Hellenistic - Page 8 of 9

Monneret De Villard, Ugo (1881-1954)

MONNERET DE VILLARD, UGO (1881-1954) Italian archaeologist and Orientalist. He studied engineering first, but became interested in medieval architecture and later in Oriental studies. His first visit to Egypt was for the purpose of making a study of the pharos of Alexandria. He later conducted a long series of excavations in Upper Egypt between 1921 …

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Monasteries Of The Eastern Desert

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

MONASTERIES OF THE EASTERN DESERT “Eastern desert” refers to all of Egypt between the fertile valley of the Nile and the Red Sea. Perhaps because the watering places and the regular caravan routes are less numerous there, the hermitages and monasteries are few. Two centers should be pointed out: one to the north formed by …

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Mythological Subjects In Coptic Art

Heritage, Culture / By Armia FAYEZ

MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS IN COPTIC ART The ancient civilizations of the Middle East abounded in myths, which expressed sacred truths in words. Mythological subjects were a fertile source of inspiration for artists. As one civilization succeeded another in the same area, the newer mythology gradually superseded the old, and the iconography changed accordingly. But elements of …

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Nubian Ceramics

Places, History / By Armia FAYEZ

NUBIAN CERAMICS The Nubians first learned the art of pottery making from their Egyptian neighbors, but almost from the beginning they followed traditions of their own in the use of color and decoration. Artistically, the best of the Nubian wares sometimes surpassed anything made in Egypt. This was true in the Nubian Meroitic period (c. …

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Nubian Church Art

Heritage / By Armia FAYEZ

NUBIAN CHURCH ART Decoration in the earliest Nubian churches seems to have been confined to the use of sculptured capitals, lintels, and cornices of stone and of wood. Very few of these have survived intact, for after the eighth century such features were generally discarded. The specimens that have been preserved are fairly typical of …

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On The Origin Of The World

Books / By Armia FAYEZ

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE WORLD A Gnostic scripture, handed down in several copies (Nag Hammadi Codex II, 5; 97.24-127.17; NHC XIII, 2, 50. 25-34 [fragm.]; British Library, Or. 4926 [1] [fragm.]) and by comparison with other texts quite well preserved. In spite of its parallels, for instance, to Irenaeus (Adversus omnes haereses 1.30), to …

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Ethiopian Monasticism

History / By Armia FAYEZ

ETHIOPIAN MONASTICISM Perhaps the most important aspect of Ethiopian Christianity is its monasticism. Introduced into the country probably at the time when Christianity itself was first preached, its centers, the monasteries, have set the rule of conduct for the domestic and foreign policy of the Christian kingdom up to the twentieth century. The monks were …

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Eschatology

Theology / By Armia FAYEZ

ESCHATOLOGY The study of the last things, of the destiny of individual persons, and, more broadly, of society, of the world, and of the universe. In the culture of the pagan Greco-Roman world, concern with the destiny of the individual after death received comparatively little attention outside the mystery religions, but Hellenistic speculation on successive …

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Idfa

Places / By Armia FAYEZ

IDFA A city in the district of Suhaj. Called Iteb in the pharaonic period, and then in Hellenistic times Iton or Itos, Idfa is mentioned in the Christian period only in the summary that the recension of the SYNAXARION of the Copts from Upper Egypt devotes to the martyr hermits PANINE AND PANEU at 7 …

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Diaconia

Culture / By Youssef Matta

DIACONIA A term of Greek origin with multiple meanings. The original sense of diaconia in classical and Hellenistic Greek was “service.” In later Greek, diaconia practically always denoted religious service of one kind or another, or bodies that had to do with such services. In later Greek texts from Egypt and in Coptic texts, we …

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