Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/342

 326 MEMPHIS. Psammetichus (Herod, ii. 1 53 ; Atlian, Hist. An. xi. 10; Clemens Alexand. Faedag. iii. 2; Strab. xvii. p. 807), stood opposite tlie soutliern portal of the e;reat temple of Ptah or Hephaestos, and was celebrated for its colonnades, through which the pro- cessions of Apis were conducted. Here was also an oracle of Apis, in connection with one of Osiris and Isis (Plin. viii. 46 ; Pausan. vii. 22.) This temple was the cathedral of Aegypt, and not only esta- blished there a numerous, opulent, and learned col- lege of priests, but also attracted thither innumerable worshippers, who combined commercial with reli- gious purposes. 4. The temple of Serapis, in the western quarter of Memphis. This Serapis was of earlier date than the Alexandrian deity of similar name. To the Memphian Serapeium was attached a Nilo-meter, for gauging and recording the periodical overflows of the river. It was removed by Constantine as a relic of paganism, but replaced by his successor Julian. (Socrat. Hist. Eccles. i. 18 ; Sozomen, v. 2 ; comp. Diodor. i. 50, 57 ; Senec. Quacst. Nat. iv. 2 ; Plin. viii. 46.) 5. A temple of Phre, or the Sun, mentioned only in the Eosetta inscription (Letronne, Eecueil des Jnscr. Grecqties et Lat. de V Egypte; Brugsch, In- script. Rosettan!) 6. The temple of the Cabeiri (Herod, iii. 37), into which none but the high-priest might lawfully enter. The statues of the pigmy gods were burned by Cambyses, and the temple mutilated. 7. The temple of Ptah or Hephaestos, the ele- mental principle of fire, worshipped under the form of a Pygmy. This was the most ancient shrine in Memphis, being coeval with its foundation. (Diodor. i. 45 ; Herod, ii. 99, iii. 37 ; Strab. xvii. 807 ; Am- mian. xvii. 4.) It was enlarged and beautified by several successive monarchs, apparently through a spirit of rivalry with the great buildings at Thebes. (1.) Moeris erected the great northern court (Herod. ii. 101 ; Diod. i. 51). (2.) Rameses the Great raised in this court six colossal figures of stone, — portrait-statues of himself, his queen, and their four sons. (Herod, ii. 108—110; Strab. xvii. p. 807.) (3.) Rhampsinitus built the western court, and erected two colossal figures of summer and winter. (Herod, ii. 121 ; Diodor. i. 62 ; Wilkinson, M. and C. i. p. 121.) (4.) Asychis added the eastern court. (Herod, ii. 1 36.) It was, in the opinion of Herodotus, by far the noblest and most beautiful of the four quadrangles. (5.) Psammetichus, the Saite king, added the south court, in commemoration of his victory over the Dodecarchy (Polyaen. Stratag. vii. 3; Herod, ii. 153; Diodor. i. 67); and Amasis (Herod, ii. 176) erected or restored to its basis the colossal statue of Ptah, in front of the southern portico. From the priests of the Memphian temples, the Greeks derived their knowledge of Aegyptian annals, and the rudiments also of their philosophical systems. It was at Memphis that Herodotus made his longest sojourn, and gained most of his inform- ation respecting Lower Aegypt. Democritus also resided five years at Memphis, and won the favour of the priests by his addiction to astrological and hiero- glyphical studies. (Diog. Laert. Democrit. ix. 34.) Memphis reckoned among its illustrious visitors, in early times, the legislator Solon, the historian Heca- taeus, the philosophers Thales and Cleobulus of Lindus ; and in a later age, Strabo the geographer, and Diodorus the Sicilian. The village of Mitra-nieh, half concealed in a MENAEKUM. grove of patm-trees, about 10 miles S. of Gizeh, marks the site of the ancient Memphis. The suc- cessive conquerors of the land, indeed, have used its ruins as a stone-quarry, so that its exact situation has been a subject of dispute. JIajor Rennell (^Geography of Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 121, seq.), however, brings incontestable evidence of the corre- spondence of Mitranieh with Jlemphis. Its re-, mains extend over many hundred acres of ground, which are covered with blocks of granite, broken obelisks, columns and colossal statues. The prin- cipal mound corresponds probably with the area of the great temple of Ptah. There are several accounts of the appearance of Memphis at different eras. Strabo saw the Hephaes- teium entire, although much of the city was then in ruins. In the twelfth century a. d. it was visited by the Arabian traveller Ab-dallatif, who was deeply impressed with the spectacle of grandeur and deso- lation. " Its ruins offer," he says, " to the spectator a union of things which confound him, and which the most eloquent man in the world would in vain attempt to describe." He seems to have seen at least one of the colossal statues of the group of Rameses in the northern court of the Hephaesteium. Among innumerable "idols," as he terms them, he "measured one which, without its pedestal, was more than 30 cubits long. This statue was formed of a single piece of red granite, and was covered with a red varnish." (Ab-dallatif, De Sacy's Translation, 4to. p. 184.) Sir William Hamilton (^Aegijptiaca, 4to. p. 303) visited the spot, and says, that " high mounds enclose a square of 1800 yards from N. to S., and 400 from E. to W. The entrance in the centre of each side is still visible. The two principal entrances faced the desert and the river " (that is W. and E.). He entered by the latter, and found immediately " thirty or forty large blocks of very fine red granite, lying on the ground, evidently forming parts of some colossal statues, the chief ornaments of the temple." The district in which these remains are found is still termed Memfhj the Coptic population, and thus helps to confirm the identity of the village of Mitra- nieh with the ancient capital of Aegypt. [W.B.D.] MENAENUM or MENAE (Me^ai', Ptol., Steph. B. ; Viivaivov, Diod. : Eth. Mf:Vo.tos, Steph. ; but coins have MeVaiyos; Menaenus, Cic; Menaeninus, Plin. : Mineo), an inland city of Sicily, about 1 8 miles W. of Leontini. It was a city of the Siculi, and not a Greek colony, but, according to Diodorus, was not an ancient settlement of that people, but first founded by their king Ducetius, in b. c. 459. (Diod. xi. 78.) It was situated at a distance of about 2 miles from the celebrated lake and sanc- tuary of the Palici [Paltcorum Lacus] (Steph. B. s. v.) ; and Ducetius appears, a few years after- wards, to have removed the inhabitants again from his newly built city, and to have founded another, in the immediate neighbourhood of the sacred lake, to which he gave the name of Palica (Diod. xi. 88, where the reading MeVas for Ne'as, suggested by Cluver, and adopted by Wesseling, is at least very probable, though it is difiicult to understand how Diodorus could call it the native city of Ducetius, if it had, in fact, been only founded by him.) This new city, however, was destroyed soon after the death of Ducetius (Diod. xi. 90), and it is probable that the inhabitants settled again at Menaenurn. The latter city, though it never attained to any great importance, continued to subsist down to a