1. Herodotus states, on the authority of the priests, that Menes "built the temple of Hephasstus, which stands within the city, a vast edifice, well worthy of mention" (ii, 99). The divinity whom Herodotus thus identifies with Hephsestus was Ptah, "the creative power, the maker of all material things" (Wilkinson, in Rawlinson's Herod, ii, 289; Bunsen, Egypfs Place, i, 367, 384). Ptah was worshipped in all Egypt, but un- der different representations in different nomes; ordi- narily "as a god holding before him with both hands the Nilometer, or emblem of stability, combined with the sign of life" (Bunsen, i, 382). But at IMemphis his worship was so prominent that the primitive sanctuary of his temple was built by Menes : successive monarchs
MEMPHIS
U
MEMPHIS
greatly enlarged and beautified the structure by the ad- dition of courts, porches, and colossal ornaments. He- rodotus and Diodorus describe several of these additions and restorations, but nowhere give a complete descrip- tion of the temple, with measurements of its various dimensions (Herod, ii, 99, 101^108-110, 121, 13G, 153, 176; Diod. Sic. i, 45, 51, 62, 07). According to these authorities, Moeris built the northern gateway; Sesos- tris erected in front of the temple colossal statues (vary- ing from thirty to fifty feet in height) of himself, his wife, and his four sons; Rhampsinitus built the western gateway, and erected before it the colossal statues of Summer and Winter; Asychis built the eastern gate- way, which '• in size and beauty far surpassed the other three;" Psammetichus built the southern gateway; and Amosis presented to this temple "a recumbent colossus seventy-tive feet long, and two upright statues, each twenty feet high." The period between IMenes and Amosis, according to Brugsch, was 3731 years; accord- ing to Wilkinson only about 2100 years; but upon eitlier calculation the temple, as it appeared to 8trabo, was the growth of many centuries. Strabo (xvii, 807) describes this temple as "built in a very sumptuous manner, both as regards the size of the Naos and in other respects." The Dromos, or grand avenue leading to the temple of Ptah, was used for the celebration of bull-fights, a sport pictured in the tombs. But these fights were probably between animals alone-— no captive or gladia- tor being compelled to enter the arena. The bulls hav- ing been trained for the occasion, were brought face to face and goaded on by their masters, the prize being awarded to the owner of the victor. But though the bull was thus used for the sport of the people, he was the sacred animal of Memphis.
This chief temple was near the site of the modern village of Mit-Kahineh. The only important vestige of this great temple, probably second only, if second, to that of Amen-ra at Thebes, now called the temple of El-Karnak, is a broken colossal statue of limestone rep- resenting Kameses II, which once stood, probabh' with a fellow that has been destroyed, before one of the propyla of the temple, (See cut, p. 72.) This statue, complete from the head to below the knees, is the finest Egyptian colossus known. It belongs to the British government, which has never yet spared the necessarj' funds fur transporting it to ]'>ngland.
2. Near tliis temple was one of Apis, or Hapi, the cel- ebrated sacred bull, worshipped with extraordinary hon- ors at Memphis, from which the Israelites possibly took the idea of the golden calf. Apis was believed to be an incarnation of Osiris. The sacred bull was selected by certain outward symbols of the indwelling divinity; his color being black, with the exception of white spots of a peculiar shape upon his forehead and right side. The temple of Apis was one of the most noted structures of Memphis. It stood opposite the southern portico of the temple of Ptah ; and Psammetichus, who built that gateway', also erected in front of the sanctuary of Apis a magnificent colonnade, supported by colossal statues or Osiride pillars, such as may still be seen at the temple of Medinet Aim at Thebes (Ilerod. ii, 153). Through this colonnade the Apis was led with great pomp upon state occasions. Two stables adjoined the sacred vesti- bule (Strabo, xvii, 807),
The Serapeum, or temple of Serapis, or Osirhapi, that is, Osiris-Apis, the ideal corresiiondent to the animal, lay in the dest^rt to the westward, between the modern villages of Abu-Sir and Sakkarah, though to the west of both. Strabo describes it as very much exposed to sand-drifts, and in bis time ])artly buried by masses of Band heaped up by the wind (xvii, 807). The sacred cubit and other symbols used in measuring the rise of the Nile, were deposited in the temple of Serapis. Near this temple was the burial-place of the bulls Apis, a vast excavation, in which they were sepulchred in sar- cophagi of stone in the most costly manner. Diodorus (i, 85) describes the magnificence with which a deceased
Apis was interred and his successor installed at Mem- phis. The place appropriated to the burial of the sa- cred bulls was a gallery some 2000 feet in length by twenty in height and width, hewn in the rock without the city. This gallery was divided into numerous re- cesses upon each side ; and the embalmed bodies of the sacred bulls, each in its own sarcophagus of granite, were deposited in these '"sepulchral stalls." A few years since this burial-place of the sacred bulls was dis- covered by M. Mariette, and a large number of the sar- cophagi have already been opened. These catacombs of mummied bulls were approached from Memphis by a paved road, having colossal lions on either side.