DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.619#0020
THE TEMEiSE OF APOLLO AXD OTHER DEITIES.
11
from Menes till now—the inundation is the great
factor to be considered. During the time when
the whole land is covered with water, no ordinary
work can be carried on; the people are isolated
in their mound-homes, a few feet above the
surface of the turbid flood, and time hangs
heavily on their hands. Then was the great
opportunity for trading, the more so as the
harvest had shortly before been gathered in, and
its value realised, so that spare means as well as
spare time were at disposal. That the Greeks
did sail about from town to town during the
inundation is evident from Herodotos. " When
the Nile inundates the country the cities alone
are seen above its surface, very like the islands
in the iEgean Sea; for all the rest of Egypt
becomes a sea, and the cities alone are above the
surface. When this happens they navigate no
longer by the channel of the river, but across the
plain " (ii. 97). It was therefore essential to
the Greek trade to be able to go to and from the
mart, and to reach Memphis and the upper
country, during the inundations; and this would
be done with difficulty if they needed to navigate
the broad, swollen, and rapid stream of the Nile
in flood. To have the head-quarters of trade, to
which the great ships would come, and from
which the light, shallow trading - boats of the
country would carry on the internal trade,
situated on a tranquil canal, always accessible
throughout the year, and free from the shifting
mud-banks of the main river, was thus a prime
consideration. And when we see that the place
selected on this most advantageous canal, which
reached the upper country without once opening
into the Nile, was the nearest spot to the capital,
Sais, we may well believe that the advantages
of the site attracted the traders to this, rather
than to any other spot of the Delta.
CHAPTER II.
THE TEMENfi OF APOLLO AXD OTHER DEITIES.
15. The earliest literary evidence that we possess
concerning the Greek temples in Egypt, is the
passage of Athenaeus (xv. IS), which has been
already mentioned, describing the existence of a
temple of Aphrodite at Naukratis as early as
688 B.C. The next passage which bears on the
subject is that of Herodotos (ii. 159), mentioning
that Neqo, in 608 B.C., dedicated his corslet to
the Milesian Apollo, in the mother temple of
Branchidae; showing that the Milesians had
already familiarised the Egyptians with the
worship of their great deity, and pointing there-
fore to the existence of a Milesian temple to
Apollo in Egypt before that time. The last and
most general evidence is that of Herodotos
(ii. 178) which shows that at the latest the
Greeks of Naukratis had in the time of Amasis,
temples of Zeus, Hera, and Apollo, besides the
sacred temenos of the Pan-Hellenion. But the
passage does not exclude an earlier age for these
foundations, before 570 b.c.
The site of the temenos and temple of Apollo
at Naukratis is certainly ascertained, by the
finding of hundreds of bowls dedicated to Apollo,
alongside of the remains of two successive temples
in a temenos. When I first went to Naukratis
all that remained of this site for me to work on
consisted of fragments of the temenos wall, not
over five feet in the highest part, and less than a
third of its whole circuit, and within its area an
average of two or three feet of earth left on the
basal mud of the country. The highest parts of
the ground bore portions of pavements of the
second temple, and contained fragments of both
temples; and the trench in which the broken
pottery from the archaic temple had been thrown
had scarcely been disturbed. The temenos is
about 140 feet wide and 260 feet long, and the
temple appears to have stood about the middle of
c 2
11
from Menes till now—the inundation is the great
factor to be considered. During the time when
the whole land is covered with water, no ordinary
work can be carried on; the people are isolated
in their mound-homes, a few feet above the
surface of the turbid flood, and time hangs
heavily on their hands. Then was the great
opportunity for trading, the more so as the
harvest had shortly before been gathered in, and
its value realised, so that spare means as well as
spare time were at disposal. That the Greeks
did sail about from town to town during the
inundation is evident from Herodotos. " When
the Nile inundates the country the cities alone
are seen above its surface, very like the islands
in the iEgean Sea; for all the rest of Egypt
becomes a sea, and the cities alone are above the
surface. When this happens they navigate no
longer by the channel of the river, but across the
plain " (ii. 97). It was therefore essential to
the Greek trade to be able to go to and from the
mart, and to reach Memphis and the upper
country, during the inundations; and this would
be done with difficulty if they needed to navigate
the broad, swollen, and rapid stream of the Nile
in flood. To have the head-quarters of trade, to
which the great ships would come, and from
which the light, shallow trading - boats of the
country would carry on the internal trade,
situated on a tranquil canal, always accessible
throughout the year, and free from the shifting
mud-banks of the main river, was thus a prime
consideration. And when we see that the place
selected on this most advantageous canal, which
reached the upper country without once opening
into the Nile, was the nearest spot to the capital,
Sais, we may well believe that the advantages
of the site attracted the traders to this, rather
than to any other spot of the Delta.
CHAPTER II.
THE TEMENfi OF APOLLO AXD OTHER DEITIES.
15. The earliest literary evidence that we possess
concerning the Greek temples in Egypt, is the
passage of Athenaeus (xv. IS), which has been
already mentioned, describing the existence of a
temple of Aphrodite at Naukratis as early as
688 B.C. The next passage which bears on the
subject is that of Herodotos (ii. 159), mentioning
that Neqo, in 608 B.C., dedicated his corslet to
the Milesian Apollo, in the mother temple of
Branchidae; showing that the Milesians had
already familiarised the Egyptians with the
worship of their great deity, and pointing there-
fore to the existence of a Milesian temple to
Apollo in Egypt before that time. The last and
most general evidence is that of Herodotos
(ii. 178) which shows that at the latest the
Greeks of Naukratis had in the time of Amasis,
temples of Zeus, Hera, and Apollo, besides the
sacred temenos of the Pan-Hellenion. But the
passage does not exclude an earlier age for these
foundations, before 570 b.c.
The site of the temenos and temple of Apollo
at Naukratis is certainly ascertained, by the
finding of hundreds of bowls dedicated to Apollo,
alongside of the remains of two successive temples
in a temenos. When I first went to Naukratis
all that remained of this site for me to work on
consisted of fragments of the temenos wall, not
over five feet in the highest part, and less than a
third of its whole circuit, and within its area an
average of two or three feet of earth left on the
basal mud of the country. The highest parts of
the ground bore portions of pavements of the
second temple, and contained fragments of both
temples; and the trench in which the broken
pottery from the archaic temple had been thrown
had scarcely been disturbed. The temenos is
about 140 feet wide and 260 feet long, and the
temple appears to have stood about the middle of
c 2