228

THE HELLENIUM.

BOOK II.

who only wished to trade upon the coast, and did not want to fix their abode in the country, he granted certain lands where they might set up altars and erect temples to the gods. Of these temples the grandest and most famous, which is also the most frequented, is that called "the Hellenium." It was built conjointly by the Ionians, Dorians, and Æolians, the following cities taking part in the work,-the Ionian states of Chios, Teos, Phocæa, and Clazomenæ ; Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Phaselis of the Dorians; and Mytilêne of the Eolians. These

9

are the states to whom the temple belongs, and they have the right of appointing the governors of the factory; the other cities which claim a share in the building, claim what in no sense belongs to them. Three nations, however, consecrated for themselves separate temples, the Eginetans one to Jupiter, the Samians to Juno, and the Milesians to Apollo.1

179. In ancient times there was no factory but Naucratis in the whole of Egypt; and if a person entered one of the other mouths of the Nile, he was obliged to swear, that he had not come there of his own free will. Having so done, he was bound to sail in his ship to the Canobic mouth, or, were that impossible owing to contrary winds, he must take his wares by boat all round the Delta, and so bring them to Naucratis, which had an exclusive privilege.

was established for the first time by Amasis. The privileges enjoyed by Naucratis were not only owing to the exclusive regulations of the Egyptians, like those of the Chinese at the present day, but were a precaution against pirates landing on the coast, under pretence of trading. (See notes and on chs. 112 and 154.) The exact position of Naucratis is unknown. The name is Greek, like that of Archander (supra. ch. 98). Of the Naucratis garlands, see Athen. Deip. xv.-[G. W.]

1

The story told by Strabo (xvii. p. 1137) of the foundation of Naucratis by the Milesians in the time of Inarus is entitled to no manner of credit. It may be questioned whether Naucratis was in any real sense "a Milesian colony."

Phaselis lay on the east coast of Lycia, directly at the base of Mount Solyma (Takhtalu). It was sometimes reckoned to Pamphylia (Plin. H. N. v. 27; Mela, i. 14; Steph. Byz. ad voc.), but more commonly, and by the best geographers, to Lycia (Scyl. Peripl. p. 94; Strab. xiv. p. 952; Ptolem. v. 3; Arrian. i. 24, &c.). According to tradition, it was founded by Lacius, the brother of Antiphêmus, the Lindian colonizer of Gela. (Heropyth. and Philosteph. ap. Athen. Deipn. vii. p. 297, f. and Aristænet. ap. Steph. Byz. ad voc. réλa.) This would place its foundation about B. C. 690. There seems to be no doubt that it was a purely Greek

town.

The remains of Phaselis are very considerable, and have been carefully described by Capt. Beaufort. (Karamania, pp. 59-70.) Its modern name is Tekrova. The part of the coast where it is situated abounds in woods of pine, which explains its ancient name of Pityussa. (See Steph. Byz. ad voc. Paonλís.)

The other places here mentioned are too well known to need comment.

That is, to the gods specially worshipped in their respective countries. The great temple of Jupiter Panhellenius in Egina, briefly described by Pausanias (11. xxix. § 6), is well known to travellers. That of Apollo at Branchidæ, and that of Juno at Samos, have been already noticed. (Supra, i. 157, ii. 148.)

CHAP. 179-181.

AMASIS MARRIES LADICE.

229

180. It happened in the reign of Amasis that the temple of Delphi had been accidentally burnt, and the Amphictyons 3 had contracted to have it rebuilt for three hundred talents, of which sum one-fourth was to be furnished by the Delphians. Under these circumstances the Delphians went from city to city begging contributions, and among their other wanderings came to Egypt, and asked for help. From few other places did they obtain so much-Amasis gave them a thousand talents of alum, and the Greek settlers, twenty minæ.5

181. A league was concluded by Amasis with the Cyrenæans, by which Cyrêné and Egypt became close friends and allies. He likewise took a wife from that city, either as a sign of his friendly feeling, or because he had a fancy to marry a Greek woman. However this may be, certain it is that he espoused a lady of Cyrêné, by name Ladicé, daughter, some say, of Battus or Arcesilaüs, the king-others, of Critobûlus, one of the chief citizens. When the time came to complete the contract, Amasis was struck with weakness. Astonished hereat -for he was not wont to be so afflicted--the king thus addressed his bride: "Woman, thou hast certainly bewitched me-now therefore be sure thou shalt perish more miserably than ever woman perished yet." Ladicé protested her innocence, but in vain; Amasis was not softened. Hereupon she made a vow internally, that if he recovered within the day (for no longer time was allowed her), she would present a statue to the temple of Venus at Cyrêné. Immediately she obtained her wish, and

2 The temple at Delphi was burnt in the year B. C. 548 (Pausan. X. v. § 5), consequently in the 21st year of Amasis. According to one account (Philoch. Fr. 70), it was purposely destroyed by the Pisistratida. But this was probably a calumny. Its reconstruction by the Alemæonidæ, who took the contract from the Amphic tyons, is noticed in Book v. ch. 62.

3 See note on Book vii. ch. 200.

That of Egypt was celebrated: "laudatissima in Egypto." (Plin. xxxv. 15.) Much is still obtained in the Oasis, but the best is from Sheb (which signifies "alum"), to the south of the Great Oasis, on the caravan road from Darfûr.-[G. W.]

Twenty minæ would be somewhat more than eighty pounds of our money. The entire sum which the Delphians had to collect exceeded 18,000l.

* One wife of Amasis was a daughter of the third Psammetichus, and another is mentioned on the monuments called Tashot, which looks like a foreign (Asiatic) name. Amasis had the title of Naitsi, 66 son of Neith," or Minerva; and this name, Ames-Neitsi, has been changed by Pliny into Seneserteus, who (he says) reigned when Pythagoras was in Egypt.-[G. W.]

I

Some of the MSS. give the reading "Battus, the son of Arcesilaüs," which Wesseling prefers. But the weight of authority is on the other side. The chronology of the Cyrenæan kings is so obscure, that it is difficult to say which monarch or monarchs are intended. Perhaps Battus the Happy, and Arcesilaüs II., his son, have the best claim. (See note on Book iv. ch. 163.)

230

OFFERINGS OF AMASIS AT GREEK SHRINES.

BOOK II.

the king's weakness disappeared. Amasis loved her greatly ever after, and Ladicé performed her vow. The statue which she caused to be made, and sent to Cyrêné, continued there to my day, standing with its face looking outwards from the city. Ladicé herself, when Cambyses conquered Egypt, suffered no wrong; for Cambyses, on learning of her who she was, sent her back unharmed to her country.

182. Besides the marks of favour already mentioned, Amasis also enriched with offerings many of the Greek temples. He sent to Cyrêné a statue of Minerva covered with plates of gold," and a painted likeness of himself. To the Minerva of Lindus

* Statues of this kind were not uncommon (infra, vi. 118). The most famous was that of Minerva at Delphi, which the Athenians dedicated from the spoils of their victory at the Eurymedon. (Pausan. X. xv. § 3; Clitod. Fr. 15.)

The Egyptians had actual portraits of their kings at a very remote period; and those in the sculptures were real likenesses. That sent by Amasis to Cyrene was on wood, like the wívakes, or ypapal (tabula), of the Greeks; and similar pic. tures are shown to have been painted in Egypt as early as the 12th dynasty, nearly

吖

2000 B. C. (Cp. Pliny, xxxv. 3, vii. 56, where he says, "Gyges, the Lydian, first invented painting in Egypt.") In Greece pictures (often hung up in temples) were works of the best artists, frescoes and others on walls being an inferior branch of art ("nulla gloria artificum est, nisi eorum qui tabulas pinxere;" Plin. xxxv. 10); and we may conclude that in Egypt also the real artists were those who painted pictures. The bas-reliefs and paintings on the monuments were executed more mechanically, the figures being drawn in squares; but in many cases the use of the squares was for copying the figures from smaller original designs of the master-artist; and some figures were drawn at once without the squares, and then corrected by the master. When in squares, 19 parts were given to the height of a man from the top of the head to the plant of the foot; and so systematic was this method, that in statues Diodorus says (i. 98) the various portions of the same figure, made by several artists in different places, when brought together, would agree perfectly, and make a complete whole. In his time, however, the proportions had been altered, and he gives 21 parts as the height of the figure. It seems, too, that they were somewhat different in statues and painted figures. These last also varied at times. The above, of 19 parts, was used in the best period of art during the 18th and 19th dynasties. The figures were then a little more elongated than during the reigns of the Memphite kings (a greater distance being given from the plant of the foot to the knee), and still more than under the Ptolemies, when an attempt to bring the proportions nearer to the real figure altered its character, and gave it a clumsiness, without any approach to greater truth. For the Egyptian style was

CHAP. 182.

231

231

232

OFFERINGS OF AMASIS.

BOOK II.

he gave two statues in stone, and a linen corslet well worth inspection. To the Samian Juno he presented two statues of himself, made in wood, which stood in the great temple to my

quite conventional, and could never be subjected to any other rules; and the Ptolemaic figure, as Dr. Lepsius observes, "was a bad imitation of foreign and illunderstood art." (See his Letters from Egypt, p. 117.) With the Greeks the length of the foot was "the measure whose proportion to the entire height was generally maintained" (Müller, Anct. Art. p. 392); but as in Egypt it is equal in length to 3 squares, or parts, it cannot answer for a figure of 19. And six of these feet coming only to the forehead, which varied so much as to be ", or, or less of another square," shows that neither the foot, nor the arbitrary and variable point to which it was measured, could be any guide. In the best period, from the ground to the knee was 6 parts, or 2 feet; but the figure was greater in breadth as compared to its height in the pyramid period than during the 18th and 19th dynasty; the distance from the ground to the knee, though 6 parts, was less than 2 feet, and the waist was nearly 3 parts (or 27); while at the 18th dynasty period it was only 2 parts in breadth. In the old pyramid time the length of the foot was / of the whole figure to the top of the head; in the other period much less (3 x 6 being 18); so that there must have been another standard; and the great difference was in the breadth, compared to the height, of the figure; a difference in the number of the squares is also said to have been met with. (See Handbook of Egypt, Route 29, Ombos.)

There are some portraits painted on wood and affixed to mummy cases, but these are of Greek and Roman time, and an innovation not Egyptian.-[G. W.]

1 Some of these linen corslets

were of very remarkable texture; and Herodotus (iii. 47) mentions another presented by Amasis to the Lacedæmonians, which was carried off by the Samians. It was ornamented with numerous figures of animals, worked in gold and cotton. Each thread was worthy of admiration, for though very fine, every one was composed of 360 other threads, all distinct, the quality being similar to that dedicated to Minerva at Lindus. Gold thread, it should be observed, is mentioned in Exod. xxxix. 3 for working in rich colours (see At. Eg. vol. iii. p. 128). It has been conjectured that the "tree-wool" of Herodotus was silk; but cotton is commonly used for embroidery even at the present day. (See above, ch. 86, note.) A similar corslet with figures of animals is represented in the tomb of Remeses III. at Thebes. Lucan (Phars. x. 142) mentions the needlework of Egypt: "Candida Sidonio perlucent pectora filo, Quod Nilotis acus compressum pectine Serum

Solvit, et extenso laxavit stamina velo."

Pliny (xix. 1) notices "the corslet of Amasis, shown in the Temple of Minerva at Rhodes," which seems to have been nearly pulled to pieces (as it would be now), to test "the 365 threads."-[G. W.]

These were not uncommon; and many have been found of kings who