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Article: A show fit for a Pharaoh: the National Gallery of Art in Washington is presenting `The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt.' (Exhibitions).
- Article from:
- Insight on the News
- Article date:
- August 19, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The great Greek historian Herodotus was the first in a long line of Westerners to succumb to a case of love big-time for things Egyptian. When he traveled there in the the late fifth century B.C., Egypt already was many thousands of years old--a stunning 17,000 years old, according to the Egyptians themselves. Herodotus was duly impressed; after all, the Greeks could claim only a few hundred years of history as an identifiable people, and that was stretching it.
More accurately, he was smitten with Egypt and remained so. In his magnificent compendium of all he learned about the Ancient World known as The Histories, Herodotus--"the father of history," as Cicero ...