When I was preparing for my trip to Egypt, I looked over the itinerary and read about each site we would be visiting. Obviously, I knew about the pyramids and the sphinx, and I was also excited about the Valley of the Kings, Abu Simbel, and Karnak. However, I was less enamored with the prospect of visiting temple complexes built during Egypt’s Greco-Roman period. I wanted ANCIENT Egypt, and these “modern” sites gave me the “ho-hums.”
Visiting these sites, though, with our Egyptologist extraordinaire, Mona, shed a light on this chapter of Egyptian history that I was unaware of. What I remembered from my long ago history classes was the line of scholars: Plato, Aristotle, then Alexander the Great. These men typified the classical period in Greece, from about 400 BCE until Alexander’s death in 323 BCE. Alexander expanded Greece’s empire from India to Egypt. On his death, infighting among his generals eventually resulted in Ptolomy I being named King and Pharaoh of Egypt, the founder of Egypt’s final dynasty. His successors ruled Egypt until Cleopatra’s suicide in 30 BCE. Cleopatra was the last Greek pharaoh.
So, the Greek dynasty of pharaohs ruled Egypt from 305-30 BCE, the Hellenistic period of Greek culture. In Greece, the art of this period was remarkably realistic with high drama, intense movement, and emotionality. This is the period that produced the Venus de Milo, Winged Victory of Samothrace, Laocoön and His Sons, and other famous sculpture pieces. (I wrote about my response to the stunning sculpture-work found in the museum in Olympia, Greece HERE
What I found remarkable in Egypt is that the Greek dynasty of pharaohs in Egypt did not bring their art techniques to Egypt, but rather, adopted the Egyptian style of representing stylized human figures in relief, rarely in the round, and followed the standard profile depiction with the left foot forward. Yes, details were more enhanced, the reliefs deeper, but the style was emphatically Egyptian.
Why would a conquering nation adapt their art forms to the native style? Why didn’t the Greek pharaohs import the more advanced techniques from the Greek mainland? Don’t conquerers view themselves as superior and enforce their ways on the vanquished nations?
The Egyptologist on my tour explained that this was a calculated move on the part of the Greek pharaohs. They knew that they would be better accepted as rulers if they took on the Egyptian culture for themselves. These Greek pharaohs even built temples to the Egyptian gods and goddesses, not to their own pantheon. I’ve never heard of another culture doing that. But it makes absolute sense if you want to accepted by the population.
Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Egypt, lost an important battle to Rome, and despite her political acumen, Greece and Egypt fell to Rome. The Roman Empire had a decidedly different philosophy in ruling, crushing the countries they conquered and imposing their way of life. Egyptian culture died.
If a highly civilized culture such as Hellenistic Greece successfully adopted the culture of the countries they inhabited, why do we still insist that only our way is best? I see this on a broad spectrum across nations and civilizations, but also on a personal level.
Why do we feel the need to convince others that our way of thinking or doing is superior? We don’t like to admit that other viewpoints are valid. It’s my way or the highway. One of the lessons of growing up and becoming more aware, is realizing that we are not an island. I can’t win someone over to my way of thinking by belittling theirs.
“You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”