Please join the AMNE department on Wednesday, February 8, at 3 pm at BUCH C203, for our next departmental seminar by Professor Joana Campos Clímaco of Federal University of the Amazonas (UFAM) in Manaus-Brazil.
Professor Campos Clímaco will speak on “The creation of the Alexandrian deity Sarapis in Graeco-Roman Egypt.”
The foundation of Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt (331 BC), as well as the later changes in the Nilotic region, first into a reign governed by Macedonians (through its new capital by the sea) and then to a Roman province, intensified cultural exchanges in the ancient pharaonic land and strengthened its connexion to the Mediterranean world. Ptolemy son of Lagus (soon to become Ptolemy I Soter), became the satrap of Egypt after the death of Alexander III and later ascended to kingship, transferring the Macedonian court from ancient Memphis to Alexandria. The Ptolemaic Dynasty governed Egypt for the following three centuries. It consolidated its legitimacy by welcoming Greek heritages into the territory while negotiating with its late and still vigorous religious and political traditions and institutions. The development of the cult to the hybrid deity Sarapis associated with the worship of the Egyptian goddess Isis (who traditionally coupled with Osiris) and its crescent diffusion in Alexandria and throughout the Graeco-roman world is an important key to analyzing this atmosphere of exchange. The cult acquired a universal and cosmopolitan status while also dialoguing with important divinities of the Greek and Egyptian past. The aim of this presentation is to discuss the upbringing of Sarapis and its bonds to Ptolemy I, who adapted and absorbed the pharaonic notions of command during his stay in Memphis. Professor Campos Clímaco’s focus will be the description of the god’s roots narrated mainly by Plutarch (On Isis and Osiris, 28-30) and Tacitus (Histories, 4.81-84). Both authors wrote during the Roman imperial era and attempted to recover the origin of Sarapis, probably aiming to comprehend and interpret its popularization and acceptance throughout the Roman world. Thus, this talk intends to discuss the role of this cult that combined and merged innovative and traditional elements at the same time, thinking of Sarapis as a metaphor for Alexandria itself.