Egypt: Pharaonic Period (review)

Judith Lynn Sebesta

Classical World, Volume 103, Number 1, Fall 2009, pp. 126-127 (Review)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/clw.0.0136

For additional information about this article

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/365806

[ Access provided at 4 Nov 2020 02:59 GMT from American University ]

126 C lassical W orld
In general, Vout writes well, and draws on a wide range of ancient sources
and modern scholarship. There are minor signs of carelessness: she cites, at
161n.1, Craig Williams 1995 rather than Williams 1999; she describes “Al-
cestis making” a simulacrum of her “loved one” (10), when it is Admetus
who promises to make a statue of Alcestis; and she mentions an article by
“Shardi,” rather than Shadi, Bartsch (156). Surprisingly casual, even peculiar,
expressions appear throughout: “History reels with warnings” (170); “sexploits”
(8); “Nero and Sporus input a different key for understanding” (168); “Amy
Richlin rails” (52, a needless overstatement). Excessive casualness does not
age well, and is confusing on more than one occasion, as when Vout claims
that “[i]n Egypt, people were clamouring to call their own offspring Antinous
until well into the third century c . e .” (108). Citing only a list of mummies
with the name (131n.160), she does not specify how we know of this appar-
ent naming competition. Elagabalus is described as virtually competing (“[n]ot
to be outdone”) with Nero, some 170 years later, in the endeavor to marry
an exotic Eastern eunuch (137). Such distractions make it easy for readers to
lose track of Vout’s argument, and risk causing that argument to seem tenuous.
Overall, this study will be of interest to scholars of power, eros, imperial
Roman art and literature, and their reception across the Greco-Roman world.
The way imperial eros, particularly non-procreational eros, is described and
presented in public does, as Vout demonstrates, participate in the enforcement
and reinforcement of imperium.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill SHARON JAMES
Classical World 103.1 (2009)

Alessia Fassone and Enrico Ferraris. Egypt: Pharaonic Period. Dictionaries

of Civilization. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
2007. Pp. 384. $24.95 (pb.). ISBN 978-0-520-25648-4.
Translated by Jay Hyams.

Written by two Egyptologists, this volume is a beautifully illustrated pocket

reference for the traveler. Its compact size makes it very easy to pack for a
day outing. The dictionary would also provide useful background information
to college students in a course on the history of ancient Mediterranean civi-
lizations, or, perhaps, in a course on women in antiquity or ancient literature
that includes a unit on Egypt.
Covering the pharaonic period through the last dynasty (Dynasty 30) of
Egyptian kings, its contents are arranged under the headings of “People,”
“State and Society,” “Religion and Science,” “Daily Life,” “The World of
the Dead,” “Sites and Monuments,” and “The History of Egyptology.” Each
of these seven categories contains a number of entries. Each entry has a
short introductory text about 250 words long; a sidebar giving more in-depth
information or chronology, bibliography, and related entries; and a number
of illustrations, with statements that identify the work of art or architecture
and its location. These illustrations frequently have brief “callouts” connected
by “arrows” to specific details of the illustration. For example, the section
“State and Society” has entries on the pharaoh, names of the king, symbols
of power, priesthood, scribes and officials, soldiers and the army, foreigners,
and court artists. The topic “Pharaoh” is illustrated by three photos. The third
of these, showing the sphinx, has three callouts; one identifies the Dream
Stele of Thutmose IV, the second paraphrases the stele’s inscription, and the
third points out the significance of the role of the king’s acts of restoration
in terms of cosmic harmony.
 R eviews 127
As this dictionary is a summary, it does not go into details of the changes
in Egyptian culture over the millennia. The entry on “Women” points out
the legal rights that women possessed, but does not go into detail about the
different religious roles women had in the Old Kingdom, as compared to the
role of the god’s wife of the New Kingdom and later periods. Nonetheless,
the book covers many topics of Egyptian life; for example, under “Daily
Life,” in addition to the entry on “Women,” it covers village organization,
agriculture and peasants, commerce, livestock, animals and plants, hunting
and fishing, food, servants, home and family, artisans, eroticism and seduc-
tion, entertainment, aesthetics and style, and glass and faience.
All illustrations and diagrams are reproduced clearly. Though this is a
thick book, its binding allows the reader to press the book flat enough to
see all details of an illustration that covers two pages. While a number of
illustrations are of objects frequently included in exhibition catalogues and
other volumes on Egypt, there pictures of some objects not so frequently
illustrated, e.g., a frieze showing symbols of power, storehouses from the
funerary temple of Ramses II, and a wall painting of a sem priest.
The last section of the book, “References,” contains maps of Egypt, a
chronology through Dynasty 30, a short glossary, a descriptive list of world
museums with major Egyptian holdings, a general index, a bibliography, and
a list of photographic references. The bibliography contains recent texts that
are easily available, but also older articles and books that still offer valuable
information. While the general index lists each entry of the seven categories,
it does not list any of the symbols, mentioned in the glossary, that were
important in Egyptian art and culture. For example, it would be helpful to
know where in this volume a uraeus or pylon is illustrated.
Visually appealing, inexpensive, and extremely portable, any traveler to
Egypt should carry this vade mecum.
The University of South Dakota JUDITH LYNN SEBESTA
Classical World 103.1 (2009)