A cult of Isis at Philae after Justinian? Reconsidering P. Cair.Masp. I 67004

Zeitschrift fur Papyrologie und Epigraphik

Volumn 146, Issue , 2004, Pages 137-154

  Dijkstra, Jitse H F ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 61149648653     PISSN: 00845388     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (142)

1. J. Maspero, Papyrus grecs d'époque byzantine, 3 vols. (Cairo, 1911-6 = P.Cair.Masp.) l.iv. Several preliminary publications preceded this publication.
2. In the archive of Dioscorus, the village is called κω combining acute accentμη 'Αφροδι combining acute accentτης, 'village of Aphrodite'. However, among most scholars the name 'Αφροδιτω combining acute accent used in Greek texts of the early Arab period is current. Cf. the remarks by J.-L. Fournet, 'Appendice sur le nom d' 'Αφρ οδιcombining acute accentτης κωcombining acute accentμη', REG 105 (1992) 235-6.
3. J.G. Keenan, 'The Aphrodite Papyri and Village Life in Byzantine Egypt', BSAC 26 (1984) 51-63
4. and 'Village Shepherds and Social Tension in Byzantine Egypt', YCS 28 (1985) 245-59;
5. L.S.B. MacCoull, Dioscorus of Aphrodito. His Work and His World (Berkeley, 1988);
6. B. Verbeeck, 'Dioskoros: dorpshoofd, dichter en notaris', in P.W. Pestman (ed.), Familiearchieven uit het land van Pharao (Zutphen, 1989) 138-62;
7. T. Gagos, P. van Minnen, Settling a Dispute. Toward a Legal Anthropology of Late Antique Egypt (Ann Arbor, 1994);
8. C.A. Kuehn, Channels of Imperishable Fire. The Beginnings of Christian Mystical Poetry and Dioscorus of Aphrodito (New York, 1995).
9. J. Maspero, 'Un dernier poète grec de l'Egypte. Dioscore, fils d'Apollos', REG 24 (1911) 426-81;
10. H.J.M. Milne, Catalogue of the Literary Papyri in the British Museum (London, 1927) 68;
11. H.I. Bell, 'An Egyptian Village in the Age of Justinian', JHS 64 (1944) 21-36;
12. Al. Cameron, Literature and Society in the Early Byzantine World (London, 1985) Ch. I
13. 1).
14. Cf. B. Baldwin, 'Dioscorus of Aphrodito: The Worst Poet of Antiquity?', Pap.Congr. XVII, 2 vols. (Naples, 1984) 2.327-31.
15. P. van Minnen, 'Dioscorus and the Law', in A.A. MacDonald, M. Twomey, G.J. Reinink (eds.), Learned Antiquity: Scholarship and Society in the Near East, the Greco-Roman World, and the Early Medieval West (Louvain, 2003) 115-34.
16. J.-L. Fournet, Hellénisme dans l'Égypte du VI siècle. La bibliothèque et l'œuvre de Dioscore d'Aphrodité, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1999 = P.Aphrod.Lit.).
17. Cf. J.G. Keenan, 'On the Cairo Maspero Papyri', Pap.Congr. XIX, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1992) 1.85-94. Currently, Dr. Fournet is working on a re-edition of the petitions in the Dioscorus Archive.
18. U. Wilcken, 'Papyrus Urkunden XV', Archiv 5 (1913) 442-9 at 444: 'Der wichtige Text bedarf noch eindringenden Studiums'.
19. Cf. W.Gr. I 134-5.
20. Wilcken, 'Papyrus Urkunden XV', 443-4;
21. L.P. Kirwan, Studies on the History of Late Antique and Christian Nubia (Aldershot & Burlington, 2002) Ch. XXV
22. 1) at 89.
23. Cf. A.M. Demicheli, Rapporti di pace e di guerra dell'Egitto romano con le populazioni dei deserti Africani (Milan, 1976) 193-4.
24. Modern Kom Ombo, not a village of the same name (in Greek) situated north of Nagada, cf. A. Gutbub, 'Kom Ombo', Lex.Äg. III (1980) 675-83
25. and F. Gomaà, 'Ombos', Lex.Äg. IV (1982) 567-9.
26. P.Cair.Masp. I 67002-67009, 67011-67022, II 67205, III 67279, 67283, 67348, 67352, 67354;
27. P.Flor. III 295-6;
28. P.Hamb. III 230;
29. P.Lond. V 1674-1678;
30. cf. J.-L. Fournet, 'À propos de SB XIV 11856 ou quand la poésie rencontre le document', BIFAO 93 (1993) 223-35.
31. P.Cair.Masp. I 67019, III 67283;
32. MacCoull, Dioscorus, 47-56;
33. Fournet, Hellénisme, 321-4.
34. Foumet, Hellénisme, 328-9.
35. The word ωcombining comma aboveμοφαcombining acute accentγος is connected with savageness, e.g. as an epithet of Dionysus, see C. Segal, 'The Raw and the Cooked in Greek Literature', CJ 69 (1973-4) 289-308;
36. M. Detienne, Dionysos mis à mort (Paris, 1977) passim;
37. A. Henrichs, 'Greek Maenadism from Olympias to Messalina', HSPh 82 (1978) 121-60 at 150-2
38. and 'Human Sacrifice in Greek Religion: Three Case Studies', in J. Rudhardt, O. Reverdin (eds.), Le sacrifice dans l'Antiquité (Geneva, 1981) 195-242 at 220;
39. J.N. Bremmer, 'Greek Maenadism Reconsidered', ZPE 55 (1984) 267-86 at 275-6;
40. B.D. Shaw, Rulers, Nomads, and Christians in Roman North Africa (Aldershot and Brookfield, 1995) Ch. VI
41. o, col. I 6) to stereotype the 'bad guys'.
42. On the Blemmyes, see R.T. Updegraff, A Study of the Blemmyes (Ann Arbor and London, 1978)
43. and 'The Blemmyes I: The Rise of the Blemmyes and the Roman Withdrawal from Nubia under Diocletian', ANRW II 10.1 (1988) 45-106 (with additional remarks by L. Török; not yet continued);
44. M. Weber, 'Blemmyer', RAC Suppl. Lf. 9 (2002) 7-28.
45. Maspero saw this Collouthos as the subject of the petition but Wilcken, 'Papyrus Urkunden XV', 443 already remarked: 'Aber das geht schon wegen des Fehlens des Artikels vor dem Namen nicht; der Mann muß schon in Z. 6 genannt sein'. However, if the name of our man was mentioned in the text at all is doubtful. Cf., most recently, R. Alston, The City in Roman and Byzantine Egypt (London, 2002) 90 who maintains that Collouthos is the main figure of the petition.
46. E.g. J.N. Bremmer, 'Oedipus and the Greek Oedipus Complex', in J.N. Bremmer (ed.), Interpretations of Greek Mythology (London, 1987) 41-59 at 49-51.
47. J.-L. Fournet, 'L'«homérisme» à l'époque protobyzantine: l'exemple de Dioscore d'Aphrodité', Ktèma 20 (1995) 305-15 and Hellénisme, 673-5.
48. A. Papathomas, 'Zwischen juristischen Formeln und künstlerischer Schöpfung. Neutestamentliche Elemente in den Urkunden des spätantiken Dichters und Notars Flavius Dioskoros von Aphrodito', Hermes 128 (2000) 481-99;
49. J.H.F. Dijkstra, 'A World Full of the Word. The Biblical Learning of Dioscorus', in MacDonald, Twomey & Reinink, Learned Antiquity, 134-46
50. P.Aphrod.Lit. IV 1-16.
51. Cf. Fournet, Hellénisme, 259-64.
52. J.-L. Fournet, 'Notes critiques sur des pétitions du Bas Empire', JJurPap 28 (1998) 7-18
53. e Congrès International des Études Byzantines, Paris 2001, forthcoming and 'Between Literary Tradition and Cultural Change.
54. The Poetic and Documentary Production of Dioscorus of Aphrodite', in MacDonald, Twomey & Reinink, Learned Antiquity, 101-14.
55. Cf. H. Zilliacus, Zur Abundanz der spätgriechischen Gebrauchssprache, Commentationes Humanarum Litterarum 41.2 (Helsinki, 1967) 15-7;
56. A.B. Kovelman, 'From Logos to Myth: Egyptian Petitions of the 5th-7th Centuries', BASP 28 (1991) 135-52.
57. E.g. the motifs of eating raw meat and incest. Cf. Bremmer, 'Oedipus', 51: 'For the Greeks, incest, parricide and cannibalism were the great taboos which marked off the civilized from the rest of the world'.
58. See Dijkstra, 'World Full of the Word', for a detailed analysis of the way Dioscorus displays his biblical learning in this petition.
59. Biblical expression: εcombining comma aboveπ' αcombining comma aboveληθειcombining acute accentας . Allusion to Sophocles: ληcombining acute accentθη ς ... αcombining comma aboveναcombining acute accentπα υλαcombining dot belowν, cf. Soph.Ph. 877-8
60. Cf. Fournet, 'À propos de SB XIV 11856', 226-7.
61. Cf. Gagos & Van Minnen, Settling a Dispute, 22;
62. Maspero, Papyrus grecs 1, 16: 'Nous ne possédons que la première colonne.'
63. Cf. Maspero, Papyrus grecs 1, pl. XI-XII.
64. J. Maspero, 'Les papyrus Beaugé', BIFAO 10 (1912) 131-57 at 143-4, n. 4
65. and L'organisation militaire de l'Égypte byzantine (Paris, 1912) 80.
66. Cf. Bell, 'Egyptian Village', 33, n. 65;
67. Cor.Iust. 1.133-40.
68. Cf. M. Gelzer, 'Altes und Neues aus der byzantinisch-ägyptischen Verwaltungsmisere, vornehmlich im Zeitalter Justinians', Archiv 5 (1913) 346-77 at 360, n. 5;
69. 2) 37, n. 11;
70. E. Stein, Histoire du Bas Empire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1949-59) 2.739-46.
71. Maspero, 'Papyrus Beaugé', 137-43 already dated the text between 567 and 570 (?)
72. but M. Geizer, Studien zur byzantinischen Verwaltung Ägyptens (Leipzig, 1909) 24-5
73. and 'Altes und Neues', 371 dated it 552-3
74. Weber, 'Blemmyer', 26 between 548 and 553.
75. Cf. Fournet, 'Notes critiques', 7-8.
76. E.g. J. den Boeft, J.N. Bremmer, 'Notiunculae martyrologicae', VChr 35 (1981) 43-56 at 46-7.
77. For ηcombining comma abovéτοι see P.J. Sijpesteijn, 'The Meanings of ηcombining comma abovéτο ι in the Papyri', ZPE 90 (1992) 241-50.
78. Palmer, Gram. 143, n. 14.
79. The terms were used, though not together, by later Byzantine authors for Christianised nomads of mixed marriages, H. Ahrweiler, 'Byzantine Concepts of the Foreigner: The Case of the Nomads', in H. Ahrweiler, A.E. Laiou (eds.), Studies on the Internal Diaspora of the Byzantine Empire (Washington, 1998) 1-15 at 13.
80. H.I. Bell in Maspero, Papyrus grecs 1, 201 ('addenda et corrigenda')
81. = BL I (1922) 100.
82. P. van Minnen, 'Une nouvelle liste des toponymes du nome Hermopolite', ZPE 101 (1994) 83-6 at 85, n. 13.
83. Cf. the expression ηcombining reversed comma above ιcombining reversed comma aboveεραcombining grave accent αcombining comma aboveννωcombining inverted breveνα, F. Mitthof, Annona militaris. Die Heeresversorgung im spätantiken Ägypten, 2 vols. (Florence, 2001) 1.63, 73-6.
84. CΙΓΝΑ: F. Rossi, Un nuovo codice copto del Museo Egizio di Torino (Rome, 1893) 88;
85. W.E. Crum, Short Texts from Coptic Ostraca and Papyri (London, 1921) 389;
86. H.E. Winlock, H.E. Crum, H.G. Evelyn-White (eds.), The Monastery of Epiphanius at Thebes, 2 vols. (New York, 1926) 2.201.
87. Cf. H. Förster, Wörterbuch der griechischen Wörter in den koptischen dokumentarischen Texten (Berlin, 2002) 726-7.
88. For depositio ad signa see R.O. Fink, Roman Military Records on Papyrus (London, 1971) 243-9.
89. For the symbolism attached to military standards, see e.g. W. Seston, 'Feldzeichen', in RAC VII (1969) 689-711 at 702-5 and 705-7;
90. P. Herz, 'Honos aquilae', ZPE 17 (1975) 181-97;
91. M. Speidel, Roman Army Studies, 2 vols. (Amsterdam/Stuttgart, 1984-92) 1.3-43 at 17-27
92. 1) and 301-9 at 301-5
93. 1);
94. J. Rüpke, Domi militiae. Die religiöse Konstruktion des Krieges in Rom (Stuttgart, 1990) 184-8;
95. D. Woods, 'Julian, Arbogastes, and the Signa of the Ioviani and Herculiani', JRMES 6 (1995) 61-8;
96. 3, 1437-8.
97. Kirwan, Studies, Ch. XXV at 89 translates this sentence as follows: 'And this, in spite of the fact that, in so doing, the Blemmyes would be persuaded to cease acknowledging the Everlasting God'. According to Kirwan, then, the Blemmyes had already been converted to Christianity.
98. For the same interpretation see Demicheli, Rapporti, 194;
99. Weber, 'Blemmyer', 26.
100. T. Eide, T. Hägg, R.H. Pierce, L. Török (eds.), Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, 4 vols. (Bergen, 1994-2000) 3 (= FHN III) 305, 308-9, 317, 319. In what follows, I refer to the numbers of the FHN and take over its translations, unless otherwise indicated.
101. FHN III 310-11, 313.
102. See most recently, I.C. Rutherford, 'Island of the Extremity. Space, Language and Power in the Pilgrimage Traditions of Philae', in D. Frankfurter (ed.), Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt (Leiden, 1998) 229-56.
103. For the demotic inscriptions, see F.L. Griffith, Catalogue of the Demotic Graffiti in the Dodecaschoenus, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1935-7 = I.Ph.Dem.).
104. For the Greek ones, A. and É. Bernand, Les inscriptions grecques et latines de Philae, 2 vols. (Paris, 1969 = I.Ph.Gr.).
105. E.g. L. Török, 'A Contribution to Post-Meroitic Chronology: The Blemmyes in Lower Nubia', RSO 58 (1984) 201-43
106. Late Antique Nubia (Budapest, 1988) 226-9
107. and 'Notes on the Kingdom of the Blemmyes', in Studia in honorem L. Fóti (Budapest, 1989) 397-412.
108. As I argued at the 10th International Congress for Nubian Studies, Rome 2002.
109. Joh.Eph.HE III 4.6-9, 49-53.
110. H. Harauer dates the text on palaeographical grounds to the last quarter of the sixth century at H. Satzinger, 'Anmerkungen zu einigen Blemmyer-Texten', in E. Plöckinger, M. Kandler et al. (eds.), Lebendige Altertumswissenschaft (= Festschrift Vetters; Vienna, 1985) 327-32 at 330-2.
111. Cf. Török, 'Contribution', 236-41
112. J.H.F. Dijkstra, '"Une Foule Immense de Moines". The Coptic Life of Aaron and the Early Bishops of Philae', in Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress of Papyrologists, Vienna 2001, forthcoming.
113. J.H.F. Dijkstra, 'Horus on His Throne. The Holy Falcon of Philae in His Demonic Cage', GM 189 (2002) 7-10.
114. I.Ph.Gr. 186, 188-193, 196-9;
115. I.Ph.Dem. 96, 159, 194, 211, 236, 240, 258-9, 332, 343, 351, 355, 364-6, 369-72, 375, 436, 450.
116. Cf. U. Wilcken, 'Heidnisches und christliches aus Ägypten', Archiv 1 (1901) 396-436;
117. A. Burkhardt, 'Zu späten heidnischen Priestern in Philae', in P. Nagel (ed.), Graeco-Coptica: Griechen und Kopten im byzantinischen Ägypten (Halle and Wittenberg, 1984) 77-83.
118. Although the fifth-century philosopher Marinus claims that Isis was still worshipped at Philae in 485 (Marin.Procl. 19).
119. Calderini, Diz.Geogr. III 385-6.
120. However, this does not necessarily make Cannibal a local official from Omboi, as Updegraff, Study Blemmyes, 150 assumes without further explanation.
121. For the sixth-century border troops see, conveniently, J.G. Keenan, 'Evidence for the Byzantine Army in the Syene Papyri', BASP 27 (1990) 139-50.
122. There was also a military unit (vexillatio) garrisoned in Omboi, cf. J. Gascou, 'Deux inscriptions Byzantines de Haute-Egypte', T&MByz 12 (1994) 323-42 at 326, but this unit seems hardly compatible with the incident of the imperial standards.
123. For a collection of the sources see S. Timm, Das christlich-koptische Ägypten in arabischer Zeit, 6 vols. (Wiesbaden, 1984-92) 3.1468-70 s.v. 'Kôm Umbû'.
124. E.g. J. Baines, J. Málek, Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000 rev. ed. of 1980) 74;
125. E. Winter, 'Philae', Lex.Äg. IV (1982) 1022-7.
126. R. Rémondon, 'Soldats de Byzance d'après un papyrus trouvé à Edfou', RechPap 1 (1961) 41-93.
127. e siècles)', BIFAO 51 (1952) 63-78
128. and J. Gascou, 'Militaires étrangers en Égypte byzantine', BIFAO 75 (1975) 203-6.
129. P. Nautin, 'La conversion du temple de Philae en église chrétienne', CArch 17 (1967) 1-43.
130. I.Ph.Gr. 200-4 (= FHN III 324).
131. Nautin, 'Conversion', 6-8.
132. Nautin, 'Conversion', 8;
133. T. Baumeister, 'Das Stephanuspatrozinium der Kirche im ehemaligen Isis-Tempel von Philä', RQ 81 (1986) 187-94.
134. Cf. Rémondon, 'Soldats', 69;
135. J. Maspero, 'Théodore de Philae', RHR 59 (1909) 299-317.
136. P. Grossmann, 'Die Kirche des Bischofs Theodoros im Isistempel von Philae. Versuch einer Rekonstruktion', RSO 58 (1984) 107-17.
137. E.g. P.P.V. van Moorsel, 'Une théophanie nubienne', RAC 42 (1966) 297-316;
138. A.J. van der Jagt, 'Een mogelijke bron voor de kruis-devotie van de Nubiërs', in A. Hilhorst (ed.), De heiligenverering in de eerste eeuwen van het Christendom (Nijmegen, 1988) 53-62;
139. A. Grillmeier, Jesus der Christus im Glauben der Kirche, 2 vols. (Freiburg, 1979-90) 2.iv 292-5;
140. P.P.V. van Moorsel, Called to Egypt. Collected Studies on Painting in Christian Egypt (Leiden, 2000) 63-80
141. 1).
142. and D. Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt. Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton, 1998) in which it has not been included.