EXTRACTS FROM DIODORUS AND HERODOTUS; RELATING TO MUMMIES.
It is rather as being illustrated by the discovery of Mr. Grey’s Greek
papyrus, than as contributing much to its illustration, that I shall
here introduce such passages of Diodorus Siculus and of Herodotus, as
tend to explain the customs of the Egyptians respecting the honours
shown to the dead bodies of their relations.
“The inhabitants of this country,” says Diodorus, Book I. § 51, Wess.,
in the language of Booth, p. 26, “little value the short time of this
present life; but put a high esteem upon the name and reputation
of a virtuous life after death; and they call the houses of the
living, _Inns_, because they stay in them but a little while; but the
sepulchres of the dead they call _Everlasting habitations_, because
they abide in the graves to infinite generations. Therefore they are
not very curious in the building of their houses; but in beautifying
their sepulchres they leave nothing undone that [the excess of
magnificence can suggest].”
§ 72. W. “What the Egyptians performed, after the deaths of every one
of their kings, clearly evidences the great love they bore to them. For
honour done to him that cannot possibly know it, in a grateful return
of a former benefit, carries along with it a testimony of sincerity,
without the least colour of dissimulation.” Booth, p. 37.
§ 73. W. The whole of Egypt being divided into a number of parts,
called Nomes by the Greeks, each of these is governed by a Nomarcha, to
whom the care of all its public concerns is entrusted. The land being
every where divided into three portions, the first is occupied by the
priesthood, who are held in the greatest respect by the inhabitants,
as being devoted to the worship of the gods, and as possessing the
greatest power of understanding, from the superiority of their
education: and from the revenues of these lands they perform all
sacrifices throughout Egypt, and support the servants of the temples
as well as their own families: for they hold that the administration
of the honours of the gods ought not to be fluctuating, but to be
conducted always by the same persons, and in the same manner: and that
those, who are above all their fellow citizens in wisdom and knowledge,
ought not to be below any of them in the comforts and conveniences of
life: and the priests are in the habit of associating very generally
with the kings, partly as counsellors, partly as assistants, and partly
as expounders and instructors: foretelling future events by means
of astronomy and of augury, and reading the most useful lessons from
the past, out of the records of their sacred volumes: for it is not
the custom, as in Greece, for one man, or one woman, to be appointed
to each priesthood, but there are many who are employed together in
the sacrifices and in other ceremonies; and these transmit the same
professional occupation to their descendants. The whole of the families
of the priests are exempt from taxes, and they come immediately after
the king in rank and authority. The second portion of the land is
retained in the power of the king for his own revenue, out of which
he has to provide for all military expenses, and for the support of
his own splendour and dignity, as well as for the liberal remuneration
of those who have distinguished themselves by their virtues and their
valour: so that being amply supplied from this territory, they are
not obliged to burden their subjects with oppressive taxes. The last
of the three portions is assigned to the military population, who are
subject to the duties attending on a state of warfare: in order that
those, who are exposed to danger in battle, may be the more ready to
undergo the hazards of the field, from the interest that they feel in
the country as occupiers of the soil: for it would be thought absurd to
commit the common safety to the care of those, who possessed nothing in
the country that was worthy of preservation: and this system had the
still greater advantage of acting as an encouragement to population,
in order that the country might not be in want of foreign auxiliaries:
and their descendants, in like manner, receiving the constitution
thus transmitted to them from their forefathers, are excited by
the emulation of the valiant deeds of their ancestors, and become
invincible by the courage and experience which they acquire.
§ 74. There are also three other classes that enter into the political
system of Egypt; those of the Shepherds, the Husbandmen, and the
Artisans. The husbandmen, occupying, at a low rent, the arable land
belonging to the king, and the priests, and the military, employ their
whole time in cultivating it: and being educated from their infancy
in agricultural pursuits, they are superior, from their experience,
to the husbandmen of other countries: for they are perfectly well
acquainted, partly from the knowledge derived from their ancestors, and
partly from their own observation, with the nature of the soil, and
its irrigation, and with the times and seasons for sowing and reaping,
and for collecting all kinds of fruits. The same advantages are
possessed by the shepherds, who receive the charge of the flocks from
their forefathers as by inheritance, and pass their whole lives in the
care of their cattle: and having derived much information from their
ancestors, respecting the best modes of treatment and fattening of
the different animals, they also add not a little from their own zeal
and industry in their occupations: and, what is most remarkable, from
their excessive refinement in these pursuits, the poulterers and geese
feeders, besides the natural modes of breeding birds, which are common
in other countries, have procured an infinite multitude of poultry by
their own ingenuity: for they do not hatch their eggs by the incubation
of the hens, but, by means of an artificial operation, derived from
their own talents and invention, they are enabled to rival, if not to
exceed, the activity of nature: and the arts in general are carried to
a very elaborate degree of perfection by the Egyptians; for in this
country no artist is allowed to meddle either with political affairs,
or with any other employment, besides that which he has received
from his parents, and to which he is confined by the law: so that
neither the jealousy of a master, nor any public business, can ever
divert him from the exclusive study of his profession: for in other
countries we often observe that an artist is diverted by a variety of
pursuits, and is too avaricious to confine himself to his own work;
some employing themselves in husbandry, some in commerce, and some in
two or three different arts at once; and in democratical countries,
many are constantly frequenting popular assemblies, and doing mischief
to the government, while they are receiving bribes from the leaders
of parties: but among the Egyptians, if any artisan should meddle with
politics, or should employ himself in any other concerns besides that
in which he has been educated, a severe punishment would be inflicted
on him. Such then were the institutions of the ancient Egyptians with
regard to their public and private occupations.
§ 75. For the regulation of judicial proceedings, they also took
no common pains: since they held that the sentences, pronounced by
the legal tribunals, had the greatest possible influence, whether
beneficial or injurious, on the concerns of common life: and they saw
that the punishment of offenders, and the relief of oppressed persons,
were the most effectual remedies for the evils of a state: and that if
the terror, that arises from the condemnation of the guilty, were to be
superseded by money or by favour, there would be nothing but confusion
in all ranks of society: and they attained the end they desired, by
the selection of the best men out of the most considerable cities as
Common Judges: taking ten from Heliopolis, and the same number from
Thebes and from Memphis: and the Bench, thus assembled, did not appear
to be inferior either to the Areopagites at Athens, or to the Elders
among the Lacedaemonians. When these thirty had met, they proceeded
to elect the most distinguished of their number as their President,
with the title of Arch judge: and his place among themselves was
supplied by another person, sent by the same city. The judges all
received allowances from the king, sufficient for their support, and
the arch judge received a manifold portion. He was distinguished by
wearing round his neck a golden chain, suspending a figure adorned with
precious stones, which was called Alethía, or Truth: and the trial
began when the arch judge put on this image of Truth. Now the whole
of the laws of the country being written in eight books, and these
books being placed near the judges, it was the custom for the accuser
to write down in detail the offense to be proved, and the manner in
which the action was committed, and the estimated amount of the damage
or the injury: the accused party then, taking the depositions of his
opponents, wrote his answer to each of them, either denying the facts,
or maintaining that they were not illegal; or, if they were illegal,
that the damages were appreciated too highly: the accuser replied again
in writing, and the accused party rejoined: and both having given in
their writings to the judges, the thirty proceeded to declare their
opinions among themselves; and lastly, the arch judge touched one of
the contending parties, who was to be successful, with the figure of
Truth which he wore.... And this was done, in order to supersede the
influence of artificial eloquence, and the fascination of personal
appearance, which too often pervert the distribution of justice....
§ 80. The Priests of the Egyptians are allowed to marry but one wife:
other persons marry as many as they please: but they are obliged to
rear all their children, since a numerous population is esteemed
highly conducive to the happiness of every country and state: and none
of their children are accounted illegitimate, even if the mother has
been purchased as a slave: for the children are supposed to belong
more particularly to the father, the mother being considered as little
more than a nurse. They feed their children very lightly, and at an
incredibly small expense: giving them a little meal of the coarsest
and cheapest kind, the pith of the papyrus, baked under the ashes,
with the roots and stalks of some marsh weeds, either raw, or boiled,
or roasted: and since most of them are brought up, on account of the
mildness of the climate, without shoes, and indeed without any other
clothing; the whole of the expense, incurred by the parents, till
they come to years of maturity, does not exceed about 20 drachmas, or
13 shillings, each. This frugality is the true reason of the great
populousness of Egypt, and of the magnificence of the public works,
with which the country is adorned.
§ 81. The children of the priests, however, are instructed in two
descriptions of literature; the sacred and the more general: and
they apply themselves with diligence to geometry and arithmetic: for
the river, changing the appearance of the country very materially
every year, is the cause of many and various discussions among the
neighbouring proprietors: and these it would be difficult for any
person to decide, without geometrical reasoning, founded upon actual
observation: and for arithmetic they have frequent occasion both in
their domestic economy, and in the application of geometrical theorems,
besides its utility in the cultivation of astronomical studies: for the
orders and motions of the stars are observed at least as industriously
by the Egyptians as by any other people whatever: and they keep
records of the motions of each for an incredible number of years;
the study of this science having been, from the remotest times, an
object of national ambition with them: they have also most punctually
observed the motions and periods and stations of the planets, as well
as the powers which they possess, with respect to the nativities
of animals, and what good or evil influences they exert: and they
frequently foretel what is to happen to a man throughout his life, and
not uncommonly predict a failure of crops, or an abundance, and the
occurrence of epidemic diseases among men or beasts: they foresee also
earthquakes and floods, and the appearances of comets, and a variety of
other things which appear impossible to the multitude. It is said also
that the Chaldaeans in Babylon are derived from an Egyptian colony,
and have acquired their reputation for astrology by means of the
information obtained from the priests in Egypt: but the generality of
the common people in Egypt learn only, from their parents or relations,
that which is required for the exercise of their peculiar professions,
as we have already seen: a few of them only teach them something of
literature, especially those who cultivate the more refined of the
arts: wrestling and music it is not their custom to practice: for they
conceive that, by exercise in the palaestra, young men acquire not
solid health, but a temporary increase of strength, which is by no
means free from danger; and music they esteem not only useless, but
even injurious, as rendering the minds of men effeminate....
§ 83. W. The customs of the Egyptians with regard to their sacred
animals are exceedingly surprising, and worthy to be examined; for
they venerate some of these animals in an extraordinary degree, not
only while they are living, but even after their death: for example,
cats, and ichneumons, and dogs; and besides these, the hawk and the
ibis; furthermore, wolves and crocodiles, and other beasts of prey....
Now each kind of the animals, that are held sacred, has a piece of
ground appropriated to them, affording a rent sufficient for the care
and the food that they require: the Egyptians are also in the habit of
making vows to some of their divinities on behalf of their children;
and if they recover from the disease, they shave off their hair, and
counterpoising it with silver or with gold, they give the money to
the priests, who have the care of these animals: the priests expend
this money in articles of food; and cutting up the meat for the hawks,
call out to them with a loud voice, and throw it to them as they fly
near: and for the oats and the ichneumons they soften the bread in
milk, and lay it before them with the proper calls and signals; or
give them some of the fishes of the Nile cut in pieces: and in the
same manner they furnish to every other kind of animal its appropriate
food: nor do they attempt to perform these services with any degree of
privacy, or to avoid the sight of the multitude; but on the contrary
they value themselves, as being the ministers of the highest honours
of the Gods, and travel through the cities and the country with their
appropriate standards: showing obviously at a distance to what deities
they are attached; and receiving the universal respect and homage of
those who meet them: and when any one of these animals dies, they roll
it up in fine linen, and bewail themselves, and beat their breasts,
as they carry it to be embalmed: and then they embalm it with resins,
and with substances fit to perfume and to preserve it, and bury it in
the sacred vaults: and if any one voluntarily destroys one of these
animals, he suffers death: with the exception of the cat and the
ibis; for if a person kills either of these, even involuntarily, he
infallibly loses his life, a multitude immediately collecting and
tearing him in pieces, often without any form of trial; so that, for
fear of such a calamity, if any one finds one of these animals dead,
he stands at a distance, and calls out with a loud voice, lamenting,
and protesting that the animal has been found dead. This superstitious
regard to the sacred animals is so thoroughly rooted in their minds,
and every one of them has his passions so strongly bent upon their
honour, that at the time when Ptolemy had not yet been called a king by
the Romans, and the people were using every possible effort to flatter
the Italians, who were visiting the country as strangers, and studious
to avoid every thing that could excite disputes, or lead to war, on
account of their dread of the consequences; a Roman having killed a
cat, and a crowd being collected about his residence, neither the
magistrates, who were sent by the king to appease their rage, nor the
general terror of the Roman name, were able to save the offender from
vengeance, although he had done it unintentionally: and this we relate,
not from the testimony of others, but from what we ourselves had an
opportunity of seeing, upon our journey to Egypt.
§ 84. If these things appear to many incredible and almost fabulous,
what remains to be told will be thought still more extraordinary. In
the time of a great famine in Egypt, it is related that many of the
inhabitants were compelled by hunger to devour each other, but that
nobody was even accused of having touched the flesh of any of the
sacred animals. Indeed whenever a dog has died in a house, the whole
of the persons, residing in it, shave their whole bodies, and go into
mourning: and what is still more remarkable, if there was either wine
or corn, or any other provisions, in the house, in which the animal
died, they would not dare to make any use of it whatever: and if they
lose these animals, while they are absent upon any military expedition,
they carry back their cats and their hawks in sorrow to Egypt: this
they will do even if they are themselves in want of the means of
returning with convenience. The manner in which they treat their Apis
in Memphis, and Mneuis in Heliopolis, and the Goat in Mendes, and the
Crocodile in the Lake Moeris, and the Lion that is kept at Leontopolis,
with many other things of the same kind, is easily narrated, but not
easily credited, except by an eye witness: for all these animals are
kept in sacred inclosures, and attended by many of the most respectable
persons, who supply them with the most delicate food; fine flour or
prepared corn, boiled in milk, and all kinds of cakes mixed with honey,
and geese, either boiled or roasted, are continually provided for
them; and for those which are carnivorous, various birds are caught,
and given to them alive: and their whole establishments are arranged
on a very expensive scale, for they are furnished with warm baths,
and anointed with the finest ointments, and the choicest perfumes
are burned before them: they have also rich carpets and ornamented
furniture, and care is taken to provide them with female companions of
the greatest beauty, who are also fed in the most luxurious manner:
and when they die, they are lamented like favourite children, and
are buried not according to the means of their attendants only, but
often much more magnificently: for after the death of Alexander, when
Ptolemy the son of Lagus had lately become King of Egypt, the Apis at
Memphis happened to die of old age; and the person, who had the care
of him, not only spent the whole of the allowances, which were very
considerable, upon the funeral, but borrowed also fifty talents, or
twelve thousand pounds, more of Ptolemy, to defray the expense: and
within our own memory it has happened, that the guardians of these
animals have spent not less than a hundred talents at their funeral.
§ 85. Besides these ceremonies, there are many other customs at the
death of the sacred bull named Apis; for after he has been splendidly
interred, the priests seek for a calf who is marked as nearly as
possible in the same manner: and having found him, they release the
public from their mourning, and the appointed persons carry the calf
first to Nilopolis, where they feed him for forty days; and then
embarking him on board of a yacht with a gilded cabin, they conduct him
as a god to the sacred grove of Vulcan, at Memphis. In these forty days
only, he is allowed to be seen by women, who perform certain evolutions
before him, which are probably more amusing to his attendants than to
himself: and at no other time are women allowed to see him. The reason
of the honours paid to him is said to be, that at the death of Osiris,
his soul transmigrated into this animal, and that it is continually
transferred to his successors, when he dies: others however inform us,
that when Osiris was killed by Typhon, his limbs were collected by
Isis, and thrown into a wooden cow, covered with cotton cloths, and
that the city was thence called Busiris. [It seems however that this
must have been a Grecian fiction, for in Egyptian BUSIRIS must have
meant the _tomb_ of Osiris, and not the _cow_.] For the deification
of the other animals, as well as of their kings, a variety of reasons
are assigned[; all as uninteresting as they are absurd; except the
story of a hawk having brought, to the priest at Thebes, a book of laws
and religious observances, tied up with purple; and that hence the
Hierogrammates, or sacred scribes, were distinguished by a purple sash,
and by wearing a hawk’s feather on their heads: that the crocodile
is said to be venerated as the watchman of the Nile, preventing the
predatory excursions, which would be undertaken, if the thieves could
swim across the river in safety; and that the diversity of deities,
worshipped in neighbouring parts of the country, is supposed by some to
have originated in a political contrivance of the government, to keep
the people in subjection, by preventing their too intimate union].
§ 91. The customs of the Egyptians, with regard to their funerals,
are not the least wonderful of their peculiar institutions. For when
any one dies among them, the whole of his family and all his friends
cover their heads with clay, and go about the city lamenting, until the
body is buried; partaking neither of baths, nor of wine, nor of any
abundant food, nor putting on rich clothing. The funerals are conducted
upon three different scales, the most expensive, the moderate, and
the humblest: the first costs a talent of silver [£250]; the second
twenty minae [£60]; the third is extremely cheap. Now the persons, that
undertake this office, are artists, who exercise the profession from
generation to generation: and they bring to the friends of the deceased
an estimate of the expenses of the funeral, and ask them in what manner
they wish that it should be performed. When the agreement is made, the
operations are commenced by the proper persons: and first the scribe
marks out how the dissection is to be performed, upon the left side of
the body; the dissector then cuts it with a sharp Ethiopian stone, and
immediately betakes himself to flight, and is pursued and beaten, as
if he had committed an inhuman action; the embalmers, on the contrary,
are held in all honour and respect, associating with the priests, and
having free access to the temples, as sacred persons: these embalmers
commence their office by removing such parts as are most susceptible
of decay, and, washing the rest with palm wine, and spices, apply
various kinds of resins for more than thirty days, and then impregnate
the whole with myrrh and cinnamon, and other substances calculated not
only to preserve it, but to communicate to it an agreeable smell: and
finally they return the body to the relations, so perfectly preserved
in every part, that even the hairs of the eyelids and eyebrows remain
undisturbed, and the whole appearance of the person is unchanged, and
the features are capable of being recognised: so that the Egyptians,
very commonly, keeping the bodies of their ancestors in magnificent
apartments, are able to see the very faces of those, who have died
several generations before them: each of whom being distinguishable,
not only by his height, and the outline of his figure, but even by the
character of his countenance, they enjoy a wonderful gratification, as
if they lived in the society of those whom they see before them. [It is
indeed related by Damascenus, Orat. 1, that they placed them on seats
at their tables, as if they wished to eat and drink in their society:
and Lucian, in his Essay on Grief, declares, that he has been an eye
witness of the custom. Wessel. It is not however probable that such
a practice should have been continued in the times of the Ptolemies:
although Lucian, who had an appointment in Egypt under Marcus Aurelius,
may be considered as pretty good authority, when he speaks seriously.]
§ 92. But when the body is about to be finally buried, the relations
announce the appointed day to the judges, and to all the friends of the
deceased, declaring that he is about to pass the lake of the Nome: and
forty two judges being collected, and placed in a semicircle, which is
prepared beyond the lake, a boat is brought up, which had been provided
for the purpose, conducted by a boatman who is called, in their
language, Charon, [the Silent]: whence they say that Orpheus, in former
times, having travelled into Egypt, and seen this custom, invented the
fable of Hades, partly from imitating what he saw, and partly from his
own imagination: but when the boat was brought into the lake, before
the coffin with the dead body was put on board, it was lawful, for any
person who thought proper, to bring forwards his accusation against
the deceased: and if he showed that the deceased had led an evil life,
the judges declared accordingly, and the body was deprived of the
accustomed sepulture: but if the accuser failed of establishing what
he advanced, he was subject to very heavy penalties. When there had
been no accuser, or when the accusation had been repelled as unjust,
the relations, laying aside their mourning, pronounced encomiums on
the deceased: not enlarging upon his descent, as is usual among the
Greeks, for they hold that all the Egyptians are equally noble: but
relating his earliest education and the course of his studies, and
then his piety and justice in manhood, and his temperance, and the
other virtues that he possessed, they supplicated the infernal deities
to receive him as a companion of the pious: the multitude in the mean
time applauded, and joined in extolling the glory of the deceased, as
being about to remain to eternity with the virtuous in the regions of
Hades. The body is then placed, by those who have family catacombs
already prepared, in the compartment allotted to it: those who are not
possessed of catacombs construct a new apartment for the purpose, in
their own houses, and set the coffin upright against the firmest of
the walls. Those who are debarred of the rites of burial, on account
of the accusation which has been brought forwards against them, or on
account of debts which they have contracted, are placed in their own
houses: and then, if their children’s children happen to be prosperous,
they are frequently released from the impediments of their creditors
and their accusers, and at length obtain the ceremony of a magnificent
funeral.
§ 93. It is most solemnly established in Egypt, to pay a more marked
respect to their parents and their ancestors, when they are removed to
their everlasting habitations. It is also usual among them to deposit
the bodies of their deceased parents, as pledges for the payment of
money that they borrow: and those who do not redeem these pledges are
subject to the heaviest disgrace, and are deprived of burial after
their death....
§ 96. We must now enumerate such of the Greeks as have visited Egypt in
ancient times, for the acquirement of knowledge and wisdom. The priests
of the Egyptians relate, from the records preserved in their sacred
volumes, that they were visited by Orpheus and Musaeus, and Melampus
and Daedalus; by Homer, the poet, and Lycurgus, the Spartan: by Solon,
the Athenian, and Plato, the philosopher: and that Pythagoras, of
Samos, also came there, and the mathematician Eudoxus: and Democritus
of Abdera, and Oenopides of Chius. All these they identify by some
distinct marks, either portraits, or appellations derived from their
residences or their works: and they produce evidence from the branches
of knowledge, which they respectively cultivated, that they had only
borrowed, from the Egyptians, all that acquired them the admiration
of their countrymen. That Orpheus had learned of them the greatest
part of his mystical ceremonies, and the orgies that celebrate the
wanderings [of Ceres], and the mythology of the shades below: for that
the rites of Osiris and of Bacchus are the same: and those of Isis
extremely resemble those of Ceres, with the change of name only: and
the punishments of the impious in Tartarus, and the Elysian plains of
the virtuous, and the common imagery of fiction, were all copied from
the ceremonies of the Egyptian funerals: that Hermes, the conductor
of souls, was, according to the old institution of Egypt, to convey
the body of Apis to an appointed place, where it was received by a
man wearing the mask of Cerberus, [probably the _Cteristes_ of the
temporary nomenclature;] and that Orpheus having related this among the
Greeks, the fable was adopted by Homer, who makes the Cyllenian Hermes
call forth the souls of the suitors, holding his staff in his hand:
Cyllenius now to Pluto’s dreary reign
Conveys the dead, a lamentable train!
The golden wand that causes sleep to fly,
Or in soft slumber seals the wakeful eye,
That drives the ghosts to realms of night or day,
Points out the long, uncomfortable way.
Trembling the spectres glide, and plaintive vent
Thin, hollow screams, along the deep descent ...
And now they reached the Earth’s remotest ends.
And now the gates where evening Sol descends,
And Leucas’ rock, and Ocean’s utmost streams,
And now pervade the dusky land of dreams;
And rest at last where souls unbodied dwell
In ever flowery meads of Asphodel,
The empty forms of men inhabit there,
Impassive semblance, images of air!
POPE.
The river he calls Ocean, as they say, because the Egyptians call the
Nile Oceanus in their own language [??]: the gates of the Sun are
derived from Heliopolis: and the meadow is so called, from the lake
which is named Acherusian, and which is near Memphis, being surrounded
by beautiful meadows, and canals, with lotus and flowering rushes: and
that it is consistent with the imitation to make the deceased inhabit
these places: because the greater number and the most considerable
of the Egyptian catacombs are there, the bodies being ferried over
the river and the Acherusian lake, and the mummies being deposited in
the catacombs there situated. And the rest of the Grecian mythology
respecting Hades agrees also with the present practice in Egypt: the
boat which carries over the bodies, and is called BARIS; and the penny
that is given for the fare to the boatman, who is called CHARON in the
language of the country. They say there is also, in the neighbourhood
of the same place, a temple of the nocturnal Hecate, with the gates
of Cocytus and of Lethe, fastened with brazen bars; and that there
are, besides, other gates of Truth; and near them a figure of Justice
without a head.
§ 97. In the city of Acanthae, on the Libyan side of the Nile, 120
stadia from Memphis, they say there is a barrel pierced with holes,
to which 360 of the priests carry water from the Nile: and that a
mystery is acted in an assembly in that neighbourhood, in which a
man is made to twist one end of a long rope, while other persons
untwist the other end; an allusion to which has become proverbial
in Greece. Melampus, they say, brought from Egypt the mysteries of
Bacchus, and the stories of Saturn, and the battles of the Titans:
and Daedalus imitated the Egyptian labyrinth, in that which he built
for king Minos: the Egyptian labyrinth having been constructed by
Mendes, or by Marus, an ancient king, many years before his time; and
that the style of the ancient statues in Egypt is the same with that
of the statues sculptured in Greece: but that the very fine Propylon
of Vulcan in Memphis was the work of Daedalus as an architect: and
that being admired for this work, he had the honour of obtaining a
place, in the same temple, for a wooden statue of himself, which was
the work of his own hands: that his talents and inventive faculties
at last acquired him even divine honours, and that there is to this
day a temple of Daedalus, on one of the islands near Memphis, which
is honoured by the neighbouring inhabitants. That Homer had been in
Egypt, they argue, among other reasons, from the administration of the
Nepenthes by Helen to Telemachus, which occasioned a forgetfulness
of the evils that had befallen him: for he seems to have perfectly
understood the nature of this remedy, which he says Helen received in
the Egyptian Thebes, of Polydamne the wife of Thon, for that the women
of the same place still make use of it, for a similar purpose, and
it is only among the Diospolitan women, that it is known as a remedy
for anger and for sorrow, and that Diospolis is the Thebes of the
ancients; and that Venus is called golden by its inhabitants from an
old tradition, and that there is a field belonging to the golden Venus
in the neighbourhood of Momemphis: and that he has copied from them the
history of the embraces of Jupiter and Juno, and of Jove’s absence in
Ethiopia: for that they have an annual ceremony, in which the temple
or shrine of Jupiter is carried across the river into Libya, and is
brought back in a few days, as if the deity returned from Ethiopia:
and that the embraces of the deities are found (§ 346) in their
assemblies, when both of their shrines are carried to a mountain which
is strewed by the priest with flowers. [Analogies all too slight to be
admitted as any thing like evidence.]
§ 98. They say also that Lycurgus and Plato and Solon transferred many
of the customs of the Egyptians into their own establishments. And
that Pythagoras learned in Egypt both his divinity and his geometrical
theorems, and his arithmetic, and the transmigration of the soul into
all kinds of animals. They believe too that Democritus spent five years
among them, and was taught by them many things relating to astronomy.
And that Oenopides [of Chius] in the same way, by living with their
priests and astronomers, learned of them, among many other things,
the position of the sun’s orbit, that it moved obliquely, and in a
direction contrary to that of the other stars. And that Eudoxus, in the
same manner, gained great reputation among his countrymen, by having
studied astronomy among them, and made known many of their useful
discoveries among the Greeks: and the most celebrated of the ancient
statuaries had lived among them, Telecles and Theodorus, the sons of
Rhoecus, who made for the Samians the image of the Pythian Apollo:
for it is said that one half of the image was executed in Samos by
Telecles, and the other half at Ephesus by his brother Theodorus; and
that both parts, when put together, agreed so well with each other, as
to appear precisely as if they had been the work of one person: and
that this kind of workmanship was never practised by the Greeks, but
was very common among the Egyptians: for that with them it was not
usual to judge of the symmetry of a figure by the sight of the whole,
as with the Greeks; but that when the stones were quarried and properly
cut out, they then proceeded by proportion from the smallest to the
greatest; and dividing the whole fabric of the body into one and twenty
parts, and a quarter, they arranged the whole symmetry, accordingly:
and hence, when their artists consult with each other about the
magnitude of any figure, although separated from each other, they still
make the results agree so well, that this peculiarity of their practice
excites the greatest astonishment: and that the image in Samos,
according to this refinement of the Egyptians, being divided from
the summit of the head, and as far as the middle, is still perfectly
consistent with itself, and in all parts alike: they also observe
that it extremely resembles the Egyptian figures as having the hands
stretched out, and the legs separated, as in walking. And enough has
now been said of what is most celebrated and remarkable in the country
and customs of the Egyptians: [the greater part of which is of much
more value, as occasionally furnishing anecdotes from the arguments
that were advanced by the priests in their discussions, than as by any
means rendered fully credible by the application of these anecdotes.]
The process of embalming is described very nearly in the same manner
by Herodotus. “Their customs,” he says, Book II. §. 85, “relating to
mourning and to funerals are these. When any person of consequence
dies, the females of his family cover their heads and faces with clay,
and leaving the dead body at home, wander through the city, beating
themselves, wearing a close girdle, and having their bosoms bare,
accompanied by all their intimate friends: the men also make similar
lamentations in a separate company: they then proceed to embalm the
body.
“(86). This service is performed by persons appointed to exercise the
art, as their business: and when a dead body is brought to them, they
show their patterns of mummies in wood, imitated by sculpture: and the
most elaborate of these they say belongs to the character of [Osiris]
one, whose name I do not think it pious to mention on such an occasion:
the second, that they show, is simpler and less costly: the third,
the cheapest of all: and having shown them these, they inquire in
which way the service shall be performed: the parties then make their
agreement, and the body is left for preparation. The interior soft
parts being removed both from the head and from the trunk, the cavities
are washed with palm wine and fragrant gums, and partly filled up with
myrrh and cassia and other spices; the whole is then steeped in a
solution of soda for seventy days, which is the longest time permitted;
and then, having been washed, the body is rolled up with bandages
of cotton cloth, being first smeared with gum, instead of glue. The
relations then, receiving the body, procure a wooden case for it in a
human shape, and inclose the dead body in it: and when thus inclosed,
they treasure it up in an appropriate building or apartment, placing
it upright against the wall. And this is the most expensive mode of
preparation.
“(87). For those who prefer the middle class, in order to avoid
expense, the process is simplified by omitting the actual removal of
the interior parts, and introducing a corrosive liquid to melt them
down: the soda consumes the flesh, so that skin and bone only is left,
when the body is restored to the friends.
“(88). The third and simplest process is merely to cleanse the body
well, within and without, by means of some vegetable decoctions, and to
keep it in the alkaline solution for the seventy days, without further
precautions.”
It is difficult to say, according to these statements, what part of the
ceremony might be considered as actually constituting the burial. But
we find in a Greek inscription on the coffin of a mummy, found by Mr.
Grey, which he has had the goodness to communicate to me, “The tomb of
Tphuto (or Tphus) the daughter of Heracléus Soter and Sarapus. She was
born in the Vth year of Adrian our Lord, the 2d Athyr [III], and died
in the XIth year, Tybi [V] the 10th. Aged six years, two months, and
eight days. She was buried in the XIIth year, the 12th of Athyr.” So
that here the burial took place a full year after the death; and there
was time enough for every imaginable luxury of the embalmer’s art.
The coffin is not, in this instance, made in imitation “of the human
form,” as the coffins of the more ancient mummies, but it is merely an
oblong trunk, with an arched cover, and a pillar rising a little at
each angle. We have no precise account of the liturgies, or services,
performed to these canonized personages, but they were probably some
forms of adoration, combined with offerings of flowers and fruit, which
were placed before or beside them, and it is well known that some corn
and some cakes have been found still standing in baskets, in some of
the catacombs lately opened; and that specimens of them have been
brought to the British Museum.
To administer these rites, and to renew these offerings, at least as
often as could be required, was apparently the duty of the priests,
and they were no doubt amply remunerated for their attentions, by the
families of the deceased, in the form of the “collections,” which are
the objects of sale in Mr. Grey’s papyrus. The deed was registered 19
days after its execution.