HOW WAS THE GREAT LIBRAY OF ALEXANDRIA ORGANIZED AND OPERATED? WHO OR WHAT CAUSED ITS DESTRUCTION?
For the extra credit assignment I have decided to compose as essay describing the great library of Alexandria. The library itself is wrapped up in a great mystery that has had many historians and archeologists heavily interested in its existence for many years. It has been recorded that the library of Alexandria held many thousands, if not millions, of books, volumes and other documents. The library is also believed to be one of the biggest libraries in human history. Its significance is of invaluable knowledge. The mammoth size of such a huge monument for the period of time that is existed is phenomenal. Even though it was significant in it’s time, the destruction of such a beautiful collection of thoughts, novels and other writings is somewhat of a tragic occurrence that has baffled many for years.
Alexandria was founded in Egypt by Alexandria the Great. His successor as Pharaoh was known as Ptolemy II Soter. He founded the Museum or Royal Library of Alexandria in 283 BC. The Museum was a shrine of the Muses modeled after the Lyceum of Aristotle in Athens. The Museum was a place of study which included lecture areas, gardens, a zoo, and shrines for each of the nine muses as well as the Library itself. It has been estimated that at one time the Library of Alexandria held over half a million documents from Assyria, Greece, Persia, Egypt, India and many other nations. Over 100 scholars and scribes lived at the Museum full time to perform research, write, lecture or translate and copy documents (Hertzke 2004). The library got so large it actually had another branch or "daughter" library at the Temple of Serapis.
There are many stories and rumors surrounding the real destruction of such a great library. It is still unknown exactly who are what destroyed the entire library but many stories and personal accounts that were put onto historical text much later on reveal clues to its possible “real” destruction. The first person blamed for the destruction of the Library is none other than Julius Caesar himself. In 48 BC, Caesar was pursuing Pompey into Egypt when he was suddenly cut off by an Egyptian fleet at Alexandria. Greatly outnumbered and in enemy territory, Caesar ordered the ships in the harbor to be set on fire. Sup...
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...mar) all had an axe to grind and consequently must be seen as biased. Probably everyone mentioned above had some hand in destroying some part of the Library's holdings. The collection may have ebbed and flowed as some documents were destroyed and others were added. For instance, Mark Antony was supposed to have “given Cleopatra over 200,000 scrolls for the Library long after Julius Caesar is accused of burning it (Luciano 2005).”
It is also quite likely that even if the Museum was destroyed with the main library the outlying daughter library at the Temple of Serapis continued on. Many writers seem to equate the Library of Alexandria with the Library of Serapis although technically they were in two different parts of the city.
The real tragedy of course is not the uncertainty of knowing who to blame for the Library's destruction but that so much of ancient history, literature and learning was lost forever. Its importance and significance will never be resurrected, but will forever lay in a mystery. Only dreams and images can be pondered about what actually existed in such a great library. Scholars, historians and educated individuals can only daydream about what might have been.
...h Museum. It contains the theological, cosmological and philosophical views of the Egyptians. Inscribed is also the name of an Egyptian Pharaoh who copied an inscription of his ancestors, this was around 700 B.C., the time when Egypt developed one of their first dynasties, Memphis. The Memphite Theology consists of 3 parts of text and philosophy.
Merryman, John Henry. Thinking about the Elgin Marbles: Critical Essays on Cultural Property, Art, and Law. London: Kluwer Law International Ltd, 2000.
Often there is time where an individual may feel incapable of achieving certain goals. It is not because they do not have the ability to achieve such goals, but on the moral grounds that their abilities will no longer be at the forefront of society vision. As society tends to focus on the color of an individual skin and their gender rather than the abilities there is able to bring to the table. The feeling of incapability that these individuals face where they will be judged on race and gender and not their abilities are referred to as limitation. Vocabulary.com defines limitations as something that holds you back, like a broken leg that keeps you off the dance floor during prom season. (Vocaulary.com Limitations) Limitation is anything that
In “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn, the focal point of chapter 17 was an issue for decades and was not enforced after Civil Rights Acts were passed and that was the inequality amongst the blacks and whites through slavery and segregation. It also gave an insight to how African Americans felt through these times and how they began to express themselves through blues, jazz, and poems. Blues were known to have expressions of anger as opposed to jazz that was rebellious. The thoughts of African American poems were often masked, but had a very significant meaning. Through the event where “President Truman in late 1946 appointed a Committee on Civil Rights, which recommended that the civil rights section of the Department
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The two concepts are perhaps the most powerful writing of the sheer burden of African-American in our society. Ever though the story was written many decades ago, many African-American today reflect on how things haven’t changed much over time. Still today American will conceptualize what is “Black” and what is “American”.
This has been going on from the start of humanity. Fear comes from within the conscious and that is inevitable; there are many things that are frightening to us humans. A lot of these fears are learned through experiences growing up. I’ve always wondered what happened to someone to have such a strong irrational fear. The number of phobias are highly increasing, 2017 has been recorded as the highest amount of phobias diagnosis(Phobias 1). We teach ourselves these things without even realizing it, until we have already encrypted the phobia into our minds. There are many studies today trying to understand the development of these phobias. Having phobias can have a massive interruption of daily routines, limit productiveness, create low self-esteem, and place a strain on relationships with families or friends because people will avoid the
The ancient world was truly a wonderful and interesting thing. Mankind developed and evolved greatly during this time. Also during this time, many advancements in technology helped lead to great master architecture. The Great Pyramid, Temple of Artemis and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia are some of these famous works. These masters of architecture can often be referred to the seven wonders of the ancient world. Sadly, all but one of these ancient wonders have been lost to the times, the only wonder that still remains is the Great Pyramid of Giza. The topic of my essay is Ancient Egypt. During the course of this essay the basic details of who, what, when, where, how and why will be discussed.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
The Hellenistic period started when Alexander died in about 320 BCE and continued approximately three eras, pending the dual killing of Queen Cleopatra of Egypt and her Roman partner Mark Antony in 30 BCE after their pivotal overthrow at the combat of Actium by Antony’s opponent Augustus. During that time, Augustus made Egypt a jurisdiction of the Roman Empire. The cultural centers of the Hellenistic period were the court cities of the Greek royals who succeeded Alexander and distributed his widespread empire among themselves. The language which was used was Greek, what unified the Hellenistic world was an international culture. Their monarchs became very fortunate on the riches of the East, priding themselves of their art collections, libraries, innovation of the sciences, and expertise as critics and aficionados, and on the educated men they could bring together at their courts. The larger-than-life-size Greek Head of Poseidon bronze statute is undisputedly a masterwork of the ancient times, the Hellenistic period. The figures were central points of sanctuaries and important civic places, and they served as models and muse for the classical figurines known today. The Head of Poseidon statue is very appealing with its fine facial bone structure, full open mouth, deep-set eyes, and decorative curls of hair and wavy beard. The windswept curls are barely bound by the crown.
One pleasant afternoon, my classmates and I decided to visit the Houston Museum of Fine Arts to begin on our museum assignment in world literature class. According to Houston Museum of Fine Art’s staff, MFAH considers as one of the largest museums in the nation and it contains many variety forms of art with more than several thousand years of unique history. Also, I have never been in a museum in a very long time especially as big as MFAH, and my experience about the museum was unique and pleasant. Although I have observed many great types and forms of art in the museum, there were few that interested me the most.
According to Chris Hadfield, fear is the unpleasant emotion (caused by dangerous) by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, or likely to cause pain or threat. One of the saying is “Fear is a choice while danger is the reality of a certain situation”- which means we cannot control the level of danger in a situation, but we can choose to feel afraid or chose not to let fear limits our ability to try something new, create or dream from coming true but with practice we can overcome our fear of scary situations. For example, Chris Hadfield mentioned as a little kid, he always dreamt of going on spaceships and becoming an astronomer. However, as he mentioned about his dream, it was impossible to be true if he believed his fears about flying or trying something for the most part known to be dangerous. In my opinion, I agree with what Chris Hadfield mentioned about the fear that it sometimes can be excessive, but it is our choice to overcome these fears by more practice and gaining new experience, but I also think that it can be useful because it can hinder us from doing something that actually could harm us.
In 1894, construction neared completion on The Thomas Jefferson Building, the oldest of the three buildings which comprise the Library of Congress in Washington D.C.. With the exterior well in hand, the architects turned their attention to the interior, commissioning extensive murals by well-known artists. The commissioners of these murals deliberately set out to “personify the ideals of the [American] people” through the medium of government-sponsored art, and provide a relatively young nation with a story about themselves -- a visual “literature” which would connect them to the distant past.1 Among the most famous of these murals is Edwin Blashfield’s The Evolution of Civilization which occupies the massive dome of the Main Reading Room; twelve cultures are represented in the circle, each credited with a unique contribution to Western civilization.2 In one case, ancient Egypt is depicted as having contributed “written records” to civilization, represented by a figure wearing a characteristically Egyptian headdress.3 However, a variety of research, some of which actually occurred in the late nineteenth century, calls this particular choice into question; ancient cuneiform records from Mesopotamia date back to 5000 B.C.E.,4 while Egyptian hieroglyphics appeared around 3400 B.C.E..5 This suggests that Mesopotamia should share with Egypt the honor of having contributed written records to Western civilization, if not displace it.
The ancient encyclopedia Suda also tells us a little bit about Hypatia. It tells us that when she was 31, she became director of the museum in Alexandria. This museum was brought the top scientists from all around Europe to work and do research there. Some of these mathematicians and scientists were Euclid, Galen, and Archimedes. This museum was considered to be one of the finest and most outstanding buildings at the time. It was built by Ptolemy, the ruler of Egypt after Alexander the Great, in 300 B.C.
Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous or is a threat and is likely to cause pain. It is believed that everyone has fears in life or at least things or places that make us uncomfortable. There are hundreds of different types of fears and phobias. Common fears include the fear of death, the rear of the unknown, the fear of survival or unpredictability. Other fears could be the fear of ghosts, cockroaches, spiders, snakes and public speaking.