quote]In general Greek and native Egyptian elements in Ptolemaic Egypt mostly stayed separated, however I do not know if the royal household remained Greek in mores or not…
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Although the Lagids ( Ptolemies ) did adopt some “Oriental” customs, like deification and a remote despotism, it could be said that in that they were just emulating Alexander the Great who broke with the rougher, more personal style of kingship the Macedonians had been used to well before his young death. Now it might well be the case that Pharaonic custom influenced the adoption of brother-sister marriage and cast the custom in the divine image of Osiris and Isis. On the other hand it might have just given Ptolemy II a ready excuse ;). His very ambitious and capable sister Arsinoe II had already been married to two other major figures among the Diadochi, Lysimachus ( next to the last of Alexander’s old officers to go ) and her half-brother Ptolemy Keraunos ( Ptolemy II’s elder, estranged brother, Lysimachus’ lieutenant, who was mostly interested in eliminating the threat she posed to his ambition - he slaughtered her sons by Lysimachus and she fled to Egypt ). It was apparently on her instigation that Ptolemy II first wife Arsinoe I ( daughter of Lysimachus ) was banished and it was she who persuaded Ptolemy II Philadelphus to marry her. Later the custom became more entrenched in the family, but at the time it was considered a great scandal.
However it seems in general the Lagids weren’t very Egyptian, despite the trappings. Cleopatra VII ( the last, famous one ) was apparently the only Lagid who ever learned to speak the native tongue and in much of the later Ptolemaic period, the Lagids’ influence at times scarcely extended beyond ( very self-consciously Greek ) Alexandria.
- Tamerlane
