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NILUMQUE A FONTE BIBISSET: IMAGES OF THE NILE IN ROMAN LITERATURE AND FINE ART OF THE SEVERAN PERIOD

General history , UDC: 94(37) DOI: 10.25688/20-76-9105.2023.49.1.08

Authors

  • Chistalev Mark S. Candidate of Historical Sciences

Annotation

In this paper, on the example of a comparative analysis of the work of Flavius Philostratus The Life of Apollonius of Tyana and the surviving Nilotic scenes, considers the representation of the Nile during the reign of the Severan dynasty. It is noted that the image of the Nile is used in literature to form the Roman identity. At the same time, Philostratus’ Nile consists of a complex interweaving of Greek and Roman political, religious and philosophical clichés, the result of which is first the overthrow of the Nile from the top of the primacy among the places where philosophers can gain new knowledge and reach the limit of wisdom, and then completely mental the subordination of the Nile to a man, the appeal to whose biography at the junction of the pagan and Christian epochs symbolizes the formation of specific supracultural elements of the new empire, where the role of the Egyptian tradition loses its individuality, becoming part of a single imperial space. The author comes to the conclusion that the plots of the mosaic panels of the Severan epoch continue the trend that appeared back in the reign of the Antonine dynasty for the prevalence of scenes of confrontation with large predators. In addition, the use of the image of dwarfs as an artistic embodiment of the inhabitants of Egypt still dominates the Nilotic scenes. The motives of confrontation with nature, whose aggressive and unnatural pattern for the Romans made any journey along the Nile difficult, can be interpreted as a visualization of the inaccessibility of the Nile Valley, which does not allow reaching the sources of the river. This interpretation, combined with the still lacking interest in the real Egypt and its culture, that continues to be a unifying factor in Roman literature and the fine arts of the period under study.

How to link insert

Chistalev, M. S. (2023). NILUMQUE A FONTE BIBISSET: IMAGES OF THE NILE IN ROMAN LITERATURE AND FINE ART OF THE SEVERAN PERIOD Bulletin of the Moscow City Pedagogical University. Series "Pedagogy and Psychology", 2023, №1 (49), 113. https://doi.org/10.25688/20-76-9105.2023.49.1.08
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