The central question both are asking ourselves is why there was so little change.
The sub-question is what invaders did to effect change and what was their thinking.
There is another question of Egypt’s trading and invading contact with others and how much change was brought home – I have no knowledge on this one.
Another sub-question concerns the possible Greek mercenaries who lived in a town/towns in the Delta maybe from the 6th century. My god Solon visited Egypt – the great democrat and legislator – and left no mark. The question here is what change they communicated. I don’t have anything to add with this.
There are also lots of unexamined questions about contact with the Sudan, Libya and Ethiopia. No knowledge. No-one seems to write about contact with Carthage/Phoenicia.
Another question are the earlier Persian Pharoes – no-one seems to bother much with that but generally they imposed a rule/religion on conquered territories. But not in Egypt.
Some points. I know the Alexander Greek deity stories. On the other hand it was a new royal family and there were various points where he needed a vote from his soldiers or humiliated himself with apologies to the massed soldiers. The two bits don’t fit. He did not leave a lot of soldiers behind in Egypt but later in Persia, Bactria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India he retired soldiers locally as he got replacements from home.
The ram horns are usually linked to Hercules rather than anything Egyptian.
He established somewhere between 19 to 50 (some say 70) cities all designed on Greek lines and with Greek temples. Most/all (its impossible to know) were for Greeks or retired Greek soldiers. None used local architecture.
Unlike the Egyptians others were heavily influenced by the Greeks. Two examples. Buddhist statues from just after the Alexander period take on vaguely western faces and the body shape changes in a western way. They are striking and remarkable and Australia has one or two of these beautiful things. Here is an example:
Note the Greek drapery:
Note the hair and the Greek muscled torso (the face is almost minion its in Abu Dabi – such Buddhist (a heresy) nakedness would be rightfully prohibited in Egypt):
And this from the fabulous Afgan. Bactrian Horde that few have seen. The detail and the leg joints are fine work:
A superb head of the Buddha’s father:
I am not aware of an equivalent change in style of the depiction of Egyptian gods or pharaohs.
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/gand/hd_gand.htm
There are academics who see the perception of Greek influence as colonial imperialism. Such young academics have junior roles at bad universities and look for attention. If you take a radical position you get attention.
Some information on Greek towns/cities in remotest Afghanistan:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26095077/ns/t ... o1xcoKYPeR
http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/a ... k-name-lit
http://www.museo-on.com/go/museoon/home ... _567.xhtml
Here is a possibly reliable map of the cities established by Alexander and his successors. Note the huge activity in Palestine and Asia Minor. Very little in Egypt. Maybe a deal of this had to do with trade, communication and military control. Who knows. Most historians are mainly interested in the historical documents and not the physical and economic aspects of running an empire:
Alexander had clear plans about consolidating his empire/consolidating cultures and there was one famous mass wedding of thousands of his soldiers (each of whom got a substantial payment for this) with Persian woman. He married a Bactrian (north east Afghanistan on or over the former Russian border) but probably for political reasons.
The weddings and his change in clothes and bowing caused dissent in the army – odd if they took the living God idea seriously. Some tensions were about maintaining Greek differences rather than blending with local cultures.
Second, and this is controversial and not proved, the first Chinese Emperor way have used Greeks from Alexander’s left behinds to do statues for him. Whilst they look eastern to most they represent an inexplicable, radical and very quick revolution in style, size and technology which has led scholars to look for external inputs. In particular the size and display of the male body is unprecedented.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-ne ... 180960771/ Here is an example:
If true this again shows an exception to what happened in Egypt and in the case of China there was no contact let alone invasion. This is a speculative area of research at the moment.
(This will amuse you) It seems that administrative structures may have been largely untouched by both the Romans and Greeks. Wait for it. Because the Egyptian system was regarded as a good system aspects of which were adopted by conquerors at home. Things have really deteriorated.
http://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/ ... /4885/4727
But there is more. At that time the education system was good…..and liberal. Now it is second or third worst in the world.
So my point is that a small number of Greeks had major impacts on long standing powerful existing cultures/religions. In Egypt it was all restricted to 50 acres in Alex – a bit of an exaggeration.
Maybe ancient Egypt was a bit like 19th century Paris to travellers – you felt overawed, worried you were not sufficiently elegant and just fitted in. On the other hand he allegedly burnt down the awesome and old Persepolis. A contradiction.
So with change/adaptation in Egypt was it that the Greeks didn’t try or the Egyptian’s weren’t interested. In any event about 500BC their society faded and the next 2,500 years were repeated invasions and control by external powers. This period might be linked with a closed mind that never absorbed developments and change in other cultures.
Alexander the Great has fascinated me since I was a boy. Nowadays I growl at his facile celebrity status and all the rot that goes with that. For about two decades the fashion in academic circles has been to emphasize his imperialist/colonial and blood lust character. All of this is written by people who have never held responsibility nor needed to make big decisions in difficult circumstances.
I hadn’t realized that the Ptolemy’s adopted the Egyptian incest stuff.
Ptolemy came with thousands of Greek soldiers who were settled (unclear) on farms. You would have expected that they would have built Greek towns/temples/gymnasiums – but did this happen as it did in other places – like Afgan and has anyone looked for them – maybe they were mud bricks.
Take an example the Greek capital of Upper Egypt was Ptolemais Hermiou – its about 13ks south by south east of Sohag on the West side. It had Greek temples, a theatre and maybe gymnasium and baths. I can’t find any info on its population but is seems it was the largest city in the region, as large as Memphis and with democratic institutions – my how things have decayed. I thought I could post an image of the site but it doesnt work - trust me its sad and there must be 'stuff' there albeit not the 'stuff' the Supreme Antiques like much.
Significantly the location for Royal power in Upper Egypt was not Thebes or Luxor but this place – even though they were pools of discontent. So with Alex and their other new cities they stayed away from the traditional locations, left local things unchanged, didn't much allow Egypt to change them and didn't affect the local culture much. Maybe they led isolated lives in their enclaves. What I think is true is little of this or the Roman period, let alone the Byzantine period has got attention.
Others talk of only three Greek cities in Egypt and of the unusual, possibly unique practice of not founding many Greek cities. Very odd compared to what they did in other places
http://www.academia.edu/9182694/Ptolemais
