And speaking of the king it continues:
“Speed his return, with triumph crown his stay,
And subject Asian realms to Egypt’s sway;
This once attained, among the gods I shine,
Absolving all thy oaths a new made sign.”
“That the yellow tresses of my fair
Sacred to love might gild the illumed air.”
And the hair, impersonated by the poet, laments its separation from its mistress’s head. These flights of fancy were no doubt very pleasing to the king.
Like her mother-in-law, if to a less degree, Berenike II seems to have taken an active interest in the affairs of the kingdom. At Canopus, an old trading post, a temple was erected to the king and queen, who were there deified as “Benefactor Gods,” referring probably to the active measures which they took to avert a threatened famine. From the Canopus decree which bears some resemblance to the celebrated Rosetta stone, and from a gold plaque found in the ruins of tombs we obtain this information. In the sanctuary at Philae is still a pedestal placed here by Euergetes and his wife, on which stood the sacred boat with the image of Isis, and on a wall in the same temple is his father Ptolemy Philadelphus offering incense and pouring water on the altar.
To the Princess Berenike, probably the first child of this marriage, who had died, a statue was set up, beside the gods. The head-dress of young Berenike differs in that it has two ears of corn, in the midst of which is the asp-shaped diadem, behind is a papyrus-shaped sceptre, about which the tail of the diadem’s serpent is wound.