CHAPTER V.

FROM SESOSTRIS TO SETHON.

I shall next mention king Sesostris. The priests said that he was the first who, setting out in ships of war from the Arabian Gulf, subdued those nations that dwell by the Red Sea.

There are also in Ionia two images of this king, carved on rocks, one on the way from Ephesia to Phocæa, the other from Sardis to Smyrna. In both places a man is carved, four cubits and a half high, holding a spear in his right hand, and a bow in his left, and the rest of his equipment in unison, for it is partly Egyptian and partly Ethiopian; from one shoulder to the other across the breast extend sacred Egyptian characters engraved, which have the following meaning: "I ACQUIRED THIS REGION BY MY OWN SHOULDERS."

The priests tell a yarn of this Egyptian Sesostris, that returning and bringing with him many men from the nations whose territories he had subdued, when he arrived at the Pelusian Daphnæ, his brother, to whom he had committed the government of Egypt, invited him to an entertainment, and his sons with him, and caused wood to be piled up round the house and set on fire: but that Sesostris, being informed of this, immediately consulted with his wife, for he had taken his wife with him; she advised him to extend two of his six sons across the fire, and form a bridge over the burning mass, and that the rest should step on them and make their escape. Sesostris did so, and two of his sons were in this manner burned to death, but the rest, together with their father, were saved. Sesostris having returned to Egypt, and taken revenge on his brother, employed the multitude of prisoners whom he brought from the countries he had subdued in many remarkable works: these were the men who drew the huge stones which, in the time of this king, were conveyed to the temple of Vulcan; they, too, were compelled to dig all the canals now seen in Egypt; and thus by their involuntary labor made Egypt, which before was throughout practicable for horses and carriages, unfit for these purposes. But the king intersected the country with this network of canals for the reason that such of the Egyptians as occupied the inland cities, being in want of water when the river receded, were forced to use a brackish beverage unfit to drink, which they drew from wells. They said also that this king divided the country amongst all the Egyptians, giving an equal square allotment to each; and thence drew his revenues by requiring them to pay a fixed tax every year; if the river happened to take away a part of any one's allotment, he was to come to him and make known what had happened; whereupon the king sent persons to inspect and measure how much the land was diminished, that in future he might pay a proportionate part of the appointed tax. Land-measuring appears to me to have had its beginning from this act, and to have passed over into Greece; for the pole [12] and the sundial, and the division of the day into twelve parts, the Greeks learned from the Babylonians. This king was the only Egyptian that ever ruled over Ethiopia; he left as memorials in front of Vulcan's temple statues of stone: two of thirty cubits, of himself and his wife; and four, each of twenty cubits, of his sons. A long time after, the priest of Vulcan would not suffer Darius the Persian to place his statue before them, saying, "that deeds had not been achieved by him equal to those of Sesostris the Egyptian: for Sesostris had subdued other nations, not fewer than Darius had done, and the Scythians besides; but that Darius was not able to conquer the Scythians; wherefore it was not right for one who had not surpassed him in achievements to place his statue before his offerings." They relate, however, that Darius pardoned these observations.

After the death of Sesostris, his son Pheron succeeded to the kingdom; he undertook no military expedition, and happened to become blind through the following occurrence: the river having risen to a very great height for that time, eighteen cubits, it overflowed the fields, a storm of wind arose, and the river was tossed about in waves; whereupon they say that the king with great arrogance laid hold of a javelin, and threw it into the midst of the eddies of the river; and that immediately afterward he was seized with a pain in his eyes, and became blind. He continued blind for ten years; but in the eleventh, having escaped from this calamity, he dedicated offerings throughout all the celebrated temples, the most worthy of mention being two stone obelisks to the temple of the sun, each consisting of a single block of granite, and each a hundred cubits in length and eight cubits in breadth.

A native of Memphis succeeded him in the kingdom, whose name in the Grecian language is Proteus; there is to this day an enclosure sacred to him at Memphis, which is very beautiful and richly adorned, situated to the south side of the temple of Vulcan. The priests told me that when Paris had carried Helen off from Sparta, violent winds drove him out of his course in the Ægean into the Egyptian Sea, and from there (for the gale did not abate) he came to Egypt, and in Egypt to that which is now called the Canopic mouth of the Nile.

And Homer appears to me to have heard this relation; but as it was not so well suited to epic poetry as the other which he has made use of, he rejected it. He has told in the Iliad the wanderings of Paris; how, while he was carrying off Helen, he was driven out of his course, and wandered to other places, and how he arrived at Sidon of Phœnicia; and in the exploits of Diomede, his verses are as follows: "Where were the variegated robes, works of Sidonian women, which god-like Paris himself brought from Sidon, sailing over the wide sea, along the course by which he conveyed high-born Helen."[13] He mentions it also in the Odyssey, in the following lines: "Such well-chosen drugs had the daughter of Jove, of excellent quality, which Polydamna gave her, the Egyptian wife of Thonis, where the fruitful earth produces many drugs, many excellent when mixed, and many noxious."[14] Menelaus also says the following to Telemachus: "The gods detained me in Egypt, though anxious to return hither, because I did not offer perfect hecatombs to them."[15] He shows in these verses, that he was acquainted with the wandering of Paris in Egypt; for Syria borders on Egypt, and the Phœnicians, to whom Sidon belongs, inhabit Syria. From these verses, and this first passage especially, it is clear that Homer was not the author of the Cyprian verses, but some other person. For in the Cyprian verses it is said, that Paris reached Ilium from Sparta on the third day, when he carried off Helen, having met with a favorable wind and a smooth sea; whereas Homer in the Iliad says that he wandered far while taking her with him.

Rhampsinitus succeeded Proteus in the kingdom: He left as a monument the portico of the temple of Vulcan, fronting to the west; and erected two statues before the portico, twenty-five cubits high. Of these, the one standing to the north the Egyptians call Summer; and that to the south, Winter: and the one that they call Summer, they worship and do honor to; but the one called Winter, they treat in a quite contrary way.

This king, they said, possessed a great quantity of money, such as no one of the succeeding kings was able to attain. Wishing to treasure up his wealth in safety, he built a chamber of stone, one of the walls of which adjoined the outside of the palace. But the builder, forming a plan against it, devised the following contrivance; he fitted one of the stones so that it might be easily taken out by two men, or even one. When the chamber was finished, the king laid up his treasures in it; in the course of time the builder, finding his end approaching, called his two sons to him, and described to them how he had provided when he was building the king's treasury that they might have abundant sustenance; and having clearly explained to them every thing relating to the removal of the stone, he gave them its dimensions, and told them, if they would observe his instructions, they would be stewards of the king's riches. He died, and the sons were not long in applying themselves to the work; coming by night to the palace, they found the stone in the building, easily removed it, and carried off a great quantity of treasure. When the king happened to open the chamber, he was astonished at seeing the vessels deficient in treasure; but was not able to accuse any one, as the seals were unbroken, and the chamber well secured. When on opening it two or three times, the treasures were always evidently diminished (for the thieves did not cease plundering), he adopted the following plan: he ordered traps to be made, and placed them round the vessels in which the treasures were. But when the thieves came as before, and one of them had entered, as soon as he went near a vessel, he was straightway caught in the trap; perceiving, therefore, in what a predicament he was, he immediately called to his brother, and told him what had happened, and bade him enter as quick as possible, and cut off his head, lest, if he was seen and recognized, he should ruin him also: the other thought that he spoke well, and did as he was advised; then, having fitted in the stone, he returned home, taking with him his brother's head. When day came, the king entered the chamber, and was astonished at seeing the body of the thief in the trap without the head, but the chamber secure, and without any means of entrance or exit. In this perplexity he contrived another plan: he hung up the body of the thief on a public wall, and having placed sentinels there, ordered them to seize and bring before him whomsoever they should see weeping or expressing commiseration at the spectacle. The mother was greatly grieved at the body being suspended, and coming to words with her surviving son, commanded him, by any means he could, to contrive how he might take down and bring away the corpse of his brother; and if he should neglect to do so, she threatened to go to the king, and inform him that he had the treasures. Having got some asses, and filled some skins with wine, he put them on the asses, and then drove them along; but when he came near the sentinels that guarded the suspended corpse, he drew out two or three of the necks of the skins that hung down, and loosened them; and, as the wine ran out, he beat his head, and cried out aloud, as if he knew not to which of the asses he should turn first. The sentinels, when they saw wine flowing in abundance, ran into the road, with vessels in their hands, caught the wine that was being spilt, thinking it all their own gain; but the man, feigning anger, railed bitterly against them all; however, as the sentinels soothed him, he at length pretended to be pacified; and at last drove his asses out of the road, and set them to rights again. When more conversation passed, and one of the sentinels joked with him and set him laughing, he gave them another of the skins; and they, just as they were, lay down and set to to drink, and invited him to stay and drink with them. He was persuaded, and remained with them; and as they treated him kindly during the drinking, he gave them another of the skins; and the sentinels, having taken very copious draughts, became royally drunk, and, overpowered by the wine, fell asleep on the spot. Then he took down the body of his brother, and having by way of insult shaved the right cheeks of all the sentinels, laid the corpse on the asses, and drove home, having performed his mother's injunctions. The king, upon being informed that the body of the thief had been stolen, was exceedingly indignant, but being unable by any means to find out the contriver of this artifice, he grew so astonished at the shrewdness and daring of the man, that at last, sending throughout all the cities, he caused a proclamation to be made, offering a free pardon, and promising great reward to the man, if he would discover himself. The thief, relying on this promise, went to the king's palace; and Rhampsinitus greatly admired him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, accounting him the most knowing of all men; for while the Egyptians were superior to all others, he was superior to the Egyptians.

After this, they said that this king descended alive into the place which the Greeks call Hades, and there played at dice with Ceres, and sometimes won, and other times lost; and that he came up again and brought with him as a present from her a napkin of gold. Any person to whom such things appear credible may adopt the accounts given by the Egyptians; it is my object, however, throughout the whole history, to write what I hear from each people. The Egyptians say that Ceres and Bacchus hold the chief sway in the infernal regions; and the Egyptians were also the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal, and that when the body perishes the soul enters into some other animal, constantly springing into existence; and when it has passed through the different kinds of terrestrial, marine, and aërial beings, it again enters into the body of a man that is born; and that this revolution is made in three thousand years.

Now, they told me that down to the reign of Rhampsinitus there was a perfect distribution of justice, and that all Egypt was in a high state of prosperity; but that after him Cheops, coming to reign over them, plunged into every kind of wickedness. For, having shut up all the temples, he first of all forbade them to offer sacrifice, and afterward ordered all the Egyptians to work for him; some, accordingly, were appointed to draw stones from the quarries in the Arabian mountain down to the Nile, others he ordered to receive the stones when transported in vessels across the river, and to drag them to the mountain called the Libyan. And they worked to the number of a hundred thousand men at a time, each party during three months. The time during which the people were thus harassed by toil lasted ten years on the road which they constructed, along which they drew the stones, a work, in my opinion, not much less than the pyramid: for its length is five stades, and its width ten orgyæ, and its height, where it is the highest, eight orgyæ; and it is of polished stone, with figures carved on it: ten years, then, were expended on this road, and in forming the subterraneous apartments on the hill, on which the pyramids stand, which he had made as a burial vault for himself, in an island, formed by draining a canal from the Nile. Twenty years were spent in erecting the pyramid itself: of this, which is square, each face is eight plethra, and the height is the same; it is composed of polished stones, and joined with the greatest exactness; none of the stones are less than thirty feet in length. This pyramid was built in the form of steps, which some call crosssæ, others bomides. When they had first built it in this manner, they raised the stones for covering the surface by machines made of short pieces of wood: having lifted them from the ground to the first range of steps, when the stone arrived there it was put on another machine that stood ready on the first range; from this it was drawn to the second range on another machine; for the machines were equal in number to the ranges of steps; or they removed the machine, which was only one, and portable, to each range in succession, whenever they wished to raise the stone higher; for I should relate it in both ways, as it was related to me. The highest parts of it were first finished, and last of all the parts on the ground. On the pyramid is shown an inscription, in Egyptian characters, how much was expended in radishes, onions, and garlic for the workmen; which the interpreter, as I well remember, reading the inscription, told me amounted to one thousand six hundred talents of silver. If this be really the case, how much more was probably expended in iron tools, in bread, and in clothes for the laborers, since they occupied in building the works the time which I mentioned, and no short time besides, as I think, in cutting and drawing the stones, and in forming the subterraneous excavation. It is related that Cheops in his cruelty subjected his daughter to every sort of disgrace, but she contrived to leave a monument of herself, and asked every one that she met to give her a stone toward the edifice she designed: of these stones they said the pyramid was built that stands in the middle of the three, before the great pyramid, each side of which is a plethron and a half in length. The Egyptians say that this Cheops reigned fifty years; and when he died, his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom; and he followed the same practices as the other, both in other respects, and in building a pyramid. This does not come up to the dimensions of his brother's, for I myself measured them; nor has it subterraneous chambers; nor does a channel from the Nile flow to it, as to the other; but this flows through an artificial aqueduct round an island within, in which they say the body of Cheops is laid. Having laid the first course of variegated Ethiopian stones, less in height than the other by forty feet, he built it near the large pyramid. They both stand on the same hill, which is about a hundred feet high. Chephren, they said, reigned fifty-six years. Thus one hundred and six years are reckoned, during which the Egyptians suffered all kinds of calamities, and for this length of time the temples were never opened. From the hatred they bear them the Egyptians are not very willing to mention their names; but call the pyramids after Philition, a shepherd, who at that time kept his cattle in those parts.

They said that after him, Mycerinus, son of Cheops, reigned over Egypt; that the conduct of his father was displeasing to him; and that he opened the temples, and permitted the people, who were worn down to the last extremity, to return to their employments, and to sacrifices; and that he made the most just decisions of all their kings. On this account, of all the kings that ever reigned in Egypt, they praise him most, for he both judged well in other respects, and moreover, when any man complained of his decision, he used to make him some present out of his own treasury and pacify his anger. To this beneficent Mycerinus, the beginning of misfortunes was the death of his daughter, who was his only child; whereupon he, extremely afflicted, and wishing to bury her in a more costly manner than usual, caused a hollow wooden image of a cow to be made and covered with gold, into which he put the body of his deceased daughter. This cow was not interred in the ground, but even in my time was exposed to view in the city of Sais, placed in the royal palace, in a richly furnished chamber. They burn near it all kinds of aromatics every day, and a lamp is kept burning by it throughout each night.

The cow is covered with a purple cloth, except the head and the neck, which are overlaid with very thick gold; and the orb of the sun imitated in gold is placed between the horns. The cow is kneeling; in size equal to a large, living cow.

After the loss of his daughter, a second calamity befell this king: an oracle reached him from the city of Buto, importing, "that he had no more than six years to live, and should die in the seventh." Thinking this very hard, he sent a reproachful message to the god, complaining, "that his father and uncle, who had shut up the temples, and paid no regard to the gods, and moreover had oppressed men, had lived long; whereas he who was religious must die so soon." But a second message came to him from the oracle, stating, "that for this very reason his life was shortened, because he had not done what he ought to have done; for it was needful that Egypt should be afflicted during one hundred and fifty years; and the two who were kings before him understood this, but he did not." When Mycerinus heard this, and saw that this sentence was now pronounced against him, he ordered a great number of lamps to be made, which were lighted whenever night came on, and he drank and enjoyed himself, never ceasing night or day, roving about the marshes and groves, wherever he could hear of places most suited for pleasure. He had recourse to this artifice for the purpose of convicting the oracle of falsehood, that by turning the nights into days, he might have twelve years instead of six.

This king also left a pyramid, but much smaller than that of his father, being on each side twenty feet short of three plethra; it is quadrangular, and built half way up of Ethiopian stone.

After Mycerinus, the priests said, that Asychis became king of Egypt, and that he built the eastern portico to the temple of Vulcan, which is by far the largest and most beautiful in its wealth of sculptured figures and infinite variety of architecture. This king, being desirous of surpassing his predecessors, left a pyramid, as a memorial, made of bricks; on which is an inscription carved on stone, in the following words: "Do not despise me in comparison with the pyramids of stone, for I excel them as much as Jupiter, the other gods. For by plunging a pole into a lake, and collecting the mire that stuck to the pole, men made bricks, and in this manner built me."

After him there reigned a blind man of the city of Anysis, whose name was Anysis. During his reign, the Ethiopians and their king, Sabacon, invaded Egypt with a large force; whereupon this blind king fled to the fens; and the Ethiopian reigned over Egypt for fifty years, during which time he performed the following actions: When any Egyptians committed any crime, he would not have any of them put to death, but passed sentence upon each according to the magnitude of his offence, enjoining them to heap up mounds of earth, each offender against his own city, and by this means the cities were made much higher; for first of all they had been raised considerably by those who dug the canals in the time of king Sesostris. Although other cities in Egypt were carried to a great height, in my opinion the greatest mounds were thrown up about the city of Bubastis, in which is a beautiful temple of Bubastis corresponding to the Grecian Diana. Her sacred precinct is thus situated: all except the entrance is an island; for two canals from the Nile extend to it, not mingling with each other, but each reaches as far as the entrance to the precinct, one flowing round it on one side, the other on the other. Each is a hundred feet broad, and shaded with trees. The portico is ten orgyæ in height, and is adorned with figures six cubits high, that are deserving of notice. This precinct, being in the middle of the city, is visible on every side to a person going round it; for while the city has been mounded up to a considerable height, the temple has not been moved, so that it is conspicuous as it was originally built. A wall sculptured with figures runs round it; and within is a grove of lofty trees, planted round a large temple in which the image is placed. The width and length of the precinct is each way a stade. Along the entrance is a road paved with stone, four plethra in width and about three stades in length, leading through the square eastward toward the temple of Mercury; on each side of the road grow trees of enormous height. They told me that the final departure of the Ethiopian occurred in the following manner: it appeared to him in a vision that a man, standing by him, advised him to assemble all the priests in Egypt, and to cut them in two down the middle; but he, fearing that the gods held out this as a pretext to him, in order that he, having been guilty of impiety in reference to sacred things, might draw down some evil on himself from gods or from men, would not do so; but as the time had expired during which it was foretold that he should reign over Egypt, he departed hastily from the country. When Sabacon of his own accord had departed from Egypt, the blind king resumed the government, having returned from the fens, where he had lived fifty years, on an island formed of ashes and earth. For when any of the Egyptians came to him bringing provisions, as they were severally ordered to do unknown to the Ethiopian, he bade them bring some ashes also as a present. The kings who preceded Amyrtæus were unable, for more than seven hundred years, to find out where this island was. It was called Elbo, and was about ten stades square.

After him reigned a priest of Vulcan, whose name was Sethon: he held in no account the military caste of the Egyptians, as not having need of their services; and accordingly, among other indignities, he took away their lands; to each of whom, under former kings, twelve chosen acres had been assigned. After this, when Sennacherib, king of the Arabians and Assyrians, marched a large army against Egypt, the Egyptian warriors refused to assist him; and the priest, being reduced to a strait, entered the temple, and bewailed before the image the calamities he was in danger of suffering. While he was lamenting, sleep fell upon him, and it appeared to him in a vision, that the god stood by and encouraged him, assuring him that he should suffer nothing disagreeable in meeting the Arabian army, for he would himself send assistants to him. Confiding in this vision, he took with him such of the Egyptians as were willing to follow him, and encamped in Pelusium, at the entrance into Egypt; but none of the military caste followed him, only tradesmen, mechanics, and sutlers. When they arrived there, a number of field mice, pouring in upon their enemies, devoured their quivers and their bows, and the handles of their shields; so that on the next day, when they fled bereft of their arms, many of them fell. And to this day, a stone statue of this king stands in the temple of Vulcan, with a mouse in his hand, and an inscription to the following effect: "Whoever looks on me, let him revere the gods."

The Egyptians and the priests show that from the first king to this priest of Vulcan who last reigned, were three hundred and forty-one generations of men; and the same number of chief priests and kings. Now, three hundred generations are equal to ten thousand years, for three generations of men are one hundred years; and the forty-one remaining generations that were over the three hundred, make one thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus, they say, in eleven thousand three hundred and forty years, no god has assumed the form of a man. They relate that during this time the sun has four times risen out of his usual quarter, and that he has twice risen where he now sets, and twice set where he now rises; yet, that no change in the things in Egypt was occasioned by this, either in respect to the productions of the earth or the river, or to diseases or deaths.