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Ameno

phis III.

tablets.

Historical first records his lion hunts; the second the coming of Thi, the scarabs of daughter of an Asiatic father, to Egypt, accompanied by 317 of her women; the third the marriage of Amenophis and Thi, and the fourth the building of a large lake 3,600 cubits long by 600 cubits wide for his queen near the town of T'arucha, which the king opened on the 16th of Choiak in the eleventh year of his reign, by sailing across it in his barge called Atenneferu. The tablets inscribed in cuneiform recently found at The Tell Tell el-Amarna prove that Amenophis III. married a sister el-Amarna and daughter of Kallimma-Sin, king of Karaduniyash, a country probably lying to the north-east of Syria; Gilukhîpa the sister of Tushratta, king of Mitani, and Sâtumkhîpa Marriage daughter of Tushratta; and Thi the daughter of parents who were not royal. The country of Mitani also lay to the northeast of Syria, and we know that like Tiglath-Pileser I., king of Assyria, about B.C. 1120, Amenophis III. went thither frequently to hunt lions. The kings and governors of places as remote as Babylon promptly claimed the friendship of their new kinsman, and their letters expressing their willingness to make alliances offensive and defensive, are some of the most interesting objects of the "find" at Tell el-Amarna.

with Thi.

B.C.

1466

Heresy of

the disk worshippers.

Of Amen-hetep IV., or Chu-en-åten, the son of Åmenhetep III. and the Mesopotamian lady Thi, very little is known; he built a temple at Heliopolis, another at Memphis, one at Thebes, and some in Nubia. He is famous, however, as the leader of the heresy of the "disk worshippers," that is to say of those people who worshipped the disk of the sun, Åten mm, in preference to Àmen-Rã, the national god of Egypt. He showed how much he detested the god Åmen, by setting aside his name Amen-hetep and adopting that of Chu-en-ȧten," the brilliance of the disk." The worship of the disk was of some antiquity, and seems to have been a monotheistic worship of Ra which originated in Heliopolis. Amenophis III. seems to have encouraged this form of religion somewhat, and it is certain that he named his barge Áten-neferu, "the most beautiful disk." The native Egyptian

1 See The Tell el-Amarna tablets in the British Museum, by Bezold and Budge, p. xviii.

priesthood disliked the foreign queen, and the sight of her Amenoson with his protruding chin, thick lips, and other charac- phis IV. quarrels teristics of a foreign race, found no favour in their eyes; that with the priests. such a man should openly despise the worship of Amen-Ra was a thing intolerable to them. In answer to their angry words and acts, the king ordered the name of Åmen-Rā to be chiselled out of all the monuments, even from his father's name. Rebellion then broke out, and Chu-en-åten left Thebes and founded a new city for himself at a place between Memphis and Thebes, now called Tell el-Amarna. After a few Founding Thi came to live there, and there Chu-en-åten years the queen of city at Tell elpassed the rest of his life with his wife and seven daughters. Amarna. In the twelfth year of his reign he celebrated his victories over the Syrians and Ethiopians, but it is doubtful if they were of any importance.

kings.

After the death of Amenophis IV. there is some confusion in Egyptian history; the immediate successors of the "heretic The king" were Se-aa-ka-Rā, Tut-anch-Amen, Ai, of whom but "Heretic" little is known. The last king of the XVIIIth dynasty was Heru-em-heb, the Horus of Manetho, who seems to have been a native of Het-suten, the Alabastronpolis of the Greeks, or Tell el-Amarna. He made an expedition into Nubia and the lands to the south of that country, and he carried on buildings at various places, and restored temples at Heliopolis, Memphis, Thebes and elsewhere.

THE NINETEENTH DYNASTY.

B.C.

1400

Of the events which led to Rameses I. becoming sole king of Egypt nothing whatever is known. Some suppose that he was connected with Horus, the last king of the XVIIIth dynasty, but there are no proofs which can be brought forward in support of this theory. He seems to have carried on some small war with the people of Nubia, and to have been concerned in a treaty with the Cheta; he also built War with a little at Thebes. He is famous, however, as the father of Seti I., and grandfather of Rameses II.; the former was probably associated with him in the rule of the kingdom, but how long it is not possible to say.

While Amenophis IV. was quarrelling with the priests of

Cheta.

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Seti I. in battle. From a bas-relief at Thebes.

B.C.

1366

Amen about the worship of the disk, and during the rule of his feeble successors, the peoples of Nubia and the Shaȧsu and the nations of Syria and Mesopotamia became more and more independent, and as a result ceased to fear the arms of Egypt, and consequently declined to pay the tribute imposed upon them by the mighty Thothmes III. and Amenophis III. Under the rule of Rameses I. the Egyptians were forced to sign a treaty which fixed the limits of their country and those of the Cheta; hence when Seti I. ascended the throne he found it necessary to make war against nearly every nation that had formerly been subject to the Egyptians. From the reliefs sculptured on the walls of the temple of Åmen-Rā at Karnak we see that he attacked the people who lived north of Palestine, the Retennu or Syrians, the Shaȧsu, the Cheta, and in returning to Egypt passed through the land of Limanen. At the city of Chetam, on the frontier of Egypt, he was received by the priests and nobles of Egypt, who said to him: "Thou hast returned from the lands which thou hast conquered, and thou hast triumphed over thy enemies. May thy life be as long as that of the sun in heaven! Thou hast washed thy heart on the barbarians, Rā has defined thy boundaries." Seti then sailed up to Thebes, where he presented his captives and booty to the gods in the temples there. From the lists of vanquished peoples inscribed by Conquests Seti it is found that his rule extended over Mesopotamia, Asia, Punt or Somali land, Nubia, and the lands on the west bank of the Nile. Cities like Kadesh on the Orontes, Tyre, Reseph, Migdol, etc., he not only conquered, but also built fortresses in them. During the reign of Seti the Cheta who, without, in my opinion, the slightest evidence for the theory, have been identified with the Hittites of the Bible, reappear in history. Seti set up an obelisk at Kanṭarah, "the bridge" uniting Asia and Africa, he built at Heliopolis, Memphis and Abydos, and at Karnak he began several buildings, some of which were finished by Rameses II. His name is often found in Nubia on rocks and stela, and he worked the gold mines there, and sank wells in the rock to obtain water for his workmen. Seti associated his son Rameses II. with him in the rule of the kingdom when he was but twelve years old. According to the

in Western

B.C.

1333 Sesostris.

monuments Seti reigned about twenty-seven years. The name Seti is connected with the god Set, who though at one time worshipped by the Egyptians, was subsequently considered to be the father of all evil; in several places it is seen that his name has been carefully chiselled out.

Rameses II., the Sesostris of the Greeks, was perhaps the greatest king that ever ruled over Egypt. He was a man of commanding stature, of great physical strength and personal bravery, a great builder and a liberal patron of the science and art of his days. Around his name has gathered a multitude of legends, and the exploits of other warriors and heroes who reigned hundreds of years after him have been attributed to him. Before he came to the throne he led an expedition into Nubia and defeated the peoples there; and he brought back to Egypt much spoil, consisting of lions, gazelles, panthers, ebony, ivory, gold, etc., etc. In the fifth year of his reign he set out on a campaign against the Cheta, which was the most important event in his life; his victory over this foe was considered so great a triumph that an account of it illustrated by sculptures was inscribed upon the temples of Thebes, Kalâbshî and Abu Simbel, and a poetic description of the battle with a vivid outline of the king's Pentaurt's own prowess was written down by Pen-ta-urt, a temple the defeat scribe. The Cheta were a confederation of peoples, nomad and stationary, who first appear in the time of Thothmes III., to whom they paid tribute. In the time of Rameses I. they made a treaty of friendship with the Egyptians, but in the time of Seti I. they fought with them. The kings of the Cheta at this period were Sapalel and his son Maru-sar; the latter had two sons Mäutenure and Cheta-sar. Māutenure was king of the Cheta when Rameses II. marched against them in his fifth year, and Cheta-sar was king when the Cheta and the Egyptians made a new treaty in the twenty-first year of the reign of Rameses, at which time they seem to have reached the summit of their power. According to an inscription which appears to be the official statement concerning this memorable battle, Rameses II. was in the fifth year of his reign in the land of T'ah, not far from Kadesh on the Orontes. The outposts kept a sharp look-out,

poem on

of the Cheta.

The Cheta kings.

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