Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 21, ROT-Siam

S H E —s H E
at the mouth of the river of the same name, 43 miles east
of Fond du Lac and 52 miles north of Milwaukee. It pos¬
sesses a good harbour, and, being surrounded by very
productive agricultural land, exports annually a large
quantity of grain. The manufactures include farming
implements, enamelled hollow-ware, and stone-ware; there
are a number of tanneries and breweries; and mineral water
is exported. Settled in 1836, the city had in 1880 a
population of 7314.
SHECHEM, now Nabulus, a city of Palestine. Eleven
hours from Jerusalem on the great north road the traveller
linds himself in the broad upland plain of Makhna (1500
feet above the sea), with Mount Gerizim on his left, and,
skirting the base of the mountain, reaches the traditional
well of Jacob (John iv. 5, 6 ; cf. Gen. xxxiii. 19), a deep
cistern with the ruins of an old church beside it. Here
the road divides: the caravan route to Damascus continues
northward by the. village of 'Asker (Sychar of John iv.
5 V), and so to Beisan (Beth-shan) and Tiberias; but the
way to Samaria turns westward into a fertile and well-
watered side valley between Gerizim (2849 feet) on the
south and Ebal (3077 feet) on the north. This is the
Yale of Shechem or ISkfbulus; it is in fact an easy pass
between the Mediterranean and Jordan basins, and at the
watershed (1870 feet), where the city stands, 1^ miles from
Jacob’s Well, is not more than 100 yards wide. Thus
Shechem commands both branches of the great north road,
and several routes from the coast also converge here and
connect with the ancient road from Shechem eastward to
Kerdwd (Archelais) and Al-Salt, the capital of the Belkd.
The name of Shechem (shoulder, back) accords with the
position of the town on the watershed, and the native
name in Josephus’s time (Mabortha, B. J., iv. 8. 1 ; Pliny
has Mamortha) means simply “ the pass.” The situation
of Shechem at the crossing of so many great roads must
have given it importance at a very early date, and it is
still a busy town of 20,000 inhabitants, with soap manu¬
factures and considerable trade. On the other hand, the
position is equally favourable for brigandage, to which,
under weak governments, the Shechemites were addicted
of old (Judges ix. 25 ; Hosea vi. 9, where “for copsent”
read “ to Shechem ”), and the district is still a law¬
less one.
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( I he ancient inhabitants of Shechem were the Bne Hamor, a
Canaanite clan, who were not expelled on the first conquest of
Canaan .but remained in possession till the events recorded in
Judges ix. From the narrative of Gen. xxxiv., which has been
spoken of in the article Levi, it would seem that they entered into
friendly relations with the invaders, and that an attack made on
them by Simeon and Levi was repudiated by Israel and led to the
dispersion of these two tribes. In Judges ix. the u freemen of
Shechem” appear as a turbulent but cowardly race,
who, in spite of their numbers and wealth, had become vassals of
Gideon for the sake of protection against the Midianites, and
would have continued to serve his sons but for the enterprise of
Abimelech, whose mother was of their race. With the aid of
mercenaries hired with the treasure of the sanctuary of Baal-Berith
or El-Berith, the god of the town, Abimelech destroyed the sons
of Gideon, was crowned king of Shechem, and for three years held
sway also over the surrounding Israelites. A revolt was led by
Gaal, an Israelite who scorned to be subject to the creature of the
despised Canaanites,1 and, the Shechemites having fallen out with
Abimelech about their practice of brigandage, Gaal made a dash at
the city in the absence of the king, and the fickle inhabitants
received him with open arms. Abimelech, however, with his
mercenaries proved too strong for his adversaries, and Canaanite
Shechem was utterly destroyed. Its place was taken by a Hebrew
city, and the Canaanite sanctuary of El-Berith was transformed into
1 In Judges ix. 28 for 11211 read ITny (Wellhausen after MSS.
of LXX.), and translate “Who is Abimelech or who are the Shechemites
(his supporters) that we should be his slaves ? By all means let the
son of Jerubbaal and Zebul his officer enslave the men of Hamor
father of Shechem; but why should we (Hebrews) be his slaves?”
These words cannot have been spoken after the Shechemites had
renounced Abimelech ; vv. 29, 30 ought to stand immediately after
ver. 22. See W. It. Smith, in Thcol. Tijdschrift> 1886, p. 195 sq.
plTe 0f( E1 t,he God of Israe1’ of wMch the founda-
A a5;erwards referred to Jacob (Gen. xxxiii. 20) or even to
tree a^th °n' fU’ great stone under the famous sacred
tree at the sanctuary (the “tree of the revealer” or “tree of the
soothsayers, E. Y 1 plain of Moreh ” or “ of Meonenim ” ; Gen.
been se^un bv’l i30 ’ Ju<1- ix- 6> 37) was said‘to have
shown tLr?3byAJi? fma •(J??h- XX1V- 26)> an‘l Joseph’s grave was
ssmt^f r A lthlSindlCates that Shechem was once the chief
ah^ fnJ°SOph’ Tl .so we understand why Rehoboam went to
a W n, 1 b! r™ kln- of Northern Israel and why Jeroboam
at first made it his residence (1 Kings xii. 25). Politically Shechem
have been a?d Samaria, but it appears to
faU of Fnh, • a fTanctuary rn the time of Hosea. It survived the
centre nfP tEo^(Je1’' ^ 5) fnd ultimately became the religious
k t Jbe )• The Greek name Neapolis,
acconb'mr t °EP v’ the building * new town, which,
Shechem0 o hueeinus and Jerome, was a little way from the old
Shechem, or at least did not include the traditional holy sites.
nhce of11? glJC Pjl'm F1jviia Neapolis. Neapolis was the birth-
place of Justin Martyr, and became the seat of a bishopric. Five
Umstian churches destroyed by the Samaritans in the time of
Anastasius were rebuilt by Justinian (Procop., De jEd v 7)
Remains of one of these seem still to exist in the crusaders’ church
and Resurrection (1167), now the great mosque.
Neapohs had much to suffer in the crusades ; it was finally lost to
tne Lhnstians soon after Saladin’s great victory at Hittin
A map of the Shechem valley, with topographical "details, &c.,
will be found in the Memoirs of Pal. Expl. Soc., vol. ii.
SHEE, Sir Martin Archer (1770-1850), portrait-
painter, and president of the Royal Academy, was born in
Dublin on the 23d of December 1770. He was sprung
from an old Irish family, and his father, while he exercised
the trade . of a merchant, regarded the profession of a
painter as in no sense a fit occupation for a descendant of
the Shees. Young Shee became, nevertheless, a student
of art in the Dublin Society, and came early to London,
where he was, in 1788, introduced by Burke to Reynolds'
by whose advice he studied in the schools of the Royal
Academy. In 1789 he exhibited his first two pictures,
the Head of an Old Man and Portrait of a Gentleman.
During the next ten years he steadily increased in practice,
and gradually gained ground among the aristocracy, with
whom his suavity and good manners were great recom¬
mendations. He was chosen an associate of the Royal
Academy in 1798, shortly after the illustrious Flaxman,
and in 1800 he was made a Royal Academician. In the
former year he had married, removed to Romney’s house
in Cavendish Square, and set up as the legitimate successor
of that artist. Shee continued to paint with great
readiness of hand and fertility of invention, although his
portraits were eclipsed by more than one of his contem¬
poraries, and especially by Lawrence, Hoppner, Phillips,
Jackson, and Raeburn. In addition to his portraits he
executed various subjects and historical works, such as
Lavinia, Belisarius, his diploma picture Prospero and
Miranda, and the Daughter of Jephthah. In 1805 he
published a poem consisting of Rhymes on Art, and it was
succeeded by a second part in 1809. Although Byron
spoke well of it in his English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,
and invoked a place for “ Shee and genius ” in the temple
of fame, yet, as nature had not originally conjoined these
two, it is to be feared that even a poet’s invocation could
not materially affect their relations. Shee published
another small volume of verses in 1814, entitled The
Commemoration of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and other Poems,
but this effort did not greatly increase his fame. He now
produced a tragedy called Alasco, of which the scene was
laid in Poland. The play was accepted at Covent Garden,
2 Eusebius gives tlie tree (terebintbus) of Gen. xxxv. 4 a place in
his Onomasticon ; and from it probably the bishop Terebinthius in
Procop., De jEd., v. 7, had his name.
3 The Canaanite sanctuary was represented as a mere temporary
usurpation by the tradition (in the Elohistic narrative) that Jacob had
bought the site of his altar from the Hamorites and bequeathed it to
Joseph (Gen. xxxiii. 19, Josh. xxiv. 32 ; in the latter passage read
with LXX. mm for PiTI).