have you ever wondered what the fursona of a greek god looks like because today i discovered something fucking goofy and i feel the need to share with all of you
hermanubis, the single laziest combination of deities across cultural lines that i’ve ever seen
Ok guys this is a cool thing – I did a thesis on these in college.
Ptolemy I Soter was a complete badass and is the reason these statues exist.
When the Ptolemies (the Macedonian lineage that resulted in Cleopatra, for instance) began ruling in Egypt, there was quite a shifty situation going on. It wasn’t easy.
See Mr. Alexander The Great divvied up all of his conquered lands and they went to his various war generals. There was only one place that no one wanted – Egypt. The cultures were different, social situations were really strained…and they had been through it under the guy Alexander had appointed to take care of Alexandria.
This guy peddled priceless relics and caused all types of issues. Well Ptolemy I was a rather cool dude – because he was given a tiny bit of money to get him settled in Alexandria as the new ruler, and he spent it all on purchasing back these priceless temple relics. He came back after 2 months of near starvation and managed to make a home in Alexandria – he returned the relics, and executed the man, Cleomenes who was stealing tons of money in taxes and selling all of the Alexandrian relics. Though this was the ONLY Macedonian man there who knew the ins and outs of the city, he had him executed because the Egyptian people had been wronged. Cleomenes was shown to be a traitor in various ways, and also had no interest in helping the people of Egypt, only bleeding them of resources and moving on.
Soon he realized that there was a lot going on in Alexandria. There were Jews, GrecoMacedonians who were Pagan (worshippers of the old gods), and there were Egyptians who believed in the Neter.
They were all parsed out in their own separate neighborhoods. Ptolemy was not cool with there being division, fights in the street, etc. There were arguments over temples and there was a great division between all of these different cultures.
He appointed a crew to build giant mausoleums, temples, and shrines that were guarded by these blended deities. He actually pushed this so much that you had Egyptians and GrecoMacedonian people worshipping the same deities and being buried next to each other which was a HUGE deal.
Ptolemy realized that the land he was in had been savagely taken, but decided to make the best of his situation. He could have continued as his predecessor, taking items, taxing people to extremes, stealing food, and sending money back home – but instead he worked on building bridges between cultures, something that was not on the priority list of many at this time.
He brought together these people in life and in death, and did it with architecture, with statues, with religious services, and more.
These mausoleums were even built with amazing astrological techniques where the windows would shine lights on the graves at different times of day, there was running clean water in the mausoleums, and various parlors covered in murals of the great lands.
He was a great leader, and these guys are so much more than a ‘funny faux pas.’ They are an example of a leader trying to do the right thing when he was in the position to reap benefit from doing all the wrong things.
He was kind of kickass, and these statues are a legacy that changed lives for millions and created a new culture that was cohesive well into the careers of his descendants. Though many of them made bad decisions in the rule of Alexandria and Egypt as a whole, he did something that made Egypt stronger even if it does look ‘fucking goofy.’
Rad! Thanks for the history lesson!
hychlorions
