Events
Gastvortrag
| Title of the event | Gastvortrag |
| Series | Herodotus' 'Thousand and One Nights': the Herodotean logos of Egypt und ancient Egyptian narrative. |
| Organizer | Seminar für Klassische Philologie und Göttinger Freunde der antiken Literatur e.V. |
| Speaker | Ioannis Konstantakos |
| Type of event | Vortrag |
| Category | Campus Leben |
| Registration required | Nein |
| Details | The narrative materials that make up the Herodotean tales of the pharaohs are taken mostly from Egyptian traditions – not from factual record, though, but rather from folk legends, popularised myths, and historical novellas. Attention will be paid to certain sections whose Egyptian background (and its artful exploitation at Herodotus’ hands) has not been fully elucidated. The story about Sesostris and his brother’s murderous plot (2.107) takes off from the deeply-rooted Egyptian themes of court conspiracy and brotherly conflict. Possibly the genuine version of the legend was rounded off with the pharaoh’s supernatural or magical salvation; but the Greek historian rationalised the outcome, introducing a characteristically Herodotean moral dilemma into the storyline (cf. the choice of Intaphernes’ wife, 3.119). In the narrative about queen Nitocris and her revenge against the killers of her brother/husband (2.100), the age-old cosmogonic myth of Osiris, Isis, and Seth is debased to the level of mortal characters and human experience (a strategy that may be also traced in other Egyptian tales of Herodotus, such as Mycerinus’ incest with his daughter, 2.131). The dream of Sabacos, the Ethiopian conqueror, and his consequent voluntary withdrawal from Egypt (2.139) offers a parodic reversal of the tropes of the Egyptian royal novella (Königsnovelle) – a literary artifice exploited in several Egyptian historical fictions from the New Kingdom and the Late Period. Anysis’ artificial island (2.140) transplants to geographical space a fabulous motif of the Egyptian imaginary. Finally, Rhampsinitus’ descent to the netherworld (2.122) and Sethos’ supernatural victory over the Assyrians (2.141, another adaptation of Königsnovelle materials) are the only specimens of the well-loved Egyptian genre of fantastic tales that have been retained more or less intact in the historian’s largely rationalised account. |
| Date | Start: 15.01.2025, 18:00 Uhr Ende: 15.01.2025 , 20:00 Uhr |
| Location |
Anderer Ort / Other Location PH 20 37073 Göttingen, Humboldtallee 19 |
| Contact |
Sören Lipphardt soeren.lipphardt@uni-goettingen.de |