Ian Moyer | University of Michigan (original) (raw)

Books by Ian Moyer

NOW IN PAPERBACK! In this book I explore the ancient history and modern historiography of relati... more NOW IN PAPERBACK!
In this book I explore the ancient history and modern historiography of relations between Egypt and Greece from the fifth century BCE to the early Roman empire. Beginning with Herodotus, I analyze key encounters between Greeks and Egyptian priests, the bearers of Egypt’s ancient traditions. A series of four moments emerge as rich micro-histories of cross-cultural interaction: Herodotus’ interviews with priests at Thebes, Manetho’s composition of an Egyptian history in Greek, the struggles of Egyptian priests on Delos, and a Greek physician’s quest for magic in Egypt. In writing these histories, I move beyond Orientalizing representations of the Other and colonial metanarratives of the civilizing process to reveal interactions between Greeks and Egyptians as transactional processes in which the traditions, discourses and pragmatic interests of both sides shaped the outcome. The result is a dialogical history of cultural and intellectual exchanges between the civilizations of Greece and Egypt.

Edited works by Ian Moyer

This collaborative volume examines revolts and resistance to the successor states, formed after A... more This collaborative volume examines revolts and resistance to the successor states, formed after Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian empire, as a transregional phenomenon. The editors have assembled an array of specialists in the study of the various regions and cultures of the Hellenistic world - Judea, Egypt, Babylonia, Central Asia, and Asia Minor - in an effort to trace comparisons and connections between episodes and modes of resistance. The volume seeks to unite the currently dominant social-scientific orientation to ancient resistance and revolt with perspectives, often coming from religious studies, that are more attentive to local cultural, religious, and moral frameworks. In re-assessing these frameworks, contributors move beyond Greek/non-Greek binaries to examine resistance as complex and entangled: acts and articulations of resistance are not purely nativistic or 'nationalist', but conditioned by local traditions of government, historical memories of prior periods, as well as emergent transregional Hellenistic political and cultural idioms. Cultures of Resistance in the Hellenistic East is organized into three parts. The first part investigates the Great Theban Revolt and the Maccabean Revolt, the central cases for large, organized, and prolonged military uprisings against the Hellenistic kingdoms. The second part examines the full gamut of indigenous self-assertion and resistant action, including theologies of monarchic inadequacy, patterns of historical periodization and textual interpretation, and claims to sites of authority. The volume's final part turns to the more ambiguous assertions of local autonomy and identity that emerge in the frontier regions that slipped in and out of the grasp of the great Hellenistic powers.

Oxford University Press, 2020

The historical and cultural space of the Black Atlantic—a diasporic world of forced and voluntary... more The historical and cultural space of the Black Atlantic—a diasporic world of forced and voluntary migrations—has long provided fertile ground for the construction and reconstruction of new forms of classicism. From the aftermath of slavery up to the present day, black authors, intellectuals, and artists in the Atlantic world have shaped and reshaped the cultural legacies of classical antiquity in a rich variety of ways in order to represent their identities and experiences and reflect on modern conceptions of race, nation, and identity. The studies presented in this volume range across the anglophone, francophone, and hispanophone worlds, including literary studies of authors such as Derek Walcott, Marlene NourbeSe Philip, and Junot Díaz, biographical and historical studies, and explorations of race and classicism in the visual arts. They offer reflections on the place of classicism in contemporary conflicts and debates over race and racism, and on the intersections between classicism, race, gender, and social status, demonstrating how the legacies of ancient Greece and Rome have been used to buttress racial hierarchies, but also to challenge racism and Eurocentric reconstructions of antiquity.

Proceedings of a conference organized by Ian Moyer and Celia Schultz published in Archiv für Reli... more Proceedings of a conference organized by Ian Moyer and Celia Schultz published in Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 17

Papers by Ian Moyer

Journal of Hellenic Studies 122, 2002

This article re-evaluates the significance attributed to Hecataeus' encounter with the Theban pri... more This article re-evaluates the significance attributed to Hecataeus' encounter with the Theban priests described
by Herodotus (2.143) by setting it against the evidence of Late Period Egyptian representations of the past. In the first
part a critique is offered of various approaches Classicists have taken to this episode and its impact on Greek historiography. Classicists have generally imagined this as an encounter in which the young, dynamic and creative Greeks construct an image of the static, ossified and incredibly old culture of the Egyptians, a move which reveals deeper assumptions in the scholarly discourse on Greeks and 'other' cultures in the Mediterranean world. But the civilization that Herodotus confronted in his long excursus on Egypt was not an abstract, eternal Egypt. Rather, it was the Egypt of his own day, at a specific historical moment - a culture with a particular understanding of its own long history. The second part presents evidence of lengthy Late Period priestly genealogies, and more general archaizing tendencies. Remarkable examples survive of the sort of visual genealogy which would have impressed upon the traveling Greek historians the long continuum of the Egyptian past. These include statues with genealogical inscriptions and relief sculptures representing generations of priests succeeding to their fathers' office. These priestly evocations of a present firmly anchored in the Egyptian past are part of a wider pattern of cultivating links with the historical past in the Late Period of Egyptian history. Thus, it is not simply the marvel of a massive expanse of time which Herodotus encountered in Egypt, but a mediated cultural awareness of that time. The third part of the essay argues that Herodotus used this long human past presented by the Egyptian priests in order to criticize genealogical and mythical representations of the past and develop the notion of an historical past. On the basis of this example, the article concludes by urging a reconsideration of the scholarly paradigm for imagining the encounter between Greeks and 'others' in ethnographic discourse in order to recognize the agency of the Egyptian priests, and other non-Greek 'informants'.

Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives: New Critical Perspectives, edited by David Dodd and Christopher A. Faraone , 2003

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 3, 2003

PGM XII.270-350, a text prescribing rituals for the creation and use of a magical ring, provides ... more PGM XII.270-350, a text prescribing rituals for the creation and use of a magical ring, provides a particularly useful example through which to explore the phenomenon
of miniaturized ritual in the magical papyri of late Graeco-Roman Egypt (as elucidated by Smith 1995). The ritual for creating and consecrating the ring’s gemstone makes it clear that the stone is considered a miniature cult statue. The subsequent “Ouphor” invocation to be performed whenever the ring is used corresponds
in name and function to the Egyptian wp.t-r3 or Opening the Mouth ritual as used in daily temple liturgy. The nature of these ritual miniatures reveals the sophisticated discursive and conceptual level at which the traditional forms of temple
ritual were adapted and redeployed for use in other contexts by members of the Egyptian priestly class in late antiquity.

Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker and Brannon Wheeler, 2003

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 6, 2006

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 166, 2008

A Companion to Hellenistic Literature, edited by J. Clauss and M. Cuypers, 2010

American Journal of Philology 132, 2011

Indigenous Egyptian elites who held titles in the late Ptolemaic court hierarchy offer a counterp... more Indigenous Egyptian elites who held titles in the late Ptolemaic court hierarchy offer a counterpoint to the typical model of Hellenistic court society as a culturally and ethnically exclusive social space. Though underrepresented in standard accounts, several Egyptians held the honorific title of “kinsman” of the king (syngenes). Statues of these men wearing the mitra of the syngenes in the forecourts of temples, together with Greek and Egyptian epigraphic evidence, show that indigenous elites who circulated between Alexandria and Upper Egypt contributed to the creation of a transcultural space that was critical for maintaining the power of the Ptolemaic state in the Egyptian chora during the troubled conditions of the second and first centuries B.C.E.

Fragments: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Ancient and Medieval Pasts 1, 2011

Brill’s New Jacoby, edited by Ian Worthington, 2012

The World of Berossos: Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on »The Ancient Near East between Classical and Ancient Oriental Traditions«, Hatfield College, Durham 7th–9th July 2010, May 2013

UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2014

The Frontiers of Ancient Science: Essays in Honor of Heinrich von Staden, edited by K.-D. Fischer and B. Holmes (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015): 437-450., Mar 13, 2015

This paper uses astronomical data in Thessalus’ treatise De virtutibus herbarum to arrive at a ro... more This paper uses astronomical data in Thessalus’ treatise De virtutibus herbarum to arrive at a rough estimate of its date of composition. Dates of the sun’s ingress into the signs of the zodiac that are given in the treatise are compared with modern calculations. The resulting differences are compared with the differences between modern calculations of the dates of the sun’s ingress and those derived from other ancient sources and methods (Ptolemy’s Handy Tables, Vettius Valens’ Anthology, and P. Oxy. 4148) to determine the likely date of composition of Thessalus’ treatise. The revised estimates suggest that the text was composed between the middle of the first century a.d. and the early third century A.D., with dates in the second century most probable.

Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BCE - 300 CE, edited by Ian Rutherford (pp. 209-244), 2016

In Apuleius’ free adaptation of the Greek Onos, Lucius’ adventures follow a different itinerary w... more In Apuleius’ free adaptation of the Greek Onos, Lucius’ adventures follow a different itinerary with different implications for the social separation and reintegration that he experiences in his transformation into an ass and back again. By reading the Golden Ass against the Greek Onos and through the local topography of the Corinthia, this essay explores Lucius’ flight to Cenchreae as an abandoned nostos at Corinth and a new nostos in a distinct social and religious context. Through an analysis of Apuleius’ translatio, both linguistic and spatial, the Golden Ass emerges as a text that runs counter to the Hellenocentric pattern of the canonical Greek novels to embrace cultural and social crossings.

NOW IN PAPERBACK! In this book I explore the ancient history and modern historiography of relati... more NOW IN PAPERBACK!
In this book I explore the ancient history and modern historiography of relations between Egypt and Greece from the fifth century BCE to the early Roman empire. Beginning with Herodotus, I analyze key encounters between Greeks and Egyptian priests, the bearers of Egypt’s ancient traditions. A series of four moments emerge as rich micro-histories of cross-cultural interaction: Herodotus’ interviews with priests at Thebes, Manetho’s composition of an Egyptian history in Greek, the struggles of Egyptian priests on Delos, and a Greek physician’s quest for magic in Egypt. In writing these histories, I move beyond Orientalizing representations of the Other and colonial metanarratives of the civilizing process to reveal interactions between Greeks and Egyptians as transactional processes in which the traditions, discourses and pragmatic interests of both sides shaped the outcome. The result is a dialogical history of cultural and intellectual exchanges between the civilizations of Greece and Egypt.

This collaborative volume examines revolts and resistance to the successor states, formed after A... more This collaborative volume examines revolts and resistance to the successor states, formed after Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian empire, as a transregional phenomenon. The editors have assembled an array of specialists in the study of the various regions and cultures of the Hellenistic world - Judea, Egypt, Babylonia, Central Asia, and Asia Minor - in an effort to trace comparisons and connections between episodes and modes of resistance. The volume seeks to unite the currently dominant social-scientific orientation to ancient resistance and revolt with perspectives, often coming from religious studies, that are more attentive to local cultural, religious, and moral frameworks. In re-assessing these frameworks, contributors move beyond Greek/non-Greek binaries to examine resistance as complex and entangled: acts and articulations of resistance are not purely nativistic or 'nationalist', but conditioned by local traditions of government, historical memories of prior periods, as well as emergent transregional Hellenistic political and cultural idioms. Cultures of Resistance in the Hellenistic East is organized into three parts. The first part investigates the Great Theban Revolt and the Maccabean Revolt, the central cases for large, organized, and prolonged military uprisings against the Hellenistic kingdoms. The second part examines the full gamut of indigenous self-assertion and resistant action, including theologies of monarchic inadequacy, patterns of historical periodization and textual interpretation, and claims to sites of authority. The volume's final part turns to the more ambiguous assertions of local autonomy and identity that emerge in the frontier regions that slipped in and out of the grasp of the great Hellenistic powers.

Oxford University Press, 2020

The historical and cultural space of the Black Atlantic—a diasporic world of forced and voluntary... more The historical and cultural space of the Black Atlantic—a diasporic world of forced and voluntary migrations—has long provided fertile ground for the construction and reconstruction of new forms of classicism. From the aftermath of slavery up to the present day, black authors, intellectuals, and artists in the Atlantic world have shaped and reshaped the cultural legacies of classical antiquity in a rich variety of ways in order to represent their identities and experiences and reflect on modern conceptions of race, nation, and identity. The studies presented in this volume range across the anglophone, francophone, and hispanophone worlds, including literary studies of authors such as Derek Walcott, Marlene NourbeSe Philip, and Junot Díaz, biographical and historical studies, and explorations of race and classicism in the visual arts. They offer reflections on the place of classicism in contemporary conflicts and debates over race and racism, and on the intersections between classicism, race, gender, and social status, demonstrating how the legacies of ancient Greece and Rome have been used to buttress racial hierarchies, but also to challenge racism and Eurocentric reconstructions of antiquity.

Proceedings of a conference organized by Ian Moyer and Celia Schultz published in Archiv für Reli... more Proceedings of a conference organized by Ian Moyer and Celia Schultz published in Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 17

Journal of Hellenic Studies 122, 2002

This article re-evaluates the significance attributed to Hecataeus' encounter with the Theban pri... more This article re-evaluates the significance attributed to Hecataeus' encounter with the Theban priests described
by Herodotus (2.143) by setting it against the evidence of Late Period Egyptian representations of the past. In the first
part a critique is offered of various approaches Classicists have taken to this episode and its impact on Greek historiography. Classicists have generally imagined this as an encounter in which the young, dynamic and creative Greeks construct an image of the static, ossified and incredibly old culture of the Egyptians, a move which reveals deeper assumptions in the scholarly discourse on Greeks and 'other' cultures in the Mediterranean world. But the civilization that Herodotus confronted in his long excursus on Egypt was not an abstract, eternal Egypt. Rather, it was the Egypt of his own day, at a specific historical moment - a culture with a particular understanding of its own long history. The second part presents evidence of lengthy Late Period priestly genealogies, and more general archaizing tendencies. Remarkable examples survive of the sort of visual genealogy which would have impressed upon the traveling Greek historians the long continuum of the Egyptian past. These include statues with genealogical inscriptions and relief sculptures representing generations of priests succeeding to their fathers' office. These priestly evocations of a present firmly anchored in the Egyptian past are part of a wider pattern of cultivating links with the historical past in the Late Period of Egyptian history. Thus, it is not simply the marvel of a massive expanse of time which Herodotus encountered in Egypt, but a mediated cultural awareness of that time. The third part of the essay argues that Herodotus used this long human past presented by the Egyptian priests in order to criticize genealogical and mythical representations of the past and develop the notion of an historical past. On the basis of this example, the article concludes by urging a reconsideration of the scholarly paradigm for imagining the encounter between Greeks and 'others' in ethnographic discourse in order to recognize the agency of the Egyptian priests, and other non-Greek 'informants'.

Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives: New Critical Perspectives, edited by David Dodd and Christopher A. Faraone , 2003

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 3, 2003

PGM XII.270-350, a text prescribing rituals for the creation and use of a magical ring, provides ... more PGM XII.270-350, a text prescribing rituals for the creation and use of a magical ring, provides a particularly useful example through which to explore the phenomenon
of miniaturized ritual in the magical papyri of late Graeco-Roman Egypt (as elucidated by Smith 1995). The ritual for creating and consecrating the ring’s gemstone makes it clear that the stone is considered a miniature cult statue. The subsequent “Ouphor” invocation to be performed whenever the ring is used corresponds
in name and function to the Egyptian wp.t-r3 or Opening the Mouth ritual as used in daily temple liturgy. The nature of these ritual miniatures reveals the sophisticated discursive and conceptual level at which the traditional forms of temple
ritual were adapted and redeployed for use in other contexts by members of the Egyptian priestly class in late antiquity.

Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in the Ancient and Late Antique World, edited by Scott Noegel, Joel Walker and Brannon Wheeler, 2003

Journal of Ancient Near Eastern Religions 6, 2006

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 166, 2008

A Companion to Hellenistic Literature, edited by J. Clauss and M. Cuypers, 2010

American Journal of Philology 132, 2011

Indigenous Egyptian elites who held titles in the late Ptolemaic court hierarchy offer a counterp... more Indigenous Egyptian elites who held titles in the late Ptolemaic court hierarchy offer a counterpoint to the typical model of Hellenistic court society as a culturally and ethnically exclusive social space. Though underrepresented in standard accounts, several Egyptians held the honorific title of “kinsman” of the king (syngenes). Statues of these men wearing the mitra of the syngenes in the forecourts of temples, together with Greek and Egyptian epigraphic evidence, show that indigenous elites who circulated between Alexandria and Upper Egypt contributed to the creation of a transcultural space that was critical for maintaining the power of the Ptolemaic state in the Egyptian chora during the troubled conditions of the second and first centuries B.C.E.

Fragments: Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Ancient and Medieval Pasts 1, 2011

Brill’s New Jacoby, edited by Ian Worthington, 2012

The World of Berossos: Proceedings of the 4th International Colloquium on »The Ancient Near East between Classical and Ancient Oriental Traditions«, Hatfield College, Durham 7th–9th July 2010, May 2013

UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, 2014

The Frontiers of Ancient Science: Essays in Honor of Heinrich von Staden, edited by K.-D. Fischer and B. Holmes (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2015): 437-450., Mar 13, 2015

This paper uses astronomical data in Thessalus’ treatise De virtutibus herbarum to arrive at a ro... more This paper uses astronomical data in Thessalus’ treatise De virtutibus herbarum to arrive at a rough estimate of its date of composition. Dates of the sun’s ingress into the signs of the zodiac that are given in the treatise are compared with modern calculations. The resulting differences are compared with the differences between modern calculations of the dates of the sun’s ingress and those derived from other ancient sources and methods (Ptolemy’s Handy Tables, Vettius Valens’ Anthology, and P. Oxy. 4148) to determine the likely date of composition of Thessalus’ treatise. The revised estimates suggest that the text was composed between the middle of the first century a.d. and the early third century A.D., with dates in the second century most probable.

Greco-Egyptian Interactions: Literature, Translation, and Culture, 500 BCE - 300 CE, edited by Ian Rutherford (pp. 209-244), 2016

In Apuleius’ free adaptation of the Greek Onos, Lucius’ adventures follow a different itinerary w... more In Apuleius’ free adaptation of the Greek Onos, Lucius’ adventures follow a different itinerary with different implications for the social separation and reintegration that he experiences in his transformation into an ass and back again. By reading the Golden Ass against the Greek Onos and through the local topography of the Corinthia, this essay explores Lucius’ flight to Cenchreae as an abandoned nostos at Corinth and a new nostos in a distinct social and religious context. Through an analysis of Apuleius’ translatio, both linguistic and spatial, the Golden Ass emerges as a text that runs counter to the Hellenocentric pattern of the canonical Greek novels to embrace cultural and social crossings.

Introduction to special section of Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 17 (2016) on The Religious life... more Introduction to special section of Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 17 (2016) on The Religious life of Things (co-edited with Celia Schultz)

Religion in the Roman Empire, 2017

The six inscribed examples of the Memphite self-revelations of Isis are not only consistent in co... more The six inscribed examples of the Memphite self-revelations of Isis are not only consistent in content, but also exhibit a regular pattern of spacing and punctuation marks. This regularity suggests the creation of a formalised, authoritative text in the first century BCE. Punctuation served to highlight elements of responsion, in particular the practice of parallelismus membrorum, a common feature of Egyptian and Semitic poetical compositions. Graphic and formal features thus reinforced the text's alterity as well as its canonicity. In ritual contexts, punctuation also served as an aid to recitation in epiphanic performances in which an officiant assumed the voice of Isis. Taken together, these features provide evidence that communities associated with Aegean sanctuaries of Isis re-asserted connections to Egyptian tradition in the late Hellenistic and early Roman period.

Oxford Handbook of Egyptology, 2020

A wealth of Latin and Greek sources is available for the study of Egypt, both literary texts pres... more A wealth of Latin and Greek sources is available for the study of Egypt, both literary texts preserved in manuscripts, and historical documents inscribed on stone, or written on pa pyrus, pottery shards, and other writing materials. Though literary texts, including an cient Greek accounts of Egyptian history, ethnography and geography must be read in the cultural context for which they were produced, they can also provide useful information on Egyptian history in the periods contemporary with classical Greek and Roman civiliza tion, as well as evidence of how Egypt was remembered and represented by Greek and Roman authors, as well as by Egyptians themselves. The volume of Greek and Latin papyrus documents and inscriptions is enormous and provides an invaluable resource for the study of Egyptian history, especially its economic and social aspects, but also for the study of cultural and ethnic relations between Egyptians and immigrant populations. Col laboration between specialists in Greek, Latin, and Egyptian materials is vital to getting the full benefit of these resources for the study of ancient Egypt.

Hymnen und Aretalogien im antiken Mittelmeerraum Von Inana bis Isis, 2021

The intertextuality of Greek hymns to Isis includes allusions not only to content, but also to fo... more The intertextuality of Greek hymns to Isis includes allusions not only to content, but also to formal features such as punctuation and patterns of organization. These references show that the Memphite Isis hymn (RICIS 302/0204 and several other copies) had recognizable textual and graphic characteristics that were considered integral to the canonical form of the text. The evidence for this is found primarily in the Andros and Maroneia hymns (RICIS 202/1801; 114/0202). Features of the layout of the Andros text together with the use of punctuation in the hymn of P.Oxy. XI 1380 suggest that papyrus texts circulating around the Aegean were the medium through which formal characteristics were preserved from inscription to inscription. Collectively, these elements of intertextuality provide evidence that Isis hymns both as texts and performances were considered distinctive, a finding with implications for longstanding debates about the coherence of Isiac cultural identities and practices.

Journal of Hellenic Studies 123 (2003): 224-5, 2003

Journal of Hellenic Studies 128 (2008): 261, 2008

Journal of the American Oriental Society 134 (3): 523-525, 2014

Ancient History Bulletin Online Reviews, 2015

Review of K. Buraselis, M. Stefanou, and D. J. Thompson, eds. The Ptolemies, the sea and the Nile... more Review of K. Buraselis, M. Stefanou, and D. J. Thompson, eds. The Ptolemies, the sea and the Nile: studies in waterborne power (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013)