عنوان

Tourism in Graeco-Roman Egypt

TLpq303802536

انگلیسی

Tourism in Graeco-Roman Egypt

[Thesis]

V. A. Foertmeyer

Princeton University

1989

366

Ph.D.

Princeton University

1989

Greeks and Romans exploited the land of the Pharaohs as tourists, travelling along the Nile in search of marvels (usd\theta\alpha\acute\upsilon\mu\alpha\tau\alphausd) and wisdom (). Natives also engaged in touristic travel as pilgrims visiting the gods at their festivals. All of these tourists left souvenirs of their visits in the form of graffiti scrawled on the Pyramids, the talking colossus of Memnon, the temple of Isis at Philae. This study examines the discernible travel patterns and motives of tourists in Egypt as gleaned from their graffiti, as well as the literary, epigraphical and papyrological evidence from Alexander's conquest in 332/1 B.C. to the destruction of the Alexandrian Serapeum in 392 A.D. Tourists wanted to see the Egypt of Herodotus come to life-marvels like grandiose monuments, mummies, the worship of animals, and the enigmatic Nile that flooded in the summer in a rainless land. One of the paradoxes of ancient tourism is that Greek and Roman visitors identified Homer, who barely touched upon it in a few lines of the Iliad and Odyssey, with Egypt. The most celebrated attraction of all was a dilapidated statue of Amenhotep III, mistakenly identified with Homeric Memnon, king of the Ethiopians and ally of Priam in the Trojan War. The wisdom of Egypt was sought after by tourists who wished to consult with priests and learn about Egyptian religion and hieroglyphic writing, which they believed contained the origin of many Greek cults such as the mysteries of Eleusis and Dionysus. The 'fascination' with Egypt also included the sense of irresistible horror. A trip to Egypt was equated with a journey to the Underworld via the mythic language of the Osiris/Sarapis cult. Tourists expected to confront an industry of death in the Land of the Dead, as well as the ghosts of the recent past like Alexander the Great and Pompey. It was in Egypt, where the notion of Greek cultural supremacy had been shattered by Herodotus, that tourists came to terms with their own past.

Ancient civilizations

Classical studies

Classical studies

Language, literature and linguistics

Social sciences

V. A. Foertmeyer

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y