DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4023#0145
[ 99 ]
A P P E N D I
By the .Translator.
I. Of the OBELISKS.
^L IN Y gives the sollowing account os the several obelisks:
"About Syene os Thebais is sound the Syenites, which they sormerly
called Ilvgor.om'XQv, that is, ftudded and variegated with points of a siery colour.
Os this ftone the kings os Egypt, with a kind os emulation, made what they
called obelisks, confecrated to the fun. The fhape os thefe obelisks was con-
nived, to exprefs the rays of the sun; and indeed the Egyptians term a ray,
obelisk.
Mespres was the sirst that instituted the curiam, who reigned in Helio-
polis, and was dire&ed to it by a dream : this circumftance is inscribed on the
°oelisk; for thofe ingravings and figures, which we fee, are Egyptian letters.
Asterwards likewife other kings raised obelisks in the abovementioned
Clty; Sochis sour in number, each of sorty eight cubits in length: Ramises,
lr* vvhofe reign Troy was taken, one of forty cubits \ The fame king, having
lest HelioDolis, when he had a palace at Mnevis, which is at a little dijlance only
from Heliopolis, raifed another obelisk there, of eleven feet in length, and four
cubits in breadth. An hundred and twenty thousand men are faid to have been
ernployed on this workb. The king himfelf, when the obelisk was to be raifed,
fearing that the engines would not support the weight, in order to make the
Artificers more careful and attentive, tied his fon to the top of it, that a regard
"This king is called by Diodorus Siculus Pliny, which mention the number os hands em-
^•Hemphis, by Tacitus, Rhamses, by Josephus, ployed, and the folicitude os the king sor its erec-
RaiMphes, and by Herodotus, Rampsinitus. tion, may reser to the first obelisk that he raised at
I cannot conceive how Kircher could explain Heliopolis; but I mult own, I think it fo forced a
this passage in Pliny to mean, that Ramises conftruction, that grammatical propriety will scarce
built four obelifks. admit it. Indeed it is improbable that fo ambitious
" Tho' I do not sind that any of the commentators a prince should have built an obelilk os no greater
W taken notice of it, yet lurely there must be an length than eleven feet, befides the monftrous dif-
Crr°r in the reading inTuNY ; whofe words are, proportion of its breadth •, and therefore tho'I am
m giving the dimenfions os this obelifk, longitudine much averfe to mere conjectural emendations, I
undecenis pedibus, per later a cubitis quatuor ; which is should choofe to change the word undecenis to cente-
n° such great matter as to employ that prodigious nis, an hundred ; which would give a proper mag-
siumber of men. Perhaps, however, the words of nilicence to the obelilk.
to
A P P E N D I
By the .Translator.
I. Of the OBELISKS.
^L IN Y gives the sollowing account os the several obelisks:
"About Syene os Thebais is sound the Syenites, which they sormerly
called Ilvgor.om'XQv, that is, ftudded and variegated with points of a siery colour.
Os this ftone the kings os Egypt, with a kind os emulation, made what they
called obelisks, confecrated to the fun. The fhape os thefe obelisks was con-
nived, to exprefs the rays of the sun; and indeed the Egyptians term a ray,
obelisk.
Mespres was the sirst that instituted the curiam, who reigned in Helio-
polis, and was dire&ed to it by a dream : this circumftance is inscribed on the
°oelisk; for thofe ingravings and figures, which we fee, are Egyptian letters.
Asterwards likewife other kings raised obelisks in the abovementioned
Clty; Sochis sour in number, each of sorty eight cubits in length: Ramises,
lr* vvhofe reign Troy was taken, one of forty cubits \ The fame king, having
lest HelioDolis, when he had a palace at Mnevis, which is at a little dijlance only
from Heliopolis, raifed another obelisk there, of eleven feet in length, and four
cubits in breadth. An hundred and twenty thousand men are faid to have been
ernployed on this workb. The king himfelf, when the obelisk was to be raifed,
fearing that the engines would not support the weight, in order to make the
Artificers more careful and attentive, tied his fon to the top of it, that a regard
"This king is called by Diodorus Siculus Pliny, which mention the number os hands em-
^•Hemphis, by Tacitus, Rhamses, by Josephus, ployed, and the folicitude os the king sor its erec-
RaiMphes, and by Herodotus, Rampsinitus. tion, may reser to the first obelisk that he raised at
I cannot conceive how Kircher could explain Heliopolis; but I mult own, I think it fo forced a
this passage in Pliny to mean, that Ramises conftruction, that grammatical propriety will scarce
built four obelifks. admit it. Indeed it is improbable that fo ambitious
" Tho' I do not sind that any of the commentators a prince should have built an obelilk os no greater
W taken notice of it, yet lurely there must be an length than eleven feet, befides the monftrous dif-
Crr°r in the reading inTuNY ; whofe words are, proportion of its breadth •, and therefore tho'I am
m giving the dimenfions os this obelifk, longitudine much averfe to mere conjectural emendations, I
undecenis pedibus, per later a cubitis quatuor ; which is should choofe to change the word undecenis to cente-
n° such great matter as to employ that prodigious nis, an hundred ; which would give a proper mag-
siumber of men. Perhaps, however, the words of nilicence to the obelilk.
to