Philae. Visitor's itinerary.
Peeters| N° d'inventaire | 20190 |
| Format | 17 x 24 |
| Détails | 328 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Leuven, 2013 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9789042927469 |
How beautiful is this city that appeared in the midst of the waters! It has existed since the beginning, when the earth was in night and darkness. It is a haven when one comes from the south, a harbor when one comes from the north. This sentence, two millennia old, could be written today, and in fact time and space are suspended for anyone who sees Philae emerging in the midst of the shimmering waters under the sun. Philae, the end of the world for the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, is the cultural meeting point of Mediterranean civilizations and Nubians from the depths of Africa. The paintings that decorate its temples reflect this strategic position of the Island of ancient times: the gods of Nubia, of Philae itself, of Elephantine rub shoulders with, sometimes identifying with, those of the religious metropolises of Egypt. The myth of the eternal return of Osiris and the flooding of the Nile gives harmonious coherence to this theological synthesis. A walk in this luminous setting, quite different from the great sanctuaries with their overwhelming and austere mass, brings to mind the enchantment expressed by a visitor contemporary with the Ptolemies and the Caesars: He who has worshipped the Isis of Philae has a happy fate, not only because he becomes rich, but because at the same time he obtains a long life. Many indeed are those who have trodden the sacred ground; they have immortalized their presence and their fervor in hieroglyphics, in demotic, in Greek, in Latin, in Coptic, in Arabic - in French too, like the brave men of Bonaparte, and even in Italian with the envoys of the Pope of Rome.
How beautiful is this city that appeared in the midst of the waters! It has existed since the beginning, when the earth was in night and darkness. It is a haven when one comes from the south, a harbor when one comes from the north. This sentence, two millennia old, could be written today, and in fact time and space are suspended for anyone who sees Philae emerging in the midst of the shimmering waters under the sun. Philae, the end of the world for the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, is the cultural meeting point of Mediterranean civilizations and Nubians from the depths of Africa. The paintings that decorate its temples reflect this strategic position of the Island of ancient times: the gods of Nubia, of Philae itself, of Elephantine rub shoulders with, sometimes identifying with, those of the religious metropolises of Egypt. The myth of the eternal return of Osiris and the flooding of the Nile gives harmonious coherence to this theological synthesis. A walk in this luminous setting, quite different from the great sanctuaries with their overwhelming and austere mass, brings to mind the enchantment expressed by a visitor contemporary with the Ptolemies and the Caesars: He who has worshipped the Isis of Philae has a happy fate, not only because he becomes rich, but because at the same time he obtains a long life. Many indeed are those who have trodden the sacred ground; they have immortalized their presence and their fervor in hieroglyphics, in demotic, in Greek, in Latin, in Coptic, in Arabic - in French too, like the brave men of Bonaparte, and even in Italian with the envoys of the Pope of Rome.