The Massachusetts Review, Inc.

Literary Alexandria
Author(s): John Rodenbeck
Source: The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 42, No. 4, Egypt (Winter, 2001/2002), pp. 524-572
Published by: The Massachusetts Review, Inc.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25091800 .
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Rodenbeck

John

Literary
city

of

Alexandria

two periods
has enjoyed
of
near
The
first
the
end
of
The
literary glory.
began
was
the fourth century BC and
based upon the largesse
originally
of the Ptolemies.
The brilliance
these rulers initially attracted was
Alexandria

international

to endure
gradually
radiance

in Egypt for more

than eight hundred years, diminishing
to twilight
a
and extinction,
but meanwhile
shedding
that still illuminates
literature world-wide.
second
The

to the years between

briefer, can be dated roughly
period, much
1905 and 1952. Among
the many
identified
important writers
with Alexandria
these
the
is
years,
greatest
during
undoubtedly
a native
son who wrote modern
verse
in the lan
C. P. Cavafy,
guage and quite
Ptolemies.

frequently

Just as there is a debt

played or an Archimedes
atlas

or

grammar
mechanics
aWestern
written,

in the spirit and on

to Alexandria
screw

wherever

is used, whenever

the subject

of the

a pipe-organ
aWestern-style

is

calendar

is consulted,
wherever
medicine,
astronomy,
are
or whenever
a
in
geography
taught,
problem
or geometry
is solved, so there is also a debt wherever
or opera
orWestern-influenced
is
novel, poem,
play

or

examined
read, recited,
by a critic, cata
performed,
a librarian,
a scholar, or even
by
investigated
by
enjoyed
to accumulate
reader or an audience. These
debts began

logued
one
by
some 25 years after the founding
of
II of Maced?n,
Alexander
of Philip
Alexander
the Great.
At Alexander's

death

he had put together was

minded
and illegitimate

the city by one of the sons

to history
as
III, known

in June 323 BC, the Macedonian

inherited by Philip Arrhidaeus,
half-brother.

In November

Empire
his feeble
323,

after

to obtain
the position,
Ptolemy
Lagidus
shrewdly
bargaining
one
most
of Alexander's
of
of
the
("Son
distinguished
Lagus"),
in the kingdom
of Egypt?where
arrived
Macedonian
generals,

524

as Pharaoh
seven years earlier?
had been recognized
to act as Philip's governor.
was
in fact,
believed,
Ptolemy
widely
to be another
of Alexander's
his mother
half-brothers,
having
an obscure
to
II
been
off
married
by Philip
Lagus,
allegedly

Alexander

courtier,

of her pregnancy.

the first month

during

the next year (322 BC) Ptolemy had extended his

Within

names
over Cyrenaica,
where
like Tolmeita,
the
town
of
the
ancient
of
still
Ptolemais,
appellation
testify
to Ptolemaic
was
one
and whose
of
power
city,
capital
Cyrene,
power

personal
modern

the oldest

and most

317

Arrhidaeus

Philip

tougher-minded
Cassander
likewise
Asian

was

of all the Hellenic

Alexander's

who

murdered
born

posthumously
as well
wife,

Alexander
herself

even
later

IV, the thirteen-year-old

his Central
by Roxana,

to Alexander

as Roxana

In

colonies.

murdered

by Olympias,
was murdered
in turn by her
Six years
Cassander.
stepson-in-law,

mother,

tough-minded

son

aristocratic

and another

of his widows.

to the Empire, Alexander's

former
having
and governors
themselves
for mastery
among
generals
fought
over its remnants. By 305
had
then
won,
lost,
Ptolemy
partially
won
that ran from
again from his rivals a stretch of territories
thus put paid

Cassander

North
lead

Africa
of

declared

the

up into the Greek

other Macedonian

mainland.

He

strong-men

now
and

followed
had

the

himself

king.
Two years earlier, in 307, a remarkable
in
refugee had arrived
Alexandria
from Athens, which
for nearly two hundred
had
years
been the undoubted
cultural capital of the Mediterranean
world.
This distinguished
exile was Demetrius
of Phalerum,
known
for
was the editor of a collection
his scholarship
and writing?he
of
as well
fables and the author of a study of Homer,
as of
Aesop's
numerous
most
and
works?but
oratorical,
political,
literary
famed for his statesmanship.
He had governed
Athens
through
out the previous
ten years on behalf of Cassander,
but had been
forced
Poliorcetes,
Ptolemies.

to

flee

when

the

was

city

a rival
It was

of Cassander,
therefore
natural

refuge in Egypt.
Born
in 345 to a poor

captured
but also an
that Demetrius

by

Demetrius

of the
enemy
should have

taken

family

in the city's ancient

525

port

district,

The Massachusetts
not

Review

is now
the main
of the old Athens
runway
as a student
had acquired his higher education
a gymnasium
school
in a
centered
around

far from what

Demetrius

Airport,
in the philosophical
grove of trees outside

the city's
means

southeastern

walls.

Dedicated

Lykeios
(lykeios
perhaps
"Wolf-Slayer"
the grove was called the Lykeion
and gave
Bringer"),
to the school, which
came to be known
throughout

Apollo

to

or

"Light
this name

subsequent
in its Latin form?Lyceum.
This proper
by this name
noun would
so prestigious
that it has supplied
in turn
become
an English
common
noun
as well
as common
nouns meaning
in
school"
the
all
other
specifically
"secondary
major
European
centuries

lyc?e, liceo, Lyzeum).

was
made
originally
its
shaded
along
paths

(e.g.,
languages
The Lyceum

famous

who
by Aristotle,
to
for
students
lecturing
twelve years, from 335 until the death of Alexander
the Great,
to
his most
famous pupil, in 323. Demetrius
had been too young
to
hear Aristotle
he
but
had
the
of
listened
lectures
speak,
had

strolled

Aristotle's
immediate
and had used the
successor,
Theophrastus,
a mouseion?our
word
library in a nearby
temple of the Muses,
museum
is the Latin form of the same word?where
Aristotle's
own books were
A fellow
kept and could be consulted.
pupil,
than Demetrius,
three years younger
had been Menander,
des
to become

tined

thanks

Comedy
Roman

the most

of New
practitioner
from his work
by the
all important modern

prominent

to four

playwright
is directly

comedy
found almost

plays adapted
from whom
Terence,
descended.
(One of Menander's

plays was
in 1958 and

on rolls of
papyrus
complete
Egyptian
to be
to Terence.)
inferior
Another
proved
disappointingly
pupil
at the time was Epicurus, Menander's
in the Lyceum
intimate
friend
who

did
and classmate?they
become
the founder

would

philosophical

school

their military
service together?
of an ultimately more
enduring
than Aristotle's.

not have know

and Epicurus
it,Menander
they could
areas
two
of
the
intellectual
represent
endeavor?comedy
only
was
to retain
which
Athens
cultural
and philosophy?in
Though

the next century

supremacy
during
in these two fields,
145 BC. Except

526

a half, the years up to

to be eclipsed
she was
by

and

Alexandria

Literary
Alexandria,

where

the best minds

Mouseion,
become

center

connected

gathered
with

around

a library
world. And

study
far
the largest in the ancient
by
tion of these two new institutions was probably
to Demetrius.
A

statue of him

limestone

the eleven

among
the exedra

of

statues

the

Saqqarah. Discovered
of Lysippus
called
before 283 BC, while
a
have been
portrait.
physical
cernible,

of Hellenic

the founda
in large part

due

to Pindar's

stands next

a great new
to
that was

seated figure
in

and philosophers

poets
at
in the Memphite
Necropolis
Serapeum
was
a
in January
carved by
1851, it
pupil
or
almost
Dionysos
Dionysiades,
certainly
was

It may
so
the statue is
damaged
Though
of Demetrius
of Phalerum
characteristics
Demetrius

still alive.

therefore
that no
are

dis

to make
out the herma of Serapis, the
it is still possible
the center of a new
Greco-Egyptian
god that had been made
his standing figure
cult by Ptolemy
leans.
I, on which
is Demetrius'
What
the statue symbolically
celebrates
second
as
a
on
to
I
consultant
and cultural affairs
career,
Ptolemy
religious
as both a com
in Egypt,
which
he
also
became
known
during
of hymns. He
almost
collaborated
poser and collector
certainly
two
with
of Ptolemy's
other experts,
the Egyptian Manetho
and
a Greek
were
from Eleusis, where
famous
chthonian
mysteries
in devising
the cult of Serapis. He credited
the god, in
observed,
him
with
saved
from
and the devotion
blindness,
any case,
having
shown

in his own

Demetrius'
tle cultivation

to Serapis was apparently

real.
was
a
man
more
of
than
I,
Ptolemy

hymns

patron,
and was

himself

tory of Alexander's
campaigns
historians.
The Macedonian
and writing
taken
part

Greek
in what

for

three
has

the author, for example,

that was much
admired
?lite

had

generations.
been
called

been
They
"the

a lit

of a his
by

later

reading,
speaking,
had thus already
Greek

Literate

the radical cultural

that had occurred
dur
Revolution,"
change
states
the
within
the
Hellenic
of
the
century
previous
ing
Mediterranean.
Nowhere
else in the ancient world
had literacy
become
the norm
educated
adults,
tradition,
among
displacing
memory,
wisdom,

as the
and "inspiration"
acknowledged
and intellectual
learning,
creativity.

527

foundation
Only

thanks

of
to

The Massachusetts
a cultural

Review

could a man
like Ptolemy
have even
an
of
idea
author.
begun
being
What
this Macedonian
he set
general was clearly after when
was
on
to
the
Mouseion
basis
of
and
the
the
recreate,
up
Library
such

revolution

to conceive

a new

literacy,
barriers

the

cultural

empire,

one

that would

transcend

to Alexander's
impervious
over
extended
the entire

that had been

interests

Ptolemy's
world,
stretching
trated especially

the Atlantic

from

on historic

as well
for example,
of high
civilization

to Central

centers

as Caria

and

those

military
might.
ancient Hellenic
Asia,

of Hellenic
Ionia?where

but

concen

culture?Sicily,
the attainment

antedated
of
the pre-eminence
actually
Itwas his wealth,
Athens.
his will,
and the impetus
they supplied
coter
that created the Hellenistic
era, a cultural epoch precisely
minous
with
the dynasty
of the Ptolemies
themselves.
The

date

the Mouseion

it stood within

Alexandria

was

geometry
twentieth

or even

precisely where
of conjecture. Among
on
author of the textbook

are still matters

recruits, though, was

remain
that would

its earliest

founded

Euclid,
standard

all the way

told Ptolemy

down

to the

I that such a
It was Euclid who
century.
even
is
for
everyone,
kings, and that
equally demanding
subject
no
to
is
Another
there
geometry.
early recruit was
"royal road"
an anatomist
in the brain
of Chalcedon,
specializing
Heraphilus
and

the nervous

system.
in any case, both
and the great
the Mouseion
were
In that year, at the age
well
established.
Library
to share power with his favorite
I decided
of eighty-two,
Ptolemy
in 308, deliberately
likewise
born
named
son,
overlooking
Ptolemy,
son
an
an older Ptolemy,
The
his
earlier marriage.
younger
by

By 285
Alexandrian

BC,

was made

of
the pleas and arguments
co-ruler
despite
of
his
after
who
the
like Demetrius,
advocacy
paid
price
II assumed sole
the old king's death, three years later, when
Ptolemy
was exiled to Upper Egypt and forced to commit
power. Demetrius

Ptolemy
advisors

suicide
The

to a widespread
there, according
was
of the Mouseion
prestige
to recruit

an asp.
report, with
in 270 when
signalized

from Athens,
of Lampsacus
managed
the
he
had
been
scientist working
where
there,
as
head of the Lyceum
and had served
Theophrastus
Strato

528

it

the last real

successor
for eighteen

of

Literary

Alexandria

it is probable
him Aristotle's
that Strato brought with
years. And
accounts
ancient
which
say
library from the original Mouseion,
was
II
for
the
Alexandrian
by Ptolemy
Library.
purchased
at the
It should be emphasized
that the basis of all research
was

Mouseion
tinction

made

the written
between

word.

those

there was

Therefore

no

dis

that we

intellectual

pursuits
persist
in separating
into distinct
and exclusive
categories
naively desig
or technological"
and "literary or
nated by terms like "scientific
A case in point
is Eratosthenes
of Cyrene
humanistic."
(c. 276
the third director

195),

of the Library, who

A man of immense

of antiquity.
geographer
first to calculate
the circumference
to within

as little

perhaps
as

himself

philologos
with poetic
later by Strabo, who
aim of the poet was

at home

As a repository
to the Mouseion
rector was

was

also

the greatest
he was the

ingenuity,
the globe and was correct
as fifty miles.
Eratosthenes
described
was
of words"),
and
however,
equally
of

("lover
texts. His

was used two centuries

geography
also reports him to have remarked
that "the
not to instruct, but to give pleasure."
the Library was thus vital
of the written
word,
in its own right. Its first di
and distinguished

either Demetrius

of Phalerum

himself

or Zenodotus

(serving until 245 or later), followed

by Callimachus
or
Aristo
Rhodius,
Eratosthenes,
perhaps Apollonius
of Byzantium,
and Aristarchus
of Samothrace
(until 145).

of Ephesus
of Cyrene
phanes
"What

asks Gilbert Murray,

the renowned
institution,"
a
row
at
"ever
had
such
of
its
head?" What
scholar,
giants
can be
meant
at
cultural
gathered
by looking
history.

classical
Murray

for example,
had the task of gathering
the written
Zenodotus,
of the work
versions
of all the Greek
from
Homer
onward
poets
and revising
not corrupted
them to create editions
that were
by
or additions. He
omissions
carried out this job with
the help of
two other men,
of Aetolis,

who

both

poets,

Iliad and

and Alexander

for

and
responsible
comedy
famous
later for the learned obscurity

became
Lycophron
of his poems, Alexandra,
achievement
particular
was

of Chalcis

Lycophron

were

sometimes
was

know

as Cassandra.

tragedy.
of one

Zenodotus'

text of the
of a purified
reason
the
such an achievement
why
the creation

the Odyssey. And

is that these works
important

529

of Homer,

increasingly

taught

Review

The Massachusetts
from written

than by rote, were

already the center of
the center of Roman
become
educa

texts, rather

Hellenic

would

education,
thus remain
the center of all important
educa
tion, and would
sev
tion throughout
the classical world
until their displacement
later
the
Bible.
eral hundred
years
by
Callimachus
of

poet/critic

(b. c. 310

of Cyrene
his time,

the most

BC),

to have

supposed
by many
to have
is reported

second

celebrated
been

the

said that it possessed

be disputed,
may

director,
Library's
some 490,000
rolls. His directorship
papyrus
the creator of the Library's catalogue, run
but he was undoubtedly
to
120
rolls, the so-called Tables,
papyrus
listing outstanding
ning
their works
authors, with
these lists of classic writers
"canon."

And

from

editions

of works

classified

under
comes

From
eight headings.
our idea of a literary
of publishing
standard

(kanones)
the Library's practice
in this canon comes our

own

notion

of

stan

dard or definitive

of his hymns have survived and

editions. Many
an
to Berenice
elaborate
II,wife
compliment
of Berenice,
a
in
Latin
exists
translation
well-known
III,
by
Ptolemy

his Lock
of
his

epigram
title of whose
The

Had

And
A

on

told me,

They
Iwept

Heraclitus,
me
bitter

brought
as I remembered
the

now

that

are

For Death,

thou

of grey

they
news
how

sun with

tired

handful

Still

in English
is
William
translation
Corey's
a fellow-poet,
of Hallicarnassus,
Heraclitus
collected
poems was Nightingales:

of

known

Catullus. Well

told me
to hear
often
and

talking

art
ashes,

long,

you
sent

dear

lying, my

ago

long

you
and

were

dead,
tears

bitter

and

him

down

old Carian

to

the

the

shed.

sky.

guest,

at rest,

voices,
thy nightingales
thy pleasant
all away, but
them he
he taketh

awake:
cannot

take.

in a legendary
of the antagonists
literary
to
the
have
been
is
other
poet Apoll
party
supposed
quarrel.The
a native-born
called "Rhodius"
sometimes
Alexandrian,
onius,
Callimachus

because

he

was

lived

not
Apollonius,
to have
scholars
quarrel?if

one

It is
years on the island of Rhodes.
is now
believed
who
Callimachus,
by most
and the
the second head of the Library;
been
for many

there was

one?may

have

530

arisen

out of clashes within

Literary

Alexandria

a
of Apollonius'
any rate, the publication
Argonautica,
or miniature
the
of
adventures
four-part
epyllion
epic retelling
to utter his best-known
Jason, is alleged have inspired Callimachus
"A big book
is a big pain" (mega biblion mega kakon).
aphorism:
What
Callimachus
is difficult
may have had against Argonautica
its walls.

At

to say, since it exemplifies

that Alexandrian
literature

the best of those qualities

admirably
to international
has bequeathed
cul
ture. Millions
cen
the past twenty-three
of readers throughout
too big?it
turies have found
it neither
is a fraction of the length
of

either

the

Iliad or

ornamental

the Odyssey?nor
irrational
romance,

learning,
sex and violence,
which
he handles with
creates might
world Apollonius
have been
our
own
taste
the
of
time.
satisfy
literary

and
conciseness,
allusiveness,
high polish,
learning,
were
hallmarks
of
Alexandrian
poetry,
already

Elegance,

sophistication
was directed
which
the Greek
recited.

with
boring. Replete
and
of
events,
plenty
cinematic
rapidity, the
to
fabricated
precisely

Literate
Like

precisely
Revolution

at the new
and was

all his

created by
readership
to be read, not
intended
the
Alexandrian
among

contemporaries
is deeply
and consciously
un-Homeric.
His
literati, Apollonius
a
an
not
semi-divine
and far
hero, but
Jason is
ordinary mortal
less skilled as a warrior
than as a lover. Confident
that his readers
know
aware that the
and are thus well
their Euripides
of
in
and
Medea
ends
hatred
and
story
Jason
tragedy, he tells us
us their amours. His
similes
only the first part of the tale, showing
are as cunning
as Homer's,
but typically
take us into a realm only
already

hinted
good
Medea

at in the Iliad or

the Odyssey?the
A
world
of women.
of his qualities
is this passage
how
example
describing
falls in love (translation
Richard
by
Hunter):

Eros
gadfly

came
which

unseen
attacks

the bright
air, moving
He
heifers...
crouched
young
to the
arrow-notch
bowstring

through

the
feet, fitted
Jason's
in his two
the bow wide

busily
down
and

like

the

low
stretching
was
spirit

at

atMedea.
hands
shot straight
Her
back out of the high-roofed
stupor. Eros darted
by speechless
a
arrow burned
in the girl's
palace with
mocking
laugh, but his
deep
at Jason
heart
like a flame.
Full
her glances
and
the
shot,
wearying
scattered
all prudent
from her chest;
she could
think
pain
thoughts
was
of nothing
a sweet
with
flooded
else, and her
spirit
aching. As
seized

531

Review

The Massachusetts
a woman

when
woman

must

who
in her

light
fierce

flame

so was
just
in Medea's
colour,

heaps
live

dwelling

a
around
brand?a
up
twigs
burning
from working
wool?so
that she might
as she sits very
at
to the fire,
close
night

spurts up from
the destructive
heart.

at another

one

At

the

small

brand

love which

consumes

and

crouched

moment

her

soft

twigs,
and burnt

were

cheeks

and

all the

unobserved

red, the control

they blushed

poor
have

drained
now

of her mind

of

gone.

II and
poets on the payroll of Ptolemy
most
is
the
notable
for
influence
III,
Ptolemy
long-term
certainly
a Sicilian
Theocritus,
years on the
spent many
by birth, who
as in Alexandria.
island of Kos as well
Kos, off the coast of Caria,
the many

Among

close

to the old

other

Ionian

the Ptolemaic

in fact

had

empire?it
a
fostered
thriving
place?and
its freedom
owed
Samos, which
active. Theocritus'

poets

best

culture, was part of

II s birth
Ptolemy

of Hellenic

heartland

been

school

of

to Alexander,

known

works

poetry. On
nearby
there were
other
are his

a number

Idylls, "little
strands to

of Hellenic
that pulled
together
pictures,"
create the beginnings
of a new genre?"pastoral"
poetry.
and its
A rather boring
and flat-footed
of "pastoral"
history
so
in
the
line
is frequently
that leads
influence
traced
obviously
to the
to Vergil,
then through
the Middle
from Theocritus
Ages
formal
past five

the
by scores of poets
throughout
"pastorals"
produced
or six centuries
likes of Petrarch, Boccaccio,
since?the

Shelley, Matthew
Pope, Wordsworth,
Spenser, Milton,
the Nobel
laureate for 1992,
Frost and Derek Walcott,
Arnold,
are among
the best ever written.
whose Vergil-inspired
eclogues
can be seen in
as
the Romantic
however,
Klop
During
period,
or Leopardi,
this same line gave rise quite nat
stock,Wordsworth,

Ronsard,

urally
lyric,
modern

to something
far more
interesting,
the poetic
that accounts
category
poetry.

Through

in Tasso's Aminta

pastoral

the meditative-descriptive
for

about

drama, moreover,

90 percent

of

exemplified

(1573) and Guarini's H Pastor Pido

(1590),

and
the ancestor of tragi-comedy
Idylls also became
to which most of our new pro
the category
thence of melodrama,
for stage and screen belong.
ductions
of Theo
has been the influence
Less frequently
acknowledged

Theocritus'

critus' major

technical

innovation:

532

his

Idylls

were

recognized

as a

Alexandria

Literary

or "form," which
subject matter
a
new
were hardly unique, but because
poetic voice,
they embodied
nor yet to
nor
to
and
neither
epic
tragedy or com
lyric
belonging
a
utterance
of
of
the poet himself
Rather
than
the
Muse,
edy.
being
or herself, or of a dramatic persona, this new voice was, in effect, the
and gusto, but unsentimen
voice of the poem
itself, full of wisdom
new

not

genre

of

because

their

same kind

tal, ironic, elevated, and detached?the

of the most
that animates much
words,
ernist poetry: the work
Stevens, or Eliot.

of voice,

in other

part of mod
distinguished
or
of the Imagists or of Frost,
say,

of Cavafy

Idylls even qualify as "pastoral," and the

most
at all to do with
famous of them indeed has nothing
sheep,
or the
are two
Its
main
countryside.
speakers
shepherds,
expatriate
Not

wives

all of Theocritus'

from

Ptolemy

who

Syracuse

have

settled

in Alexandria

under

II (translation by Barriss Mills):

gorgo:

at home?

Is Praxinoa

praxinoa:
Of

Gorgo!
course
I'm

how

at home!

Darling
It's a wonder

it's been.

long

at all. Eunoa,
got here
a
her
chair.
And
get
put
a cushion
on it.

you

gorgo:
praxinoa:
gorgo:

Itwill do
very
Do
I'm

as it is.

well

sit down
a

helpless

I barely

got
all

then.
thing, Praxinoa.
here
alive

the crowds
and chariots
through
and men
in soldiers'
cloaks
big boots
all over
the place,
and the road
on for ever. You
going
really
live too far out.
praxinoa:

It's that
husband
out

here

and

buys
so we

just
out

And
nanny,

of

to

the

end

of

a shed,

not

won't

be

sheer

crazy
comes

He

of mine.

spite,

the

earth

a house,

neighbors?
the brute!

so on. Leaving
Praxinoa's
in charge
baby at home
the two ladies take her little girl and the maid Eunoa

533

of a
and

Review

The Massachusetts

to the palace of Queen

their way
dense
crowds
through
fight
awon
there is a festival of Adonis
Arsinoe, where
going on, with
a modern
reader who
Eastern
derful singer. Any
knows
Middle
metropolis
as E. M.
Arsinoe's
not

will

find

Forster

familiar

something
says

palace),"the

patterns,

Praxinoa

(quoting
seem

in which,
in this playlet,
on the tapestries
in

to stand up and move;

figures
alive."

they're
the
later years of the reign of Ptolemy
During
but there was no
fewer literary stars in residence,
of work
the quality
in the Mouseion

carried

on

or

the

investment

itself or the Library.

for example,
the Athenians'

made

they're

III there were

diminution

in

continually
III is said to

Ptolemy
official
copies of the
acquired,
and Euripides
them,
by borrowing
Sophocles
plays of Aeschylus,
a
thus
and
the
back
forfeiting
copies,
keeping
originals,
sending
to more
than half a ton of silver.
bond amounting

have

as head of the
was
succeeded
(or Callimachus)
Apollonius
in about 235 BC by Eratosthenes
of Cyrene,
the geogra
Library
tutor
to
IV
before his
who
had
been
and
Ptolemy
philologos,
pher
starved him
his former pupil, Eratosthenes
accession. Outliving
age (c. 195) after losing his sight and, appar
made
in life. Although
later writers
interest
ently, any
use
have
his
all
of
extensive
works,
virtually
disappeared.
they
of
former
He was
succeeded
another
Aristophanes
pupil,
by
self to death

in old

further

a grammarian,
introduced
is famed for having
who
a written
thus making
the transcription
of Greek,
of
written
first
The
of the language possible.
grammar
one of the
any other
by
produced
language?was

Byzantium,
accents
into
grammar
Greek?or

of his

pupils

successor,

of Samothrace.

Aristarchus

for some

sixteen
Only
centuries.The

thirteen
standard
pages long, it remained
that the
of Thrace,
declares
author of this grammar, Dionysius
he
of
the
is the "the noblest
criticism
of poetry
discipline
part"
a doctrine
learned from Aristarchus.
he undoubtedly
describes,
Not

to be confused
who

lived

astronomer,
was the greatest
critic
in
criticism
effect,
that,
use

today, for example,

of Samos,
Aristarchus
150 years earlier, Aristarchus
of antiquity
and the founder
with

the renowned
of Samothrace
of a school

of

we
texts of Homer
has not yet died. The
are those that he created, on the basis of

534

Literary

Alexandria

out

did such
Aristarchus
by his predecessors.
as
into twenty-four
basic work
the Iliad and the Odyssey
dividing
a
books
without
which
all
each,
step
study would
subsequent
have been enormously
His
of
the Library
impeded.
directorship
the

carried

labors

coincided

one

with

ry, the unfortunate

he appears to have

in Ptolemaic
histo
periods
VI Philometor,
whose
side
strife that marked
the times.

of the stormiest
reign of Ptolemy
taken in the civil

of the end of his life.

are, in any case, at least two versions
as
to death,
of
these
he
himself
starved
versions,
in about 157 or 156 BC: in the other, he
Eratosthenes
had done,

There
In

one

died after being forced to flee to Cyprus

Ptolemy VII, Philometor's
to
monster?succeeded

the

in 145 BC when

a
all accounts
rival?by
In revenge
for previous
to be pillaged
and sacked.

brother

and

throne.

slights, he allowed Alexandria

At all events, the most
creative
in science

both

Library,
days of Ptolemaic
Eastern

Syrian

in 167

and

affairs,
a Roman

the
the
in

on behalf

always
ambassador

of Egypt,
since
had turned back a

of Egypt
threat of the Senate's
dis
by mere
Annexation
of Egypt was not proposed
until a century

invasion

pleasure.
later. Pompey
known

wealth

Mediterranean

197 BC;

and
days of the Mouseion
as
were
in literature, were
over,
and power. Rome
had intervened

and

made

a Roman

and Ptolemy
province
sent
troops to help
Fluteplayer,"
Egyptian
which
had once been a Ptolemaic
possession.
Syria

as "The

take Palestine,
BC. when

30

Caesar's

Caesar,Julius
was all over.
Or was

Octavian

contrived

the murder

eighteen-year-old

son

of

XI,
him
By

Ptolemy

by CleopatraVII,

it

it? Because

the Romans
in the midst
of
themselves,
were
Golden
out
literary
Age,
enthusiastically
carrying
the most momentous
cultural appropriation
that has ever taken
in the world.
conducted
the wholesale
anywhere
place
They
their own

transfer of the major

elements
of Hellenic
religion, myth,
legend,
and plastic arts to Ro
customs,
literature, manners,
philosophy,
man
into a Roman
idiom, through
setting and their translation
come
us.
which
to
have
down
educated
Roman
they
Every
knew
often

Greek
to

the

literature
point

and,
of

in consequence,

being

virtually

535

the Greek
bilingual.

language,
the

Pompey

The Massachusetts

Review

as he read Greek
was murdered,
for example,
and
poetry,
as recorded
in Shakespeare?"Et
last words
tu,
Julius Caesar's
a Latin
ancient
of
what
Brute?"?are
only
approximation
Great,

was
in Greek:
"Kai su,
report he really said, which
Golden
teknon?" "You too, son?" The writers
of ancient Rome's
saw
as
wrote
in
but
of
their
task
fundamen
course,
Latin,
Age
authorities

naturalization
tally involving
had been educated.
and how

Where
Of

six great

the

did
poets

of the Greek

culture

in which

they

in Athens.
they learn their Greek? Not
Lucretius?
of the Golden
after
Age
and Propertius?only
Ovid,
Tibullus,

Catullus,
Vergil, Horace,
in Alexandria,
which
there. Nor
had
three were briefly
students
attractive
for study, though
all six of them were
ceased being
in the literature
and in the literary attitudes
of Alex
steeped
in Italy, to begin with,
texts and Alexandrian

at home
andria. They
learned their Greek
used Alexandrian
from teachers who

but

critical
based

From that point

techniques.
on Alexandrian
models
and

they went

on

to write

poetry

inspirations.
in
the same Epicurean
school
the
Hellenic
heritage
city founded
by Greeks, where
Naples?a
to
had
this
Catullus
sustained
has been
day?and
consciously
a
a friend
of their major
earlier been
Philodemos,
teacher,
wrote
in
the
Alexandrian
who
Palestinian
epigrams
elegant
and Horace

Vergil

attended

have been
literally inconceivable
Eclogues would
his Aeneid
echoes
while
of
Theocritus,
inspiration
and
Horace
less than Apollonius.
much
praises Sappho
more
but
is
influenced
far
models,
among his Hellenic

manner.Vergil's
the
without
Homer
Alcaeus

by the Alexandrian
generally
uses the hendecasyllables
who
tribute of
and for the special
immortal

poets: the
as Pound
Propertius,
ledged
We

reminds

and Alexandrian
Sappho,
us in his hair-raising

itwas Callimachus

and Philetas

of Propertius.
inspiration
are their direct
cultural

whether

we

know

So is Catullus,
epigrammatists.
Phalaecus
of the epigrammatist
out
two
translation
only
singles

heirs.

it or not, have within

Alexandria.

536

who

And

Callimachus.

And

to Sextus

Homage
were
the acknow
therefore

us something

all of

us,

of ancient

Literary

Alexandria

II
of intellectual
endeavor
begun by
large-scale
sponsorship
two Ptolemies
in
and
the Alexandrian
signalized
Mouseion
and Library was
taken up and extended
by the third
The

the

first

the home
founded
the Alexandrian
of
Serapeum,
Ptolemy, who
a second
these
the
will
and
institutions,
great library. Through
the course ofWestern
cul
of the Ptolemies
generosity
changed
ture. But

Ptolemaic

opportunity

for more

officialdom,
right down

which

Alexandria
independent
likewise
have

to our own

was the
political
the first four Ptolemies
Sanios

Cyrenaica,
Cyprus, Kos,
of the Asian mainland
While

acting

own

and
inspiration
provided
kinds of literary labor, outside
exercised

influences

running

time.

Alexandria
under

also

as a magnet
hinterland

Egyptian
it also drew men
empire,

and cultural

of realms

that

but

also

only Egypt,
and other Aegean
islands, portions
and parts of Syria and Palestine.

itself,
for artists
or

capital

not

included

and

in other

and women

intellectuals
of

living in its
this maritime

parts
from everywhere
else in
as tourists. Thousands
of

came merely
or had been
others had been recruited by the Ptolemies,
however,
attracted by the new city's commercial
prospects
independently
as permanent
and came to settle down
residents.
Some

the Mediterranean.

Menander,
the Lyceum
therefore

have

the great comic playwright,

had been
in Athens
with Demetrius
of Phalerum
to have

been

been

a student

at

and might

an

expected
early beneficiary
of his work,
largesse. The only extant fragments
in fact, have all been found
in Egypt. But his accidental
drowning
in the harbor at Piraeus
took place before
the foundation
of the
or the
seems
never
even
to
Mouseion
he
and
have
visited
Library;
the city. An esteemed
older rival however,
Philemon
of Soli, far
more
as a comic
successful
than Menander
spent the
playwright,
from

Ptolemaic

lastyears of his lengthy and highly productive life (360-263 BC)

in Alexandria.

Having

outdone

Menander

repeatedly

in compe

to outlive him as well, dying of

titions, he proceeded
laughter at
the age of 97, it is said, when
he saw a donkey
eating figs. Three
in
of Philemon's
have
survived
Latin
Plautus'
in
versions,
plays
which
read by Shakespeare
and his contemporaries.
they were

537

Review

The Massachusetts

owes
to any Alexandrian
work
little or nothing
Philemon's
and
he
time he first visited
have
been
retired
the
may
influence,
by
a group of poets
the city. During
these same early years, however,
was emerging
on the islands of Kos and Samos who were
to create
a
style of poetry
This
Alexandrian.
brief
The

as distinctively
recognized
or
is typified by epigrams
on love, wine,
literature, and art.
lyrics centered
of Kos, born
sometime
of this school was Philetas

personal
eldest

that would

later be

Alexandrian

mode

as well as a poet. Philetas

lived in
320 BC, a lexicographer
was
on
born
the future Ptolemy
where
II,who
Kos,
Alexandria,
his pupil. So did Theocritus,
of all
became
the most
influential
came to the city from Sicily and later
the Alexandrian
poets, who
before

retired

to Kos.

Even

was
than Philetas,
however,
the acknowledged
leader of the younger

more

admired

of Samos,
is credited

Asklepiades

the most
invented
typ
having
exemplified
literary form, the erotic epigram,
Rexroth):
(translation
by Kenneth

who

generation,
ically Alexandrian
in the following

with

at me.
waved
her wand
Didyme
I am utterly
enchanted.
me
The
makes
sight of her beauty
like wax

Melt

So

is coal,

but

two

the fire. What

before

Is the difference

if she is black?
it shines

alight,

like

roses.

of
and Posidippus
of Samos
Hedylus
a
The
called
of
collection
Pella, Asklepiades
epigrams
published
to prevail
set a stylistic
that was
standard
Heap
of Grain, which
was
the author of a
than a thousand
for more
years. Posidippus
in
since
became
that obviously
little poem
Alexandria,
popular
was
a
found
of years later, and
it was quoted
hundreds
copy of it
With

the
among
Alexandrian

colleagues,

that

papyri

survived
in AD

Serapeum

Lucie-Smith):
On

sea and

Direct

your

land

alike

prayers

towards

This temple of the Queen

Goddess
She

gives

Arsino?.
safe passage

and

538

the final
391

destruction

(translation

by

of

the

Edward

Literary
storms

In the mid-winter
Pours

oil

For

those

It was
Her

Alexandria

the waves

upon
who

pray

to her.

Callicrates,
admiral,

Here?high,

who

built

facing

it

toward

on the Cape.

The West Wind

to here
referred
is Arsinoe,
the strong
queen-goddess
consort
was
minded
of Ptolemy
both before
II,who
worshipped
and after her death as Arsinoe-Philadelphus-Aphrodite.
Among
several temples built to honor her, the most
famous
stood on the
for the West Wind?Zephyr?which
named
cape or headland
The

the sea a few kilometers

overlooked
is now

called Abu

Qir.The
is occupied

east of Alexandria.

site of Arsinoe's

The

place

temple, which

disap
fort,
peared
long ago,
by Qaitbay's
fifteenth-century
but the name of Cape Zephyrion
at Abu Qir
has been preserved
in awell-known
seafood restaurant. A poem by Hedylus
describes
the wonderful

mechanical
toy contrived
by the Alexandrian
as an ornament
who
in
Ktesibius,
specialized
hydraulics,
a tap, surmounted
for the same shrine: a large wine-jar
with
by
a statue of the
Egyptian
god Bes, which
played a trumpet when
inventor

the tap was opened.

The
last great poet of the Ptolemaic
of
empire was Meleager
Kos. Palestinian
up in Tyre (Sur), he is generally
by birth, brought
as
finest
the
of the Alexandrian
In
regarded
epigrammatist
Age.
the first decade of the first century BC, he assembled
the critical
as The Garland,
known
anthology
containing
lyrics by at least
forty-seven
time?with
popular

the major
to his own
poets?all
lyric poets down
130 of his own
were
Such
collections
epigrams.
in Ptolemaic

Greek-speaking
fected
love of
and

Alexandria.

among
Widespread
literacy
was
accompanied
by an unaf
the otherwise
literature, even among
uneducated,
of similar anthologies
have been
found
among
men

and women

fragments
was
papyri. Meleager's
certainly
and though his original
Garland
basis of all later anthologies.
city also saw literary
the Greek
The
community.
The

the most
itself

is now

however,
important,
it
became
the
lost,

activity in the Greek

language outside
standard Greek
translation of the Old

539

The Massachusetts
is known

that

Testament

Review

as "the

Septuagint,"
from Alexandria's

for

was

example,

by scholars drawn
large Jewish popu
their
lation. They worked
several
generations,
during
beginning
as early as the first
Hebrew
had
labors perhaps
long
Ptolemy.
as a
in importance
since been displaced
and the
living language
was almost certainly
created for the use of the Greek
Septuagint
created

speaking Jews of Alexandria,

the Latin septuaginta, meaning
often
indicated
by the Roman

and Asia Minor.

Cyrenaica,

From

the name

"seventy,"
LXX
numeral

is
Septuagint
rise
and has given
done by some sev

to the legend that the work

of translation was
in seventy
sukkoth or
scholars working
enty-odd
simultaneously
is that the name
ismore
"booths." What
simply
likely, however,
version's
for non-rit
refers to this Greek
been
having
approved
ual use by the Sanh?drin,
the body of seventy-one
priests, scribes
and elders who

were

both

council

the supreme
for Alexandrian

court

of justice

and

the

governing
highest
Jews.
A copy of the Septuagint
remains
ancient
the most
complete
to be
now
text of any version
known
of the Old Testament
extant. The
is quoted

is the version
Septuagint
in the New Testament?which

of

the Old

Testament

that

was, of course, entirely

it
is
the version
of the Old
presumably
composed
the
Testament
that was used by the earliest Christians,
including
as it still is by the Greek Orthodox
Church
today.
Apostles,
of their trans
The Jewish
scholars seem to have finished most
book of
of the first century BC.The
lations before
the beginning
in Greek.

Ecclesiastes

And

100,
may not have been translated until as late as AD
and by that time the scholars' work had come to include

however,
not only materials

in languages
other
than
originally
composed
recent
A
of
such
date.
number
materials
of
but
also
Hebrew,
fairly
as
are not
called
materials,
recognized
collectively
Apocrypha,
some Protestant
and are not
churches
"sacred and canonical"
by
Versions
the
in
of
included
Authorized
Bible,
they are
though
was
which
is the Book
of Wisdom,
them
read. Among
often
in Greek
composed
AD 40. Influenced
is presumed
tendencies

to have

by an Alexandrian
by pagan Stoicism
been

said to be visible

attempting
elsewhere

540

100 BC and
Jew between
the author
and Platonism,
to counter
the Epicurean
in the Apocrypha.

Literary
Under

Cleopatra

VII,

Alexandria
(51-30 BC) of an inde
was
still able to claim

the last real ruler

Alexandria
kingdom,
Egyptian
an Alexan
its
of
old
intellectual
pre-eminence.
something
Only
astronomer
when
for
drian
would
do,
example,
Julius Caesar
a new calendar, which
he commissioned
wanted
shortly after he
pendent

two
in Alexandria
city in 48 BC. Promulgated
as
the
survives
version
the
calendar,
years later,
Egyptian
Coptic
while
itsRoman
the Julian calendar, was used throughout
version,
and America
until
until
1582, in England
1752, and in
Europe
Russia
until 1929.
arrived

in the

the first few days after his arrival Caesar

also found
During
time to beget
the first of Cleopatra's
sons, the future Ptolemy
XIV Caesar, born on 23 June 47 BC and nicknamed
"Caesarion"
the
afterwards
("Little Caesar")
by the Alexandrians.
Shortly
her middle-aged
queen followed
Roman
with
the
?lite, who
unpopular

lover

young

politics;
Cicero,

and her gifts

to influential

for

rightly

men?she
but

example?were
accepted,
the surrounding
approval. Despite
hostility
with Caesarion
until Caesar's
assassination
most
Cleopatra's
with Mark Antony,

famous
the

to Rome.

She was

distrusted

her

to
books
presented
to win
failed
their
she

stayed
in 44 BC.

liaison, her eleven-year

subject of the first French

in Rome
love

tragedy,

affair
two

and no

fewer
than seventy operas, brought
great English
plays,
twins Alexander
her
three more
children?the
Helios
and
and their brother Ptolemy
it
Selene,
Philadelphus.Yet
sources
its intellectual
side: ancient
testify that Mark
made
her a present
of the great library of Pergamum,
Antony
which
had been
assembled
old rivals, the
by her forefathers'
of
to the
volumes.
Added
200,000
Attalids,
consisting
parchment
were
in the Serapeum,
books
either
they
undoubtedly
destroyed,
Cleopatra
also had

or in the Christian
in the Jewish Revolt
of AD
115-117
riots of
was
when
the
rebuilt
dismantled
and
391,
Serapeum
stone by stone, once and for all.
smashed,

AD

In 30 BC the city fell to Octavian,

Julius Caesar's grandnephew
s
and adopted
who
had
Caesarion
allowed Antony
son,
murdered,
to reign for amonth,
children by Cleopatra
then annexed
young
to
new
what was left of the Ptolemaic
Rome.
The
empire
temple

541

The Massachusetts

Review

the waterfront

that Cleopatra
had been
for
building
an
enormous
to
the
shrine
dedicated
Caesareum,
Antony
two obelisks brought
the deified Julius Caesar. The
from the ruins
in front of this building
of Heliopolis
that were
erected
by Roman
are
in
10
BC.
New
the
of
York
Needles"
engineers
"Cleopatra's
just

off

became

at all to do with
have nothing
any Cleopatra.
no more
became
than the
rule, Alexandria
one of the
more
chief city associated with
and
Emperor's
larger
lucrative
could
still be
patronage
properties.
personal
Imperial

and London, which

Roman
Under

but

obtained,

itwas

available

only

in Rome.
to

who

Philo, an Alexandrian
an
create
of
amalgam

attempted
philosopher
and
thus
records
Platonism,
Judaism
amusingly
to
AD 40 as head of an unsuccessful
delegation
an
Le?nidas
of
Alexandria,
astrologer
Caligula.
to Rome
in
moved
from Egypt
permanently
Jewish

a visit he made

in

the mad

Emperor
as a poet,
the middle
of the
as well

he was patronized
first century AD, where
by three Emperors.
was
at home
inconvenient
Roman
writers
whose
presence
on the other hand, sometimes
to
find themselves
exiled
might,

Octavian

for example, was Vergil's

friend,
was
who
forced
Gallus,
by
soldier/poet/statesman
to commit
A
suicide for reasons that remain unknown.

manuscript
script of

of elegiac verses
on
literary Latin

Egypt. The
the gifted

first Roman

prefect,

is now
by Gallus
a
record,
single

the oldest manu

sheet, exquisitely
of the Egypt
by archaeologists
or
so later the
at Qasr
Ibrim. A century
Society
Exploration
of troops
in old age to take command
satirist Juvenal was ordered
at Aswan,
in the obvious
confidence
that he could not
stationed
summer.
survive a blazing Nubian
inscribed,

that was

Something
ues, however,
the

discovered

of Alexandria's

sophistication
cosmopolitan
in the mocking
humor
of another Roman
Lucian wandered
of Samosata.
Lucian

long-lived
in Syria through
homeland
of
the professions
trying

Greece,

for his
many

satirical

dialogues

and fantastic

imitations.

542

official,
from his

France,
Italy, and Southern
and
rhetoric,
philosophy
near the end of
bureacrat

sculpture,
a Roman
as
in
Egypt
settling
in Attic
the second century AD. Writing

before

contin

Greek, he is best known

have spawned
tales, which

Literary
The

tradition

sented

the

relation

repre
learning was meanwhile
astronomer
Claudius
Ptolemy?no
had been
family, which
extinguished

of Alexandrian
celebrated

by
to the old
he was

before

Alexandria

royal
native

born?a

son, who
methods

and

the science

invented

of

of determining
positions
observations
that
Using

trigonometry
improved
to latitude and longitude.
by reference
down
had been
for just such a purpose
carefully written
by
two
centuries
Alexandrian
earlier, he developed
predecessors
the geocentric
of the universe
model
the second century
during
that was

AD

to remain
work

astronomical
Latin

standard

entered

versions

of the Arabic
al + Greek
article

definite

Likewise

Greek.

gram. Robert
Bridges'
of the original:
Mortal
I gaze
Then

though
up into
no

And my
Towards

megist?,
for centuries,

longer

translation

I be, yea
the
on

starry
earth

major
form
of

original
Outline
of
1492, when

Ptolemy's
even
after
one

also wrote

famous

imitates

successfully

(Arabic

epi
the metre

if but a moment
ephemeral,
domain
of heaven,
I stand:

lively spirit drinketh

the end

the

called Almagest
of his
"greatest"),

unquestioned
America.
He

discovered

His

Copernicus.
in
Europe

translations,

standard

remained

Geography
Columbus

until

medieval

I touch

the Creator,

immortality.

two new
intellectual
century
in Alexandria,
which
had never
been

of

the

phenomena
emerged
famous
for philosophy:
two modes
of thought

second

Christian
that were

learning
destined

and Neo-Platonism,
to battle, embrace,

then battle

founder
of the Catechetical
School, where
again.The
was
was
a
converted
Stoic,
Christianity
systematically
taught,
was a
of Neoplatonism
while
the founder
who
lapsed Christian,
at least one Father of the Church
numbered
among his pupils.
was
The greatest
and most
famous
of the Neoplatonists
proba
in
in
born
AD
about
who
made
205,
bly Plotinus,
Asyut
many
converts
are
the upper classes in Rome
and whose
works
among
still

read with

philosophers
learned Hypatia,

to

pleasure
teach
who

and profit.
in Alexandria

could

claim

543

The
was

a Christian

last of
the

these
beautiful

bishop

pagan
and

as her most

The Massachusetts

Review

in AD 415 was perhaps

outstanding
pupil. The fate she suffered
was
in
of
what
the
the daughter
typical
city: herself
happening
was appar
of the last recorded member
of the Mouseion,
which
the
still
toward
end
of
the
fourth
she
century,
ently
functioning
was hauled from her chariot
a
to
Christian
mob
and
by
dragged
the Caesareum,
into a church. There
which
had been converted
she was stripped naked and torn to pieces.
To believe
had become
that the whole
Christian,
country
would

however,
cultural

revival,
a pagan

Palladas,
dria, for example,
on monastic
ment
If solitaries,
So many,
O
crowd

Feigning

of

teacher
life
so

literature

left us 150 poems,

has

why
are
how
of

For awhile,
indeed, there was a pagan
a kind of nationalism.
in part with

be wrong.
connected

in fourth-century
Alexan
com
this wry
including

by Peter

(translation

Jay):

many?

they
solitaries

then

sole?

solitude!

did not find

life easy, however,

and the last decade of the
must
the pagan
have
been
century
trying. Only
particularly
at
of
built
Philae,
up by generations
patrons, was
temple complex
as a
reasons?to
continue
allowed?for
functioning
pil
political
Palladas

fourth

site until AD 543, when

the Emperor
Justinian finally sent
grimage
an
to
out
it
of
business.
the
Nile
up
put
expedition
The Mouseion
had already ceased to exist and both the great
that had originally
The
creative
had perished.
Libraries
energy
informed

Alexandria

kind of lit
its characteristic
and produced
the New Rome,
long since departed?for

erary life had likewise

the imperial
city of Constantinople.
the statues from Philae had been
phyry
from

continued

to distinguish
a semblance

all others,
sometimes
sustained,

In this new
taken

capital, whence

and where

the monuments
of Alexandrian

por
Egyptian
of the Emperor
be
culture would

until
the city
1204, when
difficulty,
a barbar
was
and Crusaders.
sacked by Venetians
They
imposed
and
ian occupation
that lasted fifty-five
years
literary
disrupted
life irreparably.
with

544

Alexandria

Literary
III

as conquerors
in AD
its
the
641, nearly
foundation,
capital of the
was
still impressive,
of Egypt
geo
Byzantine
province
though
had
left
little
and
tangible
political,
spiritual upheavals
physical,
of much
Hellenistic
the
evidence
Palace,
glory. The Royal
the Serapeum,
the Sema, which
had enclosed
the
Mouseion,
To

the Arabs

who

entered

a millennium

body
since

of Alexander,

Alexandria

after

and

the

tombs

of

the Ptolemies

had

long
to
great Libraries?contrary
what
claimed by Arab propagandists
for
some
six
centuries
the Ayyubid
would
who
later,
r?gime writing
victors
invent a tale that had the Muslim
using pagan manu
So had

disappeared.
would
be imaginatively

to heat water

scripts
The

for

two

the

their baths.

to enjoy
of its historic
inde
city
something
as
as
late
the
of
IbnTulun
however,
(868-884),
reign
pendence,
who
restored
the only monument
from the reign of
surviving
continued

the Ptolemies:
one

on

the huge
lighthouse
of the Seven Wonders

offshore,
had lost its two

top stories. Despite

al earthquakes,
there was
enough
to make
in
1326
it worth
tioning

famous medieval
lower

found

Ibn Battutah

returned

the building

ruinous

the previous
plague
year?the
in 1381?may
have left no
case. And

in October

world,

subsequent
damage
of the lighthouse
a visit

just
which

in sever
still func

by
saw the interior

Ibn Battutah,
the
of its great square

to Alexandria

in 1349, however,
An epidemic
of

ships,

12,000

and abandoned.
Black

one

Death,
alive who

1365

which

of Cyprus.
Landing
of these Crusaders

to the

torch,

and

was

to recur

could man

it in any
a
blow:
catastrophic
of relative peace, by

the city suffered

attack, after a century
and their allies under

devastating
surprise
of Rhodes
the Knights
Peter of Lusignan,
King
Genoese

island of Pharos

story.

When
he

traveler, who

the

of the ancient

the leadership
of
from Venetian
and

sacked

carried

the

city, put

off 5000

every major
building
people,
who were
held for ransom, enslaved, or put to death.
variously
a century
or so later (1479)
The
fortress
built
by Sultan
out
of
remains
the
of
the
ancient
had
little to
Qaitbay
lighthouse
defend.

There

was

some

reconstruction

545

after

the Ottoman

The Massachusetts

(1517),

Conquest

but even

ually displaced by Rosetta

several

population
tionary
arrived

force

shackle

coastal

mental

the

in Alexandria

When

General
young
a moribund
it found

in 1798,
surrounded

inhabited

being

a French

ambitious

settlement
but

the city declined,

grad

(Rashid), which ultimately acquired a

times Alexandria's.

under

walls,

as a port

Review

expedi

Buonaparte
and ram

monu
by the remains of
6000
than
people.

by fewer
under Muhammad

Ali
(1769-1849),
city's
began
an
in
but
almost
Ottoman
fact
the
Sultan's
Viceroy,
nominally
was
over
to
that
founder
of
the
ruler,
reign
dynasty
independent
of
his new
1952.
became
the
home
until
Alexandria
port
Egypt
its
in
Eastern
further
the
the
When
Mediterranean.
navy,
largest
The

revival

was halted by European

in 1841, howev
intervention
expansion
to rest on the cotton
had already come
er, the city's real fortunes
investors
from
other
which
attracted
trade,
parts of the Ottoman
Empire.
to awell-known
two brothers belonging
In 1849, for example,
a firm called Cavafy
Greek
founded
family
Constantinopolitan
in
in London
and Liverpool,
Brothers, with branches
specializing
cotton
of Man
and the exportation
of Egyptian
the importation
a
became
textiles. Peter, the younger
of the two brothers,
chester
his fifteen-year
the following
year and brought
son
to
in Liverpool
lived
her
and
old wife
England. They
baby
new
or 1855,
to Muhammad
Alis
then moved
1854
until
citizen

British

Alexandria.

Here

Peter

It flourished

Brothers.

another

founded
to

such

an extent

branch

of Cavafy
the next few

during
he fathered
the firm's central office, while
years that it became
named Konstantinos,
seven more
the youngest,
sons, of whom
was born in 1863.

was
summer
not yet the country's
capital, Alexandria
it
its second
largest city; and by the end of the decade
a
of
have
220,000,
officially
approaching
population
or less, would
in
a quarter, more
be European.
Settling

Though
already
would
whom

Rue
street
style
died

Sherif Pasha (now Sharf Salah Salim), themost fashionable

in a lavish
his family
in the city, Peter Cavafy maintained
he suddenly
for business. When
excellent
that was deemed
in such financial
his widow
found herself
in 1870, however,

546

Literary
difficulties
where

she was

that

the two

eldest

Alexandria
to take her

forced

to England,
of the London
and

brood

sons became

managers
of
Brothers.
Cavafy
Liverpool
was
seven. Throughout
Konstantinos
the next
nine
years,
ruin
the
the
of
his two brothers
while
family's for
completed
tune with
in English ways,
he became
bad speculations,
steeped
branches

so

to him in
friends
that his oldest Greek
later wrote
thoroughly
as "Constantine
him
P.
version
and
addressed
the
English
Cavafy,"
of his name he eventually
and under which
he became
preferred
As

he returned with
"Constantine,"
to
in 1879,
and five of his elder brothers
Alexandria
was
Brothers
had been
He
then
enrolled
liquidated.

world

of

famous.

commercial

English
The

invasion

British

bardment

of Alexandria

the

mediating
profitable
commercial
community.
there was
ed, however,
fleeing
where

with

training,
and French.

tutors

at home

for

his mother
after Cavafy
in a course
studies

in

a
1882 began with
bom
devastating
and the Occupation
that followed
ended
of the Ottoman-Greek
monopoly

of

no longer exist
Cavafy Brothers
to
from
prevent Cavafy's mother
nothing
sons to
all six of her Alexandrian
Constantinople,

with

Since

her father, a diamond

merchant,
they took refuge with
summer
had a large house
in the charming
resort
suburban
sons
as
to
soon
as
Three
returned
condi
Alexandria,
ofYenik?y.

who

to earn money
to support
their mother
and
permit,
the remaining
three
who
had
sons, including
Cavafy,
stayed
In his grandfather's
behind
old wooden
house on the
inYenik?y.
tions would

Bosphorus,
read Dante

Cavafy wrote?in
in the original

ancient, modern
His education

first poetry. He
also
English?his
in
and, of course, Greek
poetry,
and demotic
dialects.

purist,
was
completed,
seven years of
reading

after his return

to Alexandria

in

in Latin, French,
and English
lit
to study law, as he
was
he
apparently
hoped,
as a
for the Greek-language
Alexan
correspondent

1885, by
erature. Unable

employed
drian newspaper
who was a broker

and
Telegraphos
in the Alexandria

assisted
Bourse.

as a
the Egyptian
bureaucracy
provisional
of Public Works.
His
languages?ancient

547

his

brother
In 1892

Aristidis,
he entered

in the Ministry
and modern
Greek,

clerk

The Massachusetts

Review

him
French, Turkish,
Italian, and Arabic?made
English,
to
the official
his having
"useful,"
records,
according
though
a Greek
become
citizen meant
that he could never be appointed
to any of the permanent
were
in the Ministry,
which
positions

Latin,

or British
for Egyptian
citizens. He
received
regular
was
to
and
allowed
his meager
however,
promotion,
supplement
on the side as a
to business
afternoons
salary by devoting whole
reserved

cotton

broker.

In 1908, after the deaths

of his mother
and of three of his
two?one
went
to
and the emigration
brothers
of the remaining
to Paris?he
the other
moved
into a flat at 10 Rue
Cairo,
he lived for
Lepsius, where
It gradually
became
almost
housed

the
a

last twenty-five
years of his life.
site.
The
floor
pilgrimage
ground

in addition
brothel. Noting
lively and hard-working
the proximity
of a church
and a hospital, Cavafy
used to point
out that he lived in a neighborhood
the claims of the
where
the spirit, and the after-life
could all be amply satisfied.
on 1March
retired
from
the
of Public Works
Cavafy
Ministry
as
a
1922 and died on 29 April
celebrated
1933,
poet not only
in the Greek-speaking
but also wherever
litera
world,
English

flesh,

ture

is read:

Greek

Nobel

not only
of his admirers
roll-call
includes
the
E.
M.
also
S.
laureate George
but
Seferis,
Forster,T.
D.
H.
the
and
while
list of
Lawrence,
Eliot,
Anthony
Burgess,
as a
have acknowledged
his poetry
influence
those who
major
on their own work
is nobly headed
last ges
byW H. Auden. His
the

text of the little

be explained
by the Greek
might
a piece of paper and
quoted below, was to draw a circle on
a
center.
in
its
dot
single

ture, which
poem
plant
He

was

buried

in Alexandria.
is
There
cemetery
on the wall of 10
in Arabic
and Greek

in the Greek

a commemorative

plaque
Sharm al-Shaykh, where
his old flat is
Lepsius, now Sharf
as
a
museum.
the
Greek
Consulate
maintained
Cavafy
by
wrote
hundred
but preserved
several
poems,
only the
Cavafy

Rue

best. During

his

a few

first in two thriving

appeared
of
early
twentieth-century
journals
literary
1911?Te
Zoe and?after
others he
Grammata;
lifetime

Greek-language
Nea
Alexandria,
in booklets,
had printed

pamphlets

548

or broadsheets

for private

dis

Literary

Alexandria

after his death were published

Only
as such for sale to the
public.
The
while
settings of the works
published
to Constantinople
in place from Alexandria
tribution.

collections

offered

he was alive range

or Antioch,
and in
to the fourteenth
AD?from

time

from the fourth

century BC
the heyday of Ptolemaic
glory to the threadbare
reign of John VI
was
in
who
crowned
1347
Cantacuzino,
Emperor
jew
wearing
to
cos
els of colored glass?then,
five
the
centuries,
overleaping
own time. The present
to
of
Alexandria
his
is
linked
mopolitan
a Christian

and a pagan past by elements

that all three have
in common.
In a poem
like the following,
for example,
the his
torical setting might
be either BC or AD
free
(my
translation).

both

INTERVENTION
Now

OF THE GODS

this will

At

a certain

Be

such

and

be
point
such.

done

and

our ways

then
and

that, until
will

deeds

for here
and now,
Living
to cope
strive
We'll
the one way we
know
how,
more
we muck
harder
the
Trying
things up,
Thus making
we'll
total chaos. Then
stop.
s the

Then
As

they

They'll

time when

do. Down
always
come. And
some

the gods
from
of us

will

intervene,

their machine
they will

not

touch;

skyward?they'll
dispatch.
retreat.
made
order
they'll
then
this man
will
do one
and that.
thing
else and likewise
other men
something
start all over again.
things. And we'll

Others?suddenly,
And
after they've
And
One
Their

One
wrote

such element,
of course,
is the Greek
in the Greek
of educated Alexandrians

language. Cavafy
of his own
time,

but

of purist alternatives, which

echo
always kept the option
and meanings
forms
of classical Greek.
Even
linguistically,
work
thus recapitulates
the history
of the Hellenistic
culture
is identified

with

their
emble, with
thematic
concerns,

he was
city where
and conciseness
brevity

the

the

they are also unmistakably

Ezra Pound.
A

second

unifying

and

His

poems

his
that
res

their

particular
but
Alexandria,
as the work
of Eliot or

of Ptolemaic

epigrams
as "modernist"

element

born.

the

is a sense of the world

549

as a kind

of

Review

The Massachusetts

are two immaterial

enduring
objects
and
sexual
endure
passion.
qualities?cultural
pride
They
to
into memory.
The degree
because
their results etch themselves
which

the most

in which

theatre

the

they matter,
the recollection

even

of

at eloquence,
attempts
we
see
awkwardness
dain

of rhetoric
his

temporaries,
appearance
that
from

of
of

On

the

actual

and

rather

in a C?zanne

insouciance

(in my

with

which

conveyed
of monumental

Cavafy
that of Greek

from

make

or

to grace

indifference

by

s dis

still-life. While

his work

likewise

the Hellenistic

intensity
is not

is faced,
by the kind

them

but

distinguished
unclassical

declares

Alexandria

seriousness

con
to

the

his poetry very different

One
about
little poem
that

masters.
translation)

site

a house,
above
I see when
which
Of

all, of landmarks,
I go for a walk,

a block
year

after

of flats,
year,

I have brought you into being, both in joy and in sadness:

with
And

so many
have

you

circumstances,

so many

mundane

things.
into

become?perfectly?changed

feeling

for me.

IV

Second

in fame

only

to Cavafy

sons

Alexandria's
among modern
in
in 1888,
born
Alexandria
s parents were
Italian peasants

is Giuseppe
Ungaretti,
a generation
later.
Ungaretti
nearly
to work
from Lucca: his father had come
literary

on

the Suez Canal

and

to set up a bakery
in the district
of Muharrim
enough
that would
he had suffered
injuries and hardships
Bey. However,
was
in 1890, when Ungaretti
death
lead to his long and painful
two.
He
and
brother
his
Constantino,
eight years older,
only
a
"in a ramshackle
house with
grew
up in the same district,
earned

three fig trees brought

and a garden with
and chickens
courtyard
in
is recorded
Sudanese
influence
of his
from Lucca." The
nanny
wet-nurse
a poem
who
the Sudanese
of 1915: "From
brought
her."
I sucked the sun that had scorched
up/
was
in the Ecole
Suisse Jacot.
In 1904 Ungaretti
enrolled
he met Muhammad
There
Shihab, his closest friend for the next
and Nietzsche,
nine years. He read Leopardi, Baudelaire, Mallarm?,

me

550

Literary

Alexandria

to write
in French. At about this time he also
and began
poems
two French
who
lived in the suburb of Maks: Jean
engineers
a poet, who
and his brother Henri,
Thuile, who was a novelist,

met

was

sonnet
to his
the author of a published
dedicated
sequence,
was to keep by his side
dead wife,
that Ungaretti
the
throughout
next sixty-five
years.
me
of a port, a submerged
"They
port," Ungaretti
spoke to
wrote
later,
that must

Ptolemaic
that Alexandria
have
times,
proving
preceded
a port
even before
a
it was
that even before
his time
Alexander,
about
this. My
know
itself and anni
city. We
city destroys
nothing
to instant. How
can we
find out about
its
hilates
itself from
instant

was

amoment
at all survives?even
if nothing
of what
happened
no other
know
is
it than the
about
there
of
it;
nothing
sign
sea which
in the depths
is the only
of the sea?that
preserved

origins
ago? We

port
document

handed

to us from

down

This

port became
submerged
Italian culture he felt innate

Italy at first hand.

school
Leaving
ary articles, and
no
exist,
longer
Poe.
Edgar Allen
developed
had been
as marble

with

every

Ungaretti's
in himself

age

of Alexandria.

private
symbol for the
long before he ever saw

wrote
in 1905, Ungaretti
short stories for publication

liter
political
pieces,
in local papers
that

as II Messaggero
this period,
During
such

the Italian novelist

and translated
Egiziano,
an important
friendship
Enrico
Pea (1881-1958),
who

as a
to Alexandria
then working
brought
boy, and was
cutter and living in a warehouse
that had become

gathering
place
been
introduced

for

anarchists.

does

not

seem

to have

Ungaretti
or to have read his work,
to Cavafy
though by
a caf? to meet Greek friends
1911 he and Shihab were frequenting
who
included
the editors of Te Grammata,
the recently
founded
was
to publish many
in which
review
of his poems.
Cavafy
In 1912,
and Georges
of
uscript

armed with
Sorel,
to be
Pea's
left Alexandria

Ungaretti
His departure
in 1919

letters

editors

is recorded

of

delivered

to Charles
P?guy
de la quinzaine,
and a man
to publishers
in Florence,

introduction

of Cahiers

to study law.
for Paris, where
he was
in a poem
called "Levante," published

(my translation).

551

The Massachusetts

Review

LEVANTE
La

linea

muore
vaporosa
al lontano
cerchio

del

cielo

Picchi di tacchi picchi di mani

e il clarino ghirigori striduli
e ilmare

? cenerino

atrem

dolce

come

un

inquiete

piccione

soriani
emigranti
? solo
proa un giovane
ora
sero a
Di
sabato
quest'
poppa

ballano

Ebrei
laggiu
via
portano
il loro morti

di chiocciola

nell'imbuto
tentennamenti

di vocoli
di lumi
Confusa

acqua

come il chiasso di poppa che odo

l'ombra

dentro

del
sonno

LEVANT

line

The
of

clouds

on

the

far

expires
circuit

Clackety-clack
and the clarinet
the

and

of

the

of heels,
tootles

sky
clackety-clack

of hands

shrilly

sea ashen

quivers

like a pigeon
On
At
On

the poop-deck
Syrians
emigrant
man
is a young
the prow
by himself
at this hour
evenings
Saturdsy

Jews
back there
carry

away

552

are dancing

Literary

Alexandria

their dead
snailwise
staggering

through

alleyways

of lights
water

Turbulent
like

the

in the

from

clamour

the

stern

I hear

shadow

of sleep
course

and
year and a half?1912
following
events
1913?several
took place. He
crucial
Henri
attended
lectures at the Coll?ge
and came to know
de France
Bergson's
art at first hand, meeting
the cutting edge ofWestern
Apollinaire,
In the

Picasso, Braque,
and Modigliani.
who

had

Tommaso

of

the

L?ger, Di
He met

Chirico,
as well

living

in Europe

been

Blaise
another
for

Cendrars, Max
Jacob,
famous Alexandrian,
several years?Filippo

Marinetti.

was
elder, Marinetti
years Ungaretti's
movement
the only
Futurism,
important modern
Paris. He
almost
outside
had announced
entirely
Twelve

in Le Figaro on 20 February
1909 with
exists only in struggle," calling upon

Futurism

that "Beauty
of Italy?those

the founder

of

to grow
the birth

up
of

the declaration

the young
artists
their homeland
from "its

rescue
forty?to
of professors,
and
cicerones,
archaeologists,
most
In
dealers."
his
famous
Marinetti
statement,
wrote,
antique
a
"We declare
that the world's
has been
enriched
splendor
by
new
the beauty
of speed. A racing motorcar,
its frame
beauty;
a
adorned with
like
snakes
with
breath...
great pipes,
explosive
rotten

under

cancerous

tumor

seems
to run on
which
roaring motor-car.
shrapnel,
beautiful
than theWinged
of Samothrace....
We
Victory
name
war."
His
condemnation
stasis
in
of
all
the
glorify
and

gle

speed
us are

included

even Marinetti

himself:

is more
wish

have at least
"We therefore
thirty," he wrote.
our
to
in
we
which
task.
When
years
accomplish
more
us
let
and
throw
into
others, younger
valiant,
forty,
like useless manuscripts.
We
desire it."
wastepaper-basket
among

before

By

us

the time Ungaretti

arrived

in Paris Marinetti's

553

to

of strug
"The
oldest

manifesto

ten
are
the
had

The Massachusetts
been

followed

by

several

others.

Review
A

a group
of
by
read from the stage of

declaration

Italian painters,
for example, was
young
on 10 March
in Turin
the Teatro Chiarella

1910; their technical

in Paris on 18
later and published
same
in Milan
that
year of fifty paintings
May. An exhibition
by
a
Umberto
Carlo Carra, and Luigi Russolo
Boccioni,
provided
an exhibition
In
1912
demonstration
of Futurist
of
principles.
was

manifesto

read a month

was held
in Paris, while
Carra
Carlo
had
paintings
La
in
Pittura
his
manifesto
dei
which
odori,
rumori,
suoni,
published
affirm that sounds, noises
he declared
that "We Futurist painters
forty-five

and smells
and

are

into the expression

of lines, volumes,
incorporated
canvases will
Our
therefore
the plastic
express
of sound, noises and smells of the Theatre, Music
Hall,

colours....

equivalent
cinema, brothels,
clinics, work
ports, garages,
railway terminals,
a vortex
etc... [The artist] must become
of sensations,
etc.,
shops,
a
a
not
and
cold
intellect...
force,
sound,
painting
logical
pictorial
In 1913
the way drunkards
and colours
noises,
sing and vomit."
Russolo
Noise"?and

his
published
Boccioni,

published his highly

own

L'arte

perhaps

dei

the most

rumore?"The
gifted

of

Art

of

the group,

influential TechnicalManifesto for Futurist

to Archipenko,
that look forward
prescriptions
Sculpture, making
in
fact
Moore
and
and
anticipate
nearly every devel
Arp,
Henry
in
the nine
that
has
taken
opment
sculpture
throughout
place
decades
since.
In mid-summer

of 1913

emotional

personal
come
to Paris

the first of Ungaretti's

Muhammad

losses occurred.

many

shattering
had
Shihab, who
at 5 rue des
hotel

in the same
living
was
as Ungaretti
cornrnitted
himself,
suicide, killing
Carmes,
he no longer had a homeland."
write
three years later, "because
the second Futurist Exhibition
In 1914 Ungaretti
attended
and was

to
in

editorial
the Florentine
he met
Paris, where
group who would
went
to Italy, intending
Later
he
that
work.
his
year
early
publish
to take examinations
enable him to teach French, but
that would
The fol
instead in interventionist
propaganda.
was
and
Christmas
into
the
Italian
inducted
he
army,
lowing year
1915 was his first day in the trenches.
at a place
that was only a map
In 1916, stationed
reference,

became

involved

554

Literary

Alexandria

remembered
caf?
the Alexandrian
Ungaretti
and
used to go to meet
their Greek friends
aTime). Of a poem
UnaVolta"
(Once Upon
a week
observed
written
earlier, Ungaretti
native
whom

where
described

he and Shihab
it in "Cera

called "Fase"

(Phase),
that "Alexandria,
my
to a female
with
presence

Line 8 refers
city, is present.
I experienced
wild wantonness"?a
as "a
panther"

elsewhere

with

skin

woman

like "thin-beaten

he describes
gold"

(my

translation):
Walking
I've

walking

rediscovered

the well of love

In its thousand-and
eye

one-nights
I've rested
the
Upon
she alit

abandoned

gardens

like a dove
Inside
of

the

air

a noontide
a

that was

single

swoon

I picked her
oranges

and

jasmine

Such memories

were

and ineradicable. His most

famous
potent
and
which
shocked
in
Italian
readers
"Mattina,"
poem,
outraged
1919 because
it is only two words
long, effectively
paraphrases
this famous epigram of the Alexandrian
Claudius
Ptolemy,
quoted
earlier. Ungaretti's

untranslatable

modernist

version:

M'illumino
d'immenso.

an Alexandrian
remained
all his
Though
Ungaretti
consciously
interest
in
his
Alexandria
unlike Cavafy's?per
life,
itself?quite
to
he
it subsequently
therefore
returned
dwindled;
ceptibly
only
for two brief

visits. After
the first of these visits, in 1931, he wrote
a poem
called "1914-1915,"
which
looks back to the time in his
earlier life when
the summons
of Italian culture was drawing him

555

The Massachusetts
away from

inexorably
Ti

Review

the city of his birth

(my translation):

vidi, Alessandria,

Friabile sulle tue basi spettrali

Diventarmi
In un
Sono
Ma
Pi?

ricordo

abbraccio

di

sospeso

lumi.

e non
d'un
ti persi,
altro sangue
in quella
di nave
solitudine
torno melanconia
dell' usato

La delusione
La mia

tu sia, straniera,

che

citt?

natale.

seen

I have

you, Alexandria
on your
ghostly
a memory
for me

Crumbling
Become

In a half-completed
I am

of

foundations

of

embrace

another

blood

and

lights.
not

I have

lost you,

But in this shipboard solitude

More

than

Delusion
That

usually
has come

in 1937

case. The
second
Vecchio"

back,

be

you might

to 1936, when
Up
tained by his brother
woman
and become
death

the melancholy
the

war.

Iwas

born.

to Brazil, a link was main

moved
Ungaretti
an English
who
had married
Constantino,
"a real Alexandrian,"
but after Constantino's

politics
second visit

world

stranger,
city where

soon made
therefore

to return in any
it impossible
did not take place until after a
in "Il Taccuino
de
four choruses

It inspired
Old Man's
Notebook")

(1960). Unanimously
in 1962,
of
the
Writers'
Community
European
president
was
won
univer
honored
several
and
many
by
prizes
Ungaretti
in
1970.
sities before his death
("The

elected

V
left for Paris, a young
the year Ungaretti
Egyptian
to take up a teaching post and would
in Alexandria
live there for the rest of his life. Two years older than Ungaretti,
a volume
of verse
Abd ar-Rahman
Shukri had already published
at
to
of
three
in 1909, before
for
years
training
going
England
In 1912,
poet arrived

556

Alexandria

Literary
Sheffield
of his

volume

eighth
Shukri

was

volume

the year
appeared
an
1919, though
after his death in 1958.

followed

before

was

not brought
out until
considered
the most
generally

Diwan

Group,
Abd
Alexandrians

trio

of

al-Qadir

poets
al-Mazini

that

of the
interesting
included
the non
and Abbas

(1890-1940)

and Ungaretti,
Unlike
(1889-1964).
Cavafy
al-Aqqad
no influence
over
these poets exercised
contemporaries
to whose
in other languages,
work
they themselves were

Mahmud
however,
writing
in any

case

indifferent,
though
literature of a hundred

Western
Cavafy
Alexandria

was

producing
to all intents

poets," says Muhammad

poetry
ing 'romantic'
Modern

Another

University
College.
return and five more

his

they
years

powerful

knew

of the
something
"The Greek
poet
in
'modernist'
poetry

earlier.

and purposes
unbeknownst
were
Mustafa
Badawi,"who
at

time"

the

(A Critical

to the Arab

busy writ
to
Introduction

Arabic

Arab
1975], p. 263). When
[Cambridge,
in
influence
T.
S.
the
of
Eliot
1950s,
poets
they
not only
still did not know Cavafy, who
had been an influence
on Eliot, but also on Auden,
the chief English
poet of the next
after Eliot. By 1951 Auden
had in fact been reading
generation
came

Poetry
under
the

for more

than

twenty years.
a certain
outside
for a
Cavafy
enjoyed
celebrity
Egypt
on
full decade before his death was due largely to his discovery
behalf of the English-speaking
E.
world
M.
Forster
the
by
during

Cavafy
That

1914-18

War. When

he

arrived

in Alexandria

late

in

1915,
all his novels
the last and
except
already completed
most
was
to India, which
famous
one, A Passage
already partially
on
He
as a
written.
until
the
of
1919, working
stayed
beginning
at
summer
Muntazah
"searcher"
the
of the
residence
Palace, the
Forster

had

II Hilmi, which
Abbas
had been
Khedive,
deposed
sequestrated
a
the
British
and
converted
into
Cross
Red
by
hospital. Between
1917 and January
1919 he was a frequent
to
contributor
August
the Egyptian

another
Mail,
newspaper
for which
he wrote
pieces

Alexandria,
ancient Alexandrian
Egypt
confirmed

gave
his

spirit, under

Forster

that has
much

vanished

in tune with

the pseudonym

from
the

"Pharos."
of

three kinds.
It
important
experiences
was
an
conviction
that
evil
long-held
imperialism

557

Review

The Massachusetts

to gratify both
him with
the
the opportunity
fraud; it provided
and the physical
of his homosexuality;
and it
emotional
demands
than twenty years
allowed
later, "to
him, as he declared more
one of the great poets of our time"?Cavafy.
meet
to
of imperialism
led Forster ultimately
experience
a
to
A
in
vein
India
later
rather
dif
several
years
Passage
complete
imme
intended. Meanwhile
ferent from what he had originally
First-hand

diately

a
con
he wrote
pamphlet
to
of
thus
Occupation
Egypt,
contributing
to
that would
force Whitehall
recognize
Egyptian
in 1922. The
of
sexual
experience
gratification?

after his

return

to England

the British

demning
the pressure
sovereignty
Forster
fell
al-Adil

in love with

in 1917

and

a tram

named

conductor
a cautious,

instituted

Muhammad

but

entirely
physical
to the
in 1919?led
his departure
to those
to India, and almost certainly
of A Passage
of his own work
that would make him
the meaning
novels.
1924, not to write
any more

that

relationship
odd "moral"

lasted

until

insights into
after
decide,
with
The meeting
The first, completed

of two books.
led to the publication
Cavafy
in 1922, was his Alexandria: A History
and a
as the best
ever written.
Its
Guide, frequently
praised
guidebook
an
Alexandrian
1938 edition, beautifully
publisher,
by
produced
Morris

under
the supervision
of John
Limited,
to
and person
attitudes
the poet, whose
dedicated
Brinton,
of
book.
translation
dominate
the
George
Valassopoulo's
ality

Whitehead

was

famous
Cavafy's most
therefore
appropriately

"The God
poem,
its centerpiece.

Abandons

Antony,"

at the hour of midnight

When
an invisible choir is suddenly heard passing
with
voices?
music,
exquisite
not
fortune
that at last subsides,
lament
your
that have
schemes
has
work
that
life's
failed,
your
your
illusions.
proved

with
Do

But
bid

like

like a brave man,

prepared,
to her, to Alexandria
is departing.
who

a man

farewell

all, do not delude

yourself,
ear was mistaken.
that your
to such empty
not condescend
Do
Above

Like

a man

for

long

prepared,

like

do

not

hopes.
a brave

558

say that

man,

it is a dream,

is

Alexandria

Literary
the man

like

was

who

go to the window
and

such

city,

firmly,

emotion

listen with
not with

but

of

worthy

the prayers

and

the

of

complaints

coward

(Ah! supreme rapture!)

to

listen

bid

and

to

the notes,

instruments

the

exquisite
to Alexandria

to her,

farewell

whom

second

a speaker
is frequently
of Samosata,
the Alexandrian
from the Egyptian
"Pharos" pieces

who

translation
poulo's
own essay, written
sis that
weeks
had

intended
tuberculosis

when

Mail,
of "The God Abandons

he

and gave

choir,

losing.

published
of Souls,"

with Valasso
"
and F?rsters

together

Antony
an analy
for the book, on Cavafy and his work,
one of the best. Forster
if slight, nevertheless

remains,
to Alexandria

returned

are

in 1923, is
the divinity
in the mocking
of Lucian
dialogues
It consists of several of the
humorist.

book, Pharos and Pharillon,

to "Hermes
in Greek
the Guide

The
dedicated

the mystic

of
you

twice:

first

to comfort

mainly
and was

to die

spent two weeks

an interview?his

in 1921

a stay of

several

al-Adil, who
second was in 1929,

in 1922.The

with

for

Muhammad

and George Valassopoulo

Cavafy
ever?to
the local Greek
press.

first

VI
The
many

new
to Egypt,
brought
literary visitors
in
time
But the main
Alexandria.
lit
spent
as Lawrence
in Cairo. There,
Durrell
has written,

Second World
of whom

some

erary action was

out
flown
"people
aghast

War

from

at the bulging

lighted thoroughfares
the glaring poverty

shops,
of Cairo?made
of

Army
Citadel,
Durrell

then

Dean

acting

University.

Among

Parade
produced
while
from 1942
edited

Personal

rationed

London

stared

the blazing

nightclubs,
all the more

grotesque
by
the fellaheen,
the
that
flocked
by
beggars
in September
an
1943 appeared
Oasis,

anthology of poetry by Allied

Howard,
American

and

the crowded

In Cairo

everywhere."

bombed

soldiers, with
of Arts

many
and
the

onward

Landscape:

559

and
other
British

Robin

a preface byWorth

Sciences
periodicals,
Council
Fedden

A Magazine

at

the city's
the British

published
and Lawrence

of Exile.

The

star

The Massachusetts

since

was Keith
in
later killed
soldier-poets
Douglas,
at the time and have
in Egypt
writers
who were
well-known
include G. S. Fraser, Erik de Mauny,

the

among
France.

Review

Other
become

Xan
Patrick
Gwyn Williams,
Spencer,
Leigh-Fermor,
and
Robert
Kinross.
Lord
Liddell,
Fielding,
John Waller,
now
in connection
with Alexandria,
By far the best known

Bernard

is Lawrence

Durrell, who
and a young
daughter

however,
wife,

arrived
as a

Nancy,
April of 1941. Though
only
as a writer
and as a member

in Egypt

refugee
he was

with

his first
in

from Greece

twenty-nine,
already known
of literary circles that included T. S.
For more
than a year Durrell
lived in

Eliot

and Henry Miller.

as
at the British
Press Officer
he worked
Cairo, where
Foreign
as Press
to Alexandria
In July 1942 he was
transferred
Embassy.
newspapers
Durrell
mately
Ambron

he was

where

Attach?,

at

in the British

to

expected
interest.

influence

the

local Greek

spent less than three years in Alexandria,

living ulti
to the
in a house
19 Shari Mamun
that belonged

in the little tower at one corner

family. He wrote much
not Egypt,
about Greece,
and the
but he wrote
of the house,
not care much
is
for
Alexandria.
evidence
that
he
did
published

The

letters

he wrote

to Henry

incessantly
example,
complain
of its denizens.
the venality
Alexandria"

he

himself

calls

astronomer?as

Miller

during

the period,
of the city

for

the ugliness
and
a poem
in
called
"Conon
name
Ill's
of
the
by
Ptolemy
us by Callimachus
in his well
about
In

for
supplied
Berenice's
Catullus
about Queen
hair, which
poem
as an
In it Durrell
of
describes Alexandria
translated.
"ash-heap

known
four

cultures," complaining
here."
four years bound
Nor

does

he

to have

seem

city, which
physical
1938 second edition

of Egypt

says he
of F?rsters

he

been

in general
so very

that he has "been

curious

about

the

using a copy of the

investigated
in
and Guide. "I arrived
History

he says in
years after the book was written,"
to Michael
1982 edition
of F?rsters
Haags
uses the text of the first edition. "Magically,
nothing
in fact the text Durrell
that I could discern."1 But

1941, twenty-three
his Introduction
book, which
had changed
was looking

at had been

completed

560

only

three years

earlier;

and

Literary

Alexandria

enormous

1918 and 1941 of

had taken place between
changes
If he had used a copy of the 1922
he was quite unaware.
for example,
he could hardly have failed to notice,
first edition
of the charming
"coast walk
from Alexandria
the total absence

which

to Ramleh"
declare

that

"there

goes on to
scheme for

in that

described
is no

Forster
text, where
road east of the Silsileh.The

drive has fortunately

'Corniche'
and the
failed,
grandiose
most
environs
has
the
standardised
dullness
that
scenery
escaped
as
in the second
Forster
records
big towns." By 1938, however,
the "coast walk" had been replaced by "caf?s, restaurants,
edition,
the great Corniche
'bo?tes de nuit,' etc., fringing
coast for 12 miles,
from the Yacht
the winding

Road

that follows

Club

(Section

II)

to Montazah
Durrell
preface
himself

(Section VIII)."
own
not appear, in fact, to have read F?rsters
to the 1938 edition
of A History
and Guide
that Durrell
does

used, in which
was first
published,
Forster
then underlines

book

remarking
war
years"
he himself
further
Alexandria
sonnel,
Western

sentence

the first
Alexandria

many
that "the Alexandria

of

states

has

that "since
a

this
deal."

changed
good
the more
obvious
changes,

I knew
to the
and loved belongs
return
and noting
in
that when
his
visit
1929
during
new
the
should
got lost outside
railway station. What

is that during Durrell's

in
noted,
however,
sojourn
to British
most
civilian per
of the city was off-limits
as was most
coast and most
of the Mediterranean
of the
be

the city's hinterland.

Desert,
sense of the
as his
Durrell's
is asmythic
city's history
topography
and is profoundly
marred
various
ethnic
forms
of
by
prejudice.
He speaks throughout
the Alexandria
Quartet
contempt
only with

of "Arabs"?i.e.,
the people who made
up even then the vast
to something
of
the
refers
called
majority
city's population?and
"the native quarter," where
unknown
take
things
place that are
to be frightfully
but also quite
terrible.
presumed
picturesque,
"With
the arrival of Amr and his Arab cavalry," he glibly remarks
to F?rsters
in his introduction
guide, "the famous
resplendent
into
city nosedived
it." So much
covered

the sand dunes

oblivion,
for Islam. A well-known

he found

Church

the Coptic

likewise

561

despicable.

encroached
poem

shows

and
that

The Massachusetts

Review

a vision

of things is both racist and preposterous

and was
not shared by Cavafy, his model,
the "poet of the city."
certainly
It is not surprising
to do
that in 1945, as soon as it was possible
to
was
Durrell
Greece.
He
returned
so,
accompanied
by Eve
an Alexandrian
who
became
his
second
wife
Cohen,
officially
Such

two years later and eventually

the mother
of his second daugh
ter, Sappho-Jane.
The
of
Alexandria
the novels
Quartet,
consisting
Justine,
and Mountolive
and Clea?Justine
have
Mountolive,
Balthazar,
to
almost
the stature of independent
read
them
works,
though
thus is to miss entirely what
the Quartet
is about?was
complet
a third
this time he acquired
years later still. During
also an Alexandrian,
but never revisited
the city. It was not
to
the BBC
decided
thirty years after his departure, when
on Alexandria,
a
to
film
returned
that
Durrell
together
special
to have known
and loved so well.
city he is alleged

ed thirteen
wife,
until
put
the

Two

novels

post-war

good

meanwhile

in English

about Alexandria

and D.J. Enright's AcademicYear

(1955). Liddell,
lived in Alexandria
than Durrell?from
longer
and knew
the city far more
intimately. While
Alexandria

he

collection

edited

of pieces
and Robin

Durrell
moved

to Cairo,

to Alexandria,

had

already appeared:Robert Liddell sUnreal City (1952)

in 1908, had
1941 to 1946?

born

still resident

in

a
Landscape: An Anthology
of Exile,
the war-time
that
literary magazine

Personal
from
Fedden

in 1946

had

in Cairo.

produced

most

which?like
and

people?he
later settled in Athens,

much
where

Liddell
preferred
he died

in 1992. His critical biography of Cavafy, first published in 1974

and recently
revolutionary

republished,
Alexandrian

remains
social

both

the best book

life and

the best

about
book

pre
about

in 1920, lived in Alexandria

born
poet D.J. Enright,
to 1950 and taught at Faruq
I University,
he
where
was the first of a series of lecturers
that would
later include John
from Academic Year, the
and Ted Hughes.
Heath-Stubbs
Apart
Cavafy.The
1947
from

immediate
of

fruit of Enright's

Egyptian

incisive

experience

was

a handful

poems.
of the Quartet, is obviously
title of Justine, the first volume
a tribute
to the Marquis
it also suggests
that the
de Sade. But
The

562

Literary
novel

was

as

conceived

to the modern

belonging
Alexandrian
women,

about

works

Alexandria

traditon

France's

tradition
that

of

includes

and
(1853),
(1890),
Hypatia
Kingsley's
nov
Durrell
had
three
Pierre Louys' Aphrodite
(1896).
published
o? Justine, but had also published
travel
els before
the appearance
most
and five volumes
of verse
and was
writing
generally
as a poet.
esteemed
Anatole

Thais

are more
the books
that make
the
up the Quartet
Certainly
contain
little observation
work
of a poet than a novelist. They
of
with
verbal
fireworks
but
offer
and
divert
instead, along
reality,
tricks, an amiable
ing narrative
Lane's
include Edward William

sources
of written
that
pastiche
classic Manners
and Customs
of the
McPherson's
Moulids
of Egypt

Bimbashi
Egyptians,
as well
as his
A History
F?rsters
Alexandria:
and a Guide
(1941),
Pharos and Pharillon, and no fewer than ten poems of Cavafy, who
the Quartet's
themes
fundamental
and atmospheres.
supplies

Modern

were
casual borrowings
on
article
the Quartet

out in 1962 in a
pointed
in Etudes
Anglaises
by
son of a well
the Cambridge-trained

of these

Many

devastating
Mahmoud

Manzalaoui,
is now a professor
Alexandrian
emeritus
of
family, who
one
at
the
literature
of
Canadian
universities.
English
large
Pinchin
admits in her book Alexandria
Still that
Jane Lagoudis
an
to
Professor
Manzalaoui's
article
"does
of
aspect
point
known

Durrell's

work

that

is very

is often

troubling."
and
pedantic"

But

she complains
that it
if
that
Professor
suggests

"extremely
finds
the Quartet
and inaccurate,
offensive
full of
racist remarks, absurd pidgin Arabic,
and
"pseudo-orientalism,"
errors of fact, that is because Professor Manzalaoui
multitudinous
an article
is a "Moslem."
Five years later however,
by a Copt?
Louis Morcos,
Mona
the daughter
of a former
of the
head
Manzalaoui

of English
Literature
department
confirmed
all
of
Professor
only
went

on

to demonstrate

at Ain

Shams University?not
but
observations,
a
the Quartet
is
kind of

Manzalaoui's

that much

of

own marital
of Durrell's
life.
allegory
Whatever
think
of
his
they may
history, politics,
linguistics,
or
readers have found
charm
in
ethnography
topography, many
Durrell's
characters. Like much
of the rest of the Quartet, however,

563

The Massachusetts
creatures

these

Sir Laurence
social

to do with

little

who

external
observed,
reality.
in the most
moved
elevated

Grafftey-Smith,
of Cairo
and Alexandria

circles

which

have

Review

the Quartet

to be

is supposed

throughout
set, remarked

to
easy
socialites...

the

who
inhabit Durrell's
Alexandria
people
his city. Never
did Imeet
those Levantine
an old book
from
with
six-page
quotations

less

than

from

patient
third

to

has
questioned
was
which
Narouz,
Alexandrian
Coptic
for

a
accept
Copt
in
Zionist
complicity

all Sir Laurence's

Of

Sir

Laurence

Ungaretti,

Durrell

seven-page
quotations
to recall,
and pass on
in
letter,
a
conversation
of
antiphony,
forty-minute
in the children's
brothel
of the rue
parties

I easily

do

of Coptic

hypothesis

recognize
who
cap

bread-and-butter

forgotten
and
word-perfect
years past between
des S urs. Nor

the years in
that he found

with

the

in fact borne
notable,
to have
was

only

Narouz,

or

the

the only one that might

be
name
curious
and unusual

observations
do

called

terrorism."

at least one

in the

1940s by
a generation
of
though
met
socially. Unlike

a visitor,

too young
or
Cavafy

after all.

VII
must
writer
be made
of the distinguished
Special mention
seven novels and three col
Edwar al-Kharrat, who
has published
lections of short stories, creating a body of narrative fiction based
on the city that should be read as a counter
to Durrell's
Quartet.
Two

of

English
Another

into
novels
have
been
translated
extraordinary
and
Alexandria.
Francis
Girls
Liardet:
City of Saffron
of
by
to Durrell
in English
is
available
translation
antidote
his

Ibrahim

Abdel
which

Alexandria,
between
period

in
One
novel No
Sleeps
Meguid's
powerful
the
is set quite explicitly
and precisely within
and the Battle
invasion of Poland
the German

of Alamein.
of work
the appearance
has been
interesting
development
left Egypt
communities
who
of Alexandria's
foreign
by members
in 1956 or as
of the Tripartite Aggression
either in the aftermath
An

a result

of

the Nasser

the

sequestrations

regime's

and nationalizations
of

imposition

564

"Arab

that followed

socialism"

in

1961.

Literary

Alexandria

was first published

in
which
Folly by Leslie Croxford,
in 1978 and again in 1983,
conflates
fictional
1974, republished
own
events
set during
the Occupation
of 1882 with Croxford's
in
memories
of Alexandria
1956. Croxford's
cousin
boyhood
Solomon's

Andr?

Aciman

has published

two

fictionalized

memoirs,

Egypt: A Memoir (1994)and False Papers (2000).The

was

Schinasi

the author

of a novel

in French

Out

of

lateRobert

called Rue Attarine.

is the author of a collection

of eleven
Harry Tzalas
was
in
stories originally
which
translated
Greek,
published

And

short
into

English and published in 2000 as Farewell toAlexandria.

A more
ziandreas,

was
Greek writer
important
his
far better known
pen-name:
by

the

late Yannis

Stratis Tsirkas,

Had
Born

in Cairo in 1911, Tsirkas spent his early childhood in Shari Abd

a barber
in Abdin.2
His father, who
owned
al-Dayyim
shop in
come
had
Shari Sulayman
from
his
mother
from
Pasha,
Imbros,
a
met
via
in
had
Cairo
Chios
Palestine. They
and married
only
de Musset,
translations
year earlier. Tsirkas
(Heine,
published
at
his
first
before
he was six
fifteen,
prose piece
Schiller)
original
In 1929, when
he was just 18, he began
his own
earning
as an accountant,
then as manager
of a cotton gin, in
living, first
next
the
when
his first poem
year, 1930,
Upper
Egypt. During
was
met
he
and in the three years remaining
published,
Cavafy;
teen.

to meet
the great poet's death
(1933) they managed
again,
a
dozen
times.
t?te-?-t?te,
however,
Simultaneously,
a Communist.
had also become
inter
Left-wing
political

before
usually
Tsirkas
ests were

to dominate

vehement

opposition
on him from

attacks
in his

sympathies

all his

life.

his first book of poems in 1937, he adopted the pen

With
name

his life thereafter; and despite his early and

to Stalinism, which
led to party-sanctioned
1961 onward, he was to remain communist

in
definitively. A second collection
appeared
ten
cotton
1938. In 1939, after
years of managing
gins, he moved
to
in Upper
from Dayrut
where
he become
Alexandria,
Egypt
of
the
Greek-owned
Halkousis
the war
manager
tannery. During
he was
of

Stratis Tsirkas

active

Greeks

mutinies

as a

the increasing multitude

among
propagandist
in Egypt
and fervently
the left-wing
supported
in the Greek Army
and Navy
that took place during

565

The Massachusetts
were

1944, which
Cornmunist

April
Greek
lection

of poems

to strengthen
the mainland.

calculated
on

Party

In the first fifteen

Review

years

after
three

(1946),

the hand

the war

a third col
he published
collections
of short stories (1947,

1954, 1957), and his first important full-length

and His

Cavafy

1959

he

Era

(1958), which

began writing

of the

took

three

The Club,

the

study of Cavafy,
of

years

In

study.

first volume

of

Cities

n?XoiTe?as?the
Drifting
trilogy?
'AKu?epVTiT6<5
a year
was
in 1960 and earned his expulsion
which
published
later from the Alexandria
branch of the Greek Communist
Party.
in 1962, and the third, The
The
second volume, Ariagni,
appeared
after the Halkousis
Bat, in 1965. In 1963, meanwhile,
tannery
had

was forced
by the Nasser
r?gime, Tsirkas
to
his young
where
he
Athens,
spent the
family
to
in
active
his
the
end
both
life,
years of
political
and translator.
and as a writer
nationalized

been

to emigrate
last sixteen
causes

with

three cities that provide

settings
the setting for The
it
is
Alexandria,
trilogy,
to
must
have known
best, thanks
mately
with
his
there
spent
grandfather,
regularly
Of

the

in the Drifting
Cities
ulti
Bat, that Tsirkas
childhood
intermittent

summers
visits

for

or business

unbroken
and finally
purposes,
twenty-four
political
his protagonist,
from
1939 to 1963. Manos,
years of residence,
on
us to a version
of Alexandria
based very closely
introduces
from
decadent
Durrell's
Tsirkas' own experience,
different
utterly
and bookish
easily

be

"city of memory"
demonstrated
by

and far more

true

examination

of

an

are thus mainly

It
real population.
a
sense of being

of Tsirkas' Alexandria
and Europeans
Egyptians
most
of the modern
like
city's
working-class,
in
Alexandrian
is cosmopolitan
the
truly
only
different
ethnic
many
place where
at
their homes
the same
tally made
or

less separately

from

to life, as can
details.3 The

communities

have

inciden

one

more
time, living otherwise
none
another,
feeling
permanently

thus

see an Alexandria

installed.
Manos
Through
life, in neighborhoods
B

and V

wind

we

ranged along
routes, always breathed
Manos'
the sea. Nancy,

tram

from

566

of ordinary
daily
on
the
old
the familiar
stops
upon
lover

by

a salt

eventually

the

or blasted
and

Alexandria

Literary
of his daughter,

mother

is perfectly

on

went
searchlight
The
sheath
again.

found

the navel

of

harbor

the

at the

of

at the
light

the

sky

in

the

search

end,

the

switch.

of

and

the Corniche

was

linen.There

silent, silent. All

the

rusty
fumbled

cloud,

that

the
those

and
She

her
the

Nan
palms,

shutters,

to draw

managed

the

room

the dark

in
through
travel around
the room.
gaze
bedsheets?a
in her
twinge
grayish
other
of fine
starched
sheets, made
dull

table, with

lame

on

if it

curve
out.

on

dust

as

paused
the whole
went

on

then

out,

sensation

unpleasant
the damp
hinges.
her way

let her

little

It went

jetty.
the

low, covered
swept
stroke
and finally

paint,

She

the
across

an

felt

furniture,
anonymous
as she remembered

heart

then
brush

single
shutters.
She

in the

of

end

crawled

of flaking
resistance
of the

shutters

The

of

a mixture

and

on

Cavafyesque:

pulled
it was

in a pension

lives

the

on

telephone

it, silent,

these days, she had looked at it in vain, hoping

it

so
as she could
have
the thrill
ring, even by mistake,
just
might
long
a dark stain
it ring....Then
of hearing
the dim greenish
with
mirror,
a lunar crater.
in the middle,
like an eruption
of mold,
like a jellyfish,
a
curtains
of insecticide,
The
smelled
smell
that also pervad
moldy
the worn

ed

and

gray

carpet,
threadbare

the

back

of

like

the

rest.4

the

in

armchair

the

living

room,

swonderful
"The Afternoon
Sun," this passage
Recalling
Cavafy
us
we
to
tells
need
know by telling us simply about
everything
or
situation, without
Nancy's
physical
dramatizing,
glamorizing
falsification.
Less a description
than an ironic tour d'horizon,
it has
as the
philosophical
depth and the pathos of a tango, as well
ring
In its oblique
economy,
it touches
upon,

of truth.
ment

its austerity
and tact in its treat
an artistic
it exemplifies
code

of what

to physical
faithful adherence
requiring
reality.
To exemplify
further
this code, let us quote one more
from Drifting Cities. Manos
and two other Communist
are

ators

arriving

at a hideout,

an unused

road:

Qir

stopped talking because we had reached the place. The door to

We
the

apartment

bled with
round
down

conspir
in a building

at Sporting (Sidi Gabr) on the

behind the new5 Jewish Hospital

Abu

flat

passage

was

at the back

the lock, which

for

a moment

wall,

mounds

and
of

of

the building.

had gone
at

gazed

earth,

the

567

the

As

the other

rusty with

two

fum

disuse, I turned

a broken
was
night. There
and beyond
all that the

railway,

Review

The Massachusetts

fields.
empty
mon
from
flickered
there was

The

the

a smell

brought

earth?sweetish,
must
in the distance?they
have
the sound
of voices
and musical
damp

celebration,

Egypt,

breeze

the

or a circumcision

wedding
a different

of

and

cinna

strangely
Lights
exciting.
been
lamps6?and
paraffin
instruments.
were

ritual. We

world.
of
Beyond
edge
vast and motionless,
indifferent

cane

sugar

those
railway
to our war.7

For many
of us, a brilliant passage
like this one
as
we
can
not
know
truthful,
merely
only
thing
we know from
as
but
essential,
having
experience,

Some

sort of

on
standing
lines
stretched

some
captures
from our own

given the sub

is nothing
in
this
like
remotely
paragraph
seems to have looked
at the world
around

There

ject thought.
never
who
Durrell,
it is like those Byzantine
icons described
him. Technically,
by the
a
that
and
Craxton
make
painter John
sophisticated
"fascinating
use of reverse
where
the viewer becomes
the vanish
perspective

It reveals to us, through Manos,

in each detail, from
ing point."8
the rusted lock and the scents arising from the darkling fields, the
as one
that we can recognize
and lights, an Egypt
distant music
us
a generosity
we know. It also shows
inManos
of spirit
himself
betrayal
believes
No

and

and

death,
to be a heroic

ise of future

course, without

on

article

futility,
in what
he
perseveres
even the Achillean
prom

in the
literary Alexandria
of the musical
omit mention

reasonably
or
late Bernard
de Zogheb
or discovered
P?ra, invented

typically

foresees

self-sacrifice,

nevertheless

fame.

could

Christian

of

the irrelevance

that understands

Sinano.The

Ayoub
written

century
of the
burlesques
Pola de
character

that wonderful

de Zogheb's
cousin,
by Bernard
are
de Zogheb
libretti of Bernard

in Alexandrian

Anglo-Franco-Graeco-Arabo-Italian
streets and shops of the city

twentieth

is to say, in the
in the
spoken

Italian?that
that was
before

1960. With

music

adapted
40s
the
and
30s,
50s,
early
they represent
popular
a
culture. They
the last, light-hearted
cosmopolitan
leafage of
are
so suggestive
most
are quite often
that they
per
effectively
which
Le
for
marionettes.
Sorelle
formed
Bronte,
example,
by
from

improbably
Bramwell,

tunes

centers
includes

of

on

the Bront?

a scene where

568

sisters
the three

and

their

brother

sisters, desperate

for

Alexandria

Literary

a living, eventually
decide
of making
that the only
solu
is to "scendere
nelle
strade per fare l'amore." A one-act
a reception
recreates
for the Empress
operetta
Eug?nie
during

ways
tion

to Alexandria

visit

her

inevitable

in

1869.

is conducted

She

a chorus

buffet

of French-speaking
on
the varied
delicacies

by
who
describe
hostesses,
est de Fifi/La
basboussah

est de moi"?to

koub?bah

to

the

Alexandrian
display?"La
the tune of

death in the spring of 1999 has robbed

theKnife. Bernard's
us of many
joys.
Christian
in Alexandria
born
Sinano was
in 1927.
Ayoub

Mack

Between

1950

1959

he

in Paris, where
his first novel,
was
In Alexandria,
(Buchet-Chastel
Artagal
[Correa])
published.
a
he published
little book
of fourteen
meanwhile,
privately
two
with
ornamented
Bernard
de Zogheb.
pages,
by
drawings
lived

de P?ra, it tells the story of a sometime

singer, the
Paris and Istanbul, who
to a
has drifted
downward

Entitled
toast

and

Pola
of

that is acute, but

poverty
her
memories
keep
gilded

never

to
since Pola manages
abject,
and her pretensions
intact. The book
takes the form of ten vignettes,
eight in verse, one in prose, and
verse that iswritten
as prose.
one?"Le
de Pola"?in
Testament
It is in these vignettes
acter whose

that Sinano

indomitability
the
Mehitabel

s Pola

recalls Kazantzakis'

Tennessee
Williams'
Blanche
or
even
Durrell's
the
Castafiore,
Scobie,
in the Alexandria
character
Quartet.Tht
city so

Marquis's
Dubois,
Herges
most memorable

Cat,

Bianca

in Pola s adventures
thinly disguised
Alexandria
Sinano s heroine
and
ly
well-known

figure

in Alexandrian

POLA LA MORTE
Du

temps

o?

nous

p?rorions

A P?ra de Constantinople
Vous
Sur

portiez
vos seins

une
durs

robe
comme

sinople
des

citrons.

Pr?s du chemin qui bifurque

Et qui descend vers le Bosphore
Vous

faisiez

to life, a char
Don
Bouboulina,

is brought

l'amour

? la turque

Faible dans les bras des forts

569

as Istanbul
was
society.

is quite definite
based upon

in fact

The Massachusetts
Vous
Le
Et

le musc

sentiez

et

Review

l'ambre

et le romarin
jasmin
vous
votre
aviez montr?

chambre

cent
plus de trois
vingt marins.
Vous
centenaire
vivre
vouliex
A

bien folle qui s'y fie

H?las

vous

Car
Au

au cimeti?re

?tes
de

pied

Sainte-Sophie.

POLA DIVA
causes:
effets ont des subtiles
grands
tu
chantais
Madame
Quand
Butterfly
Les

? l'op?ra
de P?ra
Les
Et

sentaient

spectateurs
c'est pourquoi

Ah,
En

l'?mouvant
se m?lant

dans

l'on

les relents
te couvrait

de
de

l'ail
roses.

de tes salades!
parfum
avec
la mer
calm?e

l'op?ra

de P?ra
se
tes seins
gonfler
au
remuaient
rhythme

Il faisait
Qui

d'aim?e
des

ans

Vingt

Voyant,
de l'op?ra

quelque
apr?s?dans
sans voix,
sur un divan,

roulades.

lupanar?
la reine

de P?ra.
Le

client

Reconna?t

la nuit,

de

? ton

le rossignol

haleine,

de Phanar.

Proses pour Pola (Paris: Ren?

Julliard,
published
the
thirteen
short
stories
about
of
1964),
people
who
is her
laMarigoula,
who make up Pola s circle: Chouchoula
romance
the hunchback
niece and heir; Caroline
writer;
Contri,
Do?a
Kika
de
the
former
Sir Antony
his
wife,
Escarjueta
Turney,
an
his
Armenian
with
Carabanchel
mother),
(a Spanish
lady
son Tony; Catherine
his
Theodolinda
and
scapegrace
daughter
In 1964

Sinano

a collection

of
the Benlamouns;
Mary
merchants
the
Said,;
Opazian,
of
the
who
and Galopian;
Trotian,
pays
penalty
Pergola Philpotts,
and her three daughters
her snobbery; Mme. R?s?da
Lina, Lana,
died ten days after
Pola s friend, who
and Luna; the pious Amelia,

d'Attarine,
Alexandria

who

married

and Rose

the

last of

of Port

570

Alexandria

Literary

as a woman,
some years
and was buried
though
in
had
St.
her
transformed
fact,
before,
miraculously
Euphrosyne
In Proses pour Pola, the identity of Sinano's
into a man.
setting is
made
families forced into emigration
overt; and many Alexandrian
Pola'

are

s death

evoked by name?a
dangerous
explicitly
proceeding
to Canada where
Sinano himself
he was
emigrated

as a translator

in the Canadian

Proses pour Pola was

translated
called her translation Pola

who

fusion.

The

translation

was

a few months

author's

approval
on 21 November

1989. His

Immigration
into English
de P?ra,

published
before
ashes were

Service.

in 1964.
employed
In 1989

Burnett,
by Maud
some con
thus creating
in Canada
without
the

his death, which

occurred
to
his
widow
brought
by

where
interred
three months
later.
Alexandria,
they were
Like Sinano's Pola, the city of Alexandria
may once have been
summer
But
and
the
exciting.
glamorous
elegant
capital of pre
no
Khedivial
and
Alexandria,
Egypt,
Revolutionary
Royal
exists nor does
its cosmopolitan
longer
literary culture, which
fostered
the likes of Cavafy, Marinetti,
and Tsirkas
and
Ungaretti,
a
into
of
books
in
wealth
and
being
yearly
brought
periodicals
Alternative
French, Greek,
Italian, or Armenian.
Arabic, English,
were
and
in
Cairo
abuse
authorities
who
either
by
negligence
indifferent

or actively

of Egypt's

famous

to the city has brought

continuing
a
half
century, not least to its level and
degradation
throughout
were
in
founded
style of literacy. Though
nearly sixty periodicals
was
1880 and 1914?it
between
Alexandria
the original
home
Gazette

hostile

Al-Ahram

as of

as well

and

the Egyptian Mail?it

the
margin
largest city in the world without
new Bibliotheca
The grandiose
Alexandrina
Egyptian

lesser papers
like the
is now by a wide
a
daily newspaper.
that has risen above

the city's crumbling

Corniche
will
have consumed
certainly
a
and
of
of
handful
energy
imagination
distinguished
people,
to create a cultural revival.
is unlikely
Like

Pola

de P?ra again, however,

drift into a weird

Alexandria

but will

entirely,
Sinano
ascribes

to his heroine

eosis

Death

Maud

(in "The

when

and Apotheosis

Burnett):

571

to die
is unlikely
of the sort that

immortality
he tells us about
of

the
but

Pola,"

her apoth
translated
by

The Massachusetts

Pola,

dead?

Oh,

no,

will

be

in the

always
ish ones,
starved

vamp

to

shall

the

provincial
bathing
down
band
gunned

rhinestones,
a

by

a victim

herself,

She

beaches.

queen
is the
of

couple

from

and
child
of

of
one

who

from

deserters
in

of

bootleggers,
and Prohibition.

has

those

all

the palaces
a hardened

a spy
betrayed,
suburban
nightclubs

of Bucharest,

slums

reborn

comical,
but most

people?the
for glory,
greedy
and again,
again

her

find

are

souls

Certain

simple

legends
and
splendid,

with

dripping

dies

of

love. We

of Portugal

is immortal.

Pola

wretched
for

Review

her

and

third

hus

the Navy,
then
frenzied
of
days

at
is the door-keeper
She
too much
She is a camp-follow
wearing
make-up.
a farm
er at Kiev,
as a tsarina,
the troops
from
haranguing
disguised
on
into
vodka
and
the
fresh
drunk
wagon,
collapsing
getting
a
and innocent
of a young
blond
embraces
peasant,
huge
boy, whose
Charlestons,

speakeasies,

the Ladies'

name,

Bath,

naturally

is Ivan.

enough

NOTES
1Alexandria: A
History and Guide, First Edition Reprint
Haag,

2 I am indebted for
biographical
"On

Prokopaki,

of Stratis

the Trail

Sto Icni tou Strath Tsirka

3
Many

(London: Michael

xvi.

1982),

of

them were

information

Tsirkas,"

(Athens: Kedros,

kindly

by Vivienne

Nilan

from

of Drifting

Cities

1985).
for me

annotated

to Chrysa

about Tsirkas

translated

in my

copy

just before his death by Bernard de Zogheb.

4 StratisTsirkas,
Drifting Cities: A Trilogy, translated by Kay Cicellis
Kedros,

1995),

5Built
6

Kay

446,

in 1930-1932
Cicellis

7
520.
Tsirkas,
8 In "Music
to

to replace the old one inMuharrim

says "acetylene
the

Soul,"

(Athens:

"Tsirkas."

hereinafter

lamps,"

RA.The

which

Royal

1998), 40.

572

seems

Academy

highly

Magazine,

Bey.
unlikely.
no.

58

(Spring