The king of Egypt, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, was the son of one of the companions of Alexander the Great - Ptolemy I Soter, under whom the famous Museion and the Library appeared in Alexandria, where about half a million books were kept.
After the death of his father, the ancient country on the banks of the Nile fell into the control of Ptolemy II Philadelphus. During his reign, famous scientists such as Euclid, Archimedes and Aristarchus of Samos lived and worked in Alexandria. Skilled sculptors and jewelers worked at the king's court, creating real masterpieces of ancient art. One of them has survived to this day. This is the so-called "Ptolemy Cup", which is currently kept in the National Library of France, in the Cabinet of Medals.
The two-handled bowl, carved from a single piece of onyx, has very modest dimensions: its height is 8.4 centimeters, and its diameter is 12.5 centimeters. The unknown Egyptian master did not accidentally choose the material from which the bowl was made. Onyx, a type of agate with black and white stripes, was excellently processed, and most often cameos and gems were made from it. It is curious that the term "gem" itself comes from the Sanskrit "gemma", and it was with this word that in the old days they called onyx. Onyx was mined in Egypt. It was believed that it contributes to the accumulation of vital energy, helps to get rid of indecision and suspiciousness. Onyx is a stone of self-confident people who know how to insist on their own.
And carving cameos is not an easy task, it required not only patience and great skill, but also the ability to see in the stone the pristine beauty that only a brilliant master can reproduce. After all, the carver worked and created images almost blindly. It was necessary to predict in advance, to see through the thickness of the mineral how its layers alternate, because they do not just run parallel, they bend, do not coincide, change the thickness - all this can destroy the intended image. It took years of continuous work to make one cameo.
Now it is difficult to say exactly how the cup, made in Egypt in the 3rd century BC, ended up in the treasury of the French kings. It is quite possible that this is a trophy of one of the crusaders who visited the Holy Land in the Middle Ages. Be that as it may, this antique bowl has become an indispensable attribute used during the coronation ceremony of the kings of France. A bowl with scenes from the life of the god Dionysus began to be used for communion.
The priests of that time did not see anything seditious in the drawings made on the onyx bowl. Within the Christian interpretation, any piece of art could be considered Christian. Sometimes it was enough to make an appropriate inscription on it. Let's say a quote from the Old Testament. And it was possible to do without an inscription. The church sometimes could easily ignore pagan motives in the images on the subject. And soon they simply stopped paying attention to them.
Igor ZIMIN