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Early Greek Travellers in Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

C. F. Macfarquhar
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Extract

Exploration in ancient Egypt was fostered originally by the militaristic designs of the Pharaohs. Between the end of the Third Dynasty (c. 2600) and the Eighteenth (1570–1304), the Egyptian kings were continually extending their southern frontier, and bringing under their control the Ethiopians or Kushites of Nubia. The Sahara blocked any expansion westward, although it was certainly less extensive in those times and contained more abundance of water. The camel, however, had probably not been introduced into Egypt, and there was little incentive for traders to make long marches across the desert. Nigerian gold, ivory, and slaves were brought in by sea. Travel by boat up the Nile therefore remained the sole means of opening up new areas. Along with the military expeditions went scholars and explorers who brought back tales of the Upper Nile, which gradually came to the ears of Greek visitors to the Delta region in Mycenaean times. From the Homeric poems we may see in what form they were assimilated by the Greeks. At the edge of the river Ocean were said to dwell the Aithiopes, ‘burnt-faced men’, probably Somalis, while the story of the Pygmies who fought with cranes shows knowledge of the tribes of the interior. It is significant, too, that the name given to the Nile in Homer is Aigyptos, the river being equated with the country. There is however hardly any mention of Egypt in Greek literature between Homer and Hekataios. Not until 664 were Greeks encouraged to visit the country, and then Psammetik I brought in Lydian and Carian mercenaries perhaps by arrangement with the Lydian tyrant Gyges. By means of these troops he was able to break the power of the Kushites, who had established themselves as rulers over Egypt.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , April 1966 , pp. 108 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1966

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References

page 108 note 1 Gary, M. and Warmington, E. H., The Ancient Explorers (Penguin Books, 1963), 205.Google Scholar

page 109 note 1 Aldred, C., The Egyptians (London, 1961), 152Google Scholar; Arkell, A. J., A History of the Sudan to 1821 (2nd ed., London, 1961), 114–15Google Scholar, states that the kings may have been descended from priestly families of Theban origin, or may have been merely Egyptianized native Kushites.

page 109 note 2 Aldred, C., op. cit. 155Google Scholar; Černý, J., Ancient Egyptian Religion (London, 1951), 131Google Scholar; Arkell, , op. cit. 130–4.Google Scholar

page 109 note 3 Hdt. ii. 154. 4.

page 109 note 4 Manetho, ed. W. G. Waddell (Loeb edition), 166–8; Hdt. ii. 137.

page 109 note 5 For Esarhaddon's occupation and expulsion of Taharqa we are dependent on the Assyrian accounts. These are now available in translation in Pritchard, 's Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, 1955), 290, 293–4.Google Scholar On Sennacherib see Hdt. ii. 141.

page 109 note 6 See Elgood, P. G., The Later Dynasties of Egypt (Blackwell, Oxford, 1951), 75–76.Google Scholar

page 110 note 1 Hdt. ii. 151.

page 110 note 2 Elgood, , op. cit. 76.Google Scholar

page 110 note 3 Hdt. ii. 149–52. Although their armour was of bronze, their weapons were of iron (Arkell, , op. cit. 145).Google Scholar

page 110 note 4 For crocodiles see Hdt. ii. 69; on the paragraph, Burn, A. R., The Lyric Age of Greece (London, 1960), 133.Google Scholar

page 111 note 1 Elgood, , op. cit. 89.Google Scholar

page 111 note 2 Arkell, , op. cit. 145Google Scholar, with references to recent publications.

page 111 note 3 Tod, GHI. i. 4Google Scholar; translation based on Burn, , op. cit. 134.Google Scholar

page 111 note 4 Aldred, , op. cit. 256Google Scholar, note to Plate 57.

page 112 note 1 Hdt. ii. 160.

page 112 note 2 For bibliography on excavations see O.C.D., s.v. ‘Naucratis’, to which add Roebuck, C., ‘The Organization of Naucratis’, CPh 46 (1951), 212 ff.Google Scholar, and now Boardman, J., The Greeks Overseas (Penguin Books, 1964), 134–50.Google Scholar

page 113 note 1 Hdt. ii. 109. 3; for later elaboration, bringing in Chaldaeans, Diod. Sic. i. 81.

page 113 note 2 Hdt. ii. 4. 1; How, W. W. and Wells, J., A Commentary on Herodotus (Oxford, 1928), i. 159.Google Scholar

page 113 note 3 Strabo ii. 12; on his voyage up the Nile see Lindsay, J., Daily Life in Roman Egypt (London, 1963), ch. i.Google Scholar

page 113 note 4 xvii. 29.

page 113 note 5 For searching criticism of the generally accepted views on Thales see Dicks, D. R., ‘Thales’, CQ, N.s. 9. 2 (1959), 294–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 114 note 1 Hdt. ii. 5. 1; Jacoby, , FGHGoogle Scholar Hekataios F 301.

page 114 note 2 Translated by Wilson, J. A. in Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 372–3.Google Scholar

page 114 note 3 Hdt. ii. 143.

page 115 note 1 For criticizing a draft of this article I am grateful to Professor E. H. Warmington.