Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/446

414* "Whether they belonged to the sacerdotal cast, we do not know. We are inclined to the latter supposition in some degree by the profoundly religious character of the ceremonies that accompanied the inception of a building, and by the accounts left by the ancients of those priests whom they called the Chaldæans."

And since "when it [architecture] is carried so far as it was in Chaldæa it demands a certain amount of science," the priests who alone possessed this science must have been the architects.

Sufficient proofs of the alleged relation among the Egyptians are supplied by ancient records, Rawlinson says:—

"Although their early architecture is almost entirely of a sepulchral character, yet we have a certain amount of evidence that, even from the first, the had a place in the regards of the Egyptians, though a place very much inferior to that occupied by the Tomb." Summing up the general evidence Duncker writes:—

"In the achievement won by Egyptian art the priests took a leading part. The buildings of the temples and the tombs of the kings could only be erected after their designs; for in these essentially sacred things, sacred measures and numbers, were concerned."

Some special illustrative facts may be added. Of Mentuhotep it is recorded that—

"As chief architect of the king he promoted the worship of the gods, and instructed the inhabitants of the country according to the best of his knowledge, 'as God orders to be done.'"

Here are passages relating to the 19th and 21st dynasties respectively. Bekenkhonsu, on his statue is made to say:—

"'I was a great architect in the town of Amon.' 'I was a holy father of Amon for twelve years.' 'The skilled in art, and the first prophet of Amon.'"

"Hir hor, first of a succession of priest-kings, calls himself, when represented by the side of the king:—'Chief architect of the king, chief general of the army.'"

And that the priest, if he did not always design, always directed, may be safely inferred; for as Rawlinson says, "it is. . . tolerably certain that there existed in ancient Egypt a religious censorship of Art."

Of evidence furnished by Greek literature, the first comes to us from the Iliad. The priest Chryse, crying for vengeance, and invoking Apollo's aid, says:

"O Smintheus! If ever I built a temple gracious in thine eyes, or if ever I burnt to thee fat flesh of thighs of bulls or goats, fulfill thou this my desire; let the Danaans pay by thine arrows for my tears."

By which we see that the priestly function of sacrificer is joined with the function of architect, also, by implication, priestly. Later indications are suggestive if not conclusive. Here is a sentence from Curtius:

"But the immediate connection between the system of sacred architecture and the Apolline religion is clear from Apollo being himself