414* POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" Whether they belonged to the sacerdotal cast, we do not know. We 

 are inclined to the latter supposition in some degree by the profoundly 

 religious character of the ceremonies that accompanied the inception of a 

 building, and by the accounts left by the ancients of those priests whom 

 they called the Chaldceans.''^ 



And since " when it [architecture] is carried so far as it was in 

 Chaldsea it demands a certain amount of science/' the priests who 

 alone possessed this science must have been the architects. 



Sufficient proofs of the alleged relation among the Egyptians 

 are supplied by ancient records, Rawlinson says : 



" Although their early architecture is almost entirely of a sepulchral 

 character, yet we have a certain amount of evidence that, even from the 

 first, the Temple had a place in the regards of the Egyptians, though a 

 place very much inferior to that occupied by the Tomb." 

 Summing up the general evidence Duncker writes : 



" In the achievement won by Egyptian art the priests took a leading 

 part. The buildings of the temples and the tombs of the kings could onlj'- 

 be erected after their designs ; for in these essentially sacred things, sacred 

 measures and numbers, were concerned." 



Some special illustrative facts may be added. Of Mentuhotep it 

 is recorded that 



" As chief architect of the king he promoted the worship of the gods, 

 and instructed the inhabitants of the country according to the best of his 

 knowledge, 'as God orders to be done.' " 



Here are passages relating to the 19th and 21st dynasties respect- 

 ively. Bekenkhonsu, on his statue is made to say : 



" ' I was a great architect in the town of Amon.' ' I was a holy father 

 of Amon for twelve years.' 'The skilled in art, and the first prophet of 

 Amon.' " 



"Hir hor, first of a succession of priest-kings, calls himself, when repre- 

 sented by the side of the king: ' Chief architect of the king, chief general 

 of the army.' " 



And that the priest, if he did not always design, always directed, 

 may be safely inferred ; for as Rawlinson says, " it is . . . toler- 

 ably certain that there existed in ancient Egypt a religious cen- 

 sorship of Art." 



Of evidence furnished by Greek literature, the first comes to 

 lis from the Iliad. The priest Chryse, crying for vengeance, and 

 invoking Apollo's aid, says : 



'' O Smintheus ! If ever I built a temple gracious in thine eyes, or if 

 ever I burnt to thee fat flesh of thighs of bulls or goats, fulfill thou this my 

 desire; let the Danaans pay by thine arrows for my tears." 

 By which we see that the priestly function of sacrificer is joined 

 with the function of architect, also, by implication, priestly. 

 Later indications are suggestive if not conclusive. Here is a 

 sentence from Curtius : 



"But the immediate connection between the system of sacred archi- 

 tecture and the Apolline I'eligion is clear fi'om Apollo being himself desig- 



