DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0307
220
0. Bates
ing the rapids,85 and in the second of which he relates how he himself crossed over to Philae
from what is now the station of esh-Shellal. “We crossed over to the island”, he writes,
“in a pacton (jraKrav), which is a small boat made of rods, whence it resembles woven
work. Standing in the water, or sitting on some little planks, we easily crossed over,
with some alarm indeed, but without cause for it, as there is no danger if the boat be not
overloaded.” 86 It has been debated 87 whether Strabo’s pacton was a reed canoe such
as those so frequently depicted on the monuments, or a wicker coracle. The geographer’s
account is not incompatible with the latter view, nor does the name of the boat forbid us
to entertainit.88 When, furthermore, we learn 89 of boats which could, like some modern
canvas ones, be folded and again set up for use, we may even be inclined to regard the
coracle theory as the more rational of the two. Those who adopt it will, nevertheless, be
confronted with two difficulties: the absence of the coracle among the many types of
boats shown on the ancient representations, and the fact that it is unknown today on the
Sudanese Nile, where the papyrus boat and other primitive craft are in daily use.
The persistent survival of these “vessels of bulrushes” 90 from the days when they were
figured on the walls of the Old Kingdom tombs into the Graeco-Roman period might be
taken as a striking example of Egyptian conservatism, were it not rather an instance of
Egyptian common sense. Plutarch, to be sure, intimates that the use of these craft was
encouraged by a current superstition regarding them. He relates that, after the death
of Osiris, Isis sought for the slain god “through the fens in a boat made of papyrus,
whence it is believed that persons using boats of this sort are never attacked by croco-
diles, out of fear and respect to the goddess”.91 That such a primitive type of vessel
may have figured in a venerable popular legend is easily credible, but one need not for the
survival of the type turn to any but the most practical considerations. Wood suitable
for boat building was anciently far dearer than papyrus canes; between the labor involved
85 Strabo, XVII, i, 50 (p. 818 Cas.).
86 Ibid., loc. cit.
87 Cf. Wilkinson, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 206.
88IIdm» is from the root IIAr-, common to raKTiiw and to Tr-qyvv^'. cf. I. Scapula, Lexicon Graeco-Latinum,
etc., ed. Glasgow, 1816, vol. 2, p. 111.
89 Pliny, op. cit., V, 9 (10) tells us that the Ethiopians who visited Elephantine had boats which were made to fold
up (plicatiles), and which the people carried on their shoulders when they came to the Cataracts. This statement
lacks archaeological confirmation, and such endorsement as modern parallels from the Upper Nile might give it.
90 It is thus that they are referred to by Isaiah, XVIII, 20.
91 Plutarch, op. cit., § 18.ev 0a.pt.8i. ira-irvptvQ to. eXt] SceK'n-Xeovaav odev ouk aStKetadat. roiis ev ira-nvplvots crtcatpeai.
irXeovras vivo tG>v KpoKoSetXow fj <po0ovp,ev<j3v fj <re0ovp.evcov 8ca tt/v f)ebv. The. /lapis was, strictly speaking, a wooden boat,'
Herodotus, II, 96. The name is Egyptian; cf. Hagemans, op. cit., p. 80. Classical and other notices of the Bapis
will be found in J. Alberti, Hesychii Lexicon, Leyden, 1746, vol. 1, p. 695, n. 1; cf. C. Torr, Ancient ships, Cam-
bridge, 1895, p. 106 sq.
0. Bates
ing the rapids,85 and in the second of which he relates how he himself crossed over to Philae
from what is now the station of esh-Shellal. “We crossed over to the island”, he writes,
“in a pacton (jraKrav), which is a small boat made of rods, whence it resembles woven
work. Standing in the water, or sitting on some little planks, we easily crossed over,
with some alarm indeed, but without cause for it, as there is no danger if the boat be not
overloaded.” 86 It has been debated 87 whether Strabo’s pacton was a reed canoe such
as those so frequently depicted on the monuments, or a wicker coracle. The geographer’s
account is not incompatible with the latter view, nor does the name of the boat forbid us
to entertainit.88 When, furthermore, we learn 89 of boats which could, like some modern
canvas ones, be folded and again set up for use, we may even be inclined to regard the
coracle theory as the more rational of the two. Those who adopt it will, nevertheless, be
confronted with two difficulties: the absence of the coracle among the many types of
boats shown on the ancient representations, and the fact that it is unknown today on the
Sudanese Nile, where the papyrus boat and other primitive craft are in daily use.
The persistent survival of these “vessels of bulrushes” 90 from the days when they were
figured on the walls of the Old Kingdom tombs into the Graeco-Roman period might be
taken as a striking example of Egyptian conservatism, were it not rather an instance of
Egyptian common sense. Plutarch, to be sure, intimates that the use of these craft was
encouraged by a current superstition regarding them. He relates that, after the death
of Osiris, Isis sought for the slain god “through the fens in a boat made of papyrus,
whence it is believed that persons using boats of this sort are never attacked by croco-
diles, out of fear and respect to the goddess”.91 That such a primitive type of vessel
may have figured in a venerable popular legend is easily credible, but one need not for the
survival of the type turn to any but the most practical considerations. Wood suitable
for boat building was anciently far dearer than papyrus canes; between the labor involved
85 Strabo, XVII, i, 50 (p. 818 Cas.).
86 Ibid., loc. cit.
87 Cf. Wilkinson, op. cit., vol. 2, p. 206.
88IIdm» is from the root IIAr-, common to raKTiiw and to Tr-qyvv^'. cf. I. Scapula, Lexicon Graeco-Latinum,
etc., ed. Glasgow, 1816, vol. 2, p. 111.
89 Pliny, op. cit., V, 9 (10) tells us that the Ethiopians who visited Elephantine had boats which were made to fold
up (plicatiles), and which the people carried on their shoulders when they came to the Cataracts. This statement
lacks archaeological confirmation, and such endorsement as modern parallels from the Upper Nile might give it.
90 It is thus that they are referred to by Isaiah, XVIII, 20.
91 Plutarch, op. cit., § 18.ev 0a.pt.8i. ira-irvptvQ to. eXt] SceK'n-Xeovaav odev ouk aStKetadat. roiis ev ira-nvplvots crtcatpeai.
irXeovras vivo tG>v KpoKoSetXow fj <po0ovp,ev<j3v fj <re0ovp.evcov 8ca tt/v f)ebv. The. /lapis was, strictly speaking, a wooden boat,'
Herodotus, II, 96. The name is Egyptian; cf. Hagemans, op. cit., p. 80. Classical and other notices of the Bapis
will be found in J. Alberti, Hesychii Lexicon, Leyden, 1746, vol. 1, p. 695, n. 1; cf. C. Torr, Ancient ships, Cam-
bridge, 1895, p. 106 sq.