"her high domes, And towers, and groves, all softened in the distance!" PLINY speaks of Memphis as a wooded country, with such vast trees that three men could not embrace the trunk. "There are about Memphis," says Diodorus, "delightful fields, and lakes filled with aromatic reeds; and it is in this place the Egyptians, for the most part, bury their dead. And it is these corpses, which are brought over the lake Acheruska to the burying-place of the Egyptians, and are there deposited, that gave rise to all those fictions which the Greeks have raised concerning the infernal deities; hence the derivation, Acheron." NOTE II.-Page 5, line 14. "Tombs for dead kings." Neither is there any universal consent among ancient authors for what use the Pyramids were designed. Pliny asserts they were built for ostentation, and to keep idle people in employment; others, and far more probable, that they were reared to be the sepulchres of Egyptian kings.+ * I have added a few Notes, chiefly extracts, to illustrate some allusions and localities in the Drama; it was thought unnecessary to mark them in the text. + Lucan I. ix. 155., I. viii. 698. Strabo. Geogr. I. xvii., p. 461. Diod. Siculus lib. I. i., p. 40. The great Pyramid was perhaps designed for a temple. A pyramid or oblelisk, i.e., an equilateral, or an acute-angled triangle, with two equal sides, denoted the nature and element of fire;* but by a rightangled triangle was understood the nature and constitution of the universe; whereof the perpendicular expressed Osiris, or the male; the basis expressed Isis, or the female; and the hypothenuse expressed Horus, the air, or sensible world. The material, or elementary world, was represented by a square; each side (as in the Jewish tabernacle table) representing one quarter of it; the pyramids, or obelisks, were, doubtless, dedicated to the sun.-Denon and Norden. NOTE III.-Page 5, lines 15, 16. "the records Of baffled tyranny for ever buried." In the time of Cambyses, the knowledge of the characters graved on the Pyramids was lost: we therefore may conjecture how far back it is necessary to place the epoch of their building. It cannot be disowned that they were built before any of the temples or palaces were raised, whose stupendous ruins are the wonders of the present day. It must likewise be agreed that the Pyramids were built long before any residence was established at Memphis, and even before that great city was founded. The reason is, because Memphis was in a great measure founded from the ruins of Thebes; which, according to our supposition, and on account of the hieroglyphics with which its edifices were adorned, must have been posterior to the Pyramids.— Denon. NOTE IV. Page 8, line 13. "Did he raise Memphis from the water's bed?” According to Muillet, there are at the bottom of the lake Moris many ruins of pillars, obelisks, and buildings, to be seen still, when the overflowings of the Nile are not considerable enough to replenish the lake with water. In the year 1697, when the surface of the lake was five or six cubits lower than usual, it gave all spectators an opportunity of seeing the ruins of a vast city at the bottom of this immense reservoir. NOTE V.-Page 8, lines 16, 17. "The deep foundations of yon stream, that is Menes, according to Herodotus, was the first king of Egypt; + Porphr. apud Euseb. Præp. Evang., p. 60. |