History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12)Maspero, G. (Gaston)
History
History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 2 (of 12)
Maspero, G. (Gaston)
Civilization, Ancient; Egypt -- History -- To 640 A.D.; History, Ancient; Middle East -- History
A few of the columns belong to the lotiform type. The shaft is composed
of eight triangular stalks rising from a bunch of leaves, symmetrically
arranged, and bound together at the top by a riband, twisted thrice
round the bundle; the capital is formed by the union of the eight lotus
buds, surmounted by a square member on which rests the architrave. Other
columns have Hâthor-headed capitals, the heads being set back to back,
and bearing the flat head-dress ornamented with the urous. The face
of the goddess, which is somewhat flattened when seen closely on the
eye-level, stands out and becomes more lifelike in proportion as the
spectator recedes from it; the projection of the features has been
calculated so as to produce the desired effect at the right height
when seen from below. The district lying between Tanis and Bubastis is
thickly studded with monuments built or embellished by the Amenemhâîts
and Usirtasens: wherever the pickaxe is applied, whether at Fakus or
Tell-Nebêsheh, remains of them are brought to light--statues, stelæ,
tables of offerings, and fragments of dedicatory or historical
inscriptions. While carrying on works in the temple of Phtah at Memphis,
the attention of these Pharaohs was attracted to Heliopolis. The temple
of Râ there was either insufficient for the exigencies of worship, or
had been allowed to fall into decay. Usirtasen III. resolved, in the
third year of his reign, to undertake its restoration. The occasion
appears to have been celebrated as a festival by all Egypt, and the
remembrance of it lasted long after the event: the somewhat detailed
account of the ceremonies which then took place was copied out again at
Thebes, towards the end of the XVIIIth dynasty. It describes the king
mounting his throne at the meeting of his council, and receiving, as was
customary, the eulogies of his “sole friends” and of the courtiers
who surrounded him: “Here,” says he, addressing them, “has my Majesty
ordained the works which shall recall my worthy and noble acts to
posterity. I raise a monument, I establish lasting decrees in favour
of Harmakhis, for he has brought me into the world to do as he did, to
accomplish that which he decreed should be done; he has appointed me to
guide this earth, he has known it, he has called it together and he has
granted me his help; I have caused the Eye which is in him to become
serene, in all things acting as he would have me to do, and I have
sought out that which he had resolved should be known. I am a king by
birth, a suzerain not of my own making; I have governed from childhood,
petitions have been presented to me when I was in the egg, I have ruled
over the ways of Anubis, and he raised me up to be master of the two
halves of the world, from the time when I was a nursling; I had not yet
escaped from the swaddling-bands when he enthroned me as master of men;
creating me himself in the sight of mortals, he made me to find favour
with the Dweller in the Palace, when I was a youth....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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