15 - Was There an Interest in Literary Culture in the Great Oasis? Some Answers

Summary

This chapter offers a cultural survey of the Great Oasis and inquires about the existence of Greek literary culture in various localities. The schools that have come to light in Amheida and Kellis are of great importance because they are extremely rare in the Greek and Roman worlds. In Amheida a school that covered primary and grammatical learning was annexed to the house of a notable, Serenos. It was identified because of benches and literary texts written on the walls: Homer, Plutarch, and eight epigrams in elegiac couplets and hexameters. In addition a verse from Euripides’ tragedy Hypsipyle was scribbled on a wall of the house. Some Greek inscriptions with poetic words also exist in Amheida and a large broken piece with a poetic encomium. Other Greek texts emerge from places such as Ain Birbiyh, Kysis, and Karga: metrical and mythological inscriptions of high-level and subliterary texts written on ostraca that testify to the existence of elementary education. The evidence considered shows that people in the Great Oasis were interested in Greek culture and education. Some were able to reach an elementary education and the elites aspired to know prose and poetry of high level.