Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo

The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo

Niliacus, Horapollo
Boas, George

Paperback

African HistoryComparative ReligionAnthropology

ISBN10: 0691000921
ISBN13: 9780691000923
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: Dec 5 1993
Pages: 152
Weight: 0.52
Height: 0.47 Width: 6.02 Depth: 8.98
Language: English

Written reputedly by an Egyptian magus, Horapollo Niliacus, in the fourth century C.E., The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo is an anthology of nearly two hundred hieroglyphics, or allegorical emblems, said to have been used by the Pharaonic scribes in describing natural and moral aspects of the world. Translated into Greek in 1505, it informed much of Western iconography from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. This work not only tells how various types of natural phenomena, emotions, virtues, philosophical concepts, and human character-types were symbolized, but also explains why, for example, the universe is represented by a serpent swallowing its tail, filial affection by a stork, education by the heavens dropping dew, and a horoscopist by a person eating an hourglass.

In his introduction Boas explores the influence of The Hieroglyphics and the causes behind the rebirth of interest in symbolism in the sixteenth century. The illustrations to this edition were drawn by Albrecht Dürer on the verso pages of his copy of a Latin translation.

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