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The inscription of Bahariya temple

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 5:47 pm
by hiphys
Happy New Year!
I'm glad to recommend this paper by Francisco Bosch-Puche: 'L' "autel" du temple d'Alexandre à Bahariya retrouvé ', BIFAO 108 (2008), pp. 29-44.(I found it in Academia.edu).
The author has found again an altar and a stele of a temple excavated in 1938 in Bahariya, but mislaid in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Such a rediscovery is important, because the temple is dated 332-323 b. C.; the stele brings the complete royal titling of Alexander the Great as Pharaoh, and a Greek inscription - a very simple but meaningful one - that spells out:"King Alexander/ to Ammon / his father".
Since I never saw a quote of this inscription in recent works on Alexander, I thought necessary to remember it, first, because many students seem to believe that no mention of Alexander's divine sonship is attested during his lifetime, and, second, because few people know this inscription.

Re: The inscription of Bahariya temple

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2021 10:21 am
by sikander
Greetings Hiphys,
Thank you for posting this.
Academia.edu and jstor are good sources (though not always peer-reviewed) for updates in the latest theories and discoveries (and debates!) in the ancient world, so well worth joining.
I know a writer who is addressing this very subject, so will share your post with them.

Regards,
Sikander

Re: The inscription of Bahariya temple

Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2021 9:54 pm
by Alexias
Hi Hiphys, thanks for this. I knew it rang a bell so I did a search and there was a Robin Lane Fox which mentioned it. See this post here for a bit more detail http://www.pothos.org/forum/viewtopic.p ... iya#p38240

There is also an interesting thread here http://www.pothos.org/forum/viewtopic.p ... t=bahariya that mentions it.

Re: The inscription of Bahariya temple

Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2021 5:50 pm
by hiphys
Thank you, Alexias, and your tenacious memory! I forgot completely the lecture of Mr. Robin Lane Fox that you kindly posted on pothos.org in 2013.
Nevertheless I think that the paper of F. Bosch-Puche is known too little, till now. Even when I read it for the first time, ten years ago, my attention was drawn mostly to the Egyptian hierogliphic inscription, because I wanted to know whether it corresponded somehow to the very restrained form of the Greek inscription (I studied a bit ancient Egyptian language and culture, long time ago). I do notice now that the name of Alexander is included in the same cartouche with the appellation 'son of Ammon', and therefore the simple Greek inscription is literally the translation of that cartouche's content. Without your aid I'd never achieve such an awareness.
Thank you again!

Re: The inscription of Bahariya temple

Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2021 9:39 pm
by sean_m
hiphys wrote: Sun Jan 03, 2021 5:47 pm Happy New Year!
I'm glad to recommend this paper by Francisco Bosch-Puche: 'L' "autel" du temple d'Alexandre à Bahariya retrouvé ', BIFAO 108 (2008), pp. 29-44.(I found it in Academia.edu).
The author has found again an altar and a stele of a temple excavated in 1938 in Bahariya, but mislaid in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Such a rediscovery is important, because the temple is dated 332-323 b. C.; the stele brings the complete royal titling of Alexander the Great as Pharaoh, and a Greek inscription - a very simple but meaningful one - that spells out:"King Alexander/ to Ammon / his father".
Since I never saw a quote of this inscription in recent works on Alexander, I thought necessary to remember it, first, because many students seem to believe that no mention of Alexander's divine sonship is attested during his lifetime, and, second, because few people know this inscription.
Thank you hiphys. I did not know this inscription. There are so few contemporary sources on Alexander that every one helps!