|
The Decrees of Memphis and Canopus (3 Volumes), by E.A Wallis Budge. Volume III, The Decree of Canopus. (Published in 1904, New York: Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, American Branch.)
CHAPTER 1.
The famous stele in the Egyptian National Museum at Cairo, which is now
universally known as the "Stele of Canopus,” was discovered on April
15th, 1866, at San, in the Eastern Delta, by a party of German savants,
which included Professor R. Lepsius, Herr Weidenbach, Professor S. L.
Reinisch and Professor E. R. Roesler. The place which the Arabs now
call “San,” or “San al-Hagar,” [fig. glyph] i.e.. “San of the
Stones,” is covered with remains of several ancient Egyptian temples,
and marks the site of the city of Tcharu [fig. glyphs] or
Tchart [glyphs]: the old strongly fortified city on the east of Egypt,
which was built by Ramesses II, about B.c. 1550, and which was commonly
known as “Tanis” and “Zoan.” The “field of Zoan” mentioned in Psalm
lxxviii. 43 is no other than
(p.2) the Sekhet-Tchanet or "Field of Tchanet" (Zoan) [fig, glyphs] of
the hieroglyphic texts. Tcharu, or Tanis, or San, was the metropolis of
the XIVth Nome of Lower Egypt, called Khent-Art [fig. glyph], and
played a prominent part in the great wars which were waged by Ramesses
II. against the Syrians and other Eastern peoples who rebelled against
him,
The ruins lie near the modern village of San, on the Mu‘izz Canal, and
are about one day’s journey (twenty-eight or thirty miles) nearly due
north of the modern Fakts, a small town about half way between Abti
Kebir and Es-Salihiyeh, the last railway station on the old caravan
road that runs to Al-Kantara on the Suez Canal. That the ruins near San
marked the site of the ancient Tanis was known long before the above
mentioned travellers visited it in 1866, and believing in the
possibility of making important finds there Mariette carried out
extensive excavations at this place in 1864; it was to see the results
of Mariette’s works that Lepsius and his friends visited San.
It is somewhat difficult in reading the different accounts [1] of the
finding of the Stele of Canopus to describe with justice to all
concerned what part each gentleman took in the discovery. According to
Reinisch and Roesler, whilst Lepsius was going to the p.3) village to
obtain workmen from the shékh of the place, they and Weidenbach marched
on to the ruins, where Reinisch saw the corner of a stone with a Greek
inscription projecting from a heap of dirt. As soon as Lepsius appeared
he declared that it must be the stone of which an engineer in the
employ of the Suez Canal Company had told him. The removal of the earth
above and about the stele was carried out at the common expense of the
four savants, and as the work was going on Weidenbach noticed the
hieroglyphic text upon it. Lepsius and Weidenbach made a paper
“squeeze” of the inscriptions, and Reinisch and Roesler made copies of
them. The last named gentlemen, finding that their copies were
imperfect, made a second journey to San on April 20th; they stayed
there for two days, and made a paper “squeeze,” and copied the
inscriptions, i.e., the hieroglyphic and Greek texts, from one end to
the other, and took three photographs of the stele. With these
materials Messrs. Reinisch and Roesler succeeded in making excellent
reproductions of the hieroglyphic and Greek texts, which they printed,
with a German translation of each, in their work entitled, Die Zweisprachige Inschrift von Tanis, zum ersten Male herausgegeben und webcrsetzt, Vienna, 1866.
The Stele of Canopus is a fine limestone slab, measuring 7 ft. 4 in.in
height, 2 ft. 8 in. in width, 131 in. in thickness. The top is rounded,
after the manner of most of the large memorial stelae of the (p.4)
Ptolemaic period, and on the flat surface above the in-scriptions is
sculptured a large pair of wings, which are intended to be those of
Heru-Behutet, the great god of Edfu. From the middle of the wings hang
two uraei; that on the left of the beholder wears on its head the crown
of the South, and that on the right the crown of the North.
Within the curve of each uraeus, lying horizontally, is a fly-flapper
[fig. glyph]. Between the urael are the signs [fig. glyph] ta ankh,
1.e., “Giver of life,” the allusion, of course, being to the Sun-God.
On the upper half of the Stele are cut thirty-seven lines of
hieroglyphics, of the characteristic Ptolemaic forms, and below these
are seventy-six lines of Greek uncials; on the right hand edge of the
stele are inscribed seventy-five lines of Demotic text, which the
discoverers either did not notice, or regarded as mere scratches! This
is a remarkable fact, for the value of the monument from an
Egyptological point of view was recognized as soon as it was found, and
each of its discoverers knew that they had lighted upon a stele of the
same class as that to which the Rosetta Stone belonged. On the other
hand, it is possible that as none of the savants who found the Stele
had any knowledge of the Demotic character, they determined to issue
their editions of the texts with translations, as soon as possible, and
to leave the Demotic text for future study.
The inscription on the Stele of Canopus is bilingual, that is to
say, is written in two languages, viz., in (p.5) Egyptian and in Greek;
the Egyptian portion is written in the Hieroglyphic character and in
the Demotic character, and the Greek portion is in uncials. The value
of both the Egyptian and Greek inscriptions is very great, for both are
complete, and both are, comparatively speaking, easily to be
understood. It is, however, somewhat difficult to account for the order
in which the three texts, Hieroglyphic, Greek, and Demotic stand on the
Stele of Canopus.
The Hieroglyphic text would naturally come first, because it had been
employed for thousands of years in making copies of all the state and
ceremonial documents which were in-tended to be seen by the public, and
the Egyptians were always accustomed to see monuments of the kind
inscribed in hieroglyphics. For all practical purposes, however, the
hieroglyphic inscription was quite useless, for the majority of the
people could not read it.
After the hieroglyphic comes the Greek text, instead
of the Demotic, as in the case of the Rosetta Stone, and, in my
opinion, it was intended to occupy the place of honour on the Stele,
because Greek was the language in which the decree inscribed on it was
originally written. Using exactly the same arguments which were used in
the case of the Rosetta Stone, it is clear that when the Stele was
mounted upon a plinth of suitable height and thickness, the beginning
of the Greek text would be on the level of the eye of the beholder, and
this would be the result naturally aimed at by those who planned the
setting up of the Stele, especially if they were (p.6) Greeks, or if
they wished to gain favour in the sight of the reigning Ptolemy.
The Demotic inscription on the Stele is on the edge nearest the ends of
the lines of the Greek text, with which it seems to have been intended
to correspond, line for line; to me its position makes it certain that
it is a translation from the Greek, and that it was added more or less
as the result of an after-thought. That it was hurriedly done is clear,
for the last sentence of the Decree of the priests at Canopus, which
ordered that a stele, inscribed with a copy of the Decree in
Hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek, was to be set up in each temple of
the first, second, and third class, throughout Egypt, is omitted in the
Demotic text. Apart from this consideration a study of the hieroglyphic
text leads one irresistibly to the conclusion that it is a
translation,[2] and not a document which was originally drawn up in the
ancient language of the country, and when a Demotologist of M.
Révillout’s authority declares that the Demotic text is also a
translation from the Greek, there is little more to be said on the
subject.
Fig. Photo of Temple of Edfu
The Decree inscribed on the Stele of Canopus was passed at a general
Council of Egyptian priests, who assembled at Canopus on the seventh
day of the (p.9) Macedonian month Apellaios, which corresponded to the
seventeenth day of the Egyptian month Tybi, in the ninth year of the
reign of Ptolemy III, i.e., 238 BC. The decree, then, was passed at
least forty years before the decree of the priests of Memphis which is
inscribed ou the Rosetta Stone. When the Decree of Canopus was
promulgated Apollonides, the son of Moschion, was the priest of
Alexander, and of the Brother-gods, and of the Good-doing gods ; and
Menekrateia, the daughter of Philammon, was the bearer of the basket
(Cane-phoros) before Queen Arsinoé. The decree sets forth the good
deeds of Ptolemy III., and enumerates the benefits which he and his
wife Berenice had conferred upon Egypt thus:—
1. Rich gifts and endowments to the temples.
2. Endowments for Apis and Mnevis and other sacred animals in Egypt.
3. War against Persia, made for the purpose of bringing back the statues
of the gods which had been carried off to that country, and the
restoration of the said statues to the temples to which they belonged.
4. The maintenance of peace in Egypt and her dependencies.
5. Remission of taxes during a period of famine caused by a low Nile.
6. The purchase of corn out of the private property of the crown, at
high prices, from Syria, Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and the free
distribution of the same, (p.10) whereby the lives of large numbers of the inhabitants of Egypt were saved.
As marks of their great appreciation of these acts of goodness the priests decreed that the following things should be done:
1 Additional honours to be paid to Ptolemy III. and his wife Berenice,
and to their parents, and to their grand-parents, ie., all their
ancestors in Egypt, in the temples of Egypt.
2. A new order of priests to be established, with the title of “Priests of the Good-doing Gods.”
3. The title of this order of priests to be inserted in all the official documents of the temples.
4. Each priest of the order to have the title of his order engraved on the ring which he wore on his hand.
5. All the priests who had been appointed by the king between the first
and ninth years of his reign, and all their children, were to be
enrolled in the new order of priests of the Good-doing Gods.
6. Five additional Councillor Priests to be appointed,
7. The new order of priests shall share equally with the other four orders.
8. A governor of the new order shall be appointed.
9. In addition to the festivals whch are celebrated on the 5th, 9th,
and 25th days of each month, and the yearly festivals, another festival
shall be cele-brated on the day of the rising of the star Sothis
(Sirius, or the Dog-Star), which, in the 9th year of (p.11) the king’s
reign, shall be celebrated on the Ist day of Payni, in which month the
festival of the New Moon, and the festivals of the goddess Bast, and of
the harvest, and of the Inundation are cele-brated,
10. This festival shall always be celebrated on the first day of Payni,
for if it were allowed to be celebrated according to the day of the
rising of the Dog-Star, it would advance one day in every four years,
and eventually it would happen that a festival which ought to be kept
in the summer would be held in winter. This festival shall last for
five days, and the people shall wear crowns and make offerings in the
temples.
11. That the festivals of the temples may correspond to the
seasons of the year, national summer festivals shall be observed in the
summer, and winter festivals in the winter. The year shall no longer
consist of 360 days and five epagomenal days only, but every fourth
year one day shall be added, after the five epagomenal days and before
the New Year, and this day shall be kept as a festival in honour of the
Good-doing Gods.
12. Everlasting honours to be paid in the temples to Queen Berenice,
the daughter of the Good-doing Gods, who died suddenly in the month of
Tybi.
13. A festival of four days to be kept in the month of Tybi, beginning on the 17th day, in her honour. (p.12)
14. A gold statue, inlaid with precious stones, to be set up in the sanctuary of each temple of the first and second class.
15. The statue to be carried in the arms of a priest in all processions,
16. A specially shaped crown, made up of a sceptre, uraeus, and two ears of corn, to be made for the statue.
17. The daughters of the priests to prepare another statue of Berenice,
"Queen of Virgins,” and offer sacrifices to it during the month of
Choiakh.
18. Other virgins, who are not daughters of priests, may do the same.
19. Sacred virgins, wearing the crowns of their gods, shall sing hymns to her.
20. At harvest time ears of corn shall be laid before the image.
21. Men and women shall sing to the statues day by day songs composed by the priests.
22. The daughters of the priests shall be maintained out of the temple revenues.
23. The wives of the priests shall be provided with a special kind of bread called the "Bread of Berenice.”
24. A copy of this a cut in stone or bronze, in hieroglyphics, in the
writing of the books, and in Greek, to be set up in the most prominent
place in each temple of the first, second, and third class throughout
Egypt, so that all men may know how (p.13) great is the honour which
the priests and their children show to the Good-doing Gods.
The above summary of the contents of the Stele of Canopus exhibits the
extent of the power which the priests were beginning to obtain over the
king, and the only matter which may be truly said to be of general
interest mentioned in the inscriptions, is that which refers to the
reform of the calendar which Ptolemy, or his priests, tried to
introduce into Egypt. Inasmuch as the year is nearly a quarter of a day
longer than the 360 days of the vague Egyptian year, and the five
epagomenal days which were added at the end of it, Ptolemy ordered that
one day, which was to be kept as a feast, was to be added to the 365
days of which the year then consisted. How long the reform was carried
out at Canopus cannot be said, but it certainly does not appear to have
been adopted generally through-out Egypt.
The following are the most important editions of the texts on the Stele
of Canopus, and the translations and papers. The hieroglyphic and Greek
texts were published _ for the first time by Professors Reinisch and
Roesler (Die Zweisprachige Inschrift von Tanis, Vienna, 8vo.)
in 1866. In the same year Dr. Lepsius published facsimiles of the
hieroglyphic and Greek texts, the former with a transliteration and a
German translation, and the latter with a transcript into ordinary
Greek letters, and a German translation (Das bilingue Dekret von Kanopus, Berlin, folio).
On the inscriptions (p.14) generally may be noted Dr. Birch, On the
trilingual inseription of San, and his English translation of the
hieroglyphic text printed in Records of the Past, vol. viii., p. 83 ff. On the Demotic version must be specially noted, Révillout, Chrestomathie Démotique, p. Ixxxvi. ff. and pp. 125-176, Paris, 1880 (Greek and Demotic texts, with French translations) ; Révillout, ibid., pp. 435-472 ; Révillout, Etude hist. et philol. sur les décrets de Rosette et de Canope (Revue Archéol., Noy., 1877); Révillout, Les deux versions démotiques du décret de Canope (in the Album of Leemans) ; P. Pierret, Le Décret de Canope, with a synoptical translation of the three texts, Paris, 1881; Pierret, Glossaire Egyptien-grec du Déeret de Canope, Paris, 1873 (Etudes Egyptol., p. 118 ff.); Brugsch, Thesaurus,
Abth. vi, p. xiv., Leipzig, 1891 (German translation of the Demotic
text, and the hieroglyphic and Demotic texts published interlinearly,
p. 1554 ff.); W. N. Groff, Le Décret de Cunope (Rev. Egyptologique, tom. vi., 1891, p. 13 Β΄; Krall, Demotische Lesestiicke, pt. 2, Vienna, 1903. For editions of the Greek text and English translations see Miller, Découverte d’un nouvel exemplaire du décret de Canope (Journal des Savants, April, 1883, pp. 294-229) ; Mahaffy, Empire of the Ptolemies, p. 229 ff., London, 1895; The Ptolemaic Dynasty, p. 112 ff., London, 1899; Strack, Die Dynastie der Ptolemiier, Berlin, 1897, p. 227f f. On the chronology of the Stele of Canopus see Mahler, Transactions of the Ninth Oriental Congress, 11. 319-330, London, 1893.
[fig. photo of Pylon of the Temple at Edfu]
Footnotes:
1. See Entdeckung eines bilinguen Dekretes durch Lepsius,
in Aeg. Zeit., 1866, p. 29; Das Dekret von Kanopus-Erklarung, ibid., p.
49; Reinisch and Roesler, Die Zweisprachige Inschrift von Tanis, p. 7
ff.
2. The original language in which the Decree was drawn up
was Greek, and the Hieroglyphic and Demotic versions are paraphrastic
translations. Birch, Records of the Past, viii. p. 82. Reinisch aud Roesler (op. cit., p. 9), on the other hand, regarded the Greek as a "compressed” translation of the minute and copious Egyptian text.
[Continue to next part]
[Return to Table of Contents]
|
|