Page:Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians Volume 1.djvu/256

29th Dynasty of Mendesian Kings.

Name from Ancient Authors.

Name from the Monuments.

Events.

Ascended the Throne.

Nepherites

Nephreus of Diodorus

Achoris

Acoris

Psammoutis

Nepherites

Mouthis

Nefaorot

Hakóri

Pse maut

not met with on the monuments

Death of Cyrus the Younger, 401

B. C.

408

402

389

388

388

Few monuments of this period occur in Egypt. The arts, which had long been on the decline, received a severe blow from the Persian invasion; and many of the finest buildings were mutilated or destroyed. Numerous artificers were sent to Persia, and, with the encouragement required for the very existence of art, Egypt had lost the skill for which she was once so conspicuous. Of Nepherites the phonetic name once occurs amidst the ruins of Thebes; and if some additions were made by his two successors to the temples^[1] there and in Lower Egypt^[2], the style of the sculpture, like the scale of their monuments, was degraded, and unworthy of a Pharaonic era. Egypt, however, free from a foreign yoke, enjoyed that tranquillity which had been so long denied, and Nepherites was even enabled to join in active hostilities against the enemies

1. The name of Acoris occurs in the temple of Medeenet Haboo.
2. During his reign many stones were taken from the quarries of the Troici lapidis Mons, opposite Memphis, probably for the erection of buildings in that city.