Egypt and the Limits of Hellenism

In a series of studies, Ian Moyer explores the ancient history and modern historiography of relations between Egypt and Greece from the fifth century BCE to the early Roman empire. Beginning with Herodotus, he analyzes key encounters between Greeks and Egyptian priests, the bearers of Egypt's ancient traditions. Four moments unfold as rich micro-histories of cross-cultural interaction: Herodotus' interviews with priests at Thebes; Manetho's composition of an Egyptian history in Greek; the struggles of Egyptian priests on Delos; and a Greek physician's quest for magic in Egypt. In writing these histories, the author moves beyond Orientalizing representations of the Other and colonial metanarratives of the civilizing process to reveal interactions between Greeks and Egyptians as transactional processes in which the traditions, discourses and pragmatic interests of both sides shaped the outcome. The result is a dialogical history of cultural and intellectual exchanges between the great civilizations of Greece and Egypt.

Introduction: the absence of Egypt; 1. Herodotus and an Egyptian mirage; 2. Luculentissima fragmenta: Manetho's Aegyptiaca and the limits of Hellenism; 3. The Delian Sarapis aretalogy and the politics of syncretism; 4. Thessalos and the magic of empire; Epilogue.

Ian S. Moyer is Associate Professor in the Department of History, University of Michigan. His current research and teaching interests include ancient Greek history, especially of the Hellenistic period; the Late Period, Ptolemaic, and Roman Egypt; ethnicity and culture in the ancient world; historiography and ethnography; and ancient religion and magic. He is the author of several articles, and he has lectured on various topics related to his research for this book at universities in the United States and Europe.