 |
| A quest to find the last gods of Egypt - and a dangerous secret |
A rag-tag mob surges through the
streets like a flood overwhelming a city.
As they run, they shout in anger,
their faces burning like the torch flames in their hands. A bearded,
white-robed figure, carrying a Gospel, runs at the head of the mob like an
ancient warrior of light.
Now a twenty-first century man in a
khaki suit steps into the edge of the screen as if stepping into history and he
speaks to the camera in a murmur like a presenter in a wildlife documentary, a
sardonic gleam in his eye.
“This
is an Alexandrian mob in Egypt. But it’s not revolutionary Egypt in the
twenty-first century. No, this is Roman Egypt in the year 291 of the Common Era
and the Roman Emperor Theodosius has just passed decrees overturning pagan
worship in the Empire. The instigator of this mass frenzy?” He points. “That
figure over there at the head of a mob of Christian zealots and mad monks. He
is the Roman-appointed Bishop Theophilus, today known as the patron saint of
arsonists.”
The speaker is Stephen Croxley, a
celebrated English atheist and iconoclast, delivering his on-the-spot-narration
to the camera.
“The mob rushes through the
south-west quarter of the city on its way to the Egyptian quarter and the
temple of Serapis, a deity combined with Osiris, god of the afterlife, and Apis
the bull. The temple was built by Ptolemy III and is one of the largest and
most beautiful in the ancient world. Swept along by religious zeal, the mob
lays violent siege to the temple, smashing walls, idols, statues and treasures,
and they burn the structure to its foundations. More importantly, as far as the
bishop is concerned, they burn down the library that adjoins it, a daughter
library of the Great Library of Alexandria. It contains fifty thousand rolls of papyrus and parchment –
heretical knowledge of the ancient world that in the bishop’s mind stands in
the way of acceptance of the Bible…” The narrator pauses for effect.
“Tragically, knowledge and enlightenment in this city of Alexandria, the
so-called birthplace of the modern mind, is going up in flames…
"Soon after,” the narrator
continues, “another Alexandrian
mob like this one will rise and lay hands on a different repository of knowledge, this time in the form of the beautiful Greek luminary Hyaptia, the female mathematician and astronomer. Led by the Christian bishop Cyril, they will kill Hypatia, using oyster shells to scrape off her skin and flesh, after which they will burn her along with her books. Cyril will be made a saint for that.” The narrator raises an eyebrow. “The Dark Ages are under way…”
mob like this one will rise and lay hands on a different repository of knowledge, this time in the form of the beautiful Greek luminary Hyaptia, the female mathematician and astronomer. Led by the Christian bishop Cyril, they will kill Hypatia, using oyster shells to scrape off her skin and flesh, after which they will burn her along with her books. Cyril will be made a saint for that.” The narrator raises an eyebrow. “The Dark Ages are under way…”
