Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and His World (Transformation of the Classical Heritage)

MacCoull, Leslie S. B.

ISBN 10: 0520062264 / ISBN 13: 9780520062269

Published by University of California Press, 1989

About this Item

Used - Very Good.

Seller Inventory # 352-a - 00007

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Dioscorus of Aphrodito: His Work and His World (Transformation of the Classical Heritage)
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication Date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520062264
• ISBN 13: 9780520062269
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

From the hand of Dioscorus of Aphrodito, sixth-century Coptic lawyer and poet, we have the only autograph poems to come down to us on papyrus from the late ancient world. Both the poetry he wrote for special occasions and the documents he produced in his legal career, in Greek and Coptic, reflect the major preoccupations of Dioscorus' society and his age: the nature of Byzantine imperial government, the patronage of the powerful elite, and the spirituality of the Egyptian Christian church.

Thanks to residence in Egypt and many years of work with the original papyri, Leslie S. B. MacCoull is able to present a comprehensive picture of Dioscorus and his times. Through detailed analyses of the documents and poems, some previously unknown, she leads us to a fresh perception of the Coptic culture of Byzantine Egypt. She reveals the man and his world as inheritors of and contributors to the Egyptian-Classical-Christian fusion of society and intellectual life that gave birth to Gnosticism and the Desert Fathers. Dioscorus of Aphrodito epitomizes the little-known cultural flowering of late antique Egypt, which is now seen not as a place of sterility and decadence, but as the home of a strikingly original and creative culture whose subsequent eclipse still remains unexplained.

About the Author

Leslie S.B. MacCoull has served the Society for Coptic Archaeology since 1978, first as its Director of Studies and subsequently as its U.S. Representative. She has been a fellow of Dumbarton Oaks, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the American Association of University Women.