POST-PHARAOHNIC TEMPLES IN UPPER EGYPT.
Cui bono?—CICERO.
The Ptolemaic temple of Edfou, unlike those of the Delta, has suffered
little from the injuries either of time, or of man. It is substantially,
both internally and externally, in the state in which it was two thousand
years ago, when the inhabitants of the great city of Apollo passed in
procession between its stately propylons, and entered its great court, to
hear hymns sung in praise of, and to witness offerings made to, the child
Horus, and the Egyptian Venus, or, as she is described in an inscription
on the walls, “the Queen of men and of women,” to whom the temple was
dedicated.
The external walls are complete, so are all the chambers, halls,
corridors, and courts within, even to the monolithic granite shrine.
The well, too, to which you descend by a flight of steps, is still full
of water. I seldom found a temple without its well. Many had lakes
also annexed to them for ornament, for the performance of religious
ceremonies, as that at Sais for the mysteries of Osiris, or for the boat
procession in the funeral function, as at Thebes; or, in addition to
these objects, to strengthen the defensive position of the temple. We
know that this was a purpose for which the temples were used: in fact,
each had its own trained and armed militia: and it is impossible to look
upon such a structure as this temple of Edfou without perceiving that the
idea of having a stronghold was included by the builder in his original
design. The height and massiveness of the surrounding wall were such
as to make either battery, or escalade, impossible, and there were no
apertures left in it by which entrance could be effected. In fact, the
temples gave the priests, and government, in every city an impregnable
citadel, and one against which no exception could be taken, however
strong it was made, for was it not all done for the glory of the gods
of the city? And so the people were tricked into assisting to forge
their own chains. Thoughts of this kind arise in your mind as you pass
through the courts and galleries, ascend the propylons, and walk upon
the roof of this magnificent fortress temple. Some of the sculptures on
the walls, representing a royal boat procession on the river, enable us
to picture to ourselves how the last of the Ptolemies, the Circe of the
Nile, appeared on these occasions. Here, too, is an inscription of much
interest, for it gives some account of several estates belonging to the
temple.
At Dendera the greater part of the work, and of the sculptures, belong to
the Roman period. The Egyptian architect now receives through the Roman
governor of the province, his instructions from, and reports back their
execution to, the banks of the Tiber. On the walls we read the names of
Augustus and of his four successors in the Empire, Tiberius, Caligula,
Claudius, and Nero. On an older part of the structure occurs the name
of the Egyptian son of the greatest of the Cæsars, together with his
mother’s, the great Egyptian enchantress. In the Ptolemaic temple also
at the south-west angle of the enclosure at Karnak, both these names are
repeated several times. In each case the name is accompanied with what
is meant for a sculptured portrait of this famous lady. In the fulness
and roundness of the face there is some resemblance to the features with
which Guido embodies his idea of her in his celebrated picture. His
intuitive perception of refined and enduring voluptuousness has thus
proved true to nature.
But, though at Dendera the existing buildings are modern, dating from a
little before and after the Christian era, yet the site is as old as any
in Egypt. An inscription has been found by which we are informed that a
temple was completed on this spot by Apappus (that is to say, perhaps
three thousand years before Christ), which had been commenced three
or four hundred years previously by Cheops, the builder of the Great
Pyramid. (We may ask, by the way,—How does this agree with the legend
that he closed the temples?) And that eighteen hundred years after the
foundation of the temple by Cheops, that is one thousand five hundred
years before Christ, the structure which Apappus had completed was
reconstructed by Tuthmosis III.
At Esné is another of the great post-Pharaohnic temples of Upper Egypt.
What has been disinterred here belongs also to the Roman period. The list
of inscribed names includes Tiberius, Germanicus, Vespasian, Trajan,
Adrian, Antoninus, and Decius. The last is of the date 250 A.D., and
is the latest instance yet found of the name of a Roman emperor on an
Egyptian temple, inscribed in hieroglyphics. Here, too, has been found
the shield of Tuthmosis III. We may infer, therefore, that the work of
the Roman period now standing was placed, as at Dendera, upon the site
of a temple erected by this great Pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty.
Perhaps, as the excavations here have not yet extended beyond what may be
regarded as merely the front of the temple, some of the older structure
may hereafter be brought to light from beneath the still undisturbed
mounds behind.
These three temples of Edfou, Dendera, and Esné, to which some others in
Upper Egypt may be added, are of great value historically. They enable
us to understand what was the condition of Egyptian art, and, to some
extent, in what condition the Egyptians themselves were in the Greek,
and in the Roman period. From the time of Menes to the time of Decius we
see that they possessed the same language, the same arts, the same style
of art, the same method of writing, the same mythology, and the same
social arrangements. The mind is almost overwhelmed at the contemplation
of such stability in human affairs. With this vast tract of time, spread
over four thousand years, we are acquainted historically. Of the period
that preceded it we have no monuments, and know nothing historically.
What we know, however, of the historical period enables us to infer
with confidence that the period which preceded it, and in which all
this knowledge, all these arts, and these aptitudes were acquired, this
mythology constructed, and this social organization, possessing so much
vitality and permanence, grew into form, and established itself, could
not possibly have been a short period.
The antiquity of the sites of Dendera and Esné, and perhaps also of
Edfou, must have contributed largely towards the eventual preservation
of their temples. When a temple had for some thousands of years been
standing on the same site, the surrounding city necessarily rose very
much above it. This rise would be more rapid in Upper Egypt than in the
Delta from merely natural causes, for the yearly deposit of soil is far
greater in that part of the valley which first receives the then heavily
mud-charged waters of the inundation. When, therefore, these cities were
overthrown or deserted, the deep depressions, in which the temples stood,
were soon filled from the rubbish of the closely surrounding mounds; and
the temples, thus buried, were preserved. Both at Dendera and Esné the
very roofs are below the level of the mounds, and nothing can be seen
till excavations have been made, in which the temples are found complete.
It was almost the same at Edfou also.
Wherever, too, the temples were constructed not of limestone, but of
sandstone, there was, in the comparative uselessness of their material,
another cause at work in favour of their preservation. Probably, however,
that which most effectually of all contributed to this result was the
circumstance that from the time when these temples were built, that is
to say, throughout the Greek, Roman, and Saracenic periods, the upper
country has never been prosperous, or made the seat of government. That
has always established itself in the Delta. It has been a consequence of
this that in Upper Egypt, that is in the district to which our attention
has been just directed, there has been little or no occasion for
building: it was not, therefore, worth while to pull down these temples
at the time they were standing clear, or to disinter them after they had
been buried in the rubbish heaps of the cities in which they had stood,
for the sake of the building materials they might have supplied.