{"id":835,"date":"2024-04-28T14:14:40","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T13:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelevelhead.co.uk\/?p=835"},"modified":"2024-04-28T14:16:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T13:16:53","slug":"the-truth-about-the-hypnotic-effect-of-the-library-of-alexandria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelevelhead.co.uk\/?p=835","title":{"rendered":"The Truth about the Hypnotic Effect of Ancient Alexandria"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Image generated by Bing Image Creator by Designer<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is difficult to believe that Alexander, when he traced the streets and boundaries of the city to which he gave his name, Alexandria,[1]<\/a> would be standing as a focal point of ancient and modern culture well over two thousand years later. Grief is the experience of \u2018distress at a loss and experiencing it in a more or less overt way.\u2019[2]<\/a> Lebel and Ronel state that there are three main manifestations of normative mourning: (1) idealising that which has been lost; (2) feelings of guilt and shouldering responsibility for the loss and (3) searching for meaning.[3]<\/a> Lofland includes \u2018irrational\u2019 behaviour as one of the symptoms of grief.[4]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following article will seek to assess whether the modern world is grieving for the Alexandria of the past. If so, the history of Alexandria can be defined as a history of what has been lost. Three case studies will be used to discuss whether the history of Alexandria is the history of what is lost: (a) lost indigenous voices; (b) the Library of Alexandria and (c) the tomb of Alexander the Great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lost Indigenous Voices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Western world has tended to have a Graeco-centric view of Alexandrian history. This perspective has pervaded into pop-culture, as evidenced by the films about Cleopatra VII produced in the twentieth century, such as Carry On Cleo <\/em>and two films both named Cleopatra<\/em>, one starring Theda Bara and the other Elizabeth Taylor. Critics are typically concerned with the \u2018beauty\u2019 of the actress playing her. Lower says although \u2018neither voluptuous nor beautiful, this Cleopatra was nevertheless sexually alluring\u2019[5]<\/a> and Rachleff says Elizabeth Taylor has \u2018the most beautiful face since Eve\u2019.[6]<\/a> Despite admitting that Cleopatra was likely non-white, Rachleff says that it would \u2018not be fair for Hollywood to undo our most precious historical legends\u2019.[7]<\/a> The real<\/em> Cleopatra\u2019s ethnicity is lost, but the uncomfortable impression that these critics give is that \u2018beauty\u2019 is associated with whiteness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-white voices are generally absent from our history of Alexandria. Herodotus\u2019 writing on Egypt indicates a Greek interest in Egyptian culture dating back to the 5th<\/sup> century BC,[8]<\/a> but Alexandrian poetry gives the impression that \u2018Egyptians did not exist at all\u2019, and where they are mentioned, they are depicted as muggers.[9]<\/a> Theocritus calls Egyptians \u2018deceitful scoundrels\u2019 and \u2018nasty rascals all as bad as each other\u2019 who had a national \u2018style\u2019 of thievery.[10]<\/a> Where they discuss indigenous people, the scant ancient sources offer a bigoted ethnic profile of a people who are otherwise silenced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overinvestment \u2018in the myth of the origins of European culture\u2019 in the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries\u2019[11]<\/a> has contributed to the difficulties concerning ethnicity. Western scholars have tended to assume that the Hellenistic court was the exclusively the realm of a \u2018Graeco-Macedonian elite.\u2019[12]<\/a> It is unsurprising that such a narrative predominated during the period of decolonisation. This model is derived from Polybius\u2019 account, who refers to courtiers by Greek names, such as Hermeias and Deinocrates, the latter of which Polybius says was a courtier by nature because he \u2018gave one the impression of being a capable man, but his capacity was but counterfeit and pinchbeck.\u2019[13]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
\n

The real<\/em> Cleopatra\u2019s ethnicity is lost, but the uncomfortable impression that these critics give is that \u2018beauty\u2019 is associated with whiteness.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Identification by name is the best method we have for identifying Egyptians. By inferring ethnicity from the names written on papyrus sources, the working theory is that Greek names point to ethnic Greeks, Egyptian names to ethnic Egyptians.[14]<\/a> This is complicated by the fact that many people took two names, an Egyptian and a Greek,[15]<\/a> particularly in the administration and the army.[16]<\/a> According to O\u2019Neill, ethnic Macedonians are overrepresented whereas ethnic Egyptians are underrepresented in the data based on names.[17]<\/a> The tendency of ethnically Egyptian officials to use their Egyptian name in their private life and their Greek name when writing in an official capacity has contributed to their lack of visibility in the available evidence.[18]<\/a> It is difficult for moderns to account for indigenous lives if they do not seem to exist according to our evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is possible this was an intentional feature of Ptolemaic policy. As P\u00e0mias says, Ptolemaic propaganda intended to legitimise sovereignty of non-Greek subjects and \u2018reinforce the self-image\u2019 of the regime.[19]<\/a> One method was the Dionysus Procession, which connected the Ptolemies to Alexander and through him Dionysus, positioning themselves as the descendants of the god.[20]<\/a> Items were brought from across Greece and beyond including Macedonian women,[21]<\/a> Corinthian amphoras[22]<\/a> and Spartan mixing bowls.[23]<\/a> The fact that the procession was about \u2018shouting out Greek superiority\u2019 over the Egyptians[24]<\/a> is made clear by the inclusion of non-Greek elements in the processions. This included Indian women bound like prisoners of war.[25]<\/a> The domination of Greek people over non-Greeks is the intention here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exclusionary modern perspective is enabled by the ancient sources, but it is a product of contemporary denial of the demise of lost and idealised empires, both modern and antique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Library of Alexandria<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bagnall says the Library of Alexandria has a \u2018grip on the minds\u2019 of modern people.[26]<\/a> This is true, and is an example of the irrational behaviour mentioned in the introduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some examples of modern scholarship demonstrate this. For a start, Green makes the highly questionable remark that Alexandria was the most important and enduring Hellenistic city as \u2018it still flourishes today\u2019.[27]<\/a> The city\u2019s decline, partly caused by the centralisation of power in Cairo under a policy of \u2018Egyptianisation\u2019, beginning in the 1950s,[28]<\/a> puts this into questions. Green says \u2018the heritage of Alexandria has survived unbroken\u2019, completely ignoring a period of over a thousand years where, as he says himself on the same page, it was little more than a backwater.[29]<\/a> He then says that although Alexandria has declined in the modern era because all of its \u2018non-Islamic\u2019 inhabitants have left, it may survive this period of decline.[30]<\/a> The uncomfortable undertones of Green\u2019s article are repeated when he says Ptolemy had to import Greek intellectuals because there was \u2018no local talent\u2019, which cannot have been true given the long intellectual history in Egypt.[31]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bagnall and Chepesiuk also make irrational comments regarding the library. The former says the ancient institution has \u2018bequeathed the image of itself\u2019 to us today and that \u2018every one of our great contemporary libraries owes something to it.\u2019[32]<\/a> Both say that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a modern replica of the Ptolemaic library, means that the \u2018dream\u2019 of its ancient predecessor is still with us.[33]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team of architects behind this project was somewhat diverse, at least in terms of nationality, with members from Norway, Austria, and the United States.[34]<\/a> Kapeller uses flowery and arcane language to describe his team\u2019s vision for the library, saying the fact the building is a \u2018universal shape\u2019 (a circle) means it is \u2018rooted in the ancient past\u2019 and reaches \u2018out into the future.\u2019[35]<\/a> The architects had ambitions beyond the construction project, saying that the new library \u2018could help to put Alexandria back on the map, where it belongs, as one of the most interesting cities in northern Africa\u2019.[36]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new library seeks to aspire to a misguided and irrational idealisation of a flawed ancient institution. The reality<\/em> is the ancient library was a propaganda tool used by a non-indigenous colonial power to culturally dominate Egypt.[37]<\/a> In addition, the modern library fails to embody the ideal<\/em> it compares itself to. Farouk Hosni, the Egyptian culture minister who \u2018spearheaded the initiative to rebuild the Bibliotheca Alexandrina\u2019, has been criticised for allowing a decline in Egyptian literature and national annual book publications,[38]<\/a> censorship, and suppression of freedom of expression during his tenure. Claims \u2018that valuable antiquities were destroyed during construction\u2019 and that the library is \u2018an expensive gimmick that will do little to improve education\u2019 began to circulate even before it opened in 2002.[39]<\/a> Today, Alexandria \u2018exists largely as a memory\u2019 of supposedly more successful and cosmopolitan eras in its history.[40]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The uncertainty about the demise of the ancient library spurs the imagination of romanticists. They fill the void in our knowledge about the library with tales of lost knowledge and tragedy.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Plutarch tells us that the library burned down by accident when Julius Caesar was \u2018forced\u2019 to repel an enemy attack with fire.[41]<\/a> Gellius also mentions the fire, claiming that seven hundred thousand books were destroyed,[42]<\/a> as does Seneca, who says the figure was only forty thousand.[43]<\/a> Lucan, who mentions the fire described in the other accounts, does not say it destroyed the library.[44]<\/a> The sources provide differing information on the destruction. Heller-Roazen is right that the events of the library\u2019s destruction are \u2018difficult to establish with any certainty\u2019.[45]<\/a> The uncertainty about the demise of the ancient library spurs the imagination of romanticists. They fill the void in our knowledge about the library with tales of lost knowledge and tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Desperate attempts to politicise the new library, such as the laying of the cornerstone by then Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, and UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor,[46]<\/a> leave no doubt that the death of the modern library will be easier to understand. As in the rest of Egypt, social, political and leisure spaces have been \u2018closed down or strictly monitored\u2019 and citizens\u2019 lives are mediated \u2018by class differences and social segregation.\u2019[47]<\/a> The Bibliotheca Alexandrina, state controlled from the start,[48]<\/a> is likely to fade into history by the hand of an authoritarian regime. It is no accident that library was placed under the supervision of the Egyptian Ministry of Education.[49]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tomb of Alexander<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lofland says that those in mourning literally \u2018seek the lost person\u2019, potentially hallucinating, fantasising or simply remembering their presence.[50]<\/a> The search for Alexander\u2019s tomb (or tombs, as he was buried three times[51]<\/a>) is a search for something that is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bianchi provides us with two examples of irrational searches for Alexander\u2019s resting place. The first is that of Stellio Komotsos, a Greek waiter who lived in in Alexandria who spent his disposable income on efforts to dig up Alexander\u2019s tomb.[52]<\/a> He spent many years digging in many places across the city. Having retired by 1993, he claimed to have aggregated a vast quantity of information on the tomb, which he was willing to sell for a pension and a new Mercedes.[53]<\/a> Komotsos appears to be a mercenary with little interest but personal gain. There is a contradiction between Komotsos\u2019 years of feverish searching on the one hand and his abrupt surrendering of his life\u2019s work in return for a car. This contradiction suggests irrationality in Komotsos\u2019 behaviour, either in the fact that he miscalculated the value of a pension and a car relative to the value of his life\u2019s passion or in the futility of his years of searching. Either way, his efforts show that the interest in finding the tomb of Alexander the Great is not confined to a scholarly elite as amateurs are willing to expend absurd amounts of time, energy and money to that end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second example is Liani Souvaltzi, a Greek national affiliated with the Institute of Hellenistic Studies. Souvaltzi claims she has evidence that Alexander\u2019s tomb can be found in the Siwa Oasis,[54]<\/a> despite the fact that most competent authorities agree it is somewhere in Alexandria.[55]<\/a> Her claim is based on the unsubstantiated assertion that Alexander wanted to be buried near Amun, supposedly his divine father, whose oracle lived in that region. Souvaltzi\u2019s search has alienated her from Egyptologists and ordinary Alexandrians.[56]<\/a> Part of this is a combination of the fact that she claims to have located the tomb via \u2018mystical guidance\u2019[57]<\/a> and that she is an \u2018ultra-patriot of extreme political views.\u2019[58]<\/a> According to her, whoever discoveres Alexander\u2019s remains would rule a \u2018stable and prosperous realm\u2019, which Bianchi astutely links to the dispute between the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of North Macedonia over who has a right to the name \u2018Macedonia.\u2019[59]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bianchi refers to the media attention given to Liani Souvaltzi and her work was \u2018exceeded only by that surrounding the O.J. Simpson trial\u2019.[60]<\/a> Senior officials from Egypt\u2019s Supreme Council of Antiquities, a busy institution given the antiquity of that country, were present at the Souvaltzi\u2019s press conference.[61]<\/a> International publications were in attendance, echoing the attention paid to the opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Support came from across the world, with Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Oman pledging $65 million in cash. $4 million was donated by Italy and various equipment and materials were sent from Norway, Germany, Japan, and elsewhere.[62]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search for the tomb is related to the appropriation of Alexander\u2019s corpse by Ptolemy. Strabo provides a simplistic version of Ptolemy\u2019s appropriation of Alexander\u2019s body, saying that Ptolemy took the body to Egypt \u2018motivated by greed and desire\u2019.[63]<\/a> Diodorus Siculus says Ptolemy buried Alexander at Alexandria,[64]<\/a> whereas Pausanias says Memphis.[65]<\/a> Aelian relates an exciting story where Ptolemy steals the body and then creates a decoy \u2018clad in royal robes and a shroud of enviable quality,\u2019 which was discovered by Perdiccas whilst the real body made its way to Egypt.[66]<\/a> The key point about Alexander\u2019s body is that ownership of it made Ptolemy out to be his successor.[67]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n

The search for the tomb is a search for closure that may never be satisfied, but the significance of the contributions that continue to be made by looking for it cannot be understated.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Liani Souvaltzi and the presence of high-profile Egyptian and international officials at the Siwa Oasis demonstrate that the politicisation of Alexander\u2019s corpse, which began shortly after his death, is still an active phenomenon. The obsession the tomb of Alexander will only end when it has been discovered \u2013 i.e., when we have closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not to say that the search is entirely without merit. In 1805, a large green sarcophagus was transported from Egypt, where it had been lifted from the remains of the French fleet by the British, to the British Museum.[68]<\/a> Although there was little evidence, it was believed to be the sarcophagus used for Alexander the Great.[69]<\/a> In reality, it had been made for Nectanebo II,[70]<\/a> but the most important part of this discovery was that it came with the Rosetta Stone, which was crucial to the deciphering of hieroglyphics. More recent searches have produced smaller discoveries, such as one conducted by the Polish Center of Archaeology which uncovered two unprecedented Roman sites in Egypt, one a marble odeum (small theatre) and the other a bath complex.[71]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The search for the tomb is a search for closure that may never be satisfied, but the significance of the contributions that continue to be made by looking for it cannot be understated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studying what has been Lost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Lofland says that many scholars view grief as a \u2018non-fatal disease.\u2019[72]<\/a> This disease has infected the scholarship and general reception of Alexandria. Today, we are in denial regarding the indigenous voices of Egypt under Ptolemaic ruling, idealise culturally imperialistic institutions like the Library of Alexandria, and desperately seek for closure by finding lost ancient sites like the tomb of Alexander. Dean says grief is a universal and potentially harmful human experience.\u2019[73]<\/a> The harm inflicted upon the history of Alexandria by this irrational grieving process is deep, but there is a silver lining. Many discoveries have been unwittingly made in the attempt to bury Alexandria \u2013 or resurrect its corpse. The \u2018large and populous Greek city\u2019 of Alexander\u2019s dreams[74]<\/a> may be lost, but it still occupies a dominating position in the modern psyche. The history of Alexandria is a study of what is lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>

Edward Boyne<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Primary:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n