Ramesseum

“ On the wall of the portico between the first and second court of the Ramesseum, the great temple built by Ramses II. at Thebes, on the left bank of the Nile, there is a picture in which the statues of thirteen predecessors in the kingdom are carried in procession before the king. There are eleven kings up to Amosis; before him is the figure of Mentuophis; then Menes. In the little temple built by Ramses II. at Abydus in honour of Osiris, there is a tablet, on which Ramses is represented offering adoration to the manes of his predecessors. ”

“ Shafts are sunk, false passages that lead nowhere are constructed. Everything is done that human ingenuity can suggest, if only the body hidden there might never be seen or handled again. [59] [Pg 189] Nor is the silent city of the dead without its stately palaces and temples. The two colossal twin statues of Amenhotep III. sit there upon the plain, and behind them is his magnificent temple. A little farther is the Ramesseum, a great temple erected by Rameses ‘to his name,’ and to the memory of his ancestors, marvellous for size and splendour. ”

“ It is unfortunate that Egyptian artists never signed their works; for the sculptor of this portrait of Horemheb deserves to be remembered. Like the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Nineteenth Dynasty delighted in colossi. Fig 201.--Colossal statue of Rameses II., Luxor.
Those of Rameses II. at Luxor measured from eighteen to twenty feet in height (fig. 201) ; the colossal Rameses of the Ramesseum sat sixty feet high; and that of Tanis about seventy. [49] The colossi of Abû Simbel, without being of quite such formidable proportions, face the river in imposing array. ”

“ As mystery was a favourite attribute of the Egyptian gods, even so the plan of their temples is in such wise devised as to lead gradually from the full sunshine of the outer world to the obscurity of their retreats.
Fig 80.--The Ramesseum restored, to show the rising of the ground.
At the entrance we find large open spaces, where air and light stream freely in. The hypostyle hall is pervaded by a sober twilight; the sanctuary is more than half lost in a vague darkness; and at the end of the building, in the farthest of the {73} chambers, night all but reigns completely. ”

“ A stele in the third year of the reign of Rameses II gives the route to the gold mines which Rameses had worked. In the rock temple of Gerf Husen the king appears as a founder and god to be worshipped. In the half rock temple of Sebuah is a large statue of him. At the temple of Deir there is another picture of him. On the stele of a certain General Amenti, near Abou-Simbel appears Prince Seti, named, of course, for the father of Rameses II, the king’s mother and the Princess Bint Antha. There are, or were, enormous statues of the king at Karnak, Tanis, and elsewhere. ”

“ But Herodotus describes that Sesostris—that is, Rameses—built a colossal statue of himself in front of the great gateway. And there, accordingly, as it is usually seen by travellers, is the last memorial of that wonderful king, to be borne away in their recollections of Egypt. Deep in the forest of palms before described, in a little pool of water left by the [Pg 47] inundations, which year by year always cover the spot, lies a gigantic trunk, its back upwards. The name of Rameses is on the belt. ”

“ That they could have been treasure cities, in the ordinary acceptation of the word treasure, is impossible. That would not have been kept on the most exposed border of the kingdom; and the treasury of Rameses must have been at Thebes, his capital, at the other extremity of Egypt. Herodotus, and others mention Pithom. The site of Ramses, though its name occurs nowhere, excepting in Exodus, has been ascertained by the discovery of a granite statue of Rameses, between the figures of the two gods, Ra and Atmu, with the name of the king several times repeated in the inscription upon it. ”

“ I myself, I myself am come here to build thy temple near to that of Unnefer, [48] the eternal king.’
Rameses proceeds to tell of all his gifts and rich endowments, and then addresses his father thus:—
‘Thou hast entered into the realm of heaven. Thou art in the company of Ra. Thou art united with the moon and stars. Thou restest in the deep like those who dwell with Unnefer the eternal king. When the sun ariseth thou dost behold its splendour: when he sinketh down to rest, thou art in his train. Thou enterest within the secret house, and remainest in the company of the gods. ”

“ He glorifies his every deed and makes him a demi-god rather than a man. Again and again Rameses II had Pentaur’s poem, the so-called Iliad of the Egyptians, inscribed on the temple walls. To the east of the southern door, near the great Hall of Columns at Karnak, the poem is to be found. At Abydos, Luxor, Karnak, the Ramessium, on the inner face of the pylon at the Ramessium, and at the Memnonium or tomb of Osymandeus and Abou-Simbel the same familiar [242] scene of Rameses fighting alone is pictured or described. ”

“ As for me, I was like the warlike Montû: I stood up before them and they saw the vigour of my arms. I, King Ramses, I was as a hero who is conscious of his valour, and who stretches his hands over the people in the day of battle. Those who have violated my frontier will never more garner harvests from this earth: the period of their soul has been fixed for ever. ”

“ The portrait statues of Rameses are innumerable, from the delicately carved statuette to the huge fragments of the Colossus of the Rameseum, which was thirteen yards in height. It would seem that his majestic figure and gracious face can never be forgotten by the race of men. ”

“ Never, indeed, were the records of any sovereign’s life and victories so blazoned abroad as those of King Rameses; the walls of the temples in Egypt and in Nubia are covered with inscriptions, paintings, and sculptures belonging to this reign. One while we see him in what appears most inglorious warfare—trampling down a crowd of negroes, who are represented as pigmies, and over whom he is driving his chariot of war. Some have escaped, and are flying in hot haste towards their homes, represented by the little huts like bee-hives, such as are still common in Africa. ”

“ Now, Rameses, the Great if he was as much like his portraits as his portraits are like each other, must have been one of the handsomest men, not only of his own day, but of all history. Wheresoever we meet with him, whether in the fallen colossus at Memphis or in the syenite torso of the British Museum, or among the innumerable bas-reliefs of Thebes, Abydos, Gournah, and Bayt-el-Welly, his features (though bearing in some instances the impress of youth and in others of maturity) are always the same. The face is oval; the eyes are long, prominent, and heavy-lidded ”

“ Now I will render thee a service: Come in the night to the temple of Astaroth, but bind thyself to keep the secret. Come alone, and thou wilt be convinced as to who the gods are who speak in the temples and touch us.”
“I will come,” said Rameses, after some meditation.
“Forewarn me, prince, on the morning of the day, and I will give thee the evening password; thou wilt be admitted. Only betray neither me nor thyself,” said the Phœnician, with a kindly smile. “Men never pardon betrayal of their secrets, though gods pardon sometimes.” ”

“ The vertical columns in praise of Rameses proclaim as follows:—“The Horus, the powerful, the beloved of the sun, the Ra, the offspring of the gods, the subjugator of the world, the king, the Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved of the sun; son of the sun, Ammon-mai Rameses; who gives joy to the region of Heliopolis when it beholds the radiance of the solar mountain. He who does this is lord of the world; the Pharaoh, guardian of justice, approved of the sun, son of the sun, Ammon-mai Rameses, giving life like the sun.” ”

“ The Asiatics kissed the earth at his feet, only the king of the Danaids did no more than bow before him. Rameses looked wrathfully at him, and ordered the interpreter to ask him whether he considered himself conquered or no, and the answer was given that he had not come before the Pharaoh as a prisoner, and that the obeisance which Rameses required of him was regarded as a degradation according to the customs of his free- born people, who prostrated them selves only before the Gods. He hoped to become an ally of the king of Egypt, and he asked would he desire to call a degraded man his friend? ”

“ If Rameses could not rule Egypt, and others were able to rule it, what remained to him? Nothing but death. Without the throne he could have no happiness. He felt that for him life would be impossible unless he had power.
But when he had rested a few days, in so far as rest was attainable in that chaos of court life, he summoned Otoes, and said to him,—
“Worthiness, I have begged thee to acquaint me with the secret of governing Aa. Thou hast done so, thou hast shown me the country and the officials, but still I know nothing. On the contrary. ”

“ It is highly probable that Rameses the Great was the Sesostris of Herodotus. This name is entirely a Greek invention, and is found on no Egyptian monuments. The splendid tomb, first opened by Belzoni, in the Valley of the Kings, is of the grandfather of this monarch—Rameses the First. It is evident from the Theban sculptures and inscriptions, that Rameses and his predecessors were engaged in a long war with a most powerful enemy,’ and that that enemy was an Oriental people, a nation with fair countenances and flowing robes, dwelling in a hilly and well-wooded country. ”

“ The prince went on mercilessly.
"Are the Hebrews warriors? Wouldst thou go against a host of trowel-wielding slaves with an army that levels lances only against free-born men? And yet, wilt thou wait till all Israel shall crowd into thy presence and defy thee before thou actest? And again, wilt thou descend on them with arms now when they may with Justice cry 'What have we done to thee?' Thou art beset, my father."
The Pharaoh opened his lips as if to answer, but the level eye of the prince silenced him.
"Thou hast not fathomed the Hebrew's capabilities, my father," Rameses continued. ”

“ When the priest with trembling hand had administered the dire medicine to him, Rameses drank it, as one parched with thirst drinks a cup of water; then he called unto him the most renowned astrologer of Thebes, and commanded him to relate what the stars revealed, without dissembling aught.
"Saturn is in conjunction with the Moon," replied the sage, "and that betokens the death of some member of thy dynasty, O Rameses. Thou hast done ill in drinking the medicine to-day, for empty are human plans before the decrees that the Omnipotent inscribes upon the heavens." ”

“ After their expulsion it was neglected, nor did it come again into prominence until the days of Rameses, who almost rebuilt it, and under whom it became one of the most magnificent of the great cities of Egypt. It was known as Pa-Ramessu, the ‘city of Rameses,’ and we are fortunate in possessing a description of it by an Egyptian writer, written apparently in prospect of the king’s triumphal entry: ‘I came to the city of Rameses Meri-amen. Beautiful is she exceedingly. Thebes itself is not comparable unto her—the secret of happiness is here. ”

“ Other kings had arrogated to themselves a certain qualified dignity, and after their deaths had sometimes been placed by some of their successors on a par with the [Pg 100] real national gods; but it remained for Rameses to associate himself during his lifetime with such leading deities as Ptah, Ammon, and Horus, and to claim equally with them the religious regards of his subjects. He was also, as already observed, the first to introduce into Egypt the degrading custom of polygamy and the corrupting influence of a harem. ”

“ Candidates are in line in the East before the Pharaoh, who thus addresses them:
Pharaoh—Egyptians, the ceremonies of the Order are complete when one of your number, as representing the class, is seated on the Throne of Rameses and the mystical teachings of the Order are explained. In theory, each of you has been seated, through your representative, so that in the Order of Rameses each Egyptian is an equal to his fellow, and no distinction can exist except such as stand out through sterling individual worth, and such as are temporarily decreed for the proper government of the Order. ”

“ Ramesses held a council of war with his generals, and by their advice agreed to accept the submission made to him, and, without entering into any formal engagement, to withdraw his army and return to Egypt. It seems probable that his victory had cost him dear, and that he was not in a condition to venture further from his resources, or to affront new dangers in a difficult, and to him unknown, region.
Experience tells us that it is one thing to gain a battle, quite another to be successful in the result of a long war. ”

“ But I think that Rameses II., who was the handsomest and most conceited swell of them all, was not so particular about doing the deeds as he was about recording them. He could not have done much else in his long reign than erect the temples, carve the hieroglyphics, and set up the statues of himself, which proclaim his fame. He literally spread himself all over Egypt, and must have kept the whole country busy, quarrying, and building, and carving for his glorification. ”