Rest In Peace

[Taken in Greenwood Cemetery – https://www.google.com/maps/place/Green-Wood+Cemetery/@40.6537144,-73.9866807,277m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25ac2ce420ae7:0xad7fab8221c4fc67!8m2!3d40.6590043!4d-73.995602?hl=en]

At this burial site, a man named Albert Ross Parsons is buried here. His tomb was created to resemble an Egyptian pyramid because of Parsons’ obsession with Egyptian culture. Parsons was a fanatic about the culture to the extent that he spent most of his life researching about Egypt. He even wrote a book about the culture because that is what the majority of his life studies focused on.

In the reading, “Pseudo-Callistenes”, the exerpt says, “Then he made a bed of wax and put on it the statue he had made of Olympias. He lit a fire and poured there on the broth of the plant, saying over it the vows suited for these doings, until the spirits appeared to Olympias; for he saw, from the signs there, Ammon united with her. And he rose and said, ‘My lady, you have conceived from me a boy child who shall be your avenger.’” The author of the “Alexander Romance” is trying to emphasize that Alexander can be compared to the gods because of the way he looks and victories in battles. Alexander is romanticized into a godly image because of his physical attributes. His horns represent Alexander’s relation to the Egyptian god, Ammon. This shows his divine ancestry, which causes people to believe he is divine as well. Also, his victorious in war further amplify the divine nature of Alexander because he was able to defeat many and help a lot of people during his reign. This can be connected to the pyramid tomb because in the past, Egyptians buried their Pharaohs in tombs because of their royal status. The Egyptian royalty that rests within the pyramid tomb was considered to be divine and godly. This is how the people who worshipped their rulers in Egypt treated their Pharaohs. The way people treat Alexander’s godly status can be compared to that of a Pharaoh because of the way people romanticize the godliness of these rulers.

In the second unit of art history, we learned about the influence in Christianity in Roman art and architecture. During the fourth century, Christianity was a religion that was rapidly growing, but it remained a mystery, which caused it to be the target of ostracized by the public. However, Constantine was able to help the transition of Christianity because of the amount of support he gave to the mysterious religion that forced its followers to only follow one religion, which was Christianity itself only. Constantine’s support for Christianity grew after the Battle of the Milvian Bridge because his victory was deemed as a sign from the heavens, meaning he thought the gods had helped him with his battle. After this battle, Constantine became the strongest supporter of Christianity. This relates to the image because in front of the pyramid tomb, there are statues of Mary (mother of Jesus) holding a baby, presumably Jesus, and Jesus holding a lamb. Mary and Jesus are two iconic figures in Christianity because Jesus is the god people worship in Christianity. He is the most important person in the religion of Christianity. However, the second most important person is the one who created Jesus, which is Mary, his mother. The sculptures of these two significant people were standing outside of the pyramid tomb as if they were guarding it for Parsons since he’s resting within it.

– Rebecca Lee, Team Jupiter

50% OFF! Cleopatra!

 

 

It’s that time of year again! Halloween stores pop out of thin air, grown ups go out in cliched costumes and at some point you are bound to be stalked home by some clown. It’s Halloween and one of my favorite costumes would have to be Cleopatra. She wears a golden headpiece, white robes and is adorned with gold jewelry. Not to mention she is depicted as the beautiful queen we all know her as. However, historians are unsure of how she truly looked like but know for a fact she didn’t look anything like this. In actuality Cleopatra was known for her intelligence rather than her beauty. In the busts and coins that were made depicting her, she is shown as having a strong jaw and manly features. Also Egyptian clothing was never as intricate as people believe. It was often made solely of white cloth with little stitching.

I think the movies and shows who watch have a great part in our perception of what the Egyptians looked like, inevitably causing costumes to become manufactured ideals of the real thing. When someone picks up a costume like this its because they want to be noticed in a room. For a couple hours they want to be Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen, who in her intelligence and knack for leadership differed from what the Greeks perceived Egyptians to be. The stereotype is seen in Theocritus Idylls, “Nowadays no criminal sneaks up to you Egyptian style as you’re walking alone and does you a mischief like those tricks those deceitful scoundrels used to play…”

 

Carrissa, Team Hestia

 

Walk like an Egyptian

The statue in the image above was taken in front of an Egyptian restaurant a block away from my high school building in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Similar to the New York Kouros, the statue stands in a trademark Egyptian stance in which the individual has a very rigid posture, flat feet, and arms with clenched fists stuck to their side. I believe the owner of the restaurant wanted this piece, along with the others inside, to look Egyptian so that the overall theme of the store fits with the Egyptian cuisine they specialize in and to have a tied together atmosphere to the location. To me and other potential viewers, the decor looks Egyptian due to the use of gold and darker hues throughout the building. Ancient Egypt was known for being very luxurious and saturated with gold and riches, along with the traditional practices of mummification and use of sarcophaguses in tombs. The picture below shows the inside of the eatery, known as “Mr. Falefel”, where a sarcophagus stands beside the booths that shows a figure adorned with an Egyptian headpiece and various colors. This is different from the Greek view on Egyptians because although the Ancient Egyptian empire was very powerful and wealthy, the Greeks often believed them to be thieves and looked down upon them. As seen in Theocritus Idylls, Praxinoa states “Nowadays no criminal sneaks up to you Egyptian style as you’re walking along and does you a mischief like the tricks those deceitful scoundrels used to play, nasty rascals all as bad as each other, curse the lot of them.” Clearly, the Greeks held a lot of hatred and dislike for the Egyptians who were seen as nothing but lower class individuals. The decorations in the restaurant, however, portray them as classy, wealthy beings worthy of respect and honor, as they are put on display for all who pass by the building to admire.

Name of location: Mr. Falafel

Address on Google Maps: https://goo.gl/NtR89T

– Natalie, Team Vesta

We Have Pointy of Things In Common with the Egyptians

  

( The Black Arrow At The Bottom Of the Left Pic Is Pointing At The Building and Is the Picture I took )

The building exhibited above most definitely is influenced by Egyptian architecture due to the fact that it resembles the same structural aspects in those of ancient traditional Egyptian homes. When compared to a historical make up of what historians believe the classic home in Egypt looked like , both structures illuminate the same layering technique where a large square or rectangle would act as the base and smaller ones would be stacked on top. To the average on-goer it screams Egyptian because of the iconic small base to small narrow top. Both structures also share the same color scheme of a neutral tan color.Whomever decided to design this building most likely chose the almost triangular like structure due to the idea that the triangle is one of the most sturdy structures to withstand the elements. Interestingly enough , the building is located on the New York City skyline near the water like many Egyptian pyramids structures.
In relation to the text , Theocritus, the author says ” the Nile in flood soaks and breaks up the soil , and none has so many cities of skilled craftsmen Three hundred cities are built there … no enemy passes over the Nile”. This is similar to the building in that both are located near large rivers , the Nile and the East River. Also , in that civilians can’t easily access the structure without the use of the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridge or ferry. The only difference compared to the readings is that the Greeks’ see the Egyptians as horrible thieving people not capable of creating such structures on their own without the help of the Greek gods , but the structures say otherwise due to the understanding that man built the structures.
Moreover, the picture of the building I captured has comparable structural qualities to those of the Egyptians.

( This is not the photo I took , however the building I am talking about is the second building from the left and the layering shows up more prominently in this light)

Location : Clark St, Brooklyn, NY  Pier 3

11201 https://www.google.com/maps/place/Clark+St,+Brooklyn,+NY+11201/@40.6979455,-73.9969585,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25a37e4c6ef2d:0x9172b5ae0af3c2c1!8m2!3d40.697669!4d-73.9938149

Samantha , Team Minerva

Image Citations

Egyptian Home to the top right

“Homework Help.” LionsLair – Homework Help, 2017, lionslair.wikispaces.com/Homework+Help.

Better Picture / Last Photo

“New York City Skyline from Brooklyn – Picture of Manhattan Skyline, New York City.”TripAdvisor, http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60763-d267031-i163919066-Manhattan_Skyline-New_York_City_New_York.html.

Egyptian influence in New York architecture

135 W 70th St, New York, NY 10023

As much as New York City is a place of diversity and wonder, it is difficult to find any Egyptian-style buildings or art besides in museums. I looked up pieces of architecture to look for in Art History and stumbled upon a beautiful looking building near Central Park. I went to visit Central Park today and I decided to venture around the upper west side near Central Park to find the building. The building is called the Pythian Temple. The building has many distinguishable features of Egyptian art, such as columns with palm-like designs, lotuses on the bottom of the columns, the creatures on the top of the entrance, and several other designs. The architecture could also go back to architecture represented in Unit 1 of Art History. The larger columns remind me of the Corinthian Greek columns; even though the architecture is more based off an Egyptian design, the building does remind viewers of a Greek or Roman influence. The motto on the entrance says, “If fraternal love held all men bound how beautiful this world would be.”; the motto represents how a peaceful and tranquil world could be achieved through fraternity. On the plaque by the entrance, it says that it used to be a part of a fraternity called the Knights of Pythias. The architect most likely added the Egyptian qualities to give a more flamboyant and otherworldly design to the building since it was to be used as a headquarters for a fraternal organization aimed to benefit the world. The motive behind adding Egyptian architecture and motifs instead of a different culture could have been because of the ancient Egyptian’s passion for life and tranquility, themes the old fraternity felt was an occurrence of their life and their goal to thrive from it. The reason it shows off an Egyptian-like design to me and other viewers is because of its use of well-known Egyptian symbols, such as lotuses, palm-like designs, the larger columns that remind the viewer of a pharaoh, and other symbols on the mosaic above the entrance that looks like hieroglyphics. Greek ideas about Egypt tended to be viewed as inferior to Greece. For example, in Theocritus Idylls 15, Praxinoa states to Gorgo, “You’ve done plenty of good things since your father became a god, Ptolemy. Nowadays no criminal sneaks up to you Egyptian style as you’re walking along and does you a mischief like the tricks those deceitful scoundrels used to play, [50] nasty rascals all as bad as each other, curse the lot of them.” Greeks looked down on Egypt as barbarians with an inferior culture to them. However, this piece of architecture is different from Greek ideas of Egypt because it represents a more tranquil and beautiful view of Egyptian style that the fraternity that created the building wanted to thrive off of and present to the world to present their benevolent deeds.

 

Appreciating Egypt in New York City

In a city as diverse as New York City people can find unexpected things, as in my case was to find places inspired in Egypt near where I live. At the beginning of this project I thought it would be difficult to find a place like this, I started to do research on the internet and what I found was this restaurant. This restaurant takes its name from a typical Egyptian dish, falafel, and the entire restaurant is decorated with Egyptian paintings and figures. When I went to the restaurant from the outside at the entrance I noticed all the Egyptian figures that adorn it, when I went in I ordered the typical falafel, a delicious Egyptian dish, and then I told those who worked there about my project, they were very friendly and they decided to help me, they took pictures of me with everything they have there, and here I show you some of the figures and paintings that are found in this Egyptian restaurant located in the neighborhood of Park Slope.

Nowadays people from all over the world celebrate the wonders of Egyptian civilization. In the past the Greeks, being close to the Egyptians, did not see them positively, but saw them as distinct beings, as presented in a fragment of “Theocritus, Idylls” where Praxinoa refers to the Egyptians in this way: “Nowadays no criminal sneaks up to you Egyptian style 17 as you’re walking along and you mischief like the tricks those deceitful scoundrels used to play, [50] nasty rascals all bad as each other, curse the lot of them.” Contrary to this mentality that the Greeks had about the Egyptians, in modern times the Egyptian culture is celebrated and appreciated.

Location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mr.+Falafel/@40.6702748,-73.9811965,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c25b03d934cae5:0xafd2402d04573bfc!8m2!3d40.6702708!4d-73.9790078

Jamilex Dominguez. Team Mercury.

Egyptian Style in my Neighborhood

 

What do you think about Egyptian style? Had you ever think that it is very easy to find its influence even in our neighborhood? Both of the above pictures were toke in my neighborhood when I start at looking at the houses, I found out that both of these two building have some Egyptian style on their design. For the first picture, I don’t think the designer include the pyramid as an Egyptian style on purpose but have to mention that whenever we talk or think about the pyramid, what comes first in our mind is it originates in Egypt. For the second picture, I find out that it has some element that seems to be Egyptian style. For example, different than the usual Corinthian column style, what we see here is like a bundled papyrus and having the form narrowing down like a lotus flower’s form. Egyptians used a lot of lotus and papyrus plants in the artworks. The wall has decoration curves like palm leaf’s curves. All above mention characteristic might not necessary be Egyptian style but I just found out that they relate to it at some point. I have no idea who is the designer of these building and cannot know why the designer decides to add this element to its design since these are not famous buildings . But it is quite surprising for me when I found they relate to Egyptian style. Even nowadays we appreciated and like Egyptian culture, but history not always had been like this, Greeks did not appreciate Egypt like how we do now. In the text “Theocritus Idylls” mention that “Nowadays no criminal sneaks up to you Egyptian style as you’re walking along and does you a mischief like the tricks those deceitful scoundrels used to play, nasty rascals all as bad as each other, curse the lot of them.” Praxinoa is proud of her Greek ancestors even she was born was grow up in Alexandria, an Egyptian city. She seems Egyptian as criminals and she dislikes them. She thinks that without Greeks conquer Egypt, they will be in a terrible situation differ then what she sees and lives. She is graceful that Greeks had changed Egypt. Egyptian culture is beautiful and thanks to its influence, we can see these pretty buildings nowadays and there are a lot more waiting for us to be explored.