Abstract EN:

In late antiquity, Egypt is the matter of an idealization that depends sometimes of commmonplaces older that this period (3-7 ct. A. D. ). On the point of view of late Roman geography, Rgypt is described as a border-country, hellenized but also in contact with the Nile-countries of black Africa. The description of Egypt is conditionned by such commonplaces as the description of the river Nile, of its overflowing and the (sometimes emblematic) animals that live by the river. Egyptian civilization is idealized under two aspects, the pharaonic one and the alexandrinic. Ancient Egypt is imagined as the author of an original wisdom that has come to greece and latin west through alexandria, "the summit of all hellas". This wisdom must be linked with solar religion of the 3rd ct. , that that unifies late antique paganism. The iconography of Egypt in west deliveries a comparable message. To the classical nilotic scenes must be added idyllic scenes, that are sometimes reused in Christian repertories. On the contrary, the historiography of late Egypt shows a negative image : Egyptian people are unsteady and violent. On the religious point of view, the isiac cults are the matter of a controversy between pagans and christians. To Egypt defined by its innumerable gods, the christians oppone an egypt converted to monachism. But the latin monastic tells are very oft influenced by mythic structures inherited from old Egyptian beleafs.