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in honour

that ten golden crowns of a peculiar design should be made and laid upon the royal shrine; that the birthday and Festivals coronation day of the king should be celebrated each year of Ptolemy with great pomp and show; that the first five days of the Epiphanes. month of Thoth should each year be set apart for the performance of a festival in honour of the king; and finally that a copy of this decree, engraved upon a tablet of hard stone in hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek characters, should be set up in each of the temples of the first, second and third orders, near the statue of the ever-living Ptolemy. The Greek portion of the inscriptions appears to be the original document, and the hieroglyphic and demotic versions merely translations of it.

Stone the

base of

ment of

phics.

Although it is nearly certain that, without the aid of the Greek inscription found on the socket of an obelisk at Philæ, and the hieroglyphic inscription found on the obelisk which belonged to that socket, the hieroglyphic alphabet could never have been recovered from the Rosetta Stone, still it is Rosetta around this wonderful document that all the interest in the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics clings. For deciphermany hundreds of years the interest of the learned of all Egyptian countries has been excited by the hieroglyphic inscriptions of hieroglyEgypt, and the theories propounded as to their contents were legion. Speaking broadly, the references to this subject by classical authors' are not very satisfactory; still there are some remarkable exceptions which will be referred to presently. Inasmuch as the names of Roman emperors, as late as the time of Decius, were written in hieroglyphics, it follows that the Late use of hieroglyknowledge of this subject must have been possessed by some phics. one, either Greek or Egyptian, in Egypt. "For a hundred and fifty years after the Ptolemies began to reign, the Egyptian hieroglyphics appear to have been commonly used, and the Egyptians were not prohibited from making use, so far as it seemed requisite, according to ritual or otherwise appropriate, of the native language and of its time-hallowed written signs." Little by little, however, the Greek language dis

"2

1 See Gutschmid, Scriptorum rerum Aegyptiacarum Series, in Philologus, Bd. X., Göttingen, 1855, ss. 712 ff.

* Mommsen, Provinces of the Roman Empire, Vol. II. p. 243.

Greek writers upon

hierogly

phics.

placed the Egyptian, and the writing in common use among the people, called to-day "demotic" or "enchorial," and anciently "epistolographic," completely usurped the place of the "hieratic" or cursive form of hieroglyphic writing. Although the Greeks and Romans appear not to have studied hieroglyphics thoroughly, only repeating, generally, what they were told about certain signs, nevertheless writers like Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Hermapion, Chaeremon, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Horapollo, contribute information on this subject of considerable value.

3

To Hecataeus of Miletus,' who visited Egypt between B.C. 513-501, we owe, through Herodotus, much knowledge Egyptian of Egypt, and he must be considered the earliest Greek writer upon Egypt. Hellanitus of Mytilene, B.C. 478-393, shows in his AiуUTTIakà that he has some accurate knowledge of the meaning of some hieroglyphic words. 2 Democritus wrote upon the hieroglyphics of Meroë, but this work is lost. Herodotus says that the Egyptians used two quite different kinds of writing, one of which is called sacred (hieroglyphic), the other common (demotic). Diodorus says that the Ethiopian letters are called by the Egyptians hieroglyphics." Strabo, speaking of the obelisks at Thebes, says that there are inscriptions upon them which proclaim the riches and power of their kings, and that their rule extends even to Scythia, Bactria, and India. Chaeremon of Naucratis, who lived in the first half of the first century after Christ,' and who must be an entirely different person from Chaeremon the companion of Aelius Gallus (B.C. 25),

6

1 See De rerum Aegyptiacarum scriptoribus Graecis ante Alexandrum Magnum, in Philologus, Bd. X. s. 525.

2 See the instances quoted in Philologus, Bd. X. s. 539.

3

· Περὶ τῶν ἐν Μερόη ἱερῶν γραμμάτων. Diogenes Laertius, Vit. Democ., ed. Isaac Casaubon, 1593, p. 661.

4 Καὶ τὰ μὲν αὐτῶν ἱρὰ, τὰ δὲ δημοτικὰ καλέεται. Herodotus, II. 36, ed. Didot, p. 84.

5 Diodorus, III. 4, ed. Didot, p. 129.

6 Strabo, XVII. 1, § 46, ed. Didot, p. 693.

7 According to Mommsen he came to Rome, as tutor to Nero, in the reign of Claudius. Provinces of Rome, Vol. II. pp. 259, 273.

8

writers

Tzetzes on

Egyptian

derided by Strabo,1 and charged with lying by Josephus,2 Greek wrote a work on Egyptian hieroglyphics περὶ τῶν ἱερῶν upon ypaμμáτwv, which has been lost. He appears to have been Egyptian hieroglyattached to the great library of Alexandria, and as he was phics. a "sacred scribe," it may therefore be assumed that he had access to many important works on hieroglyphics, and that he understood them. He is mentioned by Eusebius as Χαιρήμων ὁ ἱερογραμματεύς, and by Suidas, but neither of these writers gives any information as to the contents of his work on hieroglyphics, and we should have no idea of the manner of work it was but for the extract preserved by John Tzetzes (Terns, born about A.D. 1110, died after John A.D. 1180). Tzetzes was a man of considerable learning and literary activity, and his works have value on account of the hierogly phics. lost books which are quoted in them. In his Chiliades' (Bk. V., line 395) he speaks of ὁ Αἰγύπτιος ἱερογραμματεὺς Χαιρή μων, and refers to Chaeremon's διδάγματα τῶν ἱερῶν γραμμάτων. In his Exegesis of Homer's Iliad he gives an extract from the work itself, and we are able to see at once that it was written by one who was able to give his information at first hand. This interesting extract was first brought to the notice of the world by the late Dr. Birch, who published a paper on it in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, Vol. III., second series, 1850, pp. 385-396. In it he quoted the Greek text of the extract, from the edition of Tzetzes' Exegesis, first published by Hermann, and added remarks and hieroglyphic characters illustrative of it, together with the scholia of Tzetzes, the text of which he emended in places. As this extract is so important for the history of

· Γελώμενος δὲ τὸ πλέον ὡς ἀλαζὼν καὶ ἰδιώτης. Strabo, XVII. 1, § 29, ed. Didot, p. 685.

2 Contra Apion., I. 32 ff. On the identity of Chaeremon the Stoic philo sopher with Chaeremon the iɛpoypaμμarɛùç, see Zeller, Hermes, XI. s. 431.

3 His other lost work, Alyvπriaká, treated of the Exodus.

4 Praep. Evang., v. 10, ed. Gaisford, t. 1, p. 421.

5 Sub voce Ιερογλυφικά.

* For an account of them see Krumbacher, Geschichte aer Byzantinischen Literatur, München, 1891, pp. 235-242.

7 Ed. Kiessling, Leipzig, 1826, p. 191.

8 Draconis Stratonicensis Liber de Metris Poeticis. Joannis Tzetzae Exegesis in Homeri Iliadem. Primum edidit . . . . . God. Hermannus, Lipsiae, 1812.

B. M.

Extract from Tzetzes'

work on the Iliad.

Transla

extract.

the study of hieroglyphics, it is given here, together with the scholia on it, from the excellent edition of the Greek text, by Lud. Bachmann, Scholia in Homeri Iliadem, Lipsiae, 1835, pp. 823, § 97 and 838, with an English translation.

Ὅμηρος δὲ, παιδευθεὶς ἀκριβῶς δὲ πᾶσαν μάθησιν ἐκ τῶν συμβολι κῶν Αἰθιοπικῶν γραμμάτων, ταῦτά φησιν· οἱ γὰρ Αιθίοπες στοιχεία γραμμάτων οὐκ ἔχουσιν, ἀλλ ̓ ἀντ ̓ αὐτῶν ζῷα παντοῖα, καὶ μέλη τούτων καὶ μόρια· βουλόμενοι γὰρ οἱ ἀρχαιότεροι τῶν ἱερογραμματέων τὸν περὶ θεῶν φυσικὸν λόγον κρύπτειν, δι' ἀλληγορικῶν καὶ συμβόλων τοιούτων καὶ γραμμάτων τοῖς ἰδίοις τέκνοις αὐτὰ παρεδίδουν, ὡς ὁ ἱερογραμματεὺς Χαιρήμων φησί·

1. καὶ ἀντὶ μὲν χαρᾶς, γυναῖκα τυμπανίζουσαν ἔγραφον·

2. ἀντὶ λύπης, ἄνθρωπον τῇ χειρὶ τὸ γένειον κρατοῦντα, καὶ πρὸς γῆν νεύοντα

3. ἀντὶ δὲ συμφοράς, ὀφθαλμὸν δακρύοντα·

4. ἀντὶ τοῦ μὴ ἔχειν, δύο χεῖρας κενὰς ἐκτεταμένας·

5. ἀντὶ ἀνατολῆς, ὄφιν ἐξερχόμενον ἔκ τινος ἐπῆς

6. ἀντὶ δύσεως, εἰσερχόμενον·

7. ἀντὶ ἀναβιώσεως, βάτραχον

8. ἀντὶ ψυχῆς, ἱέρακα· ἔτι καὶ ἀντὶ ἡλίου καὶ Θεοῦ·

9. ἀντὶ θηλυγόνου γυναικὸς, καὶ μητρὸς καὶ χρόνου καὶ οὐρανοῦ,

γύπα

10. ἀντὶ βασιλέων, μέλισσαν

ΙΙ. ἀντὶ γενέσεως καὶ αὐτοφυῶν καὶ ἀῤῥένων, κάνθαρον

12. ἀντὶ γῆς, βοῦν·

13. λέοντος δὲ προτομὴ πᾶσαν ἀρχὴν καὶ φυλακὴν δηλοῖ κατ' αὐτούς·

14. οὐρὰ λέοντος, ἀνάγκην·

15. έλαφος, ἐνιαυτόν·

16. ὁμοίως καὶ ὁ φοίνιξ·

17. ὁ παῖς δηλοῖ τὰ αὐξανόμενα

18. ὁ γέρων, τὰ φθειρόμενα·

19. τὸ τόξον, τὴν ὀξεῖαν δύναμιν· καὶ ἕτερα μυρια· ἐξ ὧν Ομηρος ταῦτά φησιν· ἐν ἄλλῳ δὲ τόπῳ, εἴπερ αἱρεῖσθε, ἰδὼν ἐκ

τοῦ Χαιρήμονος, καὶ τὰς τῶν γραμμάτων αὐτῶν ἐκφωνήσεις Αἰθιοπικῶς εἴπω

"Now, Homer says this as he was accurately instructed tion of the in all learning by means of the symbolic Ethiopian characters For the Ethiopians do not use alphabetic characters, but depict animals of all sorts instead, and limbs and members of these animals; for the sacred scribes in former times desired

to conceal their opinion about the nature of the gods, and therefore handed all this down to their own children by allegorical methods and the aforesaid symbols and characters, as the sacred scribe Chaeremon says."

I. "And for joy, they would depict a woman beating a Accuracy tambourine."

of Tzetzes' statements

[The drum or tambourine was used in the temples proved. for festival services, and a woman beating a tam

bourine is the determinative of the words

seker, "to beat a tambourine," and
techennu.]

ր.

A

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2. "For grief, a man clasping his chin in his hand and bending towards the ground."

[A man, seated, with his hand to his mouth,

is the determinative of the word

[ocr errors]

chaanau, "grief." A seated woman with head
bent and hands thrown up before her face, is the
determinative of hath," to weep."]

3. "For misfortune, an eye wecping."

[The weeping eye

common word 2

is the determinative of the

rem, "to weep.
weep."]

4. "For want, two hands stretched out empty.”

[merged small][ocr errors]

[Compare at, "not to have," "to be without."
Coptic &T.]

For rising, a snake coming out of a hole."

[Compare = per, "to come forth, to rise"

(of the sun).]

6. "For setting, [the same] going in."

7.

[Compare=
the sun).]

"For vivification, a frog.”

A aq, "to enter, to set" (of

[The frogḥefennu, means 100,000, hence
fertility and abundance of life.]

1 But compare Horapollo, (ed. Leemans, p. 33), "Aπλаøтov dè äveρwπov γράφοντες, βάτραχον ζωγραφοῦσιν.

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