The Relations Between Greece and Egypt During the VIIth and VIIIth Centuries B.C

8/13/2019 The Relations Between Greece and Egypt During the VIIth and VIIIth Centuries B.C

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Irish University Review

The Relations between Greece and Egypt during the VIIth and VIIIth Centuries B.C.: Part IIAuthor(s): Matthew HanrahanSource: University Review, Vol. 2, No. 7 (Autumn, 1961), pp. 33-45Published by: Irish University ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25510075.

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MATTHEW HANRAHANTHE RELATIONS BETWEEN GREECE

AND EGYPT DURING THE VllthAND VHIth CENTURIES B.C.*

PART IIsuch in brief is the history of the part played by these early Greeks inthe history of Egypt during the four centuries that preceded the foundation ofAlexandria. What was the effect on Greece itself of this contact with thecivilisation of the Nile valley?In Egypt the Greeks were not dealing with a primitive people, but with anadvanced civilisation, and, as happened elsewhere, they came under theinfluence of the more ancient civilisations with which they were in contact.

Where they were able to do so, the Greeks imposed their culture and way oflife on the native 'Barbarians', but when this was not possible^ they wereequally capable of adapting themselves to other customs and ideas. Greek intercourse with Lydia left its imprint on the civilisation of the Ionian cities, andthe Greeks in Italy learned from the Etruscans. With Egypt also the exchangewas cultural as well as commercial, for, as Aristode says of Solon1, every

Greek travelled "kat' emporian ama kai theorian" "to do business andto see the world." The Greeks in the Delta lived close to Sais2, thecentre of the Saite Renascence, and they and the frequent visitors to thecountry were able to transmit to Greece a knowledge of Egyptian life and art,and, perhaps to a lesser extent, of Egyptian science and thought from whichthe Greeks of that age could still benefit. The debt of Greece to Egypt duringthis period has been both exaggerated and undervalued. Today though science

may no longer believe in the "Oriental mirage" by which the Hellenes weresupposed to have got everything from the East, it cannot, on the other hand,fail to recognise Egyptian influence on 7th and 6th century Greece. There isplenty of evidence to be found in the Greek writers to show to what extentthe early Greeks were impressed by Egypt's civilisation. The importance ofEgypt in Greek thought can be seen in the number of inquiring travellers whocame to study its history, religion, and government. Their writings, devotedentirely or in part to Egypt (many were just called "Aiguptiaka") were

* "This article is in continuation of a previous article on the same subject,already published in Vol. 2, No. 5.M1. Arist. Ath.Pol. XI.2. The ruins of Sais lie near Sa-el-Hagar, about half a mile East of theRosetta branch of the Nile.

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34 UNIVERSITY REVIEWeagerly read throughout Greece, and were an important factor in the relationsof the two countries. Through them Egypt, which had been so long closed toforeign influence, became known to antiquity and was henceforth open to theinvestigation of the inquiring Greek mind. It was mainly through Naucratisand Daphnae, and later through Naucratis alone, that these close relations

were maintained.Egyptian influence on the beginnings of Greek art whether through a foreign

intermediary or by direct contact, is now generally acknowledged. WhenEgypt was still closed to Greece, much of this influence was transmitted bythe Phoenicians who then controlled all trade with the Delta. As part of theircommerce they brought to Greece from Egypt many objects which served asmodels, and by the Egyptising character of their own art they had communicated to the early Greek works a reflection of the art of Egypt. It was onlyat the end of the VHIth century, by the settlement of the Milesians in theDelta, that direct contact was established between the two countries. Butduring the ensuing two centuries3 Greek art, though it was already cominginto possession of much of the technique which enabled it to set out on its ownoriginal course, was still passing through a period of initiation, and couldstill find inspiration in the art of Egypt to which it added the qualities of itsown individual genius. Speaking of Egyptian art Jean Caparts says4: "It isimpossible not to be struck by the rapid development of art in Greece andIonia from the moment when Europeans first had an opportunity of seeing the

products of Egyptian art." Hall, in his article5 on "Oriental Art and the SaitePeriod" says: "There can be little doubt that the regular commercialconnection with Egypt established by the Milesians in the VIHth Cent, musthave caused a certain rapprochement between the artists of the two countries."

We have in the British Museum from the sacred avenue at Branchidaenear Miletus, where they flanked the approach to the temple of DidymeanApollo, a series of seated figures which are direct imitations of the colossalEgyptian statues. The imitation of the Egyptian style is equally clear in thefigures of the lions which were set up along the avenue of the sacred lake atDelos. A statue of Artemis found at Delos, made by a Naxian in the VllthCent., is a reproduction of those ancient Egyptian wooden statues ("Xoanaaiguptiaka") of which Pausanias6 speaks?with the arms close to the body and

3. The conquest of Cyprus by Amasis, in the middle of the Vlth Cent.(Her. II, 182), was marked by an immediate increase in the Egyptisingcharacter of Cyprian sculpture copied from Saite originals. (Hall. "Anc.Hist, of the Near East.")4. "Egyptian Art" in the "Legacy of Egypt," p. 116.5. Camb. Anc. History, Vol. Ill, pp. 324-5.6. Paus. VII, 6. "Xoana" were the primitive wooden statues of the Greekdivinities made during the archaic period of Greek art, when statues in

stone were rare. Pausanias says that most of those ancient **xoana"

were fashioned after the Egyptian manner or even brought from Egypt.



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THE RELATIONSBETWEEN GREECEAND EGYPT 35the legs giving the impression of being encased in a sheath or wrappings7.Similar Egyptian influence can be recognised in several archaic models ofGreek sculpture. In the rich series of statues found at the ancient towns of

Golgos and Idalia in Cyprus8, Egyptian influence can again be clearlydiscerned. The statues represent standing figures, with the arms held straightdown and close to the body. The head-dress is the "klaft" or "pschent" ofEgypt, and the loin-cloth is the "schenti". The figures of the two scribes,found among the Pre-Persian remains on the Acropolis9, are similarly dressedin unmistakeably Egyptian style. The standing posture, prevalent in Egypt,with the left foot thrust forward, is reproduced in every detail in the standingmale figures10 made in every part of the Greek world in the Vlth Cent. Thesmall dancing figures of the God Bes, which were so popular in Egypt duringthe XXVIth Dynasty, were undoubtedly the original of the Satyr or Silenof the Greek vases.

Technical processes, too, were being borrowed. The knowledge of the twochief plastic materials, marble and bronze, came to Greece from Ionia, andDiodorus11 says it was from Egypt that the statuaries of Chios and Samos(Rhoecus and Theodorus12) borrowed the process of hollow bron2e casting.The delicate technique of Egypt was being transmitted to Europe, and thisnew process was preparing the way for the freedom and boldness of the later

masterpieces of such great bronze workers as Myron, Polyclitus, Lysippus.Hall, in the article13 already quoted,. says: "No doubt the Greek tales ofSamian and other artists, who went to Egypt in the Vllth Cent, and learnttechnical processes of art there, were founded on fact."

Many writers are at pains to emphasise how small a part Egypt could playin the development of later classical Greek art. As one example of a verydifferent opinion, we quote the words of a very distinguished Frenchman, M.Edouard Herriot, describing the impression made upon him by the monumentsof the Nile valley. "The admiration which I feel for the sculptures of theParthenon is in no way impaired, but I remain in ecstasy before a dioritestatue of Cephren. In its accuracy of line, its balance of composition and itsserene attitude, such a work is as near to us as the celebrated examples ofclassical art." And speaking of the temple of Dair-el-Bahari he says:?"Itis no longer possible to deny that the purest classicism flourished in this

7. "Bulletin de Correspondence hellenigue." Vol. III. PI I.8. Found by Cesnola, and now in the Museum at Nicosia9. Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum, Vol. I, p. 167. Nos. 144, 146.10. The Sunium Kouros, or the Kouroi of Naucratis and Rhodes.11. Diod. I. 9812. Among the works of Theodorus were the famous ring of Polycrates andthe golden vine offered to Darius by Pythius, the Lydian A vaseinscribed with the name of Rhoecus has been found at Naucratis.13. Camb. Anc. History, Vol. Ill, pp. 324-5.



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36 UNIVERSITY REVIEWcountry on the banks of the Nile, some thousand years before the fifthcentury B.C. which witnessed the glory of Athens." Jean Capart, concludinghis remarks on Egyptian art says: "Our final conclusion may be that Egyptreveals to us the knowledge of one of the sources ? perhaps "the" source?from which the great river of beauty has flowed continually throughout the

world."There were no barriers to the Greek study of Egyptian art, but it is not so

easy to ascertain the extent and accuracy of the knowledge the Greeks wereable to acquire of Egyptian scientific, religious, or philosophical teaching. Inspite of the decipherment of the texts, our knowledge of what the Egyptianstaught and believed is still far from complete. In Egypt the deeper knowledgeof religion and the sciences was kept in the shade of the court and the temples,and much of Egyptian teaching, especially their knowledge of the appliedsciences, was not committed to writing. It is unlikely that the Greeks everlearnt any of the written forms of the Egyptian language, but on the other

hand, to suppose that the Greeks, having been settled in the country forgenerations, never learnt more than a few words of the spoken language ishighly improbable. All the Pharaohs of the Saite Dynasty courted thefriendship and goodwill of the Greeks. Egyptian independence, as thePharaohs realised, depended on the strength of their Greek mercenaries andthe help they hoped to receive from the Greek states against the danger fromAssyria and later from Persia. With the Pharaohs thus disposed to a policyof closer alliance and friendship with the Greek world, it is probable that theGreeks throughout the period of the Saite Dynasty were given free access tothe sources of Egyptian wisdom

? the temples14 and the records kept thereby the priests. But the records had to be interpreted by the priests, and wedo not know how faithfully they did so.We have to turn to the testimony ofthe Greek travellers to find how far the Greeks were impressed by what thepriests had to tell and how much they were able to learn from the wisdom ofEgypt. Herodotus, under the influence of his visit to Egypt is led to meditateon the origins of his own religion and comes to the conclusion that the Greekknowledge of such matters is, "so to speak, of today and yesterday". One ofthe Egyptian priests says to Solon in the "Timaeus", "You Greeks are merechildren." At the time when the early Greek philosophers came to visit theland of the Nile, Egypt had progressed far beyond the rudiments of manyof the sciences, particularly in mathematics, medicine, and astronomy. Theyhad studied the periodicity of celestial phenomena, and were able to foretell14. Temples were the museums of the old world. Herodotus obtained muchof his information from the temple of Ptah atMemphis (Her. II. 10.1, 110),and the priests of Heliopolis, most skilled in tradition ("Logiotatoi"),were said to have been the " teachers " of Pythagoras, Solon-, and Plato.(How and Wells. Op. C, p. 157.)



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THE RELATIONS BETWEEN GREECEAND EGYPT 37eclipses with accuracy. They were the first people to build up a calendar of365 days based on the solar year, and to anticipate the Julian calendar bythe addition of an extra day every four years. Egypt, was according to

Aristotle15, the cradle of mathematical teaching, and the Greeks could see itspractical application to the annually recurring task, after the Nile floods, ofaccurate land measurement and the rules of mensuration, which was thefoundation of the later Greek science of geometry. In their knowledge of

medicine the Egyptians were far in advance of that of Mediaeval Europe. Thepractice of embalming required a knowledge of anatomy, and that knowledgewas widened as mummification became general. Their anatomical knowledgeand treatises became the foundation of later Greek writing on the subject.

Much, or all, of this knowledge which Egypt had acquired over many centuries,was available to the Asiatic Greeks in Egypt for more than a century beforeThales founded atMiletus the earliest of the Ionian schools of philosophy andscience. Yet many writers in their admiration for the achievement of theIonian Greeks would have us believe that the birth of Ionian and later Greekscience in the West owed nothing, or very little, to Oriental sources16, andthat the discoveries of Egyptian science were rejected or disregarded. ButIonian philosophy, science, and literature could not emerge full-grown, like

Venus, from the waves of the sea. It is more reasonable to assign to Greekscience the credit of daring to substitute the rule of intellect for religioustradition and bringing into the full light of reason the secrets hitherto kept bythe priests in the shade of the temples. The Greeks themselves were the firstto acknowledge the debt they owed to Egypt, and Solon, Thales, Pythagoras,Plato, and many others, according to the Greek historians, are reputed to havevisited Egypt.

Thales was the first great philosopher of Ionia, and the founder of theschool of Miletus. Most writers now believe that he visited Egypt and othercountries of the Near East about the beginning of the sixth century. Besidesphilosophy he was equally famous for his knowledge of geometry, astronomyand meteorology17. Thales is symbolical of the age of transition before Greececould dispense with Oriental influence. He himself was half-Oriental ofCadmaean origin. The chief feature of Thales' teaching, which he bequeatedto his disciples was that water was the essential element, the "phusis", or

15. Metaph. A. I. 981.16. For a discussion of the "sources" comparer

Burnett, "Early Greek Philosophy." pp. 27, 38, 92.Robin, " La pensee grecque et les origines de Fesprit." p. 8 ss.17. That his knowledge had also a practical bent is illustrated by the storythat he had foreseen, by his meteorological foresight, an exceptional oliveharvest, and, with the business instinct of the Asiatic Greek, had bought

up all the oil presses in order to secure a monopoly of manufacture(Arist. Pol. L 45).



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38 UNIVERSITY REVIEWprimordial substance of the universe, a belief which had always been maintainedin Egyptian cosmogony18. "When the natural philosophers of Ionia fromThales to Heracleitus enquire into the nature of Being, they do not seem to domore than restate in another form what the Oriental cosmogonies had alreadysaid about the origin of the universe19."

About half a century later Pythagoras, the founder of the other greatsystem of philosophy called by Aristotle the "Italian" because it wasestablished in the Greek colonies of South Italy and Sicily, visited Egyptwhere he became, like Solon, a personal friend of Amasis, to whom he hadbeen introduced by Polycrates20, and met the high-priest Sonchis who initiatedhim into ancient Egyptian literature. The two chief doctrines of thePythagoreans were "metempsychosis" and the theory that numbers were theelements of all things. It is perhaps truer to say that Pythagoras, while acceptingthe belief inmetempsychosis, taught his initiated that continuous purifications,of which the most effective was the complete dedication to the practice ofscience, were the surest means by which the soul could avoid the painful destinyof passing endlessly up and down the scale of life. Fifth century Greek writers,such as Herodotus21, believed that the Greeks borrowed the doctrine of

metempsychosis from Egypt, but this is uncertain. It has been pointed out thatsuch a doctrine is inconsistent with the preservation of the body by embalming.Herodotus may have been misled by the Egyptian belief in immortality and thatthe soul could change its place of abode22. Pythagoras has also been called the"creator of mathematical science," but in his theory of numbers he has carriedmathematics into the field of metaphysics.

All ancient authorities agree that Plato visited Egypt where his chiefresidence was at Heliopolis. His knowledge of the country is shown by thenumerous observations in several of his works on its laws, customs and religion.He must have visited Naucratis, as in the "Phaedrus" Socrates, when relatingthe legend of the God Thoth, is represented by Plato as saying: "Akousatoinun peri naukratin". A fragment of a red granite obelisk, found at KomGa'ef, mentions a temple of Thoth, and it is possible that the temple to whichthis stone belonged was that of the God Thoth at Naucratis23.

There is no reason to doubt the story of Solon's travels and that, after hehad made his famous laws, he set out on his journeyings to let Athens, duringhis absence, digest the new constitution. According to Plutarch he first visitedEgypt where he lived, as he himself says, "Near Nilus' mouth, by fair Canopus*18. Tannery, "L'histoire de la science hellene." p. 7. Arist., Metaph., 1.3.19. Ib. Op. C. pp. 135-6, 150-2.

20. Diog. Laert. VIII. I. 3.21. Her. II. 123.22. How and Wells, Op. C. Vol. I. p. 226.23. Edgar. "Annales," XXII (1922). p. 6.



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40 UNIVERSITY REVIEWonly was Egypt32. In the fragments attributed to Hecataeus, Menelaus isrepresented as coming to Egypt, to Canopus, in search of Helen.Ionia was the land of origin of Greek prose, as it was of epic poetry, andthe Ionian dialect became the first literary language of all Greece. It seems tous so natural to write in prose that we forget that till the middle of theVlth Cent, all Greek literary composition

was inmetrical form. The questionmight therefore be asked why the Ionian writers abandoned this form to seekanother means of expression. At this time, under the impulse of the newknowledge coming from the feist, many changes were taking place. Philosophyand inquiry were taking the place of mythology; geography, history, andmathematics were opening new horizons. The study of the universe andscientific research required a new medium, which would be free from thecaprices and restraint of verse, to express new abstract and complex ideas,and it was more than an accident that the first "koine" of the Greek world

was created by the Ionians at the beginning of the Vlth Cent, on the bordersof the Oriental world, at a period when the first Greek historians, geographers,and philosophers were coming into closer contact with the civilisations ofEgypt and all the countries of the Persian Empire33. The discovery of theantiquity of Egyptian and all Eastern religion and civilisation engendered anew spirit of historical research. Tales of travel and geographical descriptionhad always been very popular in Greece. Homer has been called the firstgeographer. The memory of his verses34 would have already connected Egyptwith the Heroic Age of Greece. This interest in geography was not confinedto the antiquarian historians ("Logographoi"); and geographers ("Periegetai");probably owing

to their influence we find the same interest in geographicaldetail in the tragic poets of the next century, in such plays as the "Prometheus

Vinctus" and "Persae" of Aeschylus.Herodotus35 followed in the footsteps of Hecataeus and wrote his great

work, in Ionian prose, in the second half of the Vth. Cent. The works ofhis predecessors had helped to stimulate Herodotus' interest in Egypt andforeign lands. His work has been preserved for us entire, and has been an33. Except for *papyrus' (one of its Egyptian names was *Apu') which

supplied the Greeks with their writing material and made possible thediffusion of their literary works, there seems to have been no detectableinfluence of the Egyptian language on Greek. "Though we may neverlearn the manner in which Egyptian influence made its way into Hebrewand Greek literature, it may reasonably be doubted whether the one orthe other would have been what it is had it not been for Egypt." (Peet."A Comparative Study of the Literatures of Egypt, Palestine and

Mesopotamia.";34. Cf. Iliad. 381 ff.; Ody. IV, 127, 288 ff., 365, 385, 483; XIV 257 ff.35. For a full discussion of the date and extent of Herodotus' travels in Egypt,and the value of his history, see How and Wells "Commentary," Vol. I.Appendices IX and X.



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THE RELATIONS BETWEEN GREECEAND EGYPT 41inexhaustible source of information on all kinds of subjects from antiquity toour own times. Today the Egyptologists can go back to the native records and

monuments ? sources which were inaccessible to the Greeks of Herodotus'time ? for a fuller picture of Ancient Egypt. Book II is the account of histravels in the country.

The earlier chapters to chapter 98 are an account of what he himself saw inEgypt, and, as elsewhere in his history, where he is recording what he himselfobserved, all our subsequent knowledge has confirmed the accuracy of hisobservations. Many of his descriptions, for example, of the ibis, the circumcision of children, the rites of embalming and the methods of Pyramid building,have been described as "gems of veracity" by even the most severe of his

modern critics36. This early part of his book is still our best evidence for thedaily life of Egypt in the Vth Cent.

Chapters 99-146 are an account of the history of Egypt to the accession ofPsammetichus I. These are valueless in the strict sense of political history.They give us what Maspero37 describes as "the history of Egypt as told inthe streets of Memphis," and Maspero goes on to describe this part of thebook as "better than a course of history; it is a chapter of literary history;the tales in it are as Egyptian as those preserved in the papyri."

But it is with his account of the Saite Dynasty, Chapters 147 seq., that thecharacter of the history changes. Now along with the information from nativesources, he has the independent confirmatory evidence of the Greeks ofNaucratis who had been so intimately connected with all the fortunes of thedynasty. The accuracy of Herodotus' information in chronology, names, andthe broad outlines of all the events of Egyptian history38 during the two

36. Griffith in "Authority and Archaeology" referring to his account ofthe ibis.37. Maspero. " Contes Populaires." p. 32.38. Herodotus does not mention, except incidentally, the foreign wars andalliances of the wSai'teDynasty. The foreign policy of the Saite Kings wasdetermined by two principal factors; at the beginning, the desire toconsolidate their recently acquired independence, and to extend Egyptianinfluence at the expense of the declining power of Assyria; later, by the

necessity of combining all the lesser powers of the Eastern Mediterraneanin a common front against the approaching threat from Persia. Thedevelopment of Saite policy may be briefly traced in the history of Egypt'sforeign relations during the century and a half between the accession ofPsammetichus I (664) and the Persian conquest (525).Psammetichus I (664-610)

Gyges of Lydia supports Egypt against Assyria.Greek mercenaries in the service of E'gypt.Closer relations between Egypt and the Greek world.Jewish military colony established at Elephantine.Psammetichus invades Syria and captures Ashdod (Azotus).



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42 UNIVERSITY REVIEWcenturies which preceded his visit shows to what extent the Greek settlers ofthe Vllth and Vlth centuries had opened up to Greece new sources ofknowledge of Egypt and were able to supply the Greek travellers in thecountry with reliable sources of independent evidence. Herodotus still remainsour chief authority for the history of the early Greeks in Egypt, and, to agreat extent, for the history of the XXVIth Dynasty of which the nativerecords and monuments, located in the exposed Delta, have almost entirelydisappeared. Much of the magnificence which Herodotus saw in the Delta,especially in the temples and the relief work on the tombs, was the work ofthe Saite Renascence, which reached its peak of achievement in the reign ofAmasis. He travelled extensively in the country, visiting among other places,

Naucratis, Sais, Bubastis, Daphnai, Memphis, and Heliopolis, all of which hadbeen or were still centres of Greek residence.

A more romantic interest attached to the visit of Charaxos, the brother ofthe famous Sappho. Among the imports which passed through Naucratis wasthe red wine of Lesbos and Chios. Ch^axos was one of the chief wine

merchants of Lesbos and he came to Naucratis about 570 B.C., probably tomake personal contact with his agents in Egypt His visit proved profitable,but seduced by the charms of the beautiful courtsan Doricha, who, accordingto Herodotus, was also called Rhodopis, he prolonged his stay in the cityuntil his profits had dwindled, and he returned to Lesbos penniless. From a

Necho II (610-594)Decline of Assyrian power. Necho invades Palestine and defeatsJosiah at Megiddo.Advances as far as the Euphrates, but is defeated by Nebuchadrezzarat Carchemish (604) and is forced to evacuate Palestine.Necho's Phil-hellenism.

Psammetichus II (594-589)Expedition to Nubia.Graffiti at Abu Simbel.

Apries (Hophra) (589-570)Subjugation of Phoenicia.Fall of Jerusalem.Flight of Jews with Jeremiah to Greek colony at Daphnai.Apries' "Egyptian" troops attack Cyrene and are defeated.Anti-Greek reaction in Egypt.

Amasis (570-526)Relations with Croesus, Polycrates, and Cyrene.Cyrene and Cyprus become tributaries of Egypt.Croesus and fall of Sardis.Amasis tries to unite Egyptt, Babyylon, Lydia and Sparta in a

common anti-Persian policy.Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, abandons his alliance with Amasis, andis attacked by Sparta.Psammetichus III (525)Battle of Pelusium and end of XXVIth Dynasty.



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THE RELATIONS BETWEEN GREECEAND EGYPT ^lost poem39, lately recovered from the sands of Egypt, we learn that the

Doricha "scandal" had led to violent quarrels between brother and sister.But the citizens of Naucratis erected a statue to the memory of Doricha whohad the honour of being mentioned by the great poetess

Later poets, too, as Athenaeus tells us, liked to remember Doricha ofNaucratis. Poseidippos of Alexandria in the IHrd Cent. B.C. praises herbeauty: ?

"Long since your bones have mouldered; long, Doricha the bindingOf your curls, long all4the fragrance from your robe has passed away.That you flung round fair Charaxos and caught him in its windingAnd breast to breast lay drinking, until the dawn was grey,But the white page of Sappho lives on and lives for ever,Proclaiming your name also, your name twice blest, the while,

That Naucratis shall remember while ships shall breast her riverStanding in from seaward to the long lagoons of Nile"40.

Legend and tradition have done their utmost to immortalise the name ofRhodopis41. Her reputation in Vlth Cent. Greece equalled that of Phryneand Thais in later times. She had been launched on her career in the Greekworld of Egypt by an adventurer of Samos called Xanthus. When it wasnecessary to rebuild the temple at Delphi, which had been burnt to the ground,the Ddphians sent subscription lists all over the Greek world. At Naucratisthe contribution of the courtesan Rhodopis equalled that of the wealthy Greek

merchants and even of the Pharaoh himself. A curious story which attributedthe building of the Third Pyramid to a woman called Rhodopis was currentamong the Greeks of Herodotus' time. The story in different forms is foundin various Greek writers. Herodotus, who knew that the Pyramid was in factbuilt by Menkara rejects the story. Manetho ascribed the building of theThird Pyramid to an Egyptian queen of the Vlth Dynasty, called Nitokriswhom he describes as ("eumorphatate ton kat' auten, xanthe ten chroian")"more beautiful than any of her attendants and of rosy-cheeked complexion."There was another Nitocris, the daughter of Psammetichus I, the most famousof all the high-priestesses of Thebes. Perhaps the later legend, which transferredthe activities of Rhodopis from Naucratis to the Pharaoh's harem atMemphis,also gave her the aristocratic Egyptian name of Nitocris, and what popularlegend had attributed to Nitocris was now transferred to Rhodopis. It hasalso been suggested that the Greek adjective 'rhodopis' used by the

Greeks to describe the "red-painted" face of the Sphinx, whom the Greeksassumed to be a woman, was later mistaken for the name of the courtesan39. Pap. Oxyrh. Vol. I. Nos. 10, 13 (p. 11).40. Athenaeus "Deipnosophistai," translated by F. L. Lucas.41. Her. II. 135, 180, IV. 152. Strabo XVIII. I. 33. Athenaeus XIII. 6.Diodorus I. 64.



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44 UNIVERSITY REVIEWRhodopis, and so the Sphinx became a portrait of the 'rosy-cheeked' Dorichaof Naucratis

The story survived for many centuries, and Al Murtadi, an Arab historianof theMiddle Ages, tells us that in his time the Pyramid was believed to behaunted by the ghost of a beautiful woman who, by her beauty, robbed alltravellers of their senses. Tennyson in "The Princess" refers to her: "The

Rhodope that built the Pyramid", and Moore had heard of the legend:"Fair Rhodope, as story tells

The bright unearthly nymph who dwells'Mid senseless gold and jewels hidThe Lady of the Pyramid."If the "Lady of the Pyramid" presents some analogy to the stories of theLorelei, another story narrated by Strabo and Aelian is perhaps the basis ofour oldest fairy tale, 'Cinderella'. According to Aelian an eagle, according toStrabo the wind, carried off Rhodopis' sandals when she was bathing in theNile at Naucratis and deposited them at the feet of the Pharoah. He was sostruck by their beauty that he immediately sent messengers all over Egypt insearch of the owner, and at last Doricha was found and brought toMemphis

where she became the Pharaoh's favourite wife.The later history of Naucratis can be briefly summarised. Under Alexander

the Great a new life was imparted to the old Greek cities, but the foundationof Alexandria took away a great deal of the trade and importance of Naucratis.Yet there are indications of its independence and power at this time. Forexample, it was strong enough to issue its own autonomous coinage. Two coinsof the period have been found with the inscriptions on one side NAY for

Naucratis, and on the other ALA, probably for Alexandria.Under the Ptolemies the number of city-states was limited to three,Alexandria, Ptolemais, and Naucratis, and it was these three only which wereallowed the full political powers of Greek city-states. Cleomenes, the governorleft in Egypt by Alexander in 331 B.C. was born at Naucratis. Ptolemy IIbestowed special care on the city and its public monuments. From the Zenopapyri we learn that it was the chief port of call on the inland voyage between

Memphis and Alexandria and a stopping-place on the route between Pelusiumand the capital. The number of Greek men of letters, citizens of Naucratisduring the Ptolemaic age and later during the Roman period shows that itcontinued to be a centre of leisure and study. Among these were Apolloniusthe Sophist, Julius Pollux, teacher of the Emperor Commodus, and author ofthe "Onomasticon", and Athenaeus, author of the "Deipnosophistai".

However, by the end of the second century A.D., it had begun to decline,and from the evidence of the remains and other sources we may come to theconclusion that, as a city, it had ceased to exist at the beginning of theIllrd Cent. A.D. The excavations of Petrie and others have identified the



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THE RELATIONS BETWEEN GREECE AND EGYPT 45foundations of many of its temples and public buildings. They have alsobeen rewarded by a wonderful find of Greek pottery and incised dedicationson which are preserved the handwriting and names of the early inhabitantsof Naucratis. These are of great interest and value, especially to the study ofthe early Greek alphabets. As they date from as early as 620 B.C., they are,like the inscription at Abu Simbel, among the earliest Greek inscriptions which

we possess, and enable us to trace the history of the Ionic alphabet from itsinfancy. There are also specimens of the Lesbian dialect and alphabet, and, asthese specimens are probably within half a century of Sappho's writing, theysupply the most trustworthy evidence we now have of the orthography ofSappho herself.

Anyone who today visits Kom-el-Ga'ef will find little evidence of Naucratisand its long history of almost a thousand years. But Naucratis had played itspart; it had been for centuries the link between the Nile Valley and thecountries who were to become the founders of the later civilisation of Europe,but now Alexandria had taken its place as the centre of exchange between Eastand West. With Naucratis, as Pompeius of Mitylene wrote of Mycenae,"Time, too, has worked his will," but the labours of archaeologists and thedecipherment of the texts and monuments have uncovered much of what Timehad overlaid. Part of the wider debt which history owes to the work of Petrieand Champollion is our fuller knowledge of the centuries when Naucratis wasthe great factory site and commercial centre of the Mediterranean throughwhose eyes Egypt for centuries looked out on the civilisation of Greece.

Documents

The Relations Between Greece and Egypt During the VIIth and VIIIth Centuries B.C