Sunken Cities Part 2: The Ancient Mysteries of Canopus - Ep 23

Written By Rachel Roden

There’s so much info to share about Canopus that it needed a second episode!

In this episode, we take a look at some of the myths and deities associated with Canopus as well as earlier finds that have provided us with important details about the city.

According to myth, the city began a the site where a Homeric hero met a gruesome end. It grew to become the main trade hub connecting Mediterranean routes to the Nile, a sacred city of several deities, and an internationally famous center of healing.

Under the Ptolemies, Canopus became the site of the Mysteries of Osiris, blending Greek and Egyptian rituals of death and rebirth in order to gain sacred knowledge. We’ll explore all we know about this mysterious annual ritual and others that were held here.

Transcripts

Links

Works Cited

  • Abdel-Rahman, R. 2018. Recent Underwater Excavations at Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus. Annales Du Service Des Antiquités de l’Égypte (ASAE) 92:233–258.

  • Buraselis, K., M. Stefanou, and D. J. Thompson. 2013. The Ptolemies, the Sea and the Nile. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

  • Egypt Museum. Canopus & Heracleion: Sunkencities.

  • Fraser, P. M. 1972. Ptolemaic Alexandria. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

  • Goddio, F., and A. Masson-Berghoff. 2016. Sunken Cities: Egypt’s Lost Worlds. Thames & Hudson / British Museum, London.

  • Goddio, Franck. Projects: Sunken Civilizations: Canopus.

  • Lavan, L., and M. Mulryan (editors). 2011. The Archaeology of Late Antique Paganism. Brill, Leiden.

  • MacDonald, W. L., and J. A. Pinto. 1995. Hadrian’s Villa and Its Legacy. Yale University Press, New Haven.

  • Marriner, N., C. Morhange, and C. Flaux. 2017. Geoarchaeology of the Canopic Region: A Reconstruction of the Holocene Palaeo-Landscapes. Méditerranée 128:51–64.

  • PAThs-ERC. East Canopus: Sacri Lapides Aegypti.

  • Sidebotham, S. E. 2011. Berenike and the Ancient Maritime Spice Route. University of California Press, Berkeley.

  • Sidebotham, S. E. 2019. Ports of the Red Sea and the Nile Delta: Trade and Cultural Exchange. In The Cambridge Companion to the Roman Economy, edited by W. Scheidel. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

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Affiliates

Rachel Roden
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Sunken Cities Part 3: Thonis-Heracleion, the City of Commerce and Ceremony - Ep 24
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Sunken Cities Part 1: New Discoveries from the Ancient Egyptian Port, Canopus - Ep 22