Thalamegos
The Thalamegos ( ancient Greek θαλαμηγός 'head of the chamber / the chambers'; from θάλαμος thálamos 'chamber, chambers' and ἡγεῖσθαι hegeísthai 'lead, guide') was a 115 m long, approx. 14 m wide and approx. 20 m high magnificent ship on the Nile with a double hull similar to a catamaran , which carried a huge two-story palace building .
The Egyptian king Ptolemy IV. Philopator left the ship for himself and his wife Arsinoë III. build. Today the name means something like cabin cruiser or yacht .
description
The hull consisted of two interconnected individual hull segments made of wood with a raised, slightly rearwardly curved stern with a ram . In front of the palace building there was a large mast with a yard on the forecastle, which was only used as an ornament, possibly an auxiliary sails . The palace building of the Thalamegos consisted of the ground floor and first floor. Slender Corinthian columns lined the ground floor, and the first floor was almost entirely formed by a window front. Under this was a painted frieze . The Thalamegos was not designed for the open sea, but only for the Nile and its side waters. In addition, a single sail would never have been enough to move such a giant forward. The huge ship was towed by smaller ships or from land.
The Thalamegos, according to the description of the Callixeinus of Sparta, was half a stadium long, thirty cubits wide and forty cubits high. The mast with the square sail was seventy cubits high.
Inside there were two large state rooms for the king and queen. Both had their own bedroom, there was no common one. The king's reception room was larger than that of the queen, but not more splendid. The rooms were furnished with ivory (figures, decorations), cedar wood (columns, paneling), gold (ceiling design) and marble (walls, columns, figures), the dining sofas were adorned with Persian ceilings. There were also connected grotto replicas with statues. A 20 m long ivory frieze adorned the queen's state room. The interior and exterior furnishings were based on Greek architecture , not Egyptian - typical of Ptolemaic building behavior.
The thalamegos contained only a single Egyptian room. As a special feature, a small round temple ( tholoid dome ) of Aphrodite in honor of Arsinoë was built into the upper floor. All materials were of the highest quality and exquisite splendor, even the cordage is said to have been colored purple . Seen in this way, this magnificent ship, which in principle only consists of splendid rooms, lived up to its name as the “first” or “head” of the rooms. For King Ptolemy IV Philopator, the ship was also a kind of propaganda or demonstration object of his kingship. Since the ship's name can also be translated as “patron of the chambers” (= palace), the name Thalamegos also fits this program. The sometimes read translations "Large room / ship" (ancient Greek Mégas Thálamos or Thalamomégas ) or "room bearer " (ancient Greek thalamóphoros , like Phósphoros = 'light bearer, evening star') are incorrect. There is said to have been another magnificent ship, the Tessarakontes (ancient Greek τεσσεράκοντα , Attic τεττεράκοντα 'forty').
The source for this ship is the scholarly meal (ancient Greek: Deipnosophistai ) of Athenaios of Naukratis (2nd to 3rd century AD) and the incomplete description of Callixeinos of Rhodes (3rd century BC) listed therein .
Web links
- "THALAMEGÓS" palace ship Ptolemy IV . Brief description with two images On: traumspiel.de ; accessed on August 20, 2020.
literature
- Fritz Caspari: The Nile ship of Ptolemaios IV. In: Yearbook of the German Archaeological Institute. 1916. ( digitized ).