Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/52

30 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. suburb inhabited chiefly by priests, embalmers, and others practising those lugubrious branches of industry which are connected with the burial of the dead.^ The whole of this western city was known in the time of the Ptolemies and the Romans as the Memnonia?' We shall not attempt to discuss the few hints given by the Greek writers as to the extent of Thebes. Even if they were less vague and contradictory than they are, they would tell us little as to the density of the population.^ Diodorus says that there were once houses of four and five stories high at Thebes, but he did not see them himself, and it is to the time of the fabulous monarch Busiris that he attributes them.^ In painted representations we never find a house of more than three stories, and they are very rare. As a rule we find a ground-floor, one floor above that, and a covered flat roof on the top.^ It does not seem likely that, even in the important streets, the houses of the rich made much architectural show on the outside, Thebes and Memphis probably resembled those modern Oriental towns in which the streets are bordered with massive structures in which hardly any openings beside the doors are to be seen. The houses figured in the bas-reliefs are often surrounded by a crenellated wall, and stand in the middle of a court or garden.^ sur Thebes extra ties par MM. Brugsdi et Revilloid des Contrats danotiqites et des Pieces correlatives^ p. 177. ^ E. Revillout, Tariclieiites et Choachytes (in the Zeitschrift filr ALgyptische Sprache und Alterthumshinde, 1879 and 1880). ^ In the Egyptian language, buildings like the Ramesseum and Medinct-x'Vbou were called Mennou, or buildings designed to preserve some name from oblivion. This word the Greeks turned into fxefj-vovLa, because they thought that the term mennou was identical with the Homeric hero Memnon, to whom they also attributed the two famous colossi in the plain of Thebes. Ebers, Ai.gypten, p. 280. 3 Diodorus (i. 45, 4) talks of a circumference of 140 stades (28,315 yards), with- out telling us whether his measurement applies to the whole of Thebes, or only to the city on the right bank. Strabo (xvii. 46) says that " an idea of the size of the ancient city may be formed from the fact that its existing monuments cover a space which is not less than 80 stades (16,180 yards) in length (to /x^kos)." This latter statement indicates a circumference much greater than that given by Diodorus. Diodorus (i. 50, 4) gives to Memphis a circumference of 15c stades (30.337 yards, or 17^ miles). ^ Diodorus, i. 45, 5. ^ In a tale translated by M. Maspero {Etudes Egyptie?ines, 1879, p. 10), a princess is shut up in a house of which the windows are 70 cubits (about 105 feet) above the ground. She is to be given to him who is bold and skilful enough to scale her windows. Such a height must therefore have seemed quite fabulous to the Egyptians, as did that of the tower which is so connnon in our popular fairy stories. '^ In M. jVIaspicro's translated Roman de Satni {Annuaire de PAssociation four