Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

534
Egypt.
EGYPT.
try, at the distance of about four hundred yards to the
^ south-south-west of the town. These tombs belong to a
very remote period, and in the variety and richness of
their decorations rival those of Thebes; with this differ¬
ence, however, that, instead of religious and military sub¬
jects, those of a familiar and domestic kind are alone re¬
presented. The first of these visited by Champollion and
his party was the one whose painted bas-reliefs, relative
to agricultural labours, fishing, and navigation, have been
published by the Egyptian Commission in the French na¬
tional work.1 This tomb, which is of high antiquity, had
been excavated for the family of a hierogrammatist named
Phapeh, attached to the college of priests at Elethya.2
A second hypogmirn, which proved to be that of the high
priest of the goddess Ilythia or Elethya, from whom the
town originally derived its name, bears the date of the reign
of Rhamses-Meiamoun,3and exhibits a multitude of family
details, with some agricultural scenes, not in the purest
taste.4 The tomb adjoining this is still more interesting
in an historical point of view. It belonged to a person
named Ahmosis, son of Obschneh, chief of the boatmen
of the Nile, who appears to have been a great personage
in his day. In the remains of an inscription, this Ahmosis
recounts his history for the benefit of all persons present
and future, and states some particulars which fix the date
at which he lived, namely, under the last king of the seven¬
teenth dynasty, who overthrew the cruel tyranny of the
Shepherds, and delivered Egypt from those remorseless
barbarians. Another hypogccum, nearly in ruins, made
Champollion acquainted with four generations of great
personages who governed under the title of princes of
Elethya during the reigns of the first five sovereigns of
the eighteenth dynasty, viz. Amenoph or Amenoftep I.
Thouthmosis I. Thouthmosis II. Thouthmosis III. or Mce-
ris, and Ranofreh, daughter of Queen Amenseh, and sister
of Mceris. All these -royal personages are successively
named in the inscriptions on the tomb, and form as it were
a supplement in confirmation of the genealogical table of
Abydos discovered by Mr Bankes.5 6
Esneh or Esne, the ancient Latopolisp and the present
capital of Upper Egypt, is about thirteen miles below El-
kab or Elethya, and stands in a plain where the valley is
nearly four miles and a half in width. Owing to the
neglect of the canals requisite for the irrigation of the
soil, which is not now reached by the inundation, the
surrounding country had been reduced almost to a desert,
and the town itself would probably nave been abandoned,
but for its port and the trade carried on by means of the
Nile. Under the vigorous administration of Mehemmed
Ali, however, the canals have latterly been repaired, and
various products, including cotton, raised on ground which U
was not long ago a sandy waste, apparently irreclaimable ' "
for the purposes of cultivation. At Esneh there are two
temples ; one of vast dimensions, which, the great Ammon
be praised, has escaped destruction from having been con¬
verted into a cotton magazine; and another, much smaller
but remarkable for the peculiarity of its hieroglyphics!
Both* contain some of those symbolical zodiacs which have
so greatly perplexed the whole tribe of Egyptian antiqua¬
ries. According to conjectures founded on a particular
mode of interpreting the zodiac on the ceiling of the large
temple, this monument has been regarded as the most an¬
cient in Egypt; but the style of the sculptures, and, above
all, the hieroglyphical inscriptions, prove that, in reality,
it is one of the most modern to be found in that country.
The latter, indeed, leave no doubt that the masses of the
pronaos were raised under the reign of the emperor Clau¬
dius,7 to whom there is a dedication in large hieroglyphics
on the entrance, and that the corner of the fa^ade^and the
first row of columns, were sculptured under the emperors
Vespasian and Titus; the posterior part of the pronaos bears
the legends of the emperors Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius,
and Commodus ; some columns of the interior were deco¬
rated and sculptured under Trajan, Hadrian, and Anto¬
ninus; and, with the exception of some bas-reliefs, which
belong to the epoch of Domitian, all those on the parti¬
tions of the right and left of the pronaos contain images
of Septimius Severus, and of Geta, the brother of Cara-
calla.8 The construction of this temple dates from the
time of Claudius, and its sculptures come down as late as
that of Caracalla. The remains of the naos, however, be¬
long to the epoch of Ptolemy Epiphanes ; but that is only as
yesterday compared with the date which some fanciful an¬
tiquaries had assigned to this monument. On one of two
columns, however, whose shafts were almost entirely co¬
vered with hieroglyphics arranged artificially, Champollion
discovered a commemorative record of a dedication of an
ancient temple by Mceris, otherwise called Thouthmosis
III.; and in the quarter of the town known by the name
of Sheikh-Mohammed-Ebbedri, he also found a dedication
of fhouthmosis II. which, like the former, must have be¬
longed to some old Pharaonic monument of Esneh. The
great temple of Esneh was dedicated to one of the chief
forms of the divinity Knuphis, who is described as nev-
en-tho-Sne, or lord of the country of Esneh.9 This place
is also remarkable on account of a large Coptic convent,
supposed to have been founded by the disciples of Pacho-
mius, and to possess the bones of the martyrs who suffer¬
ed during the persecutions of Diocletian.
At a small distance from the Nile, in the third expan-
1 Description tie I'Egypte, p. 7. 2 In Egyptian Sowan-kah, or priests of Lucina, the goddess who was worshipped at Elethva.
3 Meiamoun is an epithet, and means literally “ beloved by Ammon,” or Jupiter.
. * Among the scenes represented on this hypogccum is one of the threshing or treading out of sheaves of corn by oxen, below which,
in hieroglyphics, almost all of which are phonetic, is a chanson which the conductor of the oxen on the threshing-floor is supposed to
sing. The ditty is addressed to the animals, and is as follows
Tread out the grain, ye oxen, tread it faster;
The work is yours, the bushels go to master.
I his is not very brilliant poetry, we admit, and, probably, our translation has not improved it; but what occupies five lines in the
original hieroglyphics we have found no difficulty in compressing into two ; and the specimen is at least curious.
s Champollion, Lettrcs d'Egypte, pp. 109, 194, 3«2. Hamilton, Egyptiaca, p. 90, et seqq.
6 As/ie or Sne is the pure Egyptian name, and may be still read on all the columns and bas-reliefs of the temple. The Greek
nanm of Latopolis, or Lciopolis (for it is spelled both ways), is supposed to have been formed from latus. a species of fish held in ve¬
neration at this place. (Egyptiaca, p. 100.)
7 In the hieroglyphic ovals or rings the name is Caesar Tiberius Claudius Gennanicus.
8 When Caracalla assassinated his brother Geta, he caused the name of the latter to be proscribed throughout the whole empire;
and this proscription appears to have been executed to the letter even in the depths of the Thebaid ; for the ovals containing the
name of this unfortunate prince have •almost all been carefully defaced and hammered out. “ Mais ils ne 1’ont pas dtd au point,
(says Champollion) de m’empecher de lire tres-clairement le nom de ce malheureux prince : l’Emcereur Cesar-Geta lc directeur.'
(Lettre* d'Egypte, p. 200.)
9 I he titles by which the Knuphis of Esneh is qualified are “ lord of the country of Esneh, creator of the universe, vital principle of
the divine essences, support of all worlds,” &c. With this god are associated the goddess Ne’ith, and the young Hakd, who complete