Transcriber’s Notes:
Underscores “_” before and after a word or phrase indicate _italics_
in the original text.
Small capitals have been converted to SOLID capitals.
Illustrations have been moved so they do not break up paragraphs.
Typographical errors have been silently corrected.
[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.
TAI-TI, QUEEN OF AMENHOTEP III.]
THE PHARAOHS AND THEIR PEOPLE
_SCENES OF OLD EGYPTIAN LIFE AND HISTORY_
BY
E. BERKLEY
AUTHOR OF ‘A HISTORY OF ROME,’ ETC. ETC.
_With Numerous Illustrations_
SEELEY, JACKSON & HALLIDAY,
FLEET STREET LONDON, MDCCCLXXXIV
PREFACE.
The growing interest that is felt in all that concerns Egypt and its
past has led me to hope that there may be many who will be glad of a
book containing, in a concise and easily accessible form, the chief
results of modern research and discovery in the valley of the Nile.
The Manuscript of this work was submitted to Dr. Lushington, formerly
Professor of Greek at Glasgow University, and he has very kindly
permitted the publication of the following opinion:—
‘It appears to me very carefully and accurately
written, with diligent consultation of the most
trustworthy sources. The illustrative quotations
interspersed seem well calculated to inspire and
maintain interest in the reader as well as the
descriptive sketches.
The subject well deserves, and is already beginning
to command, more general interest than a few years ago
it would have been possible to anticipate.’
The translations I have given are selected and freely rendered from
those that have appeared in _Records of the Past_, after comparison
with any others that were available. I am also much indebted throughout
to Dr. Brugsch’s valuable _History of Egypt_; and I wish especially to
mention my obligation to Mr. Villiers Stuart’s _Nile Gleanings_, with
its many interesting illustrations and accompanying descriptions—more
particularly those relating to the tombs of the third and fourth
dynasties, to the curious episode of Khu-en-aten’s reign, and to the
stirring times of Rameses the Great.
My obligations to other authors are acknowledged in the respective
places.
The hieroglyphs above the Table of Contents read, _em rek suteniu
tepau_, _i.e._ ‘in the time of former kings,’ and the cartouche at the
end of the line is that of ‘Pharaoh,’ to be read _Per-aa_, _i.e._ ‘the
Great House.’ The hawk is symbolic of divine protection, and the seal
it holds is the emblem of renewed and endless life.
E. BERKLEY.
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
Reign of the gods—Osiris, Isis, and Horus Myth—Ancient
Cities and early Kings, 1
CHAPTER II.
The Pyramid Builders, 17
CHAPTER III.
The Pyramid Builders—_continued_, 29
CHAPTER IV.
Civil War and Break-up of the Kingdom—Reunion and Recovery, 41
CHAPTER V.
Twelfth Dynasty—‘Instructions’ of Amenemhat I.—
Story of Saneha, 49
CHAPTER VI.
Successors of Amenemhat I.—Two Provinces added to Egypt, 64
CHAPTER VII.
Invasion and Rule of the Hyksos—War of Liberation.
(_Circa_ 2100-1600 B.C.), 79
CHAPTER VIII.
The Eighteenth Dynasty—Queen Hatasu and Thothmes III.
(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.), 88
CHAPTER IX.
The Eighteenth Dynasty—_continued_.
(_Circa_ 1600-1400 B.C.), 125
CHAPTER X.
The Nineteenth Dynasty (_circa_ 1400-1200 B.C.)—
Rameses the Great, 142
CHAPTER XI.
Thebes; its People, Temples, and Tombs—Close of the
Nineteenth Dynasty, 175
CHAPTER XII.
Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties—The Ramessidæ and the
Priest-Kings. (_Circa_ 1200-970 B.C.), 212
CHAPTER XIII.
Shishak I. and the Twenty-second (Bubastite)
Dynasty—The Ethiopian Kings—The Assyrians in
Egypt—Sack of Thebes. (_Circa_ 970-666 B.C.), 237
CHAPTER XIV.
Psammetichus and the Saite Dynasty—The Persian Conquest—
Last Independent Dynasties. (666-340 B.C.), 263
APPENDIX I.—Table of Dynasties, 288
APPENDIX II.—Decipherment of the Hieroglyphs, 290
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
TAI-TI, QUEEN OF AMENHOTEP III., _Frontispiece_
WINGED FIGURE,—ISIS OR NEPHTHYS, PAGE 2
ISIS SUCKLING HORUS, 4
THE SPHINX, 18
THE PYRAMIDS, 23
NETTING BIRDS, 31
CARESSING A GAZELLE, 63
BOATMEN AND CATTLE DRIVERS, 68
PAINTING A STATUE, 72
CARVING A STATUE, 73
ASIATIC IMMIGRANTS, 76
AMENHOTEP PRESENTED TO AMEN-RA BY HORUS, 118
AMENHOTEP II. ON THE LAP OF A GODDESS, 122
AMENHOTEP III., 128
THE COLOSSI AT THEBES, 129
RAMESES II., 162
HALL IN THE GREAT TEMPLE OF ABU-SIMBEL, 166
DISCOVERY OF MUMMIES AT DEIR EL BAHARI, 173
TEMPLE AND GARDEN, 177
THE SACRED ARK, 181
PLAYING AT DRAUGHTS, 184
THE WEIGHING OF ACTIONS, 193
MUMMY AND MUMMY-CASE OF THE PRIEST NEBSENI, 231
MUMMY OF A GAZELLE, 235
THE WORSHIP OF APIS, 244
SPHINX WITH HUMAN HANDS, 287
[Illustration: ANCIENT EGYPT.]
THE PHARAOHS AND THEIR PEOPLE.
CHAPTER I.
Reign of the gods—Osiris, Isis, and Horus Myth—Ancient cities and early
kings.
The first royal name that meets us on the monuments of Egypt, which was
inscribed there during the lifetime of the king who bore it, is that of
Senefru (predecessor of Khufu who built the Great Pyramid), and belongs
to a remote antiquity.[1] And yet we must look back through the dimness
of many more centuries still before we come to the name of Mena, first
King of Egypt—a name that seems to twinkle faintly from beyond the
abyss of long past ages like a far-off star on the horizon from beyond
the wide waste of waters.
Mena, founder of Memphis, and his successors, we know, at least, by
name; but of the ‘old time before them’ the traditions of Egypt only
said that the gods governed the land. According to one ancient record,
Ptah, the ‘Hidden Being,’ the ‘Former of all,’ ruled in the beginning;
Ra, the bright Sun-god, Seb, the ancient Earth-god, followed; and later
still Osiris reigned, the ‘Good Being’ and ‘Lord of life.’ After having
conferred manifold blessings and benefits on the land, he was slain by
his brother and rival Set. Set concealed the body, but Isis, the ‘great
divine Mother,’ sister and wife of Osiris, sought after it. An ancient
hymn says, ‘No word of hers fails; good is she, and kind in will and
speech. It is Isis, the exalted one, the avenger of her brother: she
went up and down the world lamenting him.’
[Illustration: Vincent Brooks-Day & Son, Lith.
WINGED FIGURE, ISIS OR NEPHTHYS.]
The _Lamentations of Isis_ was one of the most revered of the sacred
writings:—‘My heart is full of bitterness for thee,’ she cries; ‘how
long will it be ere I see thee whom to behold is bliss! Come to her
that loveth thee—none hath loved thee more than I.... Heaven and earth
are mourning after thee. O mighty one, our lord,[2] speak, and dispel
the anguish of our souls! To behold thy face is life, and the joy of
our spirits is to gaze on thee!’
Nevertheless in bodily form Osiris appeared not on earth again; but
Isis ceased not from her search until she had found the remains, all
torn and mangled as they were by the malice of Set. ‘She made light
with her feathers,’ says the old hymn, ‘and wind with her wings; at his
burial she poured forth her prayers.’
‘She gave birth to a child; secretly and alone she nursed the infant—no
man knows where that was done.
‘Now has the arm of that child become strong within the ancient
dwelling of Seb.’[3]
The child of Isis, the beautiful and radiant Horus, was the avenger
of Osiris; he cast down the terrible Set, and destroyed his power;
then, on appearing resplendent from his triumph, he was hailed with
acclamation by gods and men, and reigned over the land, Osiris,
new-born—the Morning Sun which, having conquered night and darkness,
ascends the sky and rules from heaven; the Sun of to-day, which, if
another, is yet the same as that which sank down yesterday into the
bosom of the night.
[Illustration: Isis suckling Horus.—From a statuette in the British
Museum.]
The reign of Horus was welcomed with rapture and with song. ‘He
receives the title of his father and rules the world; he governs both
the men of Egypt and the northern barbarians. Every one glorifies his
goodness; mild is his love towards us; his tenderness embraceth every
heart; great is his love in all our bosoms. His foe falls under his
fury; the end of the evil-doer is at hand. The son of Isis, the avenger
of his father, appears. The worlds are at rest; evil flies, and earth
brings forth abundantly, and is at peace beneath her lord.’
But Osiris was not dead. In the unseen world he lived anew, and there
he ruled in righteousness, as Horus ruled on earth. Osiris, the divine
being who had died, was judge of the dead. Before him each departed
spirit must appear in the judgment-hall of Truth. There the heart is
weighed and the life is judged unerringly. He who passes that ordeal
becomes himself Osiris, and is henceforth called by his name. The new
Osiris lives again, and passes victoriously through every peril, until
he is at length admitted amongst the bright and blessed spirits who
accompany Ra for ever, and who ‘live, as he liveth, in Truth.’
Horus was the last of the divine race of kings. After him, some
traditions said that dynasties of demigods and of manes ruled before
King Mena ascended the throne, but the name by which the Egyptians
always distinguished the inhabitants of the land in prehistoric times
was _Horshesu_—followers of Horus.
There were certain cities also in Egypt whose foundation was assigned
to those prehistoric times. The twin cities Thinis-Abydos were, so far
as we know, the most ancient in the land. Thinis was the cradle of
the Egyptian monarchy: the first Egyptian dynasties were Thinite, and
Mena went from thence to found his new capital. But Abydos was revered
as the burial-place and shrine of Osiris himself, and many devout
Egyptians in following ages directed their own tombs to be prepared and
their bodies laid in this consecrated spot.
The origin of Pa-Ra,[4] the City of the Sun, is also lost in remote
antiquity. It stood not far from Memphis, and is better known to us by
the name of On. It was the centre of the worship of Ra, as Abydos was
of the worship of Osiris, but there was no jealousy or rivalry between
the two. They were, in fact, essentially one, and the same individual
might be priest or priestess of both sanctuaries.
On was famous from time immemorial as a seat of learning, and its
priesthood was held in high repute. The city itself was of small
dimensions. ‘The walls may yet be traced,’ says Mr. Reginald Stuart
Poole, ‘enclosing an irregular square of about half a mile in the
measure of each of its sides.’ And of this limited space the great
temple of Ra must have occupied about half. The population, one would
think, must have been mainly composed of scholars, as the priests’
dwellings would be within the temple precincts. Hither came the young
men of Egypt—who shall say how many thousand years ago!—to learn all
that the priests could teach at this, the most ancient university of
the world. Nor were the priests, who carefully cultivated and taught
the various branches of learning, by any means an exclusive caste.
They had family ties, mixed in social life, and could hold other than
priestly dignities. A royal prince was often priest of a temple, and
a priest might be a warrior, an architect, or a court official. So
far as we can gather, the teaching at an Egyptian university would
comprise a knowledge of the sacred books, besides general teaching in
morality. The study of the language itself must have been a somewhat
arduous undertaking even for a native-born Egyptian, and to write
the hieroglyphic characters, required considerable skill, and even
art.[5] Many branches of science must have been pursued—medicine,
law, geometry, astronomy, and chemistry, whilst in mechanics a quite
marvellous proficiency was attained. Music too was highly prized and
carefully taught, and it is not unlikely that architects and sculptors
also received their training in these schools.
Long ages afterwards, when Greek and Roman travellers visited Egypt,
and sought to learn her wisdom, they heard an ancient tale concerning
the mysterious Phœnix, that came once in five hundred years from the
far-off land of spices and perfume to the sacred City of the Sun, where
he constructed for himself a funeral pile and perished in the flames,
but only to rise again in renewed life and splendour; then, spreading
his radiant wings, he took his flight to the distant land from whence
he came. What special truth this allegory veiled in the minds of those
who told it we can only guess; at the same time it may serve us well
as a type of the old ‘wisdom’ itself,[6] which did not perish with
its primeval seat, but sprang into renewed and glorious existence in
what, to us, is ‘ancient’ Greece—then, lost again when Greece was lost,
revived once more in our latter days.
But Pa-Ra had a special claim to the veneration of the Egyptians as the
birthplace of their sacred literature. Here were written, or, as the
priests called it, ‘found,’ the original chapters of the most sacred of
the sacred writings, the ‘_Book of the coming forth into the Day_,’[7]
which tells of the conflicts and triumphs of the life after death.
To secure that triumph, a knowledge of the holy book was required.
Portions of it are found written on coffin lids and on the walls of
tombs; every Egyptian desired to have it buried with him, and whilst
the rich would often have an entire copy laid in his tomb, the poor man
coveted at least a fragment.
Memphis was founded by the first King of Egypt, but Abydos and On were
linked by tradition to the gods.
One beautiful obelisk of red granite stands solitary among the green
fields to mark where stood the City of the Sun, and the wild bees store
their honey in its deep-cut hieroglyphs.
If any remains at all exist of Abydos, they have long since been
buried deep beneath the piled up heaps of sand and mud amongst which
has been built a little Arab village named ‘Arabat the Buried.’ Whilst
exploring these mounds the famous discoverer Mariette found two
temples erected by well-known kings of far later date, Seti I. and
Rameses the Great, and dedicated by them to Osiris. Not far off there
arises amid the desolation a conical hillock sixty feet high, which is
called by the Arabs Kom-es-Sultan, the ‘Mound of the King.’ It is just
made up of tombs ‘packed together as closely as they can be wedged,’
above a rock which was believed to have been the sepulchre of Osiris.
Here it was that so many during many generations desired to be laid;
through the excavations of explorers may be seen countless numbers of
the tombs where they hoped to rest in peace. But the mummy cases have
been rudely dragged to light, despoiled, and rifled of aught they might
have contained of commercial value, while the poor mummies themselves
are left, often broken into fragments, exposed to the careless gaze of
every passer-by and to the ‘full glare of the noon-day sun.’ Pits sunk
in the neighbourhood disclose nothing but tombs, ‘arches upon arches of
brick, each an Egyptian grave.’[8]
Mena founded his new capital 360 miles north of Thinis. The Nahsi
or Negroes, in the south, were troublesome rather than dangerous
neighbours, and the whole length of the Nile valley was protected by
the natural defences of the Libyan hills on the west and the Arabian on
the east, but the Delta had no such shelter, and through its plains the
way to the rich luxuriant valley lay open to an invading force, whether
of the fair-haired Libyans from the west or the warlike tribes of the
Amu and the Herusha from the east. Memphis was built some miles south
of the point where the narrow valley of the Nile opens out into the
broad plains of the Delta.[9] Here the river ran near the Libyan hills;
so, by Mena’s orders, its course was turned aside to gain a wider space
for the new city—Mennefer, he called it—the ‘secure and beautiful.’
He first of all erected a magnificent temple, which he dedicated to
Ptah, ‘Father of the beginning’ and ‘Creator of the world,’ of whose
worship Memphis continued to be the centre. It was well fortified and
guarded against inroads from the north, and protected the entrance to
the Nile valley, of which its rulers held the key. And it was fair to
look upon, lying along the banks of the great river—with artificial
lakes glittering in the cloudless sunshine, and stately temples and
palaces embosomed amongst groves of palm, sycamore, and date trees.
Thousands of years passed by, and in later days the ruthless tide of
war ebbed and flowed around its walls; siege, storm, and havoc did
their work—but in spite of all, so late as the 13th century A.D., an
Arabian physician who visited the ruins of Memphis tells us that they
extended a half-day’s journey every way, and he declares that the
wonders he beheld were sufficient to confound the mind; no eloquence
could describe them. Every new glance, he says, was a new cause of
delight. But the work of ruin was not ended in his day—Mahometan
fanaticism spares nothing, however time-honoured or beautiful; besides
which, the ruins of Memphis proved a convenient quarry for the
building of modern Cairo. Thus the ‘secure and beautiful’ city of King
Mena has disappeared at length as utterly as Babylon has done. A few
insignificant fragments and blocks are strewn confusedly about, and
serve to mark the site. One mighty statue lies prostrate—a colossal
figure of Rameses II., erected by himself in front of the temple of
Ptah. It is lying on its face in a broad ditch, deserted and alone,
save when some wandering Arab passes by, or cattle come to drink of the
water which, for most part of the year, fills the trench and submerges
the gigantic figure—
Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Of historic details relating to the earliest dynasties next to nothing
has been preserved; the kings appear to have been able and enlightened
rulers, and encouragers of art and learning. In their days the system
of hieroglyphic writing existed, and we are told of works on the
healing arts, some of which were composed by the successor of Mena
himself, for ‘he was a physician.’ The earliest chapters of the sacred
books were extant, and the art of embalming was already practised,
though in a comparatively rude fashion. We are also informed that by a
decree of King Bai-en-neter of the second dynasty, women were declared
capable of succeeding to the crown—a statement which is only in harmony
with all that we know of the position of women in ancient Egypt.[10]
One remarkable monument of these early dynasties remains.
The Libyan hills, running from north to south, form the western
boundary of the Nile valley. Along their base there is a rocky
platform of considerable breadth, at a height of some 90 or 100 feet
above the plain. This vast platform was used as the necropolis of
Memphis—_Ank-ta_, ‘Land of life,’ they called it. For the space of
twenty miles in the neighbourhood of the city, it was covered with
groups of pyramids and tombs. In the centre of the most ancient of
these stands the pyramid of Sakkara, known as the ‘stepped pyramid,’ or
‘pyramid of degrees,’ which is considered as the burial-place of Ata,
fourth King of Egypt. In that case, it is the oldest known sepulchre in
the world. It is of grand and rugged aspect, about 200 feet in height,
and flattened at the summit. The exterior is formed of six rough
gigantic steps composed of stones, and nine or ten feet in thickness.
The forms of King Mena and his successors may well appear dreamlike
in the dim light by which we discern them; but we seem to perceive
that Mena was, at any rate, the first who wore the ‘double crown,’
which bespoke sovereignty over the whole land; the white upper crown
representing dominion over Upper, the red lower one dominion over Lower
Egypt. His successors were strong enough to repel invaders, to maintain
intact the power they inherited, and thus to transmit to following
dynasties the double crown they had received from Mena, the ‘Firm’ or
‘Constant.’
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The date that has been assigned to the Great Pyramid varies by at
least a thousand years, and is generally placed from about 3000 to 4000
B.C. The present tendency is certainly rather in favour of the remoter
dates, as agreeing best with the requirements of historic data, and
harmonising with the results of recent discovery and research.
[2] Isis is joined in her lamentations by her sister Nephthys, who was
wife of Set, but never shared his evil repute.
[3] _i.e._ The Earth. Seb, the Earth-god, was father of Osiris; Nut,
the Heaven above, was his mother in Egyptian mythology.
[4] In Greek _Heliopolis_, which bears the same meaning as Pa-Ra—‘City
of the Sun.’
[5] So much was this the case, that at a later period simpler forms of
writing, known as the hieratic and demotic were adopted for general
purposes; but the ancient hieroglyphic characters continued to be
employed on monuments and in the temples.
[6] This comparison of the ancient ‘wisdom’ to the phœnix is taken
from Reginald Stuart Poole’s _Cities of Egypt_,—an interesting and
suggestive book, to which I have been more than once indebted, and
especially in the above description of On.
[7] Generally known as the ‘Book’ or ‘Ritual of the Dead,’ but it was
never known to the Egyptians by any name of the kind.
[8] Loftie’s _Ride in Egypt_.
[9] The length of the Nile, from the spot where the Blue and White
Nile unite, down to the Mediterranean, is 1800 miles. The valley of
the Nile bounded east by the Arabian, west by the Libyan hills, varies
in breadth from fourteen to thirty-two miles, but the breadth of the
arable land does not exceed nine or ten miles.—Erasmus Wilson’s _Egypt
of the Past_.
[10] That position was in remarkable contrast to the subjection and
seclusion of the Asiatic harem, and was superior to that assigned to
women in the domestic and social life of Greece itself. The Egyptian
was the husband of one wife, and she was regarded as the honoured
mistress of the household; the companion, not the slave or inferior, of
the man. In sculptures and paintings she is constantly seen sitting by
his side; she joins him in receiving and welcoming guests, and freely
takes her part in the occupations and enjoyments of social life. In the
tombs and memorial chambers of the dead, husband and wife are still
represented side by side.