Nothing on the contemporary monuments, it is true, gives indication of a violent change attended by civil war, or resulting from a revolution at court: the construction and decoration of the tombs continued without interruption and without indication of haste, the sons-in-law of Shopsiskaf and of Mykerinos, their daughters and grandchildren, possess under the new kings, the same favour, the same property, the same privileges, which they had enjoyed previously. It was stated, however, in the time of the Ptolemies, that the Vth dynasty had no connection with the IVth; it was regarded at Memphis as an intruder, and it was asserted that it came from Elephantine.* The tradition was a very old one, and its influence is betrayed in a popular story, which was current at Thebes in the first years of the New Empire. Kheops, while in search of the mysterious books of Thot in order to transcribe from them the text for his sepulchral chamber,** had asked the magician Didi to be good enough to procure them for him; but the latter refused the perilous task imposed upon him.
* Such is the tradition accepted by Manetho. Lepsius thinks
that the copyists of Manetho were under some distracting
influence, which made them transfer the record of the origin
of the VIth dynasty to the Vth: it must have been the VIth
dynasty which took its origin from Elephantine. I think the
safest plan is to respect the text of Manetho until we know
more, and to admit that he knew of a tradition ascribing the
origin of the Vth dynasty to Elephantine.
** The Great Pyramid is mute, but we find in other pyramids
inscriptions of some hundreds of lines. The author of the
story, who knew how much certain kings of the VIth dynasty
had laboured to have extracts of the sacred books engraved
within their tombs, fancied, no doubt, that his Kheops had
done the like, but had not succeeded in procuring the texts
in question, probably on account of the impiety ascribed to
him by the legends. It was one of the methods of explaining
the absence of any religious or funereal inscription in the
Great Pyramid.
“‘Sire, my lord, it is not I who shall bring them to thee.’ His Majesty asks: ‘Who, then, will bring them to me?’ Didi replies, ‘It is the eldest of the three children who are in the womb of Rudîtdidît who will bring them to thee.’ His Majesty says: ‘By the love of Râ! what is this that thou tellest me; and who is she, this Rudîtdidît?’ Didi says to him: ‘She is the wife of a priest of Râ, lord of Sakhîbû. She carries in her womb three children of Râ, lord of Sakhîbû, and the god has promised to her that they shall fulfil this beneficent office in this whole earth,* and that the eldest shall be the high priest at Heliopolis.” His Majesty, his heart was troubled at it, but Didi says to him: “‘What are these thoughts, sire, my lord? Is it because of these three children? Then I say to thee: ‘Thy son, his son, then one of these.’”** The good King Kheops doubtless tried to lay his hands upon this threatening trio at the moment of their birth; but Râ had anticipated this, and saved his offspring. When the time for their birth drew near, the Majesty of Râ, lord of Sakhîbû, gave orders to Isis, Nephthys, Maskhonît, Hiquît,*** and Khnûmû: “Come, make haste and run to deliver Budîtdidît of these three children which she carries in her womb to fulfil that beneficent office in this whole earth, and they will build you temples, they will furnish your altars with offerings, they will supply your tables with libations, and they will increase your mortmain possessions.”
* This kind of circumlocution is employed on several
occasions in the old texts to designate royalty. It was
contrary to etiquette to mention directly, in common speech,
the Pharaoh, or anything belonging to his functions or his
family. Cf. pp. 28, 29 of this History.
** This phrase is couched in oracular form, as befitting the
reply of a magician. It appears to have been intended to
reassure the king in affirming that the advent of the three
sons of Râ would not be immediate: his son, then a son of
this son, would succeed him before destiny would be
accomplished, and one of these divine children succeed to
the throne in his turn. The author of the story took no
notice of Dadufrî or Shopsiskaf, of whose reigns little was
known in his time.
*** Hiquît as the frog-goddess, or with a frog’s head, was
one of the mid-wives who is present at the birth of the sun
every morning. Her presence is, therefore, natural in the
case of the spouse about to give birth to royal sons of the
sun.
The goddesses disguised themselves as dancers and itinerant musicians: Khnûmû assumed the character of servant to this band of nautch-girls and filled the bag with provisions, and they all then proceeded together to knock at the door of the house in which Budîtdidît was awaiting her delivery. The earthly husband Baûsîr, unconscious of the honour that the gods had in store for him, introduced them to the presence of his wife, and immediately three male children were brought into the world one after the other. Isis named them, Maskhonît predicted for them their royal fortune, while Khnûmû. infused into their limbs vigour and health; the eldest was called Ûsirkaf, the second Sahûrî, the third Kakiû. Kaûsîr was anxious to discharge his obligation to these unknown persons, and proposed to do so in wheat, as if they were ordinary mortals: they had accepted it without compunction, and were already on their way to the firmament, when Isis recalled them to a sense of their dignity, and commanded them to store the honorarium bestowed upon them in one of the chambers of the house, where henceforth prodigies of the strangest character never ceased to manifest themselves. Every time one entered the place a murmur was heard of singing, music, and dancing, while acclamations such as those with which kings are wont to be received gave sure presage of the destiny which awaited the newly born. The manuscript is mutilated, and we do not know how the prediction was fulfilled. If we may trust the romance, the three first princes of the Vth dynasty were brothers, and of priestly descent, but our experience of similar stories does not encourage us to take this one very seriously: did not such tales affirm that Kheops and Khephren were brothers also?
The Vth dynasty manifested itself in every respect as the sequel and complement of the IVth.* It reckons nine Pharaohs after the three which tradition made sons of the god Râ himself and of Rudîtdidîfc. They reigned for a century and a half; the majority of them have left monuments, and the last four, at least, Ûsirnirî Ânû, Menkaû-horû, Dadkerî Assi, and Unas, appear to have ruled gloriously. They all built pyramids,** they repaired temples and founded cities.***
* A list is appended of the known Pharaohs of the Vth
dynasty, restored as far as can be, with the closest
approximate dates of their reigns:—
** It is pretty generally admitted, but without convincing
proofs, that the pyramids of Abûsîr served as tombs for the
Pharaohs in the Vth dynasty, one for Sahûrî, another to
Ûsirnirî Anû, although Wiedemann considers that the
truncated pyramid of Dahshur was the tomb of this king. I am
inclined to think that one of the pyramids of Saqqâra was
constructed by Assi; the pyramid of Unas was opened in 1881,
and the results made known by Maspero, Études de Mythologie
et d’Archéologie, vol. i. p. 150, et seq., and Recueil de
Travaux, vols. iv. and v. The names of the majority of the
pyramids are known to us from the monuments: that of Ûsirkaf
was called “Ûâbisîtu”; that of Sahûrî, “Khâbi”; that of
Nofiririkerî, “Bi”; that of Anû, “Min-isûîtû”; that of
Menkaûhorû, “Nûtirisûîtû”; that of Assi, “Nutir”; that of
Unas, “Nofir-isûîtû.”
*** Pa Sahûrî, near Esneh, for instance, was built by
Sahûrî. The modern name of the village of Sahoura still
preserves, on the same spot, without the inhabitants
suspecting it, the name of the ancient Pharaoh.