Berenice II and the golden age of Ptolemaic Egypt / Dee L. Clayman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Clayman, Dee L.

Series:

Women in antiquity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Berenice, Queen, consort of Ptolemy III, King of Egypt, approximately 270 B.C.-221 B.C.

Berenice.

Queens--Egypt--Biography.

Queens.

Egypt.

Egypt--History--332-30 B.C.

Berenice, Queen, consort of Ptolemy III, King of Egypt, approximately 270 B.C.-221 B.C--In literature.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

x, 270 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, [2014]

Summary:

Berenice II (c. 264-221 BCE), daughter of King Magas of Cyrene and wife of Ptolemy III Euergetes, came to embody all the key religious, political, and artist ideals of Ptolemaic Alexandria. Though she arrived there nearly friendless, with the taint of murder around her, she became one of the most accomplished and powerful of the Macedonian queens descended from the successors of Alexander the Great. She was at the center of a group of important poets and intellectuals associated with the Museum and Library, not the least of which was Callimachus, the most important poet of the age. These men wrote poems not just for her, but about her, and their eloquent voices projected her charisma widely across the Greek-speaking world. Though the range of Berenice's interests was impressive and the quantity and quality of the poetry she inspired unparalleled, today she is all but unknown. Assimilating the scant and scattered evidence of her life, Dee L. Clayman presents a woman who was more powerful and fascinating than we had previously imagined. Berenice II and the Golden Age of Ptolemaic Egypt offers a portrait of a woman who had access to the cultural riches of both Greece and Egypt and who navigated her way carefully through the unprecedented honors that were all but equal to those of the king. Book jacket.

Contents:

Birth in Cyrene

Arrival in Alexandria

Callimachus on murder and marriage

Apollonius on murder and marriage

Ruling and racing

Berenice in Egypt and another murder.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-247) and index.

ISBN:

9780195370898

0195370899

9780195370881

0195370880

OCLC:

844789713