• wombatula@lemm.eeEnglish
    366·
    1 year ago

    Sorry to be the one to break this to whoever still believes this:

    The main myths surrounding the Great Library of Alexandria are that 1) it was just one enormous library 2) containing a half-million or more scrolls full of ancient knowledge that was 3) sensationally destroyed in a senseless act of vandalism.

    Problem is, there’s no hard evidence to substantiate any of that nonsense. There are so many fantasy accounts of the “Great Library,” its founding, its contents and its destruction that we today really do not know how much of it is true and how much is revisionist bullshit. But we’re pretty sure most of it is revisionist bullshit.

    It’s more likely that the “Great Library of Alexandria" was actually comprised of two or three (or maybe more) small “libraries,” which were just limited collections of scrolls and reading rooms associated with various Greek temples. These were all part of the larger Mouseion (a scholarly Greek institution honoring the 9 goddesses of the Arts, aka the Muses), which had branches all over the Greek world at the time, all the way back to Athens.

    The Greeks were also famous for making multiple, multiple handwritten copies of any literature they encountered, such that the scroll collections at Alexandria probably existed as duplicate copies elsewhere all across the Greek world. So, it would be virtually impossible to destroy the collected knowledge of the Ancient World by simply destroying one “library" in one city.

    Furthermore, the alleged fiery destruction of the “Great Library” has undoubtedly been blown out of proportion for millennia, right up to the present, by opinionated pseudo-historians attempting to assign blame for one heinous act that may not have even happened. The fact is that nobody knows how the Great Library (or several small reading rooms) of Alexandria came to an end. Very likely, it met the common fate of most libraries throughout history…a gradual decline of interest and eventual extinction due to lack of funding.

    • tetris11@lemmy.ml
      231·
      1 year ago

      Let’s also not forget that Greeks already had computers (the Appytechira mechanism) for playing sick worldbuilding sim games on, and so quite likely had their own internet (using aquaducts and wine) and so had no use for a library, especially when they could download and print all their porn on vases.

      God, read a little!

      • wombatula@lemm.eeEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Considering that it was more concentrated, and also more thoroughly destroyed in a single act, potentially yes. Unfortunately we don’t really know what was contained in the BHoW, but that could be said for the LoA as well so that’s a moot point.

    • Grayox@lemmy.ml
      31·
      1 year ago

      Didnt Julius Ceasar also took most of it back to Rome and the contents are now held in the Vatican Library? if I’m not mistaken.

    • YaketySax@discuss.onlineEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      The Greeks were also famous for making multiple, multiple handwritten copies of any literature they encountered

      You kinda had to then, since archival paper wasn’t invented and papyrus doesn’t normally last very long.

  • Blackout@kbin.social
    211·
    1 year ago

    I tried that time machine one before. I just want to apologize to everyone for screwing up this timeline. I thought giving Obama that joke about Trump would be funny, not lead to this.

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    4·
    1 year ago

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  • TheSpermWhale@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    There’s a strong risk of making a paradox here - if the great library survives, it drastically alters history from that point on, meaning there is a very strong chance you would never have been born to go back in time to save the library. Also if the library had already been saved (by you in the past), what motivation would you have to go back and save it, given it never burnt?