Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/468

 460 EGYPT warlike, and has left monuments in all parts of Egypt. He conquered the Wa-Wa, a no- madic negro nation who had invaded Egypt. A second Pepi, surnamed Nefer-kera, is said to have reigned 100 years, but of this long reign little is known except that toward its end troubles broke out, the most serious and violent that had yet occurred in Egypt. The next king, Mentemsaf, was assassinated after a reign of a year. His sister Neit-aker, whom the Greek writers called Nitocris, was celebra- ted both for beauty and wisdom. She seized the reins of government, and for 12 years struggled energetically against the revolution- ary party. At the end of that time she invi- ted the murderers of her brother to a banquet in a subterranean gallery, and drowned them all by letting in the waters of the Nile upon them through a secret culvert. She soon after committed suicide to avoid the vengeance of their partisans. With her ended the 6th dy- nasty. A period of convulsion, dismemberment, and weakness succeeded, which lasted 436 years, and during which four dynasties reigned of whose history scarcely anything is known. The primitive art of Egypt attained its highest point under the 6th dynasty; but for more than four centuries afterward art and civiliza- tion seem to have been eclipsed by circumstan- ces of which we can only conjecture that the kingdom had been subdued by foreign invaders. Memphis and Heracleopolis were the capitals during this dark period. It terminated with the 10th dynasty, or nearly 20 centuries after Menes. These 20 centuries comprise the pe- riod known among modern Egyptologists as the old empire. A neW monarchy, which Egyptologists call the middle empire, began 3064 B. 0. with the accession of the llth dy- nasty, whose capital was Thebes. That city seems to have been founded during the period of anarchy, or at least of darkness, which fol- lowed the extinction of the 6th dynasty. From it came the six kings of the llth dynasty, whose names were alternately Entep and Men- tu-hotep, and who carried on for nearly two centuries an energetic struggle with the kings of the Delta, who had set up a separate king- dom and were perhaps foreign conquerors. The end of the struggle was the subjection of all Egypt to the Theban dynasty, one of whose monarchs is constantly designated on the monu- ments by the epithet " great." The 12th dy- nasty was also Theban, and was probably rela- ted to the llth. All its monarchs were called Osortasen or Amenemhe, except the last, a queen named Ra-sebek-nefru. Its epoch was one of prosperity, of peace at home and of conquest abroad. Osortasen I. made great acquisitions in Arabia and in Nubia. The record of his Arabian exploits is engraved on the rocks of Sinai. Osortasen III. was also a great conqueror, and subjugated Ethiopia. Among the works of this dynasty were the labyrinth and Lake Mceris. This lake, of which some remains yet exist, was the work of Amenemhe III., and showed a high degree of engineering skill. The art of sculpture under this dynasty was brought to a degree of perfection not subsequently surpassed. Its chief characteristics were delicacy, elegance, and harmony of proportion. The history of the 13th dynasty, which lasted from 2851 to 2398 B. C., was one long series of revolutions and internal and external troubles. Its kings were 16 in number, nearly all being named either Sevek-hotep or Nofre-hotep. No build- ing of this dynasty remains, and the history of its kings is consequently very obscure. To- ward its close, about 2400 B. C., a rival and probably a rebel line seems to have established itself at Xois in the Delta, where it reigned for 184 years, and constituted the 14th dynasty. This division of the nation into two hostile kingdoms doubtless facilitated and perhaps in- stigated the conquest of Egypt by the Hyksos or shepherd kings, who invaded the country about 2214, and soon made themselves masters of it, and ruled it for four centuries. Accord- ing to Mariette and others, these Hyksos were a combination of the nomadic hordes of Arabia and Syria. The chief of them, the tribe that led the rest, were the Hittites of the Bible, who are called Khitas by the Egyptian monuments. They treated the Egyptians with great cruelty, and defaced and destroyed the temples and other monuments with savage violence. Their kings established their capital at Avaris on the northeastern frontier, where they maintained a powerful garrison. These monarchs formed the 15th, 16th, and 17th dynasties. In course of time, like the Tartars in China, they were subdued by the superior civilization of the people they had conquered, and adopted Egyp- tian manners and names. The last king of the 17th dynasty, whose name was Apepi, reigned 61 years, and he is considered by many authori- " ties the Pharaoh in whose reign Joseph came into Egypt and was made governor over all the land. Soon after the conquest by the shep- herds many of the Egyptians took refuge in Ethiopia, whence in time they gradually re- turned and founded a native kingdom at Thebes, which probably paid tribute to the shepherds, who remained directly dominant in Middle and Lower Egypt. Of these Theban kings we know the names of only two, Tiaaken and Kames. The shepherd king Apepi required his vassal Tiaaken to worship his Canaanitish god Sutekh or Set, whom he had added to the Egyptian pantheon and to whom he had built a temple. The Theban refused, and war began. The contest was long and severe. It continued through the reign of Tiaaken and of his successor Kames, and terminated in that of Ahmes, the son of Kames. The shepherds were driven at last into their great fortress Avaris, where they were besieged by the Egyptians, and were finally permitted by treaty to depart into Palestine, though a portion of them were allowed to remain and cultivate a district in the east of Lower Egypt, in much