Sayce Egypt of The Hebrews and Herodotos

:
'i
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THE EGYPT OF THE HEBREWS AND HERODOTOS
THE EGYPT OF THE HEBREWS

AND HERODOTOS
BY
The
Rev. A. H.
AYCE
at oxford
'professor of assykiology
NEW YORK MACMILLAN AND

189s
9
CO.
PREFACE
A
FEW words of preface
addition
are needful to justify
the
of
another contribution to the

of
Hterature
over-abundant
mass
of
which
Egypt
is
the subject.
It is
intended to supple-
ment the books already

and
that
students,
in the
hands of
tourists
and
to
put before them just

is
information which either

or
else
not readily
accessible
forms part of larger and
cumbrous works.
in
The
travels
of Herodotos
Egypt are followed
for the first time in the
light of recent discoveries,
and the history of
the intercourse between the Egyptians and the
Jews
is
brought down to the age of the
Roman
Egypt
Empire.
As
the ordinary histories of
used by travellers end with the extinction of

the native Pharaohs,
I
have further given a"

I
sketch of the Ptolemaic period.
have more-
over specially noted the results of the recent

excavations and discoveries
made by
the
Egypt
viii
The Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos
Exploration
Fund and by
Professor Flinders
Petrie, at all events
where they bear upon the
subject-matter of the book.
Those who have
not the publications of the

fessor Petrie, or
into Egypt, will,
Fund
or of Pro-
who do
I
not care to carry them
believe,
be glad to have the
essence of them thus extracted in a convenient

shape.
Lastly, in the
Appendices
have put
together information which the visitor to the Nile often wishes to obtain, but which he can
find
in
none of
his
guide-books.
The Apwill
pendix on the nomes embodies the results of

the latest researches,
fore
lists
and the
list
there-
be found to
differ
here and there from the

published elsewhere.
assistance
which have been

desire
Those who
Atlas
the
of
maps
should procure the very handy and complete
of Ancient Egypt, published

(price 3s.
by the
6d.).
It
Egypt Exploration Fund
makes the addition of maps

future
to
this or
any
work on Ancient Egypt
superfluous.
Discoveries follow so thickly one upon the

other in these days of active exploration that
Preface
it
ix
is
impossible for an author to
keep pace
with them.
Since
my
manuscript was ready for
the press Dr. Naville, on behalf of the
Egypt
Der
the
Exploration Fund, has practically cleared the

magnificent temple of
el-Bahari,
Queen Hatshepsu
at
it
and has discovered beneath
unfinished sepulchre in which the queen fondly
hoped that her body would be

Petrie
laid
Professor
has excavated
in
the
desert behind
the
Zaw^deh and opposite Qoft

barbarous
tribes,
tombs
of
probably of Libyan origin,
who
the
settled in the valley of the Nile

fall
between
of the
dis-
of
the
sixth
;
and
the
rise
eleventh dynasty
interred
Mr,
de Morgan has
exquisite
more jewellery of
workman-
ship from the tombs of the princesses of the

twelfth dynasty
at Dahshtlr
;
and Dr.
Botti
has discovered the site of the Serapeum at

Alexandria, thus obtaining for the
first
time a
point of importance for determining the topo-
graphy of the ancient
city.
The
people whose remains have been found

their
by Professor Petrie buried
dead
in
open
graves without mummifying them, and
made
use of implements and weapons of polished

stone.
Their
pottery,
which
is
frequently
ornamented with concentric rings of red on a

whitish
ground, has
been already found
at
Khozam, north of Karnak, and elsewhere, and

the figures
of giraffes,
ostriches,
and
other
creatures scratched on the sandstone rocks of

Silsilis
and
its
neighbourhood seem to have

their
been
in
great measure
work.
In the
midst of their cemetery are the ruins of a
temple built by Thothmes

of Nubti,' the
iii.
to
'
Set the lord
Juvenal
Ombos refers. As
is
near Denderah to which

for
the
jewellery
dis-
covered
in the
it
spring of this year by Mr. de
Morgan,
even more marvellous than that
which he found a year ago.
Among
or
it
are two
crowns of delicately-worked gold, one of which

is
ornamented with
stars
forget-me-nots
formed of precious stones

as
to
inlaid so exquisitely
look
like
enamel, while
between the
sprays are gold ornaments in the shape of what
we
should
call St.
Cuthbert's crosses.
Preface
xi
The Serapeum
last of its
at
Alexandria, where
the
is
great libraries was established,

the lofty column
now marked by
Pompey's
Pillar.
known
as
The column
stood in the
middle of a great central court, on one side of
which were porticoes opening into the shrines

of Serapis and his fellow deities, while to the
east
it
led into a hall with a cupola, which again
opened into a propylaeum.
From
this there
was a descent of a hundred steps
into
the
lower ground at the foot of the rock on which

the building stood.
There was no other access
to the edifice, which, like the other temples of
Egypt, was used as a fortress as well as a

sanctuary,
polis
and
is
accordingly called the Acro-
of Alexandria by Aphthonios, a
Greek
orator
who
visited
it
about a.d. 315 and gave

it.
a minute description of
Dr. Botti has found
remains of the gilding and sculptures with

which,
court
according
to
Aphthonios, the
as
well
as
great
was
adorned,
inscriptions
dedicated to Serapis, and the basin of a sacred

fountain which the
Greek orator
tells
us was
xii

central
is
situated in the
court.
But
his
most
interesting discovery
that of long subter-
ranean passages, once faced with masonry, and

furnished with
niches
for
lamps,
where the
mysteries
of
Serapis
were
celebrated.
At
the entrance of one of
them pious
visitors to
the shrine have scratched their

wall of rock.
vows on
the
Those who are
interested in the
discovery should consult Dr. Botti's memoir on
L!Acropole d'Alexandrie
et le
S^rapeum, pre-
sented to the Archseplogical Society of Alexandria, 17th
August 1895.
Two
cylinder
or three other recent discoveries
may
seal-
also find
mention here.
Babylonian
now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art at New York has at last given me a clue to the native home of the Hyksos leaders. This
was
in the
mountains of Elam, on the eastern
frontier of
Chaldsa.
It
was from these moun-
tains that the
Kassi descended upon Babylonia
and founded a dynasty there which lasted for nearly 600 years, and the same movement
which brought them into Babylonia
may have
Preface
xiii
sent other bands of

into
them
across
Western Asia
upon
Egypt.
At
all
events, the inscription

it
the seal shows that
belonged
to a certain
'
Uzi-Sutakh,
'
the son of the Kassite,' and
the
servant of Burna-buryas,'
who was
the Kassite
el-
king of Babylonia in the age of the Tel
Amarna
Sutakh
divinity,
is
correspondence.
As
the
name
the
of
preceded by the determinative of

clear that
it is
we have
in
it
name
of the
Hyksos
deity Sutekh.
In a hieroglyphic stela lately discovered at
SaqqArah, and
now
in the
Gizeh Museum, we
read of an earlier parallel to the Tyrian

at
Camp
learn
Ai, in
Memphis seen by Herodotos.

stela that, in the time of
We
King
from the
the
closing days of the eighteenth dynasty,

'
there was already a similar

at
Camp
'
or quarter
Memphis which was assigned

inscription
is
to the Hittites.
The
at
further interesting as show-
ing that the authority of Ai was acknowledged
Memphis, the
capital of
Northern Egypt, as
well as in the Thebaid.

Lastly,
Professor
Hommel seems
to
have
xiv
found the name of the Zakkur or Zakkal, the

kinsfolk
and associates of the
Philistines, in a
of
broken cuneiform text which relates to one
the Kassite kings of Babylonia not long before

the epoch of Khu-n-Aten.
Here mention
is
made not only
of the city of
Arka
in Phoenicia,
but also of the city of Zaqqalu.
In Zaqqalta
we must
history.
recognise the
I
Zakkur of Egyptian
may add
that
Khar
or Khal, the
name given by
the Egyptians to the southern

is
portion of Palestine,
identified
by Professor
Maspero with the Horites of the Old Testament.
By way of conclusion, I have only to say that those who wish to read a detailed account
of the
manner
ii.
in
which the great colossus of

raised
Ramses
at
Memphis was
and
its
companion statue disinterred must
refer to the
Paper published by Major Arthur H. Bagnold

himself in the Proceedings of the Society of
Biblical
Archeeology for June 1888.

A. H.
SAYCE.
October 1895.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE
I
PAGE
.
CHAPTER
THE AGE OF MOSES
II 52
...
CHAPTER
III
IN
THE EXODUS AND THE HEBREW SETTLEMENT
CANAAN
80
CHAPTER
CHAPTER
THE AGE OF THE PTOLEMIES
IV
.
THE AGE OF THE ISRAELITISH MONARCHIES
IO4
....
VI
I34
CHAPTER
HERODOTOS IN EGYPT
-175
CHAPTER
IN
VII
.
THE STEPS OF HERODOTOS
206
CHAPTER
MEMPHIS AND THE FAYYOm
VIII
242
XV
xvi
APPENDICES
I.
THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES ACCORDING TO MANETHO

(AS
QUOTED BY JULIUS AFRICANUS,
A.D. 220), ETC.
n.
III.
THE PTOLEMIES
BIBLICAL DATES
.
. .
IV.
THE NOMES (HESEPU)
V.
THE GREEK WRITERS UPON EGYPT

ARCH/EOLOGICAL EXCURSIONS IN THE DELTA
VI.
INDEX
THE EGYPT OF THE HEBREWS AND HERODOTOS

CHAPTER
I
THE PATRIARCHAL AGE 'Abram went down

into
Egypt
to sojourn there.'
When
he entered the country the civiHsation and

old.
monarchy of Egypt were already very

and the
origin of the
The
pyramids had been built hundreds of years before,
Sphinx was already a mystery.

is still
Even
Cairo,
the great obelisk of Heliopolis, which
the object of an afternoon drive to the tourist at
had long been standing
in front of the
temple
of the Sun-god.
the age to which

Ellasar has
left
The monuments of Babylonia enable us to Arioch Abraham belongs.
fix
of
memorials of himself on the bricks
of Chaldaea, and
we now know when he and

A
his
Elamite
allies
were driven out of Babylonia and the
The Egypt of
the
Hebrews and Herodotos
Babylonian states were united into a single monarchy

"This was 2350
B.C.
The
united
far earlier
monarchy of Egypt went back Menes, its founder, had been date.
to
kin^
of This (or Girgeh) in
Upper Egypt, and
starting
from his ancestral dominions had succeeded

ing
all
in bring-
earlier
Egypt under his rule. But the memory of ar time, when the valley of the Nile was divided
two separate sovereignties, survived to the latesl age of the monarchy. Up to the last the Pharaohs
into
of
Egypt
called themselves
their
'
kings of the two
lands,'
and wore on
Lower Egypt.
tiara
like
heads the crowns of Upper and The crown of Upper Egypt was a of white linen, that of Lower Egypt a thronehead-dress of red. The double crown was a
symbol of the imperial power.
To Menes
is
ascribed the building of Memphis,
the capital of the united kingdom.
He
is
said
to
have raised the great dyke which Linant de
Belleelits
fonds identifies with that of Kosheish near Kafr
Ayyat, and thereby to have diverted the Nile from

ancient channel under the Libyan plain.
On
the
oi
ground that he thus added to the western bank the river his new capital was erected.
Memphis
Men-nefer or
in
is
'
the Greek form of the old Egyptian
Good
Place.'
The
final
rwas droppec
anc
Egyptian pronunciation at an
early date,
The Patriarchal Age

thus arose the
Hebrew forms of
find in the
in the
the name,
Moph and
Noph, which we
'
Old Testament,^ while

cuneiform inscriptions
Memphis
it
of Assyria
Mimpi has the same

'
itself
origin.
Another name by
which
'
went
in old
Egyptian times was Anbu-hez,
the white wall,' from the great wall of brick, covered

it,
with white stucco, which surrounded

traces
site.
still still
and of which
remain on the northern side of the old

fortification
;
Here a fragment of the ancient

rises
above the mounds of the city
the wall
is
it
many
is
feet thick,
and the sun-dried bricks of which
formed are bonded together with the stems of

In the midst of the
palms.
mounds
filled
is
a large and deep
depression, which
is
with water during the

It
greater part of the year.
marks the
site
of the
sacred lake, which was attached to every Egyptian

temple, and in which the priests bathed themselves
and washed the vessels of the sanctuary.

represented
Here, not
long ago, lay the huge colossus of limestone which
Ramses
II.
of the nineteenth dynasty, and

to the
had been presented by the Egyptian Khedive

British
Government.
for
But
it
was too heavy and

to carry across the
its
unwieldy
sea,
modern engineers
left
and
it
was therefore
lying with
face prone
in the
mud and
'
water of the ancient lake, a prey to

ix.
Hosea
6; Isaiah
xix.
13; Jeremiah
ii.
16.
4
the
The Egypt of
first
the

stone.
It
comer who needed a quarry of

lifted
was not until after the English occupation of Egypt

that
it
was
out of
its
ignoble position by Major

a
Bagnold and
placed securely in
wooden
shed.
While it was being raised another colossus of the same Pharaoh, of smaller size but of better workmanship, was discovered, and lifted beyond the reach
of the inundation.
The two
the god Ptah,
statues once stood before the temple of
whom
the Greeks identified with
their
own
deity Hephsestos, for no better reason than the
similarity of name.
with the
city
of
The temple of Ptah was coeval Memphis itself. When Menes

city,
founded Memphis, he founded the temple at the same

time.
It
was the centre and glory of the

its
which
was placed under the protection of

after
god.
Pharaoh
its priests
Pharaoh adorned and enlarged
it,
and
formed one of the most powerful organisations

kingdom.
in the
The temple
its
of Ptah, the Creator, gave to
Memphis
sacred name.
This was Ha-ka-Ptah,
'
the house
in
of the double (or spiritual appearance) of Ptah,'
which Dr. Brugsch sees the original of the Greek

Aigyptos.
But the
glories of the
temple of Ptah have long

of
its
since passed away.

for
The worship
the
god ceased
Emperor,
ever
when Theodosius,
Roman

The Patriarchal Age
closed
its
5
gates,
and forbade any other
religion save
the Christian to be henceforth publicly professed in
the empire.
Soon afterwards came the Mohammedan
conquest of Egypt.
Memphis was
deserted
and the
sculptured stones of the ancient shrine served to build
the palaces and mosques of the

country.
new
lords of the
Fostat and Cairo were built out of the
spoils of the
temple of Ptah.
But the work of de-
struction took long to accomplish.
As
late
as the el-Latif
still
twelfth
century,
the
Arabic
writer
'Abd
describes the marvellous relics of the past which
existed on the site of Memphis.
Colossal
statues,
the bases of gigantic columns, a chapel formed of a

single block of stone
and
called
'
the green chamber
'
such were some of the wonders of ancient art which

the traveller was forced to admire.
The
history of Egypt, as
we have
seen, begins
with the record of an engineering feat of the highest
magnitude.
It
is
a fitting
commencement
for the
history of a country which has been wrested
by man
of the
from the waters of the Nile, and whose existence even
now
is
dependent on the successful
efforts
engineer.
Beyond
his
this single record, the history

is
of
Menes and
blank.
immediate successors
virtually a
No
dated monuments of the

It
first
dynasty
have as yet been discovered.
may
be, as
is
many
Egyptologists think, that the Sphinx
older than
The Egypt of
the

that strange image, carved
Menes himself; but

out of a rock which
if so,
may
once have jutted into
the
stream of the Nile,

locked up
still
keeps the mystery of
its origin
in its breast.
We
know
that
it
was
already
there in the days of
Khephr^n
of the fourth dynasty
but beyond that
we know
first
nothing.
still
Of
vives.
the second dynasty a dated record
sur-
Almost the
at
gift
received
by the Ashthe
molean Museum
Oxford was the
lintel-stone of an
ancient Egyptian tomb, brought from Saqqarah,

necropolis of Memphis,
by Dr. Greaves
at the end of
the seventeenth century.

later,
the hieroglyphics upon

it
When, more than a it came to be

the
'
century
read,
it
was found that

certain Sheri
had belonged to the sepulchre

prophet
'
of a
who had been
of the two
Pharaohs Send and Per-ab-sen.

other record remains, but the
Of name
Per-ab-sen no
of Send had
long been known as that of a king of the second

dynasty.
The
rest of Sheri's
is
tomb, so
far as
it
has been
after
preserved,
now
in the
Gizeh Museum.
Years
the inscription on the fragment at Oxford had been
deciphered, the hinder portion of the
tomb was
dis-
covered by Marietta
Like the lintel-stone in the Ashmolean Museum, it is adorned with sculptures and hieroglyphics. Already, we learn from it, the
hieroglyphic system of writing was complete,
the
The Patriarchal Age
characters being used not only to denote ideas and
express syllables, but alphabetically as well.
The
name
of Send himself
is
spelt in the letters of the
alphabet.
to that
The
art of the
monument, though not equal

later,
is
which prevailed a few generations
already advanced, while the texts show that the

religion
old.
and organisation of the empire were already

all
In the age of the second dynasty, at

are far
events,
we
removed from the beginnings of Egyptian

king of the fourth dynasty,
civilisation.
With
or,
Snefru, the
first
according to another reckoning, the last king of
the third,
Egypt.
upon the monumental history of Snefru's monuments are to be found, not
we
enter
only in Egypt, but also in the deserts of Sinai.
There
the mines of copper

for
and
malachite were
worked
him, and an Egyptian garrison kept guard

tribes.
upon the Bedouin

definitely
In Egypt, as has
now been
proved by Professor Petrie's excavations,
he built the pyramid of Medum, one of the largest
and most striking of the pyramids.
Around
it
were from
ranged the tombs of his nobles and
priests,
which have come some of the most beautiful works

of art in the Gizeh
Museum.
statues of Ra-nefer
The painted limestone

wife
Nefert,
for
and
his
instance,
are
among
the
finest
existing specimens
of ancient Egyptian
workman-
8
ship.
The Egypt of
the
They
are clearly life-like portraits, executed
with a delicacy and finish which might well excite

the envy of a
modern
artist.
The character, and even

in the
the antecedents of the husband and wife, breathe
through their features.
While
one we can
see
the strong will and solid common-sense of the
self-
made man,
in the other
can be traced the

princess.
culture
and refinement of a royal
The pyramids
record
of Gizeh
are
the
imperishable
of the
fourth
dynasty.
Khufu, KhafRa
and Men-ka-Ra, the Kheops, Khephr^n and Mykerinos of Herodotos, were the builders of the three
vast sepulchres which,
by
their size
and nearness
to to
Cairo, have so long been an object of pilgrimage
the traveller.
The huge
granite blocks of the Great

fitted together
Pyramid of Khufu have been cut and

with a marvellous exactitude.
Professor Petrie found

of
that the joints of the casing-stones, with an area
some thirty-five square feet each, were not only worked with an accuracy equal to that of the
modern
out.
'
optician, but
were even cemented through-
Though
or,
the stones were brought as close

in fact, into contact,
as
-5
J^ inch,
and the mean
opening of the joint was J^ inch, yet the builders managed to fill the joint with cement, despite the great area of it and the weight of the stone to be
moved
some
sixteen tons.
To merely
place such
The Patriarchal Age
stones in exact contact at the sides would be careful
work
but to do so with cement in the joints seems

^
almost impossible.'
Professor Petrie believes that the stones were cut
with tubular
drills fitted
it
with jewel points
a mode
is
of cutting stone which
was
left
to the nineteenth
century to re-discover.
stone by the drills can
The
still
lines
marked upon the
be observed, and there
evidence that not only the tool but the stone also
was
the
rotated.
drills
The
great pressure needed for driving

requisite rapidity through
is
and saws with the
the blocks of granite and diorite

It
indeed surprising.
brings before us the high mechanical knowledge
attained
by the Egyptians more
in the fourth
millennium
before our era even
forcibly than the heights to
which the blocks were

ever, with
raised.
The machinery, howeffected

is still
which
this latter
work was
unknown.
The
sculptured and painted walls of the tombs

tell
which surround the pyramids of Gizeh

thing about the
life
us someperiod.
and
civilisation of the
The government was a highly organised bureaucracy, under a king who was already regarded as the reThe land presentative of the Sun-god upon earth.
was
inhabited
by an
industrious
people,
plenty.
mainly
Arts
agricultural,
'
who
lived in peace
and
Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh
(first
edition), p. 44.
lo
The Egypt of
crafts of all
glass.
the

that
and
of
kinds were cultivated, including
making
a high perfection.
in the
The One
art of the sculptor had reached
world
is
that of
is
of the most striking statues Khaf-Ra seated on his imperial
throne, which
now
is
in the
Museum
of Gizeh.
;
The
his
figure of the king
more than
life-size
its
above
head the imperial hawk stretches forth
wings, and
the
on the king's
face,
though the features bear
unmistakable impress of a portrait, there

aspect of divine calm.
living portraiture
rests an
its
And
yet this statue, with

is
and exquisite finish,
carved
out
of a dioritic rock, the hardest of hard stone.
The
the
fifth
fourth dynasty
was peaceably succeeded
by
and the
sixth.
Culture and cultivation made
yet further progress, and the art of the painter and

sculptor reached
its
climax.
Those whose knowledge
of Egyptian
art
is
derived from the
museums
of
it
Europe have
little
idea of the perfection which
attained at this remote period.

lised art of later
The hard and
crystalthat
of
ages differed essentially from
of
the
the
early dynasties.
The wooden
sleek
figure
'Sheikh
el-Beled
' the
and
well-to-do
farmer,
gazes complacently on his fertile fields and well-stocked farm is one of the noblest works
of
who
human
fifth
relief,
the
And yet it belongs to the age or the sixth dynasty, like the pictures
genius.
of
in,
low
resembling exquisite embroidery on
stonî
The Patriarchal Age
which cover the walls of the tombs of Ti and Ptahhotep at Saqqarah.
The
logists
first
six dynasties constitute
what Egypto-
call
the Old Empire.
queen,
Nit-aqer (the
They ended with a Greek Nit6kris), and Egypt

For several centuries
it
passed under sudden eclipse.

lies
concealed from the eye of history.

are preserved
;
A
its
few royal
names alone
yet none.
other records there are as
What
befell the
country and
rulers
we
do not know.
Whether it was foreign invasion
or civil
war, or the internal decay of the government, certain

it is
that disaster overshadowed for a while the valley

It
of the Nile.
may
be that the barbarian
tribes,
whose tombs Professor Petrie has

in the desert opposite Qoft,
lately discovered
and
whom
he believes to
have been of Libyan
origin,
were the cause.
With
Mr.
the tenth dynasty light begins again to dawn.

Griffith
has shown that some at least of the tombs

cliffs
cut out of the
behind Siut belonged to that

in
era,
and that Ka-meri-Ra, whose name appears

them, was a king of the tenth dynasty.
one of
frag-
The
mentary
inscription,
which can
still
be traced on the
walls of the tomb, seems to allude to the successful
suppression of a
civil
war.
its
The
eleventh dynasty arose at Thebes, of which

It
founders were the hereditary chiefs.

us to the so-called Middle Empire.
introduces
But the Egypt

of
of the Middle Empire was no longer the Egypt

the
Old Empire. was

past,
The age
of the great pyramid-
builders
begins to
age.
and the tomb carved in the rock take the place of the pyramid of the earlier
to be the capital of the
to
at
Memphis has ceased

;
country
the centre of power has been transferred
Thebes and the south.
The
art
which flourished
Memphis has been superseded by the art with which With the our museums have made us familiar.
transfer of the government, moreover, from north
to
south,
Egyptian religion has undergone a change.
Ptah of Memphis and

yield to
Ra
of Heliopolis have had
to
Amon,
the
god of Thebes.
The god
of the
the
house of the new Pharaohs
now
takes his place at
head of the pantheon, and the older gods of the

fall
north
more and more
into the background.
The Egypt of among a number

their
the Middle
Empire was
divided
received
re-
of great princes,
who had
power and property by inheritance, and
sembled the great lords of the feudal age.
The
Pharaoh
his
at first
was
little
more than the
chief among
into the
peers.
But when the sceptre passed
vigorous hands of the kings of the twelfth dynasty,

the influence and authority of the feudal princes was
more and more encroached upon. A firm government at home and successful campaigns abroad restored the supreme rule of the Pharaoh and madel
The Patriarchal Age
13
him, perhaps more than had ever been the case before,
a divinely-instituted autocrat.
The wars of
the
twelfth
dynasty extended the
Egyptian domination
far to the south.
The
military
its
organisation of the Middle
Empire was indeed

had been
most
striking point of contrast to the
Old Empire.
self-
The Egypt
of the
first
six dynasties
contained and
pacific.
few raids were made from
time to time against the negroes south of the First

Cataract, but only for the sake of obtaining slaves.
The
idea of extending Egyptian
power beyond the

as yet never pre-
natural boundaries of
Egypt has
sented itself
The Pharaohs
of the Old Empire did
not need an army, and accordingly did not possess

one.
But with the Middle Empire
all
:
this
its
was
changed.
will
Egypt
ceases to be isolated
history
be henceforth part of the history of the world.
Foreign wars, however, and the organisation of a

strong government at home, did not absorb the whole
energies of the court.
erected, art
Temples and
obelisks were
was patronised, and the creation of the

large tract of fertile land
Fayyum, whereby a
was
won
skill
,
for
Egypt, not only proved the high engineering
of the age of the twelfth dynasty, but constituted

its creator,
a solid claim for gratitude to
Amon-em-
hat
III.,
on the part of
all
succeeding generations.
The
thirteenth dynasty followed in the footsteps of
14
its
The Egypt of
predecessor.
the

the
We possess
fifty
names of more
to
it,
than
one hundred and
kings
who belonged
and
their monuments were scattered from one end ol Egypt to the other. The fourteenth dynasty ended
in disaster.
Egypt was invaded by

Pharaohs was
called
Asiatic hordes,
and the
line of native
for a
time extinct
the
The
Egyptian
invaders
were
by
Manetho,
historian, the
Hyksos
or Shepherd Princes
on the monuments they are known as the

'
Aamu
or
Asiatics.'
At
first,
we
are told, their progress was
marked by massacre and destruction. The temples were profaned and overthrown, the cities burned with
fire.
But
after a while the higher culture of the con-
quered people overcame the conquerors.

arose
king
among
the invaders
prerogatives and state of the

sixteenth,
who soon adopted the Pharaohs. The fifteenth,

at one time
if
and seventeenth dynasties were Hyksos.
Recent discoveries have proved that

the dominion of the
first
Hyksos extended,
not to
the
cataract, at all events far to the south of Thebes,

and
Their monuments have been found at Gebelfin
El-Kab.
Gradually, however,
the
native
princes
the
recovered their power in
Upper Egypt.
While
seventeenth Hyksos dynasty was reigning at Zoan,

or
a seventeenth Egyptiai dynasty was ruling at Thebes. But the princes oi
Tanis, in
the
north,
Thebes did not as yet venture to claim the imperia
The Patriarchal Age

title.
15
They
still
acknowledged the supremacy of the
foreign Pharaoh.
The war
of
the
of independence broke out in the reign
Hyksos
king
Apopi.
According to the
Egyptian legend, Apopi had sent messengers to the
him worship none other god than Baal-Sutekh, the Hyksos divinity. But
prince of Thebes, bidding
Amon-Ra
of Thebes
avenged the dishonour that

stirred
had been done him, and

successful revolt.
on,
up
his adorers to
For
five
generations the war went
and ended with the complete expulsion of the

Southern
then
stranger.
dependence,
Egypt Memphis
first
fell,
recovered
its
in-
and
finally
the
their
Hyksos conquerors were driven out of Zoan,

capital,
and confined to the

the
fortress
of Avaris, on
the confines of Asia.

safe
But even here they were not
from
I.,
avenging
hand
of
the
Egyptian.
Ahmes
the founder of the eighteenth dynasty,

last refuge
drove them from their

into Palestine.
and pursued them
The land which had sent forth its hordes to connow in turn to be conquered by the Egyptians. The war was carried into Asia, and
quer Egypt was
the struggle for independence
empire.
became a struggle
time in
for
Under the Pharaohs of the eighteenth

Egypt,
for
dynasty,
I
the
first
its
history,
became a great military
state.
Army
after
army
The Egypt of
the
poured out of the gates of Thebes, and brought
back to
it
the spoils of the

alike felt
known
world.
Ethiopia
and Syria
the tread of the Egyptian armies,
and had
alike to
bow
the neck to Egyptian

province,
rule,
Canaan became an Egyptian

frontiers of the
Egyptian
garrisons were established in the far north on the

Hittite tribes,
and the boundaries
of the Pharaoh's empire were pushed to the banks of the Euphrates.

It is
probable that
Abraham
did not enter Egypt
until after the
Hyksos conquest.
But before
the
rise of the eighteenth dynasty Egyptian chronology

is
uncertain.
We
by
lasted
have to reckon
it
by
dynasties
the
rather than
years.
According to Manetho,
Old Empire
interval
1478 years, and a considerable

for
must be allowed
the troublous times
which intervened between

of the Middle Empire.
its fall
and the beginning
We
learn from the Turin
papyrus
list
of the Egyptian kings and dynasties
compiled
in the
time of Ramses
II.,
but now,
alas!
in tattered
fragments
that the tenth dynasty

twelfth dynasty
is
lasted
355 years and

years.
10 days, the eleventh dynasty
243
The duration of the from the monuments (165

the thirteenth, with
fifty kings,
its
known
of
years 2 months), that
more than one hundred
and
the
cannot have been short.
How
long
Hyksos
rule
endured
it is
difficult to say,
Africanus,
The Patriarchal Age

quoting from
17
Manetho, as
it
Professor
Erman
has
shown, makes
953 years, with
which the fragment
quoted by Josephus from the Egyptian historian also

agrees.
In this case the Hyksos conquest of Egypt

B.C.
is
it
would have taken place about 2550
Unfortunately the original work of Manetho

lost,
and we are dependent

most of
for our
knowledge of
on
its
later writers,
whom
sought to harmonise
chronology with that of the Septuagint.

further
When
we
remember the corruptions undergone by

it is
numerical figures in passing through the hands of

the copyists,
clear that
we cannot
place implicit
confidence in the Manethonian numbers as they have
Indeed, the writers who have come down to us. recorded them do not always agree together, and we find the names of kings arbitrarily omitted or
the length of their reigns shortened in order to force
the chronology into
author.
agreement with that of the

dynasty reigned
160
years
The
to
;
twelfth
134 years
to
according
Africanus
Eusebius,
according
its real
duration was 165 years, 2 months,
and 12 days.
With the help of certain astronomical data furnished by the monuments. Dr. Mahler, the Viennese
astronomer, has succeeded in determining the exact
reigns of the two most famous
'date of the
Earchs
mon-
of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties,

III.
Thothmes
February
and Ramses
li.
Thothmes
III.
reigned
of
li.
from the 20th of March

B.C.
B.C.
1503 to the 14th
1449, while the reign of Ramses
lasted from
B.C.
III.
1348 to
B.C.
1281.
The
date
of of
Thothmes
enables us to fix the beginning

B.C.
the eighteenth dynasty about
1570.
successive and
The
dynasties of
Manetho were
not contemporaneous.
This fact was one of the main
results of the excavations
and discoveries of
artificial
Marietta
Pasha.
The
old attempts to form
schemes
but
of chronology
their authors
which, however,
fresh discovery
satisfied
no one
upon the
supposition that some of the
dynasties reigned together are

ever.
Every
now discredited for made in Egypt, which

history,
adds to our knowledge of ancient Egyptian
makes the fact still more certain. There were epochs, indeed, when more than one line of kings claimed sway in the valley of the Nile, but when such was the case, Manetho selected what he or his authorities
considered the sole legitimate dynasty, and disregarded
every other.
Of
the two rival twenty-first dynasties

light, the
lists
which the monuments have brought to

of
in
Manetho recognise but one, and the Assyrian rule Egypt at a subsequent date is ignored in favour of
the princes of Sais

time.
If,
who were
is
reigning at the same
then,
any reliance
to be placed
on the
lengtl
The Patriarchal Age

of time ascribed to the
valley of the Nile,
19
in
Hyksos dominion
the
and
if
we
are
still
to hold to the
old belief of Christendom and see in the
Hebrew
kings
wanderer into Egypt the

against
Abram who contended

the
subject
Chedor-laomer and
it
of
Babylonia,
would have been about two centuries

arrived at their court.
at Zoan, the
after the settlement of the Asiatic conquerors in the
Delta that
Abraham and Sarah

was doubtless held
of
The
Sin.
court
modern
easy of
are told
Here was the Hyksos
capital,
and
its
proximity
it
to the Asiatic frontier
Egypt made
access to a traveller from Palestine.

in the
We
;
built seven years before
Book of Numbers (xiii. 22) that Hebron was Zoan in Egypt and it may
be that the building here referred to was that which

caused Zoan to become the seat of the Hyksos power.
Asiatic migration into
Egypt was no new
thing.
On
the walls of one of the tombs of Beni-Hassan

is
there
pictured the arrival of thirty-seven

'
Aamu
or
II.
Asiatics
of Shu,' in the sixth year of Usertesen
of the twelfth dynasty.

chief,
Under
the conduct of their
Ab-sha, they came from the mountains of the
desert, bringing with
them
gazelles as well as kohl
for the ladies of the court.
Four women
in
long
;bright-coloured robes
walk between groups of bearded

in a pannier
men, and two children are carried

,a
on
donkey's back.
The men
are
armed with bows,
20

shod with sandals, and they wear
the
of
their feet are
vari-coloured
garments
for
which
the
people
Phoenicia were afterwards famed.
After the
Hyksos conquest
Asiatic
migration
must naturally have largely

a constant passage to and
increased.
Between
been
northern Egypt and Palestine there must have

fro.
The
rulers of the
Asiatic
of
land of the Nile were

extraction,
now
themselves of
and
it
may
be that the language
Palestine
was spoken
in the
court of the Pharaoh,
At
all
events, the emigrant from
Canaan no
longer
land
there,
found himself an alien and a stranger in 'the

of Ham.'
His own kin were
now supreme
and a welcome was assured

might choose to come.
the benefit was shared
to
him whenever
he
The
subject population
tilled
their fields for the benefit of their foreign lords, and
by the inhabitants of
Canaan.
the
In case of famine, Palestine could

never-failing soil of
If,
now
in
look to
Egypt
for its
supply of corn.
the age when
therefore,
Abraham
lived
northern Egypt was subject to the rule of the Hyksos
Pharaohs, nothing was more natural than for
him,
into
an Asiatic emigrant into Canaan, to wander
Egypt when the corn of Palestine had failed. He would but be following in the wake of that larger
Asiatic migration which led to the rise of the Hyksoi
dynasties themselves.
The Patriarchal Age

There
his
is,
21
however, a statement connected with
residence at the court of the Pharaoh which
does not seem compatible with the evidence of the
monuments.
We
asses,
are told
that
among
the gifts
showered upon him by the king were not only sheep
and oxen and
but camels as well.
The camel
was the constant companion of the Asiatic nomad.
As
far
back as we can trace the history of the
Bedouin, he has been accompanied by the animal
which the old Sumerian population of Babylonia

called the beast
which came from the Persian Gulf

has
Indeed,
it
would appear that to the Bedouin belongs

it
the credit of taming the camel, in so far as
been tamed at
practically
all.
But
to the Egyptians
it
was
unknown.
Neither in the hieroglyphics,
nor on the sculptured temples and tombs, do

sented.
in
and painted walls of the
we anywhere
it
find
it
repre-
The
earliest
mention of
is
yet met with
an Egyptian document
it
in a
papyrus of the age
of the Exodus, and there

kamail, the
that
it
bears the Semitic
name
of
Hebrew gamal}
Naturalists have
shown
was not introduced
into the northern coast of
Africa until after the beginning of the Christian era.
Nevertheless
it
does not follow that because the

in
camel was never used

the country,
it
'
Egypt by the
natives of
was not
at times brought there

i.
by
Pap. Anastasi,
p. 23, line 5.
22
The Egypt of
visitors
the
nomad
difficult
It is from Arabia and Palestine. to conceive of an Arab family on the march
without a train of camels.
And
that camels actually
found their
way
into the valley of the Nile has been
proved by excavation.
1851-54,
When Hekekyan
shafts
in
Bey,
in
was sinking
the
Nile
mud
at
Memphis for the Geological found, among other animal

dromedaries.!
Society of London, he
remains, the bones
of
The name of
is
the Pharaoh visited by Abraham
not told to
us.
As
elsewhere in Genesis, the king

to
'
of
Egypt
title
is
referred
'
only by his
official
title.
This
of
Pharaoh
was one which went

It
back
to the early days of the monarchy.
represents
is
the Egyptian
Per-ia, or
'
Great House,' and
of
repeated occurrence in the inscriptions.
All power
palace,
and government emanated from the royal and accordingly,

just as
'
Porte' or 'Lofty Gate'
we speak of the Sublime when we mean the Sultan

To
of Turkey, so the Egyptians spoke of their own

sovereign as the
this
Pharaoh or 'Great House.'

is
day the king of Japan

Lofty Gate.'
called the Mi-kado,
or
'
That the Hyksos princes should have assumed the title of their predecessors on the throne of Egypt
'
Horner, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
Societl,
1855-58.
The Patriarchal Age

is
23
The monuments have shown us how thoroughly Egyptianised they soon became. The court of the Hyksos Pharaoh differed but httle, if at all, from that of the native Pharaoh. The
not surprising.
invaders rapidly adopted
the culture of the conit
quered people, and with
their manners, customs,
and even language.

treatise
The most famous mathematical which Egypt has bequeathed to us was
Hyksos king. It may be that the old language of Asia was retained, at all events for a time, by the side of the language of the subject
written for a
population
but
if so,
its
position
must have been

in
like that of
Turkish by the side of Arabic
Egypt
during the reign of

centuries the
Mohammed
Ali.
For several
as Egyptians,
Hyksos could be described

historian
and the dynasties of the Hyksos Pharaohs are counted
by the Egyptian
It
among
the
legitimate
dynasties of his country.
was only
in the
matter of religion that the

distinct
Hyksos court kept

subjects.
itself
from
its
native
The supreme god of the Hyksos princes was Sutekh, in whom we must see a form of the Semitic Baal. As has already been stated, Egyptian
legend ascribed the origin of the war of indepen-
dence to
demand on
the part of the
Hyksos
Pharaoh Apopi that the prince and the god of
Thebes should acknowledge the supremacy of the
24
The Egypt of
deity.
the

in the
Hyksos
But even
matter of
religion
to
the Hyksos princes could not help submitting

the influence of the old Egyptian civilisation.
Ra,
the sun-god of Heliopolis, was identified with Sutekh,
and even Apopi added and so claimed

before him.
to his
name
the
title
of Ra,
to be an incarnation of the Egyptian
sun-god, like the native Pharaohs
who had
Old
gone
When
ment,
it
next we hear of Egypt
in the
Testanation.
is
when
Israel
is
about to become a
Joseph was sold by

Arabia,
his brethren to
merchants from
who
carried
him
into
'
Egypt.
There he
became the
slave of Potiphar,
the eunuch of Pharaoh
and chief of the
executioners,' or royal body-guard.

the
The name
priest of
'
of Potiphar, like that of Potipherah,
On, corresponds with the Egyptian Pa-tu-paIt
Ra, the Gift of the Sun-god.'
has been asserted
by Egyptologists
that
names of
this description are
not older than the age of the twenty-second dynasty,

to which Shishak, the contemporary of Rehoboam,
belonged
but because no similar

it
name
of an
earlier
date has hitherto been found,
does not follow
that
are
such do not
imperfect,
exist.
As
long as our materials
we cannot draw
positive conclusions merely
from an absence of evidence.
That Potiphar should have been an eunuch and

yet been married seems a greater obstacle to our

The Patriarchal Age
acceptance of the story.
be.
25
it
This, however,
need not
Eunuchs
harems
to positions their
it
modern East, who have risen of power and importance, have possessed
in the
like other
men.
In ancient Babylonia
was only the
service of religion
which the eunuch
was forbidden
in
to enter.
Such was doubtless the case

light a curious
wife.
Egypt
also.
Egyptian research has brought to

parallel to the history of
It is
Joseph and Potiphar's
found in one of the
many
tales,
the equivalents
of the modern novel, in which the ancient Egyptians
The tale, which is usually known as that The Two Brothers,' was written by the scribe Enna for Seti II. of the nineteenth dynasty when he
delighted.
of
'
was
still
crown-prince, and
it
embodies the
folk-lore
of his native land.
Enna
lived
under Meneptah,
the probable Pharaoh of the Exodus, and his work
was thus contemporaneous with the events which

brought about the release of the
'house of bondage.'
Israelites
from their
How
it is
old the stories
may
be
upon which Here

is
it is
based
impossible for us to
tell.
Professor Erman's translation of the com:
mencement of the tale Once upon a time

'
there were two brothers, born

;
of one mother and of one father
the elder was
Anup, the younger Bata. sessed a house and had a wife,

called
Now Anup
pos-
whilst his younger
26
The Egypt of
the

as a son.
brother lived with
him
He
it
was who
fields,
wove
(?) for
him, and drove his cattle to the

;
who
all
ploughed and reaped
he
it
was who
directed
the business of the farm for him.

;
The younger
brother was a good (farmer)
the like of
whom
One
was
not to be found throughout the country.'
day
Anup
sent Bata from the field to the house to fetch

'
seed-corn.
said to
And
:
he sent
his
younger
brother,^ and
him
Hasten and bring
me
seed-corn from
the
the village.
And
his
younger brother found

Rise up, give
wife of his elder brother occupied in combing her

hair.
that
And he said to her I may return to the

said to
me
seed-corn
field, for
thus has
my
elder
brother enjoined
me, to return without
delaying,
chest, that
The woman
wise
him
fall
Go
in,
open the
thou mayst take what thine heart
desires, for other-
my
locks will
to the ground.
stable,
And
the
youth went within into the

a large vessel, for
seed-corn.
it
and took
thereout
was
his will to carry out
much
And
is
he loaded himself with wheat and

it.
dhurra and went out with
Then she
said to him
How
her
:
great
the burden in thy arms?
He
rest
said to
of
Two
measures of dhurra and three measures

five
wheat make together

arms.
'
measures which
on my
to
Thus he spake
to her.
But she spake
first
edition,
Brugsch's translation, Egypt under the Pharaohs, Eng. i. p. 266.
trans,
The Patriarchal Age

the youth and
said
:
27
How
.
great
is
thy strength
Well have
remarked thy power many a time.
And
and
her heart
laid
knew him.
And
she stood up
:
hold of him and said unto him

;
Come
let
us celebrate an hour's repose
the most beautiful

I
things shall be thy portion, for
will
prepare for
thee festal garments.
Then was
the youth like unto
the panther of the south for rage on account of the
wicked word which she had spoken to him.

she was afraid beyond
to her
all
But
like
measure.
And
he spoke
and
said
Thou, oh woman, hast been

so that he might have been
this great sin that
it
a mother to
me and
I,
thy husband like a father, for
he
is
older than
my
begetter.
Wherefore
thou hast
spoken unto me?

then will
shall
I
Say
not to
tell
it,
me
another time,
it
this
time not
and no word of
come out of
field.
my mouth
And
to
any man
at
all.
And
he loaded himself with his burden and went
out into the
he went to his elder brother,
and they completed

it
their day's work.
And when
to
was evening, the elder brother returned home
his house. his oxen,
And
his
younger brother followed behind

all
having laden himself with

field,
the good
things of the
and he drove
to the stable.
his
oxen before
behold the
him
to bring
them
And
wife of his elder brother
was
afraid because of the

jar of fat
word which she had spoken, and she took a
28
The Egypt of
like to
the
and was
one to
whom
an evil-doer had
offered
:
violence, since she wished to say to her
husband Thy
younger brother has offered
me
violence.
And
her
husband returned home at evening, according to his daily custom, and found his wife lying stretched out
and suffering from
his hands, as injury.
She poured no water

;
over
was her custom
she had not lighted
the lights for him, so that his house was in darkness,
and she lay there

her
:
ill.
And
:
her husband said

?
to
Who
She
has had to do with thee

said to
Lift thyself
up
him
No
one has had to do with
me
except thy younger brother, since when he came
to take seed-corn for thee, he found
me
sitting alone
and said
to me, "
:
Come,
let
us
!
make merry an
"
hour
to
and repose
let
down thy
hair "
Thus he spake
me am
like
but
I
did not listen to him (but said),

is
See
not thy mother, and
not thy elder brother

I
a father to thee?"
Thus
thee.
spoke to him,
but
he did not hearken to
my
tell
speech, but used force with
me
him
that
might not
I
Now
to
if
thou allow
to live
will kill
myself
rage like
it
'Then the elder brother began

hand.
panther: he sharpened his knife and took
in his
And
in the
the elder brother stood behind the door
of the stable in order to
back
kill the youth when he came evening to bring the oxen into the stable.
Now when
the sun was setting and he had laden
; : :
The Patriarchal Age

himself with
all
29
field,
the good things of the
accord-
ing to his custom, he returned (to the house).

his
And
cow
!
that
first
entered the stable said to him
Beware
there stands thy elder brother before thee

kill
with his knife in order to
thee
first
run away from

said.
him
So he heard what the

stable,
cow
Then
looked
feet of
the second entered and spake likewise.
He
under the door of the

his brother,
and saw the
who was
standing behind the door with
his knife in his hand.
He
threw his burden on the
ground and began to run away quickly.

brother ran after
His elder
him with
his knife in his hand.'
Ra, the sun-god, however, came to the help of the

innocent youth, and interposed a river
diles
full
of croco-
between him and his pursuer.
All night long
the two brothers stood on either side of the water
morning Bata convinced his brother that he had done no wrong, and reproached him for having Then he added believed that he could be guilty.
in the
'
Go home now and

I
see after thine
oxen
thyself,
for
will
no longer stay with
thee, but will
go
to
the acacia valley.'
So Anup returned
to his house,
put his wife to death, and sat there in solitude and

sadness.
Joseph, more fortunate than Bata, rose from his

prison to the highest office of state.
The dreams,
in full
through which
this
was accomplished, were
30
The Egypt of
the
keeping with the belief of the age.

In the days of the Pharaohs
Dreams
it
even
to-day play an important part in the popular
faith of
Egypt.
was the same.
Thothmes IV. cleared away the sand that had overwhelmed the Sphinx, and built a temple between its paws, in consequence of a dream in which RaHarmakhis had appeared to him when, wearied with hunting, he had lain down to sleep under the shadow
of the ancient monument.
thousand years
later
Nut-Amon
to
of Ethiopia was
into
summoned by
a dream
march
Egypt.
In Greek days, when the

fallen into ruin,
its
temple of Abydos had

established in
an oracle was
one of
it
deserted chambers, and
those
who
consulted
received their answers in the

to
'true dreams' that
came
them during
the night.
The dreams, however, needed

to explain them,
is
at times an interpreter
interpreter mention
and of such an
made
in a
Greek
inscription from the Serapeum
at
Memphis.
At
other times the dreamer himself

in
could interpret his vision by the help of the books
which the
signification of
dreams had been reduced two
to a science.
The dreams
of Pharaoh and
'
'
his
eunuchs,'
however, 'the chief butler' and

that could explain them.
'
the chief baker,' were
of a strange and novel kind, and there were no books
Even the magicians

'
'
and
wise
men
'
of
Egypt
failed to
understand the dream
The Patriarchal Age

of Pharaoh.
31
And
its
yet,
when the Hebrew
captive had
in the
pointed out
meaning, no doubt remained
mind of Pharaoh and his servants that he was right. From time immemorial the Nile had been likened to
a milch-cow, and the
over the
soil to
fertilising
water which
it
spread
life.
the milk that sustains

or
human
The cow-headed goddess Hathor

over the
fertility
Isis
watched
of Egypt.
It
was said of her that

time,'
she
'
caused the Nile to overflow at his due

great
and
the 'seven
Hathors' were the seven forms

In the seven kine,
under which she was worshipped.

accordingly,
river
'
which stood
'
upon the bank of the
the Egyptian readily saw the life-giving powers
of the Nile.
It
needed but the word of the Pharaoh to change

slave into
the
Hebrew
Semitic,
an Egyptian
ruler,
second
only to the monarch
itself.
His very name ceased to
be
and
even
henceforth
became
Zaphnath-
paaneah.
He
allied himself
with the exclusive
priesthood of Heliopolis or On, marrying Asenath, the daughter of the priest of Ra.
marriage, as well as by
position,
By name and
he was thus adopted
into the ranks of the native aristocracy.
Such changes of name are not unknown to the From time to time we meet with the inscriptions.
records of foreigners
valley of the Nile
who had
settled
and there received
down in the new names of
32
The Egypt of
origin.
the

a
Egyptian
Thus
in
momunent
the
found
at
Abydos
tells
us of a Canaanite from Bashan
called
of
Ben-Azan, who received
Egypt
new name
Yu-pa-a and was the father of a vizier of Meneptah, the
Pharaoh of the Exodus.

II.
The
Hittite wife of Ramses

the the
similarly adopted
an Egyptian name, and

in
tombstones of two Karians are preserved,
which
Karian names of the dead are written
in the letters
is
of the Karian alphabet, while a hieroglyphic text
attached which gives the Egyptian names they had
borne
in
Egypt.
The exact transcription in hieroglyphics of the Egyptian name of Joseph is still doubtful. But it
plain that
'
is
it
'
contains the Egyptain words pa-dnkh,
the
life,'
or
the living one,' which seem to be

ntz,
'
preis
ceded by the particle
of
The term pa-Ankh

seventeenth
sometimes applied to the Pharaoh, and

rnes,
since Kadynasty,
land,'
the last king

title
of
the
'
assumed the
it is
of Zaf-n-to,
nourisher of the
possible that in Zaphnath-paaneah
we may
of
see
an
Egyptian
Zaf-nti-pa-ankh,
final
'nourisher
the
Pharaoh.'
But the
solution
of the question
must be
It is
left to
future research.
raised before Joseph
now more easy to explain the cry which was when he went forth from the
of the
presence
around his
Pharaoh with the golden neck and the royal signet upon his
chain
finger.
The Patriarchal Age

'y4(5r^/^/'
33
they shouted before him, and an explana-
tion of
the
word has been

It
vainly'
is
sought
of
in
the
Egyptian
origin.
language.
the
really
Babylonian
In
primitive
'
non-Semitic language of
'
Chaldaea abrik signified

the term was borrowed
a seer
or
'
soothsayer,'
and
by the Semitic Babylonians

Joseph
seer,
under the two forms of abrikku and abarakku.
was thus proclaimed a
and
his exaltation
was
due
to his
power of foreseeing the

seer
future.
It
was as
of the
a divinely-inspired
that
the
subjects
Pharaoh were
to reverence him.
How
who
a Babylonian word like abrek came to be

it
used in Egypt
is
idle for
us to
inquire.
Those
believe in the late origin and fictitious character
of the story of Joseph would find an easy explanation of

it.
But easy explanations are not necessarily

anything
else.
true, either in archaeology or in
And
the
since
we now know
of
that Canaan, long before

fallen
time
Joseph,
had
under
Babylonian
influence, that the
Babylonian language and writing
were employed there, and that Babylonian words had
made
their
require
way into much stretch
the native idiom,
it
does not
of the imagination to suppose

also
that such words
may have
penetrated
to the
court of the Asiatic rulers of northern Egypt.

to the era of the Exodus,
Up
Egypt and Canaan were

connected with each
for several centuries as closely
34
The Egypt of
the

in
other as were England and the north of France the age of the
Normans and Plantagenets. The prosperity of Egypt depends upon

too
the
Nile.
If the river rises to
great a height during the

are
period of inundation, the

destroyed.
to
fill
autumn crops
damaged or
If,
on the other hand,
its rise is insufficient
the canals and basins, or to reach the higher

will
ground, the land remains unwatered, and nothing

grow.
Egypt,
in fact, is the gift of the Nile
let the
channel of the great river be diverted elsewhere, and

the whole country would at once become an
unin-
habited desert.
low Nile consequently brings with
it
a scarcity
of food.
When
provisions cannot be imported from
abroad, famine
is
the necessary result, and the popu-
lation perishes in thousands.
Such was the
case
in
the eleventh and twelfth centuries of our
era,
when
the inundation was deficient for several successive

years.
The Arabic
writers, El-Makrizi
and
Abd-elterrible
Latif, describe the
famines that ensued in
terms.
Abd-el-Latif was a witness of that which
lasted from A.D. 1200 to 1202,

it
and of the horrors
which
excre-
caused.
After eating grass, corpses, and even
ment, the wretched inhabitants of the country began

to devour one another.
Mothers were arrested

children,
in the
act of cooking their
own
and
it
was unsafe to
food,
walk
in the streets for fear
of being murdered for
The Patriarchal Age
35
lasted, like
The famine
1
described
by El-Makrizi
that of Joseph, for seven years, from A.D. 1064 to
07 1, and was similarly occasioned by a deficient
Nile.
hieroglyphic inscription, discovered in 1888

in
by Mr. Wilbour
notice
the island of Sehel, contains a
of another
famine
of seven
years,
which
Qccurred at an earlier date.

in the Cataract,
The
island of Sehel lies

Philae,
midway between Assouan and

is
and the
inscription
carved on a block of granite

It
is
and looks towards the south.

eighteenth year of a king,
the
dated in the
of
who was probably one
Ethiopian princes that reigned over southern

in the troublous
Egypt
age of the fourth and
fifth
Ptolemies.
it
According to Dr. Brugsch's
translation,
states that the king sent to the governor of

: '
Nubia
saying
those
am
sorrowing upon
my
high throne over

In sorrow
is
who belong
to the palace.
my
is
heart for the vast misfortune, because the Nile flood

in
my
time has not come for seven years.

;
Light
the grain
food.
there
is
lack of crops and of
all
kinds of
Each man has become a thief to his neighbour. They desire to hasten and cannot walk the child
;
cries,
the youth creeps along and the old
man
their
souls are
bowed down.
Their legs are bent together

their
and drag along the ground, and

their bosoms.
hands
rest in
The
counsel of the great ones of the
court
is
but emptiness.
Torn open are the
chests of
36
The Egypt of
the

of contents
there
is
air.
provisions,
but instead
is
Everything
declare
exhausted.'
The
text then goes on
to
how Khnum
the Creator
came
to the help of
to
the
Pharaoh, and caused the Nile once more

In
return for
this
inundate the lands.
the
king
gave the
priests
of
Khnum
of
all
at Elephantine twenty side
miles of river bank on
either
of the
island)
together
country.
with
tithes
the
produce of
the
Dr. Brugsch has brought
to
light
yet
another belongs
of
record of a famine in
to an older period.
Upper Egypt which
Among
is
the rock-cut tombs
El-Kab, where the princes of Thebes held

in the
their court
days of the Hyksos,
one which commemo-
rates the
name
of a certain Baba.
The name
occurs
of
elsewhere at El-Kab, and was that of the father

'
Captain Ahmes,' whose tomb

there,
is
one of the most
interesting
assisted
and who,
in
his youthful days,

in driving
Ahmes
of the eighteenth dynasty
the
Hyksos from
'
their last fortress in Egypt.
Baba
enumerates his wealth and
adds
When
a famine arose, lasting

city.'
many good deeds, and many years,

I
issued out corn to the

It
may
is
be that the famine here referred to

All
is
the
of
famine of Joseph.
we know about
the date
Baba
that he lived in the age of the Hyksos.
If he
in
flourished before the
war of independence and
The Patriarchal Age
37
days when the authority of the Hyksos Pharaoh was

still
paramount
in
Upper Egypt, we should have

famine of which he
good reason
for believing that the
speaks was the same as that described in Genesis.
One
of the results of the latter was that the Egyptians
parted with their lands and stock to Joseph, so that

henceforth they became the tenants of the Pharaoh,
to
whom
they paid a
is
fifth
of
all
their produce.
If
this
statement
historical,
the
administration
of
Joseph must have extended from one end of Egypt

to the other.
like
'
His Hyksos master must have been
Apopi, of
whom
the Sallier Papyrus
tells
us that
the entire country paid
him
tribute, together
with
its
manufactured products, and so loaded him with

the good things of Egypt.'
all
The account
in
of Joseph's famine, however, betrays

later date.
one respect a sign of
The famine
But a famine
is
said to have extended to Caanan.
in
Egypt and a famine

same
cause,
in
Caanan were not due
to the
and the
effect
failure of the waters of the Nile
would have no
upon the crops of
Palestine.
In
Canaan
it
was the want of rain, not of the inundation
of the Nile, which produced a failure of corn.
We
hear from time to time, in the inscriptions, of corn being sent
from Egypt to Syria, but
it
was when
there was plenty on the banks of the Nile and a

scarcity of rain on the Syrian coast.
The Hebrew
38
The Egypt of
the
writer has regarded the history of the past from a
purely Asiatic rather than an Egyptian point of view,
Joseph must have entered Egypt when

still
it
was
under Hyksos domination.

(Gen. xv. 13)
is
The promise made

in a
;
to
Abraham
is
very explicit: 'Know
of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
land that
not
theirs,
and
shall serve
them
and
they shall
explicit
(xii.
is
afflict
them
four hundred years.'
Equally
the statement of the book of Exodus

of
40,
41): 'The sojourning of the children

in
it
Israel
who dwelt
Egypt was
came
all
four hundred and
thirty years.
And
and
to pass at the
end of
the
four hundred
it
thirty years, even the self-same day
came
to pass, that
the hosts of the Lord went
out from the land of Egypt'

the length of a generation
Here
thirty years
are added to the

If the
four hunafflicted
dred during which the Israelites were to be

in
the land of the foreigner.
Exodus
took
place in the latter years of the nineteenth dynasty

and, as
we
shall see, the

it
Egyptian monuments
forbid
thirty
our placing
elsewhere
the four hundred and
years of the Biblical narrative bring us to the begin-
ning of the
It
is
last
Hyksos dynasty.
also
a curious fact that Egyptian history
knows of an epoch of four hundred years which covers almost the same period as the four hundred
years of Genesis.
Mariette Pasha,
when
excavating
The Patriarchal Age

at San, the ancient Zoan, found a stela
39
been erected
officers,
in the reign of
Ramses
to
II.
which had by one of his
the governor of the Asiatic frontier.

visit
The
stela
commemorates a
San made by the

'
governor, on the fourth day of the

in the four
hundredth year of
the king of
month Mesori, Upper

Since
and Lower Egypt, Set-aa-pehti, the son of the
Sun who loved him,

was the Hyksos
or Set-Nubti
also
named
is
Set-Nubti.'
Set or Sutekh was the god of the Hyksos, while San

capital,
it
clear that Set-aa-pehti

rule
was a Hyksos prince who claimed
over the whole of Egypt, and with

era
whom
a Hyksos
commenced.
Professor
Maspero and Dr. de

have been
is
Cara consider the prince

really the
in question to
this,
god Sutekh himself;
however,
not
the natural interpretation of the
titles
assigned to
him, and
it is
not improbable that Professor Wiedein
mann
is
right
identifying
him with a
mentioned
certain
Hyksos
This
Pharaoh,
Set-[Nub
?]ti,
on
monument
latter
discovered by Mariette at Tel-Mokdam.
Pharaoh
is
entitled 'the
good god, the
Upper and Lower Egypt, the son of the Sun, beloved by Sutekh, the lord of Avaris.' But whether or not the Hyksos Pharaoh of Telstar of
Mokdam is the same as Set-Nubti of San, it would seem probable that the era connected with his name
marked the
rise
of the last Hyksos dynasty.
Accord-
40
The Egypt of
the

Saites,
ing to Eusebius, the leader of this dynasty was a
name which reminds
us of Set-aa-[pehti].
Eusebius
makes the length of the dynasty 103 years, but Africanus, a more trustworthy authority, gives it as This would assign the rise of the seven151 years.
teenth dynasty, the last of Hyksos
B.C. rule,
to about
1720, a date which agrees very well with that
of the
monument
of S&n.^
The Exodus
B.C.
of the
Israelites, if it
took place in the reign of Meneptah, 1270 (or

II.,
would have happened about

if it
B.C.
1250,
occurred in the reign of Seti

;
as Professor
Maspero maintains)
1700 (or 1680).
in this case the
430 years
of
sojourning in the land of Egypt brings us to
B.C.
This would be about twenty
years
after the establishment of the last
Hyksos
line of
Pharaohs, and one hundred and thirty years

the foundation of the eighteenth dynasty.
before
Joseph
would thus have been
vizier
of the country long
before the war of independence broke out, and there
would have been time

lived
in
abundance
for
him
to have
and died before
his friends
and protectors were
driven from the land they had so long occupied.

Chronologically, therefore, the Biblical narrative
' Ramses n. reigned from B.C. 1348 to 1281 ; if the stela of S^n had been erected in the twenty-eighth year of his reign, four hundred years would take us back to B.C. 1720. The Syrian wars were con eluded by the treaty with the Hitlites in the twenty-first year of ii!
reign.
The Patriarchal Age

fits
41
in
with the requirements of Egyptian history,

to
and allows us
see
in
the
Hebrew
captive the
powerful minister of a race of kings who, like himself,
had come from the highlands of Asia. But it must be remembered that it was only in the north
of Egypt that
Hyksos
rule
made
itself
actually
visible to the eyes of the people.
Southern Egypt
was nominally governed by

they did not assume the
its
native princes, though
title
of king or Pharaoh.
They were
hiqu, 'hereditary chieftains,' the last re-
presentatives of the royal families of earlier days.
They acknowledged
and El-Kab.
the supremacy of the
Hyksos
Pharaoh, and tribute was sent to him from Thebes
Though Memphis,
the
ancient
capital
of the
country, was in the hands of the strangers, Zoan,
the Tanis of classical geography, was

seat of
rather the
Hyksos power.
it,
Protected by the marshes
which surrounded
Zoan, the modern San, lay on
the eastern side of the Delta at no great distance
from the frontier of Asia and the great Hyksos

fortress of Avaris.
Philistines,'
From
is
Zoan, the
in
'
road of the
as
it
called
the
Pentateuch, ran
almost in a straight line to Pelusium and the south

of Palestine, skirting on one side the Mediterranean
Sea,
and leaving
on
to the right the lofty fortress-rock
of
El-Arish
the
waterless
'
river
of
Egypt'
42
The Egypt of
the
Tanis had existed in the days of the Old Empire,

but either the Hyksos conquest or earlier invasions
had caused
in ruins.
it
to decay,
and when the Hyksos
court
was established there
its
ancient temple was already
The
restoration of the city
was due
memorials
the
to
the
Hyksos
kings,
who have
left in
it
of
themselves.
of Gizeh,
The Hyksos sphinxes in on one of which the name
Museum
is
of Apopi
engraved, were found there by Mariette, as well
as
a curious group of two persons with enormous wigs

holding
it
'
fish
and water-fowl
in
their laps.
(xlii.
When
22) that
it
is
is
stated in the
book of Numbers
Hebron was
meant.
built seven years before Zoan,'
probable that the building of Zoan by the Shepherd

kings
is
In journeying from southern Palestine to Zoan,
Jacob and his sons had no very long distance

traverse.
to
Nor had they

Egyptian
to
pass through a long
tract of
its
territory.
From
the desert, with
roving bands of kindred Bedouin, to the Pharaoh's
court at Zoan, was hardly
more than a day's
journey.
There was
little
fear that the Semitic traveller would
meet with
fellahin
insult or opposition
from the Egyptian
on the way.
to
The
fellahin themselves were
doubtless then, as now,

it
mixed with Semitic elements

in order to
was needful
go westward of Zoan
find
Egyptians of pure blood.
The Patriarchal Age
43
Nor was the land of Goshen, the modern Wadi Tumilit, far from the Hyksos capital. It lay to
the south of Zoan, on the banks of a canal whose
course
is
Lesseps.
now marked by the Freshwater Canal of The tourist who takes the train from
The
tradition that here
to
his
Ismailiyeh to Zagazig traverses the whole length of

the land of Goshen. the territory assigned
was
by Joseph
brethren
lingered long into the Christian centuries, and had
been revived by more than one Egyptologist

years.
in later
But the question was
finally settled
by Dr.
for the
Naville,
and the excavations he undertook
Egypt Exploration Fund. In 1883 he disinterred the remains of Pa-Tum, or Pithom, one of the two
'
store-cities
'
which the children of
Israel
were forced
to build.
uteh,
'
the
to the
The ruins are now known as Tel el-Maskhmound of the Statue,' about twelve miles south-east of Ismailiyeh, and the monuments
discovered there show that the Pharaoh for

the city was built was
whom
Ramses
il.
There was more
than one Pa-Tum, or temple-city of the Sun-god of

the evening, and the
referred
Pa-Tum
of
of the eastern Delta
is
to
in
papyri
the nineteenth
dynasty.
Thus, in the eighth year of
Meneptah
II.,
an
official
report speaks of the passage
of certain
Shasu or
Bedouin from
of
Edom
through the frontier-fortress

'
Thukut
or Succoth, to
the pools of the city of
44
The Egypt of
the

district
Pa-Tum
of Meneptah-hotep-hir-ma, in the
of Thukut.'
In 1884 Dr. Naville excavated, at Saft el-Henneh,
an ancient mound close to the railway between

Zagazig and Tel el-Kebir.
in the discovery that Saft
His excavations
resulted
site
el-Henneh marks the
of the ancient
Qesem
or
Qos (Pha-kussa
in
the the
Greek geographers), the capital of the noma of

Egyptian Arabia.
Qesem corresponds
in
exactly with
the
Geshem, which represents
the
Septuagint
fact
Hebrew Goshen, and

Egyptian Jews, to
points to the
that the
whom
the Greek translation of

Biblical
the Old Testament was due, recognised in the
Goshen the Qeshem of Egyptian geography.
The
it
district
immediately around Saft el-Henneh
is fertile,
but the
name
of the Egyptian Arabia which
once bore shows unmistakably
who
its cultivators
must have been.
They were
like
the Semitic nomads
from the East who,
their descendants to-day,
occasionally settled on the frontier-lands of Egypt,
and became more or

But the
leading a
larger
less
unwilling agriculturists,
shepherds,
part of
life
them remained
nomad
with their flocks and camels,
and pitching
the
desert
their tents
wherever the monotony
of
was broken by water and

into
vegetation.
The Wadi Tumiiat,
which the
district of Saft
for
el-Henneh opened, was thus eminently suited
The Patriarchal Age

the residence of the
45
Hebrew Bedouin.
Here they
had food
for their flocks, plenty of space for their
camping-grounds, and freedom from interference on

the part of the Egyptians, while in the background
was a
capital,
fertile
district,
in close connection with the
where those of them who cared to exchange

life
a pastoral for an agricultural

to
could find rich
soil
sow and
cultivate.
Hard by Zagazig
the
are the
mounds of the
ancient
Bubastis, and here the excavations carried on by
Egypt Exploration Fund have brought

Bubastis, therefore,
to light
remains of the Hyksos Pharaohs, including one of
Apopi.
must have been a Hyksos
residence, kings.
Bailos,
and
its
temple was adorned by the Hyksos
Between Bubastis and Heliopolis stood Pa-
and of
this
town Meneptah
II.
says at Thebes
left
that
'
the country around was not cultivated, but
as pasture for cattle because of the strangers, having
been abandoned since the times of old.'

proof can
truth
we have
that the
What better Arabian nome was in

is
what the land of Goshen
represented to be
By
a curious coincidence, the
Wadi
Tumil^t, the
old land of Goshen, has, in the present century, again
been handed over to Bedouin and Syrians, and again been the scene of an Exodus.
Mohammed
Ali was
anxious to establish the culture of the silk-worm in
Egypt, and accordingly planted mulberry-trees
in
46
the
The Egypt of
the
Wadi
Tumilat, and settled there a large colony
of Syrians and Bedouin.
The Bedouin were
in-
duced to remain
there, partly
vided for their flocks,

tion
by the pasturage propartly by a promise of exemp-
from taxes and military conscription. When Abbas Pasha became Khedive, however, the promise was forgotten orders were issued that the free
;
Bedouin of the Wadi Tumilat should be

like the enslaved fellahin,
treated
tax-
compelled to pay the
gatherer,
and to see
their children driven in handcuffs
and with the courbash

single
night, without
to serve in the army.
But
in a
the orders were never carried out.
Suddenly,
noise or warning, the whole

their huts,
Bedouin population deserted

their flocks
and with
into
and other possessions disappeared
the eastern desert.
The Pasha
lost his slaves, the
culture of the silk-worm ceased,
and when the Freshre-
water Canal was cut not a single mulberry-tree

mained.
In
the
land
of Goshen, the Israelitish
settlers
throve and
multiplied.
'
But a time came when
new king
arose
which knew not Joseph,' and when
the descendants of Jacob seemed to the Egyptians
a source of danger.
century,
free-born
slaves,
Like Abbas Pasha

determined
the
to
in a later
the
Pharaoh
reduce
of
the
Israelites
into
condition
public
and by every means
in his
power
to diminish
The Patriarchal Age

their
47
number.
The male
to
children
were destroyed,
at the
cities
the adults
compelled
labour
in
the
Egyptian monarch was building
their neighbour-
hood, and the land in which they lived was sur-
rounded by Egyptian garrisons and controlled by Egyptian officers.
The
slaves,
however, succeeded in escaping from
their 'house of bondage.'
Under the
leadership of
Moses they made
their
way
into the eastern desert,
and received, at Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea, the laws

which were henceforth to govern them.
sent to pursue
The army
waters
left
them was swallowed up
in the
of the sea, and the district they had occupied was

desolate.
A variety of reasons had led

belief that in the
Egyptologists to the
Pharaoh of the Oppression we were

II.
probably to see Ramses
Ramses
story,
11.,
the Sesostris
third king
and Osymandyas of Greek
was the
of the nineteenth dynasty, and one of the most striking figures of Egyptian history.
His long reign of
sixty-seven years was the evening of Egyptian greatness.
With
XIV.
his death the
age of Egyptian conquests

in.
passed away, and the period of decay set
Like
Louis
ancient
of
France,
the grattd
in his
monarque of
Egypt exhausted
it
wars the resources
and fighting population of his country.
But
was as a builder rather than
as a conqueror
48
that
The Egypt of
the
Ramses
II.
was famous.
Go where we
will in
Egypt
left
or Nubia,
we
is
find traces of his architectural
activity.
There
name.
hardly a place where he has not
his
His whole reign must have been

cities
occupied with the construction of
and
temples,
or the restoration and enlargement of previously exist-
ing ones, and, in spite of
its
length,
it
is
difficult to
understand
how
so vast an
amount of work
could
have been accomplished

work, however,
fact,
is
in the time.
;
Much
it
of the
poor and scamped
bears, in
it
marks of the
feverish haste with which
was
is
carried through.
Much
of
its
it,
on the other hand,
grandiose and striking in
colossal proportions and
boldness of design.
at the
The
shattered granite colossus

feet in height,
Ramesseum, once nearly sixty
the fragment of a standing figure of granite found by

Professor Flinders Petrie at S^n, which must originally
have been over a hundred
feet high, the great hall

in
of columns at Karnak, the temple of Abu-Simbel
Nubia, are
all
so
many witnesses
of vast conceptions
a
successfully realised.
Abu-Simbel, indeed, where
mountain has been hollowed into a temple, and a

carved into the likeness of four sitting
cliff
figures, each
with an unrivalled expression of divine calm upon

its
countenance, justly claims to be one of the wonders
of the world.
Apart from the
colossal proportions of so
many
of
The Patriarchal Age

them, the buildings of Ramses
another
trait.
II.
49
are distinguished
by
They were
erected to the glory of the

It is
Pharaoh rather than of the gods.

titles
the
name and
of
Ramses
notice,
that everywhere force themselves
upon our
and often constitute the chief decora-
tion of the
monument.
all
He must
have been vainfilled
glorious above
other kings of Egypt,
with
the pride of his

his
own power and the determination that name should never be forgotten upon the earth. It is not strange, therefore, that Ramses II. should
in
be the most prominent figure

history.
ancient
Egyptian
of his
His name and the shattered

triumphs force
relics
architectural
themselves
upon the
His long
attention of the traveller wherever he goes.

reign, moreover,
was a period of great
literary activity, literary
and a considerable portion of the
papyri
his
which have survived to us was written during

lifetime.
He
rule
was, furthermore, the last of the con;
quering Pharaohs
the last of the
Theban monarchs
mountains
of
whose
was obeyed
from the
southern frontiers of Ethiopia.
Lebanon and the plateau of the Hauran to the With his death the
skill
empire, which had been founded by the military
and energy of the kings of the eighteenth dynasty, began to pass away. His son and successor, Meneptah, had to struggle for bare existence against an invasion
of barbarian hordes, and the sceptre dropped from
50
The Egypt of
the

II.,
the feeble hands of Seti
who next
followed, into
those of rival kings.

in
The
nineteenth dynasty ended

:
the midst of
civil
war and foreign attack
for
a while
Egypt submitted to the rule of a Syrian stranger, and when Setnekht, the founder of the twentieth dynasty, restored once more the native line
of kings, he found a ruined and impoverished country,
scarcely able to protect itself from hostile assault.
But the age of the twentieth dynasty was

distant
still
when Jacob and
his
sons
journeyed
into
Egypt, or even when his descendants, under
the
leadership of Moses, succeeded in escaping from the
land of their slavery.
Before that age arrived more

the
than one revolution was destined to pass over

valley of the Nile, which
had momentous consequences
for the foreign settlers in Goshen.
The Hyksos
were
driven back into Asia, and a united Egypt once
more obeyed the
rule of a native Pharaoh.
north to the south.
But the centre of power had been shifted from the Memphis and Zoan had to make
for
way
Thebes, and
it is
probable that the monarchs
of the eighteenth dynasty, under
whom Egypt
re-
covered
veins.
its
independence, had Nubian blood
in their
life was breathed into the ancient kingdom of Menes, and for the first time in its history Egypt became a great military power. The war was transferred from the Delta to Asia itself;
A new
The Patriarchal Age
51
Canaan and Syria were conquered, and an Egyptian

empire established, which extended as
Euphrates.
far as
the
With
this
empire
ideas,
in
Asia, however,
beliefs.
came
Asiatic
influences,
and
The
of
Pharaohs intermarried with the

Asia, and
Asiatic.
little
royal
families
revolution.
nineteenth
senting
foreigner
by little their court became semiThen followed reaction and counterA new king arose the founder of the dynasty who knew not Joseph,' repre-
'
the
national
antagonism
to
the
Asiatic
and
his religious faith.

;
For a while the
Asiatic
was proscribed
and the expulsion of the

effected in the
stranger and his religion, which Arabi endeavoured

to effect in our time,
was successfully
fall
troublous days which saw the
of the eighteenth
dynasty.
Israelites
In this war against the hated Asiatic the
were
involved
their
children
were de-
stroyed
lest
they should multiply, and they them-
selves were degraded into public slaves.
We
have
result,
now
and
to trace the events

to
which led to such a
show how the
political history
of Egypt was
the ultimate cause of the Israelitish Exodus.
CHAPTER
II
THE AGE OF MOSES
On
to
the eastern bank of the Nile, about midway

traveller
between Minieh and Assiout, the
from Cairo
are
Assouan passes a
to
line of
mounds which
Tel
is
known
name
the
by the name of Tel el-Amarna.

given
the
artificial
the
mounds which
cover
remains of ancient
cities,
while el-Amarna denotes
the Bedouin tribe of Beni-Amran whose descendants

inhabit the district in which the line of
mounds
is
is
found.
strip
Between the mounds and the Nile

of bank, green
fertile
with corn in the winter and

lofty palms.
spring,
and shaded with groves of
On
in
the other side of
them
is
a tawny desert plain, shut
by an amphitheatre of
lead through
hills.
The
limestone
cliffs
of
the latter are broken in three places, where ravines
them
to the
Arabian plateau beyond.

;
The
central ravine
is
short and rugged

its
that to the
north, however,
though
lofty walls of rock
seem
at
times almost to meet, eventually carries the explorer
by a slow ascent
into
the heart
of the
Arabian
The Age of Moses

desert.
53
About three miles from its mouth, and in a tomb has lately been discovered of the founder of the city, of which the mounds of Tel el-Amarna are now the sole representatives. The tomb is worthy of the monarch for whom it was inside-valley, the
tended.
is
In the distant solitude of the desert gorge,
it
cut deep into the solid rock.
Steps
first
convey the
visitor
downwards
is
to the
huge door of the sepulchre.

which the body
within which
Within
a broad sloping passage, to the right of

in
which are the sculptured chambers
of one of the Pharaoh's daughters once rested, while

at the
end of
it
is
a vast columned
hall,
the sarcophagus of the Pharaoh himself was placed.
The Pharaoh had been named by his father, Amenophis III., after himself, but Amenophis IV.
had not long mounted the throne before he gave
himself
as
new name, and was

'the
henceforth
Solar
known
Disk.'
Khu-n-Aten,
Glory of the
The
change of name was the outward sign and
token of a religious revolution.
The king
and
publicly
renounced the ancient religion of Egypt, of which

he
was
the
official
representative,
declared
himself a convert to an Asiatic form of
faith.
The
very
name
of
Amon,
the supreme god of Thebes and
of the royal family to which Khu-n-Aten belonged,
was proscribed, and erased from the monuments

wherever
it
occurred.
In the temples and tombs and
54
The Egypt of
alike
it
the

;
quarries
was defaced
even the name of

it,
the king's
spared.
own
father,
which contained
was not
When
the
arm of
the persecutor was thus
extended to the written and sculptured monument, we cannot suppose that the adherents of the ancient
cult
ful
would be treated with a gentle hand. was not long before the Pharaoh and the powerhierarchy of Thebes were at open war. But the
It
priesthood
proved
too
strong for the king.
He
quitted the capital of his fathers and built himself a
new
city farther north.
It is
the site of this city
which is now covered by the mounds of Tel el-Amarna.
Towards the northern

Professor Flinders Petrie.
side of
it
rose the palace
of the Pharaoh, whose ruins have been explored by

It
was one of the most
gorgeous edifices ever erected by man.
The
walls
and columns were

and painting.
Petrie, the art
inlaid with gold
and bronze and
stones of various colours, and adorned with statuary
Even the
floors
were frescoed
and,
if
we may judge from

and animals and
perfection
fish
the one discovered by Professor

order.
it
was of the highest

depicted on
The
plants
a
to
are
drawn with
seem
and a truthfulness
to nature which
belong to the nineteenth century of our era rather

than to the fifteenth century before Christ.
The
palace,
public offices of the government adjoined the
and around
it
were the houses of the nobles
The Age of Moses
S S
and
officers
of the court.
They
too reflected the

palace,
gay and
brilliant
adornment of the royal

frescoes,
life.
and
the
their walls
were enlivened by
which repre-
sented the scenes of every-day

public offices
Among
to
was the archive-chamber,

state
which the
documents of
engaged
had been transferred from Thebes,

where scribes were busily
as well as the foreign office,

in
correspondence with the governors of the
Asiatic provinces of the empire and the princes of

foreign states.
In the centre of the city rose the great temple of
new object of the Pharaoh's adoration. Though the name was Egyptian, the deity and his cult were alike of Asiatic origin. The
Aten, the solar disk, the
Aten,
in fact, to
whom
the temple had been reared,
was the Asiatic Baal.

visible manifestation
He was
the Sun-god, whose
was the
solar disk.
But
all
it
was
a Sun-god
who was not only supreme
over
other
gods
they were absorbed into him, and existed only
in so far as
is
he endowed them with divine
life.
It
thus that Aten-Ra, the solar disk of the Sun-god,
is
addressed by the Pharaoh's queen

Sun, thou living god, there
!
'
Thou
disk
of the
is
none other
of Khu-nin
beside thee
Thou
givest health to the eyes through

all
thy beams. Creator of

Aten's
officers,
:
things
'
One
on the walls of
'
his
tomb, speaks
similar terms
Thou,
god,
who
in truth art the
56
The Egypt of
the

two
eyes.
living one, standest before the
Thou
art
he which Greatest what never was, which formest

all things we also have come into being through the word of thy mouth.' The new faith of Egypt was a combination of
everything, which art in
the worship of Baal with the philosophic conceptions
which had gathered round the worship of

at Heliopolis.
the
Egyptian Sun-god, Ra,

of Baal had lost
its
The
worship
grossness,
and been
refined into
a form of monotheism.
essentially pantheistic
;
But the monotheism was

there was, indeed, but one
god
to
whom
adoration was paid, but he was uni-
versally diffused throughout nature.
The
personal
dis-
character of the Asiatic
Baal seems to have
appeared
in the
Aten worship of Egypt.

religion
Along with the new

of
art.
Asiatic artists and
came a new style workmen manufactured
the variegated glass and bright-coloured porcelain of Tel el-Amarna, or discarded the conventionalism of Egyptian art in their delineation of animal and
vegetable
life,
while architecture
branched out
in
new
directions,
and the sculptor exaggerated the

the
king's
peculiarities
of
personal
to break
appearance.
Every
effort, in fact,
was made
art
away from
associ-
the past, and from the mannerisms and traditions

of Egyptian
art.
That
had been closely
ated with the ancient religion of the country, and
The Age of Moses

with the change of religion came a change in
things
else.
57
all
The
causes
of
the change
can
now
it
in
great
to
measure be traced.
To some
extent
was due
the character of the king himself
plaster cast
of his face, taken immediately after death, has been
found by Professor Petrie, and

of what the
is
an eloquent witness
It is
man
himself was
like.
the face
of a philosopher and a mystic, of one whose interest

lay rather in the problems of religious belief than
in the affairs of state.
In studying
it
we
feel
that
the
man
But
to
whom
it
belonged was destined to be
a religious reformer.
by the training and education which Khu-n-Aten had received. His

this destiny
was
assisted
mother, Teie, bore a foremost part in the introduction
of the cult of Aten.
woman
of strong character,
She must have been a and her influence over

If,
her son must also have been great.
as
is
probable,
Khu-n-Aten was very young when he ascended

the throne, the religious reform he endeavoured to
effect
must have been

the
in great
measure
his mother's
work.
That she had aroused deep
feelings of hatred
among
Though
adherents of the older creed
may
be
gathered from the condition of Khu-n-Aten 's tomb.

the body of the Pharaoh was despoiled, and
in
the sarcophagus
which
it
rested
shattered
into
The Egypt of
the

in
fragments, they had nevertheless been deposited
the sepulchre that had been constructed to receive
them.
But no
trace of the queen-mother's
mummy
for her,
has been met with, and the corridor in the royal
tomb, which seems to have been excavated
has never been finished, any more than the two or

three tombs which were cut in the immediate neigh-
bourhood.
After the death of her son. Queen Teie
seems to have found no protector from the vengeance

of her enemies.
It
is
probable that Teie was of Asiatic

it
birth,
though no certain proof of
has yet been found.
Her husband, Amen6phis
III.,
was fond of connecting
himself by marriage with the royal houses of Asia,
and more than one of the wives who occupied

secondary rank
in the
Pharaoh's household were
of
Asiatic extraction.
His own mother had' been an
Asiatic princess, the daughter of the king of Mitanni,
the
Aram-Naharaim of the Old Testament.
From
well
IV.
Mitanni also had come two of his own wives, as

as the wife of his son
and successor, Amenophis
(Khu-n-Aten).
There
is
little
room
for
wonder
that,
with
their
later
Asiatic proclivities and half- Asiatic descent, the
Pharaohs of the eighteenth dynasty should have
sur-
rounded themselves with Asiatic
officials
and
courtiers.
III.
The conquest
of Western Asia by
Thothmes
had
The Age of Moses

brought Asiatic fashions into Egypt.
self,
59
Thothmes him-
on the walls of
his
temple at Karnak, shows the
spirit
of an Asiatic rather than of an Egyptian con-
queror.
The
inscriptions engraved
upon them
differ
wholly from those which usually adorn the walls of
an Egyptian temple.
There are no
praises or lists
of the gods, no description of the offerings
them, no interminable catalogue of the

of the Pharaoh
like
;
made to empty titles
we
have, on the contrary, a business-
account of his campaigns, much of it copied from memoranda of the scribes who accompanied the army on its march. It reads like an inscription on
the the walls of an
Assyrian palace rather than one

It
is,
belonging to an Egyptian temple.

unique, the solitary
in
fact,
example of a
of
historical
text
which the great monuments of Egypt have bequeathed to

us.
It
is,
itself,
an eloquent
testi-
mony
to
the
influence
which
Asia
had already
placed
the
acquired in the valley of the Nile.
The conquests
of
Thothmes
III.
northern boundary of the Egyptian empire at the
banks of the Euphrates.
The kingdoms
to the east,
including Assyria, offered tribute to the Egyptian
monarch, and those of northern Syria and Eastern Farther south, Asia Minor paid him homage.
and the land of the Amorites, which lay to the north of Palestine, became Egyptian
Palestine, Phoenicia,
6o
The Egypt of
the
by Egyptian troops and adofficers. Even the country beyond the Jordan, Bashan and the Haur&n, formed
provinces, garrisoned
ministered by Egyptian
part of the Egyptian empire.
In
many
cases the native princes were

affairs
left
to
manage the
controlled
of their several states, like the
protected princes of
modern
'
India, but they were
by
'
commissioners
sent from the valley
of the Nile.
More
frequently their place was taken
by Egyptian governors, a very considerable number of whom, however, were of Canaanitish descent.
This, indeed,
is
one of the most remarkable

in
facts
;
connected with the Egyptian empire
Asia
it
was governed
for the
Pharaoh by natives rather than

this
by Egyptians.
n-Aten Egypt
stranger.
filled
But
itself
was not
all.
Under KhuAsiatic
was invaded by the

places
The high
about the court were

their
with foreigners whose names proclaim

;
Canaanitish origin
even the Vizier was called Dudu,
the Biblical Dodo, to which the

akin.
name
cult
of David
is
The
adherents
of
the
of
Aten who
gathered round the Pharaoh at Tel el-Amarna seem

largely to have belonged to Asia instead of Egypt.
Even
the
official
language and writing were of

that of Babythe
Asiatic derivation.
lonia, the script
The language was

script
was the cuneiform syllabary of
same country.
The Babylonian
and language
The Age of Moses
6i
were used from the banks of the Euphrates to those

of the Nile.
They were
the
common medium
of
intercourse throughout the civilised world.
It is in
these that an Egyptian official writes to his master,
and
it
is
again in these that the reply

office.
is
sent from
the Egyptian foreign
The
fact
is
a very surprising one, but recent
discoveries have tended to explain
remote epoch Babylonian armies
At a had made
it.
very
their
way
to the west,
and Palestine was a province of

it
Babylonia long before
became a province of Egypt.

deep-seated
influence
The long-continued and

Babylonia brought to
of the Babylonian
it
of
the culture and civilisation
cities.
The Babylonian system

language of
in
of writing formed a very important element in this
ancient
culture,
it
and, along with the
which
was the expression, took deep root
Western Asia.
ployed there
each
district
How
may
long
it
continued to be em-
be gathered from the fact that

its
of Western Asia developed
own
peculiar form of cuneiform script.
All this
in 1887 in
we have learned from a discovery made the mounds of Tel el-Amarna. Among
the ruins of the foreign office of Khu-n-Aten, which
adjoined the royal palace, thefellahin found a collection
of clay tablets
inscribed
with
cuneiform
or
wedge-shaped characters.
They turned
out to be
62
The Egypt of
the

his
the foreign correspondence of Khu-n-Aten and

father.
When Khu-n-Aten
quitted Thebes he took
with him the archives of his father, and to these
were subsequently added the

himself received.
official letters
which he
Altogether, about three hundred tablets were

covered.
.
dis-
But no one was on the spot who could appreciate their value, and, owing to a series of deplorable accidents, several of them were injured or
destroyed
before
they
fell
into
European
hands.
Eighty-two found their way to the British Museum, more than i6o fragments are at Berlin, the Gizeh
Museum
The
light
possesses 56, and a few are in the hands of
private individuals.
tablets
have thrown a new and unexpected

past.
on the history of the
To
find that the
language and script of Babylonia were the common
medium of
was
literary
and
official
intercourse through-
out Western Asia in the century before the Exodus

sufficiently startling
this
;
it
was much more
startling
to find that
literary era.
early period
was emphatically
Letters passed to and fro along the

trifling
high-roads upon the most
subjects,
and a
constant correspondence was maintained between the

court of the Pharaoh and the most distant parts of
Western
Asia.
The Bedouin
chiefs
beyond
the
Jordan send
letters
protesting their loyalty to the
The Age
oj
Moses
63
their forces
Egyptian monarch, and declaring that

were at
his
disposal
the vassal-king of Jerusalem
begs for help from Egypt to protect him against his

personal enemies
;
the governors of Phoenicia and
the land of the Amorites describe the threatening

attitude of the Hittites in the north
;
the king of
Mitanni or Aram-Naharaim dwells with pride on his

relationship to the ruler
of the Egyptian empire
while the kings of Assyria and Babylonia ask that
gold
may
be sent them from Egypt, where

'
it
is
as
plentiful as
the dust,' or discuss questions of interor
national
policy
commercial
interest.
We
our
are
suddenly transported to a world much
like
own
a world in which education
is
widely spread, where
schools and scholars abound, and libraries and archive-
chambers
exist.
The
It
nature of the cuneiform system of writing

itself indicate that
would of
schools were numerous.
to learn.
was a system which was extraordinarily difficult Unlike the hieroglyphs of Egypt, no assist-
ance was afforded to the
memory by any resemblance

;
between the characters and external objects

the Chinese characters
like
of
to-day,
they consisted
lines or
merely of groups of conventionally arranged

wedges.
the
Like the Egyptian hieroglyphs, however,

characters
number of
was extremely
large,
and
each character not only represented more than one
64
The Egypt of
the
it
phonetic value, but
could also be used ideographic-
ally to express ideas.
Thus the same
character
may
nat,
not only represent the phonetic values kur, mat,

lat,
'
sat,
and gin
'
it
may
also denote the ideas of

'
country,'
all.
mountain,' and
conquest.'
But
this
was
not
The
original picture-writing out of which
the cuneiform syllabary developed, had been invented
by the primitive non-Semitic population of Chaldaea, from whom it had been afterwards adopted and
adapted by their Semitic successors.
Accordingly,
particular
whole groups of characters which denoted a
word
in
Sumerian
the
non-Semitic
language
of
ancient Chaldaea
were
taken over by the Semites
and used by them to denote the same word, though,

of course, with a totally different pronunciation.
In
Sumerian,
for
example, mer-sig signified
'trousers,'
but though the two characters mer and sig continued

to be written in Semitic times in order to express
the word, the pronunciation attached to them was

sarbillu, the
modern Arabic
shirwdl.
cunei-
The pupil, therefore, who wished to learn the

form syllabary at
all
thoroughly was compelled to know
something of the old Sumerian language of Chaldsea.

It
was
far
more necessary
in
his case than a
knowit
ledge of Latin would be in our own.
Moreover,
was necessary for him to learn the various forms which the same cuneiform character assumed in
The Age of Moses

different countries or at different periods in the
65
country.
same These various forms were very numerous,

differed
and they often
more than black
letter differs
from ordinary modern type.
The
fact, then,
that the cuneiform syllabary
was
studied and used from the banks of the Euphrates to
those of the
Nile, brings
with
it
the further fact
that throughout this area
there
must have
been
numerous schools and teachers. Time and persevering labour were needed for its acquisition, while a
knowledge of the Babylonian language which accompanied its study could not have been obtained without the help of teachers.
It is
accordingly a matter
letters received at
of no small astonishment that the
the Egyptian foreign office were written, not only by

professional scribes, but also
by
officials
and
soldiers.
Naturally the study of the foreign syllabary and
language was facilitated in every possible way.

his excavations at
In
Tel el-Amarna, Professor Flinders

lists
Petrie has discovered fragments of
of cuneiform
characters, as well as of comparative dictionaries of
Semitic Babylonian
and
Sumerian.
Moreover, a
Babylonian mythological text has been found, in which the words have been divided from one another
by dots of red
paint, in order to assist the learner in
making
his
way through
the legend.
is
This mythological text
not the only one which
66
The Egypt of
the

the tablets of Tel
is
el-
has been met with
among
of
Amarna.
that the
The
existence of such texts
a proof
as
its
literature
script,
Babylonia,
as
well
language and
was
carried to -the West.

libraries,'
From
very remote times public
consisting for the
most part of clay-books, were

Babylonian and Assyrian
culture
cities,
to be found in the
and when Babylonian
made
its
way
to the West, similar libraries

also.
must have sprung up there
The
revelations
made
to us
by the
tablets of Tel
el-Amarna show
that these libraries, like those of Babylonia, were
stocked with books written upon clay,
many
of which
contained copies of Babylonian legends and myths.
One
of the mythological tales discovered at Tel

is
el-Amarna
the latter portion of a story which defirst
scribed the creation of the
man, Adapa
or
Adama,
and the introduction of death
into the world.
Adapa
had broken the wings of the south wind, and was accordingly ordered to appear before Anu, the lord
of the sky.
There he refused
to touch the food and
water of 'death' that were offered him, and when

subsequently the heart of
Anu was
'
softened
'
to-
wards him, he refused also the food and water

'
of
life.'
Whereupon Anu looked upon him and

' :
raised
his voice in lamentation
"
O Adapa, wherefore eatest

?
thou not
life
wherefore drinkest thou not
The
gift of
cannot
now be
thine."
'
The Age of Moses
67
The beginning of the story has been in the British Museum many years. It is a fragment of a copy of the myth which was made for the library of Nineveh some eight centuries after the rest of the story, which has now been disinterred on the banks of the Nile, had
been buried under the ruins of Khu-n-Aten's
I
city.
copied
it
nearly twenty years ago, but had to wait
for the discovery of the tablets of
Tel el-Amarna
significance.
before ascertaining
its
true
meaning and
to
Nineveh and Tel el-Amarna had
unite in the
restoration of the old Babylonian myth.
Canaan was the country
in
which the two streams
of Babylonian and Egyptian culture met together,
and we now know that Canaan was the centre of that literary activity which the Tel el-Amarna tablets
have revealed to
us.
Canaan,
in
the age of the
eighteenth dynasty, was emphatically the land of

scribes
and
in
letter- writers.
If libraries existed any-
where
Western Asia, they would surely have done

cities, Kirjath-Sepher,
so in the cities of Canaan.
One
is
of these
or Book-town,'
'
mentioned
in the
Old Testament.
'
It
was
also
called called Kirjath-Sannah, or
City of Instruction,'
its
doubtless from the school which was attached to

library.
it
it
The
site
of
it
is
unfortunately lost
should
ever be recovered,
literary
we may expect
similar
to find beneath
treasures
to
those
which
the
68
The Egypt of
the
mounds of Assyria and Babylonia have yielded. Perhaps some day the papyri of Egypt will tell us
where exactly to look
for
it.
A
an
reference to
it
has already been met with.

II.,
In
the time of
ironical
in
Ramses
an Egyptian scribe composed
account of the adventures of a military

Palestine.
ofificer
The
it
officer
in
question was
the Baby-
called a Mohar, a
lonians, in
word borrowed from

signified
'
whose language
is
an envoy.'
The Egyptian work

as
consequently usually known

it
The Travels of a Mohar, and
gives us an interestIsraelitish
ing picture of Canaan shortly before the
Exodus.
The author was

large
'
clearly very proud of his
geographical knowledge, and has therefore introduced

the
names of a
:
number of
places.
In one
passage he asks
Hast thou not seen Kirjath-Anab

Dost thou not know
Dr.
together with Beth-Sopher?
AduUam and Zidiputha ? whom the correct reading

'
W. Max
Mijller, to
is
of the passage
due,
points out that the scribe has interchanged the words

Kirjath,
to
'
city,'
and Beth,
'
house,'
and that he ought
written Beth-Anab and Kirjath-Sopher. was acquainted, however, with the meaning That he
have
of the Canaanitish word Sopher (in Egyptian Thupar)

is
'
shown by means
his
adding to
fact,
it
the determinative of
'
writing.'
Sopher, in
'book,'
means
scribe,' just
as
sepher
and indicates
the fact that
The Age of Moses
69
Kirjath-Sepher was not only a town of books, but of
book- writers as
well.
It
will
be remembered that
Beth-Anab,
'
the house of grapes,' in the abbreviated

is
form of Anab,
associated with Kirjath-Sepher in

xi.
the Old Testament (Josh.

it is
21
xv. 49, 50), just as
in the
Egyptian papyrus.
In the Tel el-Amarna tablets
we have
a picture
of Canaan in the century which preceded the
Exodus
seen,
it
of the Israelites out of Egypt.
As we have
was
at that time
an Egyptian province.
We
can
thus understand why, in the tenth chapter of Genesis,
Canaan
a while
is
it
made
a brother of Mizraim, or Egypt.
For
obeyed the same sovereign and was ad-
ministered
by the same laws
the natives of Canaan
held office in the court of the Pharaoh, and Egyptian
governors ruled in the Canaanitish

not until after the death of Ramses
cities.
II.,
It
was
of the nine-
teenth dynasty, and about the very time

Israelites
when the
were escaping from

to be an
their
house of bondage,
that Canaan ceased
Egyptian dependency.
From
that
time
forward
it
was
politically
and
with
geographically severed from the valley of the Nile,
and the geographer could never again couple

the land of Egypt.
it
When Khu-n-Aten was Pharaoh, the cities of Canaan were numerous and wealthy. The people
were highly cultured, and
excelled
especially
as
70
The Egypt of
the

silver,
workers in gold and
as
manufacturers
of
porcelain and vari-coloured glass, and as weavers of
richly-dyed linen.
Their merchants already traded
to distant parts of the
known
world.
The
governors
appointed by the Pharaoh were for the most part of

native origin, and at times a representative of the
old line of kings was
left
among them, though

at his side.
an
Egyptian prefect was often placed

governors
The
of
were
controlled
by the
Their
presence
visits
Egyptian garrisons, as well as by the
of an
Egyptian
'commissioner.'
rivalries
letters
and
which
quarrels form the subject of
many of the
have been found at Tel el-Amarna, both
sides appealalike
ing to the Pharaoh for protection and help, and

protesting their loyalty to him.
It
seems
to
have
these
been the part of Egyptian policy to encourage
quarrels, or at all events to hold an even balance
between the
rival governors.
intact,
As
offered
long as the power of Egypt remained
these quarrels, which sometimes resulted in open war,
no cause
for alarm.
Egyptian troops could

it
always be sent to the scene of disturbance before

could become dangerous.
of Khu-n-Aten's reign,
But
in the troublous days

itself
when Egypt
forces
was
restless
and inclined
changed.
for revolt,
the position of affairs was
The Egyptian
were needed
at home,
and the Pharaoh was compelled
to turn a deaf ear
The Age of Moses

to the piteous appeals that were
assistance.
7
to
made
In the
him
for
The enemies
'
of Egyptian rule began to
multiply and grow
powerful.
'
south the
Khabiri or
Confederates
in
threatened the Egyptian
domination
the north, Amorite rebels intrigued
with the Hittites and with the kings of Naharaim and

Babylonia, while in
all
parts of Palestine the Sute
or Bedouin were perpetually on the watch to take
advantage of the weakness of the government.

It
was the vassal-king of Jerusalem, Ebed-tob by
name, who was especially menaced by the Khabiri.

In his letters he describes himself as unlike the other
governors, in that he had been appointed to his office
by the
'
arm
'
or
'
oracle
'
of
It
'
the
Mighty King,' the

his father
supreme deity of
royal dignity.
his
his city.
was not from
or his mother, consequently, that he had derived his
He
was, in
fact,
a priest-king, like
predecessor Melchizedek, to
tithes.
whom Abram had

make
paid
Ebed-tob, however, was unable to

his
head against
enemies the Khabiri.
One by one
the towns which were included in the territory of
Jerusalem, from Keilah and Gath-Karmel to Rabbah,

fell
into their
hands
for
the Pharaoh was unable to send
him the help
which he so earnestly begged, and

of
we
his
finally
hear of his having fallen into the hands of

cities
Bedouin enemy, Labai, along with the

in charge.
which he was
Labai was
in alliance
with
72
The Egypt of
the

also
a certain Malchiel,
who
latter
writes letters to the
Egyptian monarch, as well as with Tagi of Gath and

the
Khabiri.
The
'
seem
to
have given the
name
of Hebron,
the Confederacy,' to the old city
of Kirjath-Arba.
Megiddo was
like
the seat of an Egyptian governor,
Gaza, near Shechem.
The name
el-
of Shechem has
tablets, but a
not been found in the Tel

reference
is
A mama
or
made
to
its
'
mountain,' in the Travels of
a Mohar.
Either
Mount Ebal
must consequently have been already

Egypt.
Mount Gerizim well known in

in
Another. Egyptian governor was

of Phoenicia.
comhis
mand
Zemar,
Gebal, north of Beyrut, was
chief residence, but he

in the
had palaces
also at
Tyre and
In one of
mountains of the
interior.
his letters
he alludes to the wealth of Tyre, which
must therefore have been already famous.

Phoenicia and Palestine are alike included under
the
name
of
'
Canaan
'
in the
cuneiform documents,
though
in the
hieroglyphic records they are called
Zahi and Khal (or Khar).

'
North of Palestine came
the land of the Amorites,' of which Ebed-Asherah

his son,
and
Aziru or Ezer, were governors, and

field
to
the east of the Jordan was 'the
of Bashan.'
as far
The Egyptian supremacy was acknowledged

south as the frontier of
preserved
its
Edom;
the latter country
independence.
The Age of Moses
73
cunei-
Such was the condition of Canaan when the

denly to an end.
form correspondence of Tel el-Amarna comes sud-
The death of Khu-n-Aten had

which he
as well as
been the signal
for a revolt against the faith
had endeavoured to impose upon Egypt,

against the Asiatic influences
by which he had been

who,
in order
surrounded.
He
left
daughters only behind him.

to a prince
One
of
them was married
to secure the throne,
was forced
and
to return to the old
religion of the country,
to call himself
his reign
by the
short,
name of Tutankh-Amon.
like those of
But
was
one or two other relations and followers
of Khu-n-Aten
who have
left traces
of themselves
upon the monuments.
rival
king,
Ai by name,
held possession of Egypt for a while, and after his
death Hor-m-hib, the Armais of Manetho, ruled once
more
at
Thebes over a united Egypt, and the worship
of the solar disk was at end.
But the ruins of Tel el-Amarna show that the

restoration of the old creed
and the overthrow of and sand-
Khu-n-Aten's adherents had not been without a

struggle.
hills
Most of the tombs
in the cliffs
which surround the old

:
city
have been uncult for
finished
the followers of the
new
whom
to as
they were intended
have never
royal
been allowed
itself,
occupy them.
have seen,
is
The
sepulchre
we
in
an equally unfinished condition, and
: ;
74
the sarcophagus in which the
body of the king
rested
was violated soon

in
it.
after his
Indeed,
it
had been placed had never been deposited in the

it
;
mummy
niche that had been cut to receive
its
shattered
floor of
'
fragments were discovered far away on the

the great columned hall.
The
its
capital of the
heretic
king' was destroyed by
enemies soon
after his
its
death, and never inhabited again.
The
ruins of
palace and houses were
full
of broken statues and

to
other objects which their owners had no time

carry away.
years,
The
its
city lasted only for about thirty

to
and the sands of the desert then began

fallen
close over
greatness.
its'
How
sudden and
is
complete must have been

the cuneiform tablets
;
overthrow
proved by
not only were these imperial
archives not carried elsewhere, the correspondence
contained in them breaks off suddenly with a

told tale of disaster
half-
and dismay.
The
Asiatic empire
of
it
Egypt
is
falling to pieces, its

;
enemies are enclosing

it it
on every side
the Hittites have robbed

is
of
its
northern provinces, and revolt

within.
shaking
from
The governors and

come
this year,
vassals of the Pharaoh

for instant aid
will
send more and more urgent requests

'
If troops
then there
remain
lord
both provinces and governors to the king,

but
if
my
no troops come, no provinces or governors

But no answer was returned
to these
will remain.'
The Age of Moses
75
pressing appeals, and the sudden cessation of the
correspondence
under
the ruins of the Egyptian
foreign office itself gives us the reason why.
One
of the
first
acts of
Hor-m-hib
after the settle-
ment of affairs at home was to chastise the Asiatics, who had doubtless taken advantage of the momentary
weakness of Egypt.
With the death of Hor-m-hib,

dynasty
the founder of the nine-
after a reign of five years,i the eighteenth
came
and
to an end.
Ramses
I.,
teenth dynasty, introduced a

also, as
we
learn from the
new type of royal name, monuments, a new type

I.,
of royal face.
After a short reign of two years, he

his son, Seti
in
was succeeded by
whose name we
again taken
have an evidence that the proscribed worship of the
god Set
the
I.
god of the Delta

It
was
under royal patronage.
was an indication that the
new dynasty
Seti
traced
its
descent from northern Egypt.
once more led the Egyptian armies to
victory in Asia.
With the
spoils of conquest temples
were built and decorated, and the names of conquered nations engraved upon their walls.
these temples
One
of
was
at
Abydos, the most beautiful of
'
This
is
the length of the reign as given by Manetho, and with
this agree all the
of a fi-agment in the British
dated monuments of Hor-m-hib, with the exception Museum {Egyptian Inscriptions, 5624),
which has been supposed to refer to his seventh and twenty-first years. But the king to whom these dates refer is uncertain, and Dr. Birch may be right in considering that Amenophis is meant.
^(i

those which have been
left to
all
us in Egypt.
But
Seti's
fame as a builder was
far eclipsed
II.,
by
that of
the
his
son and successor, Ramses
and even
temples which he had raised at Abydos and Qurnah were completed, and to a certain extent appropriated,
by
the
his better-known son.
We
'
are told in the

'
Book of Exodus
were
that two of
treasure cities
which the
Oppression
Israelites built for the
Pharaoh
Raamses.'
of
the
'Pithom
and
The
discovery of Pithom was, as we
have already seen, the inaugural work of the Egypt Exploration Fund. The discovery, as has been
made by Dr. Naville, who was led to the site by certain monuments of Ramses li., which had been found there by the French engineers of M. de Lesseps. These monuments consisted of a
already stated, was
great
tablet
and
monolith
of
red
granite,
two
sphinxes of exquisitely polished black granite, and

a broken shrine of red sandstone which had been
transported
chief
all
to
Ismailiyeh, where they formed the

little
ornament of the
that
public garden.
setting
sun,
As
was
they
the
showed
Tum,
the
supreme deity of the place from which they had

come, Dr. Naville concluded that
it
would prove
Pithom
to
be Pi-Tum, 'the abode of Turn,' the

Scripture,
of
and not the companion
city of Raamses, as
Lepsius had believed.
The Age of Moses
77
the monuments had been disinterred are about twelve miles to the west
The mounds from which
of Ismailiyeh, and are called Tel el-Maskhuteh,
'
the
Mound
for
of the Image.'
In the last century, however,
they were
known
as
Abu
K^sh^d, and were famous
a half-buried monolith of granite representing

II.
Ramses
seated between
Tum
and Ra, the
hiero-
glyphic inscription on the back of which has been
published by Sir Gardner Wilkinson.
The
canal
made by the Pharaohs for Red Sea, and afterwards

choked
mounds.
it
uniting the Nile with the

cleared of the sand that
by Darius, by Trajan, and by the Arab
conqueror 'Amru, skirted the southern side of the
At
present the modern Freshwater Canal
runs along their northern edge, to the north of which
again
is
the line of the railway from Cairo to Suez.
The
site
fortifications erected
by Arabi, however, hide the

train.
of the old city from the traveller in the

Dr.
Naville's
excavations proved
him
to
have
been
right
in
identifying Tel el-Maskhuteh with

inscriptions he found
Pithom.
that
its
The
ancient
there showed
that
it
name was Pi-Tum, and
stood
in the district of
Thukut, the Succoth of the Old
The name of this district was already known from papyri of the age of the nineteenth
Testament.
dynasty, and Dr. Brugsch had pointed out
its
identity
with the Biblical Succoth.
78
The Egypt of
the

not
But the discovery of the ancient name was

the only result of the explorer's work.
that the city
it
It
turned out
had been
built
by Ramses
II.,
and that
contained a number of large brick buildings which

to have been intended for magazines.
last
seem
Here,
then, at
were correct
was a proof that the Egyptologists in making Ramses II. the Pharaoh of
of
the Oppression.
The
site
Raamses
still
or Ramses, the companion

to
city of Pithom, has
be discovered.
But
it
cannot be
far distant
from Tel el-Maskhuteh,

in that land of
and,
like the latter,
must have been

were
Goshen
in
which the
Israelites
settled.
The
discoveries
which enabled Dr. Naville to determine the boundaries of the land of
Goshen and
to fix the site of
its
ancient capital have already been described.
The site
of Zoan, the modern S4n, had long been known, and

the excavations,
first
of Mariette Pasha and then of
Professor Flinders Petrie, have laid bare the foundations of

its
temple and brought to
light the
monuit.
ments of the kings who enriched and adorned

Built originally in the age of the
Old Empire,
it
was
restored
by the Hyksos conquerors of Egypt, and
became under them a centre of influence and power. Goshen, Zoan and Pithom, the sites around which
the early history of Israel gathered, have thus been
brought to
light.
The
disputes which have raged
The Age of Moses

about them are at
persistent sceptic,
tions of the past,
last
yg
ended.
Here and there a
who has been reared in the tradimay still express doubts concerning
Egypand
as
the discoveries of recent years, but for the

tologist
and the archaeologist the question has been
finally settled.
We
can
visit
'
the
field
of Zoan
'
explore the
mounds of Pithom with no misgivings
to their identity.
When
the train carries us from

feel
Ismailiyeh to Cairo,
we may
assured that
we
are
passing through the district in which Jacob and his
family were settled, and where the kinsfolk of Moses
had
the
their homes. The Egypt of the patriarchs and Exodus was an Egypt narrow in compass and
;
easily traversed in these days of steam
it
repre-
sented the western part of the Delta, more especially

the strip of cultivable land which stretches along the
banks of the Freshwater Canal from Zagazig

Ismailiyeh
Delta,
:
to
that
is
all.
The
it.
eastern and northern

district in
Upper Egypt
even the
is
which Cairo
now
stands
lay
outside
The
history which at-
taches itself to
Israelites.
them
not the history of the early
CHAPTER
III
THE EXODUS AND THE HEBREW SETTLEMENT IN CANAAN

Ramses
ii.
was the
was
last of the
conquering Pharaohs
Asiatic empire of
restored
of native Egyptian history.
The
Thothmes
Hi.
in
some measure
and himself
by
the
victories of his
father
The
cities
of
Palestine yielded
him an unwilling
in
obedience.
Gaza,
the
and the other towns

territory
what was afterwards

were
garrisoned
of
the
Philistines,
by
Egyptian troops, and on the walls of the Ramesseum

were depicted his conquest of Shalem or Jerusalem,
Merom, Beth-Anath, and other Canaanite

his eighth year.
states, in
Egyptian armies again marched

led
northward into Syria along the highroad that

past the Phcenician
cities,
and on the banks

River,
in
of the
the
Nahr
el-Kelb,
or
Dog's
near
Beyrftt,
Pharaoh erected a tablet

successes.
commemoration
of his
On
the eastern side of the Jordan also

In front
Egyptian authority once more prevailed.
of the northern pylon of the temple of Luxor, Ramses
The Exodus and Hebrew Settlement
in
Canaan
erected six colossal figures of himself, and on their
recently-uncovered bases are inscribed the names of

the various nations he claimed to have subdued.
Among them we
find,
for
the of
first
time
in
the
Egyptian records, the name

Genesis xxv.
Moab, following
immediately upon that of Assar, the Asshurim of

3.
That the
insertion of the
name was
not an idle boast
we
learn from a discovery lately
made by
Dr. Schumacher.
On
the eastern side of
the Jordan, but at no great distance from the
Lake
Job.'
of Tiberias,
is
a monolith called the
'
Stone of
On
this the
sculptures and hieroglyphs.
Pharaoh are
a
German explorer has found Egyptian Above the figure of the cartouches of Ramses II., and opposite the
left,
the king, on the

full
a local deity
is
represented with
face
and the crown of
Osiris,
'
over
whom
is
written the
North.'
name of Akna-zapn, or Yakin The monument is an evidence of

figure of the
of the a per-
manent occupation of the country by the Egyptians,

as the
name and
god indicate that
it
was erected, not by the Egyptians themselves, but
by the Egyptianised natives of the land. Along the Syrian coast Seti I. had already
his arms. his son.
carried
His campaigns were followed by those of

Arvad, the shores of the Gulf of Antioch,
Cilicia,
and even
are enumerated
among
the con-
quests of the
Pharaoh.
He
F
even claims to have
82
The Egypt of
the
defeated the armies of Assyria, of Materia or Mitanni, the Aram-Naharaim of Scripture, and of Singar in
Mesopotamia.
the newly excavated court,
At Luxor, on the western walls of we hear of his having

'
been at Tunip (now Tennib),
in the land of
Naha-
raim,' of his capture of a fortress of the Kati in the
same
district,
'
and of how
'
the Pharaoh
'
had taken
of
a city in
the land of Satuna.'
Satuna was one
those countries in the far north whose
name
is
never
mentioned elsewhere
in the
Egyptian
texts.
The Syrian
been long
in
conquests, however, could never have
the Pharaoh's possession.
Between
them and Palestine lay the southern

Hittite race.
outposts of the
In the troublous times which followed
the death of Khu-n-Aten, the Hittites had overrun

'
the land of the Amorites
'
to the north of Canaan,
and fixed
their southern capital in the holy city of

It
Kadesh, on the Orontes.
was a stronghold
against
vain.
which the forces of Ramses were hurled

the Pharaoh of
Hittites,'
in
For twenty years did the struggle continue between
Egypt and
'the great king of the

conflict,
and
at last,
exhausted by the long
in
which neither party had
gained the advantage,
the two enemies agreed upon peace.
treaty was
in
signed on the twenty -first of the month Tybi,

the twenty- first year of the reign of Ramses
1327), 'in the city of Ramses,' to
(B.C.
which the
Hittite

ambassadors had come.
in
Canaan
83
side,
Ramses, on the one
and
Khita-sir, the son of Mul-sir, the Hittite prince,

other,
on the
bound themselves
in
it
to eternal friend-
ship and alliance.
In case of war they were to send
troops to one another's help, and they agreed to put

to death
any criminals who might
fly
from the one
country to the other.
Political offenders, however,
who had taken

injured.
It
refuge in the territory of one or
other of the two contracting parties, were not to be
was of course the Canaanitish subjects
of the Pharaoh,
who
adjoined the Hittite kingdom,
that were principally affected

It
by these
stipulations.
was further determined that on no pretext what-
ever should any change be of the two monarchies.

the
made
of
it
in the boundaries
The
treaty
was placed under
protection
of the
Hittite
deities
Egypt and the

was engraved on
the
Hittites,
and a
copy of
a silver plate.
The agreement was cemented by
marriage of Ramses to a daughter of the Hittite

king,
who thereupon assumed an Egyptian name.

who had descended from
But
it
Northern Syria was thus formally conceded to

the powerful conquerors
the mountains of Kappadokia, while Palestine re-
mained under Egyptian dominion.

destined to do so long.
was not
Meneptah, the fourteenth of

reigned only four
Ramses was succeeded by his many sons, who had years when the very existence of
'
84
his
The Egypt of
the
kingdom was threatened by a formidable invasion from the west and north. The peoples of the north swarmed out of their coasts and islands, and a great
'
fleet
descended upon Egypt,
in conjunction with the
Libyans and Maxyes of northern

or
Africa.
Aqaiush
Achaeans, Shard ana
or
Sardinians,
Tursha or
as
Tyrsenians appear
among them,
as well
Leku
later
from Asia Minor, and Zakkur, who a

are the colleagues
little
and brethren of the
Philistines.
Part of the Delta was overrun and devastated before

the Pharaoh could
decisive battle
make head
against his
foes.
But a
was
at length fought at Pa-Alu-sheps,
not far from Heliopolis, which ended in the complete overthrow of the invading hordes.
Egypt was
it,
saved from the danger which had threatened

it
but
seems never to have recovered from the
shock.
The power of the government was weakened in the valley of the Nile itself, and one by one the
foreign
conquests
II.,
passed out of
its
grasp.
The
sceptre of Seti
to have
who
followed Meneptah, seems
dropped into the hands of a usurper, Amon:
messu by name
the history of the period
is,
howis
ever, involved in obscurity,
and
II.
all
that
is
certain
that the empire of Ramses
was
lost,
and
that
Egypt
end.
itself fell
into a state of decadence.
With
Si-Ptah the nineteenth dynasty came to an inglorious

Its fall
civil
in
Canaan
85
was the
signal for internal confusion

foreigner,
war.
A
for
Syrian
Arisu
and by name,
possessed himself of the throne of the Pharaohs,
and Egypt
to
a while was compelled to submit

rule.
Canaanitish
its
Its
leading
nobles were in
their
banishment,
offerings,
gods were deprived of
customary
and famine was added

deliverer
to the horrors of
war.
came
in the person of Set-nekht,
the founder of the twentieth dynasty.
He
it
drove
again
the stranger out the country, and restored

to peace
and prosperity.
Hardly had
his task
been
completed when he died, and was succeeded by his

son,
Ramses
III.
Under him a
transient
gleam of
victory and conquest visited once
more the valley

an
of the Nile.
It
was well
for
Egypt
in the
that she possessed
energetic general and king.
had threatened her

again
The same hordes which reign of Meneptah now

increased
attacked
her
with
numbers and
fifth
greater chances
of success.
In
the
year of
Ramses
III.,
the fair-skinned tribes of the western
desert poured into the Delta.

their chieftains Mdidi,
The Maxyes, under
Mashakanu, and Maraiu, and

which ever afterwards
of their defeat.
the Libyans, under
Ur-mar and Zut-mar, met the
Pharaoh
bore a
in battle at a place
name commemorative
victory of the Egyptians was, in fact, decisive.
The As
86
The Egypt of
the

field
fell
many
battle,
as 12,535 slain were counted on the

spoil innumerable
of
and captives and the hands of the victors.

space.
into
But Ramses was allowed only a short breathingThree years after the Libyan invasion, and
doubtless in connection with
it, came a still more formidable invasion on the part of the barbarians of the north. This time they came partly by land,
partly by sea. Vast hordes of them had marched out of Asia Minor, overrunning the kingdoms of
the
Hittites, of
Naharaim, of Carchemish, and
of
Arvad, and carrying with them adventurers and recruits from the countries through which they passed.
First they pitched their
camp
in 'the land of the
Amorites,' and then marched southward towards the

frontiers of
Egypt.
The
place of the Aqaiush was
taken by the Daanau or Danaans, but the Zakkur

again formed part of the invading host,
this time
accompanied by Pulsata or
or Siculians.
Philistines,
and Shakalsh
By
the side of the land army moved

fleet
fleet
of ships, and
and army arrived
together
at the
mouths of the
of
Palestine,
Nile.
The
cities in
the extreme
south
once
occupied
by Egyptian
Philistines,
garrisons,
were captured
by the
and
became henceforward their assured possession. But the main body of the invaders were
fortunate.
not so
to
The Egyptian
forces
were
ready

receive them,
in
Canaan
87
the
and their mouth of the Nile

fleet.
ships
had scarcely entered

battle
before they were attacked
by the Egyptian
complete
picture of
is
The
of the
ended
in
the
annihilation
it
attacking
host.
sculptured on the walls of Medinet
Habu
built
at Thebes, the temple-palace
which Ramses
to
commemorate
his
victories,
and we can
there study the ships of the
European barbarians
and the features and dress of the barbarians themselves. In the expressive words of the Egyptian
scribe,
'
they never reaped a harvest any more.'

left
Ramses, however, was even now not

Three years
later the
at rest.
Maxyes again
horses,
assailed
Egypt
and
under Mashashal, the son of Kapur, but once more

unsuccessfully.
Cattle,
asses,
chariots
weapons of war
in large quantities fell into the
hands
of the Egyptians, as well as 2052 captives, while
217s
men were
slain.
From
its
this
time forward Egypt
was secure from attack on
western border.
Freed from the necessity of defending his own

territories,
Ramses now
later
carried the
war into Asia.

of Judah was
districts
What
in
days was the land

;
overrun by
his forces
Gaza and the
round
Hebron and Salem

the
or Jerusalem were occupied,
and
name
of the
Dead Sea appears on
the walls
of Medinet
history.
Habu for the first time in Egyptian The Egyptian army even crossed to the
88
The Egypt of
the

and captured the Moabite
along the Phoenician
taken, and
eastern side of the Jordan

capital.
Another campaign led

coast into northern Syria.
it
Hamath was
Ramses seems
of the Taurus.
to have penetrated as far as the slopes
He
even claims to have defeated
the people of Mitanni or

eastern
Hittites
Aram-Naharaim on
the
bank of the Euphrates.

and the Amorites,
Philistines, like
The
kings of the
the chiefs of the
Zakkur and the

in his hands.
were already prisoners
But the northern campaigns of Ramses were

the Asiatic empire of Egypt.
to hold the cities
run.
in-
tended to strike terror rather than to re-establish
No
attempt was made
and
districts
which had been over-
Though
up,
a temple was erected to
Amon
so
on
the frontiers of the later Judsea, even
Gaza was
long
given
and
the
fortress
which
had
defended the road from Canaan into Egypt was

allowed to pass into Philistine hands.
It
was the
same with the campaign which

ducted
at
the
Pharaoh con'
later
date
against
first
its
the
Shasu
'
or
Bedouin of Edom.
For the
time an Egyptian
army succeeded nesses of Mount

and plundering
himself
in
making
way
into the fast-
Seir, slaying the warriors of
Edom,
their 'tents.'
was
made
The Edomite chief prisoner. The expedition
The Exodus and Hebrew Settlement in Canaan
89
had the
effect of protecting the
Egyptian mining
establishments in the Sinaitic peninsula as well as

the maritime trade with southern Arabia.
quantities of malachite were brought year
Large
by year
from the Egyptian province of Mafka or Sinai, and

the merchant-vessels of
Ramses coasted along the
of
Red Yemen and Hadhramaut.

Ramses
III.
Sea, bringing back with them the precious spices
died after a reign of more than thirty-
two
years,
and the military renown of Egypt expired

His exact date
is
with him.
still
a matter of doubt,
B.C.
it
but his accession must have fallen about
1200.
closes
The date
also as
it
is
important, not only because
the history of
Egypt
as a conquering power, but
marks a great era of migration among

permanent settlement of the
Philistines
the northern populations of the Mediterranean, as

well as the
in Palestine.
It was, moreover, the period to which
the Israelitish invasion of
Canaan must belong.
When Ramses
god
at the
III.
overran the southern portion
of Palestine, and built the temple of the spot
Theban
now known
as
Khurbet Kan'an,
There
not far from Hebron, the Israelites could not as yet
have entered the Promised Land.

ence to the Egyptians
is
is
no
refer-
in
the Pentateuch, and there
no reference
to the Israelites in the hieroglyphic
texts of Medinet Habu.
Hebron, Migdal, Karmel
90

all
of Judah, Ir-Shemesh and Hadashah,

into the
in the
alike
fell
hands of the Egyptian invaders, but neither

in the
Egyptian nor
Hebrew
all
records
is
there
any
allusion to a struggle
between Egypt and
Israel.
When
Joshua entered Canaan
these cities beill.
longed to the Canaanites, and when Ramses

attacked them this was also the case.
tinian
The
Pales-
campaign of Ramses must have prepared

conquest
;
the
way
for the Israelitish

it.
'
it
could not have
followed after
Moreover,
the five lords of the Philistines
'
seem
to have already been settled in the extreme south
when
Yet
the Israelitish invasion took place (Josh.

it
xiii. 3).
also
seems clear from the Egyptian monufully completed
ments that the settlement was not

until after the Asiatic
campaigns of the Pharaoh had

indeed formed part of
occurred.
The
Philistines
the great invading host which poured through Syria
and
assailed
Egypt
in the early part of his -reign,

its
but Gaza was one of his conquests, and
possession
enabled him to march into Canaan.

could become a Philistine city
its
it
Before Gaza
that
was needful
Egyptian garrison should be withdrawn.
Pro-
fessor Prdsek believes that the Philistine occupation
of southern Canaan took place in the year

since the
this
B.C.
209,
Roman
historian
Justin
tells
us that in
year a king of Ashkelon stormed the city of
'
in
Canaan
91
Sidon, and that the Sidonians fled to a neighbouring

part of the coast, and there founded Tyre.
How-
ever this
may
be, the Philistine settlement in
must be ascribed
to
Canaan the age of Ramses III., and it

Philistines that the Israelites
was already with the
came
into conflict under almost the earliest of their
judges.
But the date of the

is
Israelitish
conquest of Canaan
closely
bound up with that of the Exodus out of

It
is
Egypt.
true that
when we
are told
of the
'
forty years' wandering in the desert, the

is
word
forty
used, as
it
is
elsewhere in the Old Testament, as

to denote an in-
well as
upon the Moabite Stone,

It
determinate period of time.
was a period during

Joshua and Caleb
which the greater part of the generation that had

left
Egypt had time
to
die.
indeed remained, and Othniel, the brother of Caleb,

lived to deliver Israel from the king of
raim,
and
it
to
be the
first
Aram-NahaBut otherof the judges.

led to con-
wise
was a new generation which was
quest by Joshua.
If
Ramses
11.
was the Pharaoh of the Oppression,
the Pharaoh of the
Exodus must have been one of his

Egyptologists have hesitated
II.,
immediate successors.
between Meneptah, Seti
and Si-Ptah.
There
of
is
much
to be said in favour of each.
None
them
reigned long, and after the death of Meneptah the
92
The Egypt of
fell
the

hands, and
the
sceptre
into
feeble
Egyptian
monarchy went rapidly
to decay.
Native tradition, as
reported
by the
historian
Manetho, made Meneptah the Pharaoh under

bondage.
whom
said,
in-
the children of Israel escaped from their house of
Amenophis
by the
seer
or
Meneptah,
it
was
desired to see the gods.

structed
He was
.the
accordingly
Amendphis,
son of Pa-apis,
This
all
to clear the land of the leprous
and impure.
he
did,
and 80,000 persons were
collected from
parts of Egypt,
and were then separated from
the
other inhabitants of the country and compelled to
work
in
the quarries of Ttira, on the eastern side
of the Nile.
some
priests,
one of
Among them there happened whom was Osarsiph, a
to be
priest
of On, and the sacrilegious act of laying hands on them was destined to be avenged by the gods. The
seer prophesied that the impure lepers would find
allies,
and with
their help
would govern Egypt

in
for
when a saviour should arise person of Amenophis himself Not daring

thirteen years,
the
tell
to
the king of this prediction, he put
it
in writing
and
then took
away
his
own
life.
After a time the
workers
deserted
in the quarries
were removed to Avaris, the
fortress
of the
Hyksos, on
the
Asiatic
rose in
frontier of the
Egyptian kingdom.
Here they
rebellion under Osarsiph,
who
organised them into a
in
Canaan
93
community, and gave them new laws, forbidding them

to revere the sacred animals, rebuild the walls of Avaris.
and ordering them
to
He
also sent to the
descendants of the Hyksos at Jersualem, begging

for their
assistance.
force of 200,000
men was
accordingly despatched to Avaris, and the invasion of
Egypt decided
Sethos,
on.
Amendphis
also
called
retired into Ethiopia
without striking a blow, carrying with him his son
who was
Ramesses
bull
after
his
grandfather, as well as
the sacred
Apis, and
other holy animals.
The images
in
of the gods were
concealed, lest they should be profaned

vaders.
by the
the
in-
Amenophis remained
Ethiopia for
thir-
teen years, while Osarsiph,
who had taken

allies
name
of Moses, together with his
from Jerusalem,
atrocities. At last, however, Amendphis and his son Sethos returned, each at the head of an army the enemy were defeated and over-
committed innumerable
thrown, and finally pursued to the borders of Syria.
The
legend.
tradition
is is
a curious mixture of fact and
Osarsiph
first
but an Egyptianised form of
Joseph, the
syllable of
which has been explained

Israel (as in Ps. Ixxxi. 5),
as representing the
god of
and has accordingly been

Osiris.
identified with
Osar or
The
ancient Egyptian habit of regarding the
foreigner as
impure has been interpreted to mean

of Osarsiph were lepers.
that the
followers
The
94
The Egypt of
the

has been confounded with
Exodus of the
Israelites
the invasion of the northern barbarians in the reign of Meneptah, as well as with the troublous period
that
saw the
fall
of the nineteenth dynasty
when
the
throne of Egypt was seized by the Syrian Arisu. And,

lastly,
the hated
;
Hyksos have been introduced

is
into
the story
their fortress Avaris
made
the rallying-
place of the revolted lepers, and
it is
through the help
they send from Jerusalem that the rule of Osarsiph

or
Moses
is
established in the valley of the Nile.
An
interesting
commentary on the legend has
been furnished by a papyrus lately acquired by M.

Goldnischeff,
HI.
and dating from the age of Thothmes

page
is
On the
last
a sort of Messianic prophecy,
the hero of which has the
name
of Ameni, a shortened
it
form of Amenophis.
'A
king,'
says, 'will
come
from the south, Ameni the truth-declaring by name.
He
will in
be the son of a
.
.
woman
of Nubia, and will be
born
He
will
assume the crown of Upper
Egypt, and
will
lift
up the red crown of Lower Egypt.

. . .
He
will unite the
double crown.
The
They
people of
the age of the son of

establish his
man
will
{sic)
will
rejoice
will
and
far
name
for all eternity.
be
from
evil,
and the wicked
humble
their
mouths
for fear of him.
The
Asiatics
(Amu)
will fall before
his blows,
and the Libyans before
his ilame.
The
wicked
will
wait on his judgments, the rebels on his

power.
in
Canaan
95
The
royal serpent on his
brow
will pacify
the revolted.
wall shall be built, even that of the
prince, so that the Asiatics
may no more
story.
enter into
see the
Egypt'
In this
Ameni we should probably
Amenophis of the Manethonian

Pharaoh of the Exodus
it
Against the identification of Meneptah with the

has, however,
been urged
that he seems on the whole to have been a successful

prince.
His kingdom passed safely through the
shock of the Libyan and northern invasions, and

notices which have survived to us
show
that, at all
events in the earlier part of his reign, Gaza and the
neighbouring towns
still
acknowledged
his authority.
At
it
Zaru, on the Asiatic frontier of Egypt, a young
scribe,
Pa-ebpasa by name, was stationed, whose duty

to keep a record of
all
was
those
who
entered or
Philistines.'
left
the country
by 'the way of the
Some
of his
notes,
made
in
the
third
year of
Meneptah, are entered on the back of his school copybook, which

is
now
in the British
them
. .
.
tells
us that on the fifteenth
Museum. One of of Pakhons Baal-
the son of Zippor of Gaza, passed through with a
letter to
Baal-marom(?)-ga[b]u, the prince of Tyre
another that Thoth, the son of Zakarumu, and the
policeman Duthau, the son of Shem-baal, as well as

.Sutekh-mes, the son of Epher-dagal, had
come from
Gaza with a message to the king.
96
The Egypt of
the
curious despatch, dated in Meneptah's eighth
year, goes to
show
still
that at that time the kinsfolk of

liberty to pass from the desert find pasturage for
the Israelites
had
into the land of

their flocks.
Goshen and there

of his
officials
One
informs him that
certain
Shasu or
Bedouin from
Edom
had been
allowed to pass the
Khetam
or fortress of Meneptah
Hotep-hima
their
in the district
of Succoth, and
make
in
way
and
to
the lakes of the city of Pithom,

'
the district of Succoth,

selves
their herds
in
order to feed them-
on the possessions of Pharaoh,

for
all
who is there a beneficent sun The document may be interpreted may be taken as a proof that the
as yet
peoples.'
It
in
two ways.
Israelites
had not
yet fled from Egypt, and that there was consequently
no
restraint placed
by the Egyptians upon
the entrance of the Asiatic

or
it
nomads
into their country,
may
be regarded as implying that the land of
Goshen
was already deserted, so that there was

for
abundance of room
both shepherds and
flocks.
On
behalf of this view a passage

inscription
'
may
be quoted from
at
the great
of Meneptah
Karnak,
in
which we read that

(the
the country around Pa-Bailos
modern
Belbeis)
was not
cultivated, but left as

It
pasture for cattle because of the strangers.
was
abandoned since the time of the

probably, however, this
ancestors.'
More
in
means
that
the
land
in
Canaan
97
question was not inhabited by Egyptian /^//^2, but
given over to the
Hebrew shepherds and
the
'
mixed
multitude
'
of their Bedouin kinsmen.

serious objection to
A
Seti
more
making Meneptah
as heir
'
the Pharaoh of the

II.
Exodus
is
the fact that his son

to
was already acknowledged
the
throne during his father's lifetime.
The
still
tale of the
two
brothers,' to
which we have already had
to refer,
was dedicated
Indeed,
it
to
him while he was
crown-prince.
would even appear that he was associated

are found side
It
with his father on the throne, since the cartouches of
Meneptah and
Seti
II.
by
side in the
therefore,
rock-temple of Surariyeh.
would seem,
that the first-born of the Pharaoh,
who was
destroyed
on the night of the Passover, could not have been a

son of Meneptah
at
all events, if his heir
successor were his first-born son.
and future That Meneptah
should have been buried in one of the royal tombs

of Biban el-Moltik
at-
Thebes, and received divine

is
honours after his death,
of less consequence.
is
As
in
has often been remarked, no mention

the
narrative
made
of
the
Exodus
and
that
the
Pharaoh
himself
was
8)
drowned,
is
though
the
cult
Meneptah's
that
tomb (No.
paid
to
his
unfinished,
indicates
It
was
memory
in
it.
that
his
mummy
on
its
was deposited
ago,
was plundered centuries

inscriptions
and the numerous Greek G
98
walls
The Egypt of
the

it
make
it
clear that
was open
to visitors in
the
Roman
age.
Professor Maspero has suggested that the Pharaoh

of the Bible was Seti
II.
We
know
that Seti must
have been a weak prince, and that

puted.
his rule
was
dis-
usurper,
Amon-messu by name,
seized the
crown
either during his lifetime or at his death, and
governed at Thebes, while the authority of the lawful

line of princes
was
still
acknowledged
in the north.
for
We
his
also
know
at
that he must have died suddenly,

1
tomb
Thebes (No.
5),
though begun magnifiIts galleries
cently,
was never
finished.
and
halls
were hewn out of the rock, but never adorned with

sculptures and paintings, and, except at the entrance,
we have merely
filled
in.
outline sketches, which were never

in
His cartouches, however, are found

far off
another tomb, not
(No.
13),
and
after his death
worship was paid to him and his
wife.
despatch, written during his reign, relates to
the escape of two fugitives

the very, road which
who had
travelled along
take.
the Israelites
attempted to
The
scribe tells us that
he
set out in pursuit of
them
Ramses on the evening of the 9th of Epiphi, and had arrived at the Khetam or
from the royal city of
fortress of
Succoth the following day.
Two days later
he reached another Khetam, and there learned that the

slaves were already safe in the desert, having passed
in
Canaan
99
the lines of fortification to the north of the Migdol of
King
Seti.
The account
on a
is
an interesting
illustration
of the
flight,
far larger scale, that
taken place about the same time.

the despatch
is
must have The geography of

that of the
in
close
harmony with
Book
of Exodus, and bears witness to the contemlatter
poraneousness of the
fesses to record.
with the events
it
pro-
It is a
geography which ceased to

instead of
be exact after the age of the nineteenth dynasty.

It is
thus possible that Seti
II.,
Menep-
tah,
is
the Pharaoh whose host perished in the waves
of the
Red
Sea.
But there
is
yet another claimant
in Si-Ptah, with
whom
is
the nineteenth dynasty
came
to an end.
Dr. Kellogg has argued ably on behalf

it
of him, and
possible
that
the views
of this
scholar are correct.
Si-Ptah's right to the throne
was
derived from his wife, Ta-user, and he reigned at least

six years.
That he followed
the
Seti
li.
has long been
admitted, on
authority
it
of
Manetho,
though
state-
doubts have been cast on
in
consequence of a
ment of Champollion
at
that he found the
name
of Seti
written over that of Si-Ptah in the
tomb of
the latter
Biban el-Moluk (No.
14).
All doubts, however,
now set at rest by an inscription I copied at Wadi Haifa two years ago, in which the writer, Hora, the son of Kam, declares that he had formerly
are
belonged to the palace of Seti
II.,
and had engraved
lOO
The Egypt of
the

In
in
the inscription in
the third year of Si-Ptah.
another inscription in the same place, dated also
Si-Ptah's reign, the author states that he had been
an ambassador to the land of Khal or Syria.

course with Asia was therefore
Si-Ptah's
still
Inter-
maintained.
SetIt is
it
tomb
at
Thebes was usurped by
nekht, the founder of the twentieth dynasty.
even doubtful whether the king
for
whom
was
made was
ever buried in
it.
In the second sepulchral
hall the lid of his
sarcophagus was discovered, but of

Perhaps
rate,
the sarcophagus itself there was no trace.

it
had been appropriated by Set-nekht.
At any
those
who
believe that the
Pharaoh of the Exodus

Si-Ptah a better
or Seti.
perished in the
Red Sea
will find in in
representative of
him than
Meneptah
And
the period of anarchy which followed upon his
death
may
be regarded as the natural sequel of the

befel
disasters
Israel
that
Egypt before the

go.
children of
were permitted to
However this may be, the question of the date of the Exodus is reduced to narrow limits. The three successors of Ramses II. reigned altogether but a Manetho gives seven years only to Sishort time. Ptah, five years to Amon-messu, and we know from the monuments that Meneptah and Seti II. can have
reigned but a very few years.
at
Thirty or forty years
most
will
have covered the period that elapsed

between the death of the great
downfall of his dynasty.
in
Canaan
loi
Ramses and the Then came a few years of

of
confusion and anarchy, followed by the reign of Setnekht.

If
B.C. 1230,
we place the accession we cannot be far wrong.
Ramses
III.
in
When
among
that happened, the Israelites were hidden
out of the sight of the great nations of the world

the solitudes of the desert.
ing their tents on the frontiers of
They were Mount Seir,
pitchin the
near neighbourhood of their kinsmen in

Midian.
Edom and
fitted to
There, at Sinai and Kadesh-barnea, they
were receiving a code of laws, and being
become a nation and the conquerors of Canaan. Were they included among the Shasu of Mount Seir whose overthrow is commemorated by Ramses III. ?
For an answer we must turn
chapter of the
'
to the twenty-first
Book of Numbers.
There we read
:
how it is said in the book Waheb in Suphah and the

'
of the wars of the Lord
brooks of Arnon, and the
stream of the brook that goeth down to the dwelling

of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.'
war against the Amorites on the banks of the
Of the Arnon
scene
we know something, but

in
the Old Testament has preits
served no record of the other war, which had
Where Suphah was we know from the opening of the Book of Deuteronomy, which tells us
Suphah.
that the words of
Moses were addressed
to the people
I02
'
The Egypt of
the

Suph,
to the
in
fact,
in the plain
over against Suph.'

its
was
the district which gave

'
name
yam
Sfiph or
version,
Sea of Suph,' the Red Sea of the authorised
modern Gulf of Akabah. Here were the Edomite ports of Eloth and Ezion-geber, where Solomon built
the
his fleet of
merchantmen
(i
Kings
'
ix. 26),
and here
'
too was the region which faced
the plain
on the
southern side of Moab.
The
ward
barren ranges of
Mount
was
III.
Seir run
at the
down
south-
to Ezion-geber
and Eloth,
it
head of the
Gulf of Akabah.
And
just in the ranges of

tells
Mount
Seir that
Ramses
us he smote the
Shasu and plundered
their tents.
When
he made
still
this expedition, the Israelites
were probably
en-
camped on
as yet
Edom. They had not entered Canaan when he marched through

the borders of
the later Judaea, and crossed the Jordan into Moab,
and
his
campaign against the Shasu of the
desert
did not take place
many
Habu, the
prisoners
'chief of the
At Medinet Shasu' figures among his

years
later.
by the
'the
side of the kings of the
Hittites
and the Amorites.
Was
war of the Lord'
in
Suphah waged
is
against the Pharaoh of
Egypt?
it is
Chronology
in
favour of
it,
and
if
the enemies of the
Israelites
were not the Egyptian army,

else
hard to say who
they could have been.
We
know from
the
in
Canaan
103
Pentateuch that they were not the people of

'
Edom
meddle not with them,' the
Israelites
were enjoined
the children of
'
Esau were
their
'
brethren,'
and God
tribes of
had given Mount Seir unto Esau
for a possession.'
But whether or not Ramses

Israel
III.
and the
it
ever
came
into actual conflict,

first
must have
been during his reign that the

quests in
Israelitish con-
Canaan were made.

in
The
settlement of
the twelve tribes

final
Palestine was coeval with the
decay of the Egyptian monarchy.
CHAPTER
IV
THE AGE OF THE ISRAELITISH MONARCHIES

Ramses
cessors
hi.
was the
last
of the great Pharaohs
in
whose veins ran native Egyptian blood.

all
His suc-
bore the same
name
as himself, but they

rule.
possessed neither his energy nor his power to
He
had saved Egypt from further attack from without, and

it
was well he had done
so, for
the feeble monarchs

to
of the twentieth dynasty would have been unable

resist the foe.
They ceased even
to build or to erect
the
monuments which
testified to the prosperity of

its art.
the country and the progress of

priests of
The
high-
Amon
gradually usurped their authority,

at length
and a time came

governed
when
the last of the
Ram-
ses fled into exile in Ethiopia,

in his stead.
and a new dynasty

rule of the
But the
new monits priest-
archs was hardly acknowledged beyond the Delta;
Thebes was
kings,
practically independent under
and though they acknowledged the authority

they were independent sovereigns.
of the Tanite Pharaohs in name, they acted, in real

fact, as if
104
One
of
The Age of
the Israelitish
Monarchies
105
them, Ra-men-kheper, built fortresses not only at
Gebelen
in the south,
but also at El-Hibeh in the north,
and thus blocked the river against the subjects of the

Tanite princes, as well as against invaders from the
south.
At
times, indeed, the Tanite Pharaohs of the
twenty-first dynasty exercised an actual sovereignty
over Upper Egypt, and Smendes, the
first
of them,
quarried stone at Dababiyeh, opposite Gebelen, with
which to repair the canal of Luxor

rule,
but, as a general
so
far as the
in
south was concerned, they were

rival
Pharaohs only
high-priests
like.
name. The
dynasty of Theban
was
it
at
once more powerful and more kingin
They
was who,
some moment of danger,
concealed the
mummies
of the great monarchs of the
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties in the pit at Der

el-Bahari,
and whose own mummies were entombed by the side of those of a Thothmes and a Ramses. The Egyptian wife of Solomon was the daughter
Pharaohs
of
the
as a
twenty-first
of one of the last
dynasty.
She brought with her
dowry the
Canaanitish city of Gezer.
Gezer had been one of
the leading cities of Palestine in the days of the Tel
el-Amarna correspondence, and through all the years of Israelitish conquest it had remained in Canaanitish hands. It was a Pharaoh of Tanis, and not an
Israelite, into
whose possession
it
was destined
finally
to
fall.
io6
The Egypt of
the
The waning power

Long before
dynasty
founder,
fathers
of
Solomon
in Israel coincided
with the waning power of the twenty-first dynasty.

the death of the
Hebrew monarch,
Egypt.
new
its
was
reigning
over
origin.
Shishak,
was of Libyan
His immediate
forein
had commanded the Libyan mercenaries
the service of the Pharaoh, and inscriptions lately
discovered
in
the Oasis of El-Khargeh write the
name Shashaka.
its
The Egyptians slightly changed pronunciation and made it Shashanq, but in the
is
Old Testament the true form
preserved.
Shishak brought new vigour into the decaying
monarchy of the Nile. The priest-kings of Thebes went down before him, along with the effete Pharaohs
of Tanis.
It
may
be that Solomon attempted

;
to
assist his father-in-law
if
he did
so,
the only result
was
to bring trouble
fled to
upon himself
His rebel subject
Jeroboam
Egypt, and found shelter and pro-
tection in Shishak's court.
Shishak must have looked on with

while the neighbouring empire of Israel
until eventually the central
in twain.
satisfaction
fell
to pieces,
power
itself
was shattered
at
The
rebel
he had so carefully nurtured
his
own
court was the instrument which relieved him
of
far
all
further fear of danger
on the side of Asia.
So
from being a menace to Egypt, Jerusalem now lay
at the
mercy of the Egyptian armies, and
in the fifth
The Age of
the Israelitish
Monarchies
107
it.
year of Rehoboam, Shishak led his forces against
The
its
strong walls
Solomon had
built
were of no avail
temple and palace were plundered, and the golden

its
shields in
armoury were
carried away.
record
of the campaign was engraved by the conqueror on

the southern wall of the temple of
Amon
at Karnak.
There we read how he had overthrown the

Asiatics,
Amu
or
and the Fenkhu or people of
Palestine,
and
underneath are the cartouches, each with the head

of a captive above
it,
which contain the names of
the conquered places.
At
the outset
come
the
names
But, as
of towns in the northern kingdom of
Israel.
Professor Maspero remarks, this does not prove that
they were actually

If
among
the conquests of Shishak.

his aid against Judah,
Jeroboam had begged
and
the
thereby acknowledged himself the
vassal
of
Pharaoh,
it
would have been a
sufficient pretext for
inserting the
states of
names of
But
Egypt.
was directed quite as

had
among the subject may be that the campaign much against Israel as against
his cities
it
Judah, and that Judah suffered most, simply because

it
to bear the brunt of the attack.

list
In any case, the

first
of vanquished towns begins
with Gaza, the possession of which was necessary
before the Egyptian

Palestine
;
army could
force
its
way
into
then come Rabbith of Issachar, Taanach,
near Megiddo,
Hapharaim and Beth-Horon, while
io8
The Egypt of
the

side of the Jordan,
after this the
is
Mahanaim, on the eastern

included
also
among them.
But
list
deals
exclusively with the towns and villages of Judah, and
of the Bedouin tribes in the desert to the south of
it.
Thus we have Ajalon and Makkedah, Socho and Keilah, Migdol and Beth-anoth. Then we read the names of Azem and Arad, farther to the south, as well as of the Hagaraim or Enclosures of Arad, and Rabbith 'Aradai, Arad the capital' Next to Arad comes the name of Yurahma, the Jerahme-el of the Old
' ' '
Testament, the brother of Caleb the Kenizzite

ii.
(i
Chron.
42) whose land was ravaged by David

29).
(i
Sam.
XXX.
But the larger portion of the

villages
list is
made
up of the names of small

enclosure,'
and even Bedouin

as
'
encampments, or of such general terms

'
Hagra,
Negebu,
'
'
the south,' 'Emeq,
the valley,'
Shebbaleth,
'
torrent,'
'
Abilim,
'
fields,'
Ganat,
garden,'
Haideba,
'
quarry,'
and the Egyptian

look in vain
Shodinau,
canals.'
Among them we
its
even for names like those of Gezer and Beer-sheba.

Jerusalem, too,
is
conspicuous by
absence, unless
it
we
last
agree with Professor Maspero in seeing
in the
first
name
is
of the
list
(No. 133), of which only the
syllable
preserved.
Were
it
not for the record
in
' See Maspero's exhaustive paper The List of Sheshonq at Karnak,' in \\\e Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute,
'
xxvii. (1893-94).
The Age of
the First
that the
the Israelitish
Monarchies
109
Book of Kings, we should never have known

campaign of Shishak had
inflicted
such
signal injury on the
kingdom of Judah.
first
Champollion, indeed, the

list
discoverer of the
and of its importance, believed that he had found

it
in
the
name
of the Jewish capital.
The twentyJudah,' while
ninth cartouche reads Yaud-hamelek, which he explained as signifying

Rosellini
'
the
kingdom of
made
in
it
'
the king of Judah.'

impossible.
'
But both
it is
'
interpretations
are
Melek,
true,
means king
'
'
Hebrew, but
' ;
king of Judah would

Judah,' nial-
have to be melek- Yaudah

k-&th-
kingdom of
Yaudah.
In the Semitic languages the genitive

it.
must follow the noun that governs
Yaud-hamelek is the Hebrew Ye(h)ud ham-melech

'
xix. 45),
Jehud of the king.' Jehud was a town of Dan (Josh, which Blau has identified with the modern
Jaffa,
El-Yehudiyeh, near
in the
and the
title
it
attached to
it
Egyptian
list
implies that
was an appanage
of the crown.
The
faces of the prisoners
who
of
sur-
mount the cartouches

Egyptian
artists
are worthy of attention.

skilled
The
the
were
delineators
human
tures
features,
and an examination of
their sculp-
and paintings has shown that they represented
the characteristics of their models with wonderful

truth
and
accuracy.
For
ethnological
purposes
their portraits of foreign
races are of considerable
lo
The Egypt of
the
importance.
Now
the prisoners of Shishak have the
features, not of the Jew,
but of the Amorite.
The
prisoners sculptors
who
at
served as
models to the Egyptian

therefore have been of
Karnak must
It
is
Amorite descent.
the days of
a proof that the Amorite

still
population in southern Palestine was
strong in
Rehoboam and
Shishak.
in
The Jews
Else-
would have been predominant only

where the older race survived with
istic
Jerusalem and
the larger cities and fortresses of the kingdom.

all its
character-
features
it
the Israelitish conquest had never
rooted
out.
Hence
it
is
that
it
still
lives
and
flourishes in its ancient
home.
The
still
traveller in the
country
districts of
Judah looks
in vain for traces of
the Jewish race, but he
may
see
there the
Amorite
Egypt.
just as he
is
depicted on the monuments of

fact,
The
Jews, in
caste,
were but the conquering
and dominant
nationality
racial type.
and with the extinction of their
came also in Judah the extinction of their The few who remained were one by one
his
absorbed into the older population of the country.
Shishak died soon after
Jewish campaigns.
None
of his successors seem to have possessed his
One of them, however, Osorkon li., appears to have made an expedition against Palestine. Among the monuments disinmilitary capacity
and energy.
terred at Bubastis
by Dr. Naville
for the
Egyptian
The Age of
Exploration
the Israelitish
Monarchies
Fund
are the inscribed blocks of stone

hall
which formed the walls of the second

temple.
called
it
of the
This hall was restored by Osorkon, who

the
'
Festival Hall
'
of
Amon, which was

in
dedicated on the day of Khoiak,
the twenty-
second year of the king's reign.

blocks the Pharaoh declares that
'
On
all
one of the
countries, the
Upper and Lower Retennu, are hidden under his feet' The Upper Retennu denoted Palestine, the Lower Retennu Northern Syria, and though the
boast was doubtless a vainglorious one,
it
must have
had some foundation

In the Second
in truth.
Book of Chronicles (xiv. 9-15) we are told that when Asa was on the Jewish throne, 'there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian
with an host of a thousand thousand and
three
hundred
reign of
chariots.'
The
II.
similarity
between the names

noticed,
Zerah and Osorkon has long been
and the
Osorkon
would coincide with that of Asa.

is
Dr. Naville, therefore,

that
probably right in believing
some connection
exists
between the campaign

It is true
of Zerah and the boast of Osorkon.

the Chronicler calls
scribes
his
that
Zerah an Ethiopian, and deEthiopian host

;
army
as an
but this
seems due to the fact that the next kings of
who
interfered in the affairs of Palestine,
Egypt So and
Tirhakah, were of Ethiopian descent.
In the time
1 1
The Egypt of
the

the twenty-second dynasty
of Asa, at any rate,
when
was ruling over Egypt, no Ethiopian army could have entered Judah without the permission of the
Egyptian monarch.
attention to the fact that
However, Dr. Naville draws Osorkon seems to have

with Ethiopia.
had
some
at
special
tie
His great
natives of
festival
Bubastis was attended
by
Ethiopia, the Anti
came with
hall.
their gifts from
'the
land of the negroes,' and are depicted like the
priests
on the walls of the
But troublous times were

a period'foUowed of confusion,
invasion.
in
store to
for
Egypt.
The twenty-second dynasty came

civil
an end, and
war, and foreign
The
kings of Ethiopia sailed down the

sea.
Nile and swept the country from Assuan to the
Petty princes reigned as independent sovereigns

the
various
cities
in
of Egypt, and waged war one

Pi-ankhi the
Ethiopian was
against
the
other.
content with their momentary submission; he then

retired to his ancestral capital at Napata,
midway
between Dongola and Khartum, carrying with him

the spoils of the Nile.
Another Ethiopian, Shabaka

Egypt.
or Sabako, the son of Kashet, made a more per-
manent settlement
nominal
Pharaoh,
in
He
put to death the

Bokkhorls, and
Bak-n-ran-f or
founded the twenty-fifth dynasty.

restored,
Order was again
the petty princes suppressed, and Egypt
The Age of
as well as Ethiopia
the Israelitish
Monarchies
1 1
obeyed a single head.
The
roads
were cleared of brigands, the temples and walls of

the cities were rebuilt, and trade could again pass
freely
up and down the
Nile.
An Egyptian
civilisation
in
and an Egyptian
religion
had been established

after they
Ethiopia since the days of
the eighteenth dynasty.
For some
centuries, even
had become independent of Egypt, the

But before the age of Sabako the Egyptian
ruling classes boasted of the purity of their Egyptian
descent.
element had been absorbed by the native population.
We
have learned from a monument of the Assyrian
king, Esar-haddon, lately found at Sinjerli, in northern
Syria, that
Sabako and
his successors
had
all
the
physical characteristics of the negro.

this is
But no sign of
race which
allowed to appear on the Egyptian monuments.

for the black
still
With the contempt
distinguishes them, the Egyptians refused to acknow-
ledge that their Pharaohs could be of negro blood.
In the sculptures and paintings of the Nile, accordingly, the
kings of the Ethiopian dynasty are

all
re-
presented with
race.
the
features
of
the
Egyptian
In spite, however, of
fact,
all
attempts to conceal the
we now know
that they were negroes in reality.
But they brought with them a vigour and a strength of will that had long been wanting among the rulers
114
l^fi^
E-gypt of the

their Asiatic
of Egypt.
And
it
was not long before
neighbours found that a
new and
energetic power
had arisen on the banks of the
Nile.
Assyria was
now extending
and claiming
Palestine.
help.
its
empire throughout Western Asia,
to control the politics of Syria and
The Syrian
B.C. 720,
first
princes looked to
Egypt
for
In
Assyria and Egypt met face to

Sib'e, the Tartan, or
face for the
time.
com-
mander-in-chief, of the Egyptian armies, with
Hanno
of Gaza and other Syrian
allies,
blocked the way
of the Assyrian invaders at Raphia, on the border of

Palestine.
Sargon.
Delta.
The victory was won by the Assyrian Hanno was captured, and Sib'e fled to the
But Sargon turned northward again, and did
not follow up his success.

receiving the
tribute
He was
content with
'
of Pharaoh (Pir'u)
king of
Egypt,' of Samsi, the queen of Arabia, and of Ithamar
the Sabaean. In Sib'e
we must
(2
see the
xvii.
So
or Seve of the Old
Testament
'
Kings
4).
He
who
is
there called
king of Egypt,' but he was rather one of the subprinces
ordinate
of the Delta,
'
acted as the
it
commander-in-chief of Pharaoh.'
seem, was
still
Pharaoh,
would
Bak-n-ran-f
later
few years
Sabako was
established on the
throne.
He
reigned at least twelve years, and was
succeeded by his brother-in-law, Tirhakah, the Tarqu
The Age of
the Israelitish
Monarchies
of the Assyrian texts.
Under him, Egypt once more
played a part
It
in
Jewish history.
'
was
trust in
Pharaoh, king of Egypt,' that
made
Hezekiah revolt from Assyria
after Sargon's death.
kingdom by Sennacherib in B.C. 701. Tirhakah moved forward to help his ally. But his march diverted the attention of the Assyrian monarch only for a while. The
result
his
The
was the invasion of
armies of Sennacherib and Tirhakah met at Eltekeh,
and Tirhakah the Pharaoh of Egypt was forced

retire.
to
Both claim a victory

tells
in their inscriptions.
Sennacherib
the
us
how
'the kings of
Egypt and
bowmen,
chariots,
and horses of the king of

their
northern Arabia, had collected

forces
innumerable
his
and gone
to the aid' of
Hezekiah and
'
Philistine allies,
and how
'
in sight of Eltekeh,
in re-
liance on Assur,' he
had fought with them and

'
utterly
overthrown them.'
The
charioteers
and the sons of

taken captive
the king of Egypt, together with the charioteers of
the king of northern Arabia,' he had

in the battle.'
'
Tirhakah, on the other hand, on a
statue
now
in the
Gizeh Museum, declares that he

Hittites, the
was the conqueror of the Bedouin, the

Naharaim.
victory.
Arvadites, the Assyrians, and the people of
Aramhe was
while
The
retreat
battle,
in
fact,
was a Kadmeian
Tirhakah was so
to
to his
far defeated that
forced
own dominions,
ii6
The Egypt of
the
Hebrews and Herodotes
Sennacherib's victory was not decisive enough to allow
him
to pursue
it.
He
contented himself with marchits
ing back into Judah, burning and plundering
towns and
villages,
and carrying
their
inhabitants
into captivity.
Then came
the catastrophe which
destroyed the larger part of his army and obliged
him
his
spoils
own capital. The and captives of Judah were the only fruits of campaign. His rebellious vassal went unpunished,
to return ignominiously to his
fortress of
and the strong

the Assyrian.
military
Jerusalem was saved from
Though Sennacherib made many

came again
to the south
expeditions during the remaining twenty
years of his reign, he never of Palestine.
Egypt
salem.
lay sheltered from invasion behind Jeruthere
But with the death of Sennacherib
came a change. His son and successor, Esar-haddon, was a good general and a man of great ability. Manasseh of Judah became his vassal, and the way With a large body of trained lay open to the Nile.
veterans he descended upon
Egypt
(B.C. 674).
The
sheikh of the Bedouin provided him with the camels
which conveyed the water

desert.
for the
army
across the
Three campaigns were needed before Egypt,

its
under
last,
Ethiopian
ruler,
could be subdued.
But
at
in
B.C.
670, Esar-haddon drove the Egyptian
forces before
him
in fifteen
days (from the 3rd
to the
The Age of
1
the Israelitish
all
Monarchies
117
8th of
Tammuz
or June)
the
way from
the frontier
loss,
to
Memphis,
thrice defeating
them with heavy

Three days
and wounding Tirhakah himself
later
Memphis Egypt to
that
fell,
and Tirhakah
fled to Ethiopia, leaving
the conqueror.
It
was
after this success

stele
the
Assyrian
monarch erected the

is
at
Sinjerli,
on which he
portrayed with Tirhakah of

before him, each
is
Egypt and Baal of Tyre kneeling

with a ring through his
bridle held
lips,
to
which
attached a
by the Assyrian king. Egypt was reorganised under Assyrian

It
rule,
and
measures taken to prevent the return of the Ethiopians.
was divided
into twenty satrapies, the
native princes being appointed to govern

their Assyrian master.
them
for
At
their
head was placed
Necho, the vassal king of
Sais.
Esar-haddon now
cliffs
returned to Nineveh, and on the
of the
Nahr
el-Kelb, near Beyrout, he engraved a record of his
conquest of Egypt and Thebes by the side of the
monument whereon, seven Ramses li. had boasted of

nations of Asia.
centuries
his
previously,
victories
over the
At
first
the Egyptian princes were well pleased
with their change of masters.
But
in
Thebes there
was a strong party which sympathised with Ethiopia With their help, Tirhakah rather than with Assyria.
returned
in
B.C.
668, sailed
down
the Nile, and took
1 1
The Egypt of
storm.
the

at
Memphis by
Esar-haddon started
once
to.
suppress the revolt.
But on the way to Egypt he died on the loth of Marchesvan or October, and his son, Assur-bani-pal, followed him on the throne.
The Ethiopian army was encountered

banit, in the Delta.
near Kargained
A complete victory was
and Tirhakah was compelled to fly, first from Memphis, then from Thebes. The tributary kings whom he had displaced were restored, and Assurover
it,
bani-pal
tranquil.
left
Egypt
in
the
full
belief that
it
was
'But hardly had he returned to Nineveh

fresh
before a
revolt broke
out there.
satraps,
Tirhakah
began to plot with the native
and even
Necho of Sais was suspected of complicity. The commanders of the Assyrian garrisons, accordingly, sent him and two other princes (from Tanis and
Goshen) loaded with chains to Assyria.
or pretending to be
But Assur-
bani-pal, either really convinced of Necho's innocence

so,
not only pardoned him but

as a
bestowed upon him a robe of honour, as well
sword of gold and a chariot and horses, and
sent
him back to Sais, giving at the same time the government of Athribis, whose mounds lie close to Benha,
to
his
son,
Psammetikhos.
to
Meanwhile
Tirhakah
had again penetrated

he celebrated the
of a
Thebes and Memphis, where

honour of the appearance
festival in
new
Apis.
But
his
power was no longer what
The Age of
it
the Israelitish
Monarchies
119
once had been, and even before the return of

it
Necho he found
prudent to
later.
retire
to
Ethiopia.
There he died a few months

against
The Thebaid, however, continued

revolt
in
a state of
the
Assyrian
authority.
Another
Ethiopian king,
whom
the Assyrians call
Urd-Aman,
for the
had succeeded Tirhakah, and was battling

soveifeignty of Egypt.
fied
with the
Urd-Aman is usually identiPharaoh Rud-Amon, whose name has

nothing
further
been met with on two Egyptian monuments, but

about
whom
scholars, however, read the
identify
is known. Some name Tand-Aman, and it with that of Tuatan-Amon or Tuant-Amon,
whose royal cartouches are engraved by the

those of Tirhakah
in the
side of
temple of Ptah-Osiris at
Karnak.
An
inscription found built into a wall at
Luxor mentions his third year, and a large st^le erected by him at Napata was discovered among the
ruins
of his capital in
of Gizeh.
1862,
this
and
is
now
in
in
the the
Museum
first
On
he states that
year of his reign he was excited by a dream to
invade the north.
Thebes opened
in
its
gates to him,
and
after
worshipping
the temple of
Amon
at
Karnak, he marched to Memphis, which he captured

after a slight resistance.
Then he proceeded
against
the princes of the Delta, who, however, shut themselves
up
in
their cities or,. else submitted to
him.
20
The Egypt of
the
of Goshen appeared at Memphis to do him homage, much to the surprise and delight of the Ethiopian king. As Paqrur was the prince of Pi-Sopd or Goshen, who had been sent to Nineveh
One day Paqrur
along with Necho, the date of Tuatan-Amon

clear.
is
pretty
he came to quit Egypt, however, he does not vouchsafe to explain.
How
Whether Urd-Aman were Rud-Amon or TuatanAmon, he gave a good deal of trouble to the
Assyrians.
Thebes was securely

he
in his hands,
and
from
thence
marched
upon
Memphis.
The
in front
Assyrian garrison and
its allies
were defeated
of the city, which was then blockaded and taken after
Necho was captured and put to death, and Psammetikhos escaped the same fate only by
a long siege.
flight into Syria.
But Assyrian revenge did not
tarry
long.
Assur-bani-pal determined to put an end to

for
all.
Egyptian revolt and Ethiopian invasion once
large
army was despatched
to the Nile,
in
which overDelta and

fled
threw the forces of
Rud-Amon
the
pursued him as far as Thebes.
Thence he
Egypt.
to
Kipkip
inflicted
in
Ethiopia, and a terrible punishment was
on the capital of southern

its
The
whole of
Its
inhabitants were led
away
into slavery.
temples
at once
the centres of disaffection and
fortresses
against attack
were
half-demolished,
all
its its
monuments and
palaces were destroyed, and
The Age of
treasures,
the Israelitish
Monarchies
carried
121
sacred
and profane, were

were
away.
Among
the
spoil
two
obelisks,
more than
removed
to
seventy tons in weight,
which were
Nineveh as trophies of
victory.
The
injuries
which
Kambyses has been accused of inflicting on the ancient monuments of Thebes were really the work
of the Assyrians.
How
great was the impression
made upon
the
oriental world
from the reference to

(iii.
by the sack of Thebes may be gathered it by the prophet Nahum

itself
is
8-10).
Nineveh
'
threatened with the
same overthrow.
Art
thou better
than
No
of
Amon,
that
was
situate
it,
among
the rivers, that had

sea,
the waters round about

(the Nile),
whose rampart was the

?
and her wall was from the sea

it
Ethiopia
;
and Egypt were her strength, and and Lubim were thy
were dashed
helpers.
:
was
infinite
Put
Yet was she

top of
carried
away, she went into captivity
her young children also

all
in pieces at the lots for her
the streets
all
and they cast

her great
destruction
honourable men, and

in
men were bound
chains.'
As
B.C.
the
665,
of Thebes took place about
the date of
Nahum's prophecy cannot have been

is
much
later.
In the Assyrian inscriptions Thebes
called Ni',
corresponding with the
No
the
of the Old Testament.
Both
words represent
Egyptian
Nu,
'
city,'
122
The Egypt of
the

city'
Thebes being pre-eminently 'the

Egypt.
Its
of Upper
patron-deity was
Amon,
to
whom
it
its
great temple was
dedicated, and hence
is
it
that
Nahum
into side
still
calls
it
'
No
of Amon.'
Nile,
Divided as
was
two halves by the
by
canals,
one of which
the
'
and encircled on
either
'
southern water
runs past the southern front of the temple of

it
Luxor,
could
truly
this
be
said
that
is
its
'rampart
'the
was the
sea
'
sea.'
To
day the Nile

into
called
by the natives of Egypt.

Egypt no
;
The Ethiopians penetrated The twenty satrapies were

Psammetikhos
received
his
more.
re-established
father's
and
principality,
though the precedence among the vassal-kings was

given to Paqrur of Goshen.
For a time the country
was
at peace.
Fifteen
years
later,
however, an event occurred

its
which shook the Assyrian empire to
foundations.
revolt
broke out which spread throughout the

it.
whole of
The
revolt
was headed by Assur-banifor
pal's brother, the
Viceroy of Babylonia, and
some
time the result wavered in the balance.
But the
good generalship and disciplined

eventually prevailed, and
struggle,
forces of Assyria
she emerged
from
the
exhausted indeed, but triumphant.
The
empire, however, was shrunken.
Gyges of Lydia
and had
assisted
had
thrown
ofif
his
allegiance,
The Age of
the Israelitish
Monarchies
123
Psammetikhos of Sais to make Egypt independent. While the Assyrian armies were battling for existence in Asia, Psammetikhos, with the Ionian and
Karian mercenaries from Lydia, was driving out the

Assyrian
satraps.
garrisons
and
overcoming
his
brother
One by one
they disappeared before him,
and
at last
he had the satisfaction of seeing Egypt a

of native race. the founder of the twenty-sixth
united and independent monarchy, under a monarch
who claimed to be The blood of
dynasty was, however, mixed.
He
is
seems to have
it
been, partly at least, of Libyan descent, and
is
even doubtful whether his name
pure Egyptian.
Like
the
his father,
he surrounded himself with foreigners
Greeks and Karians, with whose help he had
gained his throne, were high in favour, and constituted

the royal body-guard.
The
native Egyptian army,
we
are told, deserted the king in disgust and
their
way
to Ethiopia.
settled
troops
were
made However that may be, Greek camps in the Delta, in

' '
Greek merchants were allowed to trade and even

to build in Egypt,
and the Karians became drago-
men, guides, and interpreters between the natives
and the European

Nile.
It
tourists
who began
to visit the
was during the reign of Psammetikhos
i.
(B.C.
664-610) that the great invasion of
nomad
Scyths,
124
The Egypt of
the
referred to in the earlier chapters of Jeremiah, swept
over Western Asia.

Philistines
frontier,
and made
After
They sacked their way
the towns of the

to
the Egyptian
but there they were bought off by Psamtheir
metikhos.
dispersion,
the
Egyptian
Pharaoh turned
his eyes towards Palestine, with the
intention of restoring the Asiatic empire of
Ramses
li.
The
twenty-sixth dynasty was an age of antiquarian

;
revival
not content with restoring Egypt to peace

its
and prosperity,
kings aimed also at restoring the
Egypt of the
past.
Egyptian
art
again puts on
in
an antique form, temples are repaired or erected

accordance with ancient models, and literature
the
reflects
general
to
tendency.
The
is
revival
;
only wanted
it
is,
originality
make
it
successful
as
the art
of the twenty-sixth dynasty
careful
and good, and
under
St.
Egypt enjoyed for the last time a Luke's summer of culture and renown. The power of Assyria was passing away. The
its
rule
great rebellion, and the wars in
had drained
vasion
it
of
its
Elam which followed, The Scythic inresources.

little
destroyed
what
strength
was
left.
Before Psammetikhos died
Nineveh
was already
it
surrounded by its
utterly.
foes,
and four years
later
perished
The
pendent.
provinces of the west became virtually inde-
Josiah of Judah
still
called himself a vassal
The Age of
of the Assyrian
the Israelitish
Monarchies
if
125
the
monarch, but he acted as

exist.
Assyrian monarchy did not
The Assyrian
governor of Samaria was deprived of his authority,
and Jewish
rule
was obeyed throughout what had
been the territory of the Ten Tribes.
The weakness of Assyria was the opportunity of The earlier years of the reign of PsamEgypt.
metikhos were spent
in reorganising his
all
kingdom and
and temples.
to
army,
in
suppressing
opposition to his government,

cities
and
in
rebuilding the ruined

into Palestine
for
Then he marched
secure once
tines.
and endeavoured
cities
more
Egypt the
after a
in
of the Philissiege,
Ashdod was taken
prolonged
and
an Egyptian garrison placed
it.
The successor of Psammetikhos was his son Necho, who carried out the foreign policy of his father. The old canal which ran from the Red Sea at Suez to the
Nile near Zagazig, and which centuries of neglect
had allowed
out,
'
to be choked,
was again
partially cleared
off'
and the tongue of the Egyptian sea was cut

15).
(Isa. xi.
Ships were also sent from Suez under
Phcenician pilots to circumnavigate Africa.
Three
years did they spend on the voyage, and after passing

the Straits of Gibraltar, finally arrived safely at the
mouths of the
Nile.
There an incredulous people
heard that as they were sailing westward the sun was
on their right hand.
126
The Egypt of
the

ships,
But long before the return of his
Necho had
placed himself at the head of his army and entered on the invasion of Asia. The Syrians were defeated
at Migdol, and Gaza was occupied. army then proceeded to march along
The Egyptian
the sea-coast by
the ancient military road, which struck inland at the
Nahr
the
el-Kelb.
his
But the Jewish

result
king, pleading
his
duty to
Assyrian suzerain, attempted
to block
way; the
was a
battle
in
the plain of
totally routed,
Megiddo, where the Jewish forces were
and Josiah himself carried from the

wounded.
as
field
mortally
far
Necho now overran northern Syria as the Euphrates, and then returned southward
the
to
punish
Jews.
Jerusalem
was
captured
king,
by
treachery,
and
Jehoahaz, the
new
deposed
after a reign
of only three months.
The Pharaoh
city
then
made
his
brother Eliakim king in his stead,
changing his name to Jehoiakim.
The
was
fined
a talent of gold and a hundred talents of
silver,
and
Necho
sent his armour to the temple of Apollo near
Miletus as a thank-offering to the god of his Greek

mercenaries.
The empire
events in
Asia.
of
Thothmes was restored, at all But it lasted hardly more than

B.C.
three years.
In
605
decisive
battle
was
fought
at
Carchemish,
on
the
Euphrates,
now
prince
JerabKis, between
Necho and the Babylonian

The Age of
Nebuchadrezzar,
the Israelitish
Monarchies
127
who commanded the army of his father Nabopolassar. The Egyptians fled in confusion, and the Asiatic empire was utterly lost. The Jewish
king transferred his allegiance to the conqueror, and
for
three
years 'became
in
his
servant'
Then he
rebelled,
probably
consequence of a fresh attempt
made by
Palestine.
the Egyptians to recover their power in
Babylonian
The attempt, however, failed, and a army was sent against Jerusalem.
class,
all
Jehoiakim was already dead, but his son Jehoiachin,

along with the leading citizens, the military
and the artisans was carried into
ten
'
thousand captives
'
in
exile in Babylonia (B.C. 599).
His
uncle Zedekiah was
placed on the throne, and for
nearly nine years he remained faithful to his Babylonian master.
Then came temptation from the side of Egypt. II., who had succeeded his father prepared to march into Palestine, in B.C. Necho 594,
Psammetikhos
and contest the supremacy over Western Asia with
the Babylonian monarch.
Babylonian army was

city
.
already besieging the
revolted
of
Jerusalem
when the forces of the Pharaoh appeared in sight. The Babylonians broke up their camp and retired, and it seemed as if the rebellion of the Jewish king had been successful (Jer. xxxvii. S, 1 1 Ezek. xvii.
;
128
The Egypt of
But
it
the
was not
for long.
The Egyptians
B.C.
its
returned
to
'
their
own
land,'
and the siege of Jerusalem was

last,
recommenced.
taken,
its
At
its
in
588, the city was
king and most of
inhabitants led into

fire.
captivity,
and
temple and palace burned with
Judah was placed under a Babylonian governor, and

the authority of the Babylonians acknowledged as
far as
Gaza.
il.
Psammetikhos
and
his son
had died
in the preceding year,
Uahabra, the Apries of the Greeks, the
Hophra of the Old Testament, occupied his place. The army which had gone to the help of Zedekiah had doubtless been sent by him. He had recaptured
Gaza, and marched along the coast to Sidon, which
he captured, and Tyre, which was
in rebellion against
the Chaldaeans, while his fleet defeated the combined

forces of the Cyprians
sea.
and Phoenicians, and held
the
A hieroglyphic
inscription, erected
by a
native
of Gebal and commemorative of the invasion, has

recently been found near Sidon.
But the Egyptian
conquests were again
lost
almost as quickly as they
had been made.

Palestine
the frontiers
became a Babylonian province up to of Egypt. Many of the Jews who had

it
been
left in
fled to
Egypt.
Their numbers were
reinforced
was the
leader,
by a band of outlaws, of whom Johanan who had murdered the Babylonian
T.he
Age of
the Israelitish
Monarchies
129
govefnbr and had dragged into Egypt with them the

prophet Jeremiah and his scribe Baruch.
in
Jeremiah
pre-
vain protested against their conduct, and
dicted that
Hophra should be
'
slain
by
his enemies, his throne
and that Nebuchadrezzar should

on that very pavement
house
in
set
up
at the entry of Pharaoh's
Tahpanhes
'
where the prophet was then

is
standing.
Tahpanhes
almost certainly Tel ed-
Defneh, the Daphnae
of Greek geography, which
stands in the mid-desert about twelve miles to the
west of
Kantara on the Suez Canal, and where
Professor Flinders Petrie
made
in 1886.
excavations for the

built
There he found the Greek mercenaries.

go by the name
In front of
remains of a great fortress and camp, which had been
by Psammetikhos
walls of the
I.
for his
The
camp were
fortress
forty feet in thickness,

still
and the ruins of the

of the
it
'
Castle of the Jew's Daughter.'
is
a brick pavement, just like that described by
Jeremiah.
Daphnae,
in fact,
was one of the chief

it
fortresses
of Egypt on the side of Asia, and
was accordIt
ingly the chief station of the Greek mercenaries.
commanded
almost the
the
first
entrance to
place in
the
Delta,
and was
Egypt
that the traveller
from Palestine who came by the modern caravan

road would approach.
It
I
was, therefore, the
first
130
The Egypt of
the
settlement at which Jewish fugitives
who wished
first
to
avoid the Babylonian garrison at Gaza would be

likely to arrive.
And
it
was
also the
object
of attack on the part of an invader from the East.

Its possession
opened to him the way
to
Memphis.
That Nebuchadrezzar actually invaded Egypt, as Jeremiah had predicted, we now know from a frag-
ment of
his annals.
In his thirty-seventh year
(B.C.
567) he marched into Egypt, defeating the Pharaoh
Amasis, and the soldiers of 'Phut of the

'a distant land which
is
lonians,'
sea.'
in the
midst of the
The
was
enemies, therefore, into whose hands Hophra

to
fall
were not the Babylonians.
They
were,
in fact, his
own
subjects.
his
He had
pursued the Hellenising policy of
predecessors with greater
thoroughness than they
had done, and had thus aroused the jealousy and

alarm of the native population.
The Greek
mer-
cenaries alone had his confidence, and the Egyptians
accused him of betraying the native troops
whom
he
had sent to the help of the Libyans against the
Greek colony of Kyren^.
Amasis
(or
Ahmes),
his
brother-in-law, put himself at the head of the rebels.
battle
troops of
was fought near Sais between the Greek Hophra on the one side and the revolted
in the defeat
Egyptians on the other, which ended
of the Greeks and the capture of Hophra himself
The Age of
the Israelitish
Monarchies
131
Amasis was proclaimed king

the captive Pharaoh was at
(B.C. 570),
and though
first
treated with respect,
he was afterwards put to death.
The change
of monarch
to the Greeks in Egypt.
made little difference They were too valuable,
both as soldiers and as traders, for the Pharaoh to

dispense with their services.
The mercenaries were

Memphis,
in
removed from Daphnse to

heart of the
the very
kingdom, and fresh privileges were
granted to the merchants of Naukratis.
married a Greek wife, and a demotic papyrus,

at Paris,
The Pharaoh now

the temples
even describes
how he robbed
to the
of Memphis,
On and
Bubastis of their endowments
and handed them over

Council
'
Greek
troops.
'
The
'
which sat under him ordered that

fuel,
the
vessels, the
the linen, and the dues' hitherto
enjoyed by their gods and their priests should be

given
instead
to
the
foreigner.
In
this
act
of
sacrilege the Egyptians of a later
day saw the cause
of the downfall of their country.
The
it
invasion of
Nebuchadrezzar had passed over

ing
without produc-
much
injury
indeed,
it
does not seem to have

half of the
Delta.
extended beyond
the
eastern
But a new power, that of Cyrus, was rising in the Amasis had foreseen the coming storm, and East.
had occupied Cyprus in advance. If Xenophon is to be believed, he had also sent troops to the aid
132
But all was of no avail. The power of Cyrus steadily increased. The empires of
of Krcesus of Lydia.
Lydia and Babylonia went down before

his son
it,
and when
Kambyses succeeded him
in July, B.C. 529,
the
to
new empire extended from

It
the Mediterranean
India and from the Caspian to the borders of
Egypt.
was
clear that the fertile banks of the
Nile would be the next object of attack.
Greek vanity asserted that the actual cause of the invasion was the Greek mercenary Phanes. He
had deserted to Kambyses, and explained
to
him
how Egypt could be entered. That Phan6s was a name used by the Egyptian Greeks we know from
its
occurrence on the fragment of a large vase
dis-
covered by Professor Petrie at Naukratis.

read
' :
Here we
to
Phanes the son of Glaukos dedicated me
Apollo of Naukratis.'
But the invasion of Egypt
by Kambyses was the necessary consequence of the policy which had laid the whole of the oriental world
at his father's feet.
Amasis died while the army of Kambyses was on

its
march
(B.C. 526),
and
his son
Psammetikhos
III.
had
to bear the brunt of the attack.
battle was
fought near Pelusium, and though the Greek and
Karian auxiliaries did their

gained the day.
best, the invading forces

fled
The Pharaoh
to
Memphis,
which was thereupon besieged by Kambyses.
The
The Age of
siege
the Israelitish
Monarchies
133
was a short one.

his son, together with
The
city of 'the
White
Wall' was taken, Psammetikhos made a prisoner,
and
two thousand youths of
the leading Egyptian families,
was put
to death.
For
live,
a while Psammetikhos himself was allowed to
but the fears of the conqueror soon caused him to
be executed, and with his death came the end of

the twenty-sixth dynasty and the independence of
Egypt.
CHAPTER V
THE AGE OF THE PTOLEMIES
JUDAH had
profited
by the revolution which had

Nile.
been so disastrous to the monarchy of the
The overthrow
rise
of the Babylonian empire and the
of Cyrus had brought deliverance from exile

its
and the restoration of the temple and

successors had, as
services.
In the Jewish colony at Jerusalem, Cyrus and

it
his
were, a bridle upon
Egypt;
gratitude to their deliverer and freedom to enjoy
the theocracy which had taken the place of the
Davidic monarchy
made
the Jewish people an out-
post and garrison upon whose -loyalty the Persian
king could
rely.
The yoke
of the
Zoroastrian
Darius and
his
descendants pressed heavily, on the other hand, upon

the priests and people of Egypt.
Time
after time
they attempted to revolt.
Their
first rebellion,
under
Khabbash, saved Greece from the legions of Darius
and postponed the day of Persian invasion
to a time
when
the incapable Xerxes sat upon the throne of

134
The Age of
his energetic father.
the JPtolemies
135
in
second time they rose

I.,
insurrection in the reign of Artaxerxes
the sucII.
cessor of Xerxes.
But under Artaxerxes
came
a more formidable outbreak, which ended in the
recovery of Egyptian independence and the establishment of the last three dynasties of native kings.
For
sixty-five years (from B.C.

its
preserved
independence.
it,
414 to 349) Egypt More than once the

but they were foiled
Persians sought to recover
by the Spartan
allies
of the
Pharaoh or by the
good fortune of the Egyptians.

resistance.
in the
But
civil
feuds
and cowardice sapped the strength of the Egyptian
Greek mercenaries and
sailors
now fought
ranks of the Persians as well as in those of
the Egyptians, and the result of the struggle between
Egypt was in great measure dependent on the amount of pay the two sides could afford The army was insubordinate, and to give them.
Persia and
between
the
Greek and
feud.
Egyptian
II.
soldiers
there
was jealousy and

the last of the
father,
Nektanebo
(B.C. 367-49),
Pharaohs, had dethroned his
own
and though he had .once driven the Persian

back from the coasts of
king Artaxerxes Ochus
Egypt, he failed to do so a second time.

were
left
The Greeks
Memphis From thence
to defend themselves as best they could
at Pelusium, while
Nektanebo
retired to
with 60,000 worthless native troops.
136
The Egypt of
fled to
the

his
he
Ethiopia with his treasures, leaving
country
his
in the
hands of the Persian.
Ochus wreaked
vengeance on the Egyptian
priests, destroying
demanding a heavy ransom for the sacred records he had robbed, setting up an ass
the temples,
a symbol in Egyptian eyes of
all
that was evil and
unclean
as
the patron-god of the conquered land,

bull
and slaying the sacred
Apis
in sacrifice to the his
new
divinity.
The murder
of
Ochus by
Egyptian
for these
eunuch Bagoas was the penalty he paid

outrages on the national
faith.
free.
Egypt never again was
Its rulers
faith,
have been
of manifold races and forms of
but they have
never again been Egyptians.
Persians, Greeks and
Romans, Arabs, Kurds,
Circassians,
Mameluk
slaves
all
and Turks, Frenchmen and Englishmen, have

governed or misgoverned
it,
but throughout
this long
political
page of
life.
its
history there
is
no sign of native
Religion or taxation has alone seemed able
to stir the people into

aspirations after national
movement or revolt. For freedom we look in vain.

left
The
Persian was not
long in the possession of

gates to
his rebellious province.
Egypt opened her
Alexander of Macedon,
been associated
as in later ages she opened
her gates to the Arab 'Amru.

in the
The Greeks had

was as a Greek
long
Egyptian mind with opposition
to the hated Persian,
and
it
that
The Age of
the Ptolemies
137
Alexander
entered
the
country.
Memphis and
his best to prove
Thebes welcomed him, and he did

to his subjects that he as one of their ancient kings.
had indeed come among them
Hardly had he reached

Then,
the
to
Memphis
after
before he went in state to the temple of

sacrifice to the sacred bull.
Apis and offered
founding Alexandria at the spot where
native village of Rakoti stood, he
made
his
way
the Oasis of
Ammon,
sands of the distant
modern Siwah, among the desert, and there was greeted by

the
old, the
the high-priest of the temple as the son of the god.
Like the Pharaohs of
Macedonian conqueror
in
became the son of Amon-Ra, and

claimed divine honours.
Egypt
at least
Before leaving Egypt Alexander appointed the
nomarchs who were to govern

justice
it,
and ordered that

according
to
should be
administered
the
ancient law of the land.

tans into the Thebaid
in
;
He
also sent
7000 Samari-
some of them were settled Fayyum, and in the papyri discovered by Professor Petrie at Hawara mention is made of a Appointvillage which they had named Samaria. collector of ing Kleomenes prefect of Egypt and the taxes, Alexander now hurried away to the
the
Euphrates, there to overthrow the shattered

the Persian Empire.
It
relics
of
was while he was
at
Ekbatana that
his friend
138
The Egypt of
the
H^phffisti6n died, and Alexander wrote to Egypt to

inquire of the oracle of
Ammon
what honours
it
was
lawful for hina to pay to the dead man.
In reply
H^phsestion was pronounced to be a god, and a
temple was accordingly erected to him at Alexandria,
and the new lighthouse on the island of Pharos was

called after his name.
When Alexander died

the council of
his
suddenly and unexpectedly,
generals
which
assembled
at
Babylon declared
to be his successor.
all
his half-brother, Philip Arridsus,
But they reserved
to themselves
the real power in Alexander's empire.
Ptolemy,
the son of Lagos, chose
Egypt
as the seat of his

to
government, which was accordingly handed over
him by Kleomen^s on his arrival there, a year after His first act was to the accession of the new king.
put Kleomen^s
\.o
death.
Then came the long

that
funeral procession bearing
the corpse of Alexander from Babylon to the tomb
was
to be erected for
him
in his
new
it
city of
Alexandria.
its
More than a year passed
while
wound
way
slowly from city to
city, till at last it arrived
Here the body of the great conqueror rested awhile until the gorgeous sepulchre was made ready in which it was finally to repose.
at
Memphis.
It
was plain that Ptolemy was aiming
at inde-
pendent power.
Perdikkas, the regent, accordingly
The Age of
the Ptolemies
39
attacked him, carrying in his train the young princes,

Philip Arridaeus,
and Alexander ^gos, the infant But the invading army was
was
slain,
son
of
Alexander.
routed below Memphis, Perdikkas

the
and
young princes
this
fell
into the
hands of the conqueror.
From
time forward, Ptolemy, though nominally

if
a subject, acted as
he were a king.
it
Nikan6r was sent into Syria to annex

assaulted on the Sabbath
to Egypt.
it
Jerusalem alone resisted the invaders, but
was
when
all
the defenders with-
drew from the

at end.
walls,
and
further opposition
was
Palestine and Ccele-Syria were again united
with the kingdom on the Nile.
The
union, however, did not last long.
In
B.C. 3
Philip Arridaeus
was murdered, and Alexander was
proclaimed successor to his empty dignity.
The
But
year following, Antigonus, the rival of Ptolemy in
Asia Minor, made ready to invade Egypt.
Ptolemy had already conquered^ Kyr^ne and Cyprus,

and was master of the
sea.
Syria and
Palestine,
however, submitted to Antigonus, and though Ptolemy
gained a decisive victory over his enemies at Gaza,
he did not think
it
prudent to pursue
it.
He
con-
tented himself, therefore, with razing the fortifications
of Acre and Jaffa, of Samaria and Gaza. In B.C. 312 the generals of Alexander,
called themselves the lieutenants of his son,
who
still
came
to a
140
The Egypt of
the
general agreement, each keeping that portion of the
empire which he had made his own.
The agreement
was almost immediately followed by the murder of Alexander ^gos. Cleopatra, the sister of the great
Alexander, and his niece Thessalonika alone
re-
mained of the royal
family,
and Cleopatra, on her
way
to
Egypt
(in
to
Antigonus
marry Ptolemy, was assassinated by B.C. 308), and Alexander's niece soon
fate.
afterwards shared the same

'
The
family of
the son of
Ammon,'
the annihilator of the Persian
Empire, was extinct.
Two
and
years
later, in
B.C.
306, an end was put to
the farce so long played
by the
generals of Alexander,
each
of them
assumed
'
the
title
of
king.
Ptolemy took that of
king of Egypt.'
To
'
this the
Greeks afterwards added the name of Soter,
Saviour,'
when
his supplies of corn
had saved the Rhodians
from destruction during their heroic defence of their

city against the multitudinous war-ships of Antigonus.
Throughout
his rule,
Ptolemy never
forgot the
needs and interests of the kingdom over which he

ruled.
Alexandria was completed, with

its
its
unrivalled
harbours,
stately public buildings,
its
broad quays
it
and
its
spacious streets.
From
first
to last
It
re-
mained the Greek

in
its
capital of Egypt.
was Greek
in its
origin,
;
Greek
in its architecture,
Greek
population
Greek also
in its character, its manners,
The Age of
the Ptolemies
141
and
its faith.
Cut
off
from the
rest of
Egypt by the
it
Mareotic Lake, and enjoying a European climate,
was from
its
foundation what
it
is
to-day, a city of
it,
Europe rather than of Egypt.

fortunes of their
to Egypt,
it
From
as from an
impregnable watch-tower, the Ptolemies directed the
kingdom
it
was not only the key
was
also a bridle
its
upon
it.
The wealth
West met
in
it
of the world passed through
streets
and harbours
the religions and philosophies of East and
within
its
halls.
Ptolemy had
founded
a
in
university, a prototype of
Oxford and Cambridge
modern England, of the Azhar in modern Cairo. In the Museum, as it was called, a vast library was gathered together, and its well-endowed chairs were
filled
with learned professors from
all
parts of the
lectures
Greek world, who wrote books and delivered
and dined together at the royal charge.
But the Greeks were not the only inhabitants of
new city. The Jews also settled there in large numbers on the eastern side of the town, attracted by
the the offers of Ptolemy and the belief that the rising
centre of trade
would be better worth inhabiting

fields
than the wasted
of Palestine.
All the rights of
Greek citizenship were granted to them, and they

were placed on a footing almost of equality with
Ptolemy's
own countrymen.
Egyptians were
far
The
native
worse treated.
142
The Egypt of
'
the
They had become

of water
'
the hewers of
wood and
It
its
carriers
for their
new Greek
masters.
was they
who
in
furnished the government with
revenue, but
privileges.
return
they possessed no
for
rights,
no
When
it
land was wanted

as, for
the veterans
of
the
Macedonian army,
example, in the Fayyum,

without
compensation.
laid
was
taken
from
them
Taxes, ever heavier and heavier, were
upon
them
and every attempt
at remonstrance or mur-
muring
was
visited
with
immediate punishment.
unless he could be
The Egyptian had no

next to impossible
for
rights
registered a citizen of Alexandria,
and
this
it
was
him
to be.
all
It is true that the
Egyptians were told
this
was done
in
order that their
own
laws and customs
might not be interfered with.
While the Greeks and

law, the Egyptians
land.
Jews were governed by Greek
were governed by the old law of the
But
it
was forgotten that the laws were administered by

Greeks,
and that the higher

against
It
officials
were
also
Greeks, who, as
arbitrary power.
an
Egyptian, possessed
themselves,
was only amongst
as between Egyptian and Egyptian, that the natives of the country enjoyed any benefit from the laws
under which they lived
wherever the government

like out-
and the Greeks were concerned, they were

casts,
who
could be punished, but not
tried.
The Age of
the Ptolemies
143
Nevertheless the country for

tranquil.
many years remained

his
Unlike the Persians, the Greeks respected
the religion of the people.

to conciliate the priesthood
Ptolemy did
;
utmost
re-
their temples
festivals
were
stored and
decorated, their
;
were treated
with honour
touched.
above
all,
their
endowments were unto be
And
The
with the priesthood disposed to be
friendly towards him,

afraid.
it
Ptolemy had no reason

;
priests
were the national leaders
they
was who had
stirred
up the
in
revolts against the
Persian,
and the temples
which they served had
been the fortresses and rallying-points of the rebel

armies.
The Egyptians have always been an

;
in-
tensely religious people

their
whatever
may have been
form of creed, whether pagan, Christian, or

it
Moslem, they have clung to

battled for
will
it,
with tenacity and

zeal.
sometimes with fanatical
Religion
;
arouse them
it
when nothing
else
can do so
by
the side of
influence.
even the love of gain has but
little
Besides
conciliating
the
priesthood,
Ptolemy
planted garrisons of Greeks in several parts of the

country.
Bodies of veterans colonised the Fayytim,

in
and Ptolemais, now Menshiyeh,

a Greek city modelled in
andria.
all
respects
Upper Egypt, was upon Alex-
The
public accounts were kept in Greek,
and though the clerks and tax-gatherers were usually
144
The Egypt of
the
natives
of
'
who had received a Greek education, many them were Greeks by birth and even Jews.
Ostraka,' or inscribed potsherds, have been found at
Thebes, which show that in the days of Ptolemy
Physkdn, a Jew, Simon, the son of Eleazar, farmed

the taxes there for the temple of
Amon.
As he
did
for
not himself
know
Greek, his receipts were written

sons.
him by one of his

ceeded
is
After his death he was suchis son Philokles.
in his office
it
by
The name
religion
noticeable, as
shows how rapidly the Jews of
Egypt could become wholly Greek.

of his forefathers was not likely to
sit
The
heavily on the
shoulders of the tax-gatherer of a heathen temple,
and we need not wonder

family.
in
at the Hellenisation of his
Simon was a sample of many of his
brethren
adopting Greek culture the Jews of Egypt began

It required the shock
to forget that they were Jews.
of persecution at Jerusalem, and the Maccabean war

of independence to recall
their past history
race.
them
to a recollection of
and a sense of the mission
of their
With the
an end.
rise of
the Greek kingdom in Egypt,
the canonical books of the Old Testament come to
Jaddua, the
last high-priest recorded in the

7,
Book of Nehemiah
(xii.
if
22),
met Alexander
is
the
Great at Mizpeh, and
Josephus
to be trusted,
ancient
obtained from him a recognition
of the
The Age of
privileges
the Ptolemies
145
of the Jews and their exemption from
taxation every Sabbatical year.

Chronicles
(iii.
The
to
First
Book of
23) seems to bring the genealogy of
the descendants of Zorobabel

date.
down
an even later
off,
But where the canonical books break
the
books of the Apocrypha begin.

Sirach, in his prologue to the
tells
Jesus the son of

Ecclesiasticus,
Book of
it
us that he had translated

into
in
Egypt from
the
third
its
Hebrew
Greek,
when
Euergetes,
Ptolemy, was king, and thirty-eight years after

compilation by his grandfather Jesus.
the
Like most of
Palestinian
apocryphal
but
its
books,
it
thus had a
origin,
translation into
Greek indicates the
intercourse that
was going on between the Jews of
Palestine and those of Egypt, as well as the general
adoption of the Greek language by the Egyptian

Jews.
The
translation
of the
Hebrew
is
Scriptures into
Greek about the same

illustration of the
gint,'
period
fact.
a yet more striking

of Septua'
same
The name
still
which
the translation
retains, perpetuates
its
the legend, derived from the false Aristaeas, of
having been made
all
at
one time by seventy (or

internal evidence
seventy-two) translators.
But
shows
that such could not have been the case.
The
various
books of the Canon were translated at different times,
and the translators exhibit very
different degrees of
146
The Egypt of
the
ability
and acquaintance with the Hebrew language.

the
first
The Pentateuch was

Greek
;
to be rendered into
it
the other books followed afterwards, and
would appear that the Book of

found a place
translation of the
Ecclesiastes never
all. The Greek now found in the
in the translation at
book which
is
Septuagint was probably

It
was under Ptolemy

'
made by Aquila. ii., who justified

work of
his title of
Philadelphus, or
his
Brother-loving,'
by the murder
had resigned
of
two
brothers, that the
translation was
his
begun.
Ptolemy
S6ter, his father,

his
crown two years before

proved that his confidence
not misplaced.
death, and the event

filial
in his son's
piety was
at
The
coronation of Philadelphus
Alexandria was celebrated with one of the most

gorgeous
details of
pageants
the
world has ever
seen,
the
which are preserved by Athenseus.

the
internal
Under
of
the
the
new king
develophient
monarchy went on
outlet near
apace.
The
canal was opened

at
which connected the Nile with the Red Sea, and

its
Suez a town was
built called Arsino^,
after the king's sister.
The
ports of Berenike and

fortified
Philotera
(now Qoseir) were constructed and
on the coast of the
Red
Sea, and roads

Nile.
made
to
them
from Koptos and Syene on the
In this way
to
the ivory and gems of the Sud^n could be brought
Egypt without passing through the
hostile territories
The Age of
of the Ethiopians in
desert
itself
the Ptolemies
147
Upper Nubia.
In the eastern
the mines of emerald and gold were
worked
until the royal
revenue was increased to more
than three millions sterling a year.
Though Ptolemy Philadelphus was fond
of show,
he was not extravagant, and his income was sufficient

not only to maintain a large army and navy and
protect efficiently the frontier of his kingdom, but also
to leave a large reserve fund in the treasury.
It
was
amount to as much as a hundred millions sterling. It was no wonder, therefore, that Alexandria became filled with sumptuous buildings. The
said to
Pharos or lighthouse was finished by S6stratos, as

as the tomb of Alexander, whose body was moved from Memphis to the golden sarcophagus which had been prepared for it. The library of the
well
Museum was
science
stocked with books until 400,000
rolls
of papyrus were collected together, and
men
of
and learning from

it
all
parts of the world were
attracted to
principal
by the munificence of the king. The librarianship, however, changed hands on
the accession of the

the ex-tyrant
librarian,
new
king.
Demetrius Phalereus,
the
first
of Athens,
who had been
had offended Philadelphus by advising that
the crown should descend to his elder brother instead
of to himself, and he had accordingly to
make way
for
Z^nodotos of Ephesus, famous as a
critic
of Homer.
148
The Egypt of
the
the books which found a place in the great Hbrary of Alexandria was doubtless the Greek
translation of the Pentateuch.
Among
Philadelphus showed
remarkable favour to the Jews.
The Jewish captives of his soldiers were ransomed by him and given
homes
paying
in various parts of
Egypt.
One hundred and

freed, the king
twenty thousand slaves were thus

for
each 120 drachmas, or 30
shekels, the
It is
price of a slave according to the Mosaic Law.
quite possible that there
may
be some truth
in the
legend that the Greek translation of the Old Testa-
ment was made
at his desire.
Whether
or not
we
believe that he sent
two Greek Jews,

gifts to
Aristseus and
Andrseus, with costly

at Jerusalem, asking
Eleazar the high-priest

fit
him
to select
men
for the
purpose, he was probably not unwilling that a copy

of the sacred books of his Jewish subjects, in a form
intelligible
to the Greeks, should be
added
to the
library.
We
must not
forget that
it
was he who
employed Manetho, the

in
priest of Sebennytos, to write
Greek the history of
his country,
which he compiled
hieratic papyri
from the hieroglyphic monuments and

of the native temples.
Ptolemy
III.,
Euergetes, the eldest son of Phila-
delphus, succeeded his father in B.C. 246.
A
far
war
with Syria broke out at the beginning of his
reign,
as
and the
rrtarch
of the
Egyptian army as
The Age of
the Ptolemies
149
Seleucia, the capital of the Syrian
kingdom on the
Euphrates, was one uninterrupted triumph.

return,
On
altar
his
at
Ptolemy
laid
his offerings
on the
Jerusalem, and thanked the

success.
God
of the Jews for his

well
The Jewish community might

for believing that in the
be
pardoned
conqueror of Syria
faith.
they had a
new
proselyte to their
The Egyptians had

with their king.
equal reason to be satisfied

the spoils of his Syrian
Among
2500
campaign
Egyptian
were
deities
vases
and
statues
of
the
which Kambyses had carried to
Persia nearly three centuries before. stored to the temples of
They were reUpper Egypt, from which

and Ptolemy was
they had been taken, with stately ceremonies and
amid the
henceforth
their
'
rejoicing of the people,
known among
fact,
his subjects as Euergetes,
Benefactor.'
Euergetes, in
seems to have been the most
Egyptian and
least
Greek of
visited
all
the
Ptolemies.
Alone
among them he
and crowded with
He,
Thebes and paid

Their temples were
homage
rebuilt
to the gods of Egypt.
offerings,
and the
priest-
hood naturally
regarded him
too, like the
as a king after their

old,
own
heart.
Pharaohs of
turned
his attention to the conquest of Ethiopia, which his
predecessors had been content to neglect.^

'
It
was
Sharpe, History of Egypt,
i.
p. 346.
50
The Egypt of
the
under Euerget^s, moreover, that the so-called Decree

of Candpus
was drawn up
in
in
hieroglyphics
and
demotic Egyptian as well as
Greek.
Its occasion
was the death of Berenik^, the king's daughter,
to
whom
the
Egyptian
It
is
priests
determined to grant
time that
divine honours.
the
first
we
find
its
the old script and
language of Egypt taking
by the queror, and it

place
side of that of the

is
Macedonian conGreek transcript
significant that the
occupies the third place.
Judah had hitherto remained tranquil and

peace under the government of the Ptolemies.
high-priests
at
The
and
had taken the place of the

was undisputed.
kings,
their authority
At
times, indeed,
the coveted dignity was the cause of family feuds.
Jonathan, the father of Jaddua (Neh.
xii.
11,
22),
had murdered was destined

power.
the
list
his brother Joshua,
whom
he suspected
of trying to supplant him, and the example he set

to have followers.
But outside
his
own
ends
family the high-priest ruled with almost despotic
Simon the
of
'
Just (B.C. 300), with

'
whom
famous men
given by Jesus the son
of Sirach
as well
tradition
(iv. 1-21),
repaired and fortified the temple

it.
as the fortress which guarded
Jewish
him the completion of the Canon of the Old Testament which had been begun by Ezra, and it was through him that the oral
ascribed
to
The Age of
the Ptolemies
its
Mosaic tradition of Pharisaism made
way
to
Antigonus Socho, the

of Sadduceism.
first
writer of the
Mishna or
text of the Talmud, and the teacher of the founder
The grandson
of Simon, Onias
li.,
imperilled the authority his predecessors
had enjoyed.
His covetousness led him to withhold the tribute of

;^3000,
due each year from the Temple to the Jewish

in spite of
king,
and
an envoy from Ptolemy and the
remonstrances of his countrymen, he refused to give

it
up.
Jerusalem was saved by the address and readiness of Joseph, the brother of Onias.
to
He
hastened
Egypt,
ingratiated
himself with
Ptolemy, and
succeeded in being appointed farmer of the taxes

for Syria
and Palestine.
The Jews were

to civil war.
saved, but
a rival power to that of the high-priest was established,
which led eventually

first
The greed
is
of Onias was the
scene in the drama which
unfolded in the Books of the Maccabees.
Euerget^s was the
last
of the
'
good
'
Ptolemies.
His son and successor, Ptolemy

tion of weakness, cruelty
iv.,
was the incarna-
and
vice.
He
began
his
reign
with
the
murder of
the
title
his
mother and only
brother, taking
his Father'
of Philopator
'
Lover of
by
way
of compensation.
Syria was
reconquered by Antiochus the Great, but his Greek
phalanxes were beaten at Raphia by the Egyptians,
152
The Egypt of
the

Macedonian
fashion,
now armed and
trained in the
and the gratitude of Philopator showed itself in a visit to the temple at Jerusalem, where he sacrificed
to the
God
of the Jews and attempted to penetrate

Holies.
into the
Holy of
tumult was the con-
sequence, and the exasperated king on his return

to
Egypt deprived
the Jews of their Greek citizento
ship,
and ordered them

an ivy-leaf
in
be tattooed with the

to
figure of
sacrifice
honour of Bacchus, and
on the
altars of the
Greek gods.
been the staunch sup-
The Jews had
hitherto
porters of the royal house of Egypt,
and had held
the fortress of Jerusalem for

Syria.
ever.
it
against the power of

for
But Philopator had now alienated them
Nor was he more

First
successful with the native
Egyptians.
the
Egyptian troops mutinied
then came revolt in Upper Egypt.

princes,
The Ethiopian
in the
whose memorials are found

of
Nubian
to
in
temples
Debod and Dakkeh, were
invited
Thebes, and an Ethiopian dynasty again ruled
Upper Egypt
posed
in
it
The names
of the kings
in
who com-
have recently been found
deeds written
demotic characters.
Philopator died of his debaucheries after a reign
of seventeen years years of age
(B.C. 204),
leaving a child of five
the
future
Ptolemy Epiphan^s
to
succeed him.
The Alexandrine mob was
in a state
The Age of
of
riot,
the Ptolemies
153
army was untrustworthy, and Antiochus was again on the march against Syria. The Egyptian
the
forces
were defeated
at
Banias (Csesarea Philippi),
the Jews having gone over to the invader, in return

for
which Antiochus remitted the taxes due from

all
Jerusalem, and not only released
the ministers
of the temple from future taxation, but sent a large
sum
him
of
money
188),
for
its
support.
By
a treaty with
Rome
the possession of the country was assured to
(B.C.
and colonies of Mesopotamian Jews

Lydia and Phrygia.
v.,
were settled
in
Meanwhile Ptolemy
up,
Epiphan^s, was growing

it
and
in B.C.
196 accordingly
was determined
coronation took
that he should be crowned.
The
place at Memphis, and a decree was
made
lightening
the burdens of the country, relieving the fellahin
from being impressed

further
for
the navy, and granting

It is this
endowments
to the priests.
decree
which
is
engraved on the famous Rosetta Stone.

revolt of the Egyptians
still
But the
continued,
is
and had already spread northward.
Reference
made
in
in the
decree to rebellion in the Busirite
nome
It
of the Delta, and to a siege of the city of Lykopolis,
which the insurgents had
fortified themselves.
was
at this time, too, that the city of

its
Abydos was
taken by storm and
temples finally ruined, as
we gather from a Greek scrawl on the walls of the
54
The Egypt of
Seti.
the

185 a decisive victory
temple of
But
in B.C.
was gained by the Greek

revolted Egyptians.
mercenaries
over the
Their four leaders surrendered

free pardon,
on the king's promise of a

brought before him at
Sais.
and were
There, however, he tied
them
after
to his chariot-wheels in imitation of Achilles,

still
and dragged them
living
round the city
walls,
which he returned to Alexandria and entered
his capital in triumph.
The crimes of Epiphan^s

B.C.
led to his
murder
in
VI.,
180,
and
his
seven-year-old son, Ptolemy
Philom^tor, was proclaimed king under the regency
of his mother.
While she
death
the
lived there
was peace,
Antiochus
but
after
her
Syrian
king,
Epiphan^s, threw himself upon Egypt, captured his nephew Philometor, and held his court in Memphis.
Thereupon
Philometor's
younger
brother,
whose
corpulency had given him the nickname of Physkon,

'
the Bloated,' proclaimed himself king at Alexandria,
and called upon
Rome
for help.
Antiochus with-
drew, leaving Philometor king of the Egyptians, and
Physkdn, who had taken the
title
of Euergetes
II.,
king of the Greeks at Alexandria.
Thanks
to the
brotherly forbearance of Philometor, the two reigned
together in
harmony
however,
for several years.
Antiochus
Egypt,
Epiphanes,
had
again
its
invaded
but had been warned off
soil
by the Roman
The Age of
ambassadors.
the Ptolemies
155
Rome now
affected
to
regard the
kingdom of the Ptolemies

resist
as a protected state,
and
the successors of Alexander were in no condition to
the orders of the haughty republic.
Things had
indeed changed since the days

in the plenitude of his glory
when Philadelphus
deigned to congratulate
the Italian state on the
its
defeat of the Epirots, and

his
Roman
senate
regarded
embassy as the
to leave
highest of possible honours.
The command
of the
Romans
Egypt
alone was sullenly obeyed by Antiochus Epiphanes.
But he had no choice

a quarrel with
bellion.
in the matter.
He had more
than enough on his hands at
home without risking The Jews were in full reThe Hellenising party among them 'the
Rome.
ungodly' of the Books of Maccabees
had
grown
numerous and strong, and had united themselves

with the
civil
rivals
of the high-priests.
Between
the party of progress and the orthodox supporters

of the
Law
there was soon open war, and in B.C. 175,
Antiochus Epiphanes, tempted by the higher bribe,
was induced
Onias
to
join
his
in
the fray, and
throw the
whole weight of
III.
power on the
side of innovation.
was deposed from the high-priesthood,

'
and
the
his brother Joshua, the leader of

in
the ungodly,'
was appointed
his
place, with leave to
change
Joshua
name
of the Jews to that of Antiochians.
156
forthwith took the Greek
name
of Jason, established
gymnasium
at
Jerusalem, sent offerings to the
festival
rite
of Herakles at Tyre, and discouraged the
of circumcision.
But Jason's rule was
short-
lived.
Benjamite, Menelaus, succeeded in driving

office of
him out of the country and usurping the

high-priest, while
Onias was put to death.
two years
The second Syrian invasion of Egypt took place later. The story of the check received
all
by Antiochus Epiphan^s came to Judsea with

the exaggerations usual in the East
;
Antiochus was
reported to be dead, and Jason accordingly marched
upon Jerusalem, massacred

aded Menelaus
been wounded only
in
his opponents,
and block-
in the citadel.
But Antiochus had

and he turned
his
pride,
back from the Nile burning with mortification and

first who came The outrage committed by Jason was a welcome pretext. The defenceless population of
anxious to vent his anger upon the

in his
way.
Jerusalem was
slavery,
partly
massacred, partly sold into
and under the guidance of Menelaus he
entered the
vessels, as
Temple and
as
its
carried
away
the sacred
Philip the
city,
well
other treasure.
Phrygian was appointed governor of the
while
Menelaus remained high-priest.

Severer measures were to follow.
there had
In
B.C.
168
been a rising
in
Jerusalem, which was
The Age of
the Ptolemies
157
thereupon captured on a Sabbath-day by the Syrian

general,
the greater part of
it
being sacked and
burned, and a portion of the city wall thrown down.
garrison was established on
Mount
Zion, which
at that time overlooked the Temple-hill,
and a
Every
fierce
persecution of the Jews commenced.
effort
was made to compel them to forsake

to eat swine's flesh,
their religion,
and
in
to worship the gods of the

'
Greeks.
It
was then that
the
abomination of
Holies,
desolation'
was seen
the
Holy of
the
temples of Samaria and Jerusalem being re-dedicated

to
Zeus Xenios and Zeus Olympios, and that

befouled with the
rites
at
Jerusalem'
of the
Syrian
Ashtoreth.
Thousands of the orthodox Jews fled where they found shelter and welcome.
to Egypt,
Among
Philo-
them was Onias, the
eldest son of Onias

in the
III.
metor granted him land
nome
of Heliopolis,
in
and allowed him to build there a temple

the worship of the
which
carried
Hebrew God should be

at Jerusalem.
on as
to
it
had been
Excavation goes
at the
show that the temple was erected

called
spot
now
Tel el-Yehudiyeh, 'the
Mound
of the
Jewess,' not far from Shibtn el-Kanatir.
Here was
III.,
an old deserted palace and temple of Ramses
and here the Jews were permitted to establish themselves
and found a
city,
which they called Onion.
158
The Egypt of
the

its
According to Josephus,
Leontopolis.
older
name had
fortified
been
by-
The
temple, which was destroyed
Vespasian after the Jewish war, was

that
at Jerusalem,
like
and the porcelain plaques
en-
amelled with rosettes and lotus-buds, which had been
Ramses in., were employed once more to ornament it. Long ago the fellahin discovered
for
made
among
such as
its ruins,
is
and then broke up, a marble
bath,
for
used to-day by the Jewish

in
women
the purpose of purification, and
the adjoining
necropolis Dr. Naville found the tombs of persons
who bore Jewish names. Onias was not allowed to build his new temple without a protest from the
stricter
adherents of the
Law
that
it
was forbidden
sacred city of
resource, and to the there
to raise one elsewhere than in the
David.
all
But he was a man of ready

(xix.
opposition was overcome
when he pointed
day
in the
prophecy of Isaiah
shall
19): 'In that
be an altar to the Lord
midst of the
The Egyptian Jews had already own version of the Scriptures they now had their own temple, their own priesthood, and their own high-priest. True, their co-religionists
land of Egypt.'
secured their
;
in Judsea never ceased to protest against this rival
centre of their religious faith, and to denounce Onias

as the.
first
schismatic
but their brethren in Egypt
paid no attention to their words, and the temple
The Age of
of
the Ptolemies
159
Onion continued
to
exist
as
long as that of
Jerusalem.
Onias exercised an influence not only over his
own countrymen, but over

well.
the
mind of the king
as
Philom^tor, like Euerget^s, had Jewish lean-
ings,
and the high-priest of Onion was admitted

offices
to
high
priest
of
state.
So
'
also
was Dositheus, 'the

the Chapters
tells
and
Levite,'
who, in
The Rest of
i),
of the
Book of Esther'
(x.
us that in the
fourth year of Philometor, he and his son Ptolemy
had brought to Egypt
'
this epistle of Phurim,'
which
had been translated
into
Greek
at
Jerusalem
by
Lysimachus, the son of Ptolemy.
Philometor even
acted as a judge in the great religious controversy
which raged between the Jews and the Samaritans.
They
called
upon him
to decide whether the temple
should have been built on

Gerizim, and which of
Mount Moriah
or
Mount
them had
altered the text of
Deuteronomy
xxvii. 12, 13.
Philometor decided in
favour of the Jews, as his duty towards his numerous
Jewish subjects perhaps compelled him to do, and

his religious zeal
even carried him so
far as to order
the two unsuccessful
advocates of the Samaritan
cause to be put to death.
While the king of Egypt was thus acting

a Jew, the king of Syria was engaged in a
struggle with the Jewish people.
like
fierce
The
national party
i6o
The Egypt of
risen
the
had
under Mattathias, the priest of Modin,
and
his five sons, of
whom
the third, Judas Macca-
beus, was the ablest and best-known.
One
after
in
another the Syrian armies were overthrown, and

B.C.
165 the
Temple was
purified
it
and
repaired,
and
new
altar dedicated in
Two
years later
Lord of Hosts. Antiochus Epiphands died while

to the
on the march against Judsea, and with him died

also the
power of
Syria.
Rival claimants for the
throne, internal
and external discord, treachery and

its
murder, sapped the foundations of

in spite
strength, and
of assassinations and religious quarrels, of

hostility
Edomite
party
and the
efforts of the Hellenising
among
the Jews themselves, the power of the
Maccabees went on increasing.

with the Greeks, and
The
high-priesthood
passed to them from the last of the sympathisers

Jonathan, the
brother
and
successor of Judas, was treated
by the king of Syria
with royal honours.
Treaties were
made with
Sparta
and Rome, and

of his own.
his successor,
Simon, struck coins
After his murder his son John Hyrfar
canus extended the Jewish dominion as

as
north
Damascus, annihilating Samaria and
its
temples
and conquering the Edomites,

to accept the Jewish faith.
whom
he compelled
Aristobulus,
who
followed
him, took the

his
title
of king, and added Itursea to
kingdom, while his brother Alexander Jannaeus
The Age of
attacked
the Ptolemies
i6i
Egypt and
annexed
the
cities
of
the
Phoenician coast.
royal crimes.
But with royal dignity had come Both Aristobulus and Alexander had and
their
murdered
their brothers,
Greek names show
how
the champions of Jewish orthodoxy were pass-
ing over into the
camp
all
of the foe.
Long
had
fallen
before
this
happened,
many changes
in B.C. 145.
upon Egypt.
Philometor died
He had
in his
been weak enough to forgive his rebellious
and ungrateful brother twice when he had had him

power.
Once he had been compelled
to
go
to
Rome
to plead his cause before the senate,
and
there be indebted to an Alexandrine painter for food
and lodging
of
on the second occasion Physkdn had
endeavoured to rob him of Cyprus by a combination
mean treachery and intrigue. The reward of his brotherly forbearance was the murder by Physkon of Philometor's young son
Ptolemy Philopator
II.
immediately
after his death.
Onias, the Jewish high-priest, held Alexandria for

Philopator, but his uncle
Physkon was favoured by

law.
the
Romans, whose word was now
Physkon
accordingly began his long reign of vice and cruelty,
by temporary banishment to Cyprus. Then followed his widow, Cleopatra Kokk^, a woman stained with every possible and impossible crime.
interrupted only
She held her own, however, against
all
opponents,
62
Tfie
Egypt of
the

Lathyrus, thanks
including her
to her
own son Ptolemy
two Jewish generals, Khelkias and Ananias,

of the high-priest Onias.
Palestine and
the sons
Syria again became a battle-field where the fate of
Egypt was decided, and while Cleopatra was aided by the Jews, Lathyrus found his allies among the
Samaritans.
It
was
in the
midst of these wars and rumours of

lost faith in
wars,
themselves, and
when men had when
one another and
the Jews after struggling for
bare existence were beginning to treat on equal terms
with the great monarchies of the world, that that

curious Apocalypse, the
Book of Enoch, seems

all
to
have been composed, at

form.
It is
events in
all
its
original
a vision of the end of

it
things and the

fully de-
judgment of mankind, and

reference
embodies the
veloped doctrine of the angelic hierarchy to which

is
made
in the
Book of
Daniel.
Cleopatra was murdered by her younger

favourite son,
and
in
and Lathyrus succeeded

of S6ter
after all
obtaining the throne of Egypt, which he ascended
under the
title
II.
(B.C. ^J^.
His short reign

destruction of
of six years was
signalised
by the
still
Thebes.
Upper Egypt was

to break into
in a state of effer-
vescing discontent, and the crimes of the last reign
caused
it
open
rebellion.
;
The
governlost
ment was weak and wicked
the Greeks had
The Age of
their vigour
the
Ptolemies
163
and power
to rule,
and
their armies
were
now mere
bodies of unruly mercenaries.
But the
to with-
Thebans were not wealthy or strong enough

stand Alexandria
the
Mediterranean.
pressed,
when helped by the The revolt was Thebes taken by storm, and
resources of
at
its
last
sup-
temples,
which had been used as

stroyed.
fortresses, battered
and desword or
The population was put

and the
to the
carried into slavery,
capital of the conquering

exist.
Its
Pharaohs of the past ceased to
place was
taken by a few squalid villages which clustered round

the ruins of
its
ancient shrines.
Karnak and Luxor,

all
Medinet Habu and Qurnah, were

the former city.
that remained of
it
Under
the earlier Ptolemies

'
had
the
been
known
as Diospolis,
the city of Zeus

;
'
Amon,
metropolis of
in
Upper Egypt
from
this
it is
time forward, nothing more

priests
the receipts of the tax-gatherers,

'villages.'
left
than a collection of
scattered, its
Its
were
ruined temples
to decay.
What
the Assyrian
had
failed to destroy
and the Persian
had spared was overthrown by a Ptolemy who called

himself a king of Egypt.
After the death of Lathyrus the internal decay of

the
monarchy went on
it
rapidly.
prey to
civil
war
ind usurpation,
was allowed
to exist a
little
longer
by the contemptuous forbearance of the Romans,

ivaited to
who
it
put an end to
it
until
they had drained
164
of
its
The Egypt of
treasures.
the

of the Asmonseans at
its
fall.
The kingdom
feuds
as
Jerusalem also had tottered to
Family
as
murders and
civil
had
become almost
common among them
among
the Ptolemies, and

called in
as in Egypt, so too in Palestine,
Rome was
to mediate between the rival claimants for the crown.
In
B.C.
63 Jerusalem was captured by

its
Pompey
after
its
a three months' siege,

fortifications destroyed,
defenders massacred,
its
and
royal house abolished.
The Roman
Palestine
victor entered the to the
Holy of
Holies, and
was annexed
Roman
still
empire.
Among
the remnant which
retained the faith
of their forefathers the
Roman
conquest and the

strength to the
profanation of the temple gave
new
conviction that the Messiah and saviour of Israel
must surely soon appear.
The
conviction finds ex-
pression in the so-called Psalms of Solomon, of which
only a Greek copy survives.
The high hopes
raised
by the
dashed
successes
for
ever,
of
the
Maccabsean family were
and the temporal power of Judah

it
Henceforth had vanished away. nation only on sufferance.

In Egypt
it
existed as a
was not long before the Jews discovered how grievous had been the change in their
fortunes.
They ceased
:
to be feared,
rulers of
and
therefore
respected
the
mob and
Alexandria had. for

Their
citizen-
them now only hatred and contempt.
The Age of
ship was taken away, with
the Ptolemies
its
165
right to the
enjoyment
of their
own
magistrates and courts of justice, and

to
they were degraded

Egyptians,
streets of
the
rank
of
the
native
whom
not
the lowest Greek vagabond in the
Alexandria could maltreat with impunity.

recover
their
his
They
did
old
privileges
until
Augustus had reorganised
Egyptian province,
and though they were again deprived of them by

Caligula,
when
Philo went in vain to plead for his
countrymen before the emperor, they were restored
by Claudius, and even Vespasian

war did not
interfere with them.
after the
Jewish
The house
empire of
its
of Ptolemy
fell
ignobly.
But
it
fell
amid the convulsions of a

the ruins of the
civil
war which rent the
conquerors to the foundation, and
among
its last
Roman
republic.
Cleopatra,
representative, bewitched not only the coarser
Mark
Antony but even Her charms were

the one
;
the master
mind of
Julius Csesar.
fatal to the life
and reputation of
fatal to the life
they nearly proved equally
of
the other.
Besieged with her in the palace of the
Ptolemies by the
Alexandrine
mob,
Caesar's
life
trembled for a while in the balance.

of Alexandria was given in
self
its
But the Library

;
stead
he saved him-
by
firing the
docks and shipping, and the flames
spread from the harbour to the halls of the Museum.
The precious papyri perished
in the flames,
and the
66
The Egypt of
in
the
rooms
which the learning and talent of the Greek

true that Cleopatra subse-
world had been gathered together were a heap of
blackened
ruins.
It
is
quently obtained from
Mark Antony
the library of
Pergamos, with
in the
its
200,000 volumes, which she placed
temple of Serapis, but the new library never

its
equalled the old, either in
extent or in the value
of
its
books.
Cleopatra and
Mark Antony
left
died by their own
hands, and Augustus was

the
master of Egypt and

Caesarion, the son of
Roman
world
(B.C.
30).
Cleopatra and Julius Csesar, was put to death, and
Egypt was annexed

It never, therefore,
to the emperor's privy purse.
became a province of the Roman

its
empire
unhappily for
inhabitants,
Its
it
remained the
emperor's private domain.
prefect
was never
allowed to be of higher rank than the equestrian

order,
and a senator was forbidden

law,
to set foot in
it.
Its cities
could not govern themselves, and the old
Greek
which restricted the rights of
citizenship
to the Greeks
and Jews and prevented any Egyptians from sharing them, was left in
native
force.
Egypt was
its soil
the granary of
Rome,
its
and the riches of
and the industry of
inhabitants
made
it
needful that no rival to the reigning sovereign should

establish himself in
it.
History had shown with what
ease the country could be invaded and occupied and
The Age of
the Ptolemies
167
with what difficulty the occupier could be driven out.
And
the master of
Egypt commanded the trade

;
be-
tween East and West
he
commanded
filled
also
the
Roman mob whose mouths were

corn.
It
with Egyptian
was dangerous
to allow a possible rival even
to visit the valley of the Nile.
The
is
history of Alexandria
under the
rather
Romans
the
history of Alexandria
than of the
Egyptians.
Thefellahin laboured for others, not for
themselves, and the burdens which weighed
upon
them became ever
greater
and
more
in
intolerable.
Upper Egypt, were, however, quickly repressed, and in the which third century the barbarian Blemmyes made Coptos and Ptolemais their capitals. The reconquest of the
and again there were outbreaks
Thebaid by Probus
a triumph.
(A.D.
Now
280) was judged worthy of
About eight years later the whole country was once more in rebellion, and proclaimed their The war lasted for nine leader Akhilleus emperor.
years,
and the whole

it.
force of the
empire was required
to
finish
person into
The emperor Diocletian marched in Upper Egypt and besieged Coptos, the
After a long siege the city was
centre of the revolt.
taken and razed to the ground.

ruined the people.
But the war had

broken,
The embankments were
the canals choked up, the fields untilled and overrun
by the barbarians from the Sudan or the Bedouin of
68
The Egypt of
the
the eastern desert.
Diocletian,
when
the struggle
was
over,
found himself obliged to withdraw the
Roman
fix
garrisons south of the First Cataract, and to
the frontier of the empire at Assuan.
The war was
followed by the great persecution of
the Christians, the last expiring effort of
Roman
faith.
paganism against the invasion

Christianity
of
the
new
had become a mighty power

of the
in the
all
its
Roman
world, which threatened soon to absorb

left
its
that was
Rome
of the
past, with
its
it
patriotism,
its
devotion to the emperor,
law and
administration.
The
struggle between
and the
delayed.
empire of Augustus could
no longer be
The
edict of Diocletian
its
was signed, and the empire

its rival
put forth
whole strength to crush

its
and root
Christianity out of
midst.
late.
But the attempt came too
The new power
was stronger than the old

only proved
one,
and the persecution
away.
how utterly the The empire bowed

;
old
its
Rome
had passed
head and became
Christian
the bishops took the place of the prefects

past,
and senators of the

raged
and theological disputations
in the halls of philosophy.
Nowhere had
;
the
persecution been fiercer than in
Egypt
nowhere had
the martyrs and confessors of the Church been more

heroic or
more numerous.
was one which we should hardly have
The
result
The Age of
expected.
the Ptolemies
169
Hitherto Christianity in Egypt had been
Greek.
It
was associated with Alexandria and the

villages
Greek language, not with the

the people.
Its
and tongue of
flourished
bishops and theologians were Greeks,
and the school of Christian Platonism which

in
Alexandria had
little
in
common
with Egyptian
With the Diocletian persecution, however, came a change. Even while it was still at its height, martyrs and confessors come forward who bear
ideas.
Egyptian and not Greek names.
Hardly
is
it
over
before the native population joins in one great
body
for
the
new
religion.
Osiris
and
Isis
make way
Christ and the Blessed Virgin, the Coptic alphabet

replaces the demotic script of heathenism,
and the
It
is
bodies of the dead cease to be embalmed.

difficult to
account for the suddenness and complete-
ness of the change.
The decay
barriers
of the
Roman power,
Greek
and
therewith
the
between
and
may have had something to do with it. So too may the revolt in Upper Egypt, which united in one common feeling of nationality all the
Egyptian,
elements of the population.
Perhaps a
still
more
potent cause was the spectacle of the heroism and
constancy of those
faith.
who
suffered for the Christian
The
and
Egyptian
his very
has
always
been
life
deeply
religious,
enjoyment of
ascetic.
makes him
admire and revere the
But whatever may
I/O
The Egypt of
the

fact
have been the reason, the

been Greek
remains
before the
persecution of Diocletian Egyptian Christianity had
when the persecution was over it had become Copt The pagans who still survived were
;
not
Egyptians
but the rich
and highly-educated
Greeks, like the poet Nonnus,
who was
tortured to
death by
flesh
St.
Shnudi, or the gifted Hypatia, whose

oyster-shells
was torn from her bones with
by
the
monks of St. Cyril. The literature of Coptic

religious.
Christianity was almost
wholly
Little else
had an
faith.
interest for the
devoted adherents of the new
The romances
were replaced
Christian
which had delighted
their forefathers
by legends of the
saints
and martyrs, and

past.
hymns succeeded
to
this
to the
for
poems of the
the
We owe
passion
theology
preservation of
productions of the Jewish
and Christian Churches

lost.
which would otherwise have been

Enoch, quoted though
perished
irrevocably
it
The Book
of
is
by
it
St.
Jude, would have
had
not been for Coptic
Christianity.
The Church
of Abyssinia, a daughter
it
of that of Egypt, has preserved

translation,
in
an Ethiopia
and portions of the Greek
original from
in a
It
which the translation was made have been found
Ekhmim, which was excavated in 1886. has long been known that the text used by
tomb
at
the
Abyssinian translator must
have differed considerably
'
The Age of
the Ptolemies
171
from that of which extracts

for us in
have been preserved
the Epistle of St. Jude and the writings
of the Byzantine historians Kedrenos and

the
George
Syncellus
the
newly - discovered
fragments
now
like.
enable us to see what this text actually was

If
it
the original
book was written

at least
in
Ara-
maic
used
would seem that

it
two authorised was

in
Greek versions of
in
existed,
Syria,
one of which
the other
faithful
Europe
and
Egypt.
Which was
to learn.
the older and
more
we have yet
brought to
The excavations
light
at
Ekhmim have
fragments of two other works, both belong-
ing to the early days of Christianity and long since

lost.
One
of these
is
supposed by
its
first editor,
;
M. Bouriant,
to be the
Apocalypse of St. Peter
it
opens with an account of the Transfiguration, which

is
followed by a vision of heaven and

to
hell.
The
book appears
have been composed or interpolated

is
by a Gnostic,
in
as there
a reference in
it
to
'
the .ôn
which Moses and Elias dwelt

is
in glory.
The
other
work
of more importance.
early Church as that
is
It is the
Gospel known
to the
of St. Peter, and the
portion which
preserved contains the narrative of the
Passion and Resurrection of Christ.
Throughout the
narrative the responsibility for the death of our

is
Lord
the
transferred from
Pilate to the
Jews
when
'
172
The Egypt of
the
guard who watched the tomb under the centurion

Petronius ran to
tell
Pilate of the resurrection they

:
had witnessed,
'
grieving greatly and saying
Truly
clean
he was the son of
God
'
he answered
' :
am
of the blood of the son of

so.'
God
too thought he was

in
Docetic tendencies, however, are observable

:
the Gospel
cross
is
at all events the cry of Christ on the

'
rendered,
My
power, (my) power, thou hast
forsaken
me
What
early
further discoveries of the lost documents of

still
Christianity
await us in Egypt
last
it
is
im-
possible to say.
It is
only during the
few years
that attention has been turned towards monuments
which, to the students of Egyptian antiquity, seemed

of too recent a date.
less
Countless manuscripts of
already
perished
price-
value
have
through
the the
ignorance of the fellahin and the neglect of

tourist
and savan,
to
whom
'
the term
'
Coptic
'
has
of
been synonymous with worthless.'
But the
soil
Egypt
is
archseologically almost inexhaustible, and
the land of the Septuagint, of the Christian school of
Alexandria, and of the passionate theology of a

epoch, cannot
fail
later
to yield
up other documents
that
will throw a flood of light on the early history of our

faith.
It
is
only the
other day that,

the British
among
the
Fayyum
papyri
now
in
Museum,
there
was found a fragment of the Septuagint
version of
The Age of
the
the Ptolemies
173
Psalms older than the oldest MS> of the Bible
hitherto known.
And
the traveller
to see the Nile at leisure

find in the old
and
in his
whc still wishes own way will
Egyptian quarries behind Der

little
Abu
Hannes, but a
to the south of the city
which
Hadrian raised
illustrations
to the
memory
of Antinous, abundant
of
the doctrine
and worship of the

can there study
all
primitive Coptic Church.
He
the
details of its ancient ecclesiastical architecture cut out
of the living rock, and can trace
how
the
home
of a
hermit became
chapel with
its
first
a place of pilgrimage and then a
altar to the saints.
The tombs them-
selves, inscribed
with the Greek epitaphs of the sainted

still
fugitives
in
from persecution,
exist outside the caves
which they had dwelt.
We can
even see the change
taking place which transformed the Greek Church of
Alexandria into the Coptic Church of Egypt.

either side of a richly-carved cross
'
On
is
the record of
Papias, son of Melito the Isaurian,' buried in the
spot
made holy by
the body of St. Macarius, which
is
written on the one side in Greek, on the other side in

Coptic.
Henceforward Greek
pray
is
superseded by Coptic,
St.
and the numerous pilgrims who ask

St.
Victor or
Phoebammon
to
for
them
write their
names
and prayers
alphabet.
in the native
language and the native
With the betrayal of Egypt to the Mohammedans by George the Makaukas the doom
174
The Egypt of
the

Coptic
of the Greek language and Bible was sealed.
had already become the language of the Egyptian Church, and though we still find quotations from the
Greek
New
Testament painted here and there on

little
is
the
walls of rock-cut shrines they are
more than
native, not
ornamental designs.
Greek.
Christian
Egypt
CHAPTER
HERODOTOS
From
IN
VI
EGYPT
Coptic Christianity, just preparing to con-
front twelve centuries of
Mohammedan
to
life
persecution,
we must now
and
such
its
turn
back
Pagan Greece.
The
Persian wars have breathed a

colonies,
new and given them a
into Greece
feeling of unity
as'
its
they never possessed before.
Athens has
taken
ture,
place as leader not only in art and litera-
but also in war, and under the shelter of her

the lonians of Asia Minor have ventured to
name
defy their Persian lord, and the Ionic dialect has

ceased to be an object of contempt.
always restless and curious to see and hear
The Greek, some

'
new
thing,' is
now beginning
to indulge his tastes at
leisure,
and
to visit as a tourist the foreign shores of
the Mediterranean.
to
its
Art has leaped
at a single
;
bound
poetry
perfection in the sculptures of Pheidias
has become divine in the tragedies of .(Eschylus and

Sophocles, and history
is
preparing to take part in
the general development.
The modern world

175
of
Europe
is
already born.
176
The Egypt of
the
The founder
to say,
of literary history
literary
of
history, that
interest
is
which aims at
form and
If
was
may
Herodotos of Halikarnassos.
Greek
tradition
be trusted, his uncle had been put to death by Lygdamis, the despot of the city, and the subsequent
expulsion of the tyrant was
in
some measure due
to
the political zeal of the future historian.
Herodotos
was wealthy and well educated,

curiosity
as fond of travel as
the majority of his countrymen, and not behind them

in
and
vanity.
He had
cultivated the
his stay in
library
literary dialect of Ionia,
perhaps during
Samos, and had made good use there of the
of Polykrat^s, the friend and correspondent of Amasis.
What
other libraries he
may have
consulted
we do
not know, but his history shows that he had a considerable acquaintance with the works of his predecessors,
whom
he desired to eclipse and supersede.

in
Hekataeus of Miletus, who had travelled

far
Egypt
as
south as Thebes,
if
not Assuan, and had written

its
full
account of the country,
people and
its
history,
Xanthus, the Lydian,
who had compiled

poets
the
annals of his native land, beside numberless other

authors,
historians
and
geographers,
physicists,
and
been
dramatists,
philosophers and
had
made
he
correct
to contribute to his work.
Now
and again
to
refers to the older historians
when he wishes
or
contradict
them
more
frequently he
Herodotos in Egypt
silently incorporates their statements
177
and words withwas

thus,
out mentioning them by name.

told
It
'
we
are
by Porphyry,
that he
'
stole
the accounts given
by Hekataeus of the
of that
crocodile, the
hippopotamus and
the phoenix, and the incorrectness of his description
marvellous bird, which, like Hekataeus, he

is
likens to an eagle, proves that the charge
correct.
Reviewers did not exist
in his days,
nor were marks
of quotation or even footnotes as yet invented, and
Herodotos might therefore plead
that,
although he
quoted freely without acknowledgment, he was not

in
any
real sense a plagiarist.
He
only acted like

his plagiarisms
other Greek writers of his time, and
if
exceeded theirs
it
was only because he had read

diligent use of
his note-
more and made a more

book.
It is
we, and not the Greek world for which he

are the sufferers.
It is
tell
wrote,
if
is
who
frequently
difficult,
not impossible, for us to
whether Herodotos
or quoting from
speaking from his
own experience
is
others,
whose trustworthiness
doubtful or whose
statements
may
have been misunderstood.
time to time internal evidence assures us that

dealing, not with
From we are
His
Herodotos himself, but with some
other writer whose remarks he has embodied.
commentators have continually argued on the supposition that, wherever the

first
person
is
used,
it
is
178
The Egypt of
the
Hebrews aud Herodotos

is
Herodotos himself who

his
speaking.
Statements of
true,
in
accordingly have been declared to be
spite of the contrary evidence of oriental research,
because,
it
is
urged, he
is
a trustworthy witness and
has reported honestly what he heard and saw.

if
But
the
he did not hear and see the supposed

is
facts,
case
altered
and the argument
falls to
the ground.
of the
Herodotos took part
in the foundation
B.C.
colony of Thurii in southern Italy in

there, rather than at the
445, and
Olympic
His
festival, as later
legend believed, he read to the assembled Greeks the
whole or a part of his

therefore,
history.
travels in Egypt,
place.
must have already taken

is
Their aptells
proximate date, indeed,

about the
battlefield of
fixed
by what he
(iii.
us
Papremis
1 2).
At Papremis, for the first time, an Egyptian army defeated the Persian forces. Its leader was
Inaros the Libyan, and doubtless a large body of
Libyans was enrolled
in
it.
Along with Amyrtaeos he

(B.C. 460).
had
led the Egyptians to revolt in the fifth year of

I.
the reign of Artaxerxes
Akhaemenes,
slain,
the satrap of Egypt, was routed and

six years
and
for
Egypt maintained a
in the
precarious freedom.
The
all
fortresses at
Memphis and Pelusium,
however,
remained
hands of the Persians, and
in spite of
the efforts of the Egyptians, they could not be
dislodged.
Greek aid accordingly was sought, and
Herodotos in Egypt
the Athenians,
still
179
at
war with
Persia, sent
two
in-
hundred ships from Cyprus to the help of the

surgents.
The
ships sailed
up the Nile as
still
far as
Memphis, where the Persian garrison

All attempts to oust
it
held out.
proved unavailing, and the
approach of a great Persian army under Megabyzos

obliged the Greeks to retreat to the island of Prosopites.
Here they were blockaded

its
for a
year and a
half; then the besiegers turned the river aside
and
marched over
allies,
dry bed against the camp of the
which they took
by
storm.
The Greek
fell
expedition was annihilated, and Inards
into the
hands of his enemies, who sent him to Persia and

there impaled him.
Amyrtaeos, however,
still
main-
tained himself in the marshes of the Delta, and in

B.C.
fleet
449 Kimon sent sixty ships of the Athenian But before they to assist him in the struggle.
could reach the coast of
Egypt news
trust
arrived of the
death of Kimon, and the ships returned home.

years
later,
if
Four
we may
Philokhorus, another
Egyptian prince, Psammetikhos, who seems to have

succeeded Amyrtaeos, sent 72,000 bushels of wheat to
Athens
help.
in the
it
hope of buying therewith Athenian
But
does not appear to have been given,
and Egypt once more sullenly obeyed the Persian rule. We learn from Herodotos (iii. 15) that 'the
great
king' even allowed Thannyras and Pausiris,
i8o,7'
The Egypt of
of
his
the

enemies
Inards
the
sons
inveterate
and
their
Amyrtaeos, to succeed to the principalities of

fathers.
Papremis was
there the
visited
by Herodotos, and he saw

priests at the door
festival.
sham
fight
between the
of the temple on the occasion of their chief
He
also
'
went to the
site
of the battle-field, and there
beheld a great marvel.'
The
skeletons of the comfield just as
batants lay on separate sides of the
they
had
fallen,
and whereas the
skulls of the Persians were
so thin that they could be shattered
by a pebble, those
of the Egyptians were thick and strong enough to

resist
being battered with a stone.
The
cause of
this
;
difference
was explained
to
him by the dragoman
the Egyptians shaved their heads from childhood
and so hardened the bones of

wearing caps of thick
it
against the sun,
while the Persians shaded their heads by constantly

felt.
Not many
had occurred.
scene of
it
years could have elapsed since the battle
The
visit
of the Greek traveller to the

B.C.
may
The
therefore be laid between

patriots of
455
and 450.
still
Egypt must have been
struggling for their liberty
among
the marshes
of the northern Delta.
But the rebellion must have been No Greek could have ventured crushed.
territory while his
practically
into Persian
against
countrymen were fighting
Herodotos in Egypt
its
i8i
Persian masters.
its
The army
Moreover,
of Megabyzos must
fleet
have done
work, and the Athenian

it is
been
utterly destroyed.
evident that
when
Herodotos entered the valley of the Nile the country
was
at peace.
His references to the war are to a past
event,
it
and when he speaks of Inaros and Amyrtaeos
is
of
foreign
men who have ceased to be a danger to the government. The passage, indeed, in which
fathers
to
he notices the peaceable appointment of their sons to

the principalities of their
inserted
after
may have
been
this
his
return
Greek lands, but
makes no difference as to the main fact. When he came to Egypt it had again lapsed into tranquil
submission to the Persian power.
In
B.C.
450,
Kimon, the son of
Miltiades,
had de-
stroyed the naval power of Persia, and in the following year

It
Megabyzos was overthrown at Salamis. was then that the 'peace of Kimon' is said to
been
concluded
have
between
Athens
and
the
Persian king, which put an end to the long Persian

war, freed the Greek cities of Asia, and
made
the
Mediterranean a Greek
sea.
The
it
reality of the peace

is
has been doubted, because there

in the
no allusion
that
it
to
it
pages of Thucydides, and
may be
was
never formally drawn up. But the fact embodied

story remains
:
for
many years to come there
by the was truce
between Greece and Persia, and the independence
82
The Egypt of
the
of the Greek colonies in Asia Minor was acknow-
ledged at the Persian court.
The year 449 marks
the final triumph of Athens and the beginning of
Persian decline.
Had Herodotos
later,
travelled in
Egypt
But
in
a year or two
the ease and security with which he did so

this
would be readily explained.
case
we
should be brought too near the time when
his history
in Italy.
was
finished
and he himself was a resident
We
must therefore believe that he was
there before
the final blow had been struck at Persian supremacy

in the Mediterranean, but
when
the Athenian invasion the past, and the

to
of
Egypt was already a thing of

tourist
unarmed trader and
were once more able
move
freely about.
closed to Greek curiosity.

period,
to the
For more than half a century Egypt had been There had been an earlier
when
the Delta at least had been well-known
Hellenic world.
is
The Pharos
of the future
iv.
Alexandria
355)
;
already mentioned by Homer {Od.

'
it
was
his
there,
in front of Egypt,' that

'
Menelaos
'
moored
ships and forced

his
Egyptian Proteus
'
to
declare to
him
homeward
road.
Thebes,' with
its
hundred temple-gates,
Even Egyptian is known both

{yj. 126),
to the Iliad (i^. 381)
and to the Odyssey
and
his
the Pharaoh Polybos dwelt there

wife,
when Alkandra,
loaded Menelaos with
gifts.
Greek mercenaries
Herodotos in Egypt
183
enabled
Assyria,
Psammetikhos
to
shake off the yoke
of
and Greek traders made
Naukratis and
Daphnae wealthy centres of commerce.
Solon visited
Egypt while Athens was putting into practice the laws he had promulgated, and there he heard from
the priest of Sais that,
by the
side of the
unnumbered
centuries of Egyptian culture, the Greeks were but
children and their
Before the Ionic
wisdom but the growth of to-day. revolt had broken out, while Ionia
still
and Egypt were
sister
provinces of the same
Persian empire, Hekataeos of Miletus had travelled
through the valley of the Nile, enjoying advantages

for information
till
which no Greek could possess again
Egypt had become a Macedonian conquest, and embodying his knowledge and experiences in a
lengthy book.
But the Persian wars had put an end

of the Pharaohs, and the Karian
to all this
peaceful intercourse between Greece and the old land
dragomen who had

interpreters
made
their living
by acting as
between
the Greeks and the Egyptians were forced to turn to
other work.
At
to
length, however,
Egypt was once
more open
visitors
visitors,
and
once more, therefore,
came
from Greece.
Anaxagoras, the philoso-
pher and friend of Perikles, was

arrive
fall
among
the
first
to
and
to investigate the causes of the rise
and
of the Nile.
Hellanikos the historian, too, the
84
The Egypt of
the

Herodotos, seems to have
cast on
older contemporary of
travelled in Egypt,
though doubt has been

is
the authenticity of the vsôrks in which he

to
supposed
travel.
have recorded his experiences of Egyptian

rate,
Herodotos found a public fresh and eager to hear what he had to tell them about the dwellers on the
Nile.
in the
At any
Herodotos must have reached Egypt

mer.
sum-
When
he
arrived, the
whole of the Delta was
under water.
eye-witness
He
how
describes with the vividness of an

its
towns
appeared
above
the
surface of the water, like the islands in the .Êgean,
and how the

he says,
traveller could sail, not along the river,
but across the plain.

all
At
'
the time of the inundation,

sea,
Egypt
becomes a
above which the
villages alone
show
themselves.'
The voyage from
Naukratis to Memphis was direct and rapid, and the

tourists in
making
it
passed by the pyramids instead
of the apex of the Delta.

In northern
Egypt the
rise of the Nile begins to

first
be perceptible during the

Criers
few days of
July.
go about the
streets of Cairo
announcing each
day how high
it has risen, and in the first or second week of August the ceremony of cutting the Khalig
or Canal of Cairo, and therewith declaring that the
Nile was once more flooding
its
banks, used to be
It
is,
observed with great rejoicings.
in
fact,
in
Herodotos in Egypt
185
August that the land

to
increase,
is
first
covered with the flood.
For another month the height of the water continues
and then
for a short while to
remain
stationary.
the canals of
But towards the end of October, when Upper Egypt are emptied, there is
rise,
again another
soon followed by a rapid
fall.
it,
If
the Delta was like a sea
when Herodotos saw
he
must have been there between the beginning of July and the end of October.
These are the

have spent
till
limits of the time
which he could
in the country.
That he did not remain

and the drying up of
the
after the fall of the river

is
the land
evident from incidental statements in his

visited
work.
Thus when he
which
to
Fayyum
it
was
like the Delta,
a sea of waters, and the pyramids

Professor
Petrie's
of
Biahmu,
they
excavations
have shown
as
still
have always
stood on
dry land,
in
do to-day, were seen by him

lake.
the
middle of a vast
Nowhere, indeed,
is
there any
hint of his having seen the country in
its
normal
condition.
Even
his reference to Kerkosdros, at the
apex of the Delta, which every

had
rived from
tion,
traveller to
Memphis
is
to pass except at the period of high Nile,

'
de-
the Ionian
'
writers of a previous genera-
not from his
own
experience.
Neither
in
going
nor in returning was his boat obliged to pass that way.
We
need not be surprised, therefore, at finding
86
The Egypt of
the
that the festivals he witnessed in the Egyptian towns
were those which took place
in the
summer.
Herodotos had not the time to imitate the ex-
ample of
doing
his predecessor Hekatseos
and
visit
Upper
season
his
Egypt, nor, indeed, was the summer a

for
so.
fitting
Consequently, while he lavishes
admiration on the temples and pyramids of the Delta,

of
Memphis and
still
of the
Fayyum, he has nothing
to
say about the

'
more
striking temples of the south.
Hundred-gated Thebes,' whose fame had already

colossi led the
penetrated to the Homeric Greeks, and whose tombs
and
Greek
tourists of the
Macedonian
age to scribble upon them their expressions of admiration and awe,

is
known
to
him only by name.

is
The extravagance of his praise

Labyrinth
;
reserved for the
about
the
nobler and more majestic
buildings of the capital of

utely silent.
Upper Egypt he
is
absol-
Against the statues of the Egyptian

Hekatseos saw at Thebes, Herodotos
at
kings which
can bring only a smaller number which he saw
Memphis.
The monuments even now

after the
contain evidence
that,
age of Hekatseos, Greek sightseers did not
make
safe.
their
way
into
southern
Egypt
until
the
Macedonian conquest had made
travel there easy and

in
At Abu-Simbel
in
Nubia and Abydos
Upper
Egypt are the records of the Greek
mercenaries
Herodotos in Egypt
of
187
Psammetikhos
and
their
Greek
and
Karian
contemporaries
who
in
visited
the oracle of Abydos.

in
But
then
comes a long blank

Egypt.
the history of
Greek writing
With the foundation of

in
it
Alexander's empire a
new epoch
begins.
From
that time forward the walls of the
tombs and temples
were covered with the scrawls of innumerable Greek

visitors.
At Thebes
them
all
the royal tombs were especial

ciceroni led the inquisitive
objects of attention,
and
stranger round
just as they
do to-day.
But among
the mass of Greek
have been collected
names that from the monuments of Upper

Herodotos nor of any
Egypt we
find neither that of
other of his countrymen of the

it
same
age.
In fact,
was not a time
for sightseeing in the southern
valley of the Nile.
The
population were in only half-
repressed rebellion against their Persian rulers, and

the whole country
swarmed with
bandits.
Persian
authority was necessarily weaker than in the north,
and the people were more combative and had near

allies in
the desert, the Bedouin and the Ethiopians.

river
voyage up the
was even more dangerous

last
than in the anarchical days of the

pirates
century
abounded, and out of reach of the Persian
garrison at
his hand.
Memphis the traveller carried his life in As in the time of Norden no Egyptian
traveller in
bey could or would allow the
Nubia
to
88
The Egypt of
the
go south of
Fayyiim.
Dirr, so in the time of Herodotos the
southern limit of the
foreigner's
travels
sail
was the
'
The Egypt
'
into
which Greeks
was, as
he himself declares, the Egypt which lay north of the
Theban nome and Lake Moeris. Even a visit to the Fayyum was doubtless a bold and unusual undertaking, and on this account
Herodotos describes what he saw there
ordinary length, and extols the
district
at
more than
of
the
wonders
at the expense of the better-known monu-
ments of Memphis and the Delta.
But the Oasis

had
the
had
suffered
afflicted
much from the civil troubles which Egypt. The dykes which kept out
fertile
inundation had been neglected, and the
nome
was transformed saw

it
into
a stagnant lake.
Herodotos
as the French savans
saw
it
at the beginning
of the present
century
the
embankments were
broken, and fields and roads were alike submerged.
From
the walls of the capital of the province,

lie
whose mounds now

water.
outside Medinet el-Fayyflm,

of
Herodotos looked northward over a vast expanse

'
Nearly
in the
middle of
it,'
he
tells us,
'
stand
two pyramids, each of them

the
rising 304 feet above

colossal
water
and both surmounted by
stone figures seated upon a throne.'
The
the
shattered
fragments of the colossi were found by Professor

Petrie
in
1888,
scattered
round
pyramidal
Herodotos in Egypt
pedestals, twenty-one feet high,
189
on which they had

the creator of the
been placed.
Cut out of hard quartzite sandstone,

III.,
they represented Amon-em-hat
Fayyum, and
were each
are
their discoverer
calculates that they
thirty-five feet in height.
The fragments
Ashmolean Museum. The statues faced northward, and the court within which they stood was surrounded by a wall with a gateway
at
in the
now
Oxford
of red granite.
intact,
The
still
pedestals
still
remain
fairly
and the road by the

is
side of which they
had
been erected
in fact,
used to-day.
The monuments,
in the
were erected high above the inundation, and
that Herodotos should have seen
them
midst of
the water
is
but a further proof of the condition of the
country at the time.
The Lake
Moeris he describes
;
was not the true Mceris of Egyptian geography was the Fayyum
itself
it
buried beneath the flood.
The
total height of the colossi
from the ground,

feet.
according to Professor Petrie, was about sixty
Between
this
and the 304

is
feet assigned to
them by
at
the Greek traveller there
indeed a wide difference.
But Herodotos could not have seen them close

a mere guess.
hand, and the measurement he gives must have been

It
warns
us,
however, not to put over-
much
not a
faith in his statements,
even when they are the
results of personal observation.
He was but a tourist,
man
of science, and he cared more for the tales
190
The Egypt of
the

scientific
of his dragoman and novel sights than for
surveying and exactitude.
Hence comes the assertion that before. the time of IVIenes the whole country between the sea and Lake Mceris was a marsh. Such a statement is intelligible only if we remember that, when Herodotos sailed up the Nile, its banks were inundated on
either side.
Had
he seen the country south of

traveller sees
fields
it
Memphis
water
is
as the
modern
when
the
subsiding and green

river,
all
begin to
line the
course of the
the belief. the rest of
he could never have entertained

distinction
But
between the Delta and
Egypt was hidden from him by the waters of the inundation. That he should have made the
Fayyum
was the
the limit of the marsh
is
indeed natural
it
limit of his exploration of
Upper Egypt, and

Memphis
consequently he did not
know
that from
southward to Edfu the valley of the Nile presents

the
same
features.
The
in
strange error he twice commits in imagining
that there were vaults under the pyramid of Kheops
an island formed by a canal which the builder had

is
introduced from the Nile
due to the same
cause.
Doubtless his dragoman had told him something of

the kind.
subterraneous chamber in the rock
actually exists
under
the
great pyramid, as was
discovered by Caviglia, and there are pyramids into
Herodotos in Egypt
191
whose
lower
chambers
the
Nile
has
long since
infiltrated.
Professor Maspero found his exploration
of the pyramids of Lisht, south of Dahshur, stopped
by the water which had filled them, and Professor Petrie had the same experience in the brick pryamid of Hbwara, though here the infiltration of the water
seems to have been caused
by a
canal
dug
in
Arab
times.
But the pyramids of Gizeh stand on a

the story reported by Herodotos
result of misapprehension
plateau of limestone rock secure against the approach
of water, and
is
more probably the
on
his
own
part than of intentional falsehood on the part of
his guides.
His ready credence of
it,
however, can
be explained only by the condition of the country at

the time of his
visit.
with water, and in
The whole land was covered going to Memphis he had to sail

It
by the pyramids themselves.

his visit to
was
in a boat that
;
them must have been made
and
it
was
easy, therefore, to believe that a canal ran
from the
water on which he sailed through the tunnelled rock
whereon they stood.
He
did not
know
that the
lowest chamber of the pyramid was high above the
utmost
level of the flood.
Surprise has often been expressed that Herodotos
should
make no mention
of the Sphinx, which to
Arabs and modern Europeans alike has appeared

one of most noteworthy monuments of Gizeh.
But
192
The Egypt of
the
in sailing
to the pyramids he
notice.
along the canal which led from Memphis would have passed by it without
his
As
boat
made
it
its
way
to the rocky edge
on
which
the
huge
sepulchres
of
Kheops and
Khephren
from
his
are built,
view
would have been concealed and buried as it was in sand his

it
guides did not think
an object of such surpassing

it
importance as to lead him to

sand.
over the burning

of
the
In
the
immediate
neighbourhood
great pyramid
he was surrounded by monuments
more
interesting
to
and more
his
striking,
which were
quite
enough
occupy
day and
satisfy his curiosity.

city of
South of the Fayyum and the adjoining

Herakleopolis, whose ruins are
now known
tell
as
is
Ahnas
el-Medineh,
all
that Herodotos has to
us
derived
from older authors.

person
is
Now
and
then,
it is
true, the first
used,
and we think
adventures.
for a
moment
is
that he
is
describing his
own
But he
merely quot-
ing from others, and there are no marks of quotation

in the
manuscript to show us that such

is
is
the case.
His book
traveller,
thus like that of another and later Egyptian

J.
Mr.
A.
in
St.
John, whose Egypt and Nubia

fifty
was published
too embodies record of his
English only
years ago.
He
the narratives of his predecessors in the
own journey up
is
the Nile without any

so,
notice or signs that he
doing
and
it is
not
until
we suddenly
light
on the name of an
earlier writer at
Herodotos in Egypt
the bottom of the page that
fact.
193
we become aware
of the
;
Herodotos has not given us even
this help
and
we need not wonder, therefore, that commentators who

have never been
method of work.
older writers
Egypt have been deceived by his But he has preserved fragments of which would otherwise have been lost,
in
stories
and
if
he has mingled them with the
he heard
from the dragomen of Memphis and
Sais, or the
answers he received to his questions about Greek

legends,
we must not feel ungrateful. Upper Egypt is mentioned only

to
tells
incidentally in
in a writer
his narrative, and, as
might be expected
who had
what he
depend upon others

us about
it
for his information,
is
very frequently incorrect.

'
Thus he
in the
asserts that the
hippopotamus was
sacred
nome
it
of Papremis, but nowhere else in Egypt,'
although
fancies
was
all
also
worshipped
in
Thebes, and he
that
the cats in the country were emat Bubastis, all the

all
balmed and buried

mice at Buto, and
hawks and
visited
the ibises at Hermopolis or
Damanhur.
he done
But
this
was because he had
these places and had not travelled in the south.

so,
Had
he would never have imagined that the

cat or
body of every
distant
hawk
that died
was
carried to a
place in
the
Delta.
Indeed, in
the
hot
weather of the summer months, anything of the kind
would have been impossible.
Cemeteries, however,
194
The Egypt of
the

all
of these sacred animals are found

Nile.
up and down
the
The mummies
cliffs
of the sacred cats are to be met
with in the
of Gebel
Abu
Foda, at Thebes, and

little
above
all
at Beni Hassan,
where a
to the south
of the Speos Artemidos such quantities of them were

recently discovered as to suggest that a commercial
profit
might be made out of
their bones.
Tons of
them were accordingly shipped

to be converted into
to Liverpool, there
it
manure
but as
was found
that the
mummified bones refused
to yield to the
process, the exportation ceased.
Mummies
of the
sacred hawks were disinterred in equal numbers when the ancient cemeteries of
Ekhmim
were excavated a
few years ago, and the construction of the canal on

the eastern bank opposite Abutig has lately brought
to light another of their burial-places, thus fixing the
site
of Hierakon,
'
the city of the Hawk,' the capital
of the twelfth nome.
In his geography of the river above the Fayyîm
Herodotos
avers that
'
was
similarly
misinformed.
Thus, he
for the
the country above the
Fayyum
distance of a three days' voyage resembles the country
below
it.'
three days' voyage would

it
mean
about
eighty miles, since he reckons
a voyage of seven
days from the sea to the Fayyum, a distance of about

190 miles.
Dahabiyeh
travellers will willingly assent

fair
to the calculation.
With a
wind, a day's voyage
Herodotos in Egypt
is
195
about thirty miles, more or
less,
so that 190 miles
could be easily traversed in seven days.

miles would bring the visitor from the
Now
eighty
to
Fayyum
Qolosaneh and the Gebel et-Ter.
For many miles
before reaching the Gebel the banks of the Nile wear
a very different aspect from that which they present

lower down.
In place of a dull
monotony of sand-
banks and
cliff,
level plains, there are picturesque lines of
amphitheatres of desert and rugged headlands.
It is
only as far as Feshn, twenty miles to the south
of Herakleopolis, that the description of Herodotos

is
correct.
It
is,
in fact,
merely based on what he
could
see
from the southernmost point to which
he attained.
desert reaches of Libya led
The view which he had from thence over the flat him to make another
It is that for
statement equally wide of the truth.
four days after leaving Heliopolis the valley of the
Nile
is
narrow, but that then
it
once more becomes

only where the
broad.
But
such
the
was
the
case
Fayyiim
and
province
of
Beni-Suef spread
towards the west, and there too only when they are
covered with the waters of the inundation.
Else-
where the cultivated valley

narrower even than
in the
is
for
the
most part
be so con-
neighbourhood of Memphis,
traveller to
where
fined
;
it
seemed
to the
Greek
here and
there, indeed, as
at
Abydos and
196
The Egypt of
it
the

for a space, but otherwise
it
Thebes,
broadens out
the wilderness encroaches upon
ever more and

it
more
until at Silsilis the barren rocks obliterate
altogether.
Herodotos knows nothing of the great monuments of Thebes, and the Pharaohs accordingly whose
names he records have no connection with

capital of the empire.
the ancient
to to
the Fayyflm, and to
They belong to Memphis, the Delta none of them

in
Thebes.
Even
Sesostris,
ir.
whom some
Of
left,
of
the
features of
Ramses
may
be detected, reigns
all
in the
north rather than in the south.

tudinous monuments that he has
the multiare
two only
known
to the
Greek
traveller,
and these
are the two
statues of himself which stood
before the temple
of Ptah in Memphis.
Of Thothmes and Amenophis and

were to be found chiefly
never heard.
in the south,
the other great
monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty whose memorials

Herodotos had
All that he
knew
of the kings of
Egypt
before the age of Psammetikhos was derived

stories
from the
which
his guides attached to the
monuments which he
actually saw.
Had
he
visited
the temples and tombs of Thebes and Abydos and
Assuan we should have been

his troops to
told
how Memnon
led
Troy or how Osymandyas conquered

to others for the
the world.
But we have to turn
Herodotos in Egypt
197
dragoman's
tales of
Upper Egypt
was
Herodotos could
not record them, for he
never there.
The
Fayyiim
is
the southernmost limit of his historical

it
knowledge, because
is
also the southernmost limit
of his geographical knowledge.
And
of
yet here and there
we come
across notices
by an eye-witness.
Upper Egypt, some of which have been written But the eye-witness was not Herodotos himself, and in giving them he generally Thus he
describes
or
gives an indication of the fact.
Khemmis
is
Ekhmim
as
'
near Neapolis,' the modern
Qeneh, although the distance between the two towns

really ninety-five miles, a
voyage of
at least three
days,
and Neapolis was but an
insignificant city
by
the side of
Khemmis itself,
its
or of other towns like This

to
it.
and Abydos that were nearer

or Denderah, with
Even Tentyris
of
ancient temple
Hathor
opposite Neapolis, was more important and better-
known, while Thebes

higher up the
river.
itself
was only
forty- five miles
But the account given by Herodotos of Khemmis

and
its
temple
is
a mere product of the imagination.

it
Indeed, he implies that he received

'
from certain
people of
bably through his interpreter.
Khemmis whom he had questioned, proThey told him that the

'
temple, of which a few remains are
still visible,
and
which was really dedicated to Min or Amon-Khem,
198
The Egypt of
the
was that of the Greek hero Perseus

gested,
it
name
sug-
may
be,
by
its
likeness to that of the sacred

it
persea
tree.
Each
year,
was
further
alleged,
gymnastic games
in
in the
Greek fashion were celebrated

deity,
honour of the foreign
who
at times appeared
to his worshippers, leaving behind
him
his sandal
famous
in
Greek mythology.
But
the inventive
traveller did
powers of the informants of the Greek

not stop here.
He
further assures us that the pylon

its
of the temple bore on the summits of
two towers
is
two images of the
deity.
The
statement
of
itself
sufficient to discredit the
whole story and
to prove
that Herodotos could never have seen the temple
with his
own
eyes.
The watch-towers
roofs.
that guarded
the entrance of an Egyptian temple never had, and
never could have, images on their
They were
principles
needed for other purposes, and the very idea of their

supporting statues was contrary to the
of Egyptian architecture and religion.
ception wholly Greek.
first
It
was a con-
Equally wide of the truth

to
tell
is
what Herodotos has

Like other
us about the First Cataract.
travellers to
Egypt before and

'
since he was anxious
to learn something about the sources of the Nile. But neither the Egyptians nor the Libyans nor the
Greeks
'
whom
he met could give him any information.

far as
Perhaps had he sailed as
Assuan some of
the
Herodotos in Egypt
199
Ethiopians
who
lived there
might have been more
communicative.
At
last,
however, he was introduced
to one of the sacred scribes in the temple of Neit at
Sais
the
only Egyptian
priest, in
fact,
of higher
rank,
whom
he seems to have conversed with
and
the scribe
humoured the
curiosity of the traveller to
the utmost of his desires, though even Herodotos
suspected that he was being
made
fun of
However,
as in duty bound, he gravely writes

told.
'
down what he was

tops,
Two
mountains are there with pointed

city of the Thebais,
between SyenS, a
tine,
and Elephan-
which are called Krophi and Mdphi.
Out of the
heart of these mountains flow the sources of the Nile,
which are bottomless, half the water running towards
Egypt and the

less
north, while the other half goes to
Ethiopia and the south.
That the sources are bottominto
was proved by Psammetikhos, the king of Egypt,

after
for
letting
down
them a rope
this
several
hundred thousand fathoms

the bottom.'
in length,
he did not iind
Herodotos adds that
was probably
because there were violent eddies in the water which

carried the rope away.
Egyptian
priests did not, as a rule,
know
Greek,
and they avoided any kind of intercourse with the

unclean foreigner. Even to have conversed with him would have caused pollution. Consequently
' ' '
the
priests
'
to
whom
Herodotos
so
frequently
200
The Egypt of
the
alludes were merely the 'beadles' of the day,
who
took the tourist over the temples and showed him

the principal objects of interest.
The
sacred scribe
of Sais was an exception to the general rule.
Since
the days of Psammetikhos, Sais had been accustomed

to
Greek
less
visitors,
and the prejudices against them

the scribe
were
strong there than in other Egyptian towns.
It is quite possible, therefore, that
whom
Greek
Herodotos met
was
acquainted
with
the
language, and that no dragoman was required to

interpret his words.
There
case.
is
a reason for thinking that such was the
The
story of Krdphi and Mdphi, in spite of

is
the suspicions of Herodotos,
remarkably correct
even the name of Krophi has not undergone a greater
amount of transformation than it might have done if Herodotos had written it down himself from the
scribe's
'
mouth.
'
It is
the Egyptian Qerti or Qoriti,
the two holes
out of which Egyptian mythology
supposed Hipi, the Nile-god, to emerge at the period

of the inundation.
The
Qerti were at the foot of the
granite peaks of Senem, the island of Bigeh, and of
the opposite
Cataract.
cliff
on the southern side of the First

fix the
We
can almost
exact spot where
one of these Qerti was believed to have been.
On
the western bank of Philse, immediately facing Bigeh,

is
a portal built in the reign of Hadrian, on the inner
'
Herodotos in Egypt
201
it.
north wall of which
is
a picture of
We
see the
granite blocks of Bigeh piled one

to the
upon the other up summit of the island where Mut the divine mother, and Horus the saviour, sit and keep watch
over the waters of the southern Nile.
cavern, encircled
Below
is
the
by
a guardian serpent, within which
the Nile-god
either
is
crouched, pouring from a vase in

river.
hand the waters of the
Though
in
certain points
Herodotos has misunderstood
his in-
formant, on the whole the story of Kr6phi and

is
M6phi
de-
a fairly accurate page from the volume of Egyptian
mythology.
rived
Even
the jingling
Mdphi may be
'
from the
Egyptian
river
moniii or
ran,
mountains
between which the
though Lauth
is
may
be right in holding that Krophi

hollow of the
of the Nile.'
Nile,'
Qer-H^pi, 'the
'
and M6phi Mu-Hapi, the waters
But
serious
in
one point the Greek historian has made a

It
mistake.
was not between Assuan and
Elephantine that the sources of the Nile were placed,

but between Bigeh and the mainland, on the other side
of the Cataract.
there are
'
Between Assuan and Elephantine

river.
no mountains,' only the channel of the
In
saying therefore that Krophi and M6phi were
mountains and that they rose between Syene and

Elephantine, Herodotos proves beyond
of doubt that he had never been
all possibility
at the spot.
Had
'
202
The Egypt of
the
he actually visited Assuan the words of the sacred

scribe
would have been reported more
correctly.
'
At Elephantine honours were paid to the great god of the Nile, who rose from his caverns in the neighbourhood. Of this we have been assured by a
mutilated Greek inscription on a large slab of granite
which was discovered by English sappers at Assuan

in 1885.
It records
the
endowments and
privileges
which were granted to the priests of Elephantine by

the earlier Ptolemies, and one line of
places 'wherein
is it
refers to the
the fountain of the Nile.'
But long
before the days of the Ptolemies and of Greek visitors

to Egypt,
when
the First Cataract was the boundary

fountain of
of Egyptian rule and knowledge, the the

it.
Nile was already placed
immediately beyond
This infantile belief of Egyptian mythology was
preserved, like so
in the
much
else of prehistoric antiquity,
mythology of
later days.
In the temple of
Redesiyeh, on the road from Edfu to Berenik^, an

inscription relates
how
Seti
I.
dug a
'
well
in
the
desert and
how
the water gushed up,
as from the
depth of the two Qerti of Elephantine.'

bottomless springs are
transferred
Here the
Bigeh
to
from
Elephantine, thus explaining
how Herodotos
could
to
have been led into his error of supposing them
be two mountains between Elephantine and Assuan.

Doubtless the sacred scribe had marked the position
Herodotos in Egypt
of the island of Bigeh
203
by its relation to the better known island of Elephantine. The very name of the city which stood on the
southern extremity of Elephantine implied that here,
in the
days of
its
foundation, was placed the source

It
of the Egyptian Nile.

of 'fresh water,' a
was
called
Qebhu, the city
word represented by the picture

is
of a vase from which water

city
flowing.
was
in
also
called
Abu, but Abu

the island
At times the was more

it
correctly the
name
of the island on which

'
stood.
Abu,
fact,
signified
of elephants,' of
translation.
which the Greek Elephantine was but a

In that early age,
when
it first
became known
must
to the
Egyptians, the African

existed there.
elephant
still
have
Herodotos does not seem to have been aware

that Elephantine
was an
is
island as well
as
city.
Except where he
scribe,
reporting the words of the sacred

it
he always speaks of
as
'
city,'
sometimes
It is
to the exclusion of the
more important Syene.
another sign that his voyage up the Nile did not
extend so
far.
We
need not point out other instances of
his
ignorance of the country above the Fayyum.
Those
which have been already quoted are enough.
The
summer months which he spent

than fully employed
in
in
Egypt were more

the wonders of
visiting
204

the chief cities of the Delta, and in
Memphis and
him, as
it
exploring the Fayyum.
Upper Egypt was
closed to
was
to
the rest of his countrymen for
many
a long day.
But we are now able to trace his journey with some degree of exactness. He must have arrived
about the beginning of July at the mouth of the
Kandpic arm of the Nile

Greek
ships
the
have
to
usual destination of
and
or
thus
made
the
his
way by
capital
Hermopolis
Naukratis.
Damanhur
Greek
his
There he doubtless hired
Karian
dragoman, with
whom
he sailed away over the inunhis expedition to Sais
dated land to Sais.
But
was
only an excursion, from which he returned to continue

his
voyage
in a direct line past Pros6pitis
and the
pyramids of Gizeh
to
Memphis.
Ptah,
There he inspected
his
the great temple of
whom
countrymen
identified with their Hephaestos,
and from thence he

It
went by water to see the pyramids.
was while he
visit to
was
at
Memphis, moreover, that he paid a

its
Heliopolis, with
all
university and
is
its
temple, of which
that
is
left
to-day
his
the obelisk of Usertesen.

Nile, past the brick
Next he made
voyage up the
to
pyramids of Dahshur,
Anysis or Herakleopolis,
Then he returned Memphis, and then again passing Heliopolis sailed northward to Bubastis and Buto. It was now
to
and from thence to the Fayyum.
Herodotos in Egypt
205
to
probably
that
he
made
excursions
Papremis
and
Busiris,
though our ignorance of the precise

Eventually he found
situation
of these places unfortunately prevents us

fact.
from being certain of the
himself at Daphnae, on the Pelusiac branch of the

Nile.
This brought him to Pelusium, where he took
ship for Tyre.
CHAPTER
IN
VII
THE STEPS OF HERODOTOS
Let
us follow Herodotos in his Egyptian journey

at the
and meet him where he landed
Kanopic
mouth of the
Greek
Nile.
The
It
place had been
known
to
sailors in
days of which tradition alone had
preserved a memory.
traders
was here that

of
pirates
and
or
had
raided
the fields
the fellahin
exchanged slaves and

ruled at
^gean
vases for the precious
wares of Egypt in the age when Achaean princes
Mykense and Tiryns.
Guided by the
island
of Pharos, they had
made
their
way
a few miles east-
ward
to the
mouth of the great

at last
river
which
is
called
Aigyptos
in the Odyssey.
When Egypt was

and
enterprise
it
opened to Greek trade

the
in
still
the time of
twenty-sixth
the Nile
dynasty
was
the Kandpic
arm of
steer.
towards which their vessels had to

else
Nowhere
sail
were they allowed to land their goods or

If stress of
up
the sacred stream of the Nile.
weather
drove them to some other part of the coast, they

208
In the Steps of Herodotos
207
were forced to remain there
till
the wind permitted
them
native
to sail to
Kanopos or boats by the same
to send their goods in

route.
From time im-
memorial the coast of the Delta had been carefully

guarded against the piratical attacks of the barbarians
of the north.
Watch-towers and garrisons were

it,
established at fitting intervals along
which were
under the charge of a special
officer.
The mouth of
the Kandpic branch of the river was guarded with
more than usual

through which
care,
and here was the custom-house had

to pass.
river
all
foreign goods
Kanopos, from which the arm of the

name, was a small but wealthy
city. It
took
its
was called
'
in
Egyptian Peguath, sometimes also Kah-n-Nub, the

soil
of gold
'
from the yellow sand on which

this
it
was
of
built,
though Greek vanity believed that

it
name
had been given to

Menelaos, whose
there.
its
from Kanobos, the
pilot
In later
tomb was of course discovered days, when Alexandria had absorbed

industry,
it
commerce and
It
became, along with the
outlying
suburb.
chapels,
Zephyrion,
fashionable
Alexandrine
was
which
filled
with
drinking-shops
and
of
to
the
pleasure-loving
crowds
Alexandria used to make their way by the canal that

united the two
cities.
The
cure.
sick
came
also to seek
healing in the temple of Serapis, or to ask the god to

tell
them the means of
The
rich, too,
had
their
2o8
The Egypt of
the

Aphrodite Arsinoe, on the
villas close to the shrine of
breezy promontory of Zephyrion, while the rocks on

the shore were cut into luxuriously-fitted baths for
those
who wished to bathe in the sea. The site of Zephyrion is now occupied by
village of Abuktr,
the
little
memorable
in
the annals of
England and France.
In 1891 Daninos Pasha
made
The
some excavations
foundations of
there which brought to light a few
scanty remains of the temple of Aphrodite.

its
walls were found, as well as two
limestone sphinxes inscribed with the
name
of
Amonupright
em-hat
IV.,
and
three great statues of red granite, one
of them upright, the others seated.

figure
in his
The
roll
was that of Ramses
II.
with a
of papyrus
hand
while the other two were female, one of
them being a representation of Hont-mi-Ra, the The sphinxes and statues must Pharaoh's wife.
have been brought from
some
older building to
decorate the shrine of the Alexandrine goddess, and

their discoverer believes that the figure of
is
Ramses
II.
older even than the age of that monarch,

it,
who
has
usurped
and that
it
goes back to the epoch of the

relics
twelfth dynasty.
Other
of the temple
frag-
ments
of
red granite
from
some
gigantic
naos,
portions of statues, broken sphinxes, and a colossal
human
foot
strew
the rocks at
the
foot
of the
promontory
whereon
Zephyrion
stood
and
bear

witness to the
intensity
in
209
zeal
of
Christian
when
paganism was abolished
Egypt.
The Kandpic arm

been
filled up,
of the Nile has long since

his field or the
and the fellah ploughs
water-fowl congregate in the stagnant marsh where
Greek trading ships once

the marsh
is
sailed.
But a large part of
now in process of being reclaimed, and the engineers who have been draining and washing it have come across many traces of the ancient Kan6pos.
It lay to
the east of Zephyrion, between the shore

lake.
and the marshy
Though the journey from Alexandria to Abukir must now be undertaken in a railway carriage and not
in
a barge,
it is still
pleasant in the early autumn.
We
pass through
fertile
gardens and forests of
fig-trees,
past groves of
palm with
rich clusters of red dates
hanging from them, while the cool sea-breeze blows

in at the
window, and the clear blue sky shines overfind
head.
at the
shells,
But instead of temples and taverns we

broken monuments, and a deserted shore.
vessel in
end of our journey nothing but sand and sea-
The
which Herodotos must have gone

Naukratis was probably native
It
from Kandpos
to
rather than Greek.
would have
differed in
one
Its
important respect from the Nile-boats of to-day.

sail
was square, not triangular O
like the
modern
lateen
sails
which have been introduced from the Levant.
2IO
The Egypt of
the
it

resembled the vessels which
Part of the deck was
lived,
But
are
in other respects
still
used on the Nile.
covered with the house in which the traveller
and which was divided

tected
into rooms,
and
fitted
up
in
accordance with the ideas of the day.

it
Awnings
pro-
from the sun, and the sides of the boat as
well as the rudder were brilliantly painted.
On
is
the
way
to
Naukratis the voyager passed
Hermopolis, the modern Damanhur, a name which
merely the old Egytian

It
is
Dema
n Hor, or
'
City of
Horus.'
not surprising, therefore, that Herocity,

it
dotos refers to the
though the statement he

All
makes
in regard to
is
not altogether correct.
the dead ibises of Egypt, he says, were carried to
Hermopolis
to
be embalmed and buried.
Such might
There
Delta,
have been the case on the western side of the Delta,

but
it
was true only of that limited
district.
was another Hermopolis

called
in
in the east of the
Bah
in
ancient
Egyptian, Tel
el-Baqliyeh
modern
times,
where a large burial-place of the

Tel
el-Baqliyeh
the second
sacred ibises was discovered by the fellahin six or
seven years ago.
is
station on the line of railway
from Mansurah to Abu

ibises
Kebtr, and from
it
have come the bronze
and
ibis-heads which have filled the shops of the Cairene

dealers
in
antiquities.
among
the multitudinous
The bronzes were found mummies of the sacred

bird,
21
like the
bronze cats in the cemetery of the
sacred cat at Bubastis.

city of the
'
old city
Bah was, in fact, the holy nome of the Ibis.' The mound of the has now been almost demolished by the
of inscribed stone in the neighbouring
II.
hunter for antikas, but Dr. Naville noticed some
fragments
village
which led him to believe that Nektanebo

Naukratis was
once intended to erect a temple here to Thoth.
From Hermopolis
distance.
to
short
Naukratis was the capital of the Egyptian

its site,
Greeks, and
which had been
lost for centuries,

in 1884,
was discovered by Professor Flinders Petrie
when he was working for the Egypt Exploration Fund. The Fund had been formed with the primary
intention of finding the sites of
kratis,
Pithom and Nauin
and
it
had been hardly two years

fulfilled.
existence
before that intention was

If
we
leave the train at
Teh
el-Barud, the junc-
tion of the
Upper Egyptian
line of railway
with that
from Alexandria to Cairo, and turn our faces westward,
we
shall
it
have a pleasant walk of about under an avenue of

trees, to
five
miles, part of
mound
of potsherds which covers several acres in extent and

is
known
it
to the natives as
all
K6m
Qa'if.
This
mound
represents of
that
is left
of Naukratis.
To
the west
runs a canal, the modern successor of the ancient

Nile.
Kandpic branch of the
212
The Egypt of
the

first visited
When
Sebah
which
is
Professor Petrie
the spot, the
diggers for sebah had already been busily at work.

the nitrous earth from the sites of old
cities,
is used as manure, and to the search for it we owe the discovery of many memorials of the past. At Kom Qa'if the larger part of the earth had been
removed, and
all
that remained were the fragments

it.
of pottery which had been sifted from
But the
fragments were sufficient to reveal the history of the

place.
Most of them belonged
to the archaic period
of the Greek vase-maker's
art,
and were such
as
had never before been found

It
in the land of Egypt.
was evident that the great
city
whose
settled
site
they
covered must have been the Naukratis of the Greeks.
As soon
as Professor Petrie
had
down
to
the excavation of the mound, a few months after his

discovery, the evidence of inscriptions
was added
to
the evidence of potsherds.
An
at
inscribed stone from
the
mound was standing

it
the entrance of the
country-house in which he
over he found
lived,
and on turning
it
was engraved with Greek

'
letters
which recorded the honours paid by the city of the

Naukratians' to Heliod6ros the priest of Athena
and the keeper of

first
its
archives.
For two winters
Mr. Petrie and then Mr. Ernest Gardner worked

ruins,
at
the
and
though
more excavations
are
needed before they can be exhaustively explored,
In
the Steps
of Herodotos
213
out, the
the plan of the old city has been

history
mapped
of
its
growth and decline has been traced,

temples have been
and a vast number of archaic Greek inscriptions

from the dedicated vases of
secured.
its
To
camp
settled
the south of the town were the fortress and
of the Greek mercenaries,

there
who were probably
by Psammetikhos. The camp was by a wall, and surrounded within it stood the
Hellenion,
the
common
Phoksea
altar of the lonians
from
the
Khios,
Teos,
and
Klazomenae,
of
Dorians from Rhodes, Knidos, Halikarnassos and

Phaselis,
and
of the
still
Cohans
of
Mytilene.
The
in
great
enclosure
remains, as well as the lower
chambers of the
fort,
and Mr. Petrie found that
the time of Ptolemy Philadelphos,
when
it
it
was no
longer needed for purposes of defence,
was pro-
vided with a stately entrance, to which an avenue of

ruins led from the west.
The
of
traders
and
settlers built their
houses north
sailors
the camp.
Here too the Greek
and
merchants,
the great
who had taken no part in the erection of altar, and who perhaps had no relations
fort, built special
among
the soldiers of the

If
temples
for themselves.
we walk
fort
across the level ground

city,
which separates the
from the old
the
first
heap of rubbish we come to
marks the
site
of the
214
The Egypt of
the
temple and sacred enclosure of Castor and Pollux.
little
to the north
was the
still
larger temple
and
temenos or sacred enclosure of Apollo, and adjoining

it,
still
on the north
side,
was the temple of Her6,

all.
whose temenos was the

was the oldest
largest of
The temple
of
Apollo had been erected by the Milesians, and that

it
in the city
may
be gathered from
the archaic character of the inscriptions on the pot-
sherds discovered in the trench into which the broken

vases of the temple were thrown.
The Samians were
the builders of the temple of H^re, and Herodotos

tells
us that there was another dedicated to Zeus by
the .(Eginetans.
The
ruins of this, however, have not
yet been found, but far
away towards
brought
to
the northern
end of the ruin a small

Aphrodite
temple and temenos of

light.
have
been
Here
from
Rhod6pis worshipped, who had been freed

slavery
by the brother of Sappho, and whose charms

celebrated at
were
still
Naukratis
in
the days of
Herodotos.
Among
the
potsherds
of the
disinterred
from
the
rubbish-trench
temple
of
Apollo
were
portions of a large and beautiful bowl dedicated to

'
Phanes, the
son of
Glaukos.'
Mr. Gardner
is
is
probably right in believing that this
the very
Phanes who deserted to Kambyses, and, according to the Greek story, instructed him
how
to
march

across the desert into Egypt.
It
215
may
still
be that Hero-
dotos saw the bowl

the
when
it
was
intact,
and that
it; in
story
case,
it
of the deserter was told
him over
any
was doubtless
at Naukratis,
and possibly
it.
from the priests of Apollo, that he heard
To
from
it
the west of the temple of Apollo and divided
only by a
street,
Mr. Petrie found what had
been a manufactory of Scarabs.
They were
era,
of the
blue and white kind that was fashionable in the Greek
world in the sixth century before our

earliest of
and the
them bear the name of Amasis.

for
From
Naukratis they were exported to the shores of Europe
and Asia along with the pottery

city
which the Greek
was famous.
his
On
two
way
to Naukratis Herodotos
had passed
other
Greek settlements, Anthylla and Ar-
khandropolis.
stood.
But we do not yet know where they Nor do we know the position of that Fort
'
'
of the Milesians
which, according to Strabo, was
occupied by Milesian soldiers near Rosetta in the
time of Psammetikhos, before they sailed upon the

river into
'
the
nome
of Sais
'
and there founded
Naukratis.
The
city of Sais
was one of the objects of Heroit
dotos's journey.
In the period of the inundation
excursion to
was within an easy distance of Naukratis, so that an Sais was it did not require much time.
2i6
The Egypt of
the
the birthplace and capital of the Pharaohs of the
twenty-sixth dynasty
it
was
here
that
Psamhis
metikhos raised the standard of rebellion against
Assyrian suzerain with the help of the Greek mercenaries,
and
his successors
adorned
it
with splendid
visited
it, it
and costly had

lost
buildings.
its
When
Herodotos
none of
architectural magnificence.
He
forth
saw there the palace from which Apries had gone

to attack Amasis,
and
to
which he returned a prisoner

its
the great temple of Neit, with

its
rows of sphinxes and
sacred lake
and the huge naos of granite which

in bringing
two thousand men spent three whole years

from Assuan.
It
had been
left
just outside the en-
closure within which the temple stood, as well as the
tombs of Apries and Amasis, and even of the god

Osiris himself
Osiris at
True, there was a rival sepulchre of
Abydos, venerated by the inhabitants of
Upper Egypt since the days of the Old Empire, but Abydos was far distant from Sais, and when the latter city became the capital of the kingdom there was
none bold enough to deny
all events,
its
claim.
Herodotos, at
who
never reached Abydos, was naturally
never informed of the rival tomb.
He
was
told,
however, of the mystery-play acted

in
at night
on the sacred lake of Sais
memory
of the
death and resurrection of Osiris, and he was told

also of the shameful insult inflicted
by Kambyses on
'

the dead Amasis.
It
217
was said that the Pharaoh's

its
mummy
and and
after
had been dragged from
resting-place,
being scourged was burnt to ashes.
The
Egyptian priests bore no good-will to Kambyses,

it
may
be, therefore, that the story is
not true.
Sais
Neit, the
was under the protection of the goddess

unbegotten mother of the sun.
When
the
Greeks
first
with their
came there, they identified the goddess own Athena, led thereto by the similarity
But
this identification led to further
of the names.
results.
As Athena was
it
the
patron
goddess
of
Athens, so
was supposed that there was a
special
connection between Sais and Athens.
While Athena
was fabled to have come from Libya, Kekrops, the

mythic founder of Athens, was transformed into an
Egyptian of
Sais.
It
was from a
priest of Sais,
moreover, that Solon, the Athenian legislator, learned

the
wisdom of the Egyptians. The squalid village of Sa el-Hagar, Sais of the

'
stone,' is the
modern representative of the

is
capital of
it
Psammetikhos.
difficult
In these days of railways
is
of access, as there
no station
in its
neigh-
bourhood.
ever,
In the earlier part of the century, howtraveller
when the
it
had
to
go from Alexandria
to the tourist.
its
to Cairo in a dahabiyeh,
it,
he was compelled to pass
and
was consequently well-known
But
little is left
of the populous city and
stately
2i8
monuments except mounds of disintegrated brick, a large enclosure surrounded by a crude brick wall seventy feet thick, and the sacred lake. The lake,
however,
is
sacred no longer
it
shrunken
in size
and
choked with rubbish,

winter,
spring.
is
a stagnant pool in the

in the late
is
and an expanse of half-dried mud

It is
situated within the great wall, which
that of the temenos of Neit.
Stone
is
valuable in
the Delta, and hardly a fragment of granite or lime-
stone survives from
all
the buildings and colossal

1891
a
great
monuments that Herodotos saw. But in number of bronze figures of Neit, some
are of the careful
of them
inlaid with silver,
were found there hy the fellahin.
They
that
and finished workmanship

a two-fold inscription
letters
marks the age of the twenty-sixth dynasty, and

is
on one of the largest of them

in
Egyptian hieroglyphs and the

It
and language
of the Karians.
was dedicated
to the goddess of a
Sais in the reign of
Psammetikhos by a son of
It is
Karian mother and an Egyptian father who bore

both an Egyptian and a Karian name.
teresting
an
in-
proof of the readiness of some at least

of Sais to mingle with the foreigner,
among the natives

and
it
shows further that the Karian mercenaries,

brought their wives and daughters
like the Greeks,
along with them,
Herodotos seems to have been at Sais when the

festival
219
there.
of
'
burning lamps
'
was celebrated
On
the night of the festival lamps were lighted round

air,
about the houses in the open

cups
filled
the lamps being
with salt and

All
oil,
on the surface of which

those
a wick floated.
who
lamps
could thronged to Sais to

;
take part in the ceremonies

there lighted their
at
who could not be home and so observed

took place
in the
the rites due to Neit.
The
festival
summer, probably
at the
time of the
summer
it
solstice,
still
and the illuminations characteristic of

Egypt.
are
per-
petuated in some of the numerous festivals of modern
The annual festival in honour of Isis was observed all over Egypt in the same way. As the Greek traveller approached Memphis the
pyramids of Gizeh were shown to him towering over
the water on his right.
His
visit to
them was
sail
re-
served to another day, and he continued to

the ancient capital of the country.
still
on to
Memphis was
of crude brick,
great temple
records
its
in all
its
glory.
Its lofty walls
painted white, shone in the sun, and

of Ptah
still
preserved the
monuments and
it
of the early dynasties of Egypt.
Built on an
em-
bankment rescued from the

the
first
Nile,
was
said,
by Menes,
monarch of the united kingdom, Memphis,
though of no great width, extended along the banks

of the river for a distance of half-a-day's journey.
To
the west,
in
the
desert,
lay
its
necropolis.
220
The Egypt of
the

from
the city of the dead, reaching
on the north to Dahshur on the

opposite side of the Nile, a
the fortress of
to the river.
little
Abu Ro^sh south. On the
to the north, was
Khri-Ahu, which guarded the approach
saw only sand and water.

of
Where Cairo now stands Herodotos Even Khri-Ahu was

fortress
merely an insignificant village at the foot of a
mud
brick
the strong walls and towers of hewn
stone in which the
Roman
legion afterwards kept

unbuilt.
its
ward over Egypt were as yet

could afford
it
All
who
lived in
Memphis and
suburbs, and
the rock-hewn tombs at the foot of the citadel of
modern Cairo
are of the
to
Roman
age.
From Memphis
Herodotos,
Heliopolis was rather more

river.
than twenty miles, or a morning's row on the

therefore,
after
having
been
told
at
Memphis
of the experiment
made by Psammetikhos
make
further
to discover the origin of language, speaks of having
'turned into' Heliopolis in order to

inquiries about the matter,
'
for the Heliopolitans are
said to be the best informed of the Egyptians.'
We
may
gather from his words that he
made an
in
excur-
sion to Heliopolis while he
was staying
it
Memphis.
But he would have passed

voyage.
again on his homeward
The
tourist
site
of Heliopolis
is
well-known to every
who
has been to Cairo.
The
drive to the
221
garden and ostrich-farm of Matariyeh and the obelisk

of Usertesen
I.
is
a pleasant
way
of filling up an after-
noon.
But of the ancient

its
city of Heliopolis or
On,
its
with
famous temple of Ra, the Sun-god,

of learned
priests,
university
and
its
innumerable
monuments of the past, there is little now to be seen. The obelisk reared in front of its temple a thousand
years before Joseph married the daughter of
priest still stands
its
;
high-
where
it
stood in his day
but the
temple has vanished utterly.

obelisk which
So, too, has the sister

its
was erected by
still
side,
and of which
to
say.
Arabic
historians
is left
have
something
Nothing
but the mud-brick wall of the sacred
enclosure,
and a thick layer of lime-stone chippings
which
tell
how
or
the last relics of the temple of the

for the Cairo of Ismail
Sun-god were burnt into lime

Pasha.
One
is
two fragments were rescued from
destruction
by Dr. Grant Bey, the most noticeable of

length,
II.,
which
a portion of a cornice, originally 30 feet

in
4 inches
which had been

last
erected
by
Nektanebo
the
of
the
native
Pharaohs.
Blocks with the names of the
second and third
Ramses
are also lying near the western gate of the
enclosure,
and
in the eastern desert are the
tombs of
the dead.
Nothing more remains of the old capital
of Egyptian religion
is
and
learning.
The
destruction
indeed complete
the spoiler
whom
Jeremiah saw
222
The Egypt of
the

broken 'the images of Bethfire
'
in prophetic vision has
Shemesh,' and burnt with

of the Egyptians.'
If
the houses of the gods

see the obelisks and
to the cities
It
we would
images of
On we must now go
of Europe or
and
from
museums
British
America.
was
Heliopolis that the huge scarab of stone
now
in the
Museum was
III.
originally brought to Alexandria,
and
at Heliopolis Cleopatra's
Needle was
first set
up
by Thothmes
Heliopolis
in front of the
temple of Amon.
was
the
centre
and source of the

Egypt,
in so far,
worship of the Sun-god

at all events, as he
in ancient
was adored under the name of
The worship goes back to prehistoric days. Menes was already a son of Ra,' inheriting his right to rule from the Sun-god of On. The theology of
Ra.
'
Heliopolis
is
incorporated in the earliest chapters of

that Ritual of the Departed, a
safe passage of the
It
the
Book of the Dead,
knowledge of which ensured the

dead
man
into the world to come.

its first
was
in the
great hall of
believed
temple that Egyptian mythology
Horus
to have been cured of his
wounds
which
after the battle with Set.
The
origin of the temple,
in fact, like the origin of the school of priests
gathered round
it,
was too
far lost in the mists of
antiquity for authentic history to remember.
As befitted its theological character, Heliopolis was rich in sacred animals. The bull Mnevis, in which

the Sun-god
223
was incarnated, was a
rival of the bull
Apis of Memphis, the incarnation of Ptah.

bulls point to a
two
localities
of Heliopolis
The two community of worship between the in that primeval age when neither Ra nor Ptah of Memphis was known, and
when
they
the primitive Egyptian population
whoever
may have been
were plunged
in the grossest
superstitions of African fetichism.
Herodotos did not
hear of the bull Mnevis.
But he was acquainted with

Indeed, the
the story of another sacred animal of Heliopolis, the
bennu or Phoenix, the sacred bird of Ra.
fame of the phoenix had long before penetrated to

Greece.
Hesiod alludes to
it,
and the account of the

predecessor
like
marvellous bird given by Herodotos was 'stolen,'
we
are
told
by Porphyry, from
it
his
Hekataeos.
Hekatseos says that
was
it
an eagle,
whereas the monuments show that
was a heron,
and Herodotos follows him
in
the blunder.
We
does,
may
argue from
this, as
Professor
Wiedemann
its
that Herodotos himself never
saw
picture.
But
otherwise his account
is
correct.
Its
wings were red
and gold, and

hundred years.
it
represented the solar cycle of five
When
Strabo visited Heliopolis in the age of

it
Augustus he found
schools and library
already half deserted.
Its
had been superseded by those of

in
Alexandria, and although the houses
which the
224
"^he
Egypt of
the

lived were
still
priestly philosophers
ing,
had once
stand-
they were
in
now empty.
Among them
was the
which Plato and Eudoxos had studied not long after the time when Herodotos was there. In
house
spite, therefore, of the
Persian wars Herodotos must

still
have found the ancient university

flourishing.
circle
famous and
Just as in the Cairo of to-day the whole

science
is
of
Mohammedan
taught in
the
University of El-Azhar on the basis of the Qoran,

so in the
Heliopolis which
Herodotos
visited
still
all
the circle of Egyptian knowledge was
taught
and learned on the basis of the doctrines of the

Heliopolitan school.
The
feelings with
which the
Greek
traveller
viewed the professors and their pupils
if,
indeed, he
was allowed
to
do so
must have been

now
similar to those with which an English tourist
passes through the Azhar mosque.
From Heliopolis Herodotos continued his voyage down the Pelusiac arm of the Nile to Bubastis, thus
following
nearly the
tourist
same
line
of
travel
as
the
modern
Zagazig.
who
goes by train from Cairo to
The
rubbish heaps of Tel Basta, just be-
yond the station of Zagazig, mark the site of Bubastis, called Pi-beseth in the Old Testament (Ezek. xxx. 17),
Pi-Bast,
'the
Temple of
Bast,'
by the Egyptians.
for-
The
cat-headed goddess Bast presided over the
tunes of the
nome and
city,
where she was
identified
In
the Steps of Herodotos
225
with Sekhet, the lion-headed goddess of Memphis.
But the cat and the

together.
lion never lay
down
in
peace
it,
As
a hieroglyphic text at Philse puts
Sekhet was cruel and Bast was kindly.
The
ever,
exclusive worship of Bast at Bubastis, howII.
dated from the time of Osorkon
of the twenty-
second dynasty, as
Dr. Naville's excavations

deities,
have
made
plain.
Before that period other
more
Bast,
especially
in fact,
But6 and Amon-Ra, reigned

origin.
there.
was of foreign
She was the feminine
form of Bes, the warrior god

coasts of Arabia,
who came from
the
and her association with the cat
perhaps originated far
The
and
tells
description
away in the south. given by Herodotos of Bubastis
its festival is
clearly that of an eye-witness.

in the
is
He
us
how
the temple stands
middle of the
town surrounded by a canal which

trees,
shaded with
it
and how the
visitor looks
down upon
in
from
the streets of the city, which
had grown
height
while the level of the temple had remained unaltered.
He
to
tells
us further
how
a broad street runs from
it
to the market-place,
and thence
to a chapel dedicated
festival
Hermes, and how at the great annual
crowds of
men and women

when they
P
flocked to
it
in boats,
piping and singing, clapping the hands and dancing,

offering sacrifices
arrived at the shrine,
and drinking wine to excess.
similar sight can be
226
The Egypt of
the
seen even
now
in the
month
is
of August at Tantah,
where the
religious fair
all
thronged by men and
women
by the modern
raki.
indulging in
old
the amusements recounted
Greek
traveller,
sometimes beyond the

is
verge of decency.
feast, its
Wine
alone
absent from the
place being taken by hashish and
As
'
the festival was held in honour of Bast,
it
was
probably an annual commemoration of the great

Shed-festival
in his
'
of thirty years celebrated by Osorkon
II.
twenty-second year, and depicted on the
walls of the hall which Dr. Naville has discovered.
The
'
Shed-festival
'
took place during the month of
August
in
the time of the sixth dynasty on the

It
27th of Epiphi.
was probably,
therefore, at the
that
end of August or the beginning of September

Herodotos found himself
in the city of Bast.
The
description Herodotos gives of the position

is still
of the temple
true to-day.
The
temple, which
is
he pronounced to be the
ruins, like the
prettiest in
Egypt,
now
in
it.
houses and
Tel-Bast
streets that encircled

still
But the
site
visitor, to
looks
down upon
its
from the rubbish-mounds of the ruined
habita-
tions,
and can
still
trace the beds of the canals which

it.
were carried round

to the market-place
Even the
visible,
street
which
led
is still
and Dr.
Naville
has found
,the
remains of the
little
temple which
227
Herodotos supposed
to
be that of Hermes, the

however, he was wrong.
to Bast,
It
Egyptian Thoth.
Like the larger
In
this,
edifice, it
was dedicated
of
and
was,
seems to have been used as a treasury.

therefore,
under the
protection
Thoth, whose
is
figure decorated its walls,

less right in
and Dr. Naville
doubt-
believing that this has led to the mistake
of Herodotos or his guides.

in
it
Osorkon
I.
consecrated
large quantities of precious

;î
things, including
about
30,300 in gold and ;î 3,000 in silver
an
evident proof that the internal condition of his king-
dom was
flourishing.
Dr. Naville's excavations were undertaken for the
in 1887-89,
and were
chiefly
made among
outlines
the broken columns
and dislocated
us the
stones of the larger temple.
They have given
of
its
history.
its
Like most of the great
temples of Egypt,
foundation went back to the very

civilisation.
beginning of Egyptian
the
The Pharaohs
it,
of
Old Empire repaired or enlarged

blocks.
and the
i.,
names of Kheops and Khephren,

have been found upon
twelfth
its
as well as of Pepi
The
kings of the
it,
and thirteenth dynasties embellished
and
even the Hyksos princes did the same.
In the days
when they had adopted the culture and customs of Egypt and were holding royal state at Zoan, two of
them
at least restored
and beautified the temple of
228
The Egypt of
the
Bubastis and called themselves the sons of Ra.

of them, Apophis,
One
may have been
the
Apophis
whose demand that the vassal-king of Thebes should

worship Sutekh instead of
Amon
brought about the
war of independence
the other, Khian User-n-Set-
Ra, the lannas of Manetho, has engraved his name on a colossal lion which was carried to Babylon by some
Chaldsean conqueror.
The monarchs
expelled.
of the eighteenth dynasty con-
tinued the pious work of the
Hyksos whom they had
But the
civil
disturbances which attended
the
fall
of the dynasty caused injury to the temple,

find Seti
it.
i.
and we
storing
also
and Ramses
but
li.
once more
re-
The
kings of the twentieth dynasty have

in
it,
left
memorials
it
was
under the
twenty-second dynasty the successors of Shishak
that
chapel.
II.
Bubastis reached the highest point of
its
prosperity.
The
princes
who
followed Shishak
its
made
the city their capital and
temple their royal
The
great festival hall

hall
was
built
by Osorkon
court,
between the entrance
and the main
and the worship of Bast was exclusively

it.
installed in
Temple and city alike underwent but little change down to the days of Herodotos. It was after his visit that the last addition was made to the sacred buildings. With the recovery of Egyptian
independence after the successful revolt from Persia
229
came a new
tanebo
I.,
era of architectural activity, and

first
NekAfter
the
king of the thirtieth dynasty,
erected a great hall in the rear of the shrine.

this the history of the
temple fades out of view.

that
Herodotos was
told
the
height
of
the
mound on which
indication
the city of Bubastis stood was an

evil
of
the
deeds
of
it
its
inhabitants.
said,
Sabako, the Ethiopian conqueror,

caused the
sites
was
had
of the Egyptian cities to be raised
by convict labour, just as they had been previously raised by those who cut the canals under Sesostris. But the whole story was an invention of the dragomen.
The
disintegration of the crude brick of which
the houses of
Egypt
are built
makes them quickly

formed.
decay and give place to other buildings, which are

erected on the
city
it
mound they have

does the
tel
As
the
grows
in age, so
or
mound whereon
stands grow in height, and had Herodotos travelled
in
Upper Egypt he would have seen the process

In the Delta, moreover,
for the great height of the
going on under his eyes.

there
was a special cause
city-mounds.
The water
of the inundation percolated

in
through the ground, and

floor of a
order that the lower

it
house should be dry,
was necessary
to
build
it
on a
series of vaults or cellars.

in
few years
old
ago these vaults were very visible

houses of Tel-Bast.
some of the
outlet,
They had no
either
230

or window, and were consequently never
by door
keep the
employed as store-rooms.
rest of the
Their sole use was to
house dry.
sacred cats was on the western
cats
The cemetery of the

side of the town.
But the
do not appear
in
to
have been embalmed, as elsewhere were either buried or burned.
Egypt
they
Among
cat.
the bones
which have been sent to England
naturalists have
found none of our modern domestic
Several,
however, of the bronze cats of the Ptolemaic age
which have been discovered with the bones unmistakably represent the domestic animal.
Generally
they have the small head of the modern Egyptian

puss.
'
little
'
below Bubastis
'
'
Herodotos passed the

of
the
deserted
camp
and
fortress
Ionian and
Karian mercenaries of Psammetikhos, and saw the

slips for their vessels
still
and the ruins of

the belief that
their houses
standing on the shore.

to
Amasis had
it
transferred
them
Memphis,
in
was rather
from his Egyptian subjects that he needed protection

than from his neighbours in Asia.
The
site
of the
camp was
in 1886,
discovered
and
partially
excavated by
Professor Petrie for the

was
and one of the

it
results of his discoveries
to
show that
was
also the site of the frontier
fortress called
by the Greeks Daphnse.
What
its
231
Egyptian name was we do not know with certainty,
though
in
it
is
it
probable that Professor Petrie

to be the
is
right
holding
Tahpanhes of the prophet
Jeremiah.
It is now known as Tel ed-Defifeneh. The drying up of the Pelusiac arm of the Nile
has brought the desolation ed-Deffeneh.

brackish
the east,
;
of the desert to Tel
The canal which has replaced it is Lake Menzaleh, which bounds the Tel to is more brackish still. The land is imsalt,
is
pregnated with
of sand.
and covered
in places
soil
with
drifts
There
no cultivated
nearer than
less
Salahiyeh, twelve miles

distant than
away
no water-way
Kantara on the Suez Canal.

lies
The
greater part of the ancient site

east
between
Lake Menzaleh on the

large acreage of ground.
and a swamp out of

it
which the canal flows on the west, and
covers a
canal, a
Northward are the
marsh, and
lies
mounds
of sand, and
beyond the canal

In
the cemetery of the ancient fortress, as well as a
suburb which was probably the Karian quarter.
the centre of the site rises the Tel proper, a great
mound
of disintegrated brickwork called
'
the palace
it
of the Jew's daughter.'

clear that
it
Excavation soon made
represented the fortress of Daphnae, and

built
that
his
by Psammetikhos when he settled Greek garrison there. For a frontier fortress no

it
was
place could
have been better chosen.
It
guarded
232
The Egypt of
the

its
the eastern branch of the Nile, while from
summit
we
look across the desert, on one side along the highfar
road which once led to Syria, and on the other as

as the
mounds
still
of Tanis.
The
fort itself has
crumbled
it
into dust, but the vaulted
chambers on which
was
its
erected
exist, as well as the
'pavement' at
entrance.
The
Like the
pottery found at Tel ed-Deffeneh
is
early
Greek, but of a different type from that of Naukratis.

latter, it
would seem to have been manuall
factured on the spot and exported from thence to

parts of the Greek world.
Jewellery, too, appears to
have been made

artisans
there
by the Greek
or Karian
who
lived
under the protection
of
their
military kinsmen.
But the manufacture of both
pottery and jewellery
came
to a sudden end. to
When
in the civilian
Amasis removed the mercenaries

population departed with them.
Memphis
middle of the sixth century before Christ the
Between that date

in the Ptole-
and a new and unimportant settlement

maic period the
site
seems to have been

it
deserted.
When
Herodotos passed
by,
it
had no
inhabitants.
short.
From Daphnse
of Daphnse.
it
to Pelusium the
voyage was
Pelusium, once the key of Egypt, has shared the fate
The channel of the
river that flowed
by
has become a dreary reach of black salt mud, and
the fields which once supplied the city with food are
In
wastes of sterile
the Steps of Herodotos

soil or
233
mountains of yellow sand.
Not even a solitary Bedoui disturbs the solitude of

the spot at
most seasons of the
year.
All that
reminds the traveller of
human
is
life
as he
encamps on
far
the edge of the sand-dunes

flashes
the electric light which
through the night from Port Said
away on
the horizon.
In the midst of the desolate waste of poisonous
mud
lie
rise
the two large
mounds which alone
are
left
of Pelusium.
On
the larger of these, to the westward,
the granite columns and other relics of the
Roman
temple, beneath which, and below the present level

of the water, are
the ruins of the temple of the

is
Pharaonic age.
glass
The ground
strewn with broken
and pottery, some Roman, some Saracenic.

of Pelusium
it
The Egyptian name

site will
is still
unknown,
its
and before we can discover

be necessary.
least, if
excavations upon
it
Ezekiel calls
Sin (xxx.
15,
16)
at
the commentators are to be trusted
and when the Greeks sought an etymology for the name they gave it in their own word for mud.' But
'
it
was a famous spot

Avaris, the
its
in
the records of Egyptian
history.
Hyksos stronghold, must have

it
been in
neighbourhood, and
was outside
its
walls that the Persian conquest of
The
battle-field
Egypt was decided. where the army of Kambyses, led by

PhanSs, overthrew the
the Greek
deserter
Greek
234
The Egypt of
the
mercenaries of the Pharaoh, was near enough for
Herodotos to walk over
it
and compare the
skulls of
the Egyptian and Persian combatants, as he had
already done at Papr^mis.
Here, too, he was shown
the spot where the Greek and Karian soldiers of
Psammetikhos
after
ill.
had slaughtered the sons of Phanes
over a huge bowl in the sight of their father, and
mixing the blood of the boys with wine and

it
water, had savagely drunk

battle.
and then rushed
to the
Not
far
from
Pelusium
another tragedy took
place four centuries after Herodotos had been there.
The
fugitive
Septimius, the general of the
Pompey was welcomed Roman
to the shore
by
forces in Egypt,
and Akhillas, the commander of the Egyptian army,

and murdered by them as he touched the
Akhillas then hastened
to
land.
Alexandria, to besiege
Caesar in the royal palace, and the burning of the
great library was the atonement for Pompey's death.
Down
even to the middle ages Pelusium was

It
still
the seaport of the eastern Delta.
held the place

its
now occupied by
that was
Port Said.
It
was from
quays
In one
that the vessels started for the Syrian coast.
bound
his
for
Tyre, Herodotos took his passage

tour.
and ended
Egyptian
But he had
visited certain cities in the Delta into

to
which we have been unable to follow him, owing

the uncertainty that
position.
still
235
their
hangs over
exact
Besides the places already described,
we
know
that
he saw But6, which

as well as
is
coupled with
Khemmis,
Papremis and Prosdpitis, and
probably also Busiris.
Khemmis
which must be carefully distinguished

Ekhmim
deep broad
'
from the other Khemmis, the modern

was, he tells us, a floating island
in a
lake by the side of the temple at Buto,' where L6t6,

the Egyptian Uaz,
this island of
was worshipped. Brugsch
identifies
Khemmis
with the town and marshes
of Kheb, where the
mother
the
Isis
out of the reach of Set.
nome
called
young Horus was hidden by his Kheb was in that of Menelaos by the Greeks,
'
the capital of which seems to have been Pa-Uaz,
the
temple of Uaz,' transformed by Greek tongues into

Butd, and of which another city
or at least the twin-city
was Kandpos.
Buto,
where the great temple of
the goddess stood,
is
probably now represented by
Tel Fera'Jn, not far to the west of Fuah, at the
extremity of the
within easy distance of of Sais on

visited
it
Mahmudiyeh canal. It was thus Kandpos on the one side and

Herodotos might have
the other, and
from either one of them.

it is
But
is
after all
not certain that he did
so.
But6
mentioned
it
again
by him
in
a passage which
shows that
could not have been Pa-Uaz, but must
236
The Egypt of
lain
the
have rather
in the land
on the eastern side of the Delta,
of Goshen, where the desert adjoined

It is
'
the 'Arabian nome.'

'
where he
fly
tells
us about
the winged serpents
which
in
the spring-time
from Arabia to Egypt, on the confines of which they

are
met and
slain
by the sacred
ibises.
Anxious
to
learn
something about them, he
visited
the spot
where the yearly encounter took

of the slaughtered snakes.
place,
and there
spines
saw the ground strewn with the bones and

informs
'
This spot, he further

it
us, is -in
the Arabian desert, where

plain,'
'
borders
on the Egyptian
hard by the city of Buto.'
Thanks
for the
to the excavations made by Mr. Griffith Egypt Exploration Fund at Tel en-Nebesheh,
near Salahlyeh,
city of
Buto
stood.
and
it
was the
it
we now know where this eastern Its Egyptian name was Am, capital of the nineteenth nome of
was consecrated
to the worship of
Am-pehu, but
snake.
the goddess Uaz, who was symbolised by a winged
The
great temple of the goddess was built
on the western side of the town, and the Pharaohs

of the twelfth dynasty, as well as
his
Ramses
II.
and
successors,
and the Saites of the twenty-sixth

helped to endow and embellish
it.
dynasty, had
all
When
potters
the Greek garrison was established in the
neighbourhood at Daphnse, a colony of Cyprian

settled
at
Am.
But
in
the age
of the

Ptolemies
of the
past.
it
237
fell
into decay,
its
and by the beginning
Roman
era
magnificence belonged to the
Just beyond the precincts of the
town was the
Arabian desert, the realm of

Isis
Set.
The legend
of
it,
and Horus was accordingly transferred to

its
and
patron goddess became

the
Uaz
of Butd, who,
under
form of
Isis,
concealed
Horus
in
its
marshes.
Was
it
here, therefore, in the
Pa-Uaz of
Am,
for,
that the Buto of Herodotos has to be looked
rather than in the Menelaite
nome ?
city of
We know that he Am on his way from

serpents
must have passed the
Bubastis to Daphnae, and his

search of the winged
there.
expedition to the desert in
shows that he
stopped
On
the
other hand, his
account of the floating island of
Khemmis was derived from his predecessor Hekatasos, and when he states that the Buto with which
it
was connected was

'
built
on the Sebennytic branch
of the Nile,
as
one
sails
up
it
from the
sea,'
it
would seem certain that
his
account of this Buto

writer.
was also quoted from the older

is
And
is
yet
it
difficult
to
believe
that his
description
of the
monolithic shrine which stood there

at first-hand.
not given
Perhaps the best explanation would
be that Herodotos really

city,
made an
excursion to the
but has so skilfully mingled what he himself
238
The Egypt of
the

as to
saw there with the description of Hekatseos
make it impossible to separate the two. The site of Papremis is absolutely unknown, and we have no clue even to its relative position. But
Pros6pitis
may
be the fourth nome, Sapi-ris or Sapi

'
of the south.'
the
In Byzantine times
its
capital bore
name
of Nikiu, which Champollion long ago

Pshati and the modern
identified with the Coptic
Abshadi, not far from Menuf.

straight
line
Menfif stands
in
due westward of Benha, and would

path of the traveller on
his
have
lain directly in the
way from Naukratis

It
to
Memphis.
of Prosdpitis
that
the
was
in
the
island
Athenian
fleet
was blockaded by the Persians under

river
Megabazus, and captured only when the

a year and
was
turned into another channel, after the blockade had

lasted
for
a half.
Immediately westis
ward of
Mentif, in fact, an island
formed by the
Rosetta and Damietta branches of the Nile which

unite at the
southern end of
it,
and are joined
together towards
uniyeh.
the north by the Bahr el-Fara'is is
But the island

wide, and
it
twenty-seven miles long

difficult
by
fifteen
to
understand
how
this could
have been blockaded by the Persian

defended by the crews of seventy
year and a
half.
army,
much
less
vessels, for the space of a
Hero-
dotos indeed asserts that the island of Pros6pitis
239
in
;
was nine skhoenoe, or about sixty miles

ference,
circum-
and that
it
contained
many
cities
but this
only makes the difficulty the greater.

Lastly,
we come
to Busiris,
'
which
is
described
by the Greek
Usar or
traveller as
in the centre of the Delta.'
This description exactly suits the position of PaBusiris, 'the
temple of
Osiris, the lord of

Its
Mendes,' and the capital of the Busirite nome.
modern representative
of
is
Abusir, a
little
to the south
Semennud
Tanta
or
to
Sebennytos, on the railway line
from
Mansurah.
If
Herodotos
really
visited this place,
he must have done so from Sais,

it
to the west of
which
lies in
a pretty direct
line.
is
But the
distance was considerable, and there

it
nothing in the language he uses in regard to

obliges us to believe that he
which
His
was
really there.
description of the festival held there in honour of

Isis
is
not that of
it
an
that
eye-witness
'
indeed,
the
live
remark he adds to
in
all
the Karians
who
Egypt
slash themselves
on the forehead with

All he
swords' in their religious exercises goes to show

that
it
could not have been

is
so.
knows about
the festival
that, after sacrificing,
strike themselves in
honour of
men and women Osiris. The Karians,

like
however,
devotees
who cut their heads of Huseyn in modern

and
therefore
the
Persian
Cairo,
were
not
Egyptians,
would
not
have
been
240
The Egypt of
the
allowed to join in the mysteries of the worship of

Osiris
;
moreover, they did not
live in Busiris,
but in
the Karian quarter of Memphis.

tells
What Herodotos
festival.
us about them plainly comes from his Karian

refers to
dragoman, and
of Osiris in
Busirite
some
native Karian
There was more than one Pa-Usar or Temple
Next to nome, the most famous was

the
bull
Lower Egypt.
that in
the
that of the
Ur-Mer
or
Mnevis,
in
the
environs
of
Heliopolis.
This
latter
Herodotos would have seen
when he paid
and
this too
lived.
his visit to the city of the Sun-god,
was near Memphis, where the Karians

to the
There was yet another Busiris a

north of
little
Memphis itself. According to Pliny, its inhabitants made their living by climbing the pyramids for the amusement of strangers, like the Bedouin of Gizeh to-day. Its name has been preserved in the village and pyramids of Abusir.
neither the Busiris of
But
Memphis nor
the Busiris of
Heliopolis was
it
'
in
the centre of the Delta,' and

in this instance also
would seem that

either quoting
Herodotos
is
is
from other travellers or
mixing
their experiences with his own.
With
the Busiris of
Memphis and
the
Busiris
:
of Heliopolis
he was
doubtless acquainted
with the Busiris of the middle

not.
Delta we must conclude he was
Hence
his

scanty notice of the festival that was
there
in
;
241
celebrated
settlers
hence also
his reference to the
Karian
Memphis and their religious ceremonies. must remember that Herodotos was not the
Greek
tourist
in
We
first
Egypt, and that he too had his

like the tourist of to-day.
Murray and
his
Baedeker
CHAPTER
VIII
MEMPHIS AND THE FAYYUM
We have
the
followed Herodotos in his travels through
Delta,
have
seen
him
to
Kandpos and Naukratis

to Pelusium,
make his way from Memphis and back again

to
and
it
is
now time
accompany him
There
;
through Memphis
itself
and the Fayyum.
are no longer any uncertain sites to identify
from
Memphis southward
all is clear
and determined.
To
in its
the visitor the interest of

It
Memphis
centred
that
temple of Ptah.
was round the temple
the city had grown up, and as the city had been the
capital of the older dynasties, so the temple
their
had been
royal
chapel.
When
the supremacy passed
from Memphis to Thebes, it passed also from Ptah the god of Memphis to Amon the god of Thebes.
It is
the great temple of Ptah, accordingly, about

tell
which Herodotos has most to

ities in
us.
Other
local-
Memphis, such
as the citadel
'
and the
palace,
its
the Karian quarter, or
the Tyrian
Camp
'
with
shrine of Ashtoreth, are noticed only incidentally.
Memphis and
But the great temple and
as fully as
its
the
FayyAm
243
are described
monuments
was
possible for an 'impure' foreigner,
who was not permitted to enter its inner courts and who was unacquainted with the Egyptian language. The history of Egypt known to Herodotos before the age when Greek mercenaries and traders were
settled in the
country by Psammetikhos
is
almost
wholly connected with the monuments of the temple
which were shown to him.

history
it is
And
of
a very curious
partly
collection
folk-tales,
Egyptian, but mainly Karian or Greek in origin,
and not always of a seemly character, which the
dragomen attached
saw.
to the various objects the visitor
Even the
were
royal
names round
But the
which they
in
revolved
sometimes
indiscoverable
stories
the
all
authentic annals of Egypt.
were
gravely noted
down by
the traveller, and though they

telling,
it
have lost nothing in the
is
probable that
they have not always been reported by him correctly.

In one respect, at
of
all
events, this mythical history
Egypt
is
the creation of Herodotos himself and
not of his guides.
This
It
is
the order in which he has
arranged the kings.

visited
is
the order in which he
the
monuments
to
it
which
the
dragomen
attached their names, and
thus throws a welcome
light on the course of his movements.
With
this
clue in our
hands we can follow him from one part of
244
The Egypt of
the
the temple of Ptah to another, and can trace his

footsteps as far as the Fayyfim.
It is true
he asserts that his
list
of kings was
given on the authority of 'the Egyptians and the

priests,'
and that
it
was they who reckoned
three
hundred and forty-one generations from Menes, the founder of the kingdom, to Sethos, the antagonist of
Sennacherib, the number of kings and high-priests
during the period being exactly equal to the number

of generations.
calculation
But
it
can easily be shown that the

himself,
was made by Herodotos

'
and that
neither the
Egyptians,' whose language he did not
understand, nor the sacristans,

the
title
whom
way
he dignifies with
of priests, are in any
responsible for the
absurd statement that a generation and a reign are

equivalent terms.
The number of
is
kings whose names exactly eleven

;
he heard from his dragoman

addition to these, he
tells
in
us,
the names of three

to
hundred and thirty kings were read

papyrus
roll
him from
;
by one of the temple
scribes
is
so that the
number three hundred and
forty-one
obtained by
adding the three hundred and thirty names to the

eleven which were furnished
Among
him by his guides. the three hundred and thirty must have
latter,
been included some of the

traveller did not
though the Greek
know it. At Memphis Herodotos
learned that
Menes was
Memphis and
the
first
the
Fayyiim
245
king of united Egypt, though the further
statements he records in regard to him are not easily

reconcilable one with the other.
On
all
the one hand
he was informed that in his time
Egypt was a
fact
marsh except the Thebaic nome

tion
a piece of informaMemphis
which seemed to Herodotos consonant with
its
on the other hand, that the land on which

built
was
was a
sort of
huge embankment reclaimed
from the Nile by Menes,
who
forced the river to leave
old channel under the plateau of Gizeh
and to run
in its
present bed.
Mariette believed that the dyke

first
by means of which the

this
of the Pharaohs effected

still
change
in
the course of the river

it
exists near
Kafr el-Ayyit, and
is
geologically clear that the
Nile once ran along the edge of the
Libyan
desert,
and that the rock out of which the Sphinx was

carved must have been one of those which jutted
out into the stream.
But
it
was not on account of
his
engineering
in
works that the name of Menes has been preserved

the histories of Herodotos.
It
was because he was
the founder of the temple of Ptah
and the
city of
Memphis.
tourist's visit
The temple which was

owed
its
the object of the
origin to him,
and the
traveller's
sight-seeing naturally
began with the mention of
his
name.
Before
Herodotos could be shown round such
246
The Egypt of
the
parts of the sanctuary as were accessible to strangers,

it
was necessary that he should be introduced

and receive
to the
it.
authorities
their permission to visit
Accordingly he was ushered into what was perhaps

the library of the temple, and there a scribe read to
him out of a
Moeris.
roll
the
thirty kings, beginning with
names of the three hundred and Menes and ending with

inter-
To
three only does a story seem to have
been attached, either by the scribe or by the

preter,
and only three names therefore did Herodotos
enter in his note-book.
The
first
of these was that
of Menes, the second that of Nitdkris, the third that of Moeris.

Nitokris
was celebrated not only because
she was the one native

country, but also
woman who had

she
ruled the
because
had
treacherously
flung
avenged the death of her brother and then

herself into the flames.
in
Neit-aker, as she was called
Egyptian, was actually an historical personage
she was the last sovereign of the sixth dynasty, but
was very
far
from being the only queen who had
reigned over Egypt.
As
regards Moeris the statepartially correct.
ments of Herodotos are only

the temple of Ptah, to have
He
is
said to have built the propylsea on the north side of
dug
the great lake of
the Fayyum, and to have erected the pyramids which
Herodotos believed he had seen standing

middle of
it.
in the
Mceris, however,
was not the name
of
; ;
Memphis and
the
Fayytim
247
'
a king, but the Egyptian words
Mi
ur or
great lake
'
the
Fayyum was
filled
not created by the excavation of
an
artificial reservoir,
but by banking out the water

times
which had
the oasis from geological
and the monuments seen by Herodotos were not

pyramids, but statues on pyramidal bases erected
by Amon-em-hat
of an
III.
of the twelfth dynasty in front
ancient
temple.
Nor
could
any educated
of that
Egyptian have alleged that a king of the twelfth

dynasty,
who was not even

itself,
the last
monarch
dynasty
closed the line of the Pharaohs.
The
whole account must rest on a combination of the
Greek historian's own erroneous conclusions with the

misinterpreted statements of the Egyptian
Moeris,
in
'
priest.'
the
topographical
chronology
of
Herodotos, was followed by Sesostris, but this was

because the tourist, after leaving the scribe's chamber,
first
visited the northern side of the temple.
Here
and
stood the two colossal figures of
Ramses
il.
in front
of the entrance, which, after centuries of neglect
concealment, have again become objects of interest.
The
larger one, forty-two feet in length,
was
dis-
covered in 1820 and presented by

the British Government, but, as
Mohammed
it
Ali to
might have been

lay on
expected, was never claimed.

its
For years
face in the
mud and
it
water, but in 1883 Major

it,
Bagnold turned
round and raised
and
finally
248
placed
The Egypt of
it
the

it
in
the shed, where
is
now
safe
from
of the Pharaoh were originally represented standing beside him. Major Bagnold also brought to light the companion
statue, of lesser height
is
further injury.
The son and daughter
and of a
different stone.
This
set
in a better state of preservation,
and has been
by the side of a stel^ which was discovered at the same time. Fragments of papyri inscribed with Greek and demotic have been found
hillock
at the north-eastern foot of the hillock,
up on a
and
it
may
be that they mark the
site
of the chamber where

roll.
Herodotos listened to the words of the
Northward of the
said
to have been
colossi
was the sacred
lake,
formed by Menes, and now a

its
stagnant pond.
At
south-eastern corner the foun-
dations have recently been laid bare of small square
rooms, the walls of which have been adorned with

sculptures.
But the waters of the inundation have

excavators,
followed
the
and the walls are
fast
perishing under the influence of moisture and nitrous

salt.
About
good deal
Sesostris the guides of Herodotos had a

to say.
But nothing of it was history

in
not
unfit
even his conquests
Europe and
Scythia, his ex-
cavation of the canals which rendered Egypt

for
horses and
his
chariots, his equal division of the land

his
among
subjects, or
having been the
sole
Memphis and
the
Fayyimi
249
Egyptian monarch who governed Ethiopia.

even a dragoman of
that
it
How
the
Memphis could have imagined

possible
it is
had ever been

soil
to
cultivate
Egyptian
stand,
without canals
difficult to
under-
and
still
more
difficult
to
imagine how a
traveller
who had seen
the Delta could have believed
a statement of the kind.
The only explanation can

its
be that Herodotos never saw the Delta in

condition
normal
when the inundation had ceased to cover That Sesostris should have been supposed land. the to have been the only Pharaoh who established his power in Ethiopia is but a proof how little was known of the real history of Egypt by either
Herodotos or his informants.
The
origin of the
name
given to this Pharaoh of

is
still
the dragoman's imagination
a puzzle.
The
and
statues in front of the temple of Ptah, to
which the
II.,
name was
in
attached, were set up
by Ramses
a papyrus
title
we
find
the
name
he.'
Sesetsu given as the
popular
of the
same monarch.
is
Perhaps
it
means
'
the son of Set
We
II.,
know
and
that Set,
the ancient
god of the Delta, was a

the family of
special object of
his father
worship
Seti
in
Ramses
to
was named
after the god.
Sesetsu would corthe
respond with
fair
exactitude
Seso6sis
of
Diodoros
for Sesostris
we should have
to presuppose
the form Sesetsu-Ra.
250
The Egypt of
the
The son and
successor of Sesostris, according to
Herodotos, was Pheron.
The name
is
merely a
Per-ia
or
mispronounced Pharaoh, the Egyptian

'
Great House.'
Pheron undertook no military exhigh a Nile.

After ten
pedition, being blind in consequence of his impiety

in hurling his spear at too
years of blindness an oracle

that he would be cured
in the urine of a
if
came
to
him from Buto

his eyes
he would wash
woman who had
been true to her

in vain,
husband.
Trial after trial
was made
and
when
all
at last the
king recovered his sight he collected
the
women
all.
in
whose case he had
failed into
'
a city
now
city
called the
Red Mound,' and
there burnt them,
and
He
then erected the two obelisks which
stood in front of the temple of
Ra
at Heliopolis.
'
There are many

the
'
Red Mounds
'
in
Egypt, and
'
name
Kom
el-Ahmar or Red Mound
is
accordcountry.
in the
ingly very plentiful in a
modern map of the
Wherever kiln-baked bricks have been used

construction
of a building, or where the wall or
houses of a city have been burnt, the

to
mound
of ruins
which they give
rise is of a reddish colour.
Such
mound must have
existed in the neighbourhood of
Heliopolis in the days of Herodotos.
There
is still
Kom
'
el-Ahmar
close to Tel el-Yehudiyeh, where
the Jewish temple of Onias was built.
But the Red

'
Mound
of the guides
was probably one that was
Memphis and
visible
polis,
the
FayyUm
251
from the pylon of the great temple of Helio-
where the obelisks stood with which the story

associated.
'
of
it
was
The
obelisks
had indeed been
erected
Ramses
twelfth
II.
by a Pharaoh,' but it was not a son of They been set up by Usertesen I. of the
dynasty
nearly
fifteen
centuries
before
Ramses
II.
was born.
the son of Sesostris
it
As Pheron was
was neceslist
sary for Herodotos to introduce
him
into his
imleft
mediately after his father, even though he had
no monument behind him
in the
temple of Memphis.
series of
'
But
phite
after
'
Pherdn he returns to his

This time
is
it
Mem-
kings.
Greek name
Proteus,'
'
Memphite whose and whose shrine was situis

'
ated in the midst of the Tyrian
Camp
'
or settlement
on the 'south side of the temple of Ptah.'

tourist, therefore,
The
walked round the eastern wall of
the
great temple from north to south,
and
as the
pylon on this side of the sanctuary was connected
who was the builder of a brick pyramid seen on the way to the Fayyum, an account of it is deferred till later. The next monument Herodotos came to was accordingly of PhcEwith the
name
of a king
nician
and not of Egyptian

tells us,
origin.
Pr6teus in fact was a Phoenician god, worshipped,
Herodotos
along with the foreign Aphrodite,

in disguise.
whom
he suspects to be the Greek Helen
252
The Egypt of
the
The
Istar
'
Phcenician Aphrodite, however, was really Ash-
toreth,
which the Greeks pronounced Astarte, the

Assyrians.
of the Babylonians and
But the
priests,' or
rather the guides of the traveller, were
equal to the occasion, and on his asking them con-
cerning Helen they at once gave him a long story
about her arrival and adventures
in
Egypt.
Proteus
was
at the time the king in
Memphis, and not the
sea-god of ships and prophetic insight, as
Homer had
away
imagined, and he very properly took Helen
from Paris and kept her safely

after the
till
Menelaos arrived
Accordingly
sea,'
Trojan war to claim his

'
wife.
Prdteus, the Phoenician
old
man
of the
has
gone down among the three hundred and forty-one

Pharaohs of Egypt whose names were recounted
to
Herodotos by the
better
'
'
priests.'
There could not be
a
'
illustration
of the real character of his
priestly
informants, or of the worthlessness of the
information which they gave him.
When, however, Herodotos goes on

'
to assert that
they said
'
that Rhampsinitos succeeded Proteus in

is
the kingdom, he
dealing with them unjustly.

his
The
note-
supposed fact must have come from

book.
own
After visiting the Tyrian Camp, on the south
side of the great temple, the traveller
was taken
to
its
western entrance, where he was told that the propylaea
had been erected by Rhampsinitos, as well as two
Memphis and
the
FayyAm
253
colossal statues in front of them.
he saw
the
which the
The order in which monuments determined the order in names of Prdteus and Rhampsinitos oc-
curred in his note-book, and the order in his note-
book determined the order of their succession. Rhampsinitos represents a real Egyptian king.
He
is
Ramses
III.
of the twentieth dynasty, the last
of the conquering
Pharaohs, and
the
builder
of
Medinet Habu
at Thebes,
at Thebes.
But Herodotos was never
and had consequently never heard of the
superb temple and palace Ramses had built there.

All that he
knows of the
Memphis.
architectural
works of the
Pharaoh are the insignificant additions he made to

the temple of
Of
the real Pharaoh he
is
equally ignorant.
In place of the vanquisher of the
hordes of the north, the monarch
who
annihilated the
invaders from the .Êgean and captured or sunk their

ships,
the conqueror
Palestine
and Syria,
who carried his arms into we have the hero of a folk-tale.

the
Rhampsinitos and his treasury have become

found
subject of the story of the master-thief, a story which

in
various forms
is
all
over the world, and
perhaps goes back to the infancy of mankind.

this story
it
Why
III.
it
should have been attached to Ramses
is
just as impossible for us to
know
as
is
to
understand
why
the
name
of Neit, the goddess of
Sais and the twenty-sixth dynasty, should have been
254
T^hi
Egypt of
the
combined with that of the Theban Pharaoh of the

twentieth. Rhampsinitos,
Ramessu-n-Neit or 'Ramses
of Neit,' indicates the period in which alone the
name
must have been the invention of the Karian dragomen who came into
could have been formed.
It
existence under the Saitic dynasty.
Ramses
great
III.
was, however, as
we
he
learn from the
Harris
papyrus, one
of the
wealthiest
of
the
Egyptian
princes.
The
gifts
made
to
temples of the gods, more especially to that of

of Thebes, are almost fabulous in trading ships brought
Amon
His
amount.
him the wares of the south and

desert, as
north
and the gold-mines of the eastern

of
well as the copper and malachite mines of the pro-
vince
Mafkat, the Sinaitic
Peninsula
of
our
modern maps, were actively worked in his reign. The chambers of one of his treasuries still exist at
Medinet Habu, and we can
them.
still
see depicted on their
walls the vases of precious metal which he deposited

in
The Rhampsinitos
of folk-lore was similarly
rich.
He
built a treasury for his wealth beside his palace,

it
which should secure

bery.
against
left in it
all
attempts at rob-
But the architect
a stone which could

its secret,
be easily removed by any one
who knew
and before he died the secret was communicated

to his
two
sons.
To
the
amazement of the
king,
Memphis and
therefore, the gold
the
Fayytim
255
began to disappear, though his seals

fast locked.
remained unbroken and the doors

set a trap, accordingly,
He He
by the
side of the chests of

in
it.
gold
and one of the thieves was caught
thereupon induced his brother to cut off his head,
body might not be recognised, and to decamp with it. Next morning Rhampsinitos found
so that his
the headless corpse, which was thereupon exposed

to
public
view under
the
protection
of
armed
of the
guards,
who were ordered

of
at
to arrest
it.
whoever showed
any signs
recognising
the
The mother
all
dead man, frantic
treatment of his body,
which would deprive him of
hope
in the
next
world, threatened to disclose the whole story unless
her surviving son could secure his brother's corpse
and give
it
honourable
burial.
Loading several
asses with wine-skins, therefore, he drove
them past
the place where the guards
sat
over the corpse.
There he allowed
accidentally as
it
it
some
he
all
of
the wine to escape,
were, and
eagerly to drink
craftily
when the guards began encouraged them to do

into a
so until they had
fallen
drunken
it
sleep.
He
then seized the body and carried
to his mother.
The king was now more than ever

to adopt the Babylonian
desirous of dis-
covering such a master-thief, and ordered his daughter
custom of
sitting in public
and admitting the attentions of any one who passed

256
The Egypt of
the
on condition that he told her the cleverest trick he
had ever performed.

with the arm of a
The
thief provided
himself
mummy,
which
he
concealed
under his cloak, and thus prepared presented himself

to the princess
and disclosed
to her all he
left
had done.
As
she tried to seize him, he
the dead man's
arm
in her
hand and escaped.

his
The
king, struck with ad-
miration, determined
that
so exceedingly clever a son-in-law, and issued a
youth should be
own
proclamation not only pardoning him but allowing
him
in
to
marry
his
daughter.
Such was the way
which Egyptian history was constructed by the

efforts
combined
After
of the popular imagination, the
foreign dragomen,
all,
and Herodotos
the
however,
master-thief
did
not
succeed Rhampsinitos on the throne.
After passing
the western entrance of the temple of Ptah, Hero-
dotos arrived again at the northern side, from which
he had started, and, as he was not allowed to enter

the sanctuary, there was nothing further for him to
see.
His next
Gizeh,
visit,
accordingly, was to the pyramids
of
and
to
the
pyramidal
builders
Kheops,
Khephren, and Mykerinos of the fourth dynasty

are
made
lived
follow
Ramses
for the
iii.
of the twentieth,
after them.
classi-
who
It
more than two thousand years
does not say

scholars
much
judgment of our
cal
that
before the
decipherment of the
Memphis and
the
Fayyitm
257
hieroglyphs they should have preferred the chrono-
logy of Herodotos to that of Manetho.
Herodotos, like a true sight-seer, found nothing

in
Memphis to interest him except the temple. About the city itself he has nothing to say, not even
it
about the stuccoed city-wall which gave to
its
name
still
of the
'
White
site
Wall.'
Portions of this wall are
standing at the northern end of the

of Memphis.
it
mounds
the other
which cover the
Like
all
city-walls of ancient Egypt,

bricks,
is
built of sun-dried
bound together with the stems of palm-trees,
and was once of great thickness.

which the potters
of the
At
the southern
in
end of the mounds are the remains of the kilns
Roman and
Byzantine
age baked their vases of blue porcelain.

their failures still lie
Some
of
on the surface of the ground.
Herodotos went to the pyramids of Gizeh by

water, across the lake
on the western side of the
city,
which he states had been made by Menes, and then

along a canal.
At Gizeh
his love of the marvellous
was
fully satisfied.
He
inspected the pyramids and

stones
the causeway
along which the
had been
the stories
brought from the quarries of Turah for building

them, and listened reverentially to
all
which his guides told him about them and their

builders.
cases probably
The measurements he gives were in most made by himself But in saying that R
'
258
The Egypt of
the

'
there were hieroglyphic inscriptions
in the
pyramid
he has made a mistake.

either in
it
There were no
unless
it
inscriptions
hieratic
or outside
it,
were a few
by visitors on the lower casing-stones of the monument. At the same time it is certain that
records
left
Herodotos saw the hieroglyphs, and that his guide pretended to translate them, since they contained, according to him, an account of the quantity of radishes,
onions, and
leeks
eaten
by the
But
or
workmen when
building the great pyramid, as well as the amount
of
money which
it
cost.
the_ vegetables repre-
sented Egyptian characters
the radish,
'
for instance,
being probably rod,

of them
is
'
fruit
'
seed,'
and the mention
a proof that
text which the

is
it really was a hieroglyphic dragoman proposed to interpret. It
even possible that the guide knew the hieroglyphic

for the
symbols
numerals
if
so,
it
would explain
his finding in
them the number of

it
talents spent
also
by
Kheops upon his sepulchre, and

but in an adjoining tomb.
would
'
show that
seems the
the inscriptions were engraved, not
in the pyramid,'
In
fact, this
simplest explanation of what Herodotos says about
them
like
many
another traveller, he forgot to
note where exactly the inscriptions were inscribed,
and when he came to write

they were
in the
his
book assumed that
pyramid
itself.
According to the dragoman's legend, Kheops and
Memphis and
Khephren were
their successor
the
Fayy^m
tyrants,
259
while
cruel
and impious
Mykerinos (Men-ka-Ra) was a good
and merciful
ruler.
The key
to this description of
in the
them
is
probably to be found
statement of
Diodorus Siculus that the people threatened to drag

their bodies
from their tombs after death and tear
them
in pieces, so that
through fear of such a fate
the Pharaohs took care to have themselves buried in
a secret place.
island,
This secret place

its
is
the subterranean
with
chambers,
which Herodotos says
was made under the great pyramid by means of a

canal
there.
in
order that the king might be entombed

originated in the fact
The myth must have

in
that
the days of
Herodotos the mummies of

to
Kheops and Khephren were not

pyramids, which had
be found
centuries
in their
been
rifled
before,
and the
story of the cruelty and impiety of the

for the
two kings accordingly grew up to account

fact.
The
righteousness of Mykerinos was visited with

it
the anger and punishment of the gods, since
had
evil-
been destined
that
the
Egyptians should be
fifty years,
entreated for one hundred and

piety
and
his
and
justice
had averted from them part of their

was foreign
to
doom.
This view of destiny and the action of the

it
gods was as essentially Greek as

the Egyptian mind, and
it is
not surprising therefore
26o
The Egypt of
the

was announced to the
that thoroughly
that the decree of heaven
unhappy Pharaoh through

institution,
Greek
an oracle.
We
are reading in the story
a Greek tragedy rather than a history of Egypt.

It
was part of the punishment of Mykerinos that

his daughter,
he should lose
and the dragomen thus
gilded
managed to connect the pyramid at Gizeh with a wooden image of a cow in the palace at Sais,
which, since the reign of Psammetikhos, must have
been well-known to them.

really a
The cow, which was

form of Hathor, with
symbol of Neit
in the
what Herodotos supposed to be the disk of the sun between its horns, though it was really the moon,
was imagined to be hollow, and
of
to
be the
coffin
the
daughter
of the Pharaoh.
it
The wooden
There
figures
which stood beside

the
were further imagined
to
represent
concubines of the king.
were, however, other stories about both the figures
and the cow,
less reputable to the royal character,
but equally showing how entirely ignorant Herodotos's informants were of Egyptian religion and custom.
Osiris
Though they knew that the cow was carried out into
at the festival of
the open
air,
they
said this
was because the daughter of Mykerinos
when dying had asked her father that she might once a year see the sun. Can there be a stronger
proof of the gulf that existed between the native
Memphis and
' '
the
Fayy{lm
261
Egyptian and the impure stranger, even when the

latter
belonged to the caste of dragomen
To
us
the representation of
Hathor under the form of a

its
cow with the lunar orb between

modern
tourist sees
horns seems an
;
elementary fact of ancient Egyptian religion

it
the
depicted time after time on
the walls of temples and
tombs, and the modern

its
dragoman has begun to learn something about

meaning.
But
in the fifth century before
our era the
dragoman and the
tourist
were alike foreigners, who
were not permitted to penetrate within the temples,
and there were neither books nor teachers to instruct
them
in the doctrines of the
Egyptian
faith.
Herodotos must have returned to Memphis

his visit to the
after
pyramids, before setting forth on his
voyage to the south.
Had
he gone straight from
Gizeh to the Fayyiim along the edge of the desert,
he would have passed the step-pyramid and the
Serapeum
at Saqqara,
so,
It is difficult to believe that,
had he done
he would have told us nothing about
the burial-place of the sacred bulls and the huge
sarcophagi of granite in which they were entombed.
The subterranean
was
in it
still
gallery
begun by Psammetikhos
open, and each Apis as he died was buried

to the end of the Ptolemaic period.
down
At
a later date,
when the Persian empire had been
overthrown, the Serapeum became a favourite place
262
The Egypt of
the
of pilgrimage for Greek visitors to Memphis.
A
its
Greek temple was

bulls,
built over the sepulchres of the
Greek recluses took up
their
abode
in
chambers, and Greek tourists inscribed their names
on the sphinxes which lined the approach to the

sanctuary.
Herodotos knew
all
about the living Apis, and
the marks on the body of the bull which proved his

divinity, as well as
about the court
in
the temple
of Ptah at Memphis, which Psammetikhos had built

for the
accommodation of the incarnate god.

also with
He
was well acquainted
the legend which
made Kambyses
its priests,
slay the sacred bull and scourge

tells
and he
us
how
the latter buried the

secret.
body of
their
slaughtered
deity in
But
neither he nor his guides
took place, or where the
knew where the burial mummies of the bulls had
been entombed from time immemorial.
Had
they
done so we should have heard something about it. But, instead of this, we are told that the dead oxen
were buried
in the
suburbs of the town where they

protrude
had
died,
their
horns being allowed to

in order to
above the ground
mark
the spot.
When
the flesh was decayed the bones were conveyed in
boats to a city in the island of Prosdpitis, called

Atarb^khis, and there deposited in their last restingplace.
Memphis and
It is evident, therefore,
the
Fayyilm
263
that the great cemetery
of
Memphis was not
visited
by
travellers,
and that
the guides accordingly
knew nothing about it. The Egyptians probably had the same feeling in regard the graves would to it as their Moslem descendants
;
be profaned
them.
if
the 'impure' foreigner walked over
The
'impure'
foreigner,
moreover,
was
usually satisfied with the three pyramids of Gizeh
he did not care to make another long expedition
in
the sun to the western desert in order to see there
another pyramid.
there
And, apart from the pyramid,

for
was
little
him
to visit.
It
is
doubtful
whether he would have been permitted to descend

into the burying-place of the bulls,
and the buildings

size.
above
it
were probably of no great
But whatever
Saqqara and
its
might
have
been
the
reason,
to the
well.
Serapeum were unknown

for the
dragomen, and consequently to Herodotos as
He must
If
have started
Fayyum from Memphis

itself.
and have sailed up the channel of the Nile

he noticed the pyramids of Dahshur and
M^dum,
they would have been in the far distance, and have
appeared unworthy of attention after what he had

seen at Gizeh.
it
Soon
his
after passing
for
Medum, however,
him
to leave the
would have been necessary
river
and make
way
inland by the canal which
joined the Bahr Yusuf at Illahlin.
Here he would
264
The Egypt of
the
have been close to the great brick pyramid whose

secret has been wrested from
it
by Professor
little
Petrie,
and here too he would have seen, a

south,
to the
el-
the
city
of Herakleopolis, the
Ahnas
Medineh of
to-day, standing on the rubbish-mounds
of the past on the eastern bank of the Bahr Ytisuf.

Herakleopolis, called Hininsu in Egyptian and
the cuneiform inscriptions, was the capital of a
nome
It
which the Greek writers describe as an

was, in
fact,
is
island.
enclosed on
the Nile
;
all
sides
by the
river;
water.
On
the east
itself
on the west the Bahr Yusuf,
probably an old channel of the
northward
a canal unites the two great streams, while south-
ward another canal

once did the same
Strabo
still
(or perhaps a
in the
it
branch of the
river)
neighbourhood of Ahnas.
'
speaks of
as a great
to the
island
'
which he
passed through on his

north.
way
Fayy<am from the
The
route followed
that already traversed
by Strabo must have been by Herodotos. He too must
have passed through the island of Hininsu on his way to the Fayyfim, and his scheme of Egyptian
chronology ought to contain evidence of the
fact.
And
teaches
this
us,
is
actually the
case.
Mykerinos, he
was succeeded by a king named Sasykhis
or Asykhis,
who
built not only the eastern propylon
of the temple of Ptah at Memphis, but also a brick
Memphis and
the Fayj/tlm
265
pyramid, about which, of course, his guides had a

characteristic story to tell him.
of Greek origin
is
That the story was shown by the inscription, which
they professed had been engraved by order of the

Pharaoh, but which only a Greek could have invented.
The
brick
pyramid must have been that

brick pyramids of
river,
of Illahun.
The two
Dahshur
and even
in
would have been invisible from the

to a visitor
on the spot the state of ruin

have made them
which
little
they are would

consequence.
seem of
His attention would have been wholly
absorbed by the massive pyramids of stone at the

foot of
which they stand.

brick
pyramid of Howara, again, cannot be the one meant by Herodotos. It formed part of the
buildings connected
The
with the Labyrinth, the size

in his eyes
and splendour of which overshadowed

all
the rest.
There remains,
therefore, only the brick
pyramid of Illahun, by the side of which, as we have

seen,
the
voyage of Herodotos
of Illahun,
would
have
led
him.
The pyramid
is
when seen near

It is
at hand,
indeed a very striking object.
the only one
of the brick pyramids which challenges comparison
with the pyramids of stone, and
may
well have given
occasion for the story which was repeated to the
Greek
tourist.
Its striking
character
is
due to the
266
The Egypt of
the

upon a
fact that the brick superstructure is raised
plateau of rock, which has been cut into shape to

receive
it.
The excavations of
its
II.
Professor Petrie in
builder.
1890 revealed the name of

Usertesen
This was king

'
of the twelfth dynasty, the

'
in
the sixth year of whose reign the
Asiatics
arrived
in
with their tribute of antimony as depicted
the the
to
tomb of Khnum-hotep at Beni-Hassan. guides came to call him Sasykhis is

explain.
How
difficult
Perhaps
'
it
'
is
the Egyptian Sa-Sovk, 'the

'
son of Sovk
or
Sebek
the crocodile-god of the
Fayyum, whom the Greeks termed Sukhos.

benefactors of the
The
Pharaohs of the twelfth dynasty, as creators and
Fayyum, the nome of the

its
crocodile,
were specially devoted to
worship, and in their
inscriptions they speak of the
works they had under-
taken for their father Sovk.'

'
After
Sasykhis,
Herodotos
continues,
'there
reigned a blind
of Anysis
:
man named
Anysis, from the city
while he was reigning the Ethiopians
and Sabako, king of Ethiopia, invaded Egypt with a

large force, so the blind
man
fled into the
marshes,
years.'
and
blind
the Ethiopian
ruled
Egypt
for
fifty
After his departure in consequence of a dream the
man
returned from the marshes, where he had

called Elb6, which no
it
lived in an artificial island
one could rediscover
until
Amyrtaeos found
again.
Memphis and
Anysis, of course,
a man, and, in
is
the
Fayytlm
of a
city,
267
not of
the
name
making
it
both, Herodotos has
com-
mitted a similar mistake to that which he has

in
made
transforming Pi-Bast, 'the temple of Bast,' and
Pi-Uaz, 'the temple of Uaz,' into the names of his
goddesses Bubastis and But6.

the
It
is,
in fact,
merely
Greek
form of the Hebrew Hanes, and the

is
Hebrew Hanes
according
to
the Egyptian
rule
Hininsu, which,
of
a well-known
Semitic
and
Egyptian phonetics, was pronounced Hinissu.

learn from the
We
Book of
Isaiah (xxx. 4) that

in
Hanes
politics
was playing a prominent part

at the very
Egyptian
time when Sabako and his Ethiopians
occupied the country.

kiah
of
The ambassadors
against
the
of Heze-
who were
sent from Jerusalem to ask the help
the
Egyptian
monarch
common
enemy came not only to Zoan in the Delta, but to Hanes as well. Zoan and Hanes must have been for the moment the two centres of
Assyrian
Egyptian government and the seats of the Pharaoh's

court.
The intermittent glimpses that we

history in
get of Egyptian
the stormy period
that
this
preceded
the
Ethiopian conquest show

the case.
how
had come
to be
Shishak's dynasty, the twenty-second, had
been followed by the twenty-third, which Manetho

calls Tanite,
and which,
therefore,
must have had
its
268
The Egypt of
the

its
origin in Zoan.
While
second king, Osorkon

first
II.,
was reigning at Tanis and Bubastis, the

the coming Ethiopian
invasion
fell
sign of
upon Egypt.
Piankhi Mi-Amon, the king of Napata, descended

the Nile, and called upon the rival princes of Egypt
to
acknowledge him as
their head.
title
Osorkon, who
to the
alone possessed a legitimate
supreme
sovereignty, seems to have obeyed the

it
summons, but
was
resisted
by two of the petty kings of Upper

Tnephakhtos,
the
prince
Egypt, those of Ashmunen and Ahnas, as well as by

Tef-nekht
or
of
Sais.
Ashmunen and Ahnas were accordingly besieged, and Ashmunen soon fell into the invader's hands.
Ahnas and the
rest of the
south thereupon submitted,

In spite of
it
and Piankhi marched against Memphis.

the troops and provisions thrown into
nekht, the old capital of the country was taken
by Tefby
storm, and
all
show of resistance to the conqueror
was
at
an end.
From one extremity of the
country to
the other the native rulers hastened to pay
homage
to the Ethiopian and to accept his suzerainty.
Piankhi caused the account of his conquest to be
engraved on a great
st^l^ of granite
which he
set
up
on Mount Barkal, the holy mountain of Napata.
Here he gives a
list
of the seventeen princes
among
whom
the cities of
Egypt had been
parcelled out,
and each of
whom
claimed independent or semi-
Memphis and
independent authority.
bear upon
the
title
the
FayyAm
269
four
Out of the seventeen
their foreheads the royal urseus, receive
of kings, and have their
names enclosed
in
a cartouche.
Two
of them are princes of the north,

Tanis, and
Osorkon
of
Bubastis and
Aupet of
Klysma, near Suez.

Egypt.
The
other two represent
One
is is
is
the king of Sesennu or
Upper Ashmunen,
the other
Pef-dod-Bast of Hininsu or Ahnas.
Thebes
wholly ignored.
The conquest of Piankhi proved to be but momenThe Ethiopians retired, and Egypt returned tary.
to the condition
in
which they found

itself,
it.
It
was a
nation divided against
rent with internal wars

fall
and private feuds, and ready to

the
first
into the
hands of
invader with military ability and sufficient
troops.
Two
states
towered
in
it
above the
rest
Tanis in the north and
Ahnas
in the south.
Tanis
had succeeded to the patrimony of Bubastis and
Memphis
Ahnas
to that of Thebes.
Sabako, therefore, fixed his court at Zoan and

Hanes, simply because they had already become the
leading
south.
cities, if
not the capitals, of the north and the
Zoan and Hanes, accordingly, the Jewish envoys had to make their way. The princes the ambassadors went of Judah assembled at Zoan
to
;
And
farther,
even to Hanes.
It
is
noteworthy that a
still
century later the Assyrian king Assur-bani-pal
270
couples together the princes of

his
list
Ahnas and Zoan

limit
in
of the satraps of Egypt.

or
Anysis
Hanes was the extreme
of
Herodotos's voyage.
Strabo,
it
As
afterwards in the days of

to the Fayyiim,
was the entrance
and the
first
traveller
who wished
to visit the
Fayyum had
to pass through the city which the Greeks called
Herakleopolis.
shef,
The patron-god
of the city was Her-
whose name was the subject of various unsucan etymology on the part of the
But.like the
cessful attempts at
Egyptians.
its
names of several other deities,

In
true origin
it
was
lost in the night of antiquity.
Plutarch
appears in a Greek dress as Arsaphes.

invested with warlike attributes, and
identified
The god was

hence
it
was that he was
by the Greeks
in
with their
own
Herakles.
His temple stood

city,
the
middle of the mounds of the old

fellahin call
which the
Umm el-Kim^n,
'
the mother of mounds.'
In 1891 they were partially excavated by Dr. Naville
Egypt Exploration Fund, but little was found to repay the expense and labour of the work. The site of the temple was discovered somewhat to the
for the
north-east of the four columns which are alone
left
of an early Coptic church. the site
But hardly more than
can be said
still
to exist.
few blocks of
II.
stone inscribed with the names of
Ramses
and
Meneptah, and a fragment of a temple
built
by
Memphis and
Usertesen
II.,
the
Fayydm
271
its past.
are almost
all
that survive of
antiquity.
Even the necropolis failed to produce monuments of Its tombs had been ransacked by treasure-
hunters and used again as places of burial in the
Roman
era,
and Dr. Naville found
in
it
only a few
traces of the eighteenth dynasty.
And
opolis
yet there had been a time

capital of Egypt.
it,
was the
when HerakleThe ninth and tenth
dynasties sprang from
and the authority of the
tenth dynasty, at
all
events, was, as
we now know,
ac-
knowledged as far as the Cataract.

and Mr.
Griffith
Professor Maspero
have shown that three of the tombs

III., IV.,
in the hill
behind Assiout (Nos.
and
V.)
belong
in
to that age.
Hollowed out of the rock, high up

us
the
cliff
above the tombs of the twelfth dynasty,

tell
their mutilated inscriptions
of the ancient
his son Khiti,
feudal lords of the
nome, Tef-aba and
the latter of
whom won
battles for his master, the

in
Pharaoh Mer-ka-Ra.
so also
Thebes was
itself,
open rebellion
was Herakleopolis
abundance
the
home
of the
Pharaoh's family, and Khiti

soldiers in
provided
ships
and
the
for him.
The
fleet filled
Nile from Gebel
Abu Foda on
the north to Shotb
on the south, and the forces of the rebels were

annihilated.
For awhile the authority of the Pharaoh

;
was restored
but the power of the Theban princes

the
remained unshaken, and a time came when
272

to the
Thebans of the eleventh dynasty succeeded

heritage of the Herakleopolites of the tenth.
Who
the
'
blind
'
king of Anysis
may
have been
we do not know.
But he was certainly not the
legitimate Pharaoh, although Herakleopolite vanity
may
to
have wished him to be thought so. According Manetho, the Tanites of the twenty-third dynasty
consist-
were followed by the twenty-fourth dynasty,

ing of a single Saite, Bokkhoris,
whom
is
the monu-
ments
call Bak-n-ran-f.
Bokkhoris
said to have
been burnt alive by his conqueror Sabako.

ing the latter reign for
fifty years,
In mak-
Herodotos has
confused the founder of the dynasty with the dynasty

itself
The
length of his reign
is
variously given by
the two copyists of

bius
Manetho Africanus and Euseas eight and twelve years the cypher can
;
last
alone be the right one, as an inscription at the gold
mines of
Hammam^t
whom was
mentions his twelfth
year.
He
was followed by two other Ethiopian
kings, the
second of
Tirhakah, and the whole length
of the dynasty seems to have been fifty-two years.
The
Christian copyists, indeed, with their customary
endeavour to reduce the chronology of the Egyptian

historian,
make
it
only forty and forty-four years
but the monuments show that Herodotos, with his
round half century,
is
nearer
thff truth.
From
topographical
point
of
view
the
Memphis and
introduction of
the
FayyAm
273
Sabako and the Ethiopian between

is
Ahnas and the Fayyum

wise.
out of place.
But the story
told to Herodotos prevented him from doing other-
The
blind king
is
said to have fled to the
marshes of the Delta, and there to have remained in

concealment until the end of the Ethiopian
rule,
when he was once more acknowledged as Pharaoh. The legend of Sabako is thus only an episode in
the history of the Herakleopolite prince.
we ought to pass to the kings of the twelfth dynasty who created the Fayytim and erected the monuments which the Greek traveller
From
the blind Anysis
saw
there.
We
do
not
do so
for
two reasons.
describing the
Herodotos had already mentioned king Moeris and

the lake and pyramids he
list
made when
of kings which the sacred scribe had read to
him
in
Memphis.
He
could not count the
Egyptian
end of
monarch
twice, at the beginning as well as the
his eleven
topographical Pharaohs.
Then, again, the

its
story told
origin with
him about the Labyrinth connected

Psammetikhos, with
whom
the Greek
history of
Egypt began.
From
this point
forward
Herodotos no longer derived his information from

'
the Egyptians themselves,' that
is
to say, from his
guides and dragomen, but 'from the rest of the

world.'
Greeks.
By the rest of the world he means the The story of the Labyrinth is accordingly
'
'
274
The Egypt of
the
relegated to what
may
be termed the second division
of his Egyptian history, and forms part of his account of the rise of the twenty-sixth dynasty.
Between the blind king of Ahnas,

interposed which once
therefore,
and
is
the supposed builder of the Labyrinth, a folk-tale
more takes us back

It is
to the
temple of Ptah at Memphis.
attached to an
image
in the temple, in his

it
which represents a
it is
man
with a
mouse
heard
hand, and
evident that Herodotos
after his return

it
from the Fayyftm.

in
Had
he
it
heard of
when he was previously

in
Memphis,
would have been recorded

book.
an
earlier part of his
Moreover, the statue stood within the temple,

tourist
which the
was not allowed

it
to enter, so that he
would not have seen

doubtful
at the time of his visit to the
great Egyptian sanctuary.

all is
;
Whether he ever saw
it
at
perhaps he
may have caught a glimpse

like the
of
it
through the open gate of the temple
glimpses of sculptured columns in
Mohammedan
mosques which the older travellers in the East have boasted of securing. But more probably he heard
about
it
from
others,
more
especially
from
the
dragoman he employed.
The
story
is
a curious mixture of Egyptian and
Semitic elements, while the inscription which the
dragomen pretended
Greek invention.
to read
upon the statue

it
is
A priest
of Ptah, so
ran,
whose

Memphis and
the
FayyAm.
275
became king of Egypt. His priestly instincts led him to neglect and ill-treat the army, even to the extent of robbing them of the
name was
Sethos,
twelve acres of land which each soldier possessed of

right.
Then Sennacherib,
'
king of the Arabians
and Assyrians,' marched against him, and the army

refused to fight.
In his extremity the priest-king
entered the shrine of his
god and implored him with

Sleep
fell
tears to save his worshipper.
upon the
suppliant,
and he beheld the god standing over him
and bidding him be of good courage, for no harm

should happen to him.
to
Thereupon Sethos proceeded
Pelusium with such volunteers as he could find

artisans,
pedlars,
and tradesmen
and
there found
the
mice entered the

their
enemy encamped. In the night, however, fieldcamp of the Assyrians and gnawed
bowstrings and the thongs of their shields, so
that in the
less,
morning they found themselves defencevictory.
and the Egyptians gained an easy
In
memory
in his
of the event the stone image of the king

in the
was erected
hand.
temple of Ptah with a field-mouse
The
statue
must have been that of Horus,

was apparently only
in a
to
whom
sacred.
ities
alone, along with
Uaz, the field-mouse was
But
it
few localof the
that such
is
was the
case.
The
figure
animal
found on coins of Ekhmim, and a bronze
276
The Egypt of
it
the
image of
British
discovered at Thebes, and

is
now
in
the
Museum,
dedicated to
'
Horus, the lord of

deities
Sekhem,' or Esneh.
At
'
Buto,'
where the two

of
were worshipped together, we cemetery of field-mice

like
may
that
expect to find a
the
cats at
Bubastis, and the Liverpool
Museum
possesses two
bronze mice, both on the same stand, which were

discovered in the
mounds of Athribis near Benha.

Athribis,
Horus was the god of
where he was adored

the
under the name of Kheti-ti.
The
priest-king of the folk-tale has taken
place of the historical Tirhakah.
The name
of his
enemy, Sennacherib, however, has been remembered, though he is called king of the Arabians as well
'
'
as
of
the
Assyrians.
origin.
But the
title
must be of
of
Egyptian
The 'Arabians'
Bedouin
'
of the Greek
writer are the Shasu, the
plunderers
'
the Egyptian monuments, and none but an Egyptian
would have described an Asiatic invader by such

a name.
It
was
in B.C. 701,
during his campaign against
Hezekiah of Judah, that the Assyrian monarch met

the forces of Tirhakah.
The Ethiopian
lord of
ally,
Egypt
and
at
had marched to the help of his Jewish

the
little
village of Eltekeh the battle
took place.
Tirhakah was defeated and driven back into Egypt,

while Sennacherib was
left
to continue his campaign
Memphis and
the
FayyUm
277
and reduce his rebellious vassal to obedience. In the insolence of victory he sent Hezekiah a letter
declaring that, in spite of the promises of his God,
Jerusalem should be delivered into the hands of

foes.
its
Then
it
was
that
Hezekiah
entered
the
sanctuary of the temple, and, spreading out the letter

before the Lord, besought
the city
Him
to save himself
and
from the Assyrian invader.

Isaiah
The prayer was

into Jerusalem
heard
was commissioned
to declare that the

;
Assyrian king should never
come
and the Assyrian host perished mysteriously

single night.
in a
Half-a-century later a similar event happened in
Assyria itself
Its king,
Assur-bani-pal, surrounded
by insurgent enemies, was suddenly attacked by
Te-umman
festival
of Elam.
While he was keeping the
of the goddess Istar at Arbela, a message
was brought to him from the Elamite monarch that

he was on his march to destroy Assyria and
its
gods.
Thereupon Assur-bani-pal went into the temple of

the goddess, and,
bowing to the ground before
her,
with tears implored her help.

prayer,
Istar listened to the
and that night a seer dreamed a dream
wherein she appeared and bade
him announce
in her hand,
to the
king that Istar of Arbela, with quivers behind her

shoulders and the
fight in front
bow and mace
would
of him and overthrow his foes.
The
278
The Egypt of
the

and before long the Elamite
prophecy was
fulfilled,
army was
in
crushed, and the head of
Te-umman
dealing
sent
triumph to Nineveh.
In Judah and
Assyria we
are
with
history, in the story of Sethos with a folk-tale,

is
and
it
impossible therefore not to believe that the conduct
of the priest of Ptah has been modelled upon that of
Hezekiah and Assur-bani-pal.

Semitic rather than Egyptian
told
;
The
it
basis of
it
is
would have been
more appropriately of Sennacherib than of the

Pharaoh.
Egyptian
Perhaps
of
it
had
its
source
at
among
who
the
Phoenicians
the Tyrian
camp
Memphis, or even among the Egyptianised Jews carried Jeremiah into Egypt. Whatever may
its origin, it
have been
of history.
does not belong to the realm
Even with the appearance

not yet commence.
finish his
of Psammetikhos upon
the stage, the Egyptian history of Herodotos does
Before
it
can do
so,
he has to
wanderings and his sight-seeing, to be quit
of his dragomen and of the topographical chrono-
logy that he built upon

Herakleopolis lay
their
stories.
Through
Fayyflm,
the entrance
to
the
and the Fayyum united the
folk-lore of the guides
with the sober history of the Greek epoch in Egypt.
Herodotos knows that Psammetikhos was king of

Sals and that his father's
name had been Necho.
Memphis and
the
FayyUm
279
But when he goes on to say that Necho had been Psamslain by the Ethiopian Sabako, and that
metikhos himself had been driven in consequence
into Syria,
he takes us into the domain of
fiction
and
not of
fact,
Necho had been one of twenty Egyptian

Esar-haddon and Assur-bani-pal, and
carried
in
satraps under
though
he had once been
chains
to
Assyria on a charge of treason, he had returned to

his
government loaded with honours.
Sabako had
been dead long before, and Tirhakah was vainly
endeavouring to drive the Assyrians and their vassalsatraps out of Egypt.

Still
further from the truth
was the legend which
associated
Psammetikhos with the Fayyfim.

had been
the
'
When
the Egyptians
freed,'
we
are told, after the
reign of the priest of Ptah, there arose twelve kings
who
divided
country
between
them.
They
monuthem
married into each other's families and swore an oath

ever to remain friends.
By way
of leaving a
ment of themselves they
built the Labyrinth, with its
twelve courts, each court for a king, six of
being on the north side and six on the south.

oracle
But an
annual
had announced that

if
this friendly intercourse
would be broken
ever one of
them
at their
gathering in the temple of Ptah should pour a libation to the
god from a bronze helmet.
The
Egypt.
prince
who
did so would
become king of
all
This
28o
The Egypt of
the
untoward accident eventually occurred. Psammetikhos on one occasion accidentally used his helmet in
place of the proper libation-bowl, and he was there-
upon chased away by marshes and then into

again came to his help.
his colleagues, first into the
Syria.
It
An
oracle, however,
declared that he would

sea,
be avenged when men of bronze came from the

Karian
for
and, taking the hint, he hired some Ionian and
armed with bronze, who had landed the sake of plunder, and with their assistance
pirates,
became undisputed master of Egypt.

Egyptian
folk-lore of
With
this story
of the foundation of the twenty-sixth dynasty, the
Herodotos came
fitly to
an end.
The twelve
of the
kings owe their origin to the twelve
courts of the Labyrinth.
They
are a reminiscence
twenty vassal-kings
or satraps
whom
father
the
Assyrians
appointed to govern the
country, and
among whom Psammetikhos and

been included.
altogether correct.
his
had
But even the twelve courts are not
We learn
from Strabo that there
were many more than twelve

were the nomes of Egypt.
trustful
as
many,
in fact, as
dis-
This makes us
of the further statement of Herodotos that
the
halls
contained
one
thousand
five
hundred
five
chambers above the ground, and one thousand
hundred below.
The information must have come

it
from the guides, and
is
not likely that he verified
Memphis and
it.
the
Fayyilm
281
To count
three thousand chambers would have
occupied at least a day.

In the time of Strabo
builder of the Labyrinth
it
was known that the

is
real
was Maind6s, that

III.
to say,
Ma(t)-n-Ra, or
dynasty.
Amon-em-hat The excavations of

1888 have proved the
of
the twelfth
Professor Petrie at
fact.
Howara
in
in
He
succeeded
penetrating into the central chamber of the brick
pyramid which formed part of the building, and

there,
deep
in water,
he found the sarcophagus and
the
shattered fragments of
some of the funerary
vases of the dead Pharaoh.
They were
all
that
had
they
been
left
by the
spoilers of a long-past age, but
were sufficient to show
who
the Pharaoh was.
He
had not been buried alone.

of the pyramid
In another chamber
his
was the sarcophagus of
daughter
Neferu-Ptah,
was
finally
who must have died before the pyramid The labyrinth itself has been closed.
used as a quarry or burnt into lime long ago.

its
On
and
floor
of hard plaster
lie
the chippings of the
stones which
composed
it,
six feet in thickness,
covering a far larger area than that of
any other
Egyptian temple of which we know. none other which could vie with
it
There was
another
in size.
left
Amon-em-hat
is
lll.
seems to have
memorial of himself further north

the
at
least,
such
natural
interpretation
of Mr. de Morgan's
282
The Egypt of
the
recent discoveries at Dahshiir.
Though
skill
its
the pyramid
did not repay his engineering
with even a scrap

northern side
of inscription, he found tombs on

virhich
prove that here also was a burial-place of the
twelfth dynasty.
Two
long corridors had been cut
out of the rock, one above the other, and at intervals
along their northern walls square chambers had been

excavated, in which were placed the sarcophagi of
the dead.
intended.
Inscriptions
show
for
whom
they were
Nofer-hont, Sont-Senebt, Sit-Hathor and

the
royal
princesses
Menit, were
who had been
entombed within them

III.
in the
time of Amon-em-hat
Their jewels had been hidden in two natural
hollows in the stone floor of the corridors, and had

thus escaped the eye of the ancient treasure-hunter.
We
can see them
now
in the
Gizeh Museum, and
thus learn to what an exquisite state of perfection

the art of the goldsmith had already been brought.
Among them we may

solid gold,
notice large sea-shells of
enamelled lotus-flowers and necklaces of
amethyst, carnelian and agate beads.
Of beautifullypectorals
worked gold ornaments there

fusion.
is
a marvellous pro-
But nothing surpasses the golden
inlaid with precious stones.
as to
make
it
difficult to
The work is so perfect believe that we have before
us
mosaic and
not
enamel.
On
one of the
supported
pectorals the cartouche of Usertesen
III. is
Memphis and
the
FayyAm
lions,
283
on the paws of two hawk-headed

the royal feathers,
crowned with
their feet the
III.
and trampling under
bodies of the
foe.
On
another Amon-em-hat
is
represented smiting the wild

Peninsula.
twelfth
tribes of the Sinaitic
By
the side of this jewellery of the
dynasty, that of
Queen Ah-hotep of the

at
seventeenth,
found by Mariette
Thebes, looks
all
formal and degenerate.

else in ancient
In jewellery, as in
things
Egypt, the
earlier art is the best.
From Amon-em-hat
years
to be
later, is
III.
of the twelfth dynasty
to the founder of the twenty-sixth,
two thousand
a far cry, and
how
the Labyrinth
came
of
connected with the latter by the guides of

it is
Herodotos
hard to say.
The bronze helmet

is
Psammetikhos indicates that the story

origin.
of Greek
That was a Greek head-dress

less
no Egyptian,
much
worn
an Egyptian Pharaoh, would ever have
it.
The head-dress of
linen,
the Egyptian
was of
coloured red for
monarch Lower Egypt, white
for the south.
Herodotos seems to have visited Howara from

the capital of the Fayyfim,
much
is
as a traveller
would
do to-day.
At
a
least,
such
the inference which

Its
we
may draw from

as being
'
his words.
position
is
defined
little
above Lake Moeris, near the city
of the
the
Crocodiles.'
But we must remember that

tourist included not
Lake Moeris of the Greek
284
The Egypt of
the
only the actual lake, but also the inundation, which

covered at
the time the
cultivated
land
of the
Fayyflm.
Nor was
it,
as he supposed, an artificial
piece of water excavated in

'terribly
waterless,' the
a district which was
excavators of which were

all
wasteful enough to fling
the earth
they had
It
extracted into the Nile twenty miles away.
was,
on the contrary, an
oasis reclaimed from
marsh and
water by the wise engineering labours of the kings

of the twelfth dynasty and the embankments which
they caused to be erected.
So
far
from destroying
it
the precious cultivable ground
by turning
was
into a
lake, they drained the lake so far as
possible,
and thereby created a new Egypt

of the
soil.
for the cultivators
From
the walls of the city of the Crocodiles
Herodotos looked out over a vast expanse of water,
which he thought was the creation of the Pharaohs,

but which was really the result of man's neglect.
The dykes were broken which should have kept

back the flood and prevented
it
from swamping the

view of almost
summer
the Nile
crops.
It
was with
this
boundless waters that the journey of Herodotos up
came
to an end.
He
returned to Memphis,
and from thence pursued the way along which we

have followed him to Pelusium and the
note-book was
filled
sea.
all
His
the
with memoranda of

Memphis and
wonders he had seen
observed
;
the
Fayydm
285
of the strange customs he had

;
among the Egyptian people

a later day,
above
all,
with
the folk-tales which his guides

ear.
had poured
into his
At
when
his eastern travels
were
over,
and he had
leisure for the work,
he combined
of ancient
all this
with the accounts written by his predecessors,

libraries
and added a new book to the

Greece.
From
the outset
critics
it
was a
success,
and
though malicious
endeavoured to condemn
and supersede
its
it,
though Thukydides contradicted
statements in regard to Athens, though Ktesias

its
declared that
oriental history
'
was a romance and

'
Plutarch discoursed on the

the
malignity
of
its
author,
book survived
a more
all
attacks.
We
have
lost the
work of Hekataeos of Miletos, we have

what
is
lost also
serious
misfortune
that
of the
careful
and well-informed Hekatseos of Abdera, but

have Herodotos with
us.
we
our
still
And
in spite of
own knowledge and

it
his ignorance, in spite
even
of his innocent vanity
and
appropriation of the
words of others,
in
is
a pleasure to travel with
him
our hand and visit with

else
him the scenes he saw.

which grew
Nowhere
can
we
find the folk-lore
and flourished in the meeting-place of East and
West more than two thousand years ago, and
in
which lay the germs of much of the folk-lore of our own childhood. It may even be that some of the
286
The Egypt of
the

relates to the
stories
which the modern dragoman

traveller
modern
on the Nile have no better parenCairo

caste'
is
tage than the guides of Herodotos.

successor
the the
of
is
Memphis,
and 'the
of
dragomen
not yet extinct.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX
I
THE EGYPTIAN DYNASTIES ACCORDING TO MANETHO (as QUOTED BY JULIUS AFRICANUS, A.D. 2Zo), ETC.
[The excerpts of Africanus are known from George the (a.d. 790) and Eusebius (a.d. 326) where Eusebius differs from Synkellos the fact is stated.]
Synkellos
:
Dynasty
Menes
Athothis his son
i.
Thinites
8 kings.
Reigned
years.
1.
62
2.
3.
4.
5. 6.
7.
Kenkenes his son Ouenephes his son
Ousaphaidos his son (Ousaphaes, Eus.)

Miebidos his son (Niebaes, Eus.)
Semempses
his
son
.... .... ....
57 31 23 20 26 18 26
8.
Bienakhes his son (Oubienthes or Vibethis, Eus.)
Sum
{Eus.
287
253 252
Really 263)
288
The Egypt of
the

:
Dynasty
1.
ii.
Thinites
9 kings.
Reigned
Years.
2.
3.
Boethos (Bokhos, Eus^ Kaiekhos (Khoos or Kekhous, us.) Binothris (Biophis, us.)
Tlas (unnamed by us.)
38 39 47
17
4.
5. 6. 7.
Sethenes (unnamed by us.)
41
17
Khaires (unnamed by us.) Nepherkheres

Sesokhris
8. 9.
.... .....
Sum
(Eus.
hi.
25
48
Kheneres (unnamed by Eus.)
3^
302
297)
Dynasty
1. 2.
Memphites
.
9 kings,
Nekherophes (Nekherokhis, Eus?)

Tosorthros (Sesorthos, Eus?)
Tyreis (unnamed by Eus?)
28 29
7
3.
4.
5' 6.
?
8. 9-
Mesokhris (unnamed by Eus?) Soyphis (unnamed by Eus?) Tosertasis (unnamed by Eus?) Akhes (unnamed by Eus?) Sephouris (unnamed by Eus?) Kerpheres (unnamed by Eus?)
.
17
16
19 42
30
26
Sum
{Eus.
214
197)
Dynasty
1. 2.
iv.
Memphites
8 kings.
(Eus. 17.)
Soris
(unnamed by Eus.)
I.
29 63 66
Souphis
Souphis
(3rd king of the dynasty, Eus.)
3.
II.
(unnamed by Eus?)
Appendix I:Tke Egyptian Dynasties
289
290
The Egypt of
the

Reigned
Years.
5.
6,
Menthe-Souphis Nitokris, a queen
.....
Sum
{Eus.
12
160
245)
Dynasty
vii.
70 Memphites
for
70 days.
(Eus. 5 kings for 75 days, or 75 years according to the Armenian Version.)
Dynasty
viii.
27 Memphites
for
146 years.
{Eus. 5 kings for 100 years, or 9 kings according to the Armenian Version.)
Dynasty
ix.
19 Herakleopolites
for
409
years.
{Eus. 4 kings for 100 years.)

I.
Akhthoes
Dynasty
Dynasty
x.
xi.
19 Herakleopolites 16 Thebans 43
for
first
for
185 years.
years, after
whom
eleven
Ammenemes
End
70 days
of Manetho's
reigned 16 years.
first
book, the kings of the
dynasties reigning altogether 2300 years {Eus. 2200)

(really
and
2287 years and 70 days).
Dynasty
1. 2.
xii.
Thebans
.
7 kings.
. .
Sesonkhosis, son of
Ammenemes
Ammanemes,
Sesostris
3.
4.
........
slain
by his eunuchs
.46 -38
48
8
Lakhares (Lamaris or Lambares, Eus.), the builder of the Labyrinth
.....
Appendix
I.
The
Egyptian Dynasties
291
Reigned
Years.
5.
6. 7.
Ammeres (unnamed by Eus.)
Ammenemes (unnamed by
Skemiophris his
sister
Eus.)
....
. .
(unnamed by Eus.)
4
160
245)
Sum
{Eus.
Dynasty xiii. Dynasty
xiv.
Thebans 60 kings Xoites 76 kings

:
for
453
years.
for
134
years.
(Eus. 484 years).
at
1.
Dynasty xv. Shepherds 6 Phoenician strangers Memphis for 284 years. {Eus. Thebans for 250 years).
:
Saites
........
.
19
2.
Bnon
Staan
Arkles
44
61
3.
Pakhnan
4.
5.
6.
Aphobis
... ...
Sum
xvi.
49
61
284
Dynasty
Shepherds
Thebans
32 kings for 582 years.

for
{Eus. 5
190
years).
Dynasty
xvii.
Shepherds:
43 Thebans
43 kings
for
151 years and
for 151 years.

:
{Eus. Shepherds, Phoenician strangers for 103 years

1. 2.
Saites
Bnon
.... ... ........

.
.
19
3.
Arkles (Arm. Version)
40 30
14
103)
4.
Aphophis (Arm. Version)
Sum
292
The Egypt of
Dynasty
the
xviii.
Thebans
.
16 kings.
Yel?s!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Amosps] Khebros (Khebron, Eus.) Amenophthis (Amenophis for 21 years, Eus.) Amensis or Amersis (omitted by .fi'Kj'.)
.
........
(Eus. 14 kings.)
.
.
25
-13
24
Misaphris (Miphris for 12 years, Eus.)
Misphragmouthosis Touthmosis
8. 9.
Amenophis Memnon Horos (Oros, Eus.)

Akherres
...... ....... ...

.
.
.22 -13
26
9
31
-37
for
10.
(Akhenkheres
or
.
Akhenkherses
.
. .
16 or 12 years, Eus.)
11. 12. 13.
14.
15.
16.
Rathos (omitted by ^2^5.) Khebrds (Akherres for 8 years, ..Ez^.?.) Akherres (Kherres for 15 years, Eus.) Armeses (Armais Danaos, Eus.) < Ramesses (Ramesses^gyptos for 68 years, .'j'.) Amenophath (Amenophis for 40 years, Eus.)
.
.
...
-32
.
.6
12
.12
5
i
19
Dynasty
1. 2.
xix.
Thebans
for
(for
7 kings.
Sethos (for 55 years, Eus.)
Rapsakes (Rampses
66
years, Eus.)
3.
Ammenephthes
8 years, Eus.)
4.
5. 6.
Ramesses (omitted by Eus.) ii^
Ammenemmes
(for
26 years, Eus.)
.
Thouoris or Polybos

Appendix
Dynasty
xx.
I.
The Egyptian
:
:
Dynasties
293
Thebans
.
.
12 kings for 135 years

Reigned
Years.
(Eus. 172 or 178 years.)
Among
the
kings were
Nekhepsos Psammouthis
Kertos
...
' .
. .
-19
.
13
Rampsis Amenses or Ammenemes Okhyras
.... ........
. .
/^{Eus. 15)
16 iÊus. 12)
45
14
.26
294
^-^^
Egypt of
the
Appendix
I.
The
xxvii.
Egyptian Dynasties
:
29 5
Dynasty
1.
Persians
.
8 kings.
Yrs.
Mths.
Kambyses,
years,
in the 5th year of his reign (for 3

.
Eus^
2.
Dareios, son of Hystaspes
36
21
3.
4.
5.
Xerxes i Artabanos (omitted by Eus.)

Artaxerxes
6.
7. 8.
Xerxes
11.
Sogdianos
.... ....
.
o 41 o
o
19
Dareios, son of Xerxes
Sum
(Eus.
124 120
4
4)
Reigned
Years.
Dynasty
I.
Amyrtaios
......
xxviii.
Saite.
One
Dynasty xxix.
Mendesians
4 kings.
Yrs.
1. 2.
Nepherites
i.
Akhoris
.... .......
or Nekherites
i year.)
(Eus. 5 kings.)
Mths.
6 13
I
3.
Psammouthes
Nepherites
11.
(Eus. inserts Mouthis here,

4.
...... .....
Sum
(Eus.
20
21
4
4)
Reigned
Years.
Dynasty xxx.
1. 2.
Sebennytes
Eus.)
3 kings.
.
3.
Nektanebes Teos Nektanebes
........
i.
(for 10 years, Eus!)
18
ir.
(for 8 years,
Sum
(Eus.
38
20)
296
The Egypt of
the
Dynasty xxxi.
1.
Persians
.
3 kings.
Reigned
Years.
Okhos, in his 20th year
(for 6 years,
.
Eus}i
.
2.
3.
Arses (for 4 years, Eus}j Dareios (for 6 years, us.)
4
9
16)
Sum
{Eus.
THE DYNASTIES OF MANETHO

ACCORDING TO JOSEPHUS :
Dynasty
xv.
Hyksos or Shepherds.
Yrs.
After the overthrow of Timaios, the last king of the four-
teenth dynasty, a period of anarchy.

1.
Salatis at
Memphis
.
2.
Beon
3.
4.
5.
Apakhnas Apophis
Assis
.
Yanias or Annas
6.
Dynasties
I.
xviii.
and xix
-Thebans
Tethmosis
2.
Khebron his son, Amenophis i. Amesses his sister Mephres

.
Mephramouthosis Thmosis
.
8.
Amenophis
9.
10. 11.
Oros Akenkhres his daughter

Rathotis her brother
.
....
11.
.
Appendix
12.
I.
The Egyptian
$ Dynasties
13. 14.
15.
16. 17.
1 8.
Akenkheres i. Akenkheres 11. Armais Ramesses Armesses Miamoun

. .
Amenophis
iii.
Sethosis ^lEgyptos
and Ramesses
(or Her-
meus) Danaos
19.
20.
21.
Rhampses his son Amenophis his son Sethos Ramesses his son
298

Reigned
Years.
13. Rauosis, interpreted 'chief ruler' (Ratoises)

14.
Biyres (Bikheres)
15. Saophis, interpreted 'long-haired' or 'tradesman
16. 17.
Saophis
(Kheops) II. (Khephren) Moskheres, interpreted

(Mykerinos)
..... ...... .... ......

'given
to
the
Sun
r8. 19.
Mousthis
Pammes Arkhondes
(Pepi
i.)
20.
21.
Pappos the Great (Pepi
11.)
Ekheso-Sokaras (Sokar-m-saf)
Myrtaios the given to
22. Nitokris, a queen, interpreted 'Nit the victorious
23.
Amon
'
24. Thyosi-mares, interpreted

25.
the strong
Thirillos or Thinillos, interpreted
Sun 'who has

'
in-
creased his father's strength' (Nefer-ka-Ra Terel)

26.
Semphroukrates, interpreted 'Herakles

krates
' .
Harpo-
27. 28. 29.
Khouther Tauros the tyrant (perhaps AkhthoSs) Meures Khomaephtha, interpreted 'a world loving Ptah'
30. Soikouniosokhos the tyrant
31. Pente-athyris
32.
....... ......
in.
Stammenes
(Amen-m-hat
11.)
33. Sistosi-khermes, interpreted 'Herakles the strong
(Usertesen
34. Maris
35.
11.)
(Amen-m-hat
in.)
..... ....
.
Siphyas (Siphthas), interpreted 'Thoth the son of
Ptah' (Si-Ptah)
36. 37.
38.
Name
lost
......
.
Phrouron or Neilos (Sebek-neferu-Ra) Amouthantaios
...
Appendix
I.
The
Egyptian Dynasties
299
THE EGYPTIAN KINGS ACCORDING TO THE MONUMENTS.

Dynasty
ABYDOS.
1.
i.
SAQQARAH.
turin papyrus.
MANETHO.
Meni
Teta
Atota
Meni
Atut
Menes
Athothis
2.
3.
4.
5.
Ata
Husapti
Mer-ba-pa
Kenkenes Ouenephes
Husapti
Mer-ba-pen Mer-ba-pen, 73 Samsu, 72 yrs.
yrs.
i.
6.
7.
Ousaphaidos Miebidos
Samsu
Qabh(u)
Semempses
Bienekhes.
8.
Qabhu
Qabhu, 83
yrs.
Dynasty
1.
ii.
Buzau
Bai-nuter
(Buzau), 95
yrs.
2.
Kakau
Kakau
Kakau
Boethos Kaiekhos
Binothris
3.
4.
5.
6.
Ba-nuter-en Ba-nuter-en Ba-nuter-en, 95 yrs. Uznas Uznas (Uznas), 70 yrs.
Tlas
Senda^
Send
Senda, 74(?)yrs.
yrs.
Sethenes
Nefer-ka-Ra (Nefer-ka-Ra), 70
Nepherkheres.
Dynasty
hi.
Nefer-ka- Nefer-ka-Sokar(? 2)8 Nekherophes yrs. 4 mths. 2 dys. Sokar

Zefa
. .
Hu-Zefa, 25(?) yrs. 8 mths. 4 dys.

Zazai, 37 yrs. 2 mths.
I
Tosorthros
3.
...
Babai
Tyreis
4.
Zazai
day
'
The
Ashmolean Museum
successor of Send.
inscription of Sheri, the prophet of Send, part of which is in the at Oxford and part at Cairo, makes Per-ab-sen the
He
will
have corresponded to the Khaires of Manetho.
300
The Egypt of
the
ABYDOS.
Appendix
ABYDOS.
9.
I.
The Egyptian
Dynasties
301
SAQQArAH.
TURIN PAPYRUS.
yrs.
MANETHO.
Men - kau Hor

Dad-ka-Ra
(Assa)
Men-ka-Hor Men-ka-Hor, 8
M^-ka-Ra
Dad(-ka
28
yrs.
Menkheres
Tankheres
Obnos.
10.
Ra
Assa),
11.
Unas
Unas
Unas, 30
yrs.
Dynasty
1.
vi.
...
Tetaiii.
Teta
...
Othoes
20
yrs.
2.
User-ka-Ra
(Ati?)
I.
3.
Meri
(Pepi
Ra
Pepi
(Pepi
i.),
Phios
I.)
4.
Mer-n-Ra
Miht-m-saf I.
Mer-n-Ra
Nefer-ka-
i.
(Miht-m-saf
i.),
Methousouphis
Phiops
5.
Nefer-ka-Ra
(Pepi
II.)
14 yrs. (Pepi 11), 9[4]
yrs.
Ra
...
6.
Mer - n - Ra
Miht-m-saf II.

(Miht-m-saf 11.),
i
i yr.
Menthesouphis
Nitokris.
mth.
7-
Neit-aker, a
queen
Dynasties
TURIN PAPYRUS.
1.
vii.
and
viii.^
ABYDOS.
1
Nefer-ka, 2 yrs.
mth.
dy.
1.
Nuter-ka-Ra
2. 3.
Neferus, 4 yrs. 2 mth. i dy. Ab-n-Ra i., 2 yrs. i mth. i dy.

.
2.
Men-ka-Ra
Nefer-ka-Ra Nefer-ka-Ra
in.
iv.
3.
4.
5.
I yr.
11.
8 dys.
4.
5.
Ab-n-Ra
Hanti
'
Nebi Dad-ka-Ra Shema

Nefer-ka-Ra
v.
6.
6.
Khondu
One
of the kings of the seventh dynasty
was Dad-nefer-Ra Dudu-
mes, whose
at
name is conjoined with those EI-Kab, and who built at Gebelen.
of the sixth dynasty kings
302
The Egypt of
TURIN PAPYRUS.
the

ABYDOS.
7.
7.
Pest-sat-n-Sopd
Mer-n-Hor
Snefer-ka
i.
8.
Pait-kheps
8. 9.
9. Serhlinib.i
10.
11.
12.
vi. Terel Nefer-ka-Hor Nefer-ka-Ra vn. Pepi-
Ka-n-Ra. Nefer-ka-Ra
Seneb
13. Snefer-ka 14.
11.
Annu
[User-]kau-Ra
15. 16.
Nefer-kau-Ra
Nefer-kau-Hor
17. Nefer-ar-ka-Ra.
Dynasty
Khiti(orKhruti)
(the
ix.
MONUMENTS.
Mer-ab-Ra Akhthoes of Manetho)

i.
Aa-hotep-Ra Skha-n-Ra Aah-mes(?)-Ra

Se-n(?)-mu-Ra ^
Maa-ab-Ra KM-user-Ra
Dynasty
MONUMENTS.
x.
TURIN PAPYRUS.
Mer-ka-Ra
Nefer-hepu-Ra
Nefer-ka-Ra
' ^
The last five names are thus given by Lauth. The names of these six kings are found only on
scarabs,
and are
placed here by Professor Petrie.
Appendix
I.
The
Egyptian Dynasties
TURIN PAPYRUS. Khiti II.
Se-heru-herri
303
MONUMENTS. Ra-hotep-ab Amu-si-Hor-nez-hirtef
[Ameni?]!
Mer
Meh
Hu
Dynasty
KARNAK.
1.
.2
xi.^
Antefi.,Prince(of
OTHER MONUMENTS. Seshes-Hor-ap-maa-Ra Antuf-Aa
Thebes)
2.
Men[tu-hotep
the Pharaoh
i.J
Neb-hotep Mentu-hotep
i.
3.
Antef
Antef
II.
Uah-^nkh [Ter
Seshes - herher
brother
-
?]-seshes
ap-maa-Ra
Antef,
his
Antef-Aa, his son

4.
III.
maa - Ra
5-
Nuter-nefer
Neb-taui-Ra
Mentu-
hotep
6.
II.
Antef
iv.
7.
Neb-[khru]-Ra
Nub-kheper-Ra Antauf (more than SO yrs.) Neb-khru-Ra Mentu-hotep iii. (more than 46 yrs.)
8.
9.
Queen Aah
S-ankh-ka-Ra
10.
^
Antef V. her son S-ankh-ka-Ra*
is mentioned in a papyrus along with Khiti. According to Lauth, the Turin papyrus gives nineteen kings to the tenth dynasty, and 185 years. ' According to Petrie's arrangement. Lieblein further includes in the dynasty, Ra-snefer-"ka, Ra ., User-n-Ra, Neb-nem-Ra, and An-aa. ^ According to Lieblein the Turin papyrus makes the sum of the ^
. .
Ameni
eleventh dynasty 243 years, Neb-khru-Ra reigning 51 years.
304
The Egypt of
the
Dynasty
MONUMENTS.
1.
xii.
TURIN
PAPYRTTS.
MANETHO.
Amen-m-hat i. S-hotepab-Ra alone, 20 yrs. With Usertesen i., 10

yrs.
i. Kheperka-Ra alone, 32 yrs. With Amen-m-hat 11.,
S-hotep-ab-Ra,
19
yrs.
Ammenemes
2.
Usertesen
... 45
mths.
yrs.
Sesonkhosis
3 yrs.
3.
Amen-m-hat 11. Nubkau-Ra alone, 29 yrs. With Usertesen 11., 6

yrs.
3[2] yrs.
Ammanemes
4.
Usertesen
11.
KhS
19
yrs.
Sesostris
5.
kheper-Ra Usertesen iii. Kha-kauRa (more than 26

yrs.)
3[8]yrs.
Lakhares
6.
Amen-m-hat
n-Ra, 43
iii.
Miat-
4[3] yrs.
Ammeres
yrs.
iv.
7.
Amen-m-hat khru-Ra
Sebek - nefru queen)
-
Ma- Ma-khru-[Ra],
yrs.
9 3 mths. 27
Ammenemes
dys.
8.
Ra
(a
Sebek-nefru-Ra, 3
yrs.
Skemiophris
10 mths. 24
of years of
dys.
Sum
2
twelfth dynasty
13 years 17 days.
mth.
Appendix
I.
The Egyptian
xiii.
Dynasties
305
Dynasties
and xiv.
3o6
The Egypt of
Destroyed
the
36-46.
Appendix
5.
I.
The
Egyptian Dynasties
307
Sekhem-s-uaz-taui-Ra.
3o8
The Egypt of
the

xvii.
Dynasty
Skenen-Ra Taa i. (contemporary with Apepi ii.) Skenen-Ra Taa ii. Aa
Skenen-Ra Taa iii. Ken Uaz-kheper-Ra Ka-mes, and

wife Aah-hotep.
:-
Other kings of the seventeenth dynasty were

Si-pa-ar-Ahmes
Amen-sa
Kheper-ka-n-Ra
S-nekht-n-Ra.
Aah-hotep
S-khent-neb-Ra
Dynasty
1
xviii.
MANETHO.
Neb-pehuti-Ra Aahmes (more than 2 o

yrs.),
Amosis
and
7
wife
Nefert-ari- Aahmes ^
i.,
2.
Ser-ka-Ra Amen-hotep
yrs.
his son (20

at
first
Amenophis
i.
mths.)
his
mother
regent
3.
Aa-kheper-ka-Ra Tehuti-mes
son,
i.,
his
Chebron
(?)
and wife Aahmes Meri-Amen, Amensis
and Queen Amen-sit.

4.
Aa-kheper-n-Ra Tehuti-mes 11., his son (more than 9 yrs.), and wife
(sister)
Hashepsu
sister
i.
Ma-ka-Ra
Amensis
(?)
5.
6.
11. Ma-ka(more than 16 yrs.) Ra-men-kheper Tehuti-mes iii., her
Khnum Amen Hashepsu

Ra, his
Misaphris
brother,
B.C.
1
(57
yrs.
11 mths.
dy.,
1503,
March 20-1449, Feb.
14^)
is
In the eighteenth year of Aahmes, Queen Amen-sit
associated
with him on a stele found at Thebes. According to Dr. Mahler's astronomical determination.
'^
Thothmes
counted sixteen years of his sister's reign as part of his own. Hashepsu was only his half-sister, his mother being Ast, who was probably not
of royal blood.
The mother
of Hashepsu was Hashepsu
i.
Appendix
I.
The Egyptian
Dynasties
MANETHO.
309
Aa-khepru-Ra Amen-hotepii., his son (more than 5 yrs.) Men-khepru-Ra Tehuti-mes iv., his son (more than 7 yrs.)
Misphragmathosis
Touthmosis
Neb-ma-Ra Amen-hotep iii., his son, (more than 35 yrs.), and wife Teie iv. Nefer-khepru-Ra Amen-hotep
Khu-n-aten^,
17 yrs),
his
Amenophis
Horos
11.
son (more than

S-aa-
and wife Nefrui-Thi and

wife
ka-khepru-Ra
Ankh-khepru-Ra,
Meri-
Akherres
Rathotis
Aten
Tut4nkh-Amen Khepru-neb-Ra, and

wife
1314.
Ankh-nes-Amen
Aten-Ra-nefer-nefru-mer-Aten
IS-
Ai Kheper-khepru-ar-ma-Ra and wife Thi more than 4 yrs. Hor-m-hib Mi-Amen Ser-khepru-Ka
(more than 3
yrs.)
Armais
Dynasty
Men-pehuti-Ra Ramessu
than
2 yrs.)
xix.
i.
(more
i.
Ramesses
Sethos
Men-ma-Ra
Seti
i.
Mer-n-Ptah
(more than 27 yrs.), and wife Tua User-ma-Ra (Osymandyas) Sotep-n-
Ra Ramessu
1348-1281)
11.
Mi-Amen
(b.c.
Mer-n-Ptah
11.
Hotep-hi-ma Ba-n-Ra
Ammenephthes
Mi-Amen
'
Called Khuri[ya] in one of the Tel el-Amarna tables.
Hence
the
Horos of Manetho.
3IO
5.
The Egypt of
User-khepru-Ra Ptah III.
the
Seti

11.
Mer-n-
MANETHO. Sethos Ramesses
6.
Amen-mesu
Sotep-n-Ra
Hik-An
Mer-kha-Ra
Amenemes
Thouoris
7.
Khu-n-Ra Sotep-n-Ra Mer-nPtah IV. Si-Ptah (more than 6 and wife Ta-user
yrs.),
1.
Set-nekt Merer
Dynasty xx. Mi Amon (recovered
the
kingdom from the Phoenician

iii.
Arisu)
2.
Ramessu
yrs.)
Hik-An (more than 32
3.
Ramessu Ramessu
iv.
Hik-Ma
yrs.)
Mi -Amen
(more than 11
4. v.
User-ma-s-kheper-n-Ra
5.
Mi-Amen (more than 4 yrs.) Ramessu vi. Neb-ma-Ra Mi-Amen

Amen-hir-khopesh-f (Ramessu MeriTum in northern Egypt)
6.
Ramessu
Ramessu
vii.
At-Amen User-ma-Ra
Set-hir-khopesh-f Mi-
Mi-Amen
7.
viii.
Amen User-ma-Ra Khu-n-Amen

8.
9.
Ramessu ix. Si-Ptah S-kha-n-Ra Mi-Amen (19 yrs.) Ramessu x. Nefer-ka-Ra Mi-Amen
Sotep-n-Ra (more than 10
yrs.)
10.
11.
Ramessu xi. Amen-hir-khopesh-f Kheper-ma Ra Sotep-n-Ra Ramessu xii. Men-mi-Ra Mi-Amen Sotep-n-Ptah Khi-m-uas (more
than 27
yrs.)
Appendix
I.
The
xxi.
Egyptian Dynasties
Illegitimate.
311
Dynasty
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Si- Amen, High-priest of Amon at Thebes, and Nezem-mut Piankhi, High-priest, and wife Tent-Amen Pinezem i., High-priest, and wife Hont-taui Pinezem 11., King, and wife Ma-ka-Ra
Hir-Hor
wife
6.
Men-kheper-Ra, High-priest, and wife Isis-m-kheb Pinezem til, High-priest.
Dynasty
xxi.
Legitimate.
312
The Egypt of
the

MANETHO.
Sekhetn-
5.
Shashanq 11. kheper-Ra

Takelet
11.
Mi -Amen
6.
Mi-Amen
Si-Isis
Hez-
Takelothis
7.
8.
kheper-Ra (more than 15 yrs.) Shashanq iii. Mi-Amen Si - Bast User-mi-Ra (52 yrs.) Pimai Mi-Amen User-ma-Ra Sotep-
n-Amen
9.
Shashanq
than 37
iv.
Aa-kheper-Ra
(more
yrs.)
Dynasty
S-her-ab-Ra Petu-si-Bast
xxiii.
Petoubastes
Usarkon iii. Mi-Amen Aa-kheper-Ra Sotep-n-Amen P-si-Mut User-Ra Sotep-n-Ptah
Osorkho
Psammos
Zet.
Interregnum.
Egypt, divided between several princes, including Tefnekht (Tnephakhthos), father of Bak-n-ran-f. It is overrun by Piankhi the Ethiopian, while Usarkon in. reigns at Bubastis. The son and successor of Piankhi is Mi-Amen-
Nut.
Dynasty
I.
xxiv.
MANETHO.
Bak-n-ran-f
Uah-ka-Ra
(more
than
Bokkhoris
16 yrs.)
'
There
is
a contract in the Louvre
drawn up
at
Thebes
in the
sixteenth year of his reign.
Appendix
I.
The
Egyptian Dynasties
313
Dynasty xxv.
MANETHO.
1.
Shabaka Nefer-ka-Ra, son of Kashet

(t2 yrs.)
Sabako
Sebikhos Tearkos
2.
3.
Shabataka Dad-ka-Ra Taharka Nefer - turn - khu
Ra
or
Tirhakah (26
yrs.)
Interregnum.
The Assyrian conquest and

twenty satrapies, B.C. 672-660.
division
of
Egypt
into
Taharka and
his successor
Urdamanu (Rud-Amen), or, as the name may also be Tandamane (Tanuath-Amen), make vain attempts to recover it. In Manetho the period is represented by
read,
Stephinates (Sotep-n-Nit),
of
Nekhepsos and Nekhao, the
last
whom
is
called in the Assyrian inscriptions Niku, the
father of
Sais.
Psammetikhos, and vassal-king of Memphis and
Dynasty
Psamtik
i.
xxvi.
MANETHO.
Uah-ab-Ra and
(b.c.
wife
Psammetikhos
Mehet-usekh
664-610)
wife
Nekau Nem-ab-Ra and

Psamtik
11.
Mi-Mut
Nekhao
Psammouthis
Ouaphris
Nit-aker (b.c. 610-594)
Nefer-ab-Ra,
and wife
Nit-aker (b.c. 594-589)
Uah-ab-Ra Haa - ab - Ra and wife Aah-hotep (b.c. 589-570) Aah-mes Si-Nit Khnum-ab-Ra and
wife Thent-kheta (b.c. 570-526)
Amosis
Psammekherites
Psamtik
in.
Ankh-ka-n-Ra
(b.c.
526-525)
314
The Egypt of
the
Dynasty
1.
xxvii.
MANETHO.
Kambathet Sam-taui Mestu-Ra

525-519) Ntariush I. Settu-Ra
(b.c.
(b.c.
Kambyses
Dareios
i.
2.
521-485)
3.
Khabbash Senen Tanen

Ptah
(B.C.
Sotep-nXerxes
Dareios
i.
485)
(b.c.
4.
Khsherish
Ntariush
(b.c.
Artakhsharsha
484) 465-425)
(b.c.
Artaxerxes
11.
Mi-Amen-Ra
424-405)
Dynasty
Amen-ar-t-rut ^ (more than 6
xxviii.
yrs.),
B.C.
Amyrtaios
415
Dynasty xxix.
1.
Nef-aa-rut
i.
Ba-n-Ra Mi-nuteru (more

Sotep-n-Ptah
Nepherites
i.
than 4
2.
yrs.)
Hakori
Khnum-m^-Ra
Akhoris
3. 4. 5.
(13 yrs.) P-si-Mut User-Ptah-sotep-n-Ra (i yr.)
Hor-neb-kha
Nef-aa-rut
11.
(i yr.)
Psammouthes Mouthes
Nepherites
11.
(i yr.)
Dynasty xxx.
1.
2.
Nekht-Hor-hib Ra-snezem-ab Sotep-nAnhur, son of Nef-ia-rut i. (9 yrs.) Zihu (i yr.)

Nekht-neb-f Kheper-ka-Ra (18
'
Nektanebes
i.
3.
yrs.)
Teos Nektanebes
11.
According to Wiedemann.
S 9
"30
t "
O J
Pi
APPENDIX
Ramses
ii.,
III
BIBLICAL DATES
the Pharaoh of the Oppression; and
builder of
Pithom
.....
.
. .
b.c.
1
348-1 281
cir.
1
Campaign of Ramses iii. in Judah and Moab, Solomon marries the daughter of the Tanite Pharaoh, and receives Gezer Shishak (Shashanq i.) invades Palestine and
takes Jerusalem
200
cir.
960
925
......
11.)
. . . . .
cir.
Invasion of Judah by Zerah (Osorkon
cir.
900
725
Sargon defeats the
Hoshea of Israel makes alliance with So of Egypt 'Pharaoh' and Sibe his
general at Raphia
.
720
701
Defeat of Tirhakah by Sennacherib at Eltekeh

Invasion of Egypt by Esar-haddon
...
.
.
674
670 668
665
Tirhakah driven from the frontier to Memphis and thence to Ethiopia Revolt of Egypt suppressed by Assur-bani-pal
. .
.
Destruction
Assyrians
of
.......
Thebes
;
(No-Amon)
by the
609
605
585
567
Necho invades Asia defeat and death of Josiah Necho defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadrezzar
;
loss of Asiatic possessions

fly to
The Jews
Egypt, carrying Jeremiah with
them Egypt invaded by Nebuchadrezzar

316
.cir.
. .
.
Appendix
Palestine
settled
III.
Biblical Dates
;
.
.
317
B.C.
seized by Ptolemy i. many Jews by him in Egypt The Greek translation of the Old Testament
.
.
320
dr.
commenced
Onias permitted by Ptolemy Philometor to build
the temple at
Flight of the
280
167
Onion Holy Family

. .
into
Egypt
4
a.d. 70
Vespasian orders the prefect Lupus to close the
temple
at
Onion
'
'
'
APPENDIX
EGYPTIAN.
I.
IV
EGYPTIAN CAPITAL.
To-khonti
'
Abu
Ombltes
or
Qebh
the frontier
Apollinopolites
lA.
II.
Utes-Hor
Nubi the golden Debu or Hat-Hor

'
III.
Ten
(?)
Latopolites
Nekheb (i) Nekhen

(2) Sni (3)
On of the South
or
On-Mentu
(including
or
IV.
Uas
Diospolites
[T]-AptorNu, 'the
city
'
Nes-taui
Kar-
nak, Asher, or the
temple
the
(i) (2)
of
Mut,
and Aa-Zamut on
W. bank)
V.
VI.
1
Horui
Koptites
(?)
Pa-Hathor Kesui Qebti

Ta-n-terer
Aa-du
Tentyrites
the combat of
The Ombos,
Juvenal (Sat. XV.), was not
Kom Ombo,
whose inhabitants with those of Denbut another Nubti behind
em-Medineh, Professor Petrie has found the remains of a temple dedithe Gizeh Museum it is called ' the place of Nubt.
318
THE NOMES (hESEPU),

GREEK CAPITAL.
(Elephantine)
UPPER EGYPT
MODERN NAME.
Geziret-Assuan
Khnum, Sati, and

Anukit Sebek
Ombos
Apollinopolis Magna
Eileithyia
Kom Ombo
Edfu El-Kab Kom el-Ahmar Esneh Erment
Luxor,
etc.
Horus
Nekhbit
Aroeris
Hierakonpolis
Latopolis
Khnum and
Mentu
Nit
Hermonthis
Thebai
polis
or
Dios-
Amon (-Ra),
Magna
Mut, and Khonsu
Pathyris
Qurnah
Q<is
Hathor
Aroeris and Hakit
Apollinopolis Parva
Koptos
Tentyris
^
Qoft
Min
Hathor
Denderah
derah, on account of their worship of the crocodile, is celebrated by Zawaydah, a little south of Ballas. In the mounds now called Kom On a. statue from Denderah now in cated by Thothmes III. to Set.
320
The Egypt of
EGYPTIAN.
the
Appendix IV.
GREEK CAPITAL.
Diospolis Parva
The Names
GODS.
321
MODERN NAME.
HH
Hathor and
Osiris
(Nefer-hotep)
Thinis or This
Girgeh
Anhur
Ptolemais
Menshiyeh
or Pan-
Khemmis
opolis
Ekhmim
Etfeh
Min
Uaz (Hathor)
Horus
Aphroditopolis
Antaiopolis
Qau
Shotb North of Benilb
Sidt
Hypsele
Hierakopolis
Khnum
Osiris
and Uaz and Isis (as
lions)
Lykopolis
Cusai
Qusiyeh
Upuat (Anubis) Hathor Thoth Horus

Anubis Anubis
Set
Hermopolis
Theodosiopolis
EshmunSn Taha el-Medineh

(?)
Kynopolis
El-Qais
(?)
Hipponon
Oxyrrhynkhos
Herakleopolis
El-Hibeh Behnesa
Ahnas el-MedIneh
Hor-shefi (Har-
Magna
saphes
N. of Beni-Suef
Arsinoe-Krokodilopolis
Khnum
Sebek
Hathor.
Medinet el-Fay-
yum
Atfih
Aphroditopolis
322
The Egypt of
the
Lower
EGYPTIAN.
Appendix IV.
Egypt.
The
Names
323
'
'
'
'
324
The Egypt of
EGYPTIAN.
the

GREEK.
EGYPTIAN CAPITAL.
XIV. Khent-abt
Sethroites
(?)
Zaru or
Hud
or
of the
North
XV.
Thoth or
Hermopolites
Khmunu
Bah
Heb
XVI.
Ha-Mehit
Mendesios-
Pa - Ba - neb - dad
(Bindidi)
Thmuites
XVII.
Sam-behed
Diospolites
or
In-
Ta-Ha-Biu (Pa-Khen-n-Amon)
(i)
Sebennytes
ferior
XVIII.
Am-khonti
Bubastites
Pa-Bast
XIX.
Am-pehu XX. Sopd-qemhes
Butikos
(?)
Am-t
or Pa-Uaz
or
Arabia
Kosem (Goshen)
Pa-Kos Sopd
or
Pa-
is
Mafkat (' the malachite land ') or the Sinaitic Peninisula, still reckoned as an Egyptian province in the time of
The
(i)
Oases.
Kenem
or Uaht-ris, 'the Oasis of
Hib
(i)
the South
(2) Zes-zes, 'the
Kasht
(2)
Usekh
(3)
(4) (5)
two swords' To-Aht, 'Cow-land'

Uaht, the Oasis Sekhet-amu, 'Palm-grove'
'
Ast-Abt
(6) Uaht-meht,
(7)
'
Oasis of the North

'
Sekhet-demam,
Salt-field
Serp
Appendix IV.
GREEK CAPITAL.
Sethroe
(?)
The
(?)
Names
325
MODERN NAME.
Kantarah
Horus
Thoth,
aui,
Hermopolis
Tel-Baqllyeh
Nehemand Nefer-
Hor
Mendes
Thmuis
(Pakhnamunis)
Diospolis
Tmei el-Emdid
Do.
(Tida)
Osiris-Mendes
(Ba-n-dad) and Isis
Belqas
Amon-Ra, Mut, and Khonsu

Bast
Bubastis
Tel el-Bast
Buto
Phakussa
Telen-Nebesheh Uaz Saft el-Henneh Horus-Sopd
which was subject to Egypt as early as the third dynasty,

the Ptolemies.
APPENDIX
(i)
B.C.
THE GREEK WRITERS UPON EGYPT

Hekataios
500-480.
of Miletos, tyrant, statesman,
and
writer,
Sent as ambassador to the Persians after the

Travelled in Egypt as far
in his great
suppression of the Ionic revolt.

as Thebes.
His account of Egypt contained

lost.
work on geography, now

(2)
Thales of Miletos, philosopher,
b.c.
500.
Wrote on
the causes of the inundation of the Nile.
Wrote (3) Hellanikos of Mytilene, historian, B.C. 420. an account of Egypt and a journey to the oasis of Amnion,
now
lost.
(4)
Herodotos of Halikarnassos,
chiefly
historian, B.C., 445-430.
Travelled in Egypt as far as the Fayyiim.

of
His account
Egypt
contained in the second book of his
histories.
(5)
five years in
Demokritos of Abdera, philosopher, B.C. 405. Spent Egypt, and wrote books on geography and on
the Ethiopic hieroglyphics,
now
lost.
(6) Aristagoras of Miletos, b.c. 350.
Wrote a history of
two books, now lost. Visited Egypt in (7) Eudoxos of Knidos, philosopher. B.C. 358, and wrote an account of it in his work on geo-
Egypt
in at least
graphy,
(8)
now
lost.
Leo of
Pella,
B.C.
330.
Wrote a book on the

300.
Egyptian gods, now lost. (9) Hekataios of Abdera,
b.c.
Lived
at the court
Appendix
V.
The
Greek Writers
327
of Ptolemy i., travelled up the Nile and examined the Theban temples. Wrote a history of Egypt, the first book The of which was on Egyptian philosophy, now lost.
account of the
or Usir-ma-Ra)
Ramesseum
given by
(the temple
is
of
Osymandyas
Diodoros
derived from his
work.
(10) Manetho, Egyptian priest of Sebennytos, B.C. 270. Compiled the history of Egypt in Greek from the records Corrected many of the errors of contained in the temples. The work was divided Herodotos, according to Josephus. into three parts, and Josephus quotes from it the account of
Hyksos conquest, the list of the kings of the eighteenth and the Egyptian legend of the Israelitish Exodus. An epitome of the history was probably added at the end of We know it from the list of dynasties quoted the work. by the Christian writers Julius Africanus (a.d. 220) and Eusebius, both of whom endeavoured to harmonise its chronology with that of the Old Testament. The work of Africanus is lost, but the list of dynasties has been preserved by Georgios the Synkellos or Coadjutor of the Patriarch of Constantinople (a.d. 792), who has added two other lists professedly from Manetho, but really from postChristian forgeries (' The Old Chronicle and The Book of Sothis'). Eusebius quotes from a copyist of Africanus, or some unknown copyist of Manetho himself, and his list has been preserved (like that of Africanus) by George the Synkellos, as well as in an Armenian translation. Manetho also wrote (in Greek) on Egyptian festivals and religion, but all his works are lost.
the
dynasty,
' '
(11) Eratosthenes of
Kyrene, geographer, chronologist,

B.C.
astronomer and mathematician,

the Alexandrine the latitude of places
275-194.
iv.
Librarian of
First fixed
Museum under Ptolemy
shadow
at
by measuring the length of the sun's noon on the longest day in Alexandria and then
328
The Egypt of
the
where there was no (now lost) he chronology on shadow at all. In his work from the various selected Theban kings, list of gave a This has dynasties, like the lists of Karnak or Abydos. been preserved, along with an attempt to translate the The translations, however, are meaning of the names. from the Greek forms of the [are made erroneous, as they names compared with words then current in the decaying
calculating the distance to Assuan,
Egyptian of the day. (12) Ptolemy of Megalopolis,

of Ptolemy Philopator,
B.C. 200.
Wrote a
history
now
lost.
(13) Kallixenos of Rhodes, B.C. 210. tion of Alexandria in four or more books,
Wrote a descrip-
now
lost.
Wrote a descrip(14) Philistos of Naukratis, B.C. 225. tion of Naukratis, a history of Egypt in twelve books,
and an account of Egyptian
lost.
religion in three
books
all
(15) Kharon of Naukratis, B.C. 160. Wrote on Naukratis and on the succession of the Ptolemaic priests the works
;
are
lost.
(16) Lykeas of Naukratis, B.C. 160. of Egypt, now lost.
Wrote an account
B.C. 120.
(17) Agatharkhides of Knidos, geographer and historian, Gave an account of the working of the Egyptian
(in his
gold-mines
geographical work on the
Red
Sea) which
has been preserved by Photios.
Wrote a Lysimakhos of Alexandria, B.C. 50. Egypt containing the Egyptian legend of the Hebrew Exodus, which has been preserved by Josephus. (19) L. Cornelius Alexander Polyhistor, b.c. 82-60. Wrote an account of Egypt in three books ; now lost. (20) Diodoros of Sicily (Diodorus Siculus), historian,
(18)
history of
travelled in Egypt, b.c. 57, published his great historical
work, called BibliotMki, B.C. 28.
The first book of it devoted
Appendix
to
V.
The
for a
Greek Writers
329
Egypt and Ethiopia. Quoted largely from Herodotos, Hekataios of Abdera, Ephoros and other authors now lost.
are dependent
We
on him
connected history of Egypt
during the Persian period.

history of
Ptolemy of Mendes, historian, a.d. i. Egypt in three (?) books, now lost. (22) Strabo of Amasia, geographer, a.d. 20.
(21)
Wrote a
Travelled
in Egypt.
The
is
last
(17th)
book of
his
great
work on
devoted to Egypt. (23) Apion of El-Khargeh, grammarian and historian, Pleaded for the Alexandrines against Philo and A.D. 40.
geography
the Jews before Caligula.
Wrote a
history of
Egypt
in five
books, the third of which discussed the
Hebrew Exodus
now
lost.
(24)
Was
Nero's teacher.
Khairemon of Naukratis, stoic philosopher, a.d. 50. Wrote an account of Egypt and an
;
explanation of the hieroglyphics
now
lost.
(25) Josephus, son of the Jewish priest Matthias, born A.D. 37, received his freedom and the name of Flavins, a.d.
69.
Quotes
from
Antiquities of the Jews
Manetho, Lysimakhos, and Contra Apioneni.

Isis
etc.,
in
his
(26) Plutarch of Khaironeia, moralist, a.d. 125.

at
Wrote
of great
Delphi his treatise on
and
Osiris,
which
is
value for the history of the Osiris-myth.

(27)
Ptolemy
of
Alexandria,
geographer,
a.d.
160.
Egypt is thoroughly and work on geography. of the Alexandrine (28) St. Clement of Alexandria, head
scientifically treated in his great
Many references to (Christian) School, a.d. 191-220. He divides Egyptian history and reUgion in his Strbmateis.
Egyptian writing into hieroglyphic, hieratic and epistolographic (or demotic), the first being further divided into alphabetic and symbolic, and the symbolic characters into
imitative, figurative
and
rebus-like.
330
(29) Julius Africanus, Christian apologist, wrote in a.d.
221 his Chronology, in

of the Ptolemies
five
books
now
lost.
(30) Porphyry of Batanea, a.d. 233-305, wrote a history

;
now
lost.
(31) Eusebios, bishop of C^sarea, published in a.d. 326
of Manetho's dynasties. The an Armenian translation. (32) Horapollo of Nilopohs, grammarian, a.d. 390, wrote a work on the hieroglyphics in Coptic, which was translated into Greek by Philippos. Only the ideographic values of
his Chronicle, containing a
list
work has been preserved
in
the characters are given, but they are mostly correct.
APPENDIX
(i)
VI
arcHjEological excursions in the delta
Tel el-Yehudiyeh
a.m.,
or
Onion.
Take
the
train
from
Cairo at lo
reaching
Shibin el-Qanater at 12.25.
Leave Shibin el-Qanater at 5.57 p.m., reaching Cairo at Donkeys can be procured at Shibin, but it is a pleasant walk of a mile and a half through the fields
6.50.
(towards the south-east) to the Tel.
There
is
a cafe at
Shibin adjoining the station, but
it is
advisable to take lunch
from Cairo.
(2)
Kom
el-Atrib or Athribis.
The mounds
of Naukratis
lie
close to
the station of
Benha
el-'Asal, north-east of the
town, and
All trains
can easily be
explored between two trains. between Cairo and Alexandria stop at Benha.
(3) Naukratis.
lie
The
mounds
(Kom
Teh
Qa'if)
nearly five miles due west of the station of

line
el-Bar(id
between Cairo and Alexandria, where all trains The first half of the walk is along a good road under an avenue of trees, but after a village is
on the
stop except the express.
reached
to
it
leads through fields.

at
Donkeys
are not always
be had
(4)
Teh
el-Barftd.
The low mounds west
of the
station are not earlier than the
Kanopos
or Aboukir.
Roman
train
period.
leaves the
Ramleh
and reaches Aboukir It is a Aboukir at 4.42 p.m. from returning at 10.42 a.m., short walk northwards from the station to the temple of Then Zephyrion discovered by Daninos Pasha in 1891.
station at Alexandria at
7.40 a.m.,
331
332
The Egypt of
the
walk eastward along the shore, where the rocks have been
cut into baths
and numerous
relics
of antiquity
lie half-
covered by the waves.

(5)
The Monument
more than
five
of Darius, near Suez.
ride of
rather
miles through the desert north of
fragments of one of the granite
Suez along the line of the Freshwater Canal brings us to the stelae erected by Darius to
his re-opening of the
commemorate
Canal between the
Red
Sea and the Nile.

them.
Traces of the cuneiform and hierostill
glyphic inscriptions can
be detected upon some of

at certain intervals
The
stelse
were erected
along
the line of the Canal, and the remains of three others of
them have been found, on a mound one kilometre south of

Tel el-Maskh<\tah or Pithom, a
station of the
little
to the
east of the
Serapeum on the Suez Canal, and on the side of a mound between the 6ist kilometre of the Canal and
the telegraphic station of Kabret.
From
Ismailiyeh to Tel
el-Maskh{itah
(6)
is
a ride across the desert of eleven miles.
Tanis or Zoan.
is
or
Sin
to
sleep at Mansflrah,
tolerable hotel,
way of visiting Tanis where there is a very and go by the morning train (at 9.15) to
easiest
'1-Shekfik, arriving there at 10.55
The
the station of
Abu
a.m.
One
of the
small dahabiyehs which ply
on the Mo'izz
canal, which passes the station and runs to San, should have been previously engaged, and a servant sent with food the day before from Mansflrah to get it ready. It is
advisable also to send cantine

as long as he wishes.
all
(8 to 10) will take the traveller to San,
and bedding. A few hours where he can remain

sufficient water in the canal
There
is
the year round to float the dahabiyeh.
On
the
way
to
Abu
'1-Shekuk the station of Baqliyeh

is
is
passed
(at 9.41 a.m.),
close to which (to the east)
Tel el-Baqliyeh or Hermopolis

of
Parva.
The
twin
mounds
far
Tmei
east
el-Apidid (Mendes
of the station of
and Thmuis) are not
to
the
Appendix VI.
Simbellauen, which
j^.M. train
Archceological Excursions
The
333
is reached at 10. 11 a.m. (or by the 6.45 from Mansiirah at 7.30 a.m.). Donkeys should be
telegraphed for beforehand.

shrine of
great monolithic granite
the mounds. Tel enNebesheh is only eight miles south-east of Sin. Leaving Mansdrah at 9.15 (7) Horbet or Pharbaithos. A.M., the train reaches Abu-Kebir at ^^'^'^, where donkeys
still
Amasis
stands on
can be easily procured.

of Nektanebo.
It
is
a pleasant ride of three
miles through the fields to Horbeit

liths
The
Zagazig and Cairo at 4 p.m.,
and the gigantic monoleaves Abu-Kebir for reaching Zagazig at 4.32 and
train
Cairo at 6.50 p.m.

(8)
Behbit
(Egyptian
Hebit,
Roman
Iseum).
The
by Ptolemy 11., lie eight miles by river north of Mansftrah, and are less than half-an-hour's walk from the eastern bank of the river. Delicate bas-reliefs have been carved on the granite blocks. The ruins are a favourite object of picnic parties from
granite ruins of the temple of Isis, built
Mansiirah.
(9)
Bubastis or Tel Bast.
The
ruins of the ancient city
walk from the railway station and can be visited between two trains. The site of the temple is
are a few minutes'
middle of the mounds, the ruins of the old houses up on all sides of it. There is a poor hotel in Zagazig, kept by a Greek. This has become difficult (13) Sais or Sa el-Hagar. of access since the construction of the railway from The nearest railway station is Kafr Alexandria to Cairo. ez-Zaiyat, from which it is distant (by donkey) about
in the rising
five hours.
The voyage by
river involves the passage of
several bridges.
Tents and camels are necessary, (11) Tel ed-Deffeneh. as well as drinking water, for that of the canal and Lake
Menzaleh
is
brackish.
Either go
by
train to
Salahlyeh
334
l^f^^
Egypt of
the
(leaving Cairo at 5 p.m., arriving at 9.35 p.m.), or, better, sleep

at Ismailiyeh,
and go thence by tramway
to Kantara.
The
distance across the desert to Tel ed-Deffeneh from Salahiyeh
and Kantara is about the same (eleven miles), but donkeys are more easily procurable at Kantara than camels. At Kantara (on the east side of the canal) are monuments and a Tel (perhaps that of Zaru). The excursion may be combined with one to Pelusium, passing Tel el-Hir on the way. From Kantara to Pelusium is rather more than half-a-day's
journey.
a-half miles
at the edge of the sand-dunes, one-andfrom the mounds of Pelusium, walking to them over the mud, which sometimes will not bear the weight
Encamp
of a camel.
No
fresh water
is
procurable there.
INDEX
ahrik, 33.
Ab-sha, 19. Abshadi, 238.
Amyrtaeos, 178, 179, 181, 266. Anaxagoras, 183. Antiochus, 153 sqq.
Anthylla, 215.
Anysis, 204, 266 sqq.
Apis, 118, 223, 261.
Abu, 203. Abukir, 208. Abu-Simbel, 48, 186.

Abusir, 240.
Apopi,
IS, 23, 42, 4S, 228.
Apries, 128 sqq., 216.
Abutig, 194.
Arabian nome, 236.

Arabians, 276. Arad, 108.
Abydos, 75, 153, 186, 196, 216.

Achasans, 84. Adapa or Adama, 66.
iEginetans, 214.
Africanus, 16, 40, 286.
Aram-Naharaira
Arioch,
i.
(IVIitanni), s8, 82.
Armais (Hor-m-hib),
Arisu, 84, 94.
73.
Ah-hotep, Queen, 283. Ahnas el-Medtneh, 36, 192, 264, 269. Aigyptos, 206.
Arkhandropolis, 215.
Akhsemenes, 178.
Akhillas, 234.
Akhilleus, 167.
Arsaphes (Her-shcf), 270. Arvad, 81. Ashdod, I2S. Ashkelon, 90.
Alexander .lEgos, 139, 140. Alexander's Tomb, 138.

Alexandria, 140, 147.
AshmunSn,
Asshurim,
sqq.,
268, 269.
Ashtoreth, 242, 2S2.

81.
Am, Am-pehu, 236, 237. Amasis (Ahmes 11.), 130

216, 230, 232.
215,
Assur-bani-pal, 118, 120, 269, 277. Assyria, S9, 82, 273.
Asykhis or Sasykhis, 264.

Atarbekhis, 262.
53, 58, 196.
53.
Ameni,
IV.
94.
III.,
Amendphis
Aten
(-Ra), 55.
(Khu-n-Aten),
Amon, 12, S3, Amon-em-hat

IV., 208.
88, 122, 228, 242. HI., 13, 189, 247, 281-3.
Athena, 217. Athenians, 179, 181, 238.

Athribis, 118, 276.
Aupet, 269.
Avaris, is, 39, 41, 92, 233.
Amorites, 82, 88, loi, no.
336
The Egypt of
B
the

colossi of Fayytim, 188 sqq.
Baba,
36.
Babylonians, 33, 60, 61. Bagnold, Major, 4, 247. Bah, 210.
Coptos, 167. Coptic alphabet, 169. cuneiform, 60-65.

tablets, 61 sqq.
Bahr
Ylisuf, 263, 264.
Cyprian potters, 236.
Bashan, 72.
Bast, 224 sqq.
Bata, 25 sqq.
Benha, 238, 276. Beni-Hassan, 19, 194, 266.

Berenik^, 146.
Bes, 225.
Biahmu,
185, 188.
Bigeh, 200, 203.
Blemmyes,
167.
Dahabiyeh voyage, 194, Dakkeh, 152. Dahshdr, 204, 263, 265, 282. Damanhur, 193, 204, 210. Danaans, 86. Daninos Pasha, 208. Daphnse, 129, 131, 205, 230.
Bokkhoris, 272. Book of the Dead, 222.

Bouriant,
Dead
Sea, 87.
152.
Debod,
M.
171.
Brugsch, 26, 35, 77, 335.

Bubastis, 45,
sqq., 267.
De Cara, Dr., 39. De Morgan, Mr.,
281, 300.
no,
112, J93, 204, 224
Busiris, 205,
239 sqq.
!??.
Demetrius Phalereus, 147, Denderah, 197. Ddr Abu Hannes, 173.

Diocletian, 167.
Butd, 193, 204, 22s, 235
250, 267.
Diodoros, 247, 259. Diospolis (Thebes), 163. dreams, 30.

Caesar, 165, 234.
Dudu,
60.
Csesarion, 166.
Cairo, 220.
Canaan, 60, ^j
camel, 21.
sqq.
libraries in, 67.
Ebed-Asherah, Ebed-tob, 71.
72.
canal, jj, 125, 146.
Ecclesiasticus, 145.
Carchemish, 126. Canopus, Decree

Cilicia, 81.
Edom,
of, 150.
43, 72, 88, 96, 101-103.

of, 4, 206.
Egypt, etymology
cats, 193, 225, 230.
Ekhmtm,
Elbo, 266.
197, 235, 275.
Champollion, 109, 238.

Christianity, 168 sqq.
Eleazar, 148.
circumnavigation of Africa, 125.

Cleopatra, 140, 165.
colossus at
Elephantine, 20I sqq. El-Hibeh, 105.
Memphis,
3,
247.
El-Kab, 14, 36, 41. El-Khargeh, 10

.
Index
Eltekeh, 276.
337
72, 87, 89.
Hebron,
of, 162, 170.
Enna,
25.
Hekataeos,
237. 285.
17, 25.
176,
177,
183,
186,
223,
Enoch, book
Erman, Professor,
Helen, 251.
Heliopolis, 204, 220 sqq.
,
Esar-haddon, 113, 116, 118, 279. Esneh, 276.

Ethiopians, 112, 122, 149, 152,
266.
240, 250.
249,
Hellanikos, 183. Hellenion, 213.

helmet, bronze, 283.
Eusebius, 17, 40, 286.
Exodus, 38, 40, 45, 51, 91.

Ezer, 72.
Hephsestion, 138. Herakleopolis (Ahnas), 192, 195, 204,

264, 270-271.
Hermes,
227.
Fayyflm, 13, 137, 141, 142, 186, i

194, 196, 246.
Hermopolis, 193, 204, 210. Her-shef (Arsaphes), 270. Hezekiah, 115, 276.
Hierakon, 194. Hininsu (Ahnas), 264, 267. hippopotamus, 177, 193.
Hittites, 63, 74, 82, 86, 88.
famines, 34-38.
Fenkhu, 107.
Gardner, Mr. E.
Gaza, 80, 87,
128, 139.
212, 214.
90, 95,
88,
107,
126,
Homer, 182. Hont-m4-Ra, 208. Hophra, see Apries.

Hor-m-hib,
73, 75.
Gebal (Byblos), 72. Gebel Abu Foda, 194, 271.

GebelSn, 105.
Gezer, 105.
Horus, 201, 222, 235, 237, 275.
HowSra, Huseyn,
191, 265, 281, 283.

feast of, 239.
,38, 39, 40, 42,
Goshen, 43, 44, 96, 120, 236.

Gol^nischeff,
Hyksos, 14, ,23, Hypatia, 170.
227.
M.
94.
I
Grant-Bey, Dr., 221. Greeks, 123, 131.

Griffith,
Mr.,
11, 236, 271.
lannas, 228.
ibises, 193, 210.
Gyges, 122.
lUahun, 263, 265.
H
Hadashah, 90. Hamath, 88.
Inaros, 178, 181.
inundation, 184.
lonians, 213, 230, 280
Isis,
219, 235, 239.
Hammamat,
272.
Istar, 277.
Hanes (Ahnas), 267. Hapi (Nile), 200.

Hathor,
31, 260.
hawks, 193.
Jaddua, 144, 150.
338
Jason, 156.
K6m
106.
Qa'if, 211.
Jerahmeel, 108.
Krophi, 199-201.
KtSsias, 285.
Jeroboam,
Jerusalem, 71, So, 87, 106, 116, 126,

127, 134, 139.
Kyrgn6, 130.
Jews, 141, 144,

159, 162, 164.
148,
152,
153,
155,
Joseph, 24
sqq., 93, 221.
Labai, 71.
Labyrinth, 186, 273, 279.
Josiah, 126.
Judah, 87, 88, 107.
Leku,
84.
Leontopolis, 158.
K
Kadesh, 82. Kambyses, 132, 149, 262. Ka-meri-Ra, 11. Kan6pos, 207-209, 235. Kan6pic arm of Nile, 206, 209, 211.
Karians, 123, 183, 187, 218, 230, 239,
242, 254, 280.
Lepsius, 76.
Leto, 235. Libyans, 84, 106, 123, 130.
Lisht, 191.
W
Maccabees,
the, 160.
Kafr el-Ayyat, 245.

Kellogg, Dr., 99. Kerkasoros, 185.
Khabiri, 71.
Mafkat (Sinai), 254. Mahanaim, 108.

IVlahler, Professor, 17, 308.
Khabbash,
134.
Maindes, 281. Manasseh, 116. Manetho, 14, 16,

228, 257, 272.
18, 73, 92, 100, 148,
Khal, 72, 100. Khaf-Ra (Khephren), 256, 259.
Mariette, 39, 78, 245, 283.
Kheb,
235.
Mark Antony,
166.
39, 107, 191, 271.
Khemmis, 197, 235, 237. Kheops (Khufu), 8, 227, 256, 258. Khephren (Khaf-Ra), 256, 259.
Kheti-ti, 276.
Maspero, Professor,
Master-thief, tale of, 253.
Maxyes, 84, 85, Medtnet Habu,
87.
87, 89, 102, 253, 254.
Khian
(lannas), 228.
Mgdum,
7, 263.
Khita-sir, 82.
Khiti, 271.
Khri-Ahu, 220. Khu-n-Aten (Amendphis
Megabyzos, 179, 181. Megabazus, 238. Megiddo, 72, 107.

IV.),
53 sqq.
Melchizedek, 71.
Kimon,
179, 181.
Memnon,
138.
196.
sqq.
Kirjath-sepher, 67, 68.
Kleomenes, 137, Klysma, 269.
Kokk6
(Cleopatra), 161.
Kom
Memphis, 2, 5, 41 sqq., 219, 242 Mendes, 239. Menelaus (the Jew), 153. Menelaite nome, 235, 237.
Menes,
2, 190, 244,
el-Ahmar, 250.
246.
Index
Meneptah,
97, 270.
339
sources
of,
40, 43,
45, 49, 83, 92, 96,
Nile, 31, 34, 183, 184.
198 sqq.
Menshtyeh (Ptolemais),
Menzaleh, Lake, 231.
Menftf, 238.
143.
Nineveh, 124.
Nitokris, 11, 246.
Mer-ka-Ra, 271.
No-Amon (Thebes), Noph (Memphis), 3.

Norden,
187.
30.
121.
Merom,
80.
Messianic prophecy, 94.

mice, 193, 27s, 276.
IMiletus, 126.
Nut-Amon,
Milesians, 214, 215.
Min, 197. Mitanni (Aram Naharaim), 58, 82, Mnevis, 222, 240.
On
88,
(HeHopolis), 31, 131.

n., 151.
Onias, i$j sqq., 162, 250.
Moab, 81. Mohar, Travels of a, Moph (Memphis), 3.

Mophi, 201.
Onion, 157.
68.
Osarsiph, 92.
Osiris, 216, 239.
Moeris, 188, 189, 246 j^^., 273, 283.
Osorkon
II.,
i.,
227.
Museum,
Mut, 201.
the, 141, 147, 165.
no,
225, 226, 228, 268.
ostraka, 144.
Mykerinos
264.
(Men-ka-Ra),
Osymandyas,
256,
196.
259,
N
Nahum,
I2r.
of, 31.
Pausiris, 179.
Papias, 173.
name, change
Paprgmis, 178, 180, 193, 205, 238.
Napata, 112, 119, 268.

Naville, Dr., 43, 44, 76, 78, i^?
T58,
Pa-Uaz
Pelusiac
(But6), 235.
Peguath, 207.
211, 225, 226, 270, 271.
Naukratis,
232,
131,
132,
204, 209 sqq.,
arm of Nile, 224. Pelusium, 178, 232. Pepi I., 227.

Perdikkas, 138.
Neapolis (Qeneh), 197. Nebuchadrezzar, 127, 129, 130.
Pergamos, library
Perseus, 198.
Peter,
of, r66.
NechoofSais,
,
117, 118, 120, 278.
u. 125 sqq. Neferu-Ptah, 281.

Neit, 199, 216, 218, 253, 260.
Apocalypse of St. Gospel of St., 171.
171.
Petrie, Professor
W.
F.
7, 9,
11,
4
18
Nektanebo
II.,
i.
229.
54. 57. 65, 78. 129,
137,
185,
135, 211, 221.
191, 211, 230, 266, 281.
Nikanor, 139.
Nikiu,"238.
PhanSs, 132, 214, 233, 234. Phakussa, 43.
340
The Egypt of
of, 2z,
the
Hebfews and Herodotos
Pharaoh, meaning
250.
Index
Sekhet, 225.
341
loi.
Suphah,
Semennfid (Sebennytos), 239.

Send,
6.
Sutekh, 23, 39, 228.
Senem
(Bigeh), 200.
Sennacherib, 114, 244, 275 sqq. Septimius, 234.

Septuagint, 145.
Tahpanhes,
129, 131. 119.
Tand-Amon,
Serapeum, 261,
Serapis, 207,
serpents, winged, 236.
Sesetsu (Sesostris), 249.

Sesostris
(Ramses
11.),
47,
ig6, 229,
247 sqq.
Set, 75, 222, 23s, 237, 249,
Sethos, 244, 275.

Seti
I., II.
75, 228.
,
84, 97-100.
Set-nelcht, 100.
Shasu (Bedouin), 276. Shechem, 72.

Shed-festival, 226.
Tanis [see Zoan), 104 sqq., 232. Tantah, 226. Ta-user, Queen, 99. Teie, Queen, 57, 58. Tel el-Amarna, 52 sqq. Tel el-Baql!yeh, 210. Tel ed-Deffeneh, 129, 231 sqq. Tel el-Yehudlyeh, 157, 250. Tel en-Nebgsheh, 236. Tel Fera'in, 235. Tel Mokdam, 39. Thannyras, 179. Thebes, 12, 50, 163, 182,186, 194, 196. This (Girgeh), 2.
Shepherd kings,
Sheri, 6.
14.
Thothmes
in., 18, 58, 80, 196, 222.
Shishak, 106, 228.

Sib'e (So), 114.
Siculians, 86.
Sidon, 91, 128. Simon the Just, 150.

Sin, 233. Sinai, 7, 89, 254, 283.
Thukydides, 285. Tirhakah, 114 j-^^., 272, 276. Tn^phakhtos, 268. Tunip, 82. Turah, 257.
Turin Papyrus,
16.
Tut-ankh-Amon, 73. Two brothers. Tale of, 25

Tyre, 72, 205, 234.
sqq.
Singar, 82.
Si-Ptah, 84, 99.
Tyrian camp, 242, 251.

Tyrsenians, 84.
Smendes,
Snefru,
6.
105.
So (Sib'e), 114. Solomon, 105.

Solon, 1B3, 217.
Sostratos, 147.
U
Uaz, 235, 236, 237, 275.
Urd-Amon,
191, 245.
119.
Sphinx,
St.
5, 30,
Ur-mer, 240,
Usertesen
II.,
I.,
John, J. A., 192. Strabo, 223, 264, 281.

Succoth, 43, 77, 96.
221, 251.
19, 266, 270.
III.,
282.
Sumerian,
64, 65-
342
The Egypt of
the
Wadi Tumilat
Wiedemann,
Wilbour, Mr,,
(Goshen), 43.
35.
Zagazig, 224.
Zahi, 72.
Professor, 39, 223.
X
Xanthos, 176.
Zakkur, 84, 86, 88. Zaphnath-paaneah, Zemar, 72. Zenodotos, 147. Zephyrion, 207.
Zerah, ill.
32.
Zoan (S^n, Tanis),

Yaud-hamelek,
109.
48, 78, 267.
15, 19, 39, 41, 42,
THE END
tM^ft^-^'M *">'<)"- i"tt!>.'-r'>>"tf'>*)<

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:

HENRY WILEIAMS SAGE

THE EGYPT OF THE HEBREWS AND HERODOTOS

THE EGYPT OF THE HEBREWS

NEW YORK MACMILLAN AND

another contribution to the

ment the books already

put before them just

information which either

forms part of larger and

Egypt are followed

for the first time in the

light of recent discoveries,

and the history of

the intercourse between the Egyptians and the

brought down to the age of the

the ordinary histories of

used by travellers end with the extinction of

have further given a"

sketch of the Ptolemaic period.

over specially noted the results of the recent

The Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos

Petrie, at all events

where they bear upon the

subject-matter of the book.

Those who have

not the publications of the

not care to carry them

be glad to have the

essence of them thus extracted in a convenient

pendix on the nomes embodies the results of

here and there from the

which have been

should procure the very handy and complete

of Ancient Egypt, published

Egypt Exploration Fund

makes the addition of maps

work on Ancient Egypt

Discoveries follow so thickly one upon the

impossible for an author to

manuscript was ready for

the press Dr. Naville, on behalf of the

Exploration Fund, has practically cleared the

and has discovered beneath

unfinished sepulchre in which the queen fondly

hoped that her body would be

Zaw^deh and opposite Qoft

probably of Libyan origin,

settled in the valley of the Nile

ship from the tombs of the princesses of the

has discovered the site of the Serapeum at

point of importance for determining the topo-

graphy of the ancient

people whose remains have been found

by Professor Petrie buried

The Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos

graves without mummifying them, and

use of implements and weapons of polished

ornamented with concentric rings of red on a

been already found

Khozam, north of Karnak, and elsewhere, and

creatures scratched on the sandstone rocks of