I just learnt: there’s more than one Alexandria, as Alexander the Great would name the cities he conquered after himself. Plutarch claims seventy in total.

Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo 📚:

There is no single Alexandria. A series of cities by that name traces the route of Alexander the Great from Turkey to the Indus River. Different languages have distorted the original sound, though sometimes the distant melody can still be discerned. Alexandretta, Iskenderun in Turkish. Alexandria Carmania, currently Kerman, in Iran. Alexandria Margiana, now Merv, in Turkmenistan. Alexandria Eschate, which could be translated as “Alexandria at the End of the Earth,” today Khujand in Tajikistan. Alexandria Bucephalos, the city founded in memory of the horse that accompanied Alexander from childhood, afterward called Jalalpur, in Pakistan. The war in Afghanistan has made us familiar with other ancient Alexandrias: Bagram, Herat, Kandahar.

Plutarch tells that Alexander founded seventy cities. He wanted to mark the fact that he had been there, the way children paint their names on walls or on the doors of public restrooms. (“I was here.” “I won a battle here.") The atlas of his campaigns forms an enormous wall where the conqueror left a record of himself again and again.

A gynaeceum (or gynæceum) refers historically to the women’s quarters or inner, secluded apartments in an ancient Greek or Roman house. As the counterpart to the male andrōn, this area was typically located in the innermost part of the home for women’s activities like weaving.

The men’s room – the andron – was positioned near the front, accessible to male visitors. The gynaeceum was typically at the rear or on an upper floor, accessible to family only. It was where women spun, wove, raised children, and ran the household economy. And I’m sure it was a lot more bare bones than the men’s room!

Apparently having the wealth to hide your wife away in a gynaeceum was an elite ideal. As the wives of poorer households would go to markets, wells, and shrines.

I remember reading once that Ancient Greece was more like a strict Muslim city than a city of democracy, knowledge and philosophy. Women being “locked away” in a gynaeceum certainly attests to that argument.

#NewWord learnt via Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo 📚