1118

17.

SHEIDI!

as the offerer of wine holds out his cups to the god! The graver of this iconograph knew how to soften rock, away back in those days of high antiquity. Yet our object lies outside of all this. The lesson we are to learn from these lines is, that this royal ruler was very young when he died. Underneath the royal cartouches memorializing the personage of this relief, the signs for deceased, "makheru," are not only present, they are repeated (17): their date, therefore, must be very nearly that of his death. Had this cavo-rilievo been sculptured any length of time before his death, these signs for deceased would be absent. Inasmuch as in this instance there was no need to make the subject younger than he was actually, or more divine, Setî-Menephtah could not have been more than twenty years of age when he was brought low instantly, here to be committed to his "eternal home." A portraitstatue of Setî-Menephtah in middle life or in old age does not exist.

In this light we begin to recognize the true relation of Seti-Menephtah to his father and his true position in time. Under the name of Setî II., he is generally supposed to have been chronologically the successor of his father, and the two years of his reign are generally assumed to have been years of sole authority. On the contrary, the above-related natural version of his brief career is indicated by the monuments to be the right one: let us no longer neglect or misjudge their testimony.

A deep mystery always has hung over the death of Pharaoh's son. Who was he? How old may he have been? Left he absolutely no trace behind?

I venture to assert that his disappearance will ever continue to be completely shrouded in darkness so long as we fail to give proper heed to the light of the monuments. And I invite attention to the fact that the antiquities of Egypt, the best among authorities, stand ready to teach us:

1. That Setî-Menephtah was the first-born son of his father. 2. That his father lived to an advanced age. 3. That the son's administration was

merely one of regency in behalf of his father. 4. That the son died early, before his father died.

It follows that Seti-Menephtah corresponds to the biblical (1) First-born son (2) of a living Pharaoh, (3) who sat on his throne, (4) but died suddenly, before his father died. Both the Egyptian monuments and the Hebrew Scriptures describe a situation embracing four distinct premises: the four premises are identical in both accounts; the logical conclusion, therefore, must be that they relate to the same personage, for, in the nature of things, two series of such identical particulars would not occur apart once in many ages.

Let us give a few moments to the careful study of the following contemporary Egyptian monuments:

1. Some Mural Tablets in the Grottoes of Gebel Silsilis. Menephtah imitated his father in having pictures of his family circle drawn upon ever-enduring rock.

One of these tablets presents to us the group of Menephtah, Isi-nefer-t, and Nehesi. It is graven on the west wall of the Grand Speos, or Temple hewn out of a mountain, and (Champollion, "Monuments," II., cxiv.) exhibits King Menephtah in the ceremony of offering an image of the divinity Ma to the god Amen-Ra and the goddess Maut: he is attended by his wife

that he simply held over in both duty and rank under King Menephtah, by whom he was evidently greatly esteemed; but he had passed away prior to the date of this sculpture-the second year in the reign of Menephtah. Isi-nefer-t wears the vulture-headdress of maternity, but as yet her offspring was too young to be brought into this scene of worship.

A second tablet presents to us the group of King Menephtah, his royal son, and Nehesi. As outlined in illustration 19, it depicts Menephtah again tendering an image of Ma to the deity Amen-Ra; as before, the Privy Councilor to his Majesty, Nehesi deceased, finds his place last in the series; now, however, the middle place, immediately behind Menephtah, is occupied, not by Isi-nefer-t the Queen, wife, and mother, but by

Crown Prince of the Palace over the Two Countries, Chief of millions, Head over hundreds of thousands, He who stands in closest relationship to the good god, the Royal Son of his body begotten, beloved of him, of Royal [birth], the Chief of the Soldiers, the very great [Regent in behalf of] him.

Menephtah's Royal Son alive! By the time this rock-engraving was executed so many years had been added to the offspring of Isi-nefer-t that he began to be included in his parents' acts of devotion to the gods.

A third tablet presents to us the group of King Menephtah, Isi-nefer-t, Setî-Menephtah, and Nehesi (20). Its vignette embraces two scenes by means of two registers. In the lower register Menephtah offers an image of a sphinx to the deity Horus and the divinity Ma: here, as in the last tablet, he is attended by

21.

And last of all by Nehesi. In other terms, this royal son of Menephtah was his only son; as only son and heir to the throne, he was his eldest son; as only son and eldest son, he was his "first-born"; the name of this first-born son was Setî- Menephtah, and at the era of this rock-engraving he was already dead! Menephtah and Isinefer-t both survive. They are still reigning, and performing the religious duties of king and queen; but they are childless. The scene represented is one in which their beloved offspring, the sam or priest of Ptah, Seti-Menephtah, did engage in, with them, until quite recently; but the acknowledgment is made that he does so in person no longer-"the late Setî- Seti Mienptah

Menephtah." He is retained in the group because he was so dearly loved, and because there was no brother to be put in his place. At the beginning of Setî's name, over the back of his head, the figure of the god Set was defaced by iconoclasts some time after the death of both son and father. Champollion, deeming the obliterated character to be no part of the name, read what was spared as PtahAmen :

This stela teaches us that the wife of this Pharaoh was called Isénofré, as his mother was, and that his eldest son was called Phthamen.. ("Letters,' p. 156.)

But Dr. Richard Lepsius detected the sign under its disfigurement, and correctly reproduced it in his Königsbuch:

The Royal Son, the sam, Seti-Menephtah (21).

Even if there was no other proof, this monument is quite sufficient of itself to establish the fact that Setî-Menephtah's rule occurred during the lifetime of his father, and that his father, King Menephtah, continued to reign after the son had ceased to help him rule.

This last tablet states that King Menephtah's object in going up the Nile to Silsilis, above Thebes, at this epoch was with pride to publish in the Upper Country the achievement of having reared a temple in honor of the god Amen-Ra at Heliopolis, in the Lower Country. The other monuments which deserve our attention as pertaining to Setî-Menephtah were originally all stationed at Zoan in Lower Egypt.

2. The Sides of a Statue of Rameses. This statue is a standing image of Rameses II. holding within his arms two standards, the one on

the right-hand side terminating in a head. of the goddess Maut, the other in a head of the goddess Hathor (illustration 22). It was a colossus, between eleven and twelve feet high, carved out of syenite. It has lost its atef-crown, but, cared for now in the Palace of Gizeh, it retains the solar disk, the peculiar wig, the false beard, the kilt hanging from the belt by means of a lion-headed clasp and ending in a row of hooded asps. It was sculptured in fairly good. style; but round upon the left side the statue carries an irrelevant supplement, executed in a very different and rather bad manner (23).

Sketched in slight relief, a prince has not yet put off the recurved side-lock as a badge of infancy; he wears the leopardrobe as a badge of that order of priests of Ptah at Memphis called sam; and he shows by the plume in his hand that he enjoyed the high rank of Fan-bearer at the right of the king. The inscription identifies this young prince as

The Heir to the Throne over the Upper and Lower Countries, the Royal Scribe, the Chief of the Soldiers, great Royal Son, Meren-ptah deceased.

Round on the right side of the statue this inscription occurs in more complete form (24):

All life, permanence, purity, and health to the Heir of the Throne over the Two Lands, the Royal Scribe, the Chief of the Soldiers, great Royal Son, the sam,

[Mer-Jen-ptah deceased.

On the left standard may be found (25):

All life, stability, and health to the Heir of the Throne, the Royal Son, Mer-en[ptaJh.

And on the right standard (26):

PALACE OF

REGENT. (FROM THE MONUMENT IN THE GIZEH. PHOTOGRAPHED BY SEBAH.)

thermore, this colossus embodies Rameses II. at early manhood, while yet a regent under his father Setî I.: whereas, until long after this stage of life, Khamus was heir to the throne, not Menephtah. Besides, the style of the new figure is so unlike that of the colossus that it must be referred to another hand at a later period.

The solution is not far to seek. This basrelief pictures Menephtah the son of King Menephtah; and, as we have just seen, the father had no other son bearing his name save Seti-Menephtah. All these titles are precisely those of Setî- Menephtah in the third tablet at Silsilis, particularly the sacerdotal "sam" and the military "Chief of the Soldiers." It must