CHAPTER XII.

Twentieth and Twenty-first Dynasties—The Ramessidæ and the Priest-Kings.

(_Circa_ 1200-970 B.C.)

It may be doubtful whether Rameses III., son of the Setnekht who pacified Egypt and restored order, was connected by blood with the preceding dynasties. He bore the name of an illustrious predecessor, however, and throughout his reign he appears to have made it his aim to emulate the great Rameses. His first task was to reorganise the public service, which had fallen into great disorder; to appoint and to regulate the station and office of the prince-governors, of the soldiers of the army and their foreign auxiliaries, of the inferior servants and the bondsmen. The earliest years of his reign were disturbed by invasion both from east and west. The Shashu and the Libyans, ever hanging on the confines, were always ready to cross the border of the Delta when opportunity served, and during the tumults, amidst which the nineteenth dynasty closed, such an opportunity certainly presented itself. After assailing the invaders and driving them back, Rameses transplanted his prisoners into large fortified places, where they were kept under guard, and a certain quantity of woven stuff and corn was yearly exacted from them, for the service of the temples. But a more dangerous foe remained to be assailed. A certain tribe, known as the Mashausha, had penetrated the land south of Memphis, had entered the oasis of the Fayoum, and had not only gradually crept south, but had advanced eastwards from the Fayoum to the Nile itself. Of certain towns these foreigners had even held possession for years. In the fifth year of his reign, Rameses III. attacked the Mashausha, and, after a fearful slaughter, drove them out of the land. The prisoners appear to have been employed as mercenaries in the army and navy, whilst their wives and children were removed to fortified places, and their flocks and herds confiscated to the service of the temple of Amen-Ra.

At the head of the Red Sea the king constructed a well, carefully guarded by fortifications, and re-opened trade with Punt by way of Koptos and the sea. He also renewed the working of the _mafek_[73] and copper mines. Then he tells us he planted trees and shrubs throughout the land, that the people might sit under the shade, and he says further, that the country was so safe that the weakest woman might travel alone without fear of molestation. ‘The soldiers of the horse and foot,’ continues his account, ‘live at ease; the Sardinian and Libyan auxiliaries stretch themselves full length upon their backs. They are not on the watch, for the enemy have ceased to invade. Their bows and arrows lie useless. They eat and drink with their wives and children, and make themselves merry. I am among them as a protector ready to defend.’

But soon another dark cloud, gathering in the distance, rapidly approached, and broke in a torrent of invasion upon the northern shore. The foe came this time from the distant regions of Asia Minor.

The old claims of Egypt to supremacy in Asia had long been suffered to lapse, and the course of time brought many changes.

In the earliest ages, strong and civilised kingdoms (perhaps coeval with the pyramids) had existed at Ur, Larsa, and other cities of Chaldea. But they had fallen and passed away when Thothmes III. entered Mesopotamia. The country was then divided into petty principalities, which were subdued with little difficulty. By the time Rameses II. was on the throne (the fourteenth century B.C.), Nineveh and Babylon had become the capitals of strong and important states, and were constantly engaged in mortal conflict for supremacy. They were absorbed in this mutual strife and in warding off the hostile assaults of the Elamites and other neighbouring nations; neither state was as yet thinking of far-extended conquest and dominion. The Israelites entered Canaan and carried on a war of extermination against its inhabitants, but they only succeeded in establishing themselves in parts of the country, generally in the more hilly districts, as the Canaanites, possessing chariots and horses, were able to maintain possession of the plains. The Egyptians probably viewed this fierce conflict with indifference, careful only that the great military road should not be interfered with, and the Israelites, maintaining their hold of the ‘promised land’ with much difficulty, were by no means prepared for any such attempt. North of Syria the power of the Kheta had greatly diminished, and was still further weakened by the assault of a mighty host of confederated tribes, which, emerging at this juncture from the hills and coast lands of Asia Minor, poured in a resistless stream towards the south. With them may have been allied, in hope of plunder, Etruscans, pirates from of old, and not unlikely roving Greeks from the isles and shores of the Mediterranean, probably little better than pirates themselves. For this formidable onslaught was made by sea and land simultaneously. The land forces defeated the Kheta, occupied Kadi (Galilee), and pitched their camp for a while in the land of the Amorites, ravaging and plundering as they went. The sequel may be described in the graphic narrative of Rameses III.: ‘They came leaping from their coasts and islands, and spread themselves at once over all lands; no people stood before their arms. Their nostrils snuffed the air of the southern lands; their desire was to breathe a balmy atmosphere. On they came against the Egyptian land. But there was in readiness a fiery furnace before their faces on the side of Egypt. Their hearts were full of confidence, their minds of plans. But an ambush was prepared for them, and they were taken in the snare like birds. They who reached the boundaries of my land never reaped harvest more. Their soul and spirit passed away for ever. A mighty firebrand was lighted before those who were assembled on the great sea in front of the mouths of the river. A wall of iron shut them in on the lake. They were caught like birds in a net, and were made prisoners; their ships and all they possessed lay strewn on the mirror of the water. Those who came by the way of the land, Amen-Ra pursued and annihilated them. Thus have I taken from the nations the desire to direct their thoughts against Egypt.’ This account of the great battle of Migdol, which secured a long period of repose from hostile attack, is inscribed upon the walls of the great temple which Rameses III. erected not far from the colossi of Amenhotep III. in Western Thebes. Here are also pictorial representations of the scene where naval warfare is for the first time depicted. No doubt the services of the mercenaries, so largely employed in the fleet, stood the Egyptians in good stead at this crisis, the naval service never being popular with the native population.

The great temple of Rameses III. at Medinet Habou (to which, for the first time, so far as we know, a palace was annexed) was enriched with vast donations by the king; he also conferred immense gifts on other temples, which are detailed in almost endless lists. For Rameses III., at some period, undertook wars of retribution, and won victories, and acquired rich spoil, both on the mainland and in the Mediterranean isles, more especially in Cilicia and in Cyprus. Fabulous stories were current in after times concerning King Rampsinitus (as the Greeks called this monarch) and his wonderful treasure-house. Herodotus heard some of these sensational narratives, and recorded them at full length in his writings.

In the construction of this temple, Rameses III. did not scruple to employ materials taken from those of his predecessors. Bricks with the names of Seti I. and Rameses II. were freely used to build up its walls. Nor was this all he borrowed, for, as if he had not acquired sufficient renown on his own account, he adopted an inscription in honour of Rameses the Great as his own. It is a long panegyric in the most grandiloquent language, and not only abounds in general phrases of much high-flown glorification of the king, but especially commemorates his building up of the city of Zoan and his first meeting with the Princess of Kheta. Rameses III. had the whole panegyric copied, with a few slight necessary changes. He, however, let it appear as if he had been the builder of Zoan, only stopping short of claiming the Khetan princess as his bride. It is curious that, after all, these attempts of the third Rameses to associate and almost to identify himself with the second Rameses may be said to have so far succeeded that they were in fact often confused with each other by foreign historians, and it is doubtful to this day which of the two was meant by the Sesostris of the Greeks—the probability being that he was a personage created out the confused traditions of both the Egyptian conquerors.

In spite of riches and renown, the throne of the third Rameses was not too securely based. It may have been that he was not of the ancient race, so long venerated and deified by the people, or it may have been that there was a general decay in Egyptian loyalty, but the fact is certain that a conspiracy of the most alarming extent was discovered, originating in the royal household itself. The conspirators were detected in time, and the record of their trial has been preserved. Many officers of high rank and many ladies in the palace were implicated. The first page of the papyrus is unfortunately defaced, so that the precise object and nature of the plot must remain uncertain. The royal commission to the judges is in the following terms:—‘Those who are accused by the country I give them into your charge. As to the talk of men I know nothing about it. Go ye and judge. Let what they have done be upon their own heads.’ Sentence of death[74] was pronounced on most of the criminals, others were condemned to have their noses and ears cut off, the women appear to have been sentenced to a sort of penal servitude.

Amongst the means resorted to by the conspirators magic and sorcery played a conspicuous part. One Penhi, superintendent of the herds, is reported to have said:—‘If only I possessed a writing that would give me power and strength!’ Having succeeded in procuring such a writing, an ‘enchantment fell upon him so that he gained admittance to the women’s house and to the deep and secret place. He made human figures in wax for the purpose of alienating the mind of one of the maidens and of bewitching another, inciting them to all kinds of wickedness and villainy by his writings.’

There is good evidence that the practice of sorcery and magical arts of all sorts was greatly on the increase. The very tales that have been preserved belonging to this period are of wonder and enchantment; superstition was rife on all hands. The god especially honoured under the twentieth dynasty was the oracle-giving Khons;[75] the chapters of the ritual assigned to this date are full of elaborate ceremonial, and the use of certain portions as a spell or talisman is more and more insisted on. Great virtue was also assigned to the mere repetition of long and apparently meaningless names. Omens of all kinds were much regarded, and so were lucky and unlucky days in the calendar.[76] Nevertheless, alongside of these superstitious notions and practices there existed a higher and a nobler life; no hymns preserved to us are more lofty and beautiful in tone than some that are assigned to this period. In one addressed to Amen-Ra, we read:—

‘O Ra, adored in Thebes! Thy love pervades the earth. Thou makest grass for the cattle and fruit-bearing trees for men. He causeth fish to live in the river, and giveth food to the birds upon the wing, food to the mice in their holes, and to the flying creatures on the trees.

‘Hail to thee! say all creatures, from the height of heaven to the breadth of the earth, and to the deep places of the sea—Adoration unto thee who hast created us!

‘The spirits thou hast made bow down before thee; the gods adore thy majesty. We, the creatures of thy hand, praise thee for our being, we give thanks to thee for thy mercy towards us,—whose name is hidden from his creatures—in his Name which is AMEN.’[77]

The hymn to the Nile, which is ascribed to the preceding dynasty, is very remarkable from the twofold aspect it presents us. At first we seem to behold only the river or some local deity impersonated in the river:—

‘Hail to thee, O Nile! Coming in peace, giving life to Khemi, Watering the land unceasingly, He maketh the fields ready for the plough; Every creature receiveth food.’

After the song has proceeded for some time in this strain, all on a sudden the Nile disappears from view, and the worshipper is in the presence of the divine and unutterable, though with no apparent change of person:—

‘He is not graven in marble, No eye of man can behold him; He hath no ministers nor offerings! He is not adored in sanctuaries, His dwelling is not known; No shrine is found, nor pictured words, No building may contain him!’

But then the loftier strain subsides again, and the hymn closes with the words:—

‘Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile! Giving life to men by his oxen, Life to his oxen by his meadow land— Shine forth, shine forth, O Nile!’

Rameses III. constructed for himself in the ‘valley of the kings,’ a tomb which contained eight or ten chambers adorned with pictures of scenes taken from both the present and the future life. Amongst them occurs one evidently intended as an allegoric representation of the hope of life after death—‘The horizon of heaven supported by a female figure, and the sun just rising above it; this is so placed that a ray of light can penetrate from the entrance of the tomb, 350 feet off, and pass over the sarcophagus and illuminate this emblem of eternal hope.’[78]

The thirteen succeeding sovereigns all bore the name of Rameses, but hardly any record is left of their reigns. There are inscriptions extant which belong to this period, lofty and bombastic in the extreme, and exceeding in the pompous assumption of their style those of their predecessors, if possible. They are mere empty phrases, which produce only an impression of absurdity when applied to the Ramessidæ as they pass across the stage in monotonous succession, and leave behind no achievements or triumphs either of peace or of war. The fourth, sixth, and seventh of these kings were sons of Rameses III.; the fifth of the name was a usurper, so it is not likely that the reigns of all the four together occupied any considerable period. One or two of the Ramessidæ constructed tombs for themselves in the ‘valley of the kings;’ they were given to carving their names and inscriptions on the monuments of their predecessors, but all of them in succession did not quite achieve the completion of the small oracle-temple of Khons, which was the family sanctuary of their house. The chief event which is recorded of these dull times is, however, significant, as showing how the profound sense of veneration for the ‘eternal dwelling-places’ of the departed must have been deadened, if not lost. In the reign of Rameses IX., it was discovered that there was an organised scheme for breaking open and plundering the tombs supposed most likely to contain treasure; the resting-places of the sovereigns themselves were not respected. The accused were brought to trial, and a careful investigation of the tombs was instituted. It was found that in many cases the difficult task of reaching the carefully concealed sarcophagus had been successfully accomplished; the mummies had been dragged out, and the funeral gifts, and aught else of value, carried off. Under the twentieth dynasty the throne was no longer safe from conspiracy and domestic treason; the very sanctity of the grave was violated, and the mummies of the departed were not secure from outrage and plunder.

The oracle-temple of Khons was consulted on every important occasion, and its fame seems to have spread far beyond the limits of Egypt itself. A curious episode belonging to the reign of Rameses XII. has been preserved, in a story written on the walls of this temple. It relates that the king had married a princess of the land of Bakhten, and that on a certain festival day there came a messenger from that country bringing presents for the king, accompanied by a request from the King of Bakhten. His daughter, the younger sister of the Queen of Egypt, had become possessed by a strange malady, and his majesty implored that a learned man acquainted with such things might be sent from Egypt to see her. Rameses XII. accordingly sent a learned man thither, who found the princess ‘in the state of one possessed with spirits,’ but the spirit was hostile, nor could the learned man prevail over him. A second message came from the troubled father, entreating that an Egyptian god might be sent to Bakhten. Pharaoh was standing before the shrine of the oracle-giving Khons, who was especially noted for power over such maladies. On inquiring whether the god would be willing to undertake the journey, the king received a favourable answer. Accordingly the shrine of Khons was borne upon the shoulders of twelve priests the whole way from Egypt to Bakhten, a journey of one year and five months, attended by chariots and horsemen on the right hand and on the left. The king and the princes came forth to meet and to welcome the ark, and prostrated themselves on the ground before it, and the god proceeded to the palace where the princess was, and speedily effected a cure. The expelled spirit thereupon made a humble submission to the god as his slave, and expressed his readiness to return whence he came—only, he asked that, first of all, a great sacrifice might be made in his honour. His request was granted, and, says the story, ‘the spirit went in peace wherever he chose by order of Khons, the giver of oracles. The prince of the land of Bakhten was very much delighted, and so was every one in the land. He said: “I will not let this god go back to Egypt; he shall stay in my country.” Three years, four months, five weeks, and one day did the god remain in Bakhten. Then it happened that the king saw in a dream the god come out of his shrine in the likeness of a hawk of gold; he spread forth his wings and flew on high towards the land of Khemi. When the king awoke he was troubled in his mind, and he called the prophet of Khons and said to him: “This god is hostile to us, let us send him back to Egypt.” And he gave him many presents, besides troops and very many horsemen. They reached Egypt in peace, and the presents were offered to the god. So Khons re-entered his house in peace in the thirty-third year of the king’s reign.’

The custom now so prevalent of consulting the oracle, and of acting according to its dictates, is one amongst other significant signs of the increasing power and influence of the priesthood and of the part they were gradually assuming in the government of the country. Under Rameses IX. the positions of king and priest seem already reversed. In former days the kings recorded the story of the magnificent buildings they erected in honour of the gods, and the munificent gifts with which they endowed the temples, received by the priesthood with loyal gratitude. But in the reign of Rameses IX. it is a chief priest of Amen-Ra who carves upon the temple wall a full account of all _he_ has done in rebuilding and adorning the sacred edifice—the ‘holy house of the chief priests of Amen.’ He, however, inscribes upon the work the full name of Pharaoh, and thus dedicates it to the king, who duly acknowledges his obligation, and orders rich rewards and honours to be bestowed upon the chief priest in token of the royal gratitude.

The shadowy forms of the Ramessid kings grow more and more indistinct; of the three last, whose names are preserved as the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth Rameses, it is quite uncertain whether they were ever crowned in Thebes. The power of the chief priests during the reign of so many feeble monarchs had, on the other hand, steadily increased, until the government of the country was virtually in their hands. Their ambition grew with what it fed on, and by repeated intermarriages with princesses of the royal house, they might seem to acquire a certain legitimate claim to the throne, of which they at last took possession—Her-hor, ‘chief priest and first prophet of Amen,’ being proclaimed King of Upper and Lower Egypt probably about 1100 B.C.

The priests of Egypt formed, as we know, no distinct and isolated caste. They were governors of cities, commanders on the battle-field, physicians, architects, scribes; and thus were often seen in secular employments, although they alone could enter within the sacred recesses of the temple and officiate in its services. The kings themselves were so far regarded as priests, that they were admitted to perform sacred rites, and thus the regal and sacerdotal offices had long been in some sense blended before Her-hor assumed the crown as the first sovereign of the twenty-first dynasty—the dynasty of the priest-kings.

The sovereigns of this dynasty showed an especial solicitude in preserving from injury and outrage the mortal remains of their predecessors. They continued the custom, which had prevailed since the spoliation of tombs came to light under Rameses IX., of a periodical inspection, carried out officially, the results of which were recorded on the spot by a scribe. Her-hor chose for his own family burial-place a lonely spot not far from the terraced temple of Queen Hatasu. A mass of broken rock almost hid the entrance, whence, by the descent of a perpendicular shaft, 25 feet deep, by 7 feet wide, a subterranean gallery of 200 feet in length was reached. Beyond was the vault, which measured about 25 feet by 14. There were either six or seven sovereigns of the twenty-first dynasty; and the last but one of them foreseeing, it is not unlikely, that a time of trouble and danger was at hand, gathered into the gloomy unadorned recesses of the gallery and vault of his family tomb the coffins of many illustrious predecessors. He then appears to have finally closed the tomb and suffered himself to be buried elsewhere. It was here that the remains of so many Egyptian sovereigns, both of the twenty-first and of earlier dynasties, were found in the great discovery of 1881. The little we know concerning even the names and succession of the priestly dynasty has been chiefly derived from this their family burial-place. We find that four of them married wives who were princesses in their own right. One of these queens, wife of Pinotem II., fourth king of the dynasty, is buried with her new-born babe by her side. The papyrus, containing portions of the ritual, which according to custom was laid in the sarcophagus, is in perfect preservation; it is beautifully written, and is full of richly-coloured illustrations, of which the tints are as fresh as if laid on yesterday. The last sovereign buried in this tomb was the wife of the king who finally closed it. With her were found the usual funereal papyrus, vases, and small statues; and besides these there was the rich and beautifully adorned canopy under which her body had been conveyed across the river to the city of the dead, and in a hamper by her side was the funeral repast of meat and fruits, which, being dedicated to her, show her to have been the last occupant of the family vault. With the mummy of the deceased queen was interred a mummied gazelle, that had probably been a pet with her in her lifetime. Both vault and gallery were now full, and the king closed it; his own tomb and that of his successor, the last monarch of the dynasty, are unknown.

FOOTNOTES:

[73] Sometimes supposed to have been the turquoise, but it is doubtful whether correctly so.

[74] The wording of the judgment seems to imply a judicial suicide.

[75] Khons was the son of Amen and of Mut, the ‘divine mother,’ and formed with them the sacred triad of Thebes: but his worship never assumed a prominent place before this period. In many respects resembling Thoth, and, like him, connected with the moon, he was the especial god of the priesthood and giver of oracles.

[76] Tiele, _Hist. of Egyp. Relig._

[77] The Hidden or Unseen.

[78] Villiers Stuart, _Nile Gleanings_.