Egyptian things
translating Egypt to early imperial Rome
- ISBN: 9780520402188
- Editorial: University of California Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2024
- Lugar de la edición: Berkeley (CA). Estados Unidos de Norteamérica
- Encuadernación: Rústica
- Medidas: 24 cm
- Nº Pág.: 260
- Idiomas: Inglés
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After the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, Rome finally took control of Egypt. This occupation simultaneously facilitated and circumscribed the exchange of goods, people, and ideas along the paths carved across Rome's burgeoning empire. In this book, Edward Kelting sets out to recapture one of these systems of exchange: the vibrant literary tradition known as Aegyptiaca-or "Egyptian things"-in which culturally mixed authors wrote about Egypt for a Greek and Roman audience. These authors have been dismissed as not really "Egyptian," and their contemporary popularity has been ignored. But as Kelting powerfully argues, this genre in fact constitutes a vibrant intellectual tradition, developed from heterogeneous influences but deeply engaged with Egypt's pharaonic past. In contrast to usual narratives of Roman domination, Kelting uncovers a complex project of political engagement and cultural translation in which Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all participated.
Introduction : Roman Egypt and Rome's "Egypt"
Apion, Roman Egypt, and the insider-outsider problem
Aegyptiaca : triangulating a coherently incoherent genre
From representation... : Anubis, Actium, and the limits of exoticism
...To cultural translation : Aegyptiaca, metamorphosis, and human/animal/divine permeability
Not dead yet! : legitimizing imperial-period hieroglyphic symbolisms
Recuperating the philosopher-priest : embracing a mixed intellectual authority
Conclusion : Acoreus, Aegyptiaca, and the question of cultural influence