"No luck," he said. "Next we shall try the great temple of Phtha."
This is the largest temple in Memphis, standing amid green groves in a spacious temenos in the midst of the city, south of the citadel where I had met with misfortune. About the main entrance, on the south side of the precinct, stand six colossal statues, two of them thirty cubits high and four of them twenty. I have been told that they represent either King Sesostris or the second King Rhameses, surnamed Osymandyas, and his family. In addition, there is an enormous statue, nearly thirty cubits long, lying on its back.
I burnt to examine these statues closely, to see what I could learn about the construction and erection of colossi. However, as soon as we appeared at the principal gate of the temenos, we were set upon not only by beggars but also by a swarm of would-be guides, who clamored:
"You want see sights, yes? Come with me! You want guide? Show you temple, pyramid, tomb? Ride camel? Me clever guide, know all secrets of ancient Memphis! Speak all languages! See dancing girl? Buy jewelry? Need passionate woman? See, here medicine for virility, made from black Ethiopian lotus! Make you good for ten stands a night! Want pretty boy? I get you rare drug, make you dream of heaven! Have fortune told? Come see orgy of Seth-worshipers! Buy antiquities from tombs of old kings? Come with me, I show you good time! See best belly dancer in Egypt, and lie with her afterwards! Come, see rare curios in my shop ..."
I asked Manethôs : "How do you say 'no' in Egyptian?"
"Say, even. If they persist, add rhou-ek, which means 'run away!' "
I said even and rhou-ek until our tormentors gave up and assailed other visitors, such as a lordly Persian couple behind us. For folk from many nations travel to Memphis to see its wondrous sights, and a class of Memphites has grown up to guide, guard, entertain, exploit, and prey upon these travelers.
We followed Manethôs into the temenos of Phtha, who to the Egyptians is the creator, the god of property and stability, and the tutelary deity of Memphis. Inside the temenos a swarm of concessionaires sold religious goods, such as little copper statues of Phtha to bury at the corner of one's lot to keep away evil spirits.
Again Manethôs left us in front of the temple while he went inside. This time he came out with a more cheerful expression.
"There is a rumor in the marketplace," he said, "of a daring theft downriver by a brace of local bullies. But nought can I learn of where the thieves and their plunder are now. Let us go on to the temple of Apis."
We trailed off southward to the temple of Apis, where dwells the sacred bull in a chamber. This chamber opens on a court surrounded by a colonnade whose columns are twelve-cubit statues. Then we marched northwest to the temple of Ammon. Gaining no advantage there, we went on to northward, along a wide asphalt-paved avenue, past the two great statues at the western gate of the temenos of Phtha, and past the sacred lake of Phtha. Here, in a park on the borders of the lake, was a space inclosed by a towering fence of thick bronze bars, with soldiers standing guard and a crowd of sight-seers jostling.
When we had wormed our way up to the bars, I saw that inside the inclosure stood the funeral car and casket of the divine Alexander himself. A breath-taking sight it was. The coffin rested on an enormous four-wheeled carriage of the Persian type, with gilded spokes and iron tires, and hubs in the form of lions' heads, each head holding a golden spear in its teeth. Stretched out from the front axle were four huge jointed poles, each having four quadruple yokes, for the vehicle was made to be drawn by sixty-four mules.
Around the sides of the wagon ran a colonnade upholding a roof of golden scales inlaid with precious stones, with a cornice from which projected golden heads of goat-stags. From the cornice hung four long painted panels showing the Alexander and his bodyguards, his elephants, his cavalry, and his ships. At each corner of the roof stood a golden statue of Victory, and there were bells, golden wreaths, and other ornaments too numerous to list.
Between the columns of the colonnade I would see the huge golden sarcophagus of Alexander, on which lay a gold-embroidered purple robe and the armor and weapons of the great king. Over all floated a vasty purple banner with an olive wreath embroidered in golden thread. The bright Egyptian sun blazed on the gold and flashed on the precious stones until it made one's eyes ache.
When we had looked our fill, we continued northward to the temple of the goddess Neith, where Manethôs made further inquiries. These, however., added nothing to what we had already heard. We crossed a canal and climbed the slopes to the west of the city, to the temple of Anoubis, the dog-headed judge of the dead. This temple stands on the edge of the desert, where a stride takes one from green field to golden-yellow sandy waste.
Thence we trudged, under the scorching Egyptian sun, west along a road lined with brooding sphinxes, where buff-brown pyramids, great and small, rise from inclosures on either hand, and graveyards spread far into the shimmering distance. Despite the heat, I shivered a little at the thought of all the centuries that had passed while kings and commoners were buried here. Hellas is such a new country by comparison!
I asked Onas about an enormous pyramid that rose in six diminishing stages, like giant's steps, on our left. He said:
"The wizard Imouthes built that structure as a tomb for King Sosorthos, who lived but a little time after the reigns of the gods and the demigods."
"What engineers those old fellows must have been!" I exclaimed.
Onas: "That was done, not by your materialistic technics, but by Imouthes' mighty magic."
Manethôs turned his head. "Rubbish, my dear cousin! The only magic used was that of organization and discipline. They quarried the stones with hammer stones and wooden chisels, dressed them with copper saws, hauled them up earthen ramps on sleds, and levered them into place with copper crowbars. My people are many and muscular, and —more to the point—they can work together for a common objective, a virtue for which the Hellenes have never been noted." He cast me a wry smile.
Footsore and weary, we came to the temple of Osiris. Here the clamor of bustling Memphis is heard no more. There is nothing to see but blue sky, golden sand, and this vast complex of sacred buildings; no sound but the murmur of hymns from the temple and the gentle hiss of blowing sand. Inside the temenos stood a great ithyphallic statue of Osiris, draped in a flame-colored robe and symbolizing the generative powers of the sun, the moon, and the Nile.
We sat listlessly in the shade of huge square columns while Manethôs conferred with the priests. Onas said:
"Beneath us lie great chambers wherein rest the mummies of the Apis bulls, each in its own sarcophagus."
Dikaiarchos roused himself. "Can the public see these divine bull coffins?"
"That depends. On certain feast days are the people admitted to services in the tunnels; although, as the entrances to the burial chambers are bricked up, not much is there to see. When an Apis dies and is embalmed, however, the whole city turns out to haul the sarcophagus along the sacred road from Memphis."
Manethôs came out of the temple. "I have not found your robe, my friends, but I may have discovered a means of recovering it. First, suffer me to explain that in Egypt it is an ancient custom for the owners of stolen goods to take them back from thieves on the payment of a small ransom—a fraction of the thing's true value—no questions being asked. For such deals to be consummated, certain men—traders in used wares—must act as intermediaries."