The mythological system of the time of Menes is as- cribed by Bunsen to " the amalgamation of the religion of Upper and Lower Egj'pt ;" religion having " already united the two provinces before the power of the race of This in the Thebaid extended itself to Memphis, and before the giant work of Menes converted the Delta from a desert, checkered over with lakes and morasses, into a blooming garden." The political union of the two divisions of the country was effected by the builder of Memphis. " Menes founded the Einjnre of Eipjp hy raising the people who inhabited the valley of the Nile from a little provincial station to that of a historical nation" {lujjipfs Place, i, 4-11 ; ii, 409).
2. It ;vould appear from the fragments of Manetho's historT|- that Memphis continued the seat of government of kings of all Egypt as late as the reign of Venephes, the third successor of Menes. Athothis, the son and successor of Menes, built the palace there, and the king first mentioned built the pyramids near Cochome (Cory's Ann. Frag. 2d ed. p. 94-97) ; pyramids are scarcely seen but at Memphis, and Cochome is probably the name of part of the Memphitic necropolis, as will be noticed later. The 3d dynasty was of Memphitic kings, the 2d and part of the 1st having probably lost the undivided rule of Egypt. The 4th dynasty, which succeeded about B.C. 2440, was the most powerful Memphitic line, and under its earlier kings the pyramids of El-Ghizeh were built. It is probable that other Egyptian lines were tributary to this, which not only commanded all the re- sources of Egypt to the quarries of Syene on the south- ern border, but also worked the copper mines of the Si- naitic Peninsula. The 5th dynasty appears to have been contemporary with the 4th and 6th, the latter being a Memphitic house which continued the succession. At the close of the latter Memphis fell, according to the opinion of some, into the hands of the Shepherd kings, foreign strangers who, more or less, held Egypt for 500 years. At the beginning of the ISth dynasty we once
more find hieroglyphic notices of Memphis after a si- lence of some centuries. During that dynasty and its two successors, while the Egyptian empire lasted, jM em- phis was its second city, though, as the sovereigns were Thebans, Thebes was the capital.
3. After the decHne of the empire, we hear little of ■ Memphis until the Persian period, when the provincial dynasties gave it a preference over Thebes as the chief city of Egypt. Herodotus informs us that Cambyses, enraged at the opposition he encountered at Memphis, committeil many outrages upon the city. He killed the sacred Apis, and caused his priests to be scourged. '• He opened the ancient sepulchres, and examined the bodies that were buried in them. He likewise went into the tem- ple of Hephaestus (Ptah), and made great sport of the image. ... He went also into the temple of the Cablri, which it is unlawful for any one to enter except the priests, and, not only made sport of the images, but even burned them" (Herod, iii, 37). Memphis never recov- ered from the blow inflicted by Cambyses, With the Greek rule, indeed, its political importance somewhat rose, and while Thebes had dwindled to a thinly-popu- lated collection of small towns, Memphis became the native capital, where the sovereigns were crowned by the Egyptian priests; but Alexandria gradually de- stroyed its power, and the policy of the Komans hastened a natural decay.
4. At length, after the Arab conquest, the establish- ment of a succession of rival capitals, on the opposite bank of the Nile— El-Fustat, El-Askar, Ei-Kata-e, and El-Kahireh, the later Cairo — drew away the remains of its population, and at last left nothing to mark the site of the ancient capital but ruins, which were long the quarries for any who wished for costh^ marbles, massive columns, or mere blocks of stone for the numerous mosques of the Moslem seats of government. The Arabian physician, Abd-el-Latif, who visited Memphis in the 13th century, describes its ruins as then marvel- lous beyond description (see De Sacy's translation, cited by Brugsch, Histoire iVEi/ijpte, p. 18). Abidfeda, in the 14th centurj-, speaks of the remains of Memphis as im- mense; for the most part in a state of decay, thongh some sculptures of variegated stone still retained a re- markable freshness of color {Descriptio Algypii, ed. ^li- chaelis, 1776). At length, so complete was the ruin of Memphis that for a long time its very site was lost. Pococke could find no trace of it. Kecent explorations, especially those of Messrs. Mariette and Linant, have brought to light many of its antiquities, which have been dispersed in the museums of Europe and America. Some specimens of sculpture from Memphis adorn the Egyptian hall of the Bntish Museum ; other monuments of this great city are in the Abbott Museum in New York. The dikes and canals of Menes still form the basis of the system of irrigation for Lower Egypt ; the insignificant village of Mit-Rahineh occupies nearly the centre of the ancient capital.
IV. Edifices, Ruins, and Monuments. — Of the buildings of Memphis, none remain above ground; the tombs of the neighboring necropolis alone attest its importance. It is, however, necessary to speak of those temples which ancient writers mention, and especially of such of these as are known by remaining fragments.