Pourquoi Pharos ?

The Letter of Aristeas reinterprets a pre-existent Jewish festival which took place on the island of Pharos for practical reasons. It gives justifications for the spot by pretending  the Septuagint had its origin on Pharos itself. By narrating all the deeds of the translators between their arrival in Alexandria and the day the newly completed Septuagint was presented to the community, the Letter also proposes an easy way of calculating the date of the festival, especially helpful as several calendars conflicted in Egypt in the middle of the Hellenistic period. Finally, the celebration of the Septuagint experienced by Philo may have coincided with the winter solstice.

Répondant : Frédéric Junqua