[741] From a splendid vase-painting representing the two sides of a magnificent _scyphos_ made by the potter Hieron and painted by the artist Makron. The original (now in Boston) is of the finest fifth-century (B.C.) art. See Furtwängler and Reichhold, _Griechische Vasenmalerei_ (München, 1909), vol. II. 125 ff., pl. 85. [742] See Chapter III. [743] See _antea_, p. 200. [744] Eurip., _Hel._, 34. [745] Plat., _Phardi._, 243A; Isokr., _Hel._, 65; Pausanias, III. 19, 13. [746] _Op. cit._, IV. 16. In his palinode, of which a few lines (_frag._ 32, Bergk^4) are extant, Stesichorus asserts that it was not Helen herself, but only her semblance or wraith, which Paris carried off to Troy. Greeks and Trojans slew one another for a mere phantom, while the real Helen never left Sparta. Hdt., 2, 112 ff., gives a rather different turn to the story. According to him, Helen eloped from Sparta with Paris, but was driven back by a storm to Egypt, where Paris told lies and was punished by Proteus. Euripides in his _Helena_ combines the two versions. Like Stesichorus, he makes the truant a mere phantom, an ‘eloping angel.’ Like Herodotus, he sends the real Helen to Egypt. Menelaus, who, escorting the phantom home from Troy, arrives in Egypt, is there confronted with the real Helen and is sadly puzzled. Just as he begins to think himself a bigamist, the misty Helen evaporates! EGYPTIAN FISHING [Illustration: MEN CARRYING A LARGE FISH. From Petrie’s _Medum_, Pl. XII. See n. 1, p. 301.] NOTE Conflicting chronologies prevent the definite dating of the earlier Egyptian monarchs: verily a thousand years are but as yesterday in the sight of Manetho, Mariette _et cie._ Thus it is that the reign of Menes, the first historical king, has no permanent abiding place in the 3167 years between 5867 and 2700 B.C. Discrepancy in dates is not confined to the older or later computators, such as Champollion-Figeac, Wilkinson, Lepsius, and Petrie, but has infected quite recent writers, like Borchardt and Albright, who in 1917 and in 1919 respectively place Menes _c._ 4500, and _c._ 2900 B.C. If the authorities disagree as to the dates of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms (the divisions used in my pages), they agree fairly well on what Dynasties are comprised in each of these. So whether a reader adhere to 5867 or to 2700 B.C. for Menes, the Old Kingdom still comprises Dynasties I. to XI.; the Middle Kingdom Dynasties XII. to XVI.; the New Kingdom Dynasty XVII. to Alexander the Great or 332 B.C., at which stage the Ptolemies came on the scene. EGYPTIAN FISHING[747] CHAPTER XXIII “THE NILE IS EGYPT” This terse epigram seems foreshadowed by Homer, who calls the river (ὁ) Αἴγυπτος, and the country (ή) Αἴγυπτος, thus indicating correctly that Egypt is only the Nile valley.[748]