DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61301#0041
PREDECESSORS OF GREEK ART.
17
with all this political turmoil we have nothing to do; we
only mention the Hyksos because it is after their invasion
that there sprang up in Egyptian politics, social life,
religion, and, as a consequence, art, a new and splendid
vigour which issued in a series of magnificent monu-
ments, whose character we have now to study, and from
one of which our next picture is taken. Of the mighty
monarchs who ruled during this glorious second
supremacy none are more illustrious than the great king,
Seti I., and his still greater son, Ramses II. It is this
Seti who kneels in adoration between the two strange
gods. In analyzing our picture we will consider first
Seti, the mortal, and then the gods he worships.
The Memphite kings had, as we have seen, desired to
immortalize their memories and to secure their mummies
inviolate by the erection of vast pyramids. The pyramid
was the king’s tomb, as the mastaba was the tomb of the
private individual. But this piling up of huge masses of
stone,though impressive, was monotonousand mechanical.
Anyhow, by the time the empire has shifted to Thebes
the pyramid form of royal tomb has fallen into disuse,
and for subject and king alike a new form has arisen-
that known to the Greeks as the syrinx. A syrinx is a
pipe, and the tomb so-called, the tomb of the Theban
Empire, consisted of a series of tube-like, subterranean
passages and chambers hewn out of the rock. No doubt
this form was suggested by the different character of the
17
with all this political turmoil we have nothing to do; we
only mention the Hyksos because it is after their invasion
that there sprang up in Egyptian politics, social life,
religion, and, as a consequence, art, a new and splendid
vigour which issued in a series of magnificent monu-
ments, whose character we have now to study, and from
one of which our next picture is taken. Of the mighty
monarchs who ruled during this glorious second
supremacy none are more illustrious than the great king,
Seti I., and his still greater son, Ramses II. It is this
Seti who kneels in adoration between the two strange
gods. In analyzing our picture we will consider first
Seti, the mortal, and then the gods he worships.
The Memphite kings had, as we have seen, desired to
immortalize their memories and to secure their mummies
inviolate by the erection of vast pyramids. The pyramid
was the king’s tomb, as the mastaba was the tomb of the
private individual. But this piling up of huge masses of
stone,though impressive, was monotonousand mechanical.
Anyhow, by the time the empire has shifted to Thebes
the pyramid form of royal tomb has fallen into disuse,
and for subject and king alike a new form has arisen-
that known to the Greeks as the syrinx. A syrinx is a
pipe, and the tomb so-called, the tomb of the Theban
Empire, consisted of a series of tube-like, subterranean
passages and chambers hewn out of the rock. No doubt
this form was suggested by the different character of the