Chapter 4 (part 7)

The kings of the XIIIth Dynasty were Theban and reigned at Thebes, and appear to have maintained their hold p. 16 in a considerable degree upon Upper Egypt; but the kings of the XIVth Dynasty reigned at Xoïs, in the Delta, and many of them were contemporaries of the kings in Upper Egypt. The kings of the XVth and XVIth Dynasties were Hyksos, or "Shepherd Kings," and their rule was overthrown by Seqenen-Ra, III., a king of the XVIIth Dynasty, and a Theban, probably about B.C. 1800. In the interval between the XIIth and the XVIIIth Dynasties the ceremonies connected with the worship of the gods in their temples, and the funerals of kings and officials, lost the magnificence which had characterized them under the XIIth Dynasty, and the building of pyramids and the making of rock-hewn tombs ceased for a period of some hundreds of years. With the rise to power of the Theban kings, who formed the XVIIIth Dynasty, a marvellous development of temple and funeral ceremonies took place, and, thanks chiefly to the vast quantities of spoil which were poured into Thebes by the victorious armies of Egypt on their return from Western Asia, the cult of the gods and of the dead assumed proportions which it had never reached before in Egypt. The chief deity of Thebes was Amen, the "Hidden," or perhaps "unknown," god, in whose honour a shrine was built to the north of the city, in a place called "Ap," or "Apt," by the Egyptians, and "Karnak" by the modern inhabitants of Luxor. It is impossible to say at present exactly when the first sanctuary of p. 17 this god was built at Thebes, but the discovery of the large collection of 457 votive statues of kings and officials and other objects, made by M. Legrain 1 in 1901-2, indicates that the foundation of the sanctuary of Amen dates from a very early period of Dynastic History. 2 Be this as it may, the god Amen seems to have enjoyed no special importance or popularity in Egypt until the XIIth Dynasty, when his sanctuary appears to have been rebuilt and enlarged; but so long as his priests were dependent for maintenance upon the revenues of Upper Egypt alone neither they nor their god can have enjoyed any very great wealth. When Seqenen-Ra III. defeated the Hyksos, and made himself master of all Egypt, and when Aahmes I. (Amasis) drove the Hyksos out from their stronghold Avaris, in the Delta, thus completing the work of the deliverance of the country from a foreign yoke, which Seqenen-Ra III. had begun, they attributed the success of their arms to their god Amen, who was from this time forward regarded not only as the principal god of the Egyptians, but as the "king of the gods." Soon after Amen-hetep I., the successor of Aahmes I., came to the throne, he made war against the Nubians, and became master of the gold-producing districts of the Eastern Sudan. His next care was to rebuild, or perhaps to repair and add to, the sanctuary p. 18 of Amen, and he founded the famous College of priests of Amen, whose counsels guided, both for good and for evil, the destinies of Egypt for several hundreds of years. He richly endowed these priests and their god and his temple, and on many of the coffins of this brotherhood are representations of members of the order in the act of worshipping his names, and of pouring out libations before his cartouches. The priests of Amen had, no doubt, good reason for worshipping Amen-hetep with such devotion.