Oriental Art in Greek Imperial Literature

Tomasz Polanski

Oriental Art in Greek Imperial Literature

ISBN 978-3-88476-308-7, ISBN 3-88476-308-3, 264 S., 30 Abb., kt., € 25,00 (1998)

(BAC - Bochumer Altertumswissenschaftliches Colloquium, Bd. 36)

This book discusses the work of Greek writers from Diodorus (late 1st c. BC) to Aphthonius (late 4th c. AD). Its territorial range spans the regions from Egypt, through the Holy Land to Syria. The subject addressed entails the description in the Greek literature of the art and architecture of the Ancient Near East in the second and first millenia BC, and of the Parthian art. Part I, "Autopsy and Compilation", contains an overview of the Egyptian Labyrinth, the Ramesseum at Thebes, the Colossi of Memnon, the Egyptian canon of proportions, and a selection of minor temple descriptions (Plutarch, Strabo). Part II, "Between Paraphrase and Fiction", analyses Josephus Flavius' account of the Temple of Solomon. Part III, "Art in Rhetoric", discusses the Temple of Atargatis at Hierapolis, Lucian's de Dea Syria, the Serapeum of Alexandria, and the image of Egyptian temples in Early Christian writings. Part IV, "Allegory and Art", involves a collection of Neo-Platonic texts (Jamblichus, Macrobius, and Porphyry). An Appendix deals with the discussions of the Phoenix.