Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt

Erscheinungsjahr 2013
ISBN: 978-0-19-537089-8
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 498 g

Reihe: Women in Antiquity

Berenice II (c. 264-221 BCE), daughter of King Magas of Cyrene and wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, came to embody all the key religious, political, and artistic ideals of Ptolemaic Alexandria. Though she arrived there nearly friendless, with the taint of murder around her, she became one of the most accomplished and powerful of the Macedonian queens descended from the successors of Alexander the Great. She was at the center of a group of important poets and
intellectuals associated with the Museum and Library, not the least of which was Callimachus, the most important poet of the age. These men wrote poems not just for her, but about her, and their eloquent voices projected her charisma widely across the Greek-speaking world. Though the range of Berenice's
interests was impressive and the quantity and quality of the poetry she inspired unparalleled, today she is all but known. Assimilating the scant and scattered evidence of her life, Dee L. Clayman presents a woman who was more powerful and fascinating than we had previously imagined. Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt offers a portrait of a woman who had access to the cultural riches of both Greece and Egypt and who navigated her way carefully through the opportunities
and dangers they presented, ultimately using them to accrue unprecedented honors that were all but equal to those of the king.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Clayman, Dee L.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Altes Ägypten & Ägyptische Archäologie

Über Autor(innen)

Dee L. Clayman is Professor of Classics and Executive Officer of the PhD Program in Classics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.