false 74021903 75671 6964143 1448694558 9781448694556 1 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6964143-waters-of-life 3.00 1 1261511 4.00 3 2 3 0 false Sat Oct 17 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 09 17:39:10 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 12:55:37 -0700 2009
I'm enormously pleased to see anything in print about Serapis, since there isn't much at all in the scholarly literature about this historically significant patron god of ancient Alexandria.

There are excellent scholarly essays by Jeremy J. Baer and Emma Nicholson. However, most of the book contains poems and hymns of modern origin written by members of Neos Alexandria, a polytheist religious group. These selections are interesting and appealing as poetry and spiritual philosophy, but I would like to have seen modern homages distinguished somehow from translations or interpretations of ancient texts.

I am extremely upset to note that this book borrows as its imprint "Bibliotheca Alexandrina," which is the name of the library and scholarly institution in Egypt (www.bibalex.org).

The Neos Alexandria apparently has no formal affiliation with the Egyptian institution at all. According to their website www.neosalexandria.org, this polytheist group makes donations to charitable organizations, but the real Bibliotheca Alexandrina is not listed among them.

So don't buy this book if (as I did) you think you are supporting the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. The misappropriation of this imprint is about as ethical as if I were to start a small press called "UCLA."

If, rather, this publishing venture turns out to be sanctioned by the institution, I will stand corrected and retract my objection!]]>