Book contents
- Herodotus in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Herodotus in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Conventions and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 From Ethnography to History
- Chapter 2 ‘Romantic Poet-Sage of History’
- Chapter 3 Herodotus as Anti-classical Toolbox
- Chapter 4 George Grote and the ‘Open-hearted Herodotus’
- Chapter 5 Imagining Empire through Herodotus
- Chapter 6 Two Victorian Egypts of Herodotus
- Chapter 7 Of Europe
- Chapter 8 From Scythian Ethnography to Aryan Christianity
- Chapter 9 Herodotus and the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War
- Chapter 10 Herodotus’s Travels in Britain and Beyond
- Bibliography
- Index of Passages of Herodotus Cited
- General Index
Chapter 6 - Two Victorian Egypts of Herodotus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 March 2020
- Herodotus in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Herodotus in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Conventions and Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 From Ethnography to History
- Chapter 2 ‘Romantic Poet-Sage of History’
- Chapter 3 Herodotus as Anti-classical Toolbox
- Chapter 4 George Grote and the ‘Open-hearted Herodotus’
- Chapter 5 Imagining Empire through Herodotus
- Chapter 6 Two Victorian Egypts of Herodotus
- Chapter 7 Of Europe
- Chapter 8 From Scythian Ethnography to Aryan Christianity
- Chapter 9 Herodotus and the 1919–1922 Greco-Turkish War
- Chapter 10 Herodotus’s Travels in Britain and Beyond
- Bibliography
- Index of Passages of Herodotus Cited
- General Index
Summary
By 1830 the famous flashpoints of Napoleonic Egyptomania – the Battle of the Nile and acquisition of the Rosetta Stone – were remembered with pride as evocative tableau in Britain’s national narrative. However, they were recognized as belonging to a previous generation. The visions of Egypt (ancient and modern) that survived them were rarely flattering. Throughout the 1820s and early 1830s, most Britons who wrote about Egypt were dismissive at best and at worst hostile: their Egypt was primarily biblical, the oppressor described in Exodus and the prophets. Whether in art, in diverse articles for the periodical press or in books of ancient history tinged with scripture, evangelical angst often bubbled beneath the surface of Egypt’s representation. Looming up from amongst ‘the wrecks of time’ the fate of biblical Egypt was wielded as a warning against hubris and luxury.
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- Herodotus in the Long Nineteenth Century , pp. 154 - 178Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020