The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
as parallel to these, we find in Manetho fourteen dynasties with at
least 241 kings, occupying a period of 3,084 years.
Scarcely less striking are the contradictions in the monuments
themselves. In the temple of Ammon at Karnak, which was extended on a
magnificent scale by Tuthmosis III. (1591-1565 B.C.),[19] the king is
delineated twice in a colossal form on the back wall of a chamber.
Between the two pictures sit sixty-four kings in four rows one over the
other. The inscription, "A royal offering for the kings of both Egypts,"
as well as the position of Tuthmosis, shows that he is offering prayer
and sacrifice to his predecessors in the kingdom. Of these sixty-four
kings, three are the immediate predecessors of Tuthmosis, Tuthmosis I.,
II., and Amosis. Before Amosis this table puts fifty-seven kings; the
name of Menes is wanting; but in Manetho's list there are nevertheless
no fewer than 284 kings,[20] from Menes to Amosis, with whom, in the
excerpt of Africanus, the eighteenth dynasty begins. In the great temple
built by Sethos I. (1439-1388, B.C.) at Abydus in honour of Osiris, this
prince, with his son Ramses, may be seen on the wall of a passage
offering prayer and incense to his predecessors in the kingdom. There
are seventy-six shields with names, beginning with the shield of Menes.
The last is the shield of Sethos, who in this way is represented as
offering prayer to himself, among the rest. Down to Amenemha IV., the
close of the twelfth dynasty (2179-2171 B.C.), there reigned, according
to Manetho's list 104 kings, but the table of Sethos gives sixty-five
shields for the interval from Menes to Amenemha IV. From this king to
Sethos, the first prince of the nineteenth dynasty, Manetho's list gives
193 kings, excluding the shepherd kings, whereas the table of Sethos
shows only ten shields for this interval.[21] Nothing in the way of
explanation is to be obtained from the monuments of this kind belonging
to the time of Ramses II. (1388-1322 B.C.) On the wall of the portico
between the first and second court of the Ramesseum, the great temple
built by Ramses II. at Thebes, on the left bank of the Nile, there is a
picture in which the statues of thirteen predecessors in the kingdom are
carried in procession before the king. There are eleven kings up to
Amosis; before him is the figure of Mentuophis; then Menes. In the
little temple built by Ramses II. at Abydus in honour of Osiris, there
is a tablet, on which Ramses is represented offering adoration to the
manes of his predecessors. On this we can make out fifty shields, but
only about thirty are sufficiently uninjured to be legible; so far as we
can tell this table is only a repetition of the table of Sethos in the
great temple of Abydus. A third series of the kings of this period has
been discovered in the tombs at Sakkarah. In the tomb of Tunari, the
kings' scribe and architect, there is a representation of the sacrifice
of Ramses II. for the deceased kings of Upper and Lower Egypt.
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