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ἐὸν μέγα. It is strange that H. only refers in this cursory manner to the gigantic buildings at Thebes (Karnak); this is one of the passages used by Sayce to prove that H. never went (p. xxvii) up the Nile beyond the Fayûm. Sayce also affirms (ib. and nn. here) that the statues seen by H. were at Memphis, not at Thebes; of this he gives no proof. (For his argument cf. 29 nn.) It may be taken as certain that H. had never been in the great pillared hall with its 140 columns; only high officials were admitted to this; but he may well have been in the chambers on the south of the great court. H. has been partially confirmed by M. Legrain's discovery of a number of statues at Karnak in 1904 and 1905; over 16,000 objects were taken out of a pit, of which 600 were statues; only some of these, however, were of priests, and wood was the exception, not the rule, as material. Cf. R. de T. xxvii. 67; xxviii. 148. Wood, however, is a material which perishes easily, and we may accept the summing up of Sourdille, who (H. E. pp. 190-8) discusses the whole subject fully, ‘it is at least certain that many priests obtained permission to dedicate their statues, that some of these were of wood, that inscriptions enable to follow for generations the history of many families’ (p. 198). H., in fact, as usual, generalizes too much from data correct in themselves.

τοσούτους: i. e. 341 (142. 1); H. writes loosely, meaning a number corresponding to the number of kings. Hecataeus actually would have seen 345, for he visited Egypt some 140 years (i. e. four generations) after the time of Sethos (the 341st king).

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