Mock Class: Egyptian Identities in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean

Matthew Harrington, Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Classical Studies

We will examine the intersections of the already over 3,000 year old culture and art of Egypt with the Greco-Roman world system. After discussing the development of Egyptian visual culture, we will first discuss the use of art and architecture by the Ptolemaic (Macedonian Greek) kings to concurrently strengthen their hold on power internally in Egypt and to compete on the international (Hellenistic Greek) stage; second, we will investigate how the local Egyptian peoples adopted and repurposed Greco-Roman iconography with the framework of their indigenous religion and symbolic vocabulary.