Herodotus on Sesostris

Who was this Sesostris, Senusret III (1878-1841 BCE) or Ramses II (1304-1237 BCE) ? According to Herodotus he followed Moiris, who is generally supposed to have been Amenemhet III (1841-1796 BCE). He may well be a compound of a number of conquering pharaohs and even then not all they are reported to have achieved, is true: The Red Sea region for instance was brought under Egyptian control only by the Ptolemies - two centuries after Herodotus.

Senusret II (1882-1878 BCE) conquered parts of northern Arabia. Senusret III fought the Libyans and invaded Syria. The empire of the Hyksos kings included Karkamesh (today southern Turkey), but many do not count them as proper Egyptian pharaohs, though they appear in the kings' lists. The Hyksos rule was ended by Ahmose I (1570-1546).

Thutmose III (1504-1450 BCE) extended Egyptian power into Canaan and Syria. Amenhotep II crossed the Euphrates but did not conquer further territories. His followers, among them Ramses II, did their best to defend these possessions. During the 20th Dynasty Egypt's influence in Retenu waned and its power declined sharply. In the Late Period Psammetic I undertook a campaign into Mesopotamia before the final collapse of Pharaonic Egypt.


Many pharaohs erected stelae (pillars) abroad.The stela of Seti I at Beit Shean (in modern Israel) is well known, as are the Buhen Stela in Nubia erected by Seti I in honour of his father Ramses I, and the Beit Shean Stela of Ramses II. But no sexual symbols have been found on any of them.


Therefore passing these by I will make mention of the king who came after these, whose name is Sesostris. He (the priests said) first of all set out with ships of war from the Arabian gulf and subdued those who dwelt by the shores of the Erythraian Sea, until as he sailed he came to a sea which could no further be navigated by reason of shoals: then secondly, after he had returned to Egypt, according to the report of the priests, he took a great army and marched over the continent, subduing every nation which stood in his way.

Those of them whom he found valiant and fighting desperately for their freedom, in their lands he set up pillars which told by inscriptions his own name and the name of his country, and how he had subdued them by his power; but as to those of whose cities he obtained possession without fighting or with ease, on their pillars he inscribed words after the same tenor as he did for the nations which had shown themselves courageous, and in addition he drew upon them the hidden parts of a woman, desiring to signify by this that the people were cowards and effeminate.


Thus doing he traversed the continent, until at last he passed over to Europe from Asia and subdued the Scythians and also the Thracians. These, I am of opinion, were the furthest people to which the Egyptian army came, for in their country the pillars are found to have been set up, but in the land beyond this they are no longer found.


From this point he turned and began to go back; and when he came to the river Phasis, what happened then I cannot say for certain, whether the king Sesostris himself divided off a certain portion of his army and left the men there as settlers in the land, or whether some of his soldiers were wearied by his distant marches and remained by the river Phasis.


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For the people of Colchis are evidently Egyptian, and this I perceived for myself before I heard it from others. So when I had come to consider the matter I asked them both; and the Colchians had remembrance of the Egyptians more than the Egyptians of the Colchians; but the Egyptians said they believed that the Colchians were a portion of the army of Sesostris. That this was so I conjectured myself not only because they are dark-skinned and have curly hair (this of itself amounts to nothing, for there are other races which are so), but also still more because the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians alone of all the races of men have practiced circumcision from the beginning.

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The Phenicians and the Syrians who dwell in Palestine confess themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and the Syrians about the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the Macronians, who are their neighbors, say that they have learnt it lately from the Colchians. These are the only races of men who practise circumcision, and these evidently practise it in the same manner as the Egyptians.

Of the Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, I am not able to say which learnt from the other, for undoubtedly it is a most ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by intercourse with the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namely that those of the Phenicians who have intercourse with Hellas cease to follow the example of the Egyptians in this matter, and do not circumcise their children.


Now let me tell another thing about the Colchians to show how they resemble the Egyptians:--they alone work flax in the same fashion as the Egyptians, and the two nations are like one another in their whole manner of living and also in their language: now the linen of Colchis is called by the Hellenes Sardonic, whereas that from Egypt is called Egyptian.

The pillars which Sesostris king of Egypt set up in the various countries are for the most part no longer to be seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself saw them existing with the inscription upon them which I have mentioned and the emblem.

Moreover in Ionia there are two figures of this man carved upon rocks, one on the road by which one goes from the land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and the other on the road from Sardis to Smyrna. In each place there is a figure of a man cut in the rock, of four cubits and a span in height, holding in his right hand a spear and in his left a bow and arrows, and the other equipment which he has is similar to this, for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian: and from the one shoulder to the other across the breast runs an inscription carved in sacred Egyptian characters, saying thus, "This land with my shoulders I won for myself."

But who he is and from whence, he does not declare in these places, though in other places he had declared this. Some of those who have seen these carvings conjecture that the figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very far from the truth.

As this Egyptian Sesostris was returning and bringing back many men of the nations whose lands he had subdued, when he came (said the priests) to Daphnai in the district of Pelusion on his journey home, his brother to whom Sesostris had entrusted the charge of Egypt invited him and with him his sons to a feast; and then he piled the house round with brushwood and set it on fire.

And Sesostris when he discovered this forthwith took counsel with his wife, for he was bringing with him (they said) his wife also; and she counselled him to lay out upon the pyre two of his sons, which were six in number, and so to make a bridge over the burning mass, and that they passing over their bodies should thus escape. This, they said, Sesostris did, and two of his sons were burnt to death in this manner, but the rest got away safe with their father.

Then Sesostris, having returned to Egypt and having taken vengeance on his brother employed the multitude which he had brought in of those who whose lands he had subdued, as follows: --these were they drew the stones which in the reign of this king were brought to the temple of Hephaistos, being of very good size; and also these were compelled to dig all the channels which now are in Egypt; and thus (having no such purpose) they caused Egypt, which before was all fit for riding and driving, to be no longer fit for this from thenceforth: for from that time forward Egypt, though it is plain land, has become all unfit for riding and driving, and the cause has been these channels, which are many and run in all directions.


But the reason why the king cut up the land was this, namely because those of the Egyptians who had their cities not on the river but in the middle of the country, being in want of water when the river went down from them, found their drink brackish because they had it from wells. For this reason Egypt was cut up: and they said that this king distributed the land to all the Egyptians, giving an equal square portion to each man, and from this he made his revenue, having appointed them to pay a certain rent every year: and if the river should take away anything from any man's portion, he would come to the king and declare that which had happened, and the king used to send men to examine and to find out by measurement how much less the piece of land had become, in order that for the future the man might pay less, in proportion to the rent appointed: and I think that thus the art of geometry was found out and afterwards came into Hellas also.


For as touching the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of the day, they were learnt by the Hellenes from the Babylonians. He moreover alone of all the Egyptian kings had rule over Ethiopia; and he left as memorials of himself in front of the temple of Hephaistos two stone statues of thirty cubits each, representing himself and his wife, and others of twenty cubits each representing his four sons: and long afterwards the priest of Hephaistos refused to permit Dareios the Persian to set up a statue of himself in front of them, saying that deeds had not been done by him equal to those which were done by Sesostris the Egyptian.

Sesostris had subdued other nations besides, not fewer than he, and also the Scythians; but Dareios had not been able to conquer the Scythians: wherefore it was not just that he should set up a statue in front of those which Sesostris had dedicated, if he did not surpass him in his deeds. Which speech, they say, Dareios took in good part.

Education In Ancient KMT

In ancient Egypt, parents would instill in their children various educational principles, moral attitudes, and views of life from a tender age. They would receive their basic education in the bosom of the family.

This was about all of the schooling that girls would get; for boys it would be supplemented by proper training in whatever line they chose, or was chosen for them. Ancient Egyptian education covered both the general upbringing of a child and their training for a particular vocation.



The up bringing of boys was left mostly in the hands of their fathers; the mothers were responsible for the upbringing of the girls. Parents made their children familiar with their ideas about the world, with their religious outlook, with their ethical principles, with correct behavior toward others and toward the super-natural beings whom everyone believed in. They taught them about folk rituals and so forth. The educational principles of ancient Egypt were written on papyrus commonly known as the Books of Instruction.








The advice given in these "books" was designed to make sure of personal success in agreement with the needs of the state and the moral conduct of the day. It was better to tell the truth and be fair and honest than lie and do the wrong thing because the consequences would be terrible.


The Books of Instruction had rules for the well-ordered life and elements of morality that include justice, wisdom, obedience, humanity and restraint. The books mostly took the form of verses addressed by a father to his son as he stepped into his shoes or started to help his aging.


Most of these books were put together by senior officials. Many copies of these scrolls have been made since they also served as teaching texts in the schools for scribes.


In Ancient Egypt the child's world was not as clearly separated from the adults as it tends to be in modern Western society. As the years went by, childish pastimes would give way to imitations of grown-up behavior.


Children would more and more frequently be found lending a hand with the less difficult tasks and gradually developing useful skills and knowledge from their elders.

Mothers belonging to lower class families would do this job themselves. Wealthier families usually tasked servants to tend the daily needs of the children. Primary education for the children was provided at home. When they have been deemed as able by their fathers, they would serve as apprentices, accompanying their fathers as they worked to learn the trade.

Children would wake up to join their fathers out in the crop fields. Builders and other sorts of craftsmen would have their male offspring serve as helper- apprentices. The more privileged children of Ancient Egypt had the option of receiving a formal education; to eventually become a scribe, or an army officer in the royal service.

Bibliography



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Historians of philosophy; have said to begin their story with the Greeks. The Hindus, who believe that they invented philosophy, and the Chinese, who believe that they perfected it, smile at our provincialism.
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It may be that we are all mistaken;

For among the most ancient fragments left to us by the Egyptians are writings that belong, however loosely and untechnically, under the rubric of moral philosophy.



The wisdom of the Egyptians was a proverb with the Greeks, who felt themselves children beside this ancient race.


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The oldest work of philosophy known to us is the "Instructions of Ptah-hotep," which apparently goes back to 2880 B.C.—2300 years before Confucius, Socrates and Buddha.
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Ptah-hotep was Governor of Memphis
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Ptah-hotep was Governor of Memphis, and Prime Minister to the King, under the Fifth Dynasty. Retiring from office, he decided to leave to his son a manual of everlasting wisdom.


It was transcribed as an antique classic by some scholars prior to the Eighteenth Dynasty.

The Vizier begins:


"O Prince my Lord, the end of life is at hand; old age descended! upon me; feebleness cometh and childishness is renewed; he that is old lieth down in misery every day.

The eyes are small, the ears are deaf. Energy is diminished, the heart hath no rest. Command thy servant, therefore, to make over my princely authority to my son. Let me speak unto him the words of them that hearken to the counsel of the men of old time, those that once heard the gods.

I pray thee, let this thing be done. His Gracious Majesty grants the permission, advising him, however, to discourse without causing weariness advice not yet superfluous for philosophers."


Where Upon Ptah-hotep Instructs his son:


"Be not proud because thou art learned; but discourse with the ignorant man as with the sage. For no limit can be set to skill, neither is there any craftsman that possesseth full advantages.

Fair speech is more rare than the emerald that is found by slave-maidens among the pebbles. Live, therefore, in the house of kindliness, and men shall come and give gifts of themselves. Beware of making enmity by thy words.

Overstep not the truth, neither repeat that which any man, be he prince or peasant, saith in opening the heart; it is abhorrent to the soul.


If thou wouldst be a wise man, beget a son for the pleasing of the god. If he make straight his course after thine example, if he ar¬range thine affairs in due order, do all unto him that is good.

If he be heedless and trespass thy rules of conduct, and is violent; if every speech that cometh from his mouth is a vile word; then beat thou him, that his talk may be fitting. Precious to a man is the virtue of his son, and good character is a thing remembered.

Wheresoever thou goest, beware of consorting with women. If thou wouldst be wise, provide for thine house, and love thy wife that is in thine arms. Silence is more profitable to thee than abundance of speech. Consider how thou mayest be opposed by an expert that speaketh in council. It is a foolish thing to speak on every kind of work.


If thou be powerful make thyself to be honored for knowledge and for gentleness. Beware of interruption, and of answering words with heat; put it from thee; control thyself."



And Ptah-hotep concludes with Horatian pride:


"Nor shall any word that hath here been set down cease out of this land forever, but shall be made a pattern whereby princes shall speak well.

My words shall instruct a man how he shall speak; yea, he shall become as one skillful in obeying, excellent in speaking. Good fortune shall befall him; he shall be gracious until the end of his life; he shall be contented always."



This note of good cheer does not persist in Egyptian thought; age comes upon it quickly, it sours.




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William Henry



In this landmark workshop William Henry turns to myths as “time capsules” describing human anatomy and the means to release spiritual abilities.

Following the As Above. So Below formula, he reveals advanced ancient scientific knowledge about the Soul, the Self and the body (including DNA) encoded in myth.


• Learn the ancient secrets of DNA.



William says the secrets of our mystic anatomy explains the perennial popularity of certain stories and why certain myths ‘hit home. And why the more ancient the myth, the more often do parts of the human body play an explicit role.

Among the great masters whose hidden teachings reveal the secrets of mystic anatomy are Pythagoras, Jesus, Isis, and Ptah (pronounced PA-TAH), the Great Physician of ancient Egypt whose hieroglyph contained a double helix of DNA.




Ptah: the Great Physician







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The Gift of the Nile...

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the “gift of the Nile.”




EM-HOTEP