Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph in Naville. The
illustration shows what now remains of the portions of the
temple rebuilt in the time of Ramses II.
We have statuettes some twelve or fifteen inches high, crudely coloured, wooden stelæ, shapeless ushâbti redeemed from ugliness by a coating of superb blue enamel, and, above all, those miniature sphinxes representing queens or kings, which present with two human arms either a table of offerings or a salver decorated with cartouches. The starving populace, its interests and vanity alike mortified by the accession of a northern dynasty, refused to accept the decay of its fortunes with resignation, and this spirit of discontent was secretly fomented by the priests or by members of the numerous families which boasted of their descent from the Eamessides. Although hereditary claims to the throne and the pontificate had died out or lost their force in the male line, they were still persistently urged by the women: consecrated from their birth to the service of Amon, and originally reserved to sing his praises or share his nuptial couch, those of them who married transmitted to their children, and more especially to their daughters, the divine germ which qualified them for the throne. They and their followers never ceased to look for the day when the national deity should shake off his apathy, and, becoming the champion of their cause against the Bubastite or Tanite usurpers, restore their city to the rank and splendour from which it had fallen. Namrôti married one of these Theban princesses, and thus contrived to ward off the danger of revolt during his lifetime; but on his death or disappearance an insurrection broke out. Sheshonq II. had succeeded Osorkon II., and he, in his turn, was followed by Takelôti II. Takelôti chose Kala-mâit, daughter of Namrôti, as his lawful wife, formally recognised her as queen, and set up numerous statues and votive monuments in her honour. But all in vain: this concession failed to conciliate the rebellious, and the whole Thebaid rose against him to a man. In the twelfth year of his reign he entrusted the task of putting down the revolt to his son Osorkon, at the same time conferring upon him the office of high priest. It took several years to repress the rising; defeated in the eleventh year, the rebels still held the field in the fifteenth year of the king, and it was not till some time after, between the fifteenth and twenty-second year of Takelôti II., that they finally laid down their arms.* At the end of this struggle the king’s power was quite exhausted, while that of the feudal magnates had proportionately increased. Before long, Egypt was split up into a number of petty states, some of them containing but a few towns, while others, following the example of Thebes, boldly annexed several adjacent nomes. A last remnant of respect for the traditional monarchy kept them from entirely repudiating the authority of Pharaoh. They still kept up an outward show of submission to his rule; they paid him military service when called upon, and appealed to him as umpire in their disputes, without, however, always accepting his rulings, and when they actually came to blows among themselves, were content to exercise their right of private warfare under his direction.** The royal domain gradually became narrowed down to the Memphite nome and the private appanages of the reigning house, and soon it no longer yielded the sums necessary for the due performance of costly religious ceremonies, such as the enthronement or burial of an Apis. The pomp and luxury usually displayed on such occasions grew less and less under the successors of Takelôti II., Sheshonq III., Pimi, and Sheshonq IV.***
* The story of these events is told in several greatly
mutilated inscriptions to be found at Karnak on the outer
surface of the south wall of the Hall of Columns.
** It is evident that this was so, from a romance discovered
by Krall.
*** One need only go to the Louvre and compare the Apis
stelae erected during this period with those engraved in the
time of the XXVIth dynasty, in order to realise the low ebb
to which the later kings of the XXIInd dynasty had fallen:
the fact that the chapel and monuments were built under
their direction shows that they were still masters of
Memphis. We have no authentic date for Sheshonq II., and the
twenty-ninth year is the latest known in the case of
Takelôti II., but we know that Sheshonq III. reigned fifty-
two years, and, after two years of Pimi, we find a reference
to the thirty-seventh year of Sheshonq IV. If we allow a
round century for these last kings we are not likely to be
far out: this would place the close of the Bubastite dynasty
somewhere about 780 B.C.
When the last of these passed away after an inglorious reign of at least thirty-seven years, the prestige of his race had so completely declined that the country would have no more of it; the sceptre passed into the hands of another dynasty, this time of Tanite origin.* It was probably a younger branch of the Bubastite family allied to the Ramessides and Theban Pallacides. Petu-bastis, the first of the line, secured recognition in Thebes,** and throughout the rest of Egypt as well, but his influence was little greater than that of his predecessors; as in the past, the real power was in the hands of the high priests.
* The following list gives the names of the Pharaohs of the
XXIIth dynasty in so far as they have been ascertained up
to the present:—
Drawn by Faucher-Gudin,
from a small door now
in the Louvre.