DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10358#0459
424
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
pictured chapels are unique in Egyptian architecture, though Seti's other temple at Kurnah bears
a certain resemblance to this arrangement. For a small temple nothing can be more beautiful
than this sevenfold avenue of columns and portals; and here the beauty is increased by the
remarkable preservation of the whole temple—roof, walls, and pillars—and by the unrivalled
charm of the sculptures which cover the walls and columns. Not only are they in an unusually
fine state of preservation, but they are evidently the work of a supreme artist. Unless it be the
sculptures in the tombs at Sakkarah, there is nothing in Egyptian glyptic art at all comparable
with the wall-chiselling at Abydos. The famous figure of Seti offering a little statue of the
goddess Truth to the seated Osiris on the north wall of the inner court is matchless, and its
pure white surface enhances its beauty to a Western eye, unacclimatised to the Egyptian method
of colouring sculpture. The Theban artists could not rival Hi (for we know the name of Seti's
sculptor), and even the portions of Seti's temple which Rameses II. completed show a marked
falling off in artistic feeling. All the older sculptures, however, are magnificent. There is
one of Seti and Rameses taming a bull which is full of power, and in the passage next to this
is the celebrated Tablet of Abydos, wherein are engraved all the cartouches (or names and
titles) of all the kings of Egypt from Menes to Seti I., each of whom is represented, uniform in
aspect, sitting on his hams, beneath his cartouche, while Seti himself, in colossal contrast, and
his son Rameses of more moderate proportions, offer libations to their assembled ancestors.
Near by is a mound now called Kom-es-Sultan, where it is pretended the head of Osiris
is buried. The mound is formed of the accretions of centuries of pious Egyptians who had
themselves buried near the sepulchre of the best-beloved of their gods. His tomb has not
yet been found, but some such monument must eventually be discovered. Every one knows
how Osiris came to be buried there ; how he ruled the world wisely and gave just judgments
until his false brother Typhon enticed him into a chest and cast him into the Nile ; how I sis,
his queen, searched the wide earth for her husband's body, and at last found it buried at
Byblon in Syria, where it had been cast up by the sea; how Typhon again possessed himself of
the corpse and cut it into fourteen pieces and scattered them over the land of Egypt; and
how the mourning wife sought diligently for the severed limbs, and buried each where it lay,
and the head was buried at Abydos. Then Osiris, who now ruled the world of shades, made
armour for Horus, his son, and sent him out to do battle with Typhon, who was vanquished,
but not slain outright. And Osiris came back to reign with Isis. How the setting and
reappearance of the sun is figured in this beautiful myth, and how the conflict between Osiris
and Typhon was made to symbolise the struggle between spiritual and intellectual as well as
physical light and darkness, the fight between right and wrong, between life and death, till the
resurrection of Osiris became the type and symbol of the immortality of the soul, is known to
all. To every pious Egyptian the story of the risen Osiris was a presage of. his own
resurrection, and though, like the god, his body must be buried in the sand of the Western
desert, like him too shall he rise again and triumph over death. We see this idea in the
representation of the myth in many temples from Abydos to Philae ; and separate chapels were
PICTURESQUE PALESTINE.
pictured chapels are unique in Egyptian architecture, though Seti's other temple at Kurnah bears
a certain resemblance to this arrangement. For a small temple nothing can be more beautiful
than this sevenfold avenue of columns and portals; and here the beauty is increased by the
remarkable preservation of the whole temple—roof, walls, and pillars—and by the unrivalled
charm of the sculptures which cover the walls and columns. Not only are they in an unusually
fine state of preservation, but they are evidently the work of a supreme artist. Unless it be the
sculptures in the tombs at Sakkarah, there is nothing in Egyptian glyptic art at all comparable
with the wall-chiselling at Abydos. The famous figure of Seti offering a little statue of the
goddess Truth to the seated Osiris on the north wall of the inner court is matchless, and its
pure white surface enhances its beauty to a Western eye, unacclimatised to the Egyptian method
of colouring sculpture. The Theban artists could not rival Hi (for we know the name of Seti's
sculptor), and even the portions of Seti's temple which Rameses II. completed show a marked
falling off in artistic feeling. All the older sculptures, however, are magnificent. There is
one of Seti and Rameses taming a bull which is full of power, and in the passage next to this
is the celebrated Tablet of Abydos, wherein are engraved all the cartouches (or names and
titles) of all the kings of Egypt from Menes to Seti I., each of whom is represented, uniform in
aspect, sitting on his hams, beneath his cartouche, while Seti himself, in colossal contrast, and
his son Rameses of more moderate proportions, offer libations to their assembled ancestors.
Near by is a mound now called Kom-es-Sultan, where it is pretended the head of Osiris
is buried. The mound is formed of the accretions of centuries of pious Egyptians who had
themselves buried near the sepulchre of the best-beloved of their gods. His tomb has not
yet been found, but some such monument must eventually be discovered. Every one knows
how Osiris came to be buried there ; how he ruled the world wisely and gave just judgments
until his false brother Typhon enticed him into a chest and cast him into the Nile ; how I sis,
his queen, searched the wide earth for her husband's body, and at last found it buried at
Byblon in Syria, where it had been cast up by the sea; how Typhon again possessed himself of
the corpse and cut it into fourteen pieces and scattered them over the land of Egypt; and
how the mourning wife sought diligently for the severed limbs, and buried each where it lay,
and the head was buried at Abydos. Then Osiris, who now ruled the world of shades, made
armour for Horus, his son, and sent him out to do battle with Typhon, who was vanquished,
but not slain outright. And Osiris came back to reign with Isis. How the setting and
reappearance of the sun is figured in this beautiful myth, and how the conflict between Osiris
and Typhon was made to symbolise the struggle between spiritual and intellectual as well as
physical light and darkness, the fight between right and wrong, between life and death, till the
resurrection of Osiris became the type and symbol of the immortality of the soul, is known to
all. To every pious Egyptian the story of the risen Osiris was a presage of. his own
resurrection, and though, like the god, his body must be buried in the sand of the Western
desert, like him too shall he rise again and triumph over death. We see this idea in the
representation of the myth in many temples from Abydos to Philae ; and separate chapels were