in a passage that is very
likely from Hecataeus of Abdera, decodes the Busiris story in the fol-
lowing way: in ancient times red-haired men were sacriced at the tomb
of Osiris, because red was the color associated with Seth/Typhon, who
was the enemy of Osiris. Since very few Egyptians are red-haired, most
of those sacriced were foreigners. Greeks misunderstood the circum-
stances and imagined that Busiris was the king who did the sacricing,
when in fact Busiris was not a person but a place-name meaning tomb
of Osiris.
127
Thus Diodorus (Hecataeus?) understands an event that to
Greeks marks barbarian behavior (namely, sacricing foreigners) as a
ritual of conict between Osiris and Seth, that is, the forces of order
and chaos. In this scheme, killing Seth/Typhon surrogates is to be
equated with conquering the enemy and restoring order.
An earlier passage in Diodorus that has not been regarded as
Hecataean also seems to describe the foe-smiting scene:
Moreover, the Egyptians tell the tale that in the time of Isis there had
been certain multibodied creatures (polysvmatoy%), who were named
Giants by the Greeks, but . . . by themselves,
128
who were displayed in
Conceptualizing Egypt 63
ing would then be named giants by the Greeks, represented as monsters by the Egyp-
tians. The textual problem does not affect my argument. The point is that for Diodorus
or his Greek source there is an equivalence between the Egyptian polysamatoi and
Greek Giants. See LIMC 4.1.19193, s.v. Gigantes. Note that the giants are described
as bicorpores by Naevius (W. Strzelecki, Belli Punici carminis quae supersunt [Leipzig,
1964] fr. 4).
129. Diodorus Siculus 1.26.6.
130. Noted in Gwyn Grifths 1960, 102. His own suggestion that these might be
Sethian creatures in animal form is implausible, since the verb would need to mean
spear or trample. But tAptv does not mean spear and rarely means trample
without further qualication.
131. It is described in Euripides Ion 2067.
monstrous form (diakosmoymAnoy% teratvdb%) on their temples and
were being beaten (typtomAnoy%) by Osiris. Now some say that they
were earth-born (ghgeneP%) when the genesis of life from the earth was
new, while others say that they were superior by virtue of their physical
strength and had accomplished many deeds, and from this circumstance
legend described them as many-bodied (polysvmatvn). But it is gener-
ally agreed that when they made war against Zeus and Osiris they were
all destroyed.
129
The phrase beaten by Osiris is the key to understanding the pas-
sage, as B. G. Gunn saw. In a verbal communication to J. Gwyn Grif-
ths,
130
Gunn suggested that Diodorus was referring to delineations of
the King in a form like Osiris smiting a group of enemies . . . who are
so closely packed together as to appear as monstrous multicorpores.
This has the ring of truth about it. On the great pylons of the Rames-
seum in Thebes and at Medinet Habu the enemy are superimposed
upon each other in such a way that they appear with only one body, but
with multiple arms and legs. At Medinet Habu and other later temples,
the king wears the white crown of Upper Egypt, which is also worn by
the mummiform Osiris and hence may have led to the identication of
the king with Osiris.
The Greek writerwhether Diodorus or one of his sourcesin a
sense reads the monument correctly by ignoring its historical particu-
larity and reproducing its underlying meaning, namely, that the act de-
picted represents the cosmic struggle of Osiris (and/or Horus) against
Seth. Whatever the exact nature of these multiform, earth-born crea-
tures, in a process similar to that of Herodotuss interpretation of the
Horus-in-the-Delta myth, Diodorus assimilates the Egyptian motif to a
Greek story, and one that occupies an analogous place in Greek art and
writing. The defeat of the Giants rst appears in a frieze on the temple
of Apollo at Delphi
131
and was the required subject for the peplos of
64 Conceptualizing Egypt
1132. See Euripides Hecuba 46574; the scholiast claims ad loc. that the scene was of
either Titans or Giants. See E. Pfuhl, De Atheniensium pompis sacris (Berlin, 1900) 614.
133. See Merkelbach 1977 for a discussion of the various components of the AR; see
pp. 7783 for a detailed discussion of the Nectanebo episode, including the Egyptian par-
allels (esp. pp. 7981). More recently see Fraser (1996, 205 n. 1), who remarks that
Merkelbach and Trumpf expound a comprehensive, though to my mind only partially
successful, explanation of the origin of the whole work.
134. The AR was extremely popular and survives in a number of other languages as
well. For a discussion of the stemma, see D. J. A. Ross, Alexander Historiatus (Warburg,
1968).
Athena for the festival of the Panathenaea.
132
It became very popular in
the Hellenistic period and was a notable element on the Pergamene
Altar. The defeat of the Giants, like the defeat of the Amazons, signaled
iconographically the civilizing inuence of the Greek city-states and
their individual or collective defeat of the irrational, uncivilized worlds
that preceded them. In myth too, the defeat of the Giants by Zeus and
his siblings signaled the coming of the orderly rule of the Ouranids.
Thus Greek and Egyptian symbolic realms intersect in this passage of
Diodorus, and whether or not it comes originally from Hecataeus or
some other Greco-Egyptian source, Diodoruss reading of the Egyptian
monument operates, I believe, in a manner analogous to that of the
court poets of the Ptolemies in matching Greek concept to Egyptian
within the framework of pharaonic kingship.
the alexander romance
So far we have been considering various ways in which the Egyptian
motifs of kingship might have been available to Greeks in Egypt and
how Greeks assimilated what they saw or heard. At this juncture, how-
ever, I would like to consider the ways in which the Egyptian succession
myth was explicitly appropriated and how it functioned within a Greek
symbolic system in the Alexander Romance. No authors name sur-
vives. The Alexander Romance seems to have been assembled from a
variety of narrative sources ranging from historical biography to a cycle
of letters allegedly from (among others) Alexander to Olympias and Ar-
istotle, to a series of romantic and marvelous adventures.
133
The Greek
text has come down to us in several recensions, the earliest of which is
now from the third century c.e. The most important and complete of
these are known as A and B.
134
Given its current low literary status the
Alexander Romance might seem to be a frail vehicle on which to base a
Conceptualizing Egypt 65
135. See Fraser 1996, 20526, particularly pp. 21113, for the latest analysis of the
various components of the AR and their relative dates. For what follows I am using only
the oldest material, the Nectanebo story (117), the visit to the Siwah oasis (30), and
Alexander in Memphis (34). Fraser would date the details of the description of Alexan-
dria to the imperial period (21214 b.c.e.), but I am interested in the foundation story
only in its broadest outlines, and this will have been part of the oldest stratum of the text.
See also R. Stonemans introduction in The Greek Alexander Romance (London, 1991).
He concludes that the main outlines of the narrative could have been fully formed as
early as 50100 years after Alexanders death (p. 14).
serious argument, but it does have one virtue that all scholars acknowl-
edge: it provides us with the earliest surviving literary material about
the foundation of the city of Alexandria, material that must come from
the generation after Alexander himself.
135
For our purposes, it is imma-
terial whether this Alexandrian story can be attached with any degree
of condence to the work of a particular Alexander historian, like
Cleitarchus, or whether it was cobbled together from a variety of
Alexandrian sources. What is signicant is the curious nature of
Alexanders paternity, found in both A and B versions of the story, or
perhaps it would be more accurate to say Alexanders competing pater-
nities.
The Alexander Romance opens with Nectanebo II, the last native
king of Egypt. When he learns from his magic arts that there is no hope
for further Egyptian resistance to the Persians, he considers discretion
(not to mention survival) to be the better part of valor and ees from
Egypt via Pelusium to nd himself at the court of Philip II of Macedon.
There he sets up shop as a magician and astrologer and quickly enjoys
the patronage of no less a person than Olympias, Philips wife. While
Philip is away on campaign, Olympias consults the astrologer about her
fears that Philip may be intending to divorce her. Nectanebo, who has
taken a fancy to the queen, atters her by telling her that she is destined
to be joined to the great god Ammon who will impregnate her with a
son. Nectanebo continues his seduction by telling her that she will
dream of having intercourse with the god that very night, and he takes
measures to insure that indeed she does so. Then when his prediction is
fullled, Nectanebo advises her that the god wishes to embrace her in
the esh, as it were, not simply via a dream. Placing himself in a nearby
chamber in the palace, he assists the queen in her preparations for the
gods epiphany. (These details come now from the B recension). She
should expect, he tells her, to see a snake gliding towards her in her
chamber. This is the sign for her to dismiss her servants, climb into her
66 Conceptualizing Egypt
136. The falcon is not a randomly selected messenger: Nectanebo was worshipped in
Ptolemaic Memphis as a falcon-god, possibly connected with Horus. See H. de Meule-
naere, Les monuments du culte des rois Nectanbo, C dE 35 (1960) 92107.
137. The snake too is probably a manifestation of Amun. His aspect as a creator god
was Hiddenness, which could be represented by the serpent; see L 1: 23748.
138. 1.13: Leucippus (music), Melemnus (geometry), Anaximenes of Lampsacus
(rhetoric), and Aristotle (philosophy).
139. 1.2729 B. The speed with which these events are narrated and the relative lack
of detail tend to conrm the Alexandrian bias of the piece.
bed, and cover her face, so as not to look directly at the god. On the
night, Nectanebo, garbed in a rams eece and horns and carrying an
ebony scepter, enters the chamber and has intercourse with the queen.
She, of course, steals a look at the god as he enters the chamber, but
does not nd his form particularly alarming because he looks as he did
in her dream. As Nectanebo rises from their bed after the lovemaking
he announces that she is pregnant with a male child. On the morrow,
when heas Nectaneboenters the queens chamber, ostensibly to dis-
cover what happened, she expresses her delight and asks: Will the god
be returning to me again, seeing as I had such pleasure from him? In
this manner, Nectanebo and Olympias continue a clandestine liaison
until Philips return. Nectanebo, meanwhile, thoughtfully sends a fal-
con as a dream messenger to apprise Philip of Olympiass impending
motherhood and of the divinity of the father.
136
Philip, at rst, is not
unnaturally annoyed, but after a few more magic tricks by
Nectaneboduring a palace gathering, he turns himself into a large
serpent
137
that curls up at Olympiass feet and then ies off as an eagle
Philip is convinced that a god is truly the father of Olympiass child, or
at least that he would be wise to accept the status quo.
The narrative includes further incidents from Alexanders youth, in-
cluding his education at the hands of distinguished philosophers and
scientists
138
and his military training under Philip. After this he succeeds
to his fathers kingdom and quickly subdues the known world.
139
Alexander then proceeds to the Siwah oasis in order to learn the truth
of his paternity. At Siwah was located an oracular temple to the Egypt-
ian god Amun-Re, regarded by Greeks as among the most prestigious
oracles in the ancient world. Here, Ammon acknowledges Alexander as
his son and instructs him in a prophecy to establish the city of Alexan-
dria. Obediently, Alexander hastens to lay out the perimeters of the new
city, before marching on to Memphis where he is proclaimed pharaoh.
In Memphis he sees a statue of Nectanebo with an inscription pro-
Conceptualizing Egypt 67
140. R. Jasnow (The Greek Alexander Romance and Demotic Egyptian Literature,
Journal of Near Eastern Studies 56.2 [1997] 101) suggests that the verb synklonasa is
a mistranslation of Demotic phr, which can mean enchant (the correct meaning for the
passage) as well as jumble up; Jasnow observes: It was presumably a Greek or a Hel-
lenized Egyptian who translated the text, since it is improbable, in my opinion, that an
educated Demotic scribe well versed in this tradition would have committed such an
error. Interestingly Jasnows argument assumes that a Greek might read Demotic Egypt-
ian, and that the transmission was written not oral.
141. There are a number of surviving satirical sketches of animals whose activities
ape humans, the most famous of which is in Turin. A portion of this papyrus also con-
tains sexually explicit scenes. See J. A. Omlin (Der Papyrus 55001 und seine satirisch-ero-
tischen Zeichnungen und Inschriften [Turin, 1973]), who draws a number of parallels be-
tween these scenes and religious rituals.
claiming: This king who has ed will come again to Egypt | not in age
but in youth, and our enemy the Persians | He will subject to us (1.34
A and B). Alexander embraces the statue, proclaims his lineage publicly
to the gathered crowd, and offers this explanation of these events:
Egypt and the peoples not blest with its natural economic advantages
were destined to be united, and the money the Egyptians were used to
paying to the Persians in tribute they could now give to Alexander, not
that I may collect it for my own treasury, but rather so that I may spend
it on your city, the Egyptian Alexandria, capital of the world. Thus
Alexandria is deliberately cast as both Greek and Egyptian, though a
cynic might doubt that parity between those contributing the money
(Egyptians) and those spending it (Greeks) was ever intended.
In this incident, the description of the encounter of Nectanebo with
Olympias disguised as the ram-god matches rather closely Egyptian de-
scriptions of the sacred encounter of the wife of a pharaoh with the god
Amun-Re, discussed above. The Alexander Romance follows in detail
the myth of the divine birth of the pharaoh, with one element trans-
posed or reversedthe god normally assumes the form of the queens
human husband, while here the human lover assumes the form of the
god. We have what looks like an inversion of a tale that would have
been serious in its purpose and quite familiar to Egyptians. The trans-
mission of the Alexander Romance is so complex that it is impossible
and probably irrelevantto determine whether the story in its current
form was the work of a native Greek writer or whether it betrays an
Egyptian origin.
140
The satirical element certainly ts an Egyptian mi-
lieuEgyptian literature is full of tales like the Contendings of Horus
and Seth or Cheops and the Magicians that seem to mock or under-
mine the high seriousness of ofcial ritual and state-oriented myths.
141
68 Conceptualizing Egypt
142. See, for example, Fraser 1972, 1: 68081; and Huss 1994, 12933, with bibli-
ography, n. 366.
143. There is other evidence for early exchange of stories about Nectanebo between
Greeks and Egyptians. The so-called Dream of Nectanebo, from the Sarapaeum in Mem-
phis and dated to the early second century b.c.e., is a Greek version of an obviously
Egyptian tale. See now K. Ryholts edition of a Demotic fragment of the story in ZPE 122
(1998) 197200. For a full-scale treatment of the Greek text, see L. Koenen, BASP 22
(1985) 17194. See also Huss 1994, 13337 and n. 397 for bibliography.
144. See N. Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 1992) 37581.
On the other hand, satire is not unknown in Greek literature. This story
has usually been viewed as propaganda deliberately circulated by the
Egyptian priesthood to legitimate Alexanders claim to the throne of
Egypt for Egyptians.
142
But this is to misunderstand the birth story, the
purpose of which is to locate Alexander within the continuum of Egypt-
ian kingship.
The connection of Alexander with Nectanebo could only have been
made during the formative stages of Macedonian-Greek rule in Egypt,
when there was a desireif not a needto stress the continuity of the
new rule and its integral connection with the past, not several centuries
later when memories of Nectanebo (apart from his cult as falcon-god)
will necessarily have been dim among both Egyptians and Greeks.
143
The story itself functions not in the mythical realm of the divine birth,
nor in that of apocalyptic visions, but in the world of possibility, of po-
litical reality. Nectanebo apparently did disappear from Egypt at the
time of the second Persian conquest.
144
Presumably he could have ed to
Macedon, and he could have fathered Alexander. Which is not to say
that he did. The story we now have appears not in Egyptian, but in
Greek. While some Egyptians in the early Hellenistic period would have
been bilingual, the sheer quantity of Demotic writing that survives from
this period suggests that Egyptians were still partaking of a rich tradi-
tional literary culture and would not have needed or depended on
Greek versions of their own tales. Moreover, Egyptian literary proto-
cols, even in the more recently discovered Demotic material, differ con-
siderably from the arrangement of detail in a story for a Greek audi-
ence. No versions of this story in Demotic Egyptian have been found.
The fact that the story circulated so widely in Greek makes it reason-
able to assume that a Greek audience found some value in a doubly de-
termined fathering of Alexander. That audience would have consisted,
in the main, of Greek natives and their descendants but could have in-
cluded Egyptian readers of Greek, who were to be found among the
Conceptualizing Egypt 69
145. The most obvious group would have been the priesthoods, which formed an im-
portant economic class. The priests were also the most likely to have become bilingual.
See Thompson 1990; Clarysse 1979.
146. Plutarch Alexander 2.6.
147. Plutarch Alexander 3.12.
148. Arrian Anabasis of Alexander 3.3.2. See A. B. Bosworth, Commentary on Ar-
rians History of Alexander (Oxford, 1980) 1: 26973, for Alexanders divine and heroic
ancestors.
upper strata of the bureaucratic elite.
145
The purpose or intent of the
Nectanebo story must therefore be bound up with this circumstance.
Elements of this story appear also in later Greek sources that are
generally taken to be more reputable than the Alexander Romance,
which suggests that the Egyptian story was at an early period rather
closely linked to Alexander. Plutarch, in his Life of Alexander, mentions
that Alexander is descended from Heracles on his fathers side and Aea-
cus on his mothers, but he also slips in the detail that Olympiass habit
of being found in the company of serpents cooled Philips ardor to-
wards his wife: Whether he feared her as an enchantress or thought
she had commerce with some god, and so looked upon himself as ex-
cluded, he was ever after less fond of her company.
146
Further, Plutarch
tells us that when Philip consulted the Delphic oracle about the pater-
nity of his child (about whom he had some doubts), he was informed
henceforth to pay particular honor, above all other gods, to Ammon;
and was told he should one day lose the eye with which he had pre-
sumed to peep through that chink in the door, when he saw the god,
under the form of a serpent, sleeping with (syneynazamenon) his
wife.
147
Although Arrian is more restrained in book 3 of the Anabasis
of Alexander, he, too, mentions that Alexander traces his lineage from
Perseus and Heracles on the Greek side, and also Ammon.
148
In Greek terms the problem with the fatherhood of Alexander as it is
portrayed in the Alexander Romance, unlike the versions found in
Plutarch or Arrian, is that it is overdetermined. To have a divine as well
as a human father has some precedentone thinks of the examples of
Helen or Heracles; to have a human father who is not your mothers
husband has also been known to occur; but to have a human father
who is not your mothers husband, pretending to be the god who then
acknowledges you as truly his son risks undermining the very edice it
seems to be erecting. Certainly it is possible to explain away this
plethora of fathers by attributing them to imperfections in the stitching
together of the Alexander Romance from its constituent parts, but this
70 Conceptualizing Egypt
149. Merkelbach (1977, 81) accounts for this in terms of ritual performance and
masking.
150. See pages 15556 for the Egyptian idea of the divine image.
begs the question. If Alexander is the son of Ammon, he does not need
another human father; Plutarch, after all, delicately suggests that the
agency was a snake. But if he has a human father, his claim to divinity
is somewhat weakened: the two competing claims, both connecting his
paternity with Egypt, would seem to cancel each other out. But in
Egyptian terms they t into the traditional claims for the paternity of
the pharaoh. In fact, two separate elements appear to have been delib-
erately stitched together, in such a way as to leave their seams quite vis-
ible.
149
One element is the myth of the divine birth of the pharaoh,
which must be Egyptian in origin and intended not so much to justify
but to signal the transition from one invaders reign (the Persians)
to anothers (Alexanders); the other is Nectanebos fathering of
Alexander, an event no doubt suggested by an Egyptian prophecy of
Nectanebos return. Within the framework of Egyptian thought the
doubling makes excellent sense. Egyptians were quite aware that their
pharaohs were mortal and had human fathers, but the two fathers serve
different purposesthe one conveys legitimacy to Alexanders conquest
in political terms, while the other inserts the foreign pharaoh into the
native theology.
While for Egyptians the account of Alexanders birth from Ammon
links him to his pharaonic predecessors as yet another manifestation of
the god on earth, the living Horus, the account of Alexanders divine
birth functions separately but similarly for the Greek audience, to make
him no longer mere mortal, but akin to the heroes of their mythic past.
By replacing his human father with the Egyptian god Ammon, Alexan-
der is elevatedin a way he cannot have been though the agency of
Greek mythto the stature of Heracles and Perseus, the two heroes
from whom he claimed descent, and to an equal footing with Dionysus,
whose course through the East Alexander traced in his conquests. The
employment of the Egyptian tale provides a neat complement to
Alexanders Greek lineage. Like Perseus and Heracles, Alexander now
has a mortal father (Philip) on the books, with a mother who has cap-
tured the fancy of a god. This divine parentage accounts, in mythic
terms, for Alexanders uniqueness and for the astonishing nature of his
accomplishments.
150
In Perseus and Heracles he also has ancestors who
had been previously linked to Egypt via Greek myth. The A recension of
Conceptualizing Egypt 71
151. eRta synelubn dnurvpoeidb% ueb% DmfanAzetai toB% DmoB% tApoy% Gxvn (A
1.6.3).
152. OConnor and Silverman (1995, 57) discuss a sexually explicit grafto from the
Eighteenth Dynasty that depicts Queen Hatshepsut in less than complimentary circum-
stances. See their chapter as a whole, pp. 4987, for various attitudes towards kingship;
and see above, note 141.
the Alexander Romance takes this double origin to its logical extremes,
informing us that on the night in question Nectanebo tells Olympias:
This god, when he comes to you, will rst become a serpent, crawling
along the ground and hissing, then he will change into horned Ammon,
then into peerless Heracles, then into thyrsos-bearing Dionysus, then
when he has intercourse with you in human form, the god will reveal
himself in my image.
151
Inevitably the question is asked whether stories like this were circu-
lated with the serious intent of convincing the denizens of Hellenistic
Egypt about Alexanders ancestry. Recognizing their inherent improba-
bility, scholars have been inclined to regard such tales as serious or as
propaganda only for naive Egyptians, while relegating them to the
realm of fantastical or romantic ction for Greeks. But to pose the
question in terms of believability or seriousness of intent may overlook
a more signicant point. It is not important whether Greeks would have
believed the Nectanebo tale, if by belief we mean that it was accepted as
veridically true. What is important is the fact that was told. The act of
producing this narrative of Alexanders double descent carries its own
implicit signicance beyond the message of Greco-Egyptian cultural in-
teraction that it makes explicit. The style and tone of the Alexander Ro-
mance may predispose us to regard it as satire or parody, and therefore
of little consequence, but even this feature of the story is legible within
the two different cultures. There is a salacious quality to the seduction
of Olympias that is reminiscent of a Milesian tale, and there are unmis-
takably Greek chauvinistic tendencies at work in the portrayal of
Nectanebo as a magician. However, the tale also possesses a satirical el-
ement not unfamiliar in Egyptian literature and art, where status rever-
sal and what appears to be outrageous irreverence abound.
152
It is very
possible that the story in its current form accurately reects the origi-
nal; that it deliberately sets out to undercut the pretentiousness of its
own message. In other words, that its mocking quality served to miti-
gate the extravagance of the claim either of divine birth or of Alexan-
ders Egyptian paternity, while nevertheless reinforcing this very mes-
sage. The serious intent comes from the storys novelty of vision, the
72 Conceptualizing Egypt
153. See Dougherty 1991; and especially chapter 4 below.
binocularity of which allows readers to see one event simultaneously
through two different cultural lenses.
To sum up the signicance of Alexanders overdetermined paternity:
both Nectanebo and Ammon are essential to the story. Separately each
father contributes a necessary piece to Alexanders complex mythol-
ogyby virtue of the one father (Nectanebo) Alexander is really Egypt-
ian, or Greco-Egyptian, on the human and political level; by virtue of
the other (Ammon), he is really divine on the mythical and ceremonial
level. Moreover, the tale of Alexanders fathers would seem to occupy a
central and originary place in the forming of the city of Alexandria it-
self. It is as the son of Nectanebo that Alexander addresses the Mem-
phites, and it is by Ammon, who proclaims him his son, that he is in-
structed to found the new city. In fact, the Nectanebo story bears an
uncanny resemblance to that staple of Alexandrian literary production,
the aition, or foundation myth. A signicant aspect of the aition in the
context of new foundations or earlier Greek colonization was the ways
in which such stories functioned as an epistemological category that re-
congured foreign places imaginatively in Greek terms. The logic of the
aition is to connect the new place with Greek myth, in a way that serves
to efface the native and give the intruding Greek population (or colo-
nizers) continuous claim to the place, to create the illusion in other
words not of intrusion, but of return.
153
As the son of Nectanebo, then,
Alexander claims Egypt as legitimate heir, his is not a conquest, but a
return. But if the story functions as an aition for the new city, it suggests
an agenda that has ramications in the political or cultural sphere. By
combining Egyptian sources with a Greek taleAlexanders founda-
tion of the citythe author of the Nectanebo story has devised a potent
instrument that operates on multiple levels, human and divine, political
and mythical, historical and romantic, comic and serious, and has pro-
duced a narrative that Egyptians and Greeks could recognize as pos-
sessing features not only of their own culture but of both cultures. This
act of narration is not simply a literary tour de force, but a space cre-
ated in which the two separate cultures are given a shared prominence
and value. Hence the resulting act of foundation is presented as avoid-
ing the hierarchies of dominance and submission, conqueror and con-
quered; the enterprise is cast as a cooperative cultural activity. What it
Conceptualizing Egypt 73
claims is a ction projected by the dominant class (Greeks), but in its
very proclamation is a tacit admission of the existence of a heteroge-
neous culture, and this goes some way towards constructing the space
in which greater cultural exchange might take place. It is in this world
that the Alexandrian poets found themselves, and it is its potential for
symbolic reciprocity that, I believe, they chose to exploit.
chapter 2
Callimachean Theogonies
74
1. The best example of this reading is Schwinge 1986, 76.
Callimachus wrote for and about the Ptolemies on more than one occa-
sion, yet our modern anti-imperial bias diminishes our ability to appre-
ciate the dynamics of this poetry. Either we reject it as sycophantic or
rescue it by reading it as subversive or not really about its chosen sub-
jectthe Ptolemies or the godsbut fundamentally about poetry. The
extreme view is that Callimachus is a poet who is engaged in art for
arts sake and who has retreated into formalism and a preoccupation
with style over substance either as a reaction against the necessity of
writing for an uncongenial imperial court or because of his belatedness
within the Greek poetic tradition.
1
To maintain this position for ancient
poetry verges on the reductionist. All poetry is about poetry in some
senseor at least about the poets ability to create realms of the imagi-
nationbut it is also about something else, and it is that something
elsethe poets chosen topicin and through which an individual po-
etics comes to be expressed. We acknowledge that Pindar wrote praise
poetry for pay, and have come to understand the complexities of his
technique, with its sober reminders for the victor and his community of
the dangers of hubris, as the means by which he articulated his views of
art. However, Pindars style differs signicantly from that of Calli-
machus, for whom humor and realism are important components.
Callimachean Theogonies 75
2. See, for example, Seldens formulation (1998, 411).
3. See, for example, Bornmann 1988, 113; Bulloch 1985, 7778; Hopkinson 1984a,
14748.
These elements do not affect Callimachuss ability to write imperial po-
etry, but because we require sincerity of tone from praise poetry, we
imagine that his use of humor must be intended to undercut its appar-
ent subject. Humor, however, is more complex than this, and Calli-
machuss humor, in particular, seems intended less to debunk imperial
pretensions than to foreground the improbabilities of the inherited
mythologies, unless we are to assume that the exigencies of Rheas af-
terbirth or the genial if somewhat malodorous Athena of the fth
hymn, disdaining a bath until she has curried her horses, encode a sub-
tle put-down of Ptolemaic queens. The creative role that humor can
play in the context of imperial poetry is almost always ignored. For ex-
ample, humor can be the medium for expressing outrageous or danger-
ous ideasthat the king is a godbecause humor serves to deect or
undercut potentially destabilizing messages while simultanously creat-
ing the narrative space in which such ideas are permitted to exist and in
which their parameters may be explored.
2
In the previous chapter, I
tried to demonstrate that the early Ptolemaic court, that of Soter and
Philadelphus, was a world in which debates about the nature of king-
ship were a signicant feature of the intellectual climate, and that more
than one writer within contemporary philosophical and historical dis-
course experimented with idealizing models, often based on or elabo-
rating on the career of Alexander. Callimachus was certainly aware of
this intellectual climate, and it is my contention that however articial
or literary his mode of expression, he was an active participant in
these ongoing debates, and his poetry was a locus for the interplay of
inherited as well experimental notions of kingship and their attendant
mythologies.
In this chapter, in order to test this hypothesis, I would like to con-
sider two of Callimachuss hymns: the rst, addressed to Zeus, and the
fourth, addressed to Delos, the birthplace of Apollo. Callimachus wrote
six hymns addressed to the traditional Olympian deities Zeus, Apollo,
Artemis, Athena, and Demeter. Ifas most scholars believe
3
the trans-
mitted manuscript order of the hymns reects the authors own
arrangement, we should expect, with an author as conscious of a poetic
agenda as Callimachus obviously was, that the placement of the Zeus
hymn was not random and that it will have assumed some program-
76 Callimachean Theogonies
4. G. B. Conte (Rhetoric of Imitation [Ithaca, N.Y., 1986] 27) cautions against the
common philological trap of seeing all textual resemblances as produced by the inten-
tionality of a literary subject. But conscious allusion to ones predecessors does happen;
not all referentiality is genre-driven white noise, for Alexandrian poets in particular,
whose relationship with traditional genres and what they encode is problematic and a
focus of poetic attention. The fact that they spend a great deal of time telling the same
seemingly obscure stories or borrowing rare words from each other or from Homer sug-
gests a greater degree of intentionality at work than we might wish to impute to echoes of
Vergil to be found in Silver Latin epic. That said, I think it likely that much of what seems
intentional precisely because of its rarity might, if we had the bulk of fourth-century and
early Hellenistic writing, look much more generically driven. For discussions of intertex-
tuality in classics, see the 1997 issue of Materiali e discussioni per lanalisi dei testi clas-
sici, which is devoted to this subject, and Hinds 1998.
5. See Haslams remarks (1993, 111).
matic importance. The shortest of the six and deceptively simple in
form, this hymn has received relatively little critical attention. In fact,
its potential as a programmatic piece has been almost entirely neg-
lected. For these reasons, I have undertaken to examine it in consid-
erable detail, while conning myself to more general observations
about the structure of the Delos hymn. My analysis proceeds from the
assumption that Callimachuss poetics is by design a complex intertex-
tual dialogue with his predecessors, which he signals by lexical distinc-
tiveness and striking detail.
4
This may seem uncontroversial or to be
stating the obvious, but the implications cannot be overemphasized.
While many critics pay lip service to this principle, in practice they
often conne themselves to scrutinizing the surface of the narrative,
treating allusion as ornament or as scholarly display, not as an element
that has the potential to alter the apparent meanings of the text. But if
the context of Callimachuss evocation of a poetic predecessor cannot
be neglected, this has implications for our reading. The loss of many of
the works that he would have known frustrates our attempts to inter-
pret and tempts us to overstate his engagement with those texts that
have survived, particularly Homer and Hesiod, in order to maintain a
semblance of critical control. Reading Callimachus then requires us to
assimilate the narrative and rhetorical levels of his intertexts to Calli-
machuss own, while conceding the limitations in our own current abil-
ity to access them fully.
5
With this in mind, my reading is intended to
open up the intertextual eld to include or emphasize contemporary
writings that are often overlooked in reading Callimachus and to reread
the familiar intertexts in order to situate their cultural frames of refer-
ence more precisely in third-century Alexandria. In addition, Calli-
machuss poetic style exploits sometimes radical shifts between past and
Callimachean Theogonies 77
6. See Selden 1998 for a discussion of the phenomenon of displacement in Calli-
machuss poetry. Seldens discussion of the Lock of Berenice and the Hymn to Apollo in-
cludes a lengthy consideration of the Egyptian intertexts.
7. parb spondusin would seem to indicate a symposium, since the rst and third
toasts at a symposium were apparently addressed to Zeus (see E. Maass, Commentario-
rum in Aratum reliquiae [Berlin, 1898; reprint, 1958] 81, lines 2629), although it does
not guarantee it. See Depew 1993 for the ways in which Callimachus creates the ction of
performance in his hymns through the use of his models. Clauss (1986, 159 n. 13) lists
the various conjectures that have been made about the circumstances of performance of
this hymn. Cameron (1995, 6370) has recently restated the case for the symposium as a
viable social occasion for Hellenistic poets to perform their works, emphasizing that the
erudition of their pieces did not necessarily restrict them to transmission exclusively in
written form.
present or future, the geographically near and distant, traditional
mythological topics and eccentric detail.
6
These shifts often rupture the
narrative fabric or collapse discrete or opposed elements and hence
have generated a descriptive languagedisconcerting, piquant,
playful, pedantic, realisticthat offers little in the way of a co-
herent strategy of reading, though it does capture our own critical apo-
ria. I wish to look closely at these many moments of rupture, since it is
my contention that such moments often indicate an event that is legible
within two discrete discursive systems and that Egypt and Egyptian mo-
tifs behave as subtexts that coexist with and complement the Greek.
the hymn to zeus
The Hymn to Zeus can be divided formally into an invocation to Zeus
(13), the birth ( ganh) of the god (454), his accomplishments (dretaA)
(5590), and the concluding prayer (9196). The vivid language of the
opening creates the impression of a specic occasion:
7
Zhnb% Goi tA ken gllo parb spondusin deAdein
laion h uebn aDtan, deA mAgan, aDBn gnakta,
Phlaganvn Dlatpra, dikaspalon ODranAdisi;
Zeuscould there be anything better at the pouring of libations to sing
of than the god himself, always great, always lord, Smiter of the Mud-
born, Lawgiver to the Ouranians?
It is generally agreed that the poem belongs early in the reign of
Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who began his rule as coregent with his father
Soter in 285/4 b.c.e. and continued as sole ruler from 283/2 until his
death in 246, because lines 5859, which allude to the amicable acces-
sion of Zeus over his older brothers, look like a pointed reference to
78 Callimachean Theogonies
8. 1871, 14.
9. 1986, 15570.
10. Koenen 1977, 47, 2932, 4749; and see the discussion below, chapter 5.
11. Koenen 1977, 6263; 1993, 7879.
12. Koenen 1977, 5862; 1993, 73 n. 114.
13. Clauss (1986, 15657 nn. 35) summarizes previous scholarly positions on this
subject. See G.-B. DAlessio (Callimaco: Inni, Epigrammi, Ecale, vol. 1 [Milan, 1996]
7273 n. 18), who expresses doubts about the identication of Zeus and Ptolemy, though
without further argument.
14. 1972, 1: 66566.
15. A. Rostagni, Poeti alessandrini (Turin, 1963) 59; B. Gentili, Poetry and Its Public
in Ancient Greece: From Homer to the Fifth Century, trans. T. Cole (Baltimore and Lon-
don, 1988) 171.
Philadelphuss position as the youngest of Soters sons, and amicable re-
lations among the half brothers scarcely survived Soters death. The
most cogent suggestion of a more specic occasion was rst made by O.
Richter
8
and strengthened by J. J. Clauss,
9
who argues that the poemwas
written for Philadelphus at the time he became coregent with his father,
Soter, an event that coincided with the celebration of Philadelphuss
birthday as well as the festival of Zeus Basileus. The details are as fol-
lows: (1) an inscription published in 1977 provides evidence that
Philadelphus celebrated his birthday to coincide with the Basileia, a fes-
tival of Zeus Basileus that took place each year;
10
(2) it is likely that
Philadelphus was crowned as coregent with his father on the occasion of
this joint celebration in 284 b.c.e.,
11
though after he became sole ruler in
282 b.c.e. the anniversary of his coronation was celebrated some two
weeks later than the Basileia.
12
If the poemwas written for the combined
celebration of the Basileia and the royal birthday, either at the time of
the coronation or shortly before, then the topics Zeus, his birth, and his
accession to the throne would have been especially suitable.
If scholars approach consensus on an early date, debate about the real
subject of the poemZeus or Ptolemy or bothcontinues.
13
Callimachuss
introduction of the example of our king (cmetAri medAonti) in line
85, in language that echoes the accomplishments of Zeus a few lines be-
fore, has provoked questions about the exact nature of the poem: is it a
hymn produced for a cultic occasion or an encomium or an example of
Wilhelm Krolls generic Kreuzung? Answers have run a predictable
gamut: Peter Fraser, at one extreme, claimed that the hymns of Calli-
machus have . . . a signicant religious content which corresponds to a
genuine religious feeling of the author.
14
At the other extreme, scholars
like A. Rostagni and B. Gentili
15
saw an implicit identication of Zeus
and Ptolemy and thought the poem, like Theocrituss Idyll 17, was in
Callimachean Theogonies 79
16. 1985, 552.
17. POxy. 59.3965 + 22.2327; and The New Simonides, Arethusa 29.2 (Spring
1996), devoted to the new Simonides fragment. See Cameron (1995, 31315) for the sig-
nicance of this fragment for Callimachuss poetry.
18. See Haslam 1993, 116.
reality an encomium of the current ruler. A. Bulloch typies the the
middle ground: But next to the Childhood of Zeus the King the poet
places, by means of an apparent example, Ptolemy Philadelphus, and
the poem turns into a hymn to the poets own patron, subtly con-
structed to please without suggesting any actual identication of the
god and Ptolemy (though a Ptolemy eager for attery may have as-
sumed this to be implied).
16
Many readers may be inclined to dismiss
these debates as modern scruples irrelevant to actual ancient practice,
considering the recently published Simonides fragment in which a hym-
nic proemium begins a narrative elegy on the battle of Plataea.
17
But
Callimachuss poem is not as clearly delimited as Simonides elegy, per-
haps deliberately so. Callimachuss inclusion or intrusion of our king
as an exemplum within the hymnic framework is surrounded by re-
peated remarks about poetic doubt, about truth-telling and lying. As a
result, the poet himself seems to have induced the readers aporia by set-
ting up an imaginative eld in which ction, Zeus, Ptolemy, and king-
ship are effectively intertwined.
18
My Heart Is in Doubt
Callimachus continues:
pp% kaA nin, DiktaPon deAsomen dB LykaPon
5 Dn doiu mala uyma%, DpeB gAno% dmfariston.
ZeP, sB mBn \IdaAoisin Dn oGresA fasi genAsuai,
ZeP, sB d' Dn 0rkadAi pateroi, pater, DceAsanto;
Krpte% deB cePstai
How shall we hymn himas Dictaean or Lycaean? My heart is in doubt,
for your birth is debated. Zeus, on the one hand, they say that you were
born in the hills of Ida; Zeus, on the other, that you were born in Arcadia.
Which of them lied, Father? Cretans are always liars.
His quandary is, prima facie, a choice between two Greek myths
about the birth of Zeus, one of which (the Cretan) is very familiar or at
least seems so from what now survives, the other (the Arcadian) rather
more obscure, and rst attested in this poem. The main differences in
80 Callimachean Theogonies
19. For Antagoras, see P. von der Mhll, Zu den Gedichten des Antagoras von Rho-
dos, Mus. Helv. 19 (1962) 2832. Antagorass poem is taken to be prior; see, for in-
stance, Wilamowitz, Antigonos von Karystos (Berlin, 1881) 69. The text of Antagoras is
that of CA, incorporating the corrections of R. Renehan, The Collectanea Alexandrina:
Selected Passages, HSCP 69 (1964) 37981.
20. Although parallels conrm widely celebrated as the usual meaning of dmfAbo-
hton, given its constituent parts, it is also possible to take it as a virtual synonym for Cal-
limachuss dmfariston (see von der Mhll, Mus. Helv. 19 [1962] 31 n. 11).
the two birth stories are the following: in Arcadia Zeus is born on a
mountain, not in a cave (as in the Cretan myth), and Zeuss birth is the
immediate cause of Arcadian rivers beginning to ow. At this point two
intertexts, both of which are now fragmentary, will be helpful in under-
standing Callimachuss strategya Hymn to Eros by Antagoras of
Rhodes and the rst Homeric Hymn to Dionysus.
Seven lines survive from the opening of Antagorass hymn:
19
Dn doiu moi uyma%, e toi gAno% dmfAbohton,
g se uepn tbn prpton deigenAvn, Erv%, eGpv,
tpn essoy% Ereba% te palai basAleia te paPda%
geAnato NBj pelagessin Cp' eDrAo% \VkeanoPo
5 h sA ge KAprido% yQa perAfrono%, dA se GaAh%,
h \AnAmvn toPo% sB kakb fronAvn dlalhsai
dnurapoi% dd' Dsula tb kaB sAo spma dAfyion.
My heart is in doubt, in that your birth is celebrated everywhere.
20
Am I
to say that you are the rst of the eternal gods, Eros, many of which chil-
dren Erebos and Queen Night once bred under the waves of broad
Ocean? Or that you are the son of nimble-witted Cypris or of Earth or of
the Winds? You are such as to wander about devising ill or good for men.
Even your body is double in nature.
Callimachus replaces Antagorass dmfAbohton (widely celebrated)
with dmfariston, a rare word that occurs only twice, both times in
Iliad 23. In Iliad 23.382 we nd a situation similar to the one Calli-
machus presents at the opening of the poem: two competitors in a char-
iot race would have nished dmfariston (in a dead heat) had it not
been for the intervention of Apollo, who decided matters by causing
one of the drivers to lose. Here, it seems, the two locations with com-
peting claims to be the birthplace of Zeus are also in a dead heat,
when an external voice (the god?) exclaiming Krpte% deB cePstai re-
solves the issue.
The terms of the contested birth in Antagoras are worth considering
more closely. Antagoras feigns doubt about whether Eros was the rst
of the primordial deities whose births are specically located in the wa-
Callimachean Theogonies 81
21. See, for example, Menander Rhetor 343.1720 Russell and Wilson; Longus
Daphnis and Chloe 2.56; Metiochus and Parthenope in Stephens and Winkler 1995,
8687, 9192.
22. See, for example, Orphic Argonautica 14: difyb perivpAa kydrbn Ervta.
23. 1990, 60.
24. West (1983, 13133) even argues that the account found in Callimachus of Zeuss
nurture on Crete was Orphic in origin.
25. The poem was supposedly written to replicate the shape of wings. Cameron
(1995, 3133) suggests that it was inscribed on the wings of a statue and was intended to
account for the statues peculiar double iconography.
ters of Ocean or one of a later generation of divinities, the winged child
of Aphroditein other words, whether Eros is to be identied with the
originary generative force of the universe or as a literary or mythologi-
cal trope. There is nothing novel about this. In Platos Symposium, for
example, Phaedrus claims that Eros is the oldest of gods, and Agathon,
that he is the youngestan opposition that is well attested.
21
A babyish
Eros, often depicted with wings, is a common motif in Hellenistic vase
painting, while Eros as an elemental force occurs in Hesiods Theogony
(120) and in cosmogonic poetry like that of Pherecydes of Syrus, for ex-
ample, as well as in Orphic texts. Antagorass choice of language (spma
dAfyion) alludes to the bisexual Eros that came to occupy a distinctive
position in Orphic theology.
22
H. Schibli explains:
Chronos fashions an egg of aDuar from which the rst-born (prv-
tageno%), bi-sexual god Phanes springs forth; Phanes is identical with
Eros. Phanes-Eros enters with a burst of creative activity that includes
planets, gods, and men. Phanes is thereupon swallowed by Zeus who,
having thus assimilated the nature of Eros, in turn creates all things anew.
In this way Orphic theology accounts for the status of Zeus as both cre-
ator and ruler of the world.
23
Orphic material circulated freely in the Hellenistic period, so there can
be no question that either Antagoras or Callimachus was unaware of
the ramications of these competing mythologies of Eros.
24
In fact, a
more or less contemporary epigram of Simias of Rhodes externalizes
the issue by depicting Eros as a bearded child, the offspring of Aether
and Chaos, as against the son of Aphrodite and Ares.
25
Prima facie, the imitation of Antagoras is appropriate for Calli-
machuss dilemma because Arcadia is often regarded as the originary
Greek landscape occupied by autochthonous peoples before the rest of
Greece. The depiction of Zeuss birth in a primeval landscape where
waters originate is akin to the birth of Eros under the waves of broad
Ocean, and the juxtaposition of an address to Father Zeus in the
82 Callimachean Theogonies
26. See, for example, Hopkinson 1989, 132.
27. Another contemporary poet, Aratus, in the opening of his Phaenomena also as-
similates Zeus to the all-pervasive creator. In addition to similarities between Eros and
Zeus, Plutarch (DIO 57) nds that the Hesiodic Eros calls to mind (proskalePtai)
Osiris, and likens the Eros of Socrates narrative in the Symposium to Horus, who is for-
ever young. This is not to suggest that Plutarch is describing views held by Callimachus or
Antagoras so much as to illustrate the ease with which analogies between Eros and Egypt-
ian deities could be made once a context had been established. By the Roman period, the
identication of Eros with Horus-the-Child is well attested. See R. Merkelbach, Isis
Regina-Zeus Sarapis (Stuttgart, 1995), 8793 and pls. 12224 (pp. 59597).
context of the gods own infancy story maylike Simiass bearded
childbe an ironic enactment of the dilemma of the age of Eros. A mo-
ment later Callimachus situates his own hymn within cosmogonic and
theogonic discourse with his quotation of Epimenides of Crete in line 8.
In this context Zeus is a divinity whose ancestry is very similar to
Eross. Within Pherecydes and the Orphic theogonies (as Schiblis re-
marks above make clear) he is not only king of the gods but assimilated
to the divine creator as well. Eross disputed parentage may have been
one of the oldest clichs of the hymnic repertory, but it also encapsu-
lated a religious and philosophical debate about the nature of divinity
that was not exclusive to Eros. In the Hellenistic period it surfaces for
many gods, and particularly Zeus. An excellent contemporary example
is Cleanthes Hymn to Zeus, in which Zeus is praised as the Stoic rst
cause of nature. Cleanthes hymn is usually opposed to Callimachuss,
the former regarded as having adapted traditional hymnic features to
philosophical discourse, the latter for a self-consciously literary ef-
fect.
26
But however articial Callimachuss poem, it could not have
been written in ignorance of the various notions of divinity being ex-
pressed in contemporary intellectual circles.
27
If Antagorass hymn presented Callimachus with a choice of two differ-
ent theogonic chronologies (however overworked), the Homeric Hymn to
Dionysus displays two features in common with Callimachuss hymn: the
newborn (or in Dionysuss case the almost born) child is transported from
one location to anotherZeus conveys the embryonic Dionysus snatched
from Semeles ruined body sewn up in his own thigh to act as a surrogate
womb. The poems languageeDrafipta and Gtikte used of Zeuscon-
veys this mythological information. The second feature of the hymnic tra-
dition is various geographic options available to the poet:
oC mBn gbr Drakani s, oC d \Ikari dnemoAssi
fas, oC d Dn Naji dPon gAno% eDrafipta.
oC dA s' Dp' \AlfePi potamu bauydinaenti
Callimachean Theogonies 83
28. ceAdomai) ranges in meaning from being mistaken to being a liar. Without
the rest of the poem it is difcult to know which translation is more accurate. Similarly,
Krpte% deB cePstai (below) is usually translated as Cretans are always liars, and that
is certainly the meaning that Paul intends when he quotes the line in the Epistle to Titus,
but in its original context the meaning of the verb may have been closer to dont know
how to speak the truth, marking a capacity rather than a deliberate choice. Callimachus,
needless to say, plays with the full semantic range of ceAdomai. See also Detienne 1996,
8586; and the full-scale treatment in Pratt 1993.
29. Herodotus locates the Nysa of Dionysuss birth in Ethiopia (2.146; 3.97), and
Antimachus in the area between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf (fr. 162 Matthews = 127
Wyss).
30. As Diodorus says, from his father and the place (1.15.5). This etymology is dis-
cussed in Cook 1965, 27189.
31. Note also that Nysa was prominent enough for a female automaton so-identied
to be featured in the Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadephus (Athenaeus 5.198e), on
which see Rice 1983, 6268.
kysamAnhn SemAlhn tekAein DiB terpikeraAni,
5 glloi d' Dn Qabisin gnaj se lAgoysi genAsuai
ceydamenoi
28
sB d' Gtikte patbr dndrpn te uepn te
pollbn dp' dnurapvn krAptvn leykalenon Hrhn.
Gsti dA ti% NAsh Epaton gro% dnuAon Eli
thloP FoinAkh% sxedbn ADgAptoio \ roavn. . . .
Some say at Dracanum, some say at windy Icarus, and some say in
Naxos, divinely born Insewn, and some say by Alpheus, deep-eddying
river, pregnant Semele bore you to thunder-loving Zeus. But others say
you were born in Thebes, Lordthey are mistaken; for the father of men
and gods bore you far from men, hidden from white-armed Hera. There
is a certain Nysa, lofty mountain, luxuriously wooded, far away in
Phoenicia, near to the streams of the Aegyptus. . . .
Here, after an opening with a list of four local claims to be the birth-
place of the god (three islands, one river), the poet shifts his attention to
two new claimsthose who say the god was born in Thebes, and
theyhe tells us with the emphatic placement of ceydamenoiare
wrong, and those who locate Dionysuss birth in Nysa, near the streams
of the Aegyptus, that is, the Nile.
29
The choice then is a Theban or
Greek birthplace, or a Nysan or Near Eastern birthplace, for the god,
and the Greek site is explicitly labeled false.
In selecting Nysa as the birthplace of Dionysus, the poet exploits a
folk etymology of the gods name that links Dionysus and Zeus,
30
and
he chooses a place that is geographically uid. Stephen of Byzantium
lists ten Nysas, several of which were in the Near East or North
Africa.
31
This multiplicity of Nysas is complicit in the generation of iso-
morphic tales about Dionysus that could be attached to different loca-
tions in the spread of the Dionysiac cult. Both the etymology of Diony-
84 Callimachean Theogonies
32. tbn Osirin, kaB trafpnai mBn tp% eDdaAmono% \ArabAa% Dn NAsi plhsAon
ADgAptoy, Dib% gnta paPda, kaB tbn proshgorAan Gxein parb toP% Ellhsin dpa te toP
patrb% kaB toP tapoy Dianyson dnomasuAnta. memnpsuai dB tp% NAsh% kaB tbn poi-
htbn Dn toP% Emnoi%, eti perB tbn AGgypton gAgonen, oQ% lAgei, ktl. Jacoby (Diodorus
Siculus 1.15.67 = FGrH 264 F 25.15.67) considers the identication of Osiris and
Dionysus authentically Hecataean but the etymologizing to be Diodoruss own comment.
However, the fact that the etymology is embedded within the longer indirect statement
suggests that it may well belong to the original source. See also Diodorus Siculus 3.65.7.
Herodotus also identies Dionysus and Osiris (2.42).
33. An epigram assigned to Antipater of Thessalonica (AP 7.369) imitates the open-
ing of Callimachuss hymn specically as a choice between Greek and Egyptian, which
the poet resolves by linking the two by heredity.
\Antipatroy \ rhtpro% Dgb tafo%, clAka d\ Gpnei
Grga Panellanvn peAueo martyrAh%.
sus and the potential for geographic conation resemble two of Calli-
machuss own compositional strategiesgeographical markers that
exist in more than one location and etymologies that link the god with
multilocal place-names. Moreover, Diodorus Siculus, in a passage that
may have come originally from Hecataeus of Abdera, not only records
the popular etymology of Dionysuss name, quoting this same Homeric
hymn as evidence, but explicitly links Nysan Dionysus with Egyptian
Osiris, or one dying god with another:
[They say that Osiris] was reared in Nysa, a city of Arabia Felix, near
Egypt, being a child of Zeus, and among the Greeks he is named Diony-
sus, a name derived from his father and the place. And the poet mentions
Nysa in his hymns, namely, that it was near Egypt, when he says: There
is a certain Nysa, and so on.
32
We saw in Dionysius Scytobrachion the phenomenon of relocating
mythological events connected with Dionysus, Athena, and the Ama-
zons from northern regions (Thrace and Scythia) to southern, to Libya
and the northeastern coast of Africa, a phenomenon also to be found in
Apolloniuss Argonautica. The Homeric Hymn to Dionysus appears to
make the same poetic gesture, and it raises a question about Calli-
machuss constructed aporia. Is the choice between Arcadia and Crete
meant to resemble the choice between Thebes and Nysa, near to the Ae-
gyptus? Although the identication of Nysan Dionysus with Osiris was
common enough in the Hellenistic period, and Zeus himself already
had a Libyan/Egyptian avatar, Zeus Ammon, at this juncture we can
only raise an inquiring eyebrow about the relevance of Zeuss potential
alter egos to Callimachuss poem.
33
Callimachean Theogonies 85
kePtai d\ dmfaristo%, \Auhnauen eGt\ dpb NeAloy
rn gAno%, dpeArvn d\ gjio% dmfotArvn.
gstea kaB d\ gllv% Cnb% aEmato%, c% lago% Ellhn,
klarvi d\ c mBn deB Pallado%, c dB Dia%.
I am the tomb of the rhetor Antipater. How great was his inspiration, you may ask all
Greeks as witness. He lies disputed, whether his race was from Athens or from the Nile,
but worthy of both continents. Besides, the lands are of one blood, as a Greek story has
it, the one Pallass by lot, the other Zeuss.
34. See R. P. Martin, The Seven Sages as Performers of Wisdom, in Cultural Poetics
in Archaic Greece; Cult, Performance, Politics, ed. C. Dougherty and L. Kurke (Cam-
bridge, 1993) 122; West 1983, 4553; and Detienne 1996, 55, 13135. Callimachus in
his own tally of the Seven in the Iambi does not include Epimenides.
35. Hopkinson 1984a, 14044; Clauss 1986, 158; Goldhill 1986, 12729; and Bing
1988, 7677 n. 42.
36. Fr. 2 Kinkel = B1 D-K. The line is quoted in Pauls Epistle to Titus.
Callimachus then resolves his hitherto rather predictable poetic
dilemma: in response to his question which of them lied, Father? a
voice returns the answer Cretans are always liars (Krpte% deB ceP-
stai). This is a famous line attributed to Epimenides, a Cretan priest or
seer who was credited with a gift for oracular revelation. By Calli-
machuss time he had acquired almost mythical status and was occa-
sionally included among the Seven Sages.
34
Recently, a number of schol-
ars have turned a critical eye to the ambiguity of voice that this
quotation createsis it Callimachus himself, Father Zeus, or Epi-
menides who answers?and the consequence for our understanding of
the poem as a whole.
35
Let us examine more carefully the context of the
remark. The complete line from Epimenides is Krpte% deB cePstai,
kakb uhrAa, gastAre% drgaA (Cretans, ever liars, evil beasts, idle bel-
lies),
36
which in its turn would seem to have been adapted from the
speech of the Muses in the proem of Hesiods Theogony:
aG nA pou HsAodon kalbn DdAdajan doidan,
grna% poimaAnonu 8likpno% Epo zauAoio.
tande dA me pratista ueaB prb% mPuon Geipon,
25 MoPsai \Olympiade%, koPrai Dib% aDgiaxoio
poimAne% ggrayloi, kak DlAgxea, gastAre% oRon
Gdmen feAdea pollb lAgein DtAmoisin dmoPa,
Gdmen d eRt DuAlvmen dlhuAa ghrAsasuai.
Now they once taught Hesiod fair song, when he was shepherding lambs
at the foot of sacred Helicon. The goddesses rst addressed me thus,
Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus: Shepherds of the
eld, evil reproachs, all belly, we know how to say many false things that
can pass for true, we also know how, when we wish, to utter the truth.
86 Callimachean Theogonies
37. On this passage, see especially Detienne 1996, 2125, 3033; P. Pucci, Hesiod
and the Language of Poetry (Baltimore, 1977); G. B. Walsh, The Varieties of Enchant-
ment (Chapel Hill and London, 1984) 2236; and Pratt 1993, 10613. See Reinsch-
Werner 1976, 2627, for Callimachus and Hesiod.
38. Detienne 1996, 4445 (italics mine).
From this early period of Greek poetry we see that the relationship
of the Muses, the goddesses who inspire and regulate poetic utterance,
to truth, and in turn the poets relationship to truth, is marked as less
than straightforward. Truth (dlhuAa) and the appearance of truth
(ceAdea pollb . . . DtAmoisin cmoPa) would seem to be indistinguish-
able to the average mortal, though the Muses, and presumably their
clients, the poets, know the difference. The Muses breathe a divine
voice into Hesiod that enables him to celebrate the future and the past,
and they order him to sing about the brood of the eternal gods (3034).
He then begins his song by paraphrasing the song of the Muses, who
themselves are represented as singing theogonies. Much has been made
of this Hesiodic passage and what it implies about the writing of Greek
poetry in general.
37
For our purposes, it is worth considering what effect
the indeterminacy of truth has for writing about cosmic origins and di-
vine hierarchies, subjects that by their very nature are unknowable, and
then to what extent the plurality of available versions, and what is at
stake in preferring one account over another, might have been central to
Callimachuss project. M. Detiennes observations about the relation-
ship of the poet to the construction of cosmic order and kingship in the
Theogony are illuminating:
The ordering of the world in the Greek cosmogonies and theogonies was
inseparable from myths of sovereignity. Furthermore, the myths of emer-
gence, while recounting the story of successive generations of the gods,
foregrounded the determining role of a divine king who, after many
struggles, triumphed over his enemies and once and for all established
order in the cosmos. Hesiods poem . . . does appear to provide the nal
remaining example of sung speech praising the gure of the king, in a so-
ciety centered on the type of sovereignity seemingly exemplied by Myce-
nean civilization. In Hesiods case, the royal gure is simply represented
by Zeus. At this level the poets function was above all to serve sover-
eignity: by reciting the myth of emergence, he collaborated directly in
setting the world in order.
38
To state it more crudely, cosmogony reects political reality: the emer-
gence of the just Zeus in the Theogony provides the necessary or log-
ical divine counterpart to the just king who rules over the human
condition in the Works and Days. The one guarantees the other.
Callimachean Theogonies 87
39. Cameron (1995, 11932) rejects the widely held view that the Dream was the
original opening of the Aetia, and the current opening, or Prologue, was appended as a
new introduction for the second publication. Rather, he takes the Prologue and Dream to
be two parts of the orginal introduction, with no conceptual break between. If he is cor-
rect, it would bring the opening of the Aetia and the Hymn to Zeus into an even closer
alignment. See pp. 36273 in Cameron for his discussion of Callimachuss relationship to
Hesiod.
Hesiods proem stands rst in a long line of encounters between the
aspiring poet and the Muses. But Callimachus, who is himself responsi-
ble for the subsequent spate of imitations (Ennius, Vergil, Propertius),
at the opening of the Zeus hymn recreates the Hesiodic moment only
indirectly, by refracting the event through Epimenides. In contrast, in
the fragmentary Somnium
39
at the beginning of the Aetia, a poem that
is also about origins, Callimachus directly recreates the context of the
initiation:
poimAni mpla nAmonti par' Gxnion djAo Eppoy
\Hsiadi MoysAvn Csmb et' dntAasen
m]Bn oC Xaeo genes
.
[
To the shepherd tending his ock by the track of the swift horse, Hesiod,
when a swarm of Muses met him, . . . to him about the birth of Chaos.
(fr. 2 Pf.)
In this passage Callimachus contextualizes the appearance of the
Muses to Hesiod in terms of theogoniesXaeo% genes
.
[not simply
the birth of the gods, but particularly of Chaos, that is to say, that orig-
inary moment when creation began. As the Aetia progresses, Calli-
machuss solution to the problem of poetic truth or nontruth is to in-
terrogate the Muses and record their replies. However, the relationship
of the poet to his subject and his consciously invoked antecedents is
markedly more ambiguous in the Zeus hymn. The introduction of a
line of Epimenides indirectly alludes to the problematic of Hesiods en-
counter with the Muses while distancing the audience from the au-
thoritative voice of inspiration that the Muses provided in the Hesiod
passage and in the Aetia. In contrast to these two, the opening of the
Zeus hymn is overdetermined: the line itself suggests that it is Epi-
menides who speaks; the Homeric parallel, signaled by dmfariston,
points to Father Zeus as the speaker; while Callimachus, by going on
to gloss the line, would seem to be appropriating it to his own voice.
But let us consider further what Epimenides intrusion into the poem
effects.
To judge from the meager remains of his corpus, Epimenides com-
88 Callimachean Theogonies
40. M. L. West (1983, 4753) expresses some doubt that all of the poetry atttributed
to him was really written by the historical Epimenides. The correctness of attribution is
irrelevant to the following argument, since the material was composed and circulated
under the name of Epimenides well before Callimachus.
41. Fr. B5 D-K; and West 1983, 48.
42. Fr. B4 D-K: perB tpn gegonatvn mBn ddalvn dA.
43. 1 (409E = B11 D-K): oGte gbr rn gaAh% mAso% dmfalb% oDdB ualassh% | eD dA tA%
Gsti, ueoP% dplo% unhtoPsi d gfanto%.
44. Maass 1892, 34446. West (1983, 4753) follows Maass; see also Detiennes re-
marks (1996, 15, 55, 65).
45. dfAketa pote \Auanaze dnbr Krb% gnoma \EpimenAdh% komAzvn lagon oCtvsB
r\ huAnta pisteAesuai xalepan <mAsh% gbr> cmAra% Dn DiktaAoy Dib% tpi gntrvi keA-
meno% Epnvi baueP Gth syxnb gnar Gfh DntyxePn aDtb% ueoP% kaB uepn lagoi% kaB \A-
lhueAai kaB DAkhi. = A1.1621 D-K, where the source is Maximus of Tyre. See Maasss
discussion (1892, 345).
46. 1.111 = A1 D-K. Diels and Kranz, following Maass (1892, 343), take lines 3036
of Aratuss Phaenomena to be based on Epimenides. Kidd (1997, 185) seems to agree;
posed a poem called Oracles that packaged theogonic material as
oracular responses.
40
His cosmology was similar to Orphic writing in
that he began with Aer and Night, who produced Tartarus, who in turn
produced two Titans, who produced an egg from which another gene-
sis came forth.
41
Further, two of the testimonia suggest that Epimenides
perceptions about oracular truth tended towards the skeptical: Aris-
totle tells us that Epimenides asserted that he never prophesied about
the future, only about what had already happened, but was obscure;
42
in other words, he decoded past events. Plutarch in The Obsolescence
of Oracles records the following anecdote: upon consulting the god
about whether Delphi was the center of the earth and receiving a vague
reply, Epimenides said: There is no center of the earth or the sea, but if
there is, it is known to the gods, but hidden from mortals.
43
Most sig-
nicantly for our purposes, Epimenides seems actively to have been
using Hesiods encounter with the Muses as the driving force for his
own poetry, and the words Cretans, ever liars, evil beasts, idle bellies
are plausibly located in the proem of this work, in which Truth and Jus-
tice appear to Epimenides in the cave of Zeus on Crete:
44
Once a Cretan man named Epimenides came to Athens bringing a tale
that, as he tells it, is hard to believe: namely, that at <mid>day when he
had lain in a deep sleep for many years in the cave of Dictaian Zeus he
said that in a dream he encountered the goddesses and the words of the
goddesses, Truth and Dike.
45
Diodorus claims Epimenides as one of his sources on Cretan divinities
(5.80 = fr. 20 D-K), and Diogenes Laertius tells us he wrote about the
Couretes and Corybantes.
46
From even this limited evidence, we may
Callimachean Theogonies 89
Martin (1998, 2: 164) is more skeptical. Aratuss subject is the Dictaian Couretes, and the
language is clearly reminiscent of the Zeus hymn, lines 5154. He may simply be depend-
ent on Callimachus, but it is equally possible that both Callimachus and Aratus are re-
calling an earlier treatment by Epimenides. See further Wilamowitzs remarks (1924,
2.34, n. 1).
47. 1985: 15455.
conclude that Epimenides situates himself in a theogonic tradition in
which truth is marked as problematic, and if indeed Truth and Justice
inform him that Cretans are ever liars, then we may suspect that this
exchange will have led to the goddesses or Epimenides explaining or
debunking some prominent Cretan theogonic narrative; stories at-
tached to Cretan Zeus and the Couretes readily suggest themselves.
Callimachus, in turn, locates himself within the mainstream of theogo-
nic writing (Hesiod via Epimenides) but deliberately complicates the is-
sues of truth or lying in connection with poetic utterance. And he in-
serts himself not in general terms, but into a particular discussionthat
on the tomb of Zeus.
Callimachus elaborates Epimenides response by rejecting Crete as
the birthplace of Zeus on the grounds that the Cretan account is
scarcely credible, singling out one specic detail:
kaB gbr tafon, r gna, sePo
Krpte% Dtektananto sB d oD uane%, DssB gbr aDeA.
For the Cretans built a tomb for you, Lord, but you have not died, you
are forever. (89)
The tomb of Zeus on Crete was well known in the Hellenistic age,
though we have no certain information before that period. The Cretan
deity connected with this tomb is generally taken to be kin to Near
Eastern dying gods. According to M. L. West, the Cretan divinity was
originally not the Hellenic Zeus but a pre-Hellenic vegetation or year-
spirit of the same general type as the Semitic Adonis or the Egyptian
Osiris. He was represented as a beardless youth; he was reborn every
year; he also died. This god was identied by the Greeks with their Zeus
long before Hesiod. But he retained his individuality, and his worship in
Crete preserved many of its peculiar features.
47
This aspect of Cretan Zeus would have been familiar to Callimachus
and his contemporaries. It appears in a now fragmentary chorus of Eu-
ripides Cretans, where Idaean Zeus is linked with Dionysus Zagreus
90 Callimachean Theogonies
48. C. Austin, Nova fragmenta Euripidea in papyris reperta (Berlin, 1968) fr. 79. See
also West 1983, 153: Burkert 1985, 127, 262 and notes.
49. M. P. Nilssen, Geschichte der griechischen Religion (1941) 1: 321. On the tomb
of Zeus, see Cook 1965, 94043.
50. Iambus 12.1517 (fr. 202 Pf.) on the empty Cretan tomb may also refer to Euhe-
merus (as A. Kerkheckers rather cryptic remarks would seem to imply.) He apparently
suggests further connections that, given the extremely fragmentary texts, are scarcely ten-
able (Callimachus Book of Iambi [Oxford, 1999], 2425, esp. n. 79).
and the Couretes in the context of seasonal and initiatory rites.
48
It is a
reasonable guess that the tomb of Zeus gured in Epimenides writing.
But the existence of the tomb seems to have posed an intellectual stum-
bling block to the conventional wisdom that Zeus was an immortal.
The scholiast on the Zeus hymn, for example, provides not one but two
rationalizing explanations: in addition to explaining that the tomb was
a construction to deceive Cronus he suggests that the tomb was really
that of Minos, the son of Zeus, and was inscribed MAnvo% toP Dib%
tafo% but over time lost its initial letters and came to read only Dib%
tafo%. Callimachuss introduction of the tomb of Zeus, then, does not
provide a resolution to the problem of Zeuss birth so much as intro-
duce another complicationis Zeus a dying god, a Dionysus or Osiris
analogue, or is the tomb to be explained in some other way? Calli-
machuss introduction of the tomb at least implicitly marks Cretan
Zeus as an oriental deity,
49
and this brings his choice of Arcadia or
Crete in line with the choice of Theban or Nysan Dionysus. He then ex-
plicitly rejects this orientalizing optionyou have not died, you are
forever. But the tomb of Zeus on Crete was notorious and carried with
it considerable intertextual baggage. Its affect within the poem cannot
be limited to one line or so easily dismissed.
The most radical solution to the problem posed by the tomb of Zeus
on Crete was that proposed by Callimachuss older contemporary, Eu-
hemerus. Euhemerus was labeled an atheist because he demoted the tra-
ditional Olympian gods to the status of culture heroes who achieved
immortal status through their benefactions to humankind. For Euhe-
merus, Zeus was a human who came from Crete, acted as a lawgiver,
and eventually returned to Crete, where he died and was buried. Euhe-
meruss writing, like that of his contemporary, Hecataeus of Abdera,
belonged to an intellectual world in which the line between human king
and divinity may have been easily crossed, but which also exacted a
pricestipulated in terms of a moral education and righteous behav-
iorfor royals wishing to undertake the journey. Callimachus certainly
knew Euhemeruss writings, since he refers to them in his rst Iambus.
50
Callimachean Theogonies 91
Whether he approved or disapproved of Euhemerus, it is fair to say his
ideas were common intellectual currency within Callimachuss Alexan-
dran circle, and referring to the tomb of Cretan Zeus was bound to
have reminded his audience of Euhemeruss notorious solution to the
problem.
Arcadia and Crete
In these opening nine lines, then, Callimachus has introduced his
topicthe birth of Zeusand situated it within the context of the ear-
lier theogonic discourses of Hesiod, Epimenides, and Orphic and ratio-
nalist traditions. Around the birth of Zeus are clustered several differ-
ent, though ultimately converging, choices, the signicance of which
Callimachus has enlarged by his allusive recourse to a variety of discur-
sive stylespoetic, prophetic, Orphic, rationalistis the god young or
old, a cosmic and originary force for creation or a mythological con-
struct of the poets and vase painters? Is he a king/culture hero or a
dying vegetation spirit? Moreover, as the poet painstakingly makes us
aware, this is a context in which is it easy to speak falsely and it is one
that will increase exponentially in complexity as the question of pre-
cisely who this Zeus is, whether a Greek or a Near Eastern god, be-
comes linked with our king (85).
Callimachuss ostensible solution to his carefully constructed poetic
dilemma is to reject Crete and locate Zeuss birth in Arcadia. This is the
way he tells the story:
In Parrhasia, Rhea bore you, where there was a hill quite sheltered with
bushes. Afterwards the place was sacred, and no crawling thing requiring
Eileithyia nor any woman draws near it; but the Apidanians call it Rheas
primeval place of giving birth. There, when your mother laid you down
from her great womb, immediately she looked for a stream of water in
which she might cleanse herself of the stains of birth and in which she
might wash your body. But mighty Ladon did not yet ow, nor did Ery-
manthus, the clearest of rivers; as yet all Azania was uninundated, but it
was to be called well-watered from the point when Rhea loosened her
cincture; indeed liquid Iaon bore many oaks above it, Melas carried many
wagons, and many poisonous creatures had their lairs above Carneion,
wet though it was, and a man on foot might walk upon Krathis and stony
Metope, thirsty, while abundant water lay beneath his feet. In her dis-
tress, Lady Rhea said: Dear Earth, give birth also; your birth pangs are
easy. She spoke and, raising up her great arm, struck the hill with her
staff; it was torn wide apart for her and poured forth a great ood.
92 Callimachean Theogonies
51. This is usually seen as Callimachus cleverly reconciling the two inherited versions
of the myth, though why he should do so is not obvious within the terms of the text.
Next, she gave the newborn to the nymph Neda to bring into a Cretan
covert (34: keyumbn Gyv krhtaPon). When Zeus arrived in Crete, he
was deposited in a golden cradle and rocked by the nymph Adrasteia,
nourished by the she-goat Amaltheia, and fed upon honeycomb.
Around him the Couretes danced and beat their armor in order to pre-
vent Cronus from hearing his cries. Here he quickly grew to manhood,
whereupon, we learn, he did not attain his kingship by lot but was cho-
sen to rule by the older generation of deities because of his deeds of
prowess. If we examine the details of this narrative, it is obvious that
Callimachus only partially rejects the Cretan tradition. Although he lo-
cates the actual birth of Zeus in Arcadia, within minutes of birth he
narrates the childs transference to the land of liars. Many Cretan ele-
mentsthe child is hidden, nursed, and reared in Creteform an es-
sential part of his narrative.
51
Callimachus devotes twenty-three lines to
Arcadia, thirteen to Crete. Both parts of the story open with a geo-
graphical description that yields an aition: lines 1014 provide an ac-
count of the primeval childbed of Rhea, while lines 4145 tell us
about the Plain of the Navel. Between the two are eight lines devoted
to the lineage and activities of the nymph Neda, who is instrumental in
the transfer from one place to the other.
In treating the local geographies of Arcadia and Crete the poet cre-
ates a series of deliberate slips between signier and signied that ob-
scure rather than clarify the different locations. Instead of maintaining
the separateness of these two regions, as the hymnic opening would
seem to demand, Callimachus occasionally merges them by using geo-
graphical markers that are attested for both locations at points in the
narrative when Zeus is supposedly transported from one place to the
other. The geographical misprisions begin even earlier with his rst for-
mulation of the problem: in line 4 Callimachus asks whether he should
hymn the god as Dictaean or Lycaean in what we take to be a synec-
dochic substitution of the names of local mountains in Crete and Arca-
dia for the regions themselves. In lines 67 he appears to vary these
terms with an unbalanced pairin the Idaean mountains or in Ar-
cadia. But the phrase in the Idaean mountains (\IdaAoisin Dn oGresi)
in Homer and other poets refers not to Mt. Ida in Crete but to Mt. Ida
in the Troad, which was yet another location that claimed to be the
birthplace of Zeus. There was apparently no tradition that Zeus was
Callimachean Theogonies 93
52. Cook 1965, pt. 1, pp. 93233; and West 1983, 13132.
53. McLennan 1977, 33.
54. Pausanias 8.38.2; see also McLennan 1977, 66, with his bibliography on this
point.
55. McLennan 1977, 7475; and Hopkinson 1984a: 143.
56. These lines are so contorted in word order, and the transition between Arcadia
and Crete so sudden, that Meineke suspected a textual problem, as did Schneider (1870,
1418), though Kuiper (1896, 21) provided the answer above.
57. 8.53.4. Kuiper 1896, 2122.
born on Mt. Ida in Crete, but rather in a cave located on its slopes.
52
G. R. McLennan, capping a trend found in earlier commentaries, re-
marks on this phrase: Such variation is typical of Callimachus; in this
case he may have achieved it at the expense of mythological accuracy.
53
However, we might take leave to doubt this. Again, at line 34, we are
informed that the newborn was given to Neda to bring into a Cretan
covert. At rst we imagine that we have somehow missed the shift to
Crete, but a few lines later we nd ourselves apparently still in Arcadia.
According to Pausanias, Cretea (KrhtAa) was not Crete after all, but an
area located on Mt. Lycaeon in Arcadia.
54
Then, in lines 4243, Calli-
machus mentions Thenae. In fact, there were two Thenaesone in Ar-
cadia (where we thought we were), the other in Crete.
55
The poet calls
attention to the geographic doublet with an aside: Thenaethe one
near Cnosos.
56
eRte Qenb% dpAleipen DpB KnvsoPo fAroysa,
ZeP pater, c NAmfh se (QenaB d Gsan DggAui KnvsoP)
toytaki toi pAse, daPmon, dp dmfala% Gnuen DkePno
45 \Omfalion metApeita pAdon kalAoysi KAdvne%.
When the Nymph left Thenae, carrying you towards Cnosos, Father
Zeus (for Thenae is near Cnosos), then did your navel fall away, Daimon:
hence the Cydonians call that place the Plain of the Navel.
In addition he selects the ethnic designation of Cydones as a
metonym for Cretans, but Pausanias tells us that all the surviving sons
of [the Arcadian] Tegeates, namely, Cydon, Archedius, and Gortys, mi-
grated of their own free will to Crete, and after them were named the
cities Cydonia, Gortyna, and Catreus. But the Cretans disagree with
this.
57
In other words, the ethnic Cydones is contestedit may signify
either Arcadian or Cretan origin. The potential for ambiguity is not re-
solved but compounded by the sentence itself. Not only were there sev-
eral locations throughout Greece purporting to be the omphalos, or
center, but at least oneDelphiwas far more prominent. And in this
94 Callimachean Theogonies
58. See Selden 1998, 321, on the eccentric center.
59. 8.38.2. See also 8.36.2; and Verbruggen 1981, 3237, for the Cretan elements
also claimed for mainland Greece.
60. West 1983, 132.
context we might also recall the remark of Epimenides noted above that
if, indeed, there was an omphalos, it was clear to the gods but hid-
den to mortals. The sentence, therefore, records a contested group des-
ignating a contested location for something that may or may not exist.
58
It is possible, with McLennan, to attribute one or even two of these
double locations to inaccuracies of the poet. But Callimachus, ac-
cording to the Suda, wrote a monograph on Arcadia, and probably was
as familiar with its mythic traditions as Pausanias was. Rather, we are
experiencing a geographical hoax: the misprisions serve to confuse,
then momentarily collapse the mythological landscape. These succes-
sive superimpositions of the Cretan landscape on Arcadia or the Arca-
dian landscape on Crete disorient the reader and undermine Calli-
machuss original disjunctionArcadia or Crete. We might suspect that
the purpose of all this geographical legerdemain is to absorb the Cretan
geography into the Arcadian, an erudite leg-pull that demonstrates that
Zeus was born in Arcadia by constructing a narrative in which all so-
called Cretan locations are really in Arcadia. A leg-pull for which there
is some authority, since Pausanias records a local Arcadian tradition
that Zeus was reared on Mt. Lycaeon: There is a place there called
Cretea, . . . and the Arcadians claim that Crete, where the Cretan story
has it that Zeus was reared, is this place, not the island.
59
However,
Callimachus does not abandon his baby Zeus in Cretea, leaving the rest
in silence. He rather perversely goes on to include characters like the
Couretes who are apparently not collocated in Arcadia. Nor he does
conne his geographical duplicity to Arcadia and Crete: the conation
of the two Mt. Idasthat in Crete and the other in the Troadis pro-
leptic of the introduction of later gures like Adrasteia, who was origi-
nally connected with the Trojan birth story of Zeus, into the Cretan
story.
60
Within the context of theogonic discourse this geographical in-
stability serves a wider purpose than mere cleverness. It highlights the
competing nature of traditional myths and, by deliberately confusing or
conating elements from competing regional claims to locate the birth
of the god on the hometown mountain, Callimachus paradoxically cre-
ates a kind of Ur-myth. He shows us a pattern that emerges for every
mountain, which in its ubiquity and capacity for literary transpositions
Callimachean Theogonies 95
61. See the discussion in Reinsch-Werner 1976, 3236.
62. \VgygAh is normally treated as a noun, but it might as easily be an adjective here;
so West 1966, 378 ad 806.
63. Odyssey 7.24447.
64. For details of the textual problem, see West 1966, 377 ad 804. It is not relevant
to the current discussion.
elevates Zeus from a parochial into a universal deity. Moreover, this
pattern provides a template of sorts into which he can insert another set
of claims about the birth of a god.
The Arcadian portion of the story opens with a ve-line section de-
voted to describing the particularities of the birth spot, capped by an
aition, followed by an eighteen-line section on the cleansing of Rhea,
which as a consequence causes the previously subterranean rivers of
Arcadia to ow and the previously arid land to be irrigated. It begins as
follows:
10 Dn dA se ParrasAi ^ReAh tAken, rxi malista
Gsxen gro% uamnoisi periskepA% Gnuen c xpro%
Cera%, oDdA tA min kexrhmAnon EDleiuyAh%
Crpetbn oDdB gynb DpimAsgetai, dlla C ^ReAh%
dgAgion kalAoysi lexaion \Apidanpe%.
In Parrhasia, Rhea bore you, where there was a hill quite sheltered with
bushes. Afterwards the place was sacred, and no crawling thing requiring
Eileithyia nor woman draws near it; but the Apidanians call it Rheas
primeval place of giving birth.
This section shares its language and thought with two archaic
sources.
61
The rst is from Homers Odyssey:
VgygAh ti% npso%
62
dpaprouen eDn clB kePtai,
245 Gnua mBn 6tlanto% uygathr, dolaessa Kalyca,
naAei DJlakamo%, deinb uea% oDdA ti% aDtu
mAsgetai oGte uepn oGte unhtpn dnurapvn.
63
A primeval island lies far away in the salt sea; there the daughter of Atlas,
artful Calypso, dwells, the fair-haired, dire goddess. Nor yet did anyone
approach her, neither god nor mortal man.
The second source is Hesiods Theogony:
eDnaete% dB uepn dpameAretai aDBn Dantvn,
oydA pot D% boylbn DpimAsgetai oDd DpB daPta%
DnnAa pant Gtea dekati d DpimAsgetai aRti%
+eDrAa%
64
duanatvn oF \OlAmpia damat Gxoysi.
96 Callimachean Theogonies
65. Hesiod Theogony 8016.
805 toPon gr erkon Guento ueoB Stygb% gfuiton Gdvr,
dgAgion tb d Ehsi katastryfAloy dib xaroy.
65
For nine years [a god who forswears his oath] is cut off from the eternal
gods nor yet does he approach the council or the feasts, for nine full
years. But then he approachs in the tenth year . . . of the immortals who
dwell in the houses of Olympus. So serious an oath the gods make the im-
perishable waters of the Styx, primeval, which pours froma rugged place.
The elements common to these passages emphasize the remoteness and
the great antiquity of Zeuss birthplace. Neither gods nor mortals ap-
proach Calypsos island, and her very name means Hidden, while in
the Hesiodic passage divinities who have broken their oaths may not
approach Mt. Olympus for nine years. Callimachus imitates the un-
usual languageoDdA . . . (Dpi)mAsgetaibut alters the two excluded
categoriesgods and mento a more restricted pairing to which we
will return below. In the Homeric passage it is Calypsos island that is
primeval (dgygAh); in the Hesiodic, it is the waters of the Styx. To-
gether the two provide vivid images of an ancient placean island sur-
rounded by a vast expanse of water combined with waters not simply
owing, but gushing forth, both of which Callimachus exploits. In his
account, Rhea causes the rst waters to burst from the rocks of the sa-
cred hill where Zeus is born. Further, the Hesiod passage serves as a ge-
ographical marker: the Styx is often located in Arcadia, near Mt. Ly-
caeon, and in mythological terms, Styx was not only the sister of Neda,
but the most famous river in Arcadia and notable in its absence from
Callimachuss account. Since Callimachus only a few lines later makes a
considerable point about the relationship of Styx and Neda, he high-
lights not only his divergence from the Hesiodic account but also the
new prominence he has given to the hitherto obscure Neda and her role
as Zeuss nurse.
Water for Argos
The most remarkable feature of the second part of the Arcadia story is
the connection between the birth of the divinity and sudden emergence
of rivers to irrigate a previously arid land. In both language and narra-
tive Callimachus forges a causal link between water, life, and the birth
of the god. The rare form for the genitive of Zeus (Zhna%) that opens
Callimachean Theogonies 97
66. Plato Cratylus 396ac, where Socrates comments on the doubleness of Zeus, as
exemplied in the double nameZeus, Dios. See also Hopkinson 1984b, 176; Bornmann
1988, 11718; Depew 1993, 7576. Note that Scytobrachion provides an explanation
for the name that connects it with the benecence of kingship (Diodorus Siculus 3.61.6 =
F13 Rusten); see above.
67. Plato Cratylus 402b. Hopkinson 1984b, 176.
68. Hopkinson 1984a, 141. The original suggestion about \Apidanpe% was made by
F. von Jan in his dissertation, De Callimacho Homeri interprete (Strassburg, 1893), on
the basis of Eustathiuss commentary on Dionysius the Periegete ad 415. Kuiper (1896,
1011) expresses doubts.
69. 1977, 50.
70. Bornmann (1988, 121) argues that the spontaneity of nature is intended to locate
Arcadia in a primordial time before civilization.
71. 1985, 18485.
72. Pausanias 8.20.1; cf. Strabo 8.4.4, 4.33.1.
the poem exploits a folk etymology that as early as Platos Cratylus
linked Zeus as the source of life to the verb zpn, to live.
66
The mother
of Zeus is ^ReAi, whose name is connected with \ rAv, ow.
67
The two
proper names that Callimachus chooses for ArcadiazhnA% and pi-
danpe%have ancient etymologies that link them with aridity: zhnA%
with gza (dryness) and pidanpe% with d-pAnein (without drink).
68
About the former, McLennan remarks: It is . . . possible that Calli-
machus is thinking of d-Zan (without Zeus). The god has certainly
not yet been born; and Callimachus may be hinting at the gods role as
Zeus CAtio%.
69
F. Bornmann points to the spontaneous behavior of the
waters citing a passage from Herodotus that describes the Nile (2.14).
70
J. K. Newman goes even further: The birth of baby Zeus signalled
abundance of water for Arcadia. Could not the birth of Ptolemy signal
the same for Egypt?
71
All three scholars are attempting to account for
Callimachuss absorption by the peculiar hydraulics of Arcadia. Arca-
dia was notoriously a dry land, much more dependent on springs than
rivers for local irrigation. Pausanias reports about underground water
sources as well as rivers opened by earthquakes. He also notes a
Messenian tradition that Zeus was reared among the Messenians, and
his nurses were Ithome (a mountain) and Neda, the river in which he
was bathed.
72
Being born on a mountain and bathed in a spring were
commonplace mythological activities for Greek gods, but no extant
source connects Rheas parturition or Zeuss birth with the phenomena
described in this poem. In fact, the various ancient sources inevitably
cited (such as Pausanias) are striking for their divergence from Calli-
machuss story. For his Alexandrian audience, however, there was an
obvious parallel to the behavior of Arcadian watersthe spontaneous
and life-bringing moisture occasioned by the rise of the Nile in an oth-
98 Callimachean Theogonies
73. Line 1485. The words occur in a choral passage (147894) describing the passage
of cranes from Egypt to Greece, a reversal of direction from the famous simile in Homer
Iliad 3.36. Callimachus Aetia fr. 1. 1314 Pf. makes use of the same reversal of direc-
tion. (I am indebted to Benjamin Acosta-Hughes for this observation.)
74. The earliest dated example I have found is PHibeh I 85.25, a loan of 261 b.c.e.,
referring to land that has been declared as uninundated. Wilamowitz (1924, 6 n. 3), Erler
(1987, 31 n. 113), and Bing (1988, 137 n. 90) also note the signicance of this term.
erwise desiccated landscape, which coincided with the birth of the god
Horus, the divine prototype of the pharaoh. The centrality of the inun-
dation for all who resided in Egypt, whatever their ethnic origins, and
the extensive mythology and ritual that surrounded the annual event
were bound to be more familiar to residents of Alexandria than an Ar-
cadian tradition that its rivers became fully functional only at the time
of Zeuss birth, if in fact such a tradition existed at all outside of Calli-
machuss poetic imagination.
If Callimachus connects the birth of baby Zeus in a causal way to
the irrigation of hitherto dry lands, a number of other elements of Cal-
limachuss description reinforce an impression that the reader is being
relocated in an Egyptian space. Lines 1921 provide an example:
Gti d gbroxo% ren epasa
\AzhnA% mAllen dB mal eGydro% kalAesuai
aRti% DpeB thmasde, ^RAh ete lAsato mAtrhn.
As yet all Azania was uninundated, but it was to be called well-wa-
tered from the point when Rhea loosed her cincture.
Callimachus introduces gbroxo%, a word that is rare in Greek before
the Hellenistic period, though it may not be irrelevant that in Euripides
Helen the Libyan desert is styled gbroxa pedAa.
73
However, gbroxo%
appears frequently in Greco-Roman documents from the third century
b.c.e. on as a technical term.
74
The entire economy of Egypt was based
on the ooding of the Nile, which leaves a rich silt deposit that fertilizes
the land it covers. Since the height of the inundation differed from year
to year, it was of some importance that accurate records be kept in
order to estimate crop yield. Each year land could be declared to be in-
undated by the Nile (bebregmAnh gp) or uninundated (gbroxo%). If for
most Greeks gbroxo% meant unwatered in a nonspecic way, for a
Greek living in a country so dependent upon a unique ecological cir-
cumstance, gbroxo% inserts the behavior of Arcadian rivers into a stan-
dard frame of reference for the Nile. Further, the phrase itself, Gti d
gbroxo% ren epasa | \AzhnA% mAllen dB mal eGydro%, appears to have
Callimachean Theogonies 99
75. Strabo 8.6.8 cited in fr. 128 MW.
76. Eustathius on Homer Iliad 4.171, p. 461.2 cited in fr. 128 MW. See also Reinsch-
Werners remarks (1976, 3637).
77. Apollodorus 2.1.4; Pausanias 2.37.1.
78. Fr. 66 Pf. See also Hymn to Athena 48.
been modeled on a line from Hesiods now fragmentary Catalogue of
Women. Two versions of the line survive: 6rgo% gnydron Dbn DanaaB
uAsan 6rgo% Gnydron
75
and 6rgo% gnydron Dbn Danab% poAhsen eG-
ydron.
76
Whichever is the correct text, the shape of both versions and
Callimachuss phrase coincide, locating unwatered at the beginning,
transforming it to well-watered at the end, with both adjectives pred-
icated of a single place-name (Argos, Azanis). The fragment belongs to
a well-documented legend about Argos: when Hera had dried up the
rivers in anger, Danauss daughters either dug or discovered the loca-
tion of underground wells.
77
Callimachus includes the account of the
Argive fountains in the Aetia.
78
Argos is not Arcadia, but the Argive
subtext provides a reminder of the complicated interrelationship of
Egypt and Greece. Not only are Danaus and his daughters immigrants
from Egypt, but despite the dissimilar ecologies they would appear to
have been long since associated in the Greek imagination with discov-
ering or introducing irrigation.
Callimachuss selection of detail in describing the aridity of Arcadia
before Zeuss birth (1827) also seems calculated to recall the Nile:
But mighty Ladon did not yet ow, nor did Erymanthus, the clearest of
rivers; as yet all Arcadia was uninundated. . . . Indeed liquid Iaon bore
many oaks above it, Melas carried many wagons, and many poisonous
creatures had their lairs above Carneion, wet though it was, and a man
on foot might walk upon Krathis and stony Metope, thirsty, while abun-
dant water lay beneath his feet.
Compare the Victory of Sosibius, in which Callimachus introduces the
Nile as a speaker. He expresses his delight at Sosibiuss victory in this
way:
Mighty though I am, whose source no mortal man knows, in this one
thing at least I was less signicant than those rivers that the white ankles
of women cross without difculty and a child on foot without wetting his
knees (dbrAkti goAnati). (fr. 384.3134 Pf.)
The Niles speech is ironic: he categorizes lesser rivers by a trope found
frequently in Egyptian literature to describe a low Nile. The following
passage, for example, comes from the Prophecy of Neferti: Dry is
100 Callimachean Theogonies
79. Lichtheim 1973, 141. The text is from the Middle Kingdom (ca. 1990 b.c.e.), but
the theme of the dry Nile was not unusual. Compare the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant:
Is crossing the river in sandals a good crossing? No! (Lichtheim 1973, 177). See also
my discussion in Egyptian Callimachus.
80. See M. Lichtheim, Didactic Literature, in Loprieno 1996, 24362 (esp. p. 243,
where she outlines the components of Egyptian didactic, and pp. 24851 for a discussion
of the Prophecy of Neferti).
81. See Burkert 1985, 262; West 1966, 29798.
the river of Egypt | One crosses the water on foot; | One seeks water for
ships to sail on, | Its course having been turned into shoreland.
79
Within the context of Egyptian literature this kind of description
usually belongs to texts that connect the prosperity of the land with the
rule of a good king, and this order was often inverted to tell of all the
disasters that befall the land when the good ruler is absent. A central
feature of such national distress literature was the failed ood or the
drying up of the Nile, a theme that was regularly attached to the post
eventum prophecy of a kings reign.
80
Within an Egyptian context the
gods birth, like a new pharaoh, imposes order (maat) on the universe,
beginning with the natural and extending through the social order. The
trajectory of Callimachuss hymn is precisely that: to move from Zeuss
birth, signaled by the life-giving natural phenomenon of water, to his
maturity when he assumes kingship of the gods.
The description of Zeuss birth at lines 1014 (translated above) is
also described in terms that parallel Egyptian myth:
Dn dA se ParrasAi ^ReAh tAken, qxi malista
Gsxen gro% uamnoisi periskepA% Gnuen c xpro%
Cera%, oDdA tA min kexrhmAnon EDleiuyAh%
Crpetbn oDdB gynb DpimAsgetai, dlla C ^ReAh%
dgAgion kalAoysi lexaion \Apidanpe%.
Callimachuss aition emphasizes the following: (1) Rhea gives birth on
a hill or mountain (gro%); (2) the place is now sacred (c xpro% Cera%);
(3) pregnant women and crawling things (Crpetbn) may not approach;
(4) hence it is called the primeval place of giving birth. A mountain
location for birth is not unique to the mythology of Zeus, but it differs
conspiciously from the cave usually associated with the Cretan birth.
81
However, these details do coincide with Egyptian cosmogony, as set out
in the previous chapter: Egyptians conceived life as having initially ap-
peared on a mound or hill that emerged from the watery void, and the
place was associated with the birth of divinities. Horuss birth, like that
of Zeus, was claimed for many locations throughout Egypt, each of
Callimachean Theogonies 101
82. Frankfort 1978, 15154; Lloyd 1988, 143.
83. Z
abkar 1988, 4445, where the text quoted is Cofn Text VI 284r.
99. These ideas could be used of men as well. In Osorkons victory stele from the
eighth century b.c.e., Osorkon is said to be sweet-scented amongst the courtiers like the
large lotus bud which is at the nose of every god . . . as a worthy youth, sweet of love
even as Horus coming forth from Chemmis (Caminos 1958, 260).
brosia upon her breast. Thetis preserving the body of Patroclus by
pouring ambrosia into his nostrils is usually adduced as the closest
Greek parallel to Idyll 15,
95
though explanations of the relevance of this
particular heroic corpse are somewhat forced. What the Iliad passage
and Theocritus have in common is an underlying familiarity with
Egyptian rituals of embalming.
96
But where Thetis (in keeping with
Greek cultural norms) can merely preserve the body, Aphrodite revital-
izes her (4850). Aphrodite seems to enact elements of the embalming
ritual in which fragrant oils are rubbed over the body of the deceased,
often by the god of the ritualAnubiswho is portrayed as leaning
over the body and touching its breast (or the location of the heart), not
simply to preserve but to reanimate the dead.
97
L. Z
abkar, L. 1988. Hymns to Isis in Her Temple at Philae. Hanover and London.
Zanker, G. 1987. Realism in Alexandrian Poetry. London and Sydney.
. 1989. Current Trends in the Study of Hellenic Myth in Early Third-
Century Alexandrian Poetry: The Case of Theocritus. Antike und Abend-
land 35: 83103.
Select Bibliography 267
269
Aelian
fr. 285 129, 159
Aeschylus
Agamemnon
68990 28
Alexander Romance
1.117, 30 65n135
1.6.3 71
1.13 66, 143
1.2729 66
1.30.67 181
1.34 67
1.34.2 178
Ammianus Marcellinus
17.4.11 2
Antagoras of Rhodes (from CA)
1.17 8081
Antigonus of Carystus
Paradoxa
19 (23) 4n11
Antimachus (from Matthews)
fr. 162 83n28
Antipater of Thessalonica
AP 7.369 84n33
Apollodorus
1.9.26 224
2.1.4 25n17, 99n77
Apollonius of Rhodes
1.7 196
1.811 196
1.33 212n104
1.30610 212
1.496511 197200
1.507 210n95
1.554 212n104
1.580 190, 208
1.72126 215n117
1.72168 200
1.75962 211n101
1.101278 186
1.1101 203
1.111052 188
1.111752 203
1.1130 204n82
1.113239 188
1.114649 203
1.1150 204n82
1.1319 186
2.14553 186
2.66268 212
2.68789 210n94
2.7009 210
2.7058 21011
2.71419 177
2.71819 211n97
2.84450 189
2.854 225
2.9661001 186
2.101014 175
2.101525 175
2.114156 192
Index of Passages Cited
Apollonius of Rhodes (continued)
2.1209 225
3.6475 196n55
3.2009 176
3.4078 21415
3.40918 205
3.59697 215
3.117783 206
3.1182 208
3.122930 215
3.138284 205
4.12426 215
4.12930 217
4.146 217n120
4.15361 217
4.17274 215
4.185 215
4.25969 18990, 2078
4.263 110n108
4.26365 190n44
4.269 208n91
4.27275 189
4.27279 176
4.27881 223n141, 226
4.284 226
4.40618 193
4.43334 192
4.46869 193, 227
4.478 193, 227
4.594602 229
4.599603 222
4.62022 229
4.630 222, 229
4.67281 2045
4.70514 194
4.728 236n184
4.73031 193
4.98492 230
4.114647 230
4.1237 223
4.1311 207
4.1389 231
4.1408 186
4.143639 187
4.1459 187
4.151317 133n38
4.15417 194, 231
4.154749 179n20
4.160216 194
4.166566 232
4.1670 232
4.16951700 233
4.170618 233
4.1734 181n25, 192
4.175061 180
4.1753 181
4.1758 209
sch. on 3.1179 205n84
sch. on 4.156 217n122
sch. on 4.25762c 206n85,
224n142
sch. on 4.268 110n108
sch. on 4.115354 230n167
sch. on 4.164648 232n173
Aratus
Phaenomena
3033 116n121
16364 116n121
311 222n137
58188 126
sch. on 16 110n108
Aristotle
History of Animals
553a2133 2n3
623b7627b22 2n3
Arrian
Anabasis
1.12.1 458
3.1.4 245
3.3.2 69
3.5.2 245
7.11 15
Indica
5.4 35
Athenaeus
5.19697 246n28
5.197a 159
5.198b 246
5.198e 83n31
5.201d-e 246
Callimachus
Aetia (fragments from Pf. unless noted)
1.1314 98n73
2.13 87
7 236n186
37 207n88
66 99n78
88 211n97
178.23 107
254.4(8) SH 8
254 + 283 SH 175n8
254.16 (30) SH 9
259 SH + 177Pf. 199n67,
222n139
Epigrams
37Pf. = AP 13.7 10
57Pf. = AP 6.150 10, 25n17
Hymns, Zeus
13 77
270 Index of Passages Cited
2 139
48 79
67 9293, 8991
78 40n63, 113
1014 92, 95, 100102
1032 91
1314 103n90
15 207
1827 99
1921 9899
25 102
2845 102
29, 32, 33 103
34 92, 93, 204n82
41 204n82
4145 92, 93
4243 93, 103
4245 106
4654 105
47 204n82
49 106
4950 107
5491 108
5659 105, 108, 112
57 200, 210
5859 109
60 113
6162 162
65 113
66 107, 109
6878 111n110
79 109
7984 111
85 78
8588 1089, 111
9196 1489
9697 112
Apollo
104 217n120
Artemis
14251 152n89
Delos
9097 118
91101 158
12535 117
13640 117
16295 118
174 119
18182 139
2058 115, 117
26065 116
300306 118
311 119
Athena
48 99n78
Iambi
fr. 191Pf. 38, 38n56
fr.202Pf. 90n50
Fragments
228.51Pf. 182n27
384.3134Pf. 99
407, 410 Pf. 30n29
470bPf. 233n177
715 Pf. 10
655Pf. 246n30
Columella
9.2.3 107n95
Curtius Rufus, Quintus
4.8.12 181n26
9.8.22 129n25
Dio Chrysostom
4.62 2n3
Diodorus Siculus
1.7 206n85
1.7.1 199n71
1.10 199n71
1.10.23 206n85
1.10.67 2056
1.13.45 16869
1.15 230n166
1.15.67 84
1.24.5 145
1.24.7 145
1.26.6 6263
1.28.24 33
1.29 247
1.31.7 160
1.47.16 44
1.4749 32
1.53.24 35
1.53.7 143
1.53.9 35, 144
1.54.1 177
1.55.23 178n16
1.55.79 152n89
1.5657 16061
1.70.14 3334
1.71.1, 45 3334
1.72 47,
221n133
1.88.5 62
1.9192 47,
221n133
3.3.4 42
3.5255 41
3.5657 41
3.61.56 42, 97n66
3.65.7 84n32
4.40.4 40
4.4055 39
Index of Passages Cited 271
Diodorus Siculus (continued)
4.46 193n51
4.52 193n51
4.53.7 40
5.4147 37
5.80 88
6.1.12 145
6.15 37
Diogenes Laertius
1.111 88
1.115 40n63
8.8691 30
8.89 31
Dionysius the Periegete
24950 206n87
sch. on 415 97n68
EGF Thebais
fr.1 25n17
Empedocles (from D-K)
B26.10 197n61
B77.1 197n61
Epimenides (from D-K)
A1.1621 88
B1 85
B4 88
B5 88
B8 110n105
Eratosthenes (from SH)
397.ii.2 226n151
Euripides
Cretans
fr. 79 (Austin) 8990
Hecuba
46574 66n132
Helen
1485 98
Ion
2067 63n131
sch. on Medea 1334 227n158
Hecataeus of Miletus (from FGrH)
1F305 57
1F324 59n120
Herodas
1.2635 240n9
Herodorus (from FGrH)
31F52 217n122
Herodotus
1.2.-2.3 174
2.1 174
2.35 175n9
2.35.2 175, 183n32
2.39.12 23
2.41.2 25
2.42 84n32, 225n148
2.43.12 13031
2.44.5 131
2.45 27
2.5963 56
2.73 59
2.81 198n62
2.8690 47
2.86.3 154n96
2.91 23n9, 131n28,
133, 190
2.91.56 26
2.103.1104.1 177
2.106 152n89
2.11220 27
2.146 83n29, 104
2.156 23n9, 5758
2.171 25n17, 247
2.102, 106 4849
3.97 83n29
4.155 108n101
4.197 179n20
6.5355 29n25
Hesiod
Theogony
2228 85
7985 158
96 112
120 81
187 106
467506 102
47983 1023
491500 103
496 109
5015 109
50511 198
685819 109
8016 956
82080 109
88185 10910
Works and Days
21863 112
Fragments (from M-W)
128 25n17, 99
Homer
Iliad
3.36 9n73
4.497 203n80
272 Index of Passages Cited
6.28992 27n24
15.18693 109
15.15759 163
19.38 154
23.382 80
Odyssey
2.27072 151
2.27480 151
4.22730 27n24
4.35192 27n24
4.418 101
5.244 126
5.24447 95
5.27274 126
5.3056 126
7.24447 95, 233n177
15.426 111
19.37 136
23.296 223, 257
Homeric Hymns
Apollo
2 152
513 152
22 152
2325 152
33940 118
367 118n126
Demeter
165 140
189 136
219 140
24295 141
280 136
Dionysus
19 8284
Hermes
1719 112n114
Horapollo (from Sbordone)
1.62 3
Isocrates
Busiris
1718 29
1323 29n25
Evagoras
811 1478
Josephus
Bellum Judaicum
2.95 243n18
Lactantius
Divinae institutiones
1.11.4448 38
Longus
Daphnis and Chloe
2.56 81n21
Lucian
Dialogues of the Dead
10.2 118n126
True Histories
1.3.812 185n37
Lycophron
119, 576 208n91
891894 179n20
1192 199n67
120921 175n7
12911321 175n7
1312 175n8
Manetho (from Waddell)
fr. 83 46
fr. 86 138n48
Menander Rhetor
343.1720 81n21
Mimnermus (from West)
fr. 11a 222n138
Orphic Argonautica
14 81
Ovid
Metamorphoses
15.3647 4n11
Pausanias
1.6.2 129n25
2.37.1 99n77
8.20.1 97
8.32.2 93
8.38.2 94
8.53.4 93
PGM
IV 229294 198n63
IV 233334 198n63
Pherecydes of Athens (from FGrH)
3F31 217n122
3F105 196n56
Pherecydes of Syrus (from D-K)
B1B2 201
PHibeh
I 85.25 98n74
Index of Passages Cited 273
Pindar (fragments from Snell-Maehler)
Nemean 1
6869 137
7071 126n18, 137
Nemean
9, 4042 103n90
Paean
20 124n8
Pythian
1.25 102, 134
Pythian 4
1315 179
2526 231n170
33 181n25
5056 202
6065 108n101
75 186n56
79 201
fr. 129 222n139
Plato
Cratylus
396a-c 97
402b 97
Laws
656c-657b 29
700a-701b 29, 176n12
Lysis
205c-d 152n89
Phaedrus
274c575b1 176n12
Republic
424b2c6 29
Timaeus
21e-24 176n12
Plutarch
Alexander
2.6 69
3.12 69
26.37 181n26
DIO
22 222n138
57 82n27
Obsolescence of Oracles
1 88
Pelopidas
21 40n63
Poseidippus
G-P 311019 182
POxy
2064 124n4
POxy
22.2327+ 59.3965 79n 17
POxy
27.2455 4950
PTeb
1.5.20720 244
Seneca
De clementia
1.19.1 2n3
Simonides (from PMG)
343.2122:133n37
Stesichorus (from PMG)
1923 27n23
Strabo
1.4.9 15
2.3.5 38n55
4.33.1 97n72
8.4.4 97n72
17.128 10
17.800 182n27
Suetonius
De grammaticis
7 39n60
Tacitus
Historiae
4.83 142n63
Theocritus
Idyll
14.59 240n9
Idyll 15
43 247
4849 243
8793 243
9495 243n35, 247
1069 153
146 168
Idyll 17 (Ptolemy)
18 14950
1315 151
3435 153
3840 155
4850 154
5357 157
5665 127n20
5657 129, 151,
155
6063 158
6364 155
6869 162
7375 158
8084 147
274 Index of Passages Cited
8687 161
95110 160
11216 162
12125 166
123 153,
162
13222 162
13537 150
Idyll 24 (Heracliscus)
15 128
163 123
610 13233
1112 125
1133 132
1319 133
2829 134
2830 135
31 137
5657 134
5658 126
57 102
64102 123
7378 137
7981 145
7985 137
8283 141
84 126
8896 137
9699 137
100 13738,
139n54
1012 142
1034 144
10340 1234
11214 125
13840 143
fr. 3 153n94
Varro
De re rustica
2.5.5 4n11
Vergil
Georgics
4.28131 4n11
egyptian texts
Book of the Dead
Sp. 8 60n121
Sp. 15 234n178
Sp. 39 228
Sp. 84 60n121
Sp. 108 232
Sp. 125 48
Sp. 162 213, 234n178
Sp. 185 A S4 213
Book of Gates
Scene 46 230n168
Cofn Texts
I 195g 154n97
I 223f-g 154n97
VI 284r 154n98
The Eloquent Peasant 100n80
Hymns, Philae
Hymn 2 120
Hymn 4 101
Hymn 5 112n114
to Piye 120
Inscriptions
Israel Stele, 161
Mereneptah
Kubban Stele, 112n114
Ramesses II
Mendes Stele, 213n109
Ptolemy II
Naucratis Stele, 21314
Nectanebo I
Osorkons Victory 154n98, 156,
Stele 213, 216n119
Pithom stele,
Ptolemy II 236n185
Rosettana, Ptolemy V 138, 156,
176n11
Semna stele, Sesostris III 156
Prophecy of Neferti 100101
27
Index of Passages Cited 275
Abrochos (uninundated), Arcadia as,
9899
Achilles: in Encomium for Ptolemy, 157,
158, 164; shield of, 253; tomb of,
248
Achmim (Chemmis, Upper Egypt), 23n9,
56n109; Perseus worship at, 26,
133. See also Chemmis (Delta)
Adonis: Alexandrian festival of, 153,
155, 16768, 24647; Semitic, 89
Adrasteia, 94, 106
Aeetes (Argonautica), 176, 193, 205,
206, 228; ancestry of, 235; testing of
Jason, 21415
Aegyptus, sons of, 26
Aeneas: killing of Turnus, 22627; shield
of, 202
Aeschylus: Danaids in, 25; Prometheus
Bound, 213n108
Aetiology: in Argonautica, 184, 189,
190, 192, 193, 203, 235; in cultural
assimilation, 18, 72. See also Aition;
Callimachus, Aetia
Afterlife, Egyptian, 47; burial practices
and, 221. See also Underworld,
Egyptian
Aition: Apolloniuss, 235; cultural redef-
inition through, 25657; for
Eleusinian mysteries, 14142; for-
eign places in, 72; in foundation
stories, 188; of Hellenistic poets,
187
Alcmena: Egyptian afliations of, 131; in
Heracliscus, 12829, 130, 133, 135,
137, 141, 144, 156, 157
Alexander Romance, 8, 22, 6473; audi-
ence of, 6869; intent of, 7172;
Nectanebo II in, 64n133, 6568, 71;
Olympias in 64, 65, 66, 67; Philip of
Macedon in, 65, 66, 69, 143; popu-
larity of, 64n134; Sesosis in,
177n15; sources of, 64, 65; succes-
sion in, 64; theogamy in, 130; trans-
mission of, 67
Alexander the Great, 35; ancestry of, 69,
7071; Aristotle and, 31n32; in
Dionysius Scytobrachion, 42; divin-
ity of, 70, 72, 130, 152, 155, 157;
education of, 66, 143; in Encomium
for Ptolemy, 152, 156, 157, 164; in
foundation myths, 8; as Homeric
hero, 252; at Memphis, 65n135, 66,
245; paternity myths of, 8, 6566,
6871, 72, 130; restoration of tem-
ples, 13n30; and Sesosis, 178, 180;
at Siwah, 65n135, 66, 181; temples
of, 45; at tomb of Achilles, 248;
view of kingship, 1415
Alexandria: bilingual government in, 46,
241; bureaucracy of, 13, 46,
234n19; civic identity in, 243, 244,
251; cults in, 142, 244; Egyptian ar-
chitecture of, 240; ethnic diversity
of, 173, 240; festivals of, 153, 155,
16768, 24648; foundation myths
of, 8, 181; foundation of, 65, 67,
Index
277
Alexandria (continued)
72; foundation poetry of, 187n40;
geographic importance of, 239;
Greek-speaking population of, 240,
24243; harbor of, 15n43, 240n10;
Hellenism of, 243; heterogeneity of,
73, 24245, 24950; intellectual mi-
lieu of, 21; Jews of, 243n18, 244;
Library, 24951, 257; material ad-
vancement in, 240n9; Museum, 12;
site of, 18182. See also Greeks,
Alexandrian
Amasis (pharaoh), 13n30
Amazons, 185n37; in Dionysius Scyto-
brachion, 41, 175
Ambrosia, 154
Amenhotep III (pharaoh), 54
Ammianus Marcellinus, 2, 3
Ammon (Greek): in Alexander Romance,
65, 72; in Dionysius Scytobrachion,
41, 42, 175; snake manifestation of,
66n137, 71. See also Amun (Egypt-
ian); Zeus Ammon
Amun (Egyptian), 50; as divine father,
5354, 56; festival of, 45n78; temple
at Siwah, 66. See also Re
Amphitryon: Egyptian afliations of,
131; in Heracliscus, 128, 134, 135,
141, 156, 157
Amycus (Argonautica), 216n119
Anaphe (island), 209, 224, 233n177,
236, 237, 255
Animal sacrice, 27
Animal worship, 15; Manetho on, 46
Antagoras of Rhodes, Hymn to Eros, 80,
81, 82
Antigonus of Carystus, 4n11
Antimachus, 110n108, 217n122, 224
Antinoe papyrus (of Theocritus), 124n4
Antipater of Thessalonica, 84n33
Antiphanes of Berga, 38n55
Anubis (god), 154
Aphrodite: in Argonautica, 200, 201; as-
sociation with Arsinoe, 181; co-
templing with Berenice, 15354
Apiculture, Egyptian, 3n7, 107n98
Apidanians, 110n108; in Argonautica, 190
Apis (god), 4; Alexanders sacrice to,
245; as Epaphus, 89
Apollo: aretai of, 117; in Argonautica,
210, 21112, 216n119, 23335;
birth of, 17, 5758, 114; cults to,
237; defeat of Pytho, 11n23, 117,
118, 119; and Helios, 237; identi-
cation with Horus, 7, 20, 104, 114,
209, 236, 237; slaying of Tityos,
211n101; youth of, 213, 237
Apollodorus, 224
Apollonius of Rhodes: audience of, 181;
compositional technique of, 235; as
court poet, 17172; and Dionysius
Scytobrachion, 40; ktiseis of,
187n40; literary precursors of, 218;
role in Museum, 12; as royal tutor,
248n40. Works: Argonautica: ,
Aeetes in, 176, 193, 205, 206,
21415, 228; , aetiology in, 184,
189, 190, 192, 193, 203, 235; , as
anti-epic, 218; Aphrodite in, 200,
201; , Apollo in, 210, 21112,
216n119, 23335; , barbarians in,
17576, 179; , celestial references
in, 221n136; chthonic powers in,
197, 210, 218, 222, 232; , Circe
in, 19394, 204, 222, 227; , com-
position of, 62n1, 180, 198n64,
228; , cosmology in, 19799, 208,
21819; , crime and punishment
in, 201; , , cult in, 25152; ,
cultural heterogeneity in, 11-12,
19596; , cultural relativism of,
187; , Cyclopes in, 200; , dawn
in, 23435, 256; , description of
Egyptians in, 110n108; , dragons
teeth in, 205, 206, 215; , Egyptian
cosmogony in, 20910, 236; Egypt-
ian themes of, 8, 18283, 204; ,
foundation stories in, 18889, 190;
, geographic exploration in, 185,
222; , geographic markers in,
2048; , golden eece in, 185,
215, 216, 218, 222, 22526; ,
Greco-Egyptian culture in, 196208,
219; , Greek cosmogony in, 197,
198, 255; , Greek gods in,
178n18; , Heracles in, 178, 185,
18687, 195, 235; , Hera in, 229;
, Hesperides in, 18687, 194, 218;
, homonoia in, 211n97; , Hyp-
sipyle in, 186, 215n117; , , as
katabasis, 218; , kingship in,
2023; , Libyan earth in, 179,
180, 192, 194, 202, 208, 209, 223;
, magic in, 197, 205, 212, 217,
218, 222, 225; marriages in, 200,
224; , narrative strategies of, 183,
185n37, 224, 235, 257; , new
order in, 20818; , origin myths
in, 254; , Orpheus in, 19799,
201, 210; , Phrygians in, 188; ,
primeval hills in, 209; , primordial
nature in, 2046; , psychological
realism in, 185; , Ptolemaic con-
text of, 18, 171, 17383, 195; ,
278 Index
quest in, 183237; , romantic en-
counters in, 184, 191, 19293; ,
serpents in, 187, 194, 21012,
21617, 225, 231; , Sesosis in,
177, 18990, 207; , socio-political
context of, xi, 237; , sources of,
220, 223, 227; , time in, 228; ,
transculturation in, 191, 231n172;
, Triton in, 194, 207, 208; , Ty-
phon in, 216; , unity of, 171n1; ,
use of Hecataeus of Miletus in, 223;
, use of Hymn to Zeus in, 198,
204n82; , use of myth in, 185; ,
use of Pherecydes of Syrus in, 198,
199, 201; , use of Pindar in,
17880, 181, 195, 208, 223, 224; ,
use of underworld books in, 223,
225; , Zeus in, 178n18, 200. See
also Apsyrtus (Argonautica); Argo;
Argonauts; Jason (Argonautica);
Medea (Argonautica)
Apophis (serpent), 6061, 199, 210; bat-
tle with Horus, 216n119, 217; as
chaos, 225; defeat by Horus, 119;
mutilation of, 228; and voyage of
Re, 219, 232
Apotheosis, 37, 38
Apsyrtus (Argonautica): murder of,
21516, 218, 222, 22629, 230;
mutilation of, 193, 216n118, 229
Aratus, 82n27, 88n46, 110n108; constel-
lations in, 126; use of Eudoxus,
30n29
Arcadia: as birthplace of Zeus, 79, 80,
81, 84, 9196, 103, 108, 200, 257;
irrigation of, 91, 9598, 116, 164,
203; as primordial place, 81, 108,
113
Arcadians (Argonautica), 190
Architecture, Egyptian, 15. See also
Monuments, Egyptian
Ares, 118n125
Arete: of Apollo, 117; cultural values of,
150n86; Homeric, 253; in Hymn to
Zeus, 109; of Ptolemy II, 150
Argo: as constellation, 22122; solar
journey of, 221n136
Argo (Argonautica): on Lake of Fire,
229, 231; night voyage of, 229,
23334; return voyage of, 182n29,
22437; serpent imagery of, 194,
231
Argonauts: Dionysius Scytobrachion on,
40, 174n6, 175; early accounts of,
174; in Pindar, 179
Argonauts (Argonautica): ancestors of,
209; as civilizers, 187; ephebic status
of, 218; Libyan journey of, 186,
223, 231; magic skills of, 197, 205,
222, 225
Argos: aridity of, 117n124; connection
with Egypt, 89; irrigation of, 25,
96102
Ariadne, 192n50
Aristaeus, 3n5
Aristotle: advice to kings, 31; on Epi-
menides, 88; inuence of Eudoxus
on, 30n29
Arrian, 15n39, 248; on Alexanders an-
cestry, 69
Arsinoe (mother of Ptolemy I), 129
Arsinoe I (wife of Ptolemy I), 118n125
Arsinoe II (wife of Ptolemy II), 118n125,
126, 162, 168; death of, 147,
182n27; divinity of, 153n93; identi-
cation with Isis, 153n93, 155; pre-
vious marriage of, 163; temple at
Zephyrion, 181
Assmann, J., 234
Asteria (island), 11516, 11718
Athena: in Callimachus, 75; in Dionysius
Scytobrachion, 41, 207n88; identi-
cation with Neith, 51; Tritonian,
206, 207, 208
Athenaeus, 246
Athens: drama of, 249, 251; Egyptian in-
uence in, 247
Azania, 98, 99
Bakhtin, M. M., 171n2
Barbarians: in Argonautica, 17576, 179;
identity of, 183. See also Non-
Greeks
Barbarism: association with Egypt, 29;
Greek triumph over, 17475, 187
Basileia (festival), 78, 125
Basileia (goddess), 41, 42, 43
Battiads, 108n101, 179, 180
Bees: and baby Zeus, 107; on cartouches,
plates 1-2; Euhemerus on, 107n95;
in hieroglyphic writing, 13; in Pin-
dar, 108n101; royal symbolism of,
14, 1078; spontaneous creation
of, 4; as symbol of rebirth, 4, 5
Berenice I (wife of Ptolemy I), 118n125,
137; benefactions of, 167; co-
templing with Aphrodite, 15354;
cult of, 147n79; deication of,
15355, 157; in Encomium for
Ptolemy, 15253; marriage of, 155;
offerings to, 153n95
Berenice II (wife of Ptolemy III), 182n29
Berenices Lock (constellation), 228
Bes (dwarf god), 134n42
Index 279
Bevan, E. R., 13n29
Bing, Peter, 7n14, 241n11; on Hymn to
Delos, 114n117, 115; on inunda-
tion, 98n74; on Niobe myth,
118n125
Birth shrines, 5657, 156
Bn-bn (hill), 59, 60
Bnw-bird, 59, 60
Book of the Dead, 47, plate 4; Horus in,
213; mutilation in, 228; negative
confession of, 48; night voyage of Re
in, 232; solar hymns in, 60. See also
Underworld books, Egyptian
Book of Two Ways, 226n151
Botes (constellation), 126
Burkert, Walter G., 130, 246n34
Burton, A., 32n35, 62n128
Busiris, 2627; Isocrates on, 2830, 38;
murder of, 131; in vase painting, 62
Cadmus, 205, 206
Calame, C., 179n21
Callimachus: allusions of, 76; aporia of,
84; audience of, 113; on Battiads,
180n22; chronology of, 12, 7677;
court poetry of, 74, 75, 127, 170,
171; cult in, 251; cultural codes in,
254; dedicatory epigrams of, 10; dis-
placement in, 77n6; Egyptian themes
of, 8, 1045, 114, 127; on Euhe-
merus, 38; geographical markers of,
84, 9295, 204n82, 207, 208;
humor of, 7475; intertexts of, 76;
on kingship, 7576, 254; modern
readers of, 169; on night realm of
sun, 222n140; origin myths of, 254,
255; performative traditions in,
77n7, 250; political context of, 169;
predecessors of, 76; preference for
Hesiod, 163; realism of, 74; theogo-
nies of, 163; use of Eudoxus, 30n29;
use of Euhemerus, 9091, 106; use
of Hipponax, 254; use of Io myth,
89; use of Works and Days, 111.
Works: Aetia, 187; , Anaphe in,
237n186; , Argos in, 99; , chaos
in, 87; , composition of, 224n143;
, scholia on, 39n60; , use of
Hesiod, 254; Hecale, 254; Hymn to
Apollo, 169n135, 21011; Hymn to
Delos, 75, 11421; , as birthday
hymn, 115, 127; , chaos in, 164,
165, 224; , composition of, 114,
115n118, 147, 164, 198n64; ,
Egyptian motifs in, 114, 211; ,
and Encomium for Ptolemy, 147,
16465; , Hera in, 116; , and
Homeric Hymn to Apollo, 115, 116;
, and Hymn to Zeus, 116; ,
kingship in, 117, 147; , mutiny of
Gauls in, 11415, 117, 119, 139,
165, 228, 254; , Niobe myth in,
118; , prophecy of Apollo in, 116,
117, 118, 11921, 139, 144; ,
Ptolemy II in, 116, 118, 119, 121;
, serpents in, 118; , structure of,
76; , as theogony, 121; , use of
Herodotus in, 114; Hymn to Zeus,
43, 7576, 77114; , Apolloniuss
use of, 198, 204n82; , Arcadia in,
79, 81, 85, 9196, 103, 108, 200,
257; , aretai in, 109; , bees in,
107; , birth of Zeus in, 77,
79108, 113; , chronology of,
7778, 127; , concluding prayer
of, 77; , Crete in, 79, 89, 9194,
100, 103, 257; , Egyptian myth in,
1045; , and Encomium for
Ptolemy, 148; , Gaia in, 103; ,
growth to manhood in, 105, 106,
108; , and Hymn to Delos, 116;
, invocation of, 77, 87; , king-
ship in, 17, 18, 79, 92, 109, 127,
200; , omphalos in, 1034, 106;
, prosperity in, 150; , Ptolemy II
in, 78, 79, 105, 108, 11214,
14851, 204; , Rhea in, 9192,
95, 96, 97, 105, 16364; , scholia
on, 90; , self-referentiality of, 150;
, serpents in, 134; , use of
Homer in, 95; , use of Theogony
in, 76, 8587, 89, 95, 10214, 127,
146, 149, 158, 208, 252, 253; Lock
of Berenice, 9n18, 154, 228n162,
254; Victory of Sosibius, 99
Callisthenes, use of Homer, 95, 233n177,
252, 25354
Callixeinus, On Alexandria, 246n29
Calypso, island of, 96, 126, 233n177
Cameron, A., 77n7, 87n39, 250
Cassander (king of Macedon), 37
Chaos: in Adoniazusae, 167; Apophis as,
225; Callimachus on, 87; defeat by
rulers, 120, 138; in Egyptian cos-
mogony, 51, 19899, 209; in Hymn
to Delos, 164, 165, 224; Pytho as,
118; Seth as, 51, 119; struggle with
maat, 199, 255
Chemmis (Delta), 23n9, 56, 116;
Herodotus on, 5758; as place of
bees, 107. See also Achmim (Chem-
mis, Upper Egypt)
Chemmitae, 23; games of, 26; Herodotus
on, 47; Perseus worship of, 56n109
280 Index
Chephren (pharaoh), 159n114
Childric (Merovingian king), 4, 5,
110n106
Chiron (centaur), 212n103
Chremonidean War, 115
Chronos, 199
Chrysippus (doctor), 30
Cippi (apotropaic plaques), 13435, 136
Circe, in Argonautica, 19394, 204, 222,
227
Clarysse, W., 7n14, 241n14, 242n15
Clauss, J. J., 77n7, 78, 113, 127n19,
204n82
Cleanthes, Hymn to Zeus, 82
Cleitarchus, 65
Colchis: as Egyptian colony, 33, 175,
177, 204, 214, 22223, 226, 235; as
foundation of Sesostris, 176, 214;
mixed marriages in, 192; as night re-
gion of sun, 222
Colonization: civilizing process in, 195;
Greek, 191
Conception, divine, 5254, 128, 130
Concord, temple of, 178
Constellations, 228; Argo as, 221-22; in
Heracliscus, 126
Conte, G. B. 76n4
Copresence, in Ptolemaic culture, 195,
196208
Corybantes, 88, 89, 106
Cos: in Encomium for Ptolemy, 158,
159, 162; as primeval island, 116;
Ptolemy IIs birth on, 17, 97, 114,
116, 119, 127, 158, 165; relation-
ship to Delos, 165
Cosmogony, Egyptian, 11, 5859; in
Argonautica, 20910; chaos in, 51,
19899, 209; and Hymn to Zeus,
100; primeval hill in, 100101;
sunrise in, 23334, plate 6; syn-
cretism in, 51; voyage of Re in,
21822
Cosmogony, Greek, 81; Apolloniuss use
of, 197, 198, 255; of Diodorus Sicu-
lus, 199n71; and kingship, 86
Cosmology, Egyptian, 200; in Argonau-
tica, 19799, 208, 21819; chaos in,
119, 202; night voyage of the sun in,
21837; Seth in, 139
Cosmology, Greek: Empedoclean,
19798, 200; of Pherecydes,
199200, 201
Couretes, 88, 89, 90, 92, 105, 106
Court poetry, Alexandrian: audience of,
140; emerging monarchy in, 249;
Greek models for, 250; Heracliscus
as, 125, 143; humor in, 75, 170
Courts, Hellenistic: encomia in, 148n84;
poetry of, 171n1
Creation myths. See Cosmogony
Cretans, as liars, 83n28, 85, 88, 89, 92,
113
Crete, as birthplace of Zeus, 79, 80, 84,
89, 9194, 100, 103, 257
Cronus, 41, 90; in Theogony, 102
Cults: in Alexandria, 142, 244; of Apis,
245; to Apollo, 237; chthonic, 101;
of Demeter, 142n63, 247; Dionysiac,
83; of dying gods, 246n34; of Great
Mother, 107, 188, 2034; of Greek
Alexandrians, 244; of Isis, 4, 15n41,
142; at Memphis, 239; Ptolemaic,
1516, 38, 45, 152n91, 162, 247;
role in Greek identity, 25152; ruler,
38; of Sarapis, 1516, 142, 247; syn-
cretistic, 8, 247; of Theoi adelphoi,
39; of Theoi Soteres, 152n91, 162
Cultural assimilation: aetiology in, 18,
72; by Alexandrian Greeks, 78, 21;
of Herodotus, 8; by Ptolemies, 16
Culture: barbarian, 174; classical, 172;
dynamics of borrowing in, 5; folk-
loric similarities in, 11; priority in,
24, 33, 183, 241
Culture, Egyptian: fragrance in, 15455;
Hecataeuss elevation of, 36;
Herodotus on, 2728; individuals in,
52; inuence on Alexandrian writ-
ers, xi, 67; literacy in, 49; magic in,
214; solar journey in, 221
Culture, Greek: civilizing role of, 195;
liminality in, 196; literacy in, 49;
and North African culture, 194,
257; triumph over barbarism,
17475, 187
Culture heroes, 37n53, 38; establishment
of cults by, 248; Heracles as, 145;
Olympians as, 90; Uranus as, 41;
Zeus as, 42, 91
Curtius Rufus, Quintus: on Alexandria,
181n26; on Ptolemy I, 129n25
Cyrenaica: Greek control of, 182;
prophecy on, 20818
Cyrene: foundation myths in, 179n21;
Greek colonization of, 180, 181; in-
termarriage in, 191n49
Danae, myth of, 25, 26, 128; in Si-
monides, 133
Danaids: Hecataeus on, 33; irrigation of
Argos, 99; kingship legends and, 26
Danaus, myth of, 89, 25
Dat, 230; twelve hours of, 221, 231. See
also Underworld, Egyptian
Index 281
Delos: as light, 118; relationship to Cos,
165. See also Callimachus, Hymn to
Delos; Homeric Hymn to Apollo
Delphi: foundation story of, 210; as om-
phalos, 93, 104; temple of Apollo at,
63
Delphyne (serpent), 211n97, 212, 217
Demeter: cults of, 142n63, 247; in
Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 126,
14041; identication with Isis, 7
Democritus, 32, 146n76; relationship to
Euhemerus, 37n53
Demophon, 14041
Demosthenes, 251n46
Demotic language: as administrative lan-
guage, 13; documents in, 24142; in
Greco-Roman period, 221n132; lit-
erary protocols of, 68; priestly oaths
in, 48
Dendera, temples at, 57
Detienne, M., 86, 114
Diodorus Siculus, 17, 146n76; on the af-
terlife, 47; on Busiris, 62; cos-
mogony of, 199n71; on Dionysus,
84; on Epimenides, 88; epitome of
Euhemerus, 37; epitome of
Hecataeus, 32n35; foe smiting in,
6263; on Giants, 6364; on Seso-
sis, 16061; on spontaneous genera-
tion, 2056
Diogenes Laertius: on Epimenides, 88; on
Eudoxus of Cnidus, 30, 31
Diomedes, in Encomium for Ptolemy,
157, 158
Dionysius Scytobrachion, 17, 3943; on
Amazons, 175; Argonautica, 3940,
175, 224; on Athena, 41, 207n88;
Dionysus in, 39, 4142, 43, 175; on
Egyptian deities, 175; on Heracles,
14546, 175; on Jason, 174n6; on
kingship, 42; Libyan stories, 39,
4142, 175; on Medea, 40, 193n51;
rationalizing by, 39, 42, 175; reloca-
tion of divinities, 208n92; on Zeus,
97n66
Dionysus: birth of, 8283, 84; conict
with Titans, 42; as culture hero,
248; Dionysius Scytobrachion on,
39, 4142, 43; Homeric Hymn to
Dionysus,8284; identication with
Osiris, 7, 15, 84, 230, 24546; in
Ptolemaia festival, 245; Zagreus, 89
Divinity: of Alexander the Great, 70, 72,
130, 152, 155, 157; in Argonautica,
194; of Arsinoe II, 153n93; in
Egyptian thought, 50; Euhemerus
on, 167; Hecataeus of Abdera on,
16869; of Heracles, 131, 136; in
hymnic tradition, 169
Doliones (Argonautica), 186, 203
Dorians, Egyptian ancestry of, 29n25
Dougherty, C., 187n40
Douris vase, 174n6
Dragons teeth, sewing of, 205, 206, 215
Dream of Nectanebo, 68n143
Drepane (island), 230
Edfu temple, 46, 57; description of ritu-
als at, 211n98; friezes of, 56
Education: of Heracles, 123, 137,
14245, 165; of princes, 35,
14245, 165
Egypt: and archaic Greece, 21; associa-
tion with barbarism, 29; association
with tyranny, 26; capitals of, 239;
cereal crops of, 23839; in Euripi-
des, 28; foundation myths of, 45;
Greek immigration to, 8, 2023,
240, 241; Greek population of, 16,
23, 47; Greek receptions of, 3;
Greek views of, 2132; Hecataeuss
account of, 3236; Hellenization of,
8, 183; inuence on Western culture,
5; power structure of, 168n33; as
primordial mother, 2078; priority
over Greece, 24, 30, 33, 43, 183,
18990; religious festivals of, 4546;
shared culture of, 23637; sponta-
neous generation in, 2056; stability
of institutions, 176n12, 198n61; as
Two Lands, 18, 50, 55, 23841.
See also Cosmogony, Egyptian; Cos-
mology, Egyptian; Kingship,
pharaonic; Pharaohs
Egypt, Greco-Roman: administration of,
242n15; brother-sister marriage in,
168n32
Egypt, Lower: bee symbolism of, 3n7,
107; geography of, 238, 239; under
Ptolemies, 239
Egypt, Ptolemaic: ethnicity of, 242n15;
priesthood under, 1213; temples of,
16, 45, 57; underworld books in,
220
Egypt, Upper: geography of, 23839
Egyptians: bilingual, 46, 241; knowledge
of hieroglyphics, 48; religiosity of,
33
Eileithyia (goddess), 91, 101, 158
Eleusinian mysteries, 146, 166, 247;
Danaids and, 25n17; establishment
of, 14142
Embalming, Greeks familiarity with, 154
Emergence, myths of, 86, 114. See also
282 Index
Cosmogony, Egyptian; Islands,
emerging
Empedocles, 19798, 200; conception of
meigma, 205
Empereur, Yves, 15n43, 240n10
Encomia: in Hellenistic courts, 148n84;
and mythic hymns, 148n82; prose,
147, 148
Enemies, ritual burning of, 138n48
Ennead (primal forces), 110
Epic: Hellenistic, 148n84; Homeric, 171;
Roman, 171, 172; temporal frame-
work of, 17273
Epigeioi (divinized humans), 37
Epigonids: marriages of, 192; philoso-
phers advice to, 32
Epimenides of Crete, 40n63, 82, 8790,
106n92, 112; attributions to, 88n40
Eratosthenes, 15, 226n151; as royal
tutor, 248n40
Eros: as bearded child, 81, 82; birth of,
8081; as generative force, 81; in
Hesiod, 82n27
Ethnicity: of Alexandria, 173, 240,
242n15
Eudoxus of Cnidus, 23, 3031, 48n90;
chronology of, 24n14; underworld
in, 221
Euergesia, 15970
Euhemerus of Messene, 17; on bees,
107n95; Callimachuss use of,
9091; on divinity, 167; on Hera-
cles, 145; on kingship, 43; rationali-
zations of, 3639; Sacred Register,
37; on Zeus, 37, 90, 107
Euhesperides, renaming of, 182n29
Eumolpidae, 247
Euphemus, gift of clod to, 180, 192, 194,
201n74, 202, 208, 209, 223, 255,
256
Euripides: Helen, 27, 28; Iphigenia in
Tauris, 26
Europa, abduction of, 174
Eurydice (wife of Ptolemy I), 118n125,
137
Eustathius, commentary on Dionysius the
Periegete, 97n68
Festivals: Alexandrian, 153, 155,
16768, 24448; of Ammon, 45n78;
effect on public opinion, 248;
Genethlia, 125; of Opet, 225n148,
245; of Osiris, 246n34;
Panathanaea, 64; pharaonic, 4546,
215, 238; Ptolemaia, 24546; Sed,
215, 238, 246; Thesmophoria,
142n63, 247; of Zeus Basileus, 78
Fleur-de-lis, derivation of, 45
Folklore, pancultural, 11
Fontenrose, J., 11n23
Footprints, royal, 167
Fragrance, in Egyptian culture, 15455
Fraser, Peter, 38, 191n49, 243; on hymns
of Callimachus, 78
Froidefond, Christian, 21
Gaia: in Hymn to Zeus, 103; in
Theogony, 1023
Gauls, mutiny against Ptolemy II,
11415, 117, 119, 139, 165, 228,
254
Genealogy, Greco-Egyptian, 2426
Genethlia (festival), 125
Genres: encomia, 149, 172; epic,
148n84, 171, 17273; epinician,
172; performative, 248; socio-
political milieu of, 7, 10
Geographers, Hellenistic, 184n35
Giants (Greek myth), 62; Diodorus on,
6364; epithets of, 139
Gods: in Dionysius Scytobrachion,
4142, 43; dying, 89, 90, 106,
246n34; in Pherecydes, 199; prena-
tal activity of, 120; statutes of, 10
Gods, Egyptian: analogies with Eros,
82n27; in cosmic order, 52; dwarf,
134n42; identication with Greek
gods, 7, 8, 2021; Manetho on, 46;
syncretism of, 50; trinity among, 53
Gods, Greek: in Argonautica, 178n18;
Euhemerus on, 3738; identication
with Egyptian gods, 7, 8, 2021;
kinship among, 53
Golden eece: in Argonautica, 185, 215,
216, 218, 222, 22526
Goldhill, S., 172n3, 235n183, 256
Gorgon, 133
Government: Egyptian, 28, 29; Isocrates
on, 28; Socrates on, 29
Gow, A. F. S., 123, 125, 126, 135; on
Encomium for Ptolemy, 147n79,
15859; on purication, 137
Great Mother: cult of, 107, 188, 2034;
in Dionysius Scytobrachion, 41; in
Phrygia, 106. See also Rhea
Greece: city-states of, 64, 173, 243, 244;
priority over Egypt, 24, 30, 33, 43,
241
Greeks: colonization of Mediterranean,
191; in Egyptian population, 16, 23,
47; immigration to Egypt, 8, 2023,
240, 241; intermarriage with non-
Greeks, 19192, 241n14; knowledge
of Demotic, 48; knowledge of Egypt-
Index 283
Greeks (continued)
ian religion, 21; as successors to Per-
sians, 33; unions with barbarians,
174; views of Egypt, 2132
Greeks, Alexandrian: accommodation by,
16; collective identity of, 25152;
cultural assimilation by, 78, 21; fes-
tivals of, 24445; heterogeneity of,
24245; under legal system, 244
Greene, T. M., 25657
Grifths, F., 12223, 227n157
Grifths, J. Gwyn, 58, 11617; on Eu-
doxus, 31n32; on oating islands, 58
Hands, severed, 215n118
Hathor: as Io, 25; as Isis, 50, 56; as nurse
of Horus, 117
Hatshepsut (pharaoh), 5354, 71n152
Hebe, marriage to Heracles, 12627, 137
Hecataeus of Abdera, 14, 17, 90; Aegyp-
tiaca, 3236, 199n71, 205; on the af-
terlife, 47; on benefactions, 166;
Dionysus in, 84, 230n166; on divin-
ity, 16869; on Egyptian religion, 46;
gods in, 37; on Heracles, 145, 146;
on kingship, 3334, 39, 43, 14344,
146, 203; on knowledge of Egyptian,
48n90; on Osiris, 38; political debate
in, 18; purpose of, 36; relationship to
Euhemerus, 37n53; on Sesosis,
3536, 120n130, 176, 17778, 196;
Theocrituss use of, 144; underworld
in, 221; visit to Ramesseum, 44
Hecataeus of Miletus, 22, 23; Apollo-
niuss use of, 223; originary myths
of, 2426; phoenix in, 59n120
Heka (god), 214, 219, 225
Helen of Troy: in Egypt, 2728; paternity
of, 69
Heliopolis, 10n20, 59; Herodotuss
knowledge of, 44
Helios: and Apollo, 237; in Dionysius
Scytobrachion, 41; identication
with Horus, 42; as Re, 214
Hellenes, identity of, 183, 242, 244
Hellenism: of Alexandria, 243; in
Alexandrian poetry, 251
Hellenocentrism, 7
Hellenomemphites, 23, 47, 241; burial
practices of, 221n131
Hephaestus, identication with Ptah, 35,
50, 144
Hera: in Argonautica, 229; birth of, 164;
in Danaus myth, 99; in Homeric
Hymn to Apollo, 118; in Hymn to
Delos, 116; marriage to Zeus, 162,
164, 168, 169
Heracles: as ancestor of Alexander, 70; as
ancestor of Ptolemies, 102, 129,
132, 133, 152; ancestry of, 133; in
Argonautica, 178, 185, 18687,
195, 212, 235; birth date of, 125;
and Busiris, 26, 131; as civilizer, 62,
145; as culture hero, 145, 248;
death of, 141; in Dionysius Scyto-
brachion, 40, 14546, 175; divinity
of, 131, 136; Egyptian afliations
of, 62n126, 13031, 146; in Eleusin-
ian mysteries, 142; Euhemerus on,
145; and golden bowl, 131, 132,
136, 221; Hecataeus on, 145, 146;
humanity of, 141, 142; immortality
of, 141, 142, 145, 146, 166, 186;
labors of, 137, 141, 221; marriage
to Hebe, 12627, 137; as model
prince, 130, 143n68, 144, 146; as
monster-slayer, 178, 185, 186, 187,
210; Near Eastern afliations of,
130, 131; paternity of, 69, 12930,
135, 141; smiting the foe, 62,
131, 138
Hermes, 120
Hermes-Thoth, 226n151
Hermippus, 250n43
Herodotus: on birth of Apollo, 114; on
Busiris, 27; Callimachuss use of,
114; on Chemmis, 5758, 59;
chronology of, 24n14; cultural as-
similations of, 8, 21; on cultural pri-
ority, 24, 30; on Dionysus, 83n28;
on Egyptian culture, 20; on Egyptian
kings, 2728; on festivals, 46; on
Helen, 27; on Heracles, 13031; on
Horus, 59; knowledge of Egypt, 6,
4448; knowledge of monuments,
48; knowledge of priesthood, 44,
46; on the Nile, 97; on Perseus,
2526; on Persian war, 174; on
Sesostris, 34, 17677, 196; sources
of, 44n71; visit to Egypt, 21, 239n4
Hesiod: Alexandrian poets use of, 252;
Eros in, 81, 82n27; imitators of, 87;
kingship in, 255. Works: Catalogue
of Women, 25, 99; Theogony: ,
Callimachuss use of, 76, 8587, 89,
95, 10214, 127, 146, 149, 158,
208, 252, 253; , contest with Ty-
phon in, 21; , kingship in, 86; ,
Muses in, 85, 87, 88, 112; , Near
Eastern elements in, 109; , ompha-
los in, 103; , proem of, 85; ,
Theocrituss use of, 158, 159, 253;
, Typhoeus in, 10910, 111; ,
Zeus in, 86; Works and Days, 111
284 Index
Hesperides (Argonautica), 18687, 194
Hieroglyphic writing, 176n12; bees in,
13; Egyptians knowledge of, 48;
European interest in, 2; Ptolemies
use of, 13, 14
Hill, primeval, 58; in Argonautica, 209;
in Egyptian cosmogony, 100101; in
Hymn to Zeus, 91, 100; pyramids
as, 58; sunrise on, 234
Hipponax, 254
Homer: Alexandrian poets use of, 256;
Callimachuss use of, 76, 95, 252,
25354; heroic behavior in, 252;
Theocrituss use of, 163; tragedians
use of, 251; Works: Iliad, 80, 252;
Odyssey: Argonauts in, 173n5; ,
Callimachuss use of, 95, 233n177;
, marriage in, 155; , narrative
reality of, 185n37; , romantic en-
counters in, 185, 192; , supernatu-
ral light in, 136; , Theocrituss use
of, 151
Homeric Hymn to Apollo: and Hymn to
Delos, 115, 116; Pytho in, 118, 165;
Theocrituss use of, 152, 158, 164
Homeric Hymn to Demeter, 136; Eleusin-
ian mysteries in, 14142; use in Her-
acliscus, 124, 127, 14041, 146
Homeric Hymn to Dionysus, 80, 8284
Homonoia, 164, 178; in Argonautica,
211n97
Horapollo, 2, 3, 3n7, 140
Hornung, Eric: on Apophis, 217; on
maat, 5152, 120; on pleonasm, 50;
on voyage of Re, 220, 234
Horus: and the Amazons, 41; attack of
serpents on, 126n17; beauty of,
21213; birth of, 98; birthplace of,
59, 100; in Book of the Dead, 213;
on cippi, 134, 136; defeat of
Apophis, 119; defeat of serpents,
119, 126n17, 165, 211, plate 3; in
Dionysius Scytobrachion, 42, 175;
Eudoxus on, 31; festivals of, 46;
Golden, 13839; as good son, 213;
Herodotus on, 59; iconography of,
55; identication with Apollo, 7, 20,
104, 114, 209, 236, 237; identica-
tion with Helios, 42; identication
with Perseus, 26, 56n109; as morn-
ing star, 216n119; nurses of, 116; as
order, 51; pharaohs as, 53; revival
of, 13435; struggle with Seth, 55,
56; succession of, 42
Horus falcon, 159
Horus-in-Chemmis, 107; and Apollo, 58,
104, 114; birth of, 117
Horus-the-Child: birth of, 237; and birth
of Zeus, 1045; Callimachuss famil-
iarity with, 102; and Eros, 82n27; as
Harpocrates, 15; pharaohs as, 55,
104, 156, 236; Ptolemies use of,
237
Hr nbw (Golden Horus), 138
Hu (god), 219, 225
Human life, stages of, 219
Human sacrice, 27, 62, 138, 227
Humor, in court poetry, 75, 170
Hunter, Richard, 140n49, 147n82,
154n95, 161, 173n5; on new order,
209
Hymns: and encomia, 148n82; from Na-
pata, 120; of Philae, 46, 56, 101,
112n114, 120; solar, 60, 234
Hypsipyle (Argonautica), 186, 215n117
Inachus, myth of, 25n17
Insemination, divine, 26, 128
Intermarriage: with non-Greeks, 19192;
in Cyrene, 191n49; Greek and
Egyptian, 241n11
Io: identication with Isis, 25, 211n101;
myth of, 89, 25, 26, 174
Iphicles, 133
Irrigation: of Arcadia, 91, 9598, 116,
164, 200, 203; in Argonautica, 203;
of Argos, 25, 96102; introduction
of, 99
Isis: as consort of Sarapis, 15; cults of, 4,
15n41; and Delos myth, 116; Eu-
doxus on, 31; festivals of, 46; in
ooding of Nile, 101; identication
with Arsinoe II, 153n93, 155;
identication with Demeter, 7; iden-
tication with Hathor, 50, 56; iden-
tication with Io, 25, 211n101;
identication with Selene, 42; magic
of, 218; and Osiris, 56, 57, 155,
168; temples of, 45; tricking of Seth,
214
Islands: Calypsos, 96, 126, 233n177;
Circes, 204, 222, 230; emerging,
209, 219, 223, 224, 23435, 237,
255; oating, 5758, 11516,
11718; primeval, 126n17; speak-
ing, 165. See also Anaphe; Asteria;
Cos; Thera
Isocrates, 21, 22, 23, 27; advice to kings,
31; Busiris, 2830, 38; encomia of,
147, 148; Evagoras, 31n32;
Nicocles, 31n32
Jason (Argonautica), 184, 191; as civi-
lizer, 212; cloak of, 200202,
Index 285
Jason (Argonautia) (continued)
211n101, 215n117; encounter with
serpent, 21617, 225; as ephebe,
227; as Horus, 212; and Lemnian
women, 185, 186; marriage to
Medea, 192, 224, 230, 231; as
model for kingship, 212, 21415;
murder of Apsyrtus, 21516, 218,
222, 22629, 230; mutilation of Ap-
syrtus, 193, 216n118, 229; as other,
193, 216, 227; in Pindar, 179, 201,
212n104; as product of culture,
2012; sandal of, 19697, 198;
sewing of dragons teeth, 205, 206,
215; on vase painting, 174n6
Jews, Alexandrian, 243n18, 244
Jomard, Edm: Dscription de lgypte,
1, 2
Katasterism, 116n121
Kemp, Barry, 55
Keraunus (son of Ptolemy I), 163
Kingship: Alexanders view of, 1415; in
Alexandrian poetry, 11, 12, 16;
Dionysius Scytobrachion on, 42; in
Encomium for Ptolemy, 1718, 123,
129, 14445, 16061, 165; Euhe-
merus on, 43; Hecataeus on, 3334,
39, 43, 14344, 146, 203; Hellenis-
tic, 32; in Heracliscus, 17, 18, 123,
127, 129; in Hymn to Delos, 117,
147; in Hymn to Zeus, 17, 18, 79,
92, 127, 200; just, 11112;
Ptolemies view of, 15; role of god-
desses in, 214; Theocritus on, 123,
127, 200
Kingship, divine: in Alexander Romance,
67; in Alexandrian poetry, 12; Euhe-
merus on, 3839; falcon symbolism
of, 159; rituals of, 45, 57, 225n148
Kingship, Greek: conferral of benets in,
161; and cosmogony, 86; and
Danaid myth, 26; Egyptian model
for, 43; in Hesiod, 86, 255; limits of,
36; philosophers on, 3132
Kingship, pharaonic: ceremonies of, 52;
in Encomium for Ptolemy, 161; in
Euripides, 28; falcon symbolism of,
159; festivals of, 4546; Greek as-
similation of, 64; Hecataeus on,
3334, 39; iconography of, 51; ide-
ology of, 9, 36, 4964, 109, 113;
Jason as type of, 21415; legitimacy
in, 17, 5455, 15556; as model for
Greeks, 43; priesthoods promotion
of, 35; prophecies concerning, 35;
prosperity under, 100, 161; relation-
ship to cosmos, 51; renewal festivals
of, 215, 238, 246; succession in,
129; sunrise in, 256; symbolism of,
1, 2; theocracy in, 12. See also
Pharaohs
Kingship, Ptolemaic, xi; continuity with
past, 68; in Encomium for Ptolemy,
16061; ideological construction of,
9; legitimacy of, 11; prosperity
under, 159; Theocritus on, 123, 127,
14445, 166
Koenen, Ludwig, xi, 7n14, 139n55,
239n6; on Heracliscus, 102, 125,
138, 142; on Hymn to Delos,
114n117
Lactantius, 37
Lamentations of Isis, 56
Lemnian women, 185, 186, 192
Leto: in Herodotus, 114, 117; in Hymn
to Delos, 115; identication with
Wedjoyet, 117
Letter to Aristeas, 250
Libya: Argonauts in, 186, 223, 231; clod
of earth from, 180, 192, 194, 202,
208, 209, 223; connection with
Colchis, 175n8; as enemy of Egypt,
182n28; Greek idea of, 18182; in
Pindar, 17980
Light, supernatural, 136, 141
Literature, Egyptian: satirical elements in,
67
Literature, Greek: discourse on Egypt in,
21; satire in, 68. See also Genres
Lloyd, A. B., 22n4, 58n116
Louis XII (king of France), bee symbol-
ism of, 34, 5
Maat, 5152; in defeat of Apophis, 60;
maintenance of, 53; pharaohs main-
tenance of, 61, 100, 138, 166; strug-
gle with chaos, 199, 255
Magas (brother of Ptolemy II), 180n22,
182
Magic: barbarian, 174; in Egyptian
thought, 214; Medeas, 197, 217,
218, 225; of Thetis, 212n103
Mammisi (temples). See Birth shrines
Manetho (priest), 14, 46; Greek audience
of, 50n96; on human sacrice, 138;
inclusion in Library, 250n43
Marriage: in Argonautica, 200; brother-
sister, 16, 155, 168, 169, 170, 242;
erotic reciprocity in, 155; between
Greeks and non-Greeks, 19192,
241n99
Maschalismos, ritual of, 227
286 Index
Medea: Dionysius Scytobrachion on, 40,
193n51; murder of Apsyrtus, 227; in
Pindar, 179
Medea (Argonautica), 184, 191; ancestry
of, 235; as barbarian, 19394; de-
feat of Talos, 232; magic of, 197,
217, 218, 225, 228; marriage to
Jason, 192, 224, 230, 231; prophecy
of, 181
Medinet Habu, 63
Meigma, 205
Meliae, Dictaean, 106
Melissae (bee maidens), 107
Melqart (god), 131
Memphis: Alexander the Great at,
65n135, 66, 245; Apis cults of, 245;
as center of cult, 239; Ptolemy I at,
13, 240, 245
Memphite Theology, 51n99
Mendes, ram cult of, 153n93
Mendes stele, 1516, 213n109
Menelaus, 27, 28
Mercenaries, 251
Merkelbach, R., 7n14, 48n88, 70n149
Merneptah, Israel stele of, 161
Metaneira, 136, 140, 141
Metternich Stelae, plate 3
Milesian tales, 71
Mineur, W. H., 114n117, 115
Minos, 38; tomb of, 90
Minotaur, 119
Monarchs, French: use of bee symbolism,
34, 5
Monuments, Egyptian: Greek visitors to,
4445; hieroglyphics on, 48; maat
and, 166n129; of the Ptolemies, 16,
45, 57, 240n10, 243
Moreau, A., 173n5, 196n57, 197
Mossynoeci (Argonautica), 175
Mt. Ida (Crete), 9293, 94
Mt. Lycaeon (Arcadia), 93, 94
Mummication, Herodotus on, 47
Murray, O., 36, 143, 145n76, 160n119
Muses: knowledge of truth, 86; in
Theogony, 85, 87, 88, 112
Museum, Alexandrian, 12
Mutilation, ritual, 22829
Myths: foundation, 8, 45, 179n21; quest,
173; reception of, 58, 59; Theocri-
tuss handling of, 122
Myths, Egyptian: belief systems in, 49;
foundation, 45; Greeks use of, 43,
50; serpents in, 13435, 210; succes-
sion in, 64. See also Cosmogony,
Egyptian
Myths, Greek: assimilation of Apis into,
89; of emergence, 86, 114; origi-
nary, 2426, 209; resemblance to
Egyptian myths, 7; variants in,
4950. See also Aition; Cosmogony,
Greek
Napoleon, royal insignia of, 1, 23, 4, 5
Narmer Palette, 61
Natural philosophy, Greek, 46
Naucratis, Egyptian trade at, 21
Naucratis stele, of Nectanebo I, 213, 214
Nectanebo (general), 14
Nectanebo I (pharaoh), 13n30; Naucratis
stele of, 213, 214
Nectanebo II (pharaoh): in Alexander
Romance, 64n133, 6568, 71; and
Eudoxus, 30; exile of, 68; as falcon-
god, 65, 66n136; as father of
Alexander, 8, 14n34; as magician,
66, 71
Neda (nymph), 92, 93, 96, 103
Neikos, and philia, 197, 200, 202, 205,
209, 219, 255
Neith (goddess), 214; identication with
Athena, 51; temple of, 107n98
New Kingdom: capitals of, 239; religious
texts of, 220
Nigidius Figulus, 215n115
Nile: Herodotus on, 97; inundation of,
25, 9798, 100, 116, 117, 159
Niobe, children of, 117, 118
Non-Greeks: cognitive response to, 184;
Greek encounters with, 183237; in-
termarriage with Greeks, 19192;
sacrice of, 62, 227. See also Barbar-
ians
North Africa, Greek colonization of,
182, 202, 223
Nysa, as birthplace of Dionysus, 83, 84
Obsomer, C., 48n90
Oedipus, 4950; and sphinxs riddle,
219n126
Ogdoad (cosmic deities), 56
Old Kingdom, Pyramid Texts of, 55, 220
Olympias, in Alexander Romance, 64,
65, 66, 67
Omphaloi, geographic, 9394; in Hymn
to Zeus, 1034, 106; in Theogony,
103
Opet, festival of, 225n148, 245
Ophion, 199; Callimachus on, 199n67
Ophioneus, 110n104, 199, 201
Orestes, 227
Orion (constellation), 126
Orpheus (Argonautica), 19799, 201,
210
Orphic theology, 81, 106
Index 287
Osiris: boat of, 222; as dying god, 89;
Eudoxus on, 31; festivals of, 46,
246n34; as god of regeneration,
213n105; identication of Dionysus
with, 7, 15, 84, 230, 24546; and
Isis, 56, 57, 168; judgment before,
48; as Lord of the Dead, 230; as
model of kingship, 33, 34; murder
of, 42; mutilation of, 229n164; sac-
rices to, 62; struggle with Seth, 63;
tombs of, 113; union of sun with,
230
Osorkon, 156; victory stele of, 154n99,
213, 216n119
Ouranids, defeat of, 10910
Ouranioi (primal gods), 37, 54, 169
Panathenaea (festival), 64
Panchaea (imaginary island), 37, 107n95
Papremis, mysteries at, 56
Paul, Epistle to Titus, 83n28
Pausanius, 93, 94, 97; on Ptolemy I,
129n25; on Rheas cave, 101n85
Pelagus (king), 26
Perseus, 25; ancestor of Alexander, 70;
conception of, 128; identication
with Horus, 26, 56n109; as precur-
sor of Heracles, 133; in Simonides,
133, 135; veneration in Achmim, 26,
133
Persians: in Alexanders army, 15n39;
Greeks as successors to, 33; restora-
tion of temples by, 13n30; war with,
174
Pharaohs: accountability of, 33, 34; as
antipalon huperteros, 13839; birth
stories of, 5354, 5657, 67, 130,
141; as bringers of order, 61, 62,
12021, 138; divine conception of,
5254, 70; as divine intermediaries,
5253; falcon symbolism of, 159;
footprint of, 167; as Horus-the-
Child, 55, 104, 156; iconography of,
6162; likeness to divine father,
15556; maintenance of maat, 61,
100, 138, 166; monuments of, 166;
renewal festivals of, 215, 238, 246;
as son of Re, 176; tomb building by,
141; as uniers, 238. See also King-
ship, pharaonic
Pharos (island), 181
Pherecydes of Athens, 205
Pherecydes of Syrus, 40n63, 81, 82;
Apolloniuss use of, 198, 199;
Chronos in, 199n69; theogony of,
110n104, 199200, 201
Philae: Greek inscriptions at, 44; Greek
visitors to, 45; hymns of, 46, 56,
101, 112n114, 120
Philia, and neikos, 197, 200, 202, 205,
209, 219, 255
Philip of Macedon, in Alexander Ro-
mance, 65, 66, 69, 130, 143
Philitas, 230n167, 248n40
Philosophers, court, 3132
Phoenix, myth of, 5960
Pietch, C., 171n1, 178n18
Pindar: Alexandrian poets use of, 252;
Apolloniuss use of, 17880, 181,
195, 208, 223, 224; bees in,
108n101; Callimachuss use of, 115;
encomia of, 74; on infant Heracles,
124, 132, 140; Jason in, 179, 201,
212n104; Libya in, 17980; on mar-
riage of Heracles, 126n18; Medea
in, 179; Theocrituss use of, 124; on
Typhoeus, 102, 134
Pithom stele, 14, 236n185
Plato: advice to kings, 31; construction of
Egypt, 21, 22, 23, 176n12; on cul-
tural priority, 24, 33n38; on Egypt
government, 28, 29; on Eros, 81; idea
of justice, 52; inuence of Eudoxus
on, 24n14, 30n29, 31; philosopher-
kings of, 29; on Zeus, 97
Pleonasm, in Egyptian myth, 50
Plutarch: on Alexandria, 181n26; on
Eros, 82n27; On Isis and Osiris,
5556; Life of Alexander, 69, 70;
The Obsolescence of Oracles, 88; on
Osiris, 222; use of Eudoxus, 31
Poetry, Alexandrian: cross-cultural read-
ings in, 912; kingship in, 11, 12,
17; modern reception of, 56; past
and present in, 252, 256, 257; per-
formative traditions of, 250; socio-
political aspects of, 19
Poetry, Hellenistic: aition in, 88, 187; en-
comia, 148n84; at symposia, 77n7
Poets, Alexandrian: access to Egyptian
ideas, 10n19; audience of, 140; de-
piction of Hellenic world, 251; dis-
cursive matrices of, 9; establishment
of cultural norms, 252; humor of,
170; as image makers, 12, 123, 140,
170, 249; knowledge of Egypt, 20;
realism of, 10n20, 256n56; referen-
tiality of, 76n4; use of Homer, 256
Polydeuces (Argonautica), 216n119
Poseidippus, 18182
Poseidon, 16263; anger at Inachos,
117n124
Postcolonial discourse, 18. See also Cop-
resence
288 Index
Pratt, M. L., 184, 191, 195
Priesthood, Egyptian: Eudoxos on,
3031; Herodotuss knowledge of,
44, 46; knowledge of Greek,
69n145; promotion of kingship, 35;
under Ptolemies, 1213; Saite, 31
Priority, cultural, 24, 33, 183, 241
Prophecy of Neferti, 99100
Prosperity: under just rulers, 11112;
under pharaohs, 100, 161
Proteus, 27, 28, 1012, 181
Psammetichus I (pharaoh), 23
Ptah, identication with Hephaestus, 35,
50, 144
Ptolemaia (festival), 24546
Ptolemais (daughter of Ptolemy), 14n34
Ptolemies: accommodation to Egyptian
forms, 1314, 240, 242; assimilation
of Egyptian culture, 16; brother-
sister marriages of, 170, 242; build-
ing programs of, 16; burial practices
of, 154n95; creativity under, 252;
cults of, 1516, 38, 45, 152n91,
162, 247; deployment of past, 251;
divine ancestry of, 129, 132, 133,
152; dual role of, 16; eagle symbol-
ism of, 129, 15859; Egyptians
under, 244; ethnic identity under,
242n15; ctive past for, 173, 182,
257; heterogeneity under, 73,
24245, 24950; Homeric values
under, 253; identication with
Horus, 58, 104, 139n53, 237; legal
system of, 24344; literary patron-
age by, 249; Lower Egypt under,
239; meritocracy under, 243; patron-
age by, 123, 249; religious cere-
monies of, 45; restoration of tem-
ples, 13; royal titles of, 138, 140,
238n1; temple building by, 16, 45,
57, 243; tutors of, 248n40; use of
foundation stories, 188; use of hi-
eroglyphs, 13, 14
Ptolemy I Soter: administrative structure
of, 12, 13, 14; benefactions of, 167;
cartouche of, plate 1; cult of Sarapis
under, 15; cult of Theoi Soteres,
152n91; divine protection for, 129,
158; Egyptian troops of, 240n7; in
Encomium for Ptolemy, 151, 152,
156, 157, 164; history of Alexander,
248; immortality of, 156, 157, 170;
kingship under, 75; in Memphis, 13,
240, 245; paternity of, 129n25; view
of kingship, 15
Ptolemy II Philadelphus: arete of, 150;
birth on Cos, 17, 97, 114, 116, 119,
127, 158, 165; coregency of, 77, 78,
102, 125, 127; in Encomium for
Ptolemy, 15763; expansionist poli-
cies of, 162; festivals of, 245; Hor-
nub title of, 13840; in Hymn to
Zeus, 78, 79, 105, 108, 11114,
14851, 204; immortality of, 114,
157, 167; kingship under, 75; legiti-
macy of, 156; marriage to Arsinoe,
126, 147, 162, 163, 168; on Mendes
stele, 213n109; military success of,
15758; mutiny of Gauls against,
11415, 117, 119, 139, 165, 228,
254; parents of, 151, 155; pharaonic
ideology of, 14; Sarapis cult under,
1516; succession to throne, 109,
163; Theoi Soteres cult of, 162; use
of Horus title, 236n185; wealth of,
159, 161
Ptolemy III Euergetes: cult of Theoi
adelphoi, 45; throne names of, 155
Ptolemy IV Philopator, 140, 15556
Ptolemy V Epiphanes, 14n33, 156; car-
touche of, plate 2
Pyramids: Herodotuss visit to, 44; as
primeval hills, 59
Pyramid Texts, 55, 220
Pyrrhiche (dance), 203
Pytheas of Marseilles, 38n55, 184n35
Pytho: Apollos defeat of, 117, 118, 119;
as chaos, 118, 165; as Typhoeus,
118n125
Ramesses II, 34; Horus falcon of,
159n114
Ramesses III, funerary temple of,
215n118
Ramesseum, 63; Hecateuss visit to, 44
Raphia, battle of, 239n5, 240n7
Re: and Ammon, 50; and Apophis, 219;
birth of, 234; cattle of, 131; celestial
boat of, 60, plate 5; Helios as, 214;
hieroglyphs of, 59; night voyage of,
131, 21837. See also Amun (Egypt-
ian)
Red hair, in Egyptian myth, 62
Religion, Egyptian: cosmos in, 5152;
and Greek natural philosophy, 46;
Greeks familiarity with, 21. See also
Cosmology, Egyptian
Rhacotis (Alexandria), 13
Rhea: cave of, 101n85; in Dionysius Scy-
tobrachion, 41, 43; in Encomium
for Ptolemy, 162, 163; in Hymn to
Zeus, 75, 9192, 95, 96, 97, 103,
105, 16364; in Theogony, 102. See
also Great Mother
Index 289
Rhuephenie (owing wealth), 111
Ritner, R., 138n48, 214, 229n164
Romance, in travel literature, 18485
Rosetta stone, 14n33
Rusten, Jeffrey S., 39; on Argonauts,
40n63; on Dionysius Scytobrachion,
42
Sais (Egypt), 24
Sanctuaries, birth in, 100, 101
Sarapis: cult of, 1516, 142, 247; tem-
ples of, 45
Satire, in Greek literature, 68
Satrap decree (311 b.c.e.), 13, 144n70
Sed (festival), 215, 238, 246
Selden, D., 9n18; on Arsinoe II, 153n93;
on Callimachus, 77n6; on constella-
tions, 126n17; on Horus, 139n53
Semele, 82, 83
Septuagint, in Library, 250n43
Serpents: in Argonautica, 187, 194,
21012, 21617, 225, 231;
Colchian, 21617; in Egyptian
myth, 13435; Heracles throttling
of, 123, 127, 13242, 165, 210,
211n100; Horuss defeat of, 119,
126n17, 165, 211; in Hymn to
Delos, 118; in Hymn to Zeus, 134;
and Seth, 102, 134, 138, 210; as
symbols of regeneration, 220; as
time, 220. See also Apophis; Pytho
Sesosis, 3436; and Alexander, 178,
180; in Argonautica, 177, 18990,
207; city-founding by, 190, 207,
214, 226; education of, 143, 144;
generosity of, 177; Hecataeus on,
3536, 120n130, 176, 17778, 196;
Herodotus on, 34, 17677, 196; as
model of kingship, 16061; prophe-
cies concerning, 144; Syrian stele of,
48; veteran settlements of, 235. See
also Sesostris III (pharaoh)
Sesostris III (pharaoh), 156; Semna stele
of, 4849
Seth: and Apollo, 11n23; association
with Typhon, 62, 104, 138, 210; as
bull, 228; as chaos, 51, 119; foreleg
of, 228; identication with Ty-
phoeus, 110; Isiss tricking of, 214;
murder of Osiris, 42; and night voy-
age of Re, 22829; ritual mutilation
of, 22829; serpents of, 102, 134,
138, 210; struggle with Horus, 55,
56; titles of, 139
Sia (god), 219, 225
Simias of Rhodes, 81
Simonides, 79; on Perseus, 133, 135
Skeptics, 32
Smiting the foe, 61, 13940; in
Diodorus, 6263; by Heracles, 131,
138; iconography of, 63
Snakebite, 134, 135
Solar hymns, 60, 234
Soldiers, Greek, 47; in Alexandria, 251
Sophocles, 232n173; Colchian Women,
174n6
Sphinx, riddle of, 219n126
Spontaneous generation, 2056
Statues, Egyptian, 23. See also Monu-
ments, Egyptian
Stelae: inscriptions on, 48; Mendes,
1516, 213n109; of Merneptah,
161; Metternich, plate 3; of
Nectanebo I, 213, 214; of Osorkon,
154n99, 213, 216n119; Pithom, 14,
236n185; of Sesosis, 48; of
Sesostris III, 4849
Stesichorus, Geryoneis, 131
Strabo: on Euhemerus, 38n55; on He-
liopolis, 10n20
Styx (river), 96
Sun god. See Ammon-Re; Re
Syncretism: in cults, 8, 247; in Egyptian
cosmogony, 51
Tacitus, 142
Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, 100n79
Talos (bronze giant), 217n123, 223,
224n144; as chthonic creature, 232;
destruction of, 225; in Sophocles,
232n173
Tegeates (Arcadians), 93
Teiresias, in Heracliscus, 123, 127, 137,
139n54, 144, 165
Temples, Egyptian: Greek visitors to,
4445; Ptolemaic, 16, 45, 57, 243,
247n38; restoration of, 13; revenue
for, 36n47; rituals of, 4546; wealth
of, 246
Thebes (Egypt): aition of, 189n43, 190;
epithets of, 2067, 208
Thebes (Greece): as birth place of Diony-
sus, 83; building of, 200; epithets of,
2067, 208
Thenae (Arcadia and Crete), 93, 103
Theocracy, pharaonic, 12, 52; ideology
of, 17
Theocritus: court poetry of, 122, 125, 127,
170, 171, 255; Egyptian themes of, 8,
127, 255; as encomiast, 257; handling
of myth, 122; heroic gures of, 255;
intertextual elements of, 135, 169;
kissybion of, 128, 253; Ptolemaic
kingship in, 123, 127, 166; royal ben-
290 Index
ecium for, 162; settings of, 122;
socio-political context of, xi, 16970,
255. Works: Adoniazusae, 16768;
Encomium for Ptolemy, 14770, 255;
, Achilles in, 157, 158, 164; ,
Alexander in, 152, 156, 157, 164; ,
Berenice I in, 15253; , composi-
tion of, 123, 147, 164; , Cos in,
158, 159, 162; , Diomedes in, 157,
158; , form of, 147; , Homeric
language of, 151; , and Hymn to
Delos, 147, 16465; , and Hymn to
Zeus, 148; , kingship in, 1718,
123, 129, 14445, 16061, 165; ,
marriage of Zeus and Hera in, 162,
16869; , mythic elements in, 150;
, political debate in, 18, 165; ,
Ptolemy I in, 151, 152, 156, 157,
164; , Ptolemy II in, 15763; ,
Rhea in, 162, 163; , ruler cult in,
166; , use of Hecataeus in, 144; ,
use of Homeric Hymn to Apollo in,
152, 158, 164; , use of Homer in,
163; , use of Theogony in, 158,
159, 253; , Zeus in, 14851; Hera-
cliscus, 122, 12346, 257; , Al-
cmena in, 12829, 130, 133, 135,
137, 141, 144, 156, 157; , Amphit-
ryon in, 128, 134, 135, 141, 156,
157; , composition of, 123,
12527; , constellations in, 126; ,
as court poetry, 125, 143; , domes-
tic elements in, 128; , education of
Heracles in, 123, 137, 14245, 165;
, and Encomium for Ptolemy, 165;
, ending of, 124; , kingship in,
17, 18, 123, 127, 129; , perfor-
mance of, 12425; , Ptolemy II in,
12332; , purication in, 137; ,
supernatural light in, 136; , Teire-
siass prophecy in, 123, 127, 137,
139n54, 144, 145, 165; , throttling
of snakes in, 102, 123, 127, 13242,
165; , use of Homeric Hymn to
Demeter in, 124, 127, 140, 146; ,
use of Pindar in, 124, 132, 140; Idyll
15, 243, 24647, 255; Idyll 17,
7879
Theogamy, Egyptian, 5657, 130
Theogeniture, 168n33
Theogony, Greek: of Epimenides, 8889;
of Euhemerus, 37; and kingship, 86;
Orphic, 82
Theoi adelphoi cult, 39; introduction of,
45
Theoi Soteres cult, 152n91, 162
Thera (island), 209-10, 223, 255
Theseus, 119; and Ariadne, 192n50
Thesmophoria (festival), 142n63, 247
Thetis, 154; magic of, 212n103
Thompson, Dorothy, 7n14, 13n28,
24142, 244
Thonis (priest), 27, 28
Timaeus, 230n167
Timbarini (Argonautica), 175
Timotheus, 47n86, 142
Titans: defeat of, 10910, 119; in Diony-
sius Scytobrachion, 41
Tityos, Apollos slaying of, 211n101
Travel writing, 18485
Triton, in Argonautica, 194, 207, 208
Triton (river), 208
Trojan War, 2728, 182
Truth-telling, and lying, 8586, 11314
Typhaon: in Homeric Hymn to Apollo,
118; Zeuss defeat of, 216. See also
Typhoeus; Typhon
Typhoeus: identication with Seth, 110;
Pindar on, 102, 134; Pytho as,
118n125; Zeuss defeat of, 10910,
111
Typhon: association with Seth, 62, 104,
138, 210, 216; epithets of, 139; in
Hesiod, 11n23
Typhonians, burning of, 139n55
Tyranny, association of Egypt with, 26,
29
Underworld, Egyptian, 18; Greek knowl-
edge of, 221; Lake of Fire in, 229,
231; maps of, 226
Underworld books, Egyptian, 216, 217;
Apolloniuss use of, 223, 225; voy-
age of Re in, 220. See also Book of
the Dead
Uranus: castration of, 106; in Dionysius
Scytobrachion, 41
Urban VIII (pope), use of bee symbolism,
3
Ursa Major (constellation), 126, 228
Vase painting: Busiris in, 27; Eros in, 81;
Heracles on, 62, 131, 132; Jason on,
174n6
Vasunia, P., 21, 26n20
Vergil: bee symbolism of, 3n5, 4; on
Carthage, 182; epic form of, 171,
172; romantic encounters in, 185,
191
Wennefer (scribe), 14
West, M. L., 37, 111n113, 130; on Cre-
tan Zeus, 89; on Epimenides, 88n40;
on solar journey, 221
Index 291
Wisdom literature, Egyptian, 31n32
Witchcraft, in Thessaly, 197
Zephyrion, temple of Arsinoe at, 181
Zeus: accession to throne, 113, 163; in
Argonautica, 178n18, 200; birth-
place of, 79, 80, 81, 84, 9196,
103, 108; contest with Typhon (Ty-
phoeus), 21, 110; as culture hero,
91, 248; defeat of Titans, 10910;
in Dionysius Scytobrachion, 42,
97n66; as dying god, 90, 91, 106;
eagle of, 15859; in Encomium for
Ptolemy, 14851; essena, 107, 108;
Euhemerus on, 37, 90, 107; folk et-
ymology of, 97; growth to man-
hood, 105, 106, 108; and Horus-
the-Child, 1045; humanity of,
105; Idaean, 89; immortality of, 90;
kingship of, 17, 18, 79, 92, 110,
111, 127, 200, 213; in Lycophron,
199n67; marriage to Hera, 162,
164, 168, 169; Near Eastern ana-
logues of, 105, 107; and
Ophioneus, 110n104; in Pherecy-
des, 199; progeny of, 168; as
Ptolemy II, 105; in Theogony, 86;
tomb of, 89, 90, 91, 112; universal-
ity of, 95; as vegetation spirit, 91,
106. See also Callimachus, Hymn to
Zeus
Zeus Ammon, 84, 181; as father of
Alexander the Great, 130
Zeus Basileus, festival of, 78
292 Index
I. Alexander to Actium: The Historical Evolution of the Hel-
lenistic Age, by Peter Green
II. Hellenism in the East: The Interaction of Greek and Non-
Greek Civilizations from Syria to Central Asia after
Alexander, edited by Am{ea}lie Kuhrt and Susan Sherwin-
White
III. The Question of Eclecticism: Studies in Later Greek
Philosophy, edited by J. M. Dillon and A. A. Long
IV. Antigonos the One-Eyed and the Creation of the Hellenis-
tic State, by Richard A. Billows
V. A History of Macedonia, by R. Malcolm Errington, trans-
lated by Catherine Errington
VI. Attic Letter-Cutters of 229 to 86 b.c., by Stephen V. Tracy
VII. The Vanished Library: A Wonder of the Ancient World, by
Luciano Canfora
VIII. Hellenistic Philosophy of Mind, by Julia Annas
IX. Hellenistic History and Culture, edited by Peter Green
X. The Best of the Argonauts: The Redenition of the Epic
Hero in Book One of Apollonius Argonautica, by James J.
Clauss
XI. Faces of Power: Alexanders Image and Hellenistic Politics,
by Andrew Stewart
XII. Images and Ideologies: Self-denition in the Hellenistic
World, edited by A. W. Bulloch, E. S. Gruen, A. A. Long,
and A. Stewart
XIII. From Samarkhand to Sardis: A New Approach to the Se-
leucid Empire, by Susan Sherwin-White and Amlie
Kuhrt
XIV. Regionalism and Change in the Economy of Independent
Delos, 314-167 b.c., by Gary Reger
XV. Hegemony to Empire: The Development of the Roman Im-
perium in the East from 148 to 62 b.c., by Robert Kallet-
Marx
XVI. Moral Vision in The Histories of Polybius, by Arthur M.
Eckstein
XVII. The Hellenistic Settlements in Europe, the Islands, and
Asia Minor, by Getzel M. Cohen
XVIII. Interstate Arbitrations in the Greek World, 33790 b.c.,
by Sheila L. Ager
HELLENISTIC CULTURE AND SOCIETY
General Editors: Anthony W. Bulloch, Erich S. Gruen, A. A. Long, and
Andrew F. Stewart
XIX. Theocrituss Urban Mimes: Mobility, Gender, and Patron-
age, by Joan B. Burton
XX. Athenian Democracy in Transition: Attic Letter-Cutters of
340 to 290 b.c., by Stephen V. Tracy
XXI. Pseudo-Hecataeus, On the Jews: Legitimizing the Jewish
Diaspora, by Bezalel Bar-Kochva
XXII. Asylia: Territorial Inviolability in the Hellenistic World,
by Kent J. Rigsby
XXIII. The Cynics: The Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its
Legacy, edited by R. Bracht Branham and Marie-Odile
Goulet-Caz
XXIV. The Politics of Plunder: Aitolians and Their Koinon in the
Early Hellenistic Era, 279217 b.c., by Joseph B. Scholten
XXV. The Argonautika, by Apollonios Rhodios, translated, with
introduction, commentary, and glossary, by Peter Green
XXVI. Hellenistic Constructs: Essays in Culture, History, and
Historiography, edited by Paul Cartledge, Peter Garnsey,
and Erich Gruen
XXVII. Josephuss Interpretation of the Bible, by Louis H. Feld-
man
XXVIII. Poetic Garlands: Hellenistic Epigrams in Context, by
Kathryn J. Gutzwiller
XXIX. Religion in Hellenistic Athens, by Jon D. Mikalson
XXX. Heritage and Hellenism: The Reinvention of Jewish Tradi-
tion, by Erich S. Gruen
XXXI. The Beginnings of Jewishness, by Shaye D. Cohen
XXXII. Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria, by
Frank L. Holt
XXXIII. Jews in the Mediterranean Diaspora from Alexander to
Trajan (323 bce117 ce), by John M. G. Barclay
XXXIV. From Pergamon to Sperlonga: Sculpture and Context, ed-
ited by Nancy T. de Grummond and Brunilde Sismondo
Ridgway
XXXV. Polyeideia: The Iambi of Callimachus and the Archaic
Iambic Tradition, by Benjamin Acosta-Hughes
XXXVI. Stoic Studies, by A. A. Long
XXXVII. Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexan-
dria, by Susan A. Stephens
XXXVIII. Encomium of Ptolemy Philadelphus, by Theocritus, trans-
lated with an introduction and commentary by Richard
Hunter
XXXIX. The Making of Fornication: Eros, Ethics, and Political Re-
form in Greek Philosophy and Early Christianity, by
Kathy L. Gaca
XL. Cultural Politics in Polybius Histories, by Craige Cham-
pion
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