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Alexandria's District of
Epsilon
The Epsilon district was where the native Egyptians lived.
Plutarch likened the shape of Alexandria to the shape of a Macedonian military cloak.
Laid out in a grid, its design was essentially Greek.
With wide avenues designed for the driving of chariots, it was divided into five districts named after the first five letters in the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon.
Epsilon was the district for the native Egyptians.
Although both the Egyptian and Greek cultures and citizens had adapted themselves to each other’s ways very well, there was never a true fusion of cultures.
Nonetheless, each found useful things in the civilisation of the other and the two fertilized each other.
This mingling of Egyptian and Greek elements is what makes the Alexandrian Hellenism a unique culture.
Everyday Egyptians went on with their lives as they always had; worshipping as they always had, to such gods as Hathor, and finding old and familiar qualities in new deities.
An example of this would be the Serapeum at Alexandria which was the largest and best known of the god’s temples.
The statue there represented Serapis as a robed and bearded figure regally enthroned, his right hand resting on Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guards the gate of the underworld, while his left held an upraised sceptre.
Gradually Serapis became revered not only as a sun god, “Zeus Serapis”, but also as a lord of healing and of fertility.
In time his cult was also Rome and other parts of the Mediterranean, following the trade routes and being particularly prominent in other commercial cities of the area.
For a larger view of this district of Alexandria, click on the picture.
Horus Henuttawy
Credits:
Dr. Alten Müller. 1998. Ägypten Die Weltder Pharaonen.
McKay-Hill. 2004. A History of World Societies.
Britannia Encyclopedia Online.
Background: Roseta Stone →
Images: Egyptian Clip Art→
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