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WOMEN in PTOLEMAIC EGYPT. MR. MAHAFFY in His Preface to The WOMEN IN PTOLEMAIC EGYPT. MR. MAHAFFY in his preface to The Empire of the Ptolemies states among other problems raised by Ptolemaic history the following: ' How Mah. Emp. of far does the observation, that we only know of one crown-prince with a wife (Soter II.) account for the divorce of that wife after his accession, and p. x. for the other apparent heartlessnesses in Ptolemaic history ? Is the hereditary title recognised in the princesses, which no doubt led to their marriages with their reigning brothers, a relic of Pharaonic ideas, or a mere imitation of the successful experiment of Philadelphus ?' This article is an attempt to show that the former hypothesis is the true one, and that the marriages of the Ptolemies were dictated by their policy of conciliation, and were based on deeply rooted native prejudices. No doubt the difficulties in accepting such a hypothesis are very great. Why, for instance, should such a survival have come into comparatively greater prominence under a late dynasty ? I have endeavoured to sketch a possible explanation of this in the relations of that dynasty with the priesthood of Osiris. The hypothesis seems to clear up several dark spots in Ptolemaic history and to lend the justification of diplomacy to actions that otherwise stand condemned by their arbitrary egotism and unmeaning cruelty. As the question seems to me to be closely bound up with the relations subsisting between the priesthood and the State and with the social and political aspect of the country generally, I shall begin by a brief examination of the condition of the priest-class at the time of the Ptolemaic occupation. It is plain that if the Ptolemies were to gain any hold over the popu- lation of Upper Egypt, they could only do so by conciliating or subduing the priest-class. The most striking characteristic of Egyptian monarchy in ' Upper Egypt and in Aethiopia had always been its entire dependence on the priesthood. The influence of the priest on the people was unbounded. Erman, Under the New Empire the priest-class had risen to a temporal and spiritual p. 104, seq. pOwer unknown to earlier times. The old nobility and nomarchs had disap- peared : the soldier-class had dwindled owing to the employment of mercen- Mah. Ok. Life aries: the fid^ifj.01 or military landowners under the Ptolemies were and Thought, impoverished and had but a small and insignificant role to play; they had ceased to be landed proprietors. In fact the land was entirely in the hands of the king or of the priests. Erman, Now this rise of the priesthood as a class under the new Empire is p. 293. especially traceable in one place in Egypt—at Abydos, that is to say in the WOMEN IN PTOLEMAIC EGYPT. 239 cult of Osiris. From this time onwards we find Osiris-worship more prominent throughout Egypt, and this prominence increases with the degra- dation of the prestige of Thebes and the Amon cult as a national religion, and also with considerable internal modification of the nature of the priest- hood. Thus, as Erman points out, the lay element disappears almost entirely Erman, from the priesthood. As the priests grow in temporal power they guard it P- 295- more jealously, and it was by the formation of this close oligarchy that they were enabled to bid defiance to the Pharaohs and finally to thrust them aside op. tit. p. 105. and absorb the supreme power into their own order. The removal of the seat of government to Lower Egypt left the priest- hood a powerful and discontented body with almost unlimited influence over the laity, ready to foster any signs of disaffection to the crown in the hopes of regaining something of their lost prestige and restoring to Thebes its former sovereignty. This of course applies mainly if not entirely to the priest-class of Thebes, centring round the cult of Amon-Ra; and it was thus in the treatment of Thebes and in combating the influence of its priesthood that the main difficulty, I believe, of the Ptolemaic government lay. Subse- quent history shows how frequent revolts in this quarter were. To overcome the sullen defiance of the Theban priesthood seemed impossible, so the Ptolemies gradually adopted the policy of giving their special state patronage to the cult of Osiris and elevating its priesthood to a national importance which was justified by the wide-spread influence of the cult. There were obvious reasons why this cult lent itself to their policy better than any other. It was more generally diffused and less local in Erman, its connections than any other. The Osiric cycle, belonging originally to p' ' seq' Abydos, had lent itself to the tendency towards amalgamation which was so marked a feature of the religion of the New Empire. It was less rigid and more human, and perhaps less exclusively native than the rival cult of Thebes ; its mythology adapted itself to more modern requirements and appealed to the human sentiment of its worshippers. Osiris in his aspect of God of the Dead was accepted throughout Egypt as one of the great gods, and continued to absorb and assimilate other gods and cycles of gods after they had developed beyond the strictly local stage, till finally he was Mah. Emp. of closely connected with Ptah of Memphis and worshipped in combination • P- ' • with the latter as Osirhapi.1 On the other hand the Amon cycle and its priest- Erman, hood resisted this new anti-polytheistic tendency and remained comparatively p' impervious to the influences of the age. That its predominance therefore remained local and centred chiefly round Thebes is not surprising. The Erman, P development of its mythology seems to have been arrested; the texts do not poole' enlarge upon it as they do in the case of the Osiris-saga. 'Egypt,' It was doubtless this adaptability of the Osiris cult that recommended it ^yJs ' to the Ptolemies and enabled them to graft upon it the Hellenistic elements of the Serapis cult. Moreover, its marked Semitic character brought it into Poole, op. tit. closer affinity with the religion of the foreigners—Phoenicians, Jews, p" ' Similarly Sokaris of Memphis and the pillar of Ded were identified with Osiris. Erman, 1 p. 260. 240 RACHEL EVELYN WHITE. Samaritans, Syrians—who were so much encouraged by the state to settle in Egypt at this period, probably from commercial reasons. We can easily understand that the Osiric priesthood gladly lent them- selves to a policy which seemed to promise a temporal aggrandisement new to them. They found, however, that this temporal power was to be of a strictly limited nature, that the firm rule of the Ptolemies did not admit of a dual power in the state. The priesthood indeed was treated with deference and generosity; their temple-lands were secured to them, their cults were elaborately honoured : in return they were expected to give religious sanctity to an upstart race of king-gods, and to use their influence in Upper Egypt to secure the loyalty of the subject and to counteract the uncompromising hostility of Thebes, which found vent in the frequent rebellions of Upper Egypt under the rule of the later kings. It was naturally of paramount importance to Ptolemy I to secure the loyalty of Upper Egypt for the sake of the trading interests of his empire. Probably here at the outset he came into conflict with the policy of the priest- class, who saw that any commercial opening up of the country would tend to draw away still further the life of the country to the sea-board, and strip them more completely of their former power. Perhaps it was this same dread on the part of the priests in early times that led to their intervention when the energetic and progressive Necho II. was engaged in constructing the proto- type of the Suez Canal—a canal connecting the Nile with the Red Sea—and thus opening up the Red Sea for commercial enterprise. At any rate they seem to have had the king well under their control, and according to Herod, ii. 158. Herodotus he gave up the undertaking owing to their representations: Ne/ew? fitv vvv fiera^i) opvcrcrmv eiraxxraro fiavrrjiov ifiiroBlov yevofievov ToiovSe, Tip /3apfidpq> avTov Trpoepyd^ecrOai.1 In the New Empire the country east of the Delta, being on the highway to Syria, became opened and Tanis developed into the powerful capital and consequently a formidable rival of Thebes. Hence we see that the fears of the priesthood were by no means unfounded. It is in the Osiric cycle alone of all Egyptian cults, as they have come down to us on the monuments, that the female divinity plays a prominent Poole, part. "Ra is rarely associated with any consort, as Lepsius points out, whereas 'Egypt,' Ency. Br. Osiris figures constantly with Isis. Isis appears, moreover, as the wife of p. 715 seq. Chemmis, the Egyptian Pan, the productive principle. Hathor herself is BrUgsch, in later times identified with her. She is ' the goddess who is wiser than all men, Oeog. Inschr.i. 212 sq. than all gods and spirits.' She finds out the secret name of Ra, so that the Turin Pap. sun-god loses his vigour and even mankind becomes hostile to him and begins ap. ErmaH, p. 265. a rebellion, Now as the toundation and supreme tenet of the Osiric cult we find the 1 It may have been owing to similarly higher level of the Red Sea! But the 2nd fanatical and anti-progressive pressure from the Ptolemy, as we should expect, overcame the Diod.
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