116 Fragments on Egyptian Literature, 



have been made by M. Champollion and others on the subject ; 

 I would refer to the authorities on which they propose to rely, 

 and shew that these very authorities would rather authorize an 

 opposite conclusion. 



M. Champollion always speaks of Rameses the Great as the 

 grandson of Rameses Meiamoun, and as the son of Araeno- 

 phisj who succeeded that prince ; and who, it has been thought, 

 was the Pharaoh who was drowned in the Red Sea. This he 

 does on the authority of Manetho, as quoted by Josephus, 

 which, he says, is confirmed by the genealogical table in the 

 palace at Abydos. '' Manetho," says M. Champollion (Precis, 

 p. 275), "giving an account of the second invasion of the 

 Shepherds into Egypt, in the reign of Amenophis III., father 

 of Sethos, says, in effect, that * the king, troubled at the news 

 of the arrival of these strangers, set out in order to fight with 

 them, after having intrusted his son Sethos, who was then five 

 years old, and who was also called Rameses, from Rampses 

 his father, to a sure friend.' Further on, Manetho relates that 

 * Amenophis the third, not having been able to resist the 

 Shepherds, retired with his son into Ethiopia, where he re- 

 mained many years; but at length, having gathered together 

 an Ethiopian army, he re-entered Egypt, along with his son 

 Rampses, who himself commanded at that time a body of 

 troops.'" 



M. Champollion has here given, accurately enough, the 

 words of Josephus {Cont. Apion., i. 26, 27); but he has com- 

 pletely misapplied them. Had he attended to the context, he 

 would have seen that the Amenophis and Rampses, who are 

 spoken of in this passage, are not, as he imagines, the last king 

 of the xviiith dynasty and the first of the xixlh, but the third 

 and fourth kings of the xixth. Josephus expressly says that 

 this Amenophis reigned 518 years after the first expulsion of 

 the Shepherds, that is, after the commencement of the xviiith 

 dynasty ; and he proves this from the words of Manetho. The 

 princes of the xviiith dynasty reigned in all 393 years. Then 

 came the two brothers Sethos and Hermeus, who commanded 

 the xixth dynasty, and whom he identifies with the Egyptus 

 and Danaus of the Greeks. Sethos, says Manetho, cast the 

 other out of Egypt, and reigned fifty-nine years, as did his son 

 Rhampses after him sixty-six years. Amenophis is mentioned 



