The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus: Part Two

Let's imagine the great city of Alexandria spread out in its whitewashed splendour beside the Mediterranean. It's around the middle of February, 278 BCE.

The superbly designed stone avenue, Boulevard Argeus, stretches southward from the royal palace for stadia. Although sixty cubits wide, it is an ethnic stew approaching the full boil of overflowing excitement under a searing mid-day sun: soldiers with clanking swords on nervous horses; dignitaries in chariots; rich, perfumed matrons in curtained palanquins; bearded Jews with strange hats; black-skinned Nubians; haughty Macedonians in multi-hued chitons; native Egyptians in diaphanous white linens; snorting work elephants; carts filled with tantalizing fruit and vegetables; and official delegations rushing to appointments. Seers, touts, and itinerant street people fight for attention. The city’s normal population of about a hundred thousand has swollen to twice that number in a tidal wave of humanity from countries surrounding the entire Mediterranean. It's the day before the beginning of the first Ptolemaieia, a festival to rival the Olympics with days of athletic and artistic contests to be held in the city's magnificent stadium, known as the Lageion, and theater. Alexandria is the only place to be.

Two weeks later, the event is climaxed. VIP guests of King Ptolemy II and his sister Arsinoe II begin filling the stadium well before sunrise. At the same time, the hordes of commoners and visitors begin lining the city's wide, stoa-bordered boulevards to get the best spots for viewing what is supposed to be the most lavish spectacle ever seen. The excitement is palpable and Ptolemy does not disappoint.

Arsinoe II, sister and wife of Ptolemy II

Ptolemy II and Arsinoe II

Just as the sun rises a golden chariot upon which stands a handsome, winged youth representing Eosphorus, the morning star, and holding aloft a torch that glows brilliantly, enters the stadium to a tumultuous roar. After him come official delegations from the competing kingdoms of the diadochi, the theoroi, plus priests and sacrifices to honor all the Greek gods. They first pass beneath the royal box, and bow profusely to Ptolemy before they circle the stadium in a clockwise direction and exit out the porticoes.

Then Silenoi, followers of the god Dionysus, in purple and scarlet himatia run into the stadium to stop the people in the stands from approaching the parade. They are acting as parade "police."

There follow myriads of other representatives and symbols of the god - satyrs holding gilded lamps…people dressed as Nike with golden wings…then more boys in purple tunics…and forty satyrs with gold crowns and painted bodies. Then the god Hermes…then Penteteris, a voluptuous beauty, tall and adorned with quantities of gold. She has a superb dress. In one hand she’s holding a garland of peach blossoms; the other one has a palm branch...more satyrs with garlands of gold ivy leaves. Then actors from the Guild of the Artists of Dionysus...

Now a section of the procession that represents the mythical life of Dionysus - a large wagon with a hundred eighty slaves pulling it by ropes. It holds a tall statue of Dionysus wearing a purple garment. The statue is posed as if pouring wine out of a golden goblet. A canopy shades the entire statue…another statue that represents Nysa, the place in India where Dionysus was nursed. The statue moves with no person applying his hand to it...the wagon holding the statue is drawn by sixty men and in it the tall female statue is in a sitting position, clothed in a gold tunic. She stands up on her own, pours milk out of a golden bottle, and then sits down again. She is crowned with gold ivy leaves and holds a thyrsus. A parasol shades the wagon.

Next come over three hundred slaves pulling a huge cart on which is a gigantic wine press full of grapes. Sixty satyrs trample the grapes, singing a song in praise of the wine press to flute music. The bald and fat, drunken tutor of Dionysus, Silenus, presides over them. The newly-pressed wine runs out from the bottom of the cart, leaving a purple trail in the dirt of the stadium track. Then another wagon even larger than the last with six hundred men drawing it. There’s a sack on it of sewn leopards’ skins that must hold three thousand measures of wine. This cart too allows its contents to escape onto the track…and now more bumbling fools—a hundred twenty satyrs and silenoi, all wearing garlands. They too carry casks of wine, bowls, and gold goblets…then sixteen hundred boys crowned with ivy and vine leaves and clad in knee-length white chitons march smartly through the stadium porticoes. They all carry a variety of gold and silver wine coolers. After them, hundreds more boys enter carrying drinking cups. They run up into the crowded seats and offer the entire audience a draught of sweet Mareotic wine, refilling the cups from the coolers as necessary.

More "floats" with statues and scenes follow - a wagon decorated as the bed chamber of Semelê, the mother of Dionysus and another decorated as a large cave, the cave where Dionysus was raised. Live doves and pigeons fly out of the cave for the people to catch by long threads attached to their legs. The cave also has running fountains of milk and wine...another wagon containing a beautifully painted statue of the god riding on an elephant. Sitting in front of him on the elephant’s neck is a satyr crowned with a golden chaplet...then five troops of asses ridden by crowned silenoi and satyri...

Sarcophagus with Triumph of Dionysus - Marble from the island of Proconnesus, Turkey

Courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/jerub-baal/2534611388/
 These scenes were depicted in much greater size and with much greater pomp in the Grand Procession, but no artistic renderings exist of the procession.

The next section of the procession is preceded by the singularly unattractive smell of wild animals...twenty-four chariots drawn by four elephants each enter the stadium, clouds of dust surrounding them and covering the spectators on the lower rows of seats...The elephants randomly trumpet, snort and deposit their breakfast on the track, adding to the general stench and mess... then a ridiculous parade of foreign animals pulling chariots ensues—goats, antelopes, buffaloes, ostriches, zebras. Two costumed boys also ride on every animal. Camels carrying spices bring up the rear, but there's much more - huntsmen with thousands of dogs…men carrying trees with birds and beasts of every country…hundreds and hundreds of sheep, Ethiopian oxen, an immense white bear, leopards, panthers, lynxes, caracal, vast numbers of horses, enormous lions, a cameleopard, and a rhinoceros.

A depiction of ancient Alexandria looking southwest along one of the wide boulevards (Meson Pedion)

on which the Grand Procession could have travelled

By now it is well into the afternoon and the procession of symbols, floats, and wealth continues with some politically subtle messages of the time - a cart with a large colorfully painted statue of Dionysus flying to the altar of Rhea, the earth mother, being pursued by his real mother Hera. Priapus, his son, stands by him crowned with gold ivy leaves. The second cart contains exquisitely designed statues of Alexander and Ptolemy I, both crowned with gold. A statue of Arête with a gold crown stands beside Ptolemy. Again, another statue of Priapus is with them, wearing a gold crown of ivy leaves. A fourth statue wearing a golden diadem and representing the city of Corinth also stands beside Ptolemy. The two carts are followed by women in sumptuous dresses, jewelry, and gold crowns. They all hold signs announcing cities in Ionia, Greece, Asia, and islands, all of which were under Persian control before Alexander conquered them.

There follow two chariots with oversize symbols of the cult of Dionysus. The first has a golden thyrsus ninety cubits long and a silver spear sixty cubits long; the second contains a gigantic golden phallus a hundred twenty cubits long wreathed with golden garlands and having on the end a golden star six cubits in circumference. Right after this are three hundred musicians with gold crowns and playing gold kithara enter the stadion. Immediately after, a tremendous dust cloud returns. It precedes the entry of two thousand black sacrificial bulls adorned with gilded horns, gold frontlets, gold crowns in the middle of their foreheads, gold necklaces, and gold breastplates. 

The procession must surely be near the end. A magnificently decorated golden statue of Alexander rolls in, borne on a chariot drawn by lumbering elephants, their snouts constantly swinging. Beside him stand statues of Nike, the companion of Zeus and the winged goddess of victory, and Athena, the goddess of war. An ivory and gold throne for Ptolemy Soter (Ptolemy I) is paraded in by slaves. On it is a crown made of ten thousand gold coins. It is followed by numbers of similar thrones, some of which hold crowns and some golden horns, then an obnoxious display of wealth - hundreds of gifts, items of booty, and seemingly useless icons carried in by slaves or creaking, shiny carts. Most of the items are oversized exaggerations of what they represent.

Then a far-off sound begins, faint at first. It grows to a steady chorus of clanging. Bells. Hundreds of bells. The entire stadion rises with the king and looks eastward to the porticoes. Now lumbering through are sixty-four muscular mules, all with golden crowns, golden bells hanging beside their heads, and collars of precious stones. Behind them creak the gold and iron wheels of their burden. As it passes through the porticoes, it reflects the dying rays of the setting sun flashing through the dust. It’s the treasure of treasures, a magnificent golden carriage. The catafalque of Alexander!


Then a deluge of raucous cheers washes over the stadion. “Alexander, Alexander! Praise the king!” They don’t stop. The top of the carriage is a gold vault covered with precious stones and carved reliefs of Alexander’s campaigns. On each corner is a golden figure of Nike holding a trophy. The roof is ringed with finely-carved goats’ heads, gold rings, festive garland, and large bells. A gold Ionic colonnade supports the vault and two gold lions guard the entrance. Its beauty is almost beyond belief.

What appears to be the end approaches as the first ranks of the infantry march in step into the stadium, all in polished bronze breastplates and helmets. They carry sarissas. In ranks of ten abreast, there are 57,600 of them. The infantry is then followed by 23,200 cavalry, all in polished brass with helmet feathers flying. The whole army takes almost three hours to pass through the stadium. It is a truly impressive and intimidating example of Egypt’s military might. At the end, night has enveloped the Lageion as Hesperus, the evening star, rolls through in his golden chariot. Just as Eosphorus did, he holds aloft a flaming torch to signal that the spectacle has ended.

We'll look at what this all means next time.

The Grand Procession of Ptolemy Philadelphus: Part One

In or around 278 BCE, another spectacular event was held in Egypt, this time in ancient Alexandria. Not long after he came to power, Ptolemy II, the son of Ptolemy I (a general and close friend of Alexander the Great), staged a monumental procession the likes of which had never been seen before in the ancient world. Indeed, it still may not have a match in sheer grandeur and expense even today.

At that time, Egypt was enmeshed in a series of struggles amongst the diadochi, the generals from Alexander's army and their successors who were competing for the remains of the gigantic empire that had been carved out across western Asia and northern Africa. Ptolemy and his son were part of this group of competitors. Egypt was rich in raw materials, precious gems, and food. It was one of the most sought-after regions of the empire.

This was not only a period of almost continuous war, it was also a fascinating time in history. Ptolemy I had claimed the body of Alexander after his death - rather he had forcibly "kidnapped" it - and taken it to Memphis, the then-capital of Egypt near modern-day Cairo. Supposedly, the thought was that possession of the body was tantamount to a final claim on the empire's crown. At some point it was decided either by Ptolemy I or by him and his son jointly, that the body should be repatriated to Alexandria, the city that Alexander founded. When and how this occured has never been confirmed. However, I believe it is possible that the body was returned as part of the massive celebration held by Ptolemy II about 278 BCE.

So that is the first interesting aspect to this event. Another is the sheer intrigue and mix of personalities involved. They include: Ptolemy I, the seasoned, battle-hardened general; Ptolemy II, a voluptuary and dilettante and the son of Ptolemy I; and Arsinoe II, a strong-willed beauty thirsting for political power, and a woman easily the intellectulal equivalent of her future more famous relative, Cleopatra VII. She was the daughter of Ptolemy I and, if history is to be believed, eventually the wife of her brother, Ptolemy II. It was this marriage that later resulted in Ptolemy II being forever known as "Philadelphus" or "loving one's sister."

Finally, all this takes place in Alexandria, the most beautiful, advanced city in the world at that time, thanks to the ingenuity of these same Ptolemies. For want of comparison, it was in those days a contemporary mixture of the debauchery of a Las Vegas and the sophistication of a Paris, London, or New York.

I'll get right into the story in the next post.

Legacies of the Opet Festival

It is interesting to note that most of today's world knows very little about these spectacular ancient celebrations yet they continue to influence our lives. My goal in investigating the celebrations is to make people aware of the real legacies of them. Here are my thoughts about the Opet Festival.

The first legacy is related to the god Amun-Re and the beginnings of western religious thought. Egyptian religion remained remarkably uniform throughout its 3,000 years of history; however, in the latter part, some gods became more powerful by assimilating lesser gods. Between 1353 and 1336 BCE, during the New Kingdom period, a pharaoh named Akhenaten ruled, the so-called “heretic pharaoh.” In place of the hundreds of natural elements and forces that the Egyptians had always honored as their gods, he recognized only one: the supreme force of Light, the sun disc. This was nothing short of revolutionary thinking. It was, as some scholars have suggested, possibly the first example of monotheism in history. It put a lot of priests out of work and created a monstrous conflict between that class and the pharaoh. Consequently, once Akhenaten’s reign was over, later generations of priests and pharaohs attempted to expunge his reign by defacing all his monuments. However, out of the ensuing return to normalcy in Egyptian religion, some of the previous gods became stronger. Amun-Re appears to have been one result of this coalescing. In fact, a papyrus written during the reign of Ramesses II attests to Amun being “the image of every god” and “too great to investigate, too powerful to know.” It goes on, “All the gods are three: Amun, the sun, and Ptah….” As Allen (1997) states, “Although the text speaks of three gods, the three are merely aspects of a single god. Here Egyptian theology has reached a kind of monotheism,…one more akin to that of the Christian trinity.” By about then, Amun had indeed combined with the sun-god Re to become Amun-Re, a clear indication of the beginning of a unified concept. Furthermore, as Amun-Re became more powerful as a state god, religion approached a form of henotheism, the worship of a single god above others. Coincidentally, henotheism was practiced in nearby Syria-Palestine where the god Ba’al was eventually replaced as the chief god by Hashem or “the Lord” in Israel shortly after this period, at the time of Abraham, around 1000 BCE. For western religion, this was the start of true monotheism. Thus, since the Opet Festival was the main annual event in Thebes and celebrated the creative power of Amun-Re, it is not unreasonable to assume that it was influential in the nascence of the great religious traditions of western thought.

The second legacy concerns the relationship of the god Amun-Re to the pharaoh. As we have seen earlier, in Egyptian religion the pharaoh was considered to be the earthly manifestation of Amun-Re. In this capacity, the pharaoh was a necessary intermediary between the gods and humanity. Thus, the festival was one of the first well-documented historical events that reinforced the concept of divine right of kings, so prevalent in many societies even up to the present.

The third legacy has to do with ritual. To say that the rituals of this festival were elaborate is an understatement. Not only were they elaborate, but if one believes the vast array of glyphic evidence, they were also invariant. This invariance is another general characteristic of ritual postulated by religious scholar Dr. Catherine Bell, whom we referenced in the Introduction. Furthermore, the strict prayers and incantations were augmented by performance in the form of music and dance, as in the Rhino Cave but considerably more developed. Let’s look at these a little closer. 

There was a plethora of instruments used in the Opet, including sistra (metal rattles usually made of bronze), lyres, flutes, castanets, tambourines, ivory clappers, barrel drums, and trumpets. Although others such as harps and bells were not depicted, they were probably used at the feasts during Opet, since they are extensively shown elsewhere in the same historical period. The inventors of these instruments are unknown, lost over time. Almost identical versions of most of them have been noted in Mesopotamian culture of the period, dating back simultaneously with Egypt to the third millennium BCE. The number and sophistication of the instruments, samples of which are in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, would lead one to think that there must have been written music. Oddly, nothing has been discovered. Neither has anyone yet proven whether harmony was used in instrumental or vocal performance. We are reasonably certain that the musicians tuned their instruments using cyclical tuning (supposedly “invented” by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras when visiting Egypt seven centuries after Ramesses II!) according to a strict cycle of perfect fourths and perfect fifths. This tuning sounded more natural and consonant than the somewhat dissonant equal temperament tuning invented during the Renaissance that is the basis of current western music. Thus, there could easily have been simple harmony using these intervals, which are the most pleasing to the ear. There has been no shortage of speculation of its use because of the religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians. The notion that “each note of music not only had a particular cosmic value, but a magic potency…. The orderly arrangement of the stars and the harmony of musical sounds and their natures was the very pivot of the religious conceptions of the ancient Egyptians.” This can be supported by the extensive employment of temple musicians and singers—usually female—who surely must have practiced and experimented with melodies and intervals that best suited the elaborate rituals.

One fascinating related invention—and legacy—thought to come from Egypt, is chironomy. Chironomy is the use of hand signals to direct vocal and instrumental music performance. Whereas in modern conducting the notes are already specified in a written score, in chironomy the hand signs indicate melodic curves and ornaments. Chironomy has more visual documentation in Egypt than anywhere else in the ancient world. Some of the festival scenes do, in fact, depict a leader directing clapping priests using chironomy.

Dance, the other performance genre most prevalent in iconography, was well advanced in form by the time of the New Kingdom. It is known from widespread depictions on tombs and temples that there were different types of dances, with both males and females participating. In the case of the Opet Festival, they appear to have been only female. For example, twelve nude female dancers are shown in acrobatic poses in one set of Luxor Temple carvings. Moreover, they are shown performing in the same poses, an indication that they had probably been choreographed to some extent (see Figure 1 below). Beside them, to the right, a group of female musicians with sistra is no doubt keeping time for them. Farther to the right of the musicians is what appears to be a pile of burning offerings on an altar, with other people bringing more sacrifices. This is apparently a specific ritual being performed as the procession nears the Luxor Temple, and thus the dances are likely a part of it.

Figure 1: Scene of dancers, musicians, and sacrificial feast from the Colonnade Hall in Luxor Temple

Taking the dance scene together with all the various music scenes, and considering the combination as an entire, if somewhat broken, performance designed to enhance the festival, we have a real legacy from this event. This combination could be interpreted as an early documentation of music and dance used to bring greater understanding of the festival’s arcane rituals to the general populace forced to await the appearance of their gods and pharaoh outside the temple enclosures.

If this is correct, it does a couple of things. First, it brings sensory stimuli (i.e., the rhythmic drivers of music and dance mentioned in an earlier post on October 20, 2010) into the festival to help in the sharing of communal ritual by the participants and spectators. Second, it adds meaning to the ritual enactment of concepts that the uneducated spectators would otherwise find obscure: the mythical wedding of gods and the rejuvenation of the pharaoh’s power. Indeed, the whole festival is a ritual drama, one that must be “elaborately staged so that senses are aroused and flooded with phenomenological proof of the symbolic reality which the ritual is portraying.” If the music has been successfully chosen and played, and if the dancers have properly interpreted the choreographer’s understanding of the ritual enhancement required, then the whole performance component has been successful.

For the final legacy of the Opet, we return to that magnificent example of sacred space, the Temple of Amun-Re in Karnak. Built in stages by numerous pharaohs over several centuries, it was purposely designed with processional events such as the Opet Festival in mind. As pointed out by Thomas Barrie, it contained “a marked origin, a path, and a sacred center (or destination) at the end of the path.” It dramatically expressed Egyptian beliefs and their creation myths. For example, once inside the main entrance—at the time of Ramesses II—one was thrust into a hall designed to evoke creation and the primordial mound from which life arose out of the chaos of prehistory. This so-called hypostyle hall was filled with immense columns resembling papyrus plants some 21 meters (69 feet) high supporting a roof with small clerestory windows near the ceiling to give minimal light (see Figure 2 below).

Figure 2: Present-day remains of the hypostyle hall of Karnak Temple, with no roof

As one ventured farther into the temple on the processional path towards the east, the ground rose gradually and the ceiling lowered until the final destination was reached, the holiest of holies, the sanctuary of the god Amun-Re, where the sacred statue and processional barque were kept. Along the way were more pylons and obelisks that signaled the entrances to increasingly more sacred areas. The temple’s main entrance pylons (seen in the background in the painting accompanying the first post about the Opet) depicted scenes of the pharaoh smiting enemies, a sign that he controlled order (ma’at) in the country and was able to defeat chaos. As well, the inner walls of the temple were covered with carved offering and processional scenes, typically painted in vivid colors. The temple complex in Karnak was, and still is, the largest religious site in the world, at 247 acres. Similarly, the Luxor Temple was a smaller version in the same basic design common to cult temples throughout Egypt. More detailed descriptions of the Karnak and Luxor temples may be found in the excellent books by Wilkinson and Lauffray.

Together, these temples and the rituals of the Opet Festival within and near them represented a fully developed ancient religion in its most exquisite form. They were clearly the antecedents to the Greek, Roman, and other sacred spaces and sacred spectacles that were soon to follow.

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References:

• Allen, J.P. (1997). The Celestial Realm. In Silverman, D.P. (Ed.) Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
• Barrie, T. (1996). Spiritual Path, Sacred Place: Myth, Ritual, and Meaning in Architecture. Boston: Shambala Publications, Inc.
• Bell, C. (1997). Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. NY: Oxford University Press. pp. 138-169.
• Epigraphic Survey. (1994). Reliefs and Inscriptions at Luxor Temple, Vol. 1: The Festival Procession of Opet in the Colonnade Hall, OIP 112. Chicago: The Oriental Institute.
•  Farmer, G.F. (1999). The Music of Ancient Egypt. In Wellesz, E. (Ed.), Ancient and Oriental Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 265-283.
• Fukaya, M. (2007). Distribution of the Life Force in the Festival of the Valley: A Comparative Study with the Opet Festival. Orient, Vol. XLII. pp. 95-124.
• Lauffray, J. (1979). Karnak d’Egypte: Domain du divin. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. McFee, G. (1992). Understanding Dance. Place of Publication: New York: Routledge. p. 123.
• McFee, G. (1992). Understanding Dance. Place of Publication: New York: Routledge. p. 123.
• Myerhoff, B.G. (1984). A Death in Due Time: Construction of Self and Culture in Ritual Drama. In MacAloon, J.J. (Ed.), Rite, Drama, Festival, Spectacle. Philadelphia, PA: Institute for the Study of Human Issues. pp. 149-178.
• Wheeler, J. (2008). Chironomy in the Ancient World. The Music of the Bible Revealed. Retrieved December 16, 2008, from http://www.rakkav.com/biblemusic/pages/chironomy.htm.
• Wilkinson, R.H. (2000). The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press.