Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a photograph taken in the
Louvre.
In other parts of the same building were to be seen two superb obelisks, a recumbent figure similar to that at Memphis, and a monolithic naos of rose granite brought from the quarries of Elephantine. Amasis had a special predilection for this kind of monument. That which he erected at Thmuis is nearly twenty-three feet in height,* and the Louvre contains another example, which though smaller still excites the admiration of the modern visitor.**
* The exact measurements are 23 1/2 ft. in height, 12 ft. 9
ins. in width, and 10 ft. 6 ins. in depth. The naos of Saft
el-Hinneh must have been smaller, but it is impossible to
determine its exact dimensions.
** It measures 9 ft. 7 ins. in height, 3 ft. 1 in. in width,
and 3 ft. 8 ins.
Drawn by Boudier, from the sketch of Burton.
The naos of Sais, which amazed Herodotus, was much larger than either of the two already mentioned, or, indeed, than any known example. Tradition states that it took two thousand boatmen three years to convey it down from the first cataract. It measured nearly thirty feet high in the interior, twenty-four feet in depth, and twelve feet in breadth; even when hollowed out to contain the emblem of the god, it still weighed nearly 500,000 kilograms. It never reached its appointed place in the sanctuary. The story goes that “the architect, at the moment when the monument had been moved as far as a certain spot in the temple, heaved a sigh, oppressed with the thought of the time expended on its transport and weary of the arduous work. Amasis overheard the sigh, and taking it as an omen, he commanded that the block should be dragged no further. Others relate that one of the overseers in charge of the work was crushed to death by the monument, and for this reason it was left standing on the spot,” where for centuries succeeding generations came to contemplate it.*
* The measurements given by Herodotus are so different from
those of any naos as yet discovered, that I follow Kenrick
in thinking that Herodotus saw the monument of Amasis lying
on its side, and that he took for the height what was really
the width in depth. It had been erected in the nome of
Athribis, and afterwards taken to Alexandria about the
Ptolemaic era; it was discovered under water in one of the
ports of the town at the beginning of this century, and
Drovetti, who recovered it, gave it to the Museum of the
Louvre in 1825.
Amasis, in devoting his revenues to such magnificent works, fully shared the spirit of the older Pharaohs, and his labours were nattering to the national vanity, even though many lives were sacrificed in their accomplishment; but the glory which they reflected on Egypt did not have the effect of removing the unpopularity in which Tie was personally held. The revolution which overthrew Apries had been provoked by the hatred of the native party towards the foreigners; he himself had been the instrument by which it had been accomplished, and it would have been only natural that, having achieved a triumph in spite of the Greeks and the mercenaries, he should have wished to be revenged on them, and have expelled them from his dominions. But, as a fact, nothing of the kind took place, and Amasis, once crowned, forgot the wrongs he had suffered as an aspirant to the royal dignity; no sooner was he firmly seated on the throne, than he recalled the strangers, and showed that he had only friendly intentions with regard to them. His predecessors had received them into favour, he, in fact, showed a perfect infatuation for them, and became as complete a Greek as it was possible for an Egyptian to be. His first care had been to make a treaty with the Dorians of Oyrene, and he displayed so much tact in dealing with them, that they forgave him for the skirmish of Irasa, and invited him to act as arbitrator in their dissensions. A certain Arkesilas II. had recently succeeded the Battos who had defeated the Egyptian troops, but his suspicious temper had obliged his brothers to separate themselves from him, and they had founded further westwards the independent city of Barca. On his threatening to evict them, they sent a body of Libyans against him. Fighting ensued, and he was beaten close to the town of Leukon. He lost 7000 hoplites in the engagement, and the disaster aroused so much ill-feeling against him that Laarchos, another of his brothers, strangled him. Laarchos succeeded him amid the acclamations of the soldiery; but not long after, Eryxô and Polyarchos, the wife and brother-in-law of his victim, surprised and assassinated him in his turn. The partisans of Laarchos then had recourse to the Pharaoh, who showed himself disposed to send them help; but his preparations were suspended owing to the death of his mother. Polyarchos repaired to Egypt before the royal mourning was ended, and pleaded his cause with such urgency that he won over the king to his side; he obtained the royal investiture for his sister’s child, who was still a minor, Battos III., the lame, and thus placed Oyrene in a sort of vassalage to the Egyptian crown.*
* Herodotus narrates these events without mentioning Amasis,
and Nicolas of Damascus adopted Herodotus’ account with
certain modifications taken from other sources. The
intervention of Amasis is mentioned only by Plutarch and by
Polyaanus; but the record of it had been handed down to them
by some more ancient author—perhaps by Akesandros; or
perhaps, in the first instance, by Hellanicos of Lesbos, who
gave a somewhat detailed account of certain points in
Egyptian history. The passage of Herodotus is also found
incorporated in accounts of Cyrenian origin: his informants
were interested in recalling deeds which reflected glory on
their country, like the defeat of Apries at Irasa, but not
in the memory of events so humiliating for them as the
sovereign intervention of Pharaoh only a few years after
this victory. And besides, the merely pacific success which
Amasis achieved was not of a nature to leave a profound mark
on the Egyptian mind. It is thus easy to explain how it was
that Herodotus makes no allusion to the part played by Egypt
in this affair.