Whenever someone newer to the pagan faith ask me for advice about the practice, I always say research research research! It is so important to continue researching, learning, and expanding your knowledge, views, and practice. You will find things that work, things that make sense, and things that you will immediately connect with that enhance your practice. Where does all this knowledge come from? Books. Libraries have been there for humanity for thousands of years, instilling knowledge and skills in those who seek it. Today, we have book stores everywhere. Brick and mortar, online, second hand stores, we have a lot of resources that people even 100 years ago did not have.
Research and knowledge ARE important. Currently, we have all the world’s information just a Google search away in the palm of your hand on your phone or even on your computer. WIFI connects us! Electronics bridge that connection in a way that could not even be fathomed even 50 years ago. But what do you do when you don’t have that kind of access? We do what our ancestors have done for thousands of years. You go to a library. If we realize, true human evolution started after the invention of writing. After that people started sharing their thoughts, myths, and religious knowledge and culture with others as written artifacts were easy to carry and can be read again if required.
Gradually this skill reached from one civilization to another civilization. Gradually basic thought processes converted to philosophies, discoveries, and inventions. It is information to have access to this information in such a way that people can find it easily in one place. This led to the foundation of the first library. It was those ancient libraries where our ancestors kept all the gained knowledge of the time that is even now guiding us to understand those ancient civilizations and some of our neo pagan practices deeply. Libraries perform an important role in society. Knowledge is something which human beings value. That’s the reason social libraries are always promoted everywhere in every culture. Even today, despite budget cuts, libraries are still accessible in every school or place of learning and most every city.
The Royal Library of Alexandria, Egypt 295 BC
The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. It is also one of the most famous libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, the nine goddesses of the arts. Following Alexander the Great’s death in 323 B.C., control of Egypt fell to his former general Ptolemy I Soter, who sought to establish a center of learning in the city of Alexandria. The result was the Library of Alexandria, which eventually became the intellectual jewel of the ancient world.
It is unknown precisely how many such scrolls were housed at any given time, but estimates believe 500,000 papyrus scrolls containing works of literature and texts on history, law, mathematics and science at its height. Later built was the Serapeum of Alexandria, where the Library of Alexandria moved part of its collection after it ran out of storage space in the main building.
The library and its associated research institute attracted scholars from around the Mediterranean, many of whom lived on site and drew government stipends while they conducted research and copied its contents. At different times, the likes of Strabo, Euclid and Archimedes were among the academics on site. Many important and influential scholars worked at the Library during the third and second centuries BC. Known scholars connected with the library of Alexandria were:
- Zenodotus of Ephesus worked towards standardizing the texts of the Homeric poems.
- According to legend, the Syracusan inventor Archimedes invented the Archimedes’ screw, a pump for transporting water, while studying at the Library of Alexandria.
- Apollonius of Rhodes, who composed the epic poem the Argonautica.
- Callimachus, who wrote the Pinakes, sometimes considered to be the world’s first library catalog.
- Eratosthenes of Cyrene, who calculated the circumference of the earth within a few hundred kilometers of accuracy.
There are three main reasons by which the library of Alexandria decline happened.
From the middle of the second century BC onward, the Ptolemaic rule in Egypt grew less stable than it had been previously hence losing control over the operation pf library.
The Library, or part of its collection, was accidentally burned by Julius Caesar during his civil war in 48 BC, but it is unclear how much was actually destroyed. Due to this action, many scholars made the distance from the library and started their research or teachings in other regions.
The scholars who had studied at the Library of Alexandria and their students continued to conduct research and write treatises, but most of them no longer did so in association with the Library.
The great library’s demise is traditionally dated to 48 B.C., when it supposedly burned after Julius Caesar accidentally set fire to Alexandria’s harbor during a battle against the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy XIII. But while the blaze may have damaged the library, most historians now believe that it continued to exist in some form for several more centuries. Some scholars argue that it finally met its end in 270 A.D. during the reign of the Roman emperor Aurelian, while others believe that it came even later during the fourth century.
I began with one of the most well known libraries of the ancient world but I will be delving into more of the less famous but just as incredible libraries in the near future.
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