DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0274
256 A THOUSAND MTLES UP THE NILE.
erring of that most precious gift of the gods. With the
one exception of Cleopatra—the death of Nitocris the
rosy-cheeked being also of Greek,* and therefore question-
able, origin—no Egyptian sovereign is known to have com-
mitted suicide ; and even Cleopatra, who was half Greek
by birth, must have been influenced to the act by Greek
and Roman example. Dismissing, then, altogether this
legend of his blindness and self-slaughter; it must be ad-
mitted that of the death of Rameses II we know nothing
certain.
Such are, very briefly, the leading facts of the history
of this famous Pharaoh. Exhaustively treated, they would
expand into a volume. Even then, however, one would
ask, and ask in vain, what manner of man he was. Every
attempt to evolve his personal character from these scanty
data is in fact a mere exercise of fancy, f That he was
personally valiant may be gathered with due reservation,
from the poem of Pentaur; and that he was not unmerci-
ful is shown in the extradition clause of the Khetan
treaty. His pride was evidently boundless. Every temple
which he erected was a monument to his own glory; every
colossus was a trophy; every inscription a pasan of self-
praise. At Abou Simbel, at Derr, at Gerf Hossayn, ho
seated his own image in the sanctuary among the images
of the gods.| There are even instances in which he is
•Herodotus, book ii.
f Rosellini, for instance,carries hero-worship to its extreme limit when
lie not only states that Rameses the Great had, by his conquests, filled
Egypt with luxuries that contributed alike to the graces of every-day
life and the security of the state, but (accepting as sober fact the
pomp] inientary language of a triumphal tablet) adds, that " universal
peace even secured to him the love of the vanquished" (l'universal
pace assicurata dall' amore dei vinti stessi pel Faraone).—"Mon.
Storici," vol. iii, part ii, p. 294. Bunsen, equally prejudiced in the
opposite direction, can see no trait of magnanimity or goodness in one
whom he loves to depict as "an unbridled despot, who took advan-
tage of a reign of almost unparalelled length, and of the acquisitions
of his father and ancestors, in order to torment his own subjects and
strangers to the utmost of his power, and to employ them as instru-
ments of his passion for war and building."—" Egypt's Place in Uni-
versal History," Bunsen, vol. iii, book iv, part ii, p. 184.
| " Souvent il s'introduit lui meme dans les triades divines aux-
quelles il dedie les temples. Le soleil de Ramses Mei/imoun qu'on
apercoit sur leur murailles, n'est autre chose que le roi Iui-meme
deifie de son vivant."—" Notice des Monuments Egyptiennes au
Musee du Louvre." De Rouge, Paris, 1S70, p. 20.
erring of that most precious gift of the gods. With the
one exception of Cleopatra—the death of Nitocris the
rosy-cheeked being also of Greek,* and therefore question-
able, origin—no Egyptian sovereign is known to have com-
mitted suicide ; and even Cleopatra, who was half Greek
by birth, must have been influenced to the act by Greek
and Roman example. Dismissing, then, altogether this
legend of his blindness and self-slaughter; it must be ad-
mitted that of the death of Rameses II we know nothing
certain.
Such are, very briefly, the leading facts of the history
of this famous Pharaoh. Exhaustively treated, they would
expand into a volume. Even then, however, one would
ask, and ask in vain, what manner of man he was. Every
attempt to evolve his personal character from these scanty
data is in fact a mere exercise of fancy, f That he was
personally valiant may be gathered with due reservation,
from the poem of Pentaur; and that he was not unmerci-
ful is shown in the extradition clause of the Khetan
treaty. His pride was evidently boundless. Every temple
which he erected was a monument to his own glory; every
colossus was a trophy; every inscription a pasan of self-
praise. At Abou Simbel, at Derr, at Gerf Hossayn, ho
seated his own image in the sanctuary among the images
of the gods.| There are even instances in which he is
•Herodotus, book ii.
f Rosellini, for instance,carries hero-worship to its extreme limit when
lie not only states that Rameses the Great had, by his conquests, filled
Egypt with luxuries that contributed alike to the graces of every-day
life and the security of the state, but (accepting as sober fact the
pomp] inientary language of a triumphal tablet) adds, that " universal
peace even secured to him the love of the vanquished" (l'universal
pace assicurata dall' amore dei vinti stessi pel Faraone).—"Mon.
Storici," vol. iii, part ii, p. 294. Bunsen, equally prejudiced in the
opposite direction, can see no trait of magnanimity or goodness in one
whom he loves to depict as "an unbridled despot, who took advan-
tage of a reign of almost unparalelled length, and of the acquisitions
of his father and ancestors, in order to torment his own subjects and
strangers to the utmost of his power, and to employ them as instru-
ments of his passion for war and building."—" Egypt's Place in Uni-
versal History," Bunsen, vol. iii, book iv, part ii, p. 184.
| " Souvent il s'introduit lui meme dans les triades divines aux-
quelles il dedie les temples. Le soleil de Ramses Mei/imoun qu'on
apercoit sur leur murailles, n'est autre chose que le roi Iui-meme
deifie de son vivant."—" Notice des Monuments Egyptiennes au
Musee du Louvre." De Rouge, Paris, 1S70, p. 20.