Chapter VIII: The Hieroglyphics of Thothmes III

_Translation of the First Side._

"The Horus, powerful Bull, crowned in Uas, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, 'Ra-men-Kheper.' He has made as it were monuments to his father Haremakhu; he has set up two great obelisks capped with gold at the first festival of Triakonteris. According to his wish he has done it, Son of the Sun, Thothmes, beloved of Haremakhu, ever-living."

HAWK (=bak=) _Horus_. Horus is a solar deity, and represented the
rising sun, or the sun in the horizon. Horus is here represented by a
hawk, surmounted by the double crown of Egypt called PSCHENT. The hawk
flew higher than any other bird of Egypt, and therefore became the
usual emblem of any solar deity, just as the eagle, from its lofty
soaring, is an emblem of sublimity, and therefore an emblem of St.
John. The double crown named PSCHENT is composed of a conical hat
called HET, the crown and emblem of Upper Egypt, and the TESHER, or
red crown, the emblem of Lower Egypt. The wearer of the double crown
was supposed to exercise authority over the two Egypts. The oblong
form upon the top of which the sacred hawk, the symbol of Horus,
stands, is thought by some to be a representation of the standard of
the monarch. Dr. Birch thinks it is the ground plan of a palace, and
the avenue and approaches to the palace.

BULL (=Mnevis=). The _Mnevis_ was the name of the black bull, or
sacred ox of Heliopolis. It was regarded as an avatar or incarnation
of a solar deity. On the London Obelisk Mnevis appears twelve times on
the palatial titles, and twice on the lateral columns of Rameses II.

ARM WITH STICK (=khu=) _powerful_, is the common symbol of power. In
the Bible also an arm stands for power. "The Lord brought us forth out
of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm" (Deut. xxvi.
8). There are twelve palatial titles on the obelisk, three on each
face, and in eleven cases occurs the arm holding a stick in its hand.
In each case this hieroglyph may be rendered by the word _powerful_.
The same hieroglyph appears several times in both the central and
lateral columns.

CROWN (=kha=) _crowned_, because placed on the head at the time of
coronation. This hieroglyph is thought by some to be a part of a
dress.

OWL (=em=) _in_, is a preposition.

SCEPTRE (=Uas=) _Western Thebes_. The sceptre here depicted is that
carried in the left hand of Theban kings. It is composed of three
parts, the top is the head of a greyhound, the shaft is the long stalk
of some reed, perhaps that of the papyrus or lotus, while the curved
bottom represents the claws of the crocodile, an animal common in
Upper Egypt in ancient times. This sceptre, called KAKUFA, was often
represented by an ostrich feather, the common symbol of truth, and
stands for _Uas_, the name of that part of Thebes which stood on the
western bank of the Nile. The sceptre as an ideograph means power, in
the same manner as the sceptre carried by our monarch on state
occasions is a badge of authority.

Thus the palatial title may be rendered, "The powerful bull, crowned in Western Thebes."

Above the cartouche will be noticed a group of four hieroglyphs, namely, a _reed_, _bee_, and two _semicircles_. This group is usually placed above the cartouche containing the prenomen or sacred name of the king, and the four are descriptive of the authority exercised by the monarch. They may be thus explained:--

REED (=su=) is the symbol of Upper Egypt, where reeds of this kind
were probably common, especially by the banks of the Nile. A flower or
plant is often used as the emblem of a nation.

In ancient times the vine was the emblem of the king of Judah, and on
the same principle the reed was the emblem of Upper Egypt. The
semicircle below is called _tu_, and here stands for king. The two
hieroglyphs together are called SUTEN, and may be rendered "king of
Upper Egypt."

BEE (=kheb=) is the emblem of Lower Egypt.

The four hieroglyphs are called SUTEN-KHEB, and mean "king of Upper
and Lower Egypt."

The bee was an insect that received great attention among the ancient Egyptians. They were kept in hives which resembled our own, and when flowers were not numerous, the owners of bees often carried their hives in boats to various spots on the banks of the Nile where many flowers were blooming. The wild bees frequented the sunny banks and made their habitations in the clefts of the rocks. Moses says that God made His people to "suck honey out of the rock," and the Psalmist repeats the same idea, when he says, "with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee."

Below this group of hieroglyphs stands what is called the cartouche of Thothmes III. The word was first used by Champollion, and signifies a scroll or label, or escutcheon on which the name of a king is inscribed. The oval form of the cartouche was probably taken from the scarabeus or sacred beetle, an emblem of the resurrection and immortality; and thus the very framework on which the king inscribed his name spoke of the eternity of a future state. The form, however, may be from a plate of armour. The cartouche is somewhat analogous to a heraldic shield bearing a coat of arms, and its object was probably to give prominence to the king's name, just as an aureole in Christian art gives prominence to the figure it encloses.

The three hieroglyphs charged in this cartouche make up the divine name of Thothmes, and consist of a solar disk, chessboard, and beetle. Each monarch had two names, respectively called prenomen, or divine name, somewhat analogous to our Christian name, and the nomen, corresponding to our surname. The prenomen is called the divine name, because it contains the name of the god from whom the king claims his descent, and often the deities also by whom he is beloved, and with whom he claims relationship. The king not only claimed descent from the gods, but he was accounted by his subjects as a representation of the deity.

The title of Pharaoh applied to their kings is derived from Phaa or Ra, the midday sun, and the notion was taught that kingly power was derived from the supreme solar deity. The divine right of kings was thus an article of faith among the ancient Egyptians. He was the head of their religious system, defender of the faith; and in all matters, ecclesiastical as well as civil, the king was supreme. He was consequently instructed in the mysteries of the gods, the services of the temples, and the duties of the priesthood. The Theban kings claimed relationship with Amen, the supreme god of Thebes; and most kings also claimed Ra, the supreme solar deity, worshipped at Heliopolis, as their grand ancestor.

SUN'S DISK (=aten=) was the emblem of Ra, who was said to have in
perfection all the attributes possessed by inferior deities. He was
all in all; from him came, and to him return, the souls of men.

Ra or Phra was, properly speaking, the mid-day sun; and as the sun
shines with greatest power and brightness at mid-day, the attributes
of majesty and authority were intimately associated with this deity.
Amen-Ra, the god of Thebes, was supposed to possess the attributes of
Amen and Ra.

The ATEN was originally circular, and thus in shape resembled the
sun's disk, but in many inscriptions the shape is oval, or that of an
oblate-spheroid, considerably flattened at top and bottom.

CHESSBOARD (=men=) is by many thought to be a battlemented wall, but
it is probably a chessboard; for at Thebes a picture represents
Rameses III. playing a game at chess, or some kindred game. What
appears to be a battlement is really the chessmen on the board.

MEN, as part of the divine name of Thothmes, may be the shortened form
of Amen, the supreme god of Thebes, just as Tum is the shortened form
of Atum. Ptah was the supreme god of Memphis, and Ra the supreme god
of Heliopolis. Amen literally means "the concealed one," and was the
name applied to the sun after it had sunk below the horizon. He was
reputed to be the oldest and most venerable of deities, called the
"dweller in eternity," and the source of light and life. Before the
creation he dwelt alone in the lower world, but on his saying "come,"
the sun appeared, and drove away the darkness of night. Sometimes he
is called Amen-Ra, and his principal temple was at Thebes. He is
generally represented by the figure of a man with his face concealed
under the head of a horned ram. The figure is coloured blue, the
sacred colour of the source of life.

SACRED BEETLE (=kheper=) usually called _scarabeus_ or _scarabee_. It
was thought that the beetle hid its eggs in the sand, where they
remained until the young beetles broke forth to life. Thus the
scarabeus became the symbol of the resurrection and a future life.

According to Cooper, the sacred beetle was in the habit of laying its
eggs in a ball of clay, which it kept rolling until the eggs were
vivified by the heat of the sun. The beetle thus became the emblem of
the sun, the vivifier, and was therefore consecrated to Ra, who is on
that account called Ra-Kheper.

When dedicated to Ra, the beetle holds the cosmic ball between its
front legs. Sometimes it is an emblem of the world, and is then
consecrated to Ptah, the creator of heaven and earth.

The divine name, or prenomen, of Thothmes is thus _Ra-Men-Kheper_,
frequently read _Men-Khepera-Ra_, and is made up of three hieroglyphs,
which stand for Ra, Amen, and Ptah, the supreme gods respectively
worshipped at Heliopolis, Thebes, and Memphis. From these three great
deities Thothmes thus claims his descent.

The cartouche with the divine name of Thothmes occurs four times on the obelisk, once on each side at the top of the central column of hieroglyphs. The sacred beetle occurs in two other places in the central columns of Thothmes, but never appears in the eight lateral columns of Rameses.

EYE (=ar=) _made_. As a verb _ar_ signifies to make.

ZIGZAG (=en=) _has_. After verbs the zigzag means _has_, and is
therefore a sign of perfect.

HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _he_. The usual personal pronoun.

OWL (=mu=) _as it were_.

CHESSBOARD (=men=) _monument_.

VASE (=nu=). The vase represents an _ampulla_ or bottle. The three
vases in this place are used as a determinative to _men_, monument;
and being three in number, indicate plurality, making MEN into MENU,
monuments.

HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _his_. This figure is often called cerastes.
Standing by itself it usually stands for the possessive pronoun _his_.

ZIGZAG (=en=) _to_. Used here as a preposition.

SEMICIRCLE and CERASTES (=tef=) _father_. The semicircle is here an
alphabetic phonetic, equal to _t_, and with _ef_ makes TEF, meaning
father.

HAWK (=bak=) _Horus_. The hawk alone stood for any solar deity. With
the solar disk on the head and two ovals by the side, as in the
present hieroglyph, it stood for Haremakhu, the sun in the horizon.
The two ovals are called KHU, and stand for the eastern and western
horizons.

Thothmes III. claims Horus as his father, and it is moreover evident from the above that the obelisk itself is dedicated to the rising sun. The great Sphinx at the pyramids of Ghizeh is also dedicated to Haremakhu, and this may account for the fact that the gigantic figure faces the east, the region of the rising sun.

THRONE BACK (=es=). This may be the back of a chair. It is the old
hieroglyph for the letter _s_.

REEL (=ha=) _set up_. This hieroglyph is by some thought to be the leg
of a stool.

ZIGZAG (=en=) _has_.

HORNED SNAKE (=ef=) _he_.

OBELISK (_tekhen_) is in this place an image or picture of the thing
spoken of, namely obelisk. This hieroglyph is therefore an iconograph,
or representation. Two obelisks are here depicted, to indicate that
two were set up. According to Cooper the obelisk was an emblem of the
sun--the clearest symbol of supreme deity. The Egyptian name was
TEKHEN, a word signifying mystery, and it was regarded among the
initiated as the esoteric symbol of light and life. The obelisk was
consequently dedicated to Horus, the god of the rising sun, while the
pyramid, the house of the dead, was dedicated to Tum, or Atum, the god
of the setting sun. Hence obelisks are found only on the east bank of
the Nile, while pyramids are built on the west side, by the edge of
the silent desert.

SWALLOW (=ur=) _great_. The swallow is an emblem of greatness, and
therefore may be called an ideograph, or symbolic hieroglyph.

Two swallows are here depicted, because there are two obelisks, and
the dual form extends to the adjective.

TWO LEGS (=bu=) _capped_. There are two legs, to express duality, and
thus agree with the preceding substantive, two obelisks. A human leg
is the original alphabetic sign for letter _b_. The letter _u_ is a
plural termination.

SEMICIRCLE (=ta=) _the_. Under the right leg is a semicircle, which is
here the feminine article to agree with the little triangular
hieroglyph below.

PYRAMIDION. The summit of the obelisk, known as the pyramidion, from
its resemblance to a small pyramid, is here represented by a small
triangle. This hieroglyph represents the top or cap of the obelisk,
and is a determinative to _capped_.

OWL (=mu=) _with_. Owl, as a preposition, has the same meaning as the
prepositions _with_, _from_, _by_--the usual signs of the ablative
case.

BOWL (=neb=) _gold_. Under this crater or bowl will be noticed three
small dots, probably designed to represent grains of the metal
intended.

SCEPTRE (=user=) is here used as a determinative of metal; and some
Egyptologists think that when it accompanies the bowl called NEB, the
metal referred to is not gold but copper.

Among the hieroglyphs on the London Obelisk may be found many ideographs or pictures of outward objects, each of which stands for an attribute or abstract idea. Thus arm stands for power, interior of a hall for festivity, lizard for multitude, beetle for immortality, sceptre for power, crook for authority, Anubis staff for plenty, vulture for queenly royalty, asp for kingly royalty, ostrich feather for truth, ankh or crux ansata for life, weight for equality, adze for approval, pike for power, horn for opposition, the bird called bennu for lustre, pyramous loaf for giving, hatchet called neter for god, lion's head for victory, swallow for greatness.

In addition to the obelisk, the other iconographs or picture representations found on the London Obelisk are the sun, moon, star, heaven, pole, throne, abode, altar, tree.

From this hieroglyphic sentence we learn that the pyramidion of each obelisk was covered or capped with some metal, probably copper. This was done to protect the monument from lightning and rain. Cooper draws attention to the fact that obelisks were capped with metals, and pyramids were covered with polished stones. The pyramidia of Hatasu's obelisks at Karnak were covered with gold. The venerable obelisk still standing at Heliopolis had a cap of bronze, which remained until the Middle Ages, and was seen by an Arabian physician about A.D. 1300.

The avarice of greed and the rapacity of war have long since stripped every obelisk of its metal covering.

DISK (=aten=) _time_. The solar disk is usually a symbol of Ra, but as
the sun is the measurer of times and seasons, the disk sometimes
stands for time, as it does here.

The hieroglyphs following are defaced. Some think one hieroglyph is a
cerastes, but Dr. Birch says the group probably consisted of a harpoon
and three vertical lines--a common sign of plurality. Thus the
preceding sentence would be "at time the first," that is, "at the
first time."

OWL (=mu=) _in_. Here a preposition governing _time_.

PALACE (=seh=) _Festival of the Triakonteris_. This hieroglyph with
three compartments probably represents the interior of a palace. It is
the usual symbol for a festival. With two small thrones inside, as
seen here, the hieroglyph probably represents the interior of a
palace; and is the ideograph for the festival called triakonteris,
because celebrated every thirty years. This cyclical festival was
celebrated with great festivity. The space of time between two
successive feasts was called a triakontennial period. The thrones
which distinguish the triakonteris from an ordinary festival indicates
also the royal character of this great feast.

HALL (=seh=) is the usual hieroglyph for an ordinary festival, and
represents the interior of a hall. It consists of two compartments.
The pole in the centre supporting the roof is here a carved post.
_Seh_ is here used as a determinative to the preceding hieroglyph.
The symbol for festival here stands on a large semicircle, with an
inscribed diamond-shaped aperture. This semicircle with the
diamond-shaped aperture is called HEB, and often appears alone as the
hieroglyph for _festival_.

Thothmes III. reigned fifty-four years, and therefore witnessed the beginning of two triakontennial periods. Probably he set up the two obelisks at the first triakonteris that happened during his reign.

The hieroglyphs following seem to be zigzag, line, semicircle, zigzag, hoe, mouth, mouth, cerastes, semicircle, two arms united, line, eye, zigzag, cerastes. These are defaced somewhat on the obelisk, and therefore doubtfully copied in the transcript. Dr. Birch translates them: "according to his wish he has done it." The student should notice that the hieroglyphs hoe and mouth together mean _wish_.

Eye (=ar=) here means _done_; and zigzag _has_, the usual sign of perfect.

The nomen is the family name or surname of the monarch. It may be made up of iconographs, ideographs, syllabic signs, and alphabetic phonetics; or the name may consist of a combination of all these. If it be composed of the first three, then the nomen corresponds to what in heraldry is called a rebus. The name of Thothmes is made up of the well-known sacred bird called _ibis_, and the triple twig called _mes_.

GOOSE (=sa=) _son_. The goose was a common article of food in Egypt,
and as hieroglyphs for the most part are representations of common
objects, we find the goose repeatedly figured on the inscriptions.
Sometimes it stands for _Seb_, the father of the gods, the _Saturn_ of
classic mythology.

SOLAR DISK (=aten=) _the sun_. It stands for Ra, the sun-god. The
goose and disk mean "son of the sun," and almost invariably precede
the nomen of the king, because kings were thought to be lineal
descendants of the supreme solar deity.

IBIS. A common bird in Egypt, resembling the crane, phoenix, and
bennu. It was sacred to, and an emblem of, Thoth, the god of letters,
who is usually depicted with an ibis head. As Thoth represented both
the visible and concealed moon, he was fitly represented by the sacred
bird ibis, which on account of its mingled black and white feathers,
was an effective emblem of both the dark and illumined side of the
moon. The ibis alone on a standard, as depicted on the obelisk, stood
for Thoth, the first syllable of the word Thothmes.

TRIPLE TWIG (=mes=) means _born_, and is a symbol of birth. Thus
_ibis_ and _mes_ together form the rebus Thothmes, which name thus
means, "born of Thoth."

In this particular cartouche will be noticed a small scarabeus or beetle, which is an emblem of existence and immortality, and probably indicates the self-existent nature and immortality of Thothmes; but this part of the obelisk is much defaced, and what follows is well nigh obliterated.

In ancient times kings and great persons were frequently named after the god they worshipped; thus among the Egyptians, Rameses from Ra, Amen-hotep from Amen, Seti from Set, etc. Similarly in Scripture we find Joshua, Jeremiah, Jesus, derived from Jehovah; Jerubbaal, Ethbaal, Jezebel, Belshazzar, and many others, from Baal or Bel, the sun-god; Elijah, Elisha, Elias, Elishama, etc., from El or Eloah, the true God. The same mode of deriving names from deities prevailed more or less among all ancient nations. On this principle Thothmes, the mighty Egyptian monarch, was named after the god Thoth.

What follows on this side of the obelisk is well nigh obliterated, but the hieroglyphs were probably the same as those following the cartouche of Thothmes at the bottom of the central column on the second and fourth sides of the obelisk, and therefore would mean, "Beloved of Haremakhu, ever living."

HAWK (=bak=), as has been already explained, is the emblem of any
solar deity, but surmounted by the _aten_ or solar disk, and
accompanied by two ovals called _khu_, which indicate the two
horizons, in the east and west parts of the sky, the hawk, as here,
stands for Horus, or Haremakhu, the sun in the horizon.

The hoe, called =mer= or =tore=, is equal to the phonetic _m_, and was
one of the commonest implements used in agriculture. It is sometimes
spoken of as a hand-plough, or pick or spade, and probably it answered
all these purposes. In shape it somewhat resembled our capital letter
A, as it consisted of two lines tied together about the centre with a
twisted rope. One limb was of uniform thickness, and generally
straight, and formed the head; while the other, curved inwards, and
sometimes of considerable width, formed the handle. The hoe stands
here for the phonetic sound of _m_, the first letter of the word
=mai=, which means _beloved_.

TWO REEDS. One reed is equal to _a_, the double reed equals phonetic
_i_, and is generally a plural sign. Here the double reed is an
intensive, so that the hoe and double reeds spell _mai_, which means
"much beloved."

These hieroglyphs, taken in the order in which they ought to be translated into English, consist of a hoe, two reeds, a hawk, two ovals, and a solar disk.

The last group of hieroglyphs consists of a long serpent, a semicircle, and a straight line. The long serpent is equal to the phonetic _t_, or _th_, or _g_. The semicircle, which represents the upper grindstone for bruising corn, equals phonetic _t_. It is often called a muller or millstone. The straight line is a phonetic equal to _ta_. The three hieroglyphs therefore form the word _getta_ or _tetta_, a term which means everlasting.

_Getta_ appears as the last group of hieroglyphs at the bottom of the central column on the third and fourth sides. They were probably at first at the end of the central column on the first and second sides also, although they have been obliterated on the two latter faces.