Greek and Egyptian Associations in Egypt

This chapter provides a critical analysis of Demotic and Greek sources concerning private associations of Hellenistic Egypt, putting them into perspective in order to overcome the traditional divide into Greek and Egyptian associations. Apart from language choice—which in the case of Greek does not necessarily imply specific cultural identity—associations in Egypt display no fundamental features to uphold the traditional view, which should therefore be discarded. This chapter argues that instead of being forcefully segregated into Egyptian and Greek, associations should simply be treated as ‘associations of Egypt’: they were embedded in the local society and culture, while at the same time also drew elements—exclusively or inclusively—from various cultural and associative traditions (Greek, Egyptian, as well as others besides).