Poole, Reginald S.: The cities of Egypt (London, 1882)

138

CITIES OF EGYPT.

three towns of the name in Palestine, and should burn
the temples of the gods of the Egyptians (Jer. xliii. 13),
so destroying the shrines of sun-worship with the very
element there adored. Ezekiel notices the military im-
portance of the place as standing on the way to Mem-
phis, like Pi-beseth (Bubastis), foretelling the slaughter
of their young men in Nebuchadnezzar's invasion (Ezek.
xxx. 17). Here the name is pointed to read avert, vanity
or idolatry ; but as the vowels were only inserted twelve
centuries ago, this is probably a mere Rabbinical fancy.
Without the vowels, the two words are the same; and
the proper reading can only be decided by the general
sense of the passages.

Just as the City of the Sun disappears from sacred
history, it begins to be of interest in the story of the
infancy of Greek philosophy. For centuries the restless
tribes of Greece had been known to the Egyptians, first
as pirates who descended on the northern coast, and
then as mercenaries, ready to take any side for pay.
Under the Saite kings they became an important ele-
ment in the army of the Pharaohs. In the same age
they obtained commercial privileges, and had their great
trading-station of Naucratis, in the north-west of the