THE SHEPHERD KIKGS OF EGYPT. 197 



from tliat of Achaslitavi. The deluge may have been an extraordinary 

 overflow of the waters of the Kile, or, almost as probably, the same 

 convulsion of nature as that which submerged the Cities of the Plain, 

 near which the Shethites dwelt. ^* The story told by Diodorua of the 

 destrnction of the army of Sesostris at Felusium, owing to the 

 ivniversal drunkenness of his soldiers, we shall yet meet vrith in the 

 annals of countries far from the shores of the Mediterranean.'" 

 Sesochris of Manetho's second dynasty and Sesostris of the twelfth 

 are plainly the same person. In the second dynasty he bears the name of 

 his father (Ashchur) instead of his ov/n. The nionuments give him to us 

 as ISTesteres (if the initial ?i be a true reading), son of Usecheres, who 

 took Heliopolis from Onnos, and thus no doubt incurred the enmity 

 of his elder brother Hepher. As Nesteres, he appropriately connects 

 not only with iTsecheres but also with Aches and Sephres or Sephuris, 

 From a similar form of his name the Shepherd dynasty, siicceeding 

 to the Auritse, acquired the designation Mestrsei- Phlegyas at On 

 We learn was called Mestres.^* The name Phlegyas itself survived in 

 Pilku, one of Sheth's cities, in Boulak near Cairo, and in Belka in 

 the land of Moab. It is hard to say who, among the many Sesor- 

 tasens of the twelfth dynasty, represents the third son of Ashchur. 

 As far as I can judge, the name Sesor-tasen is not confined to the 

 family of Achashtari, but is applied to other children and descen- 

 dants of the father of Tekoa. Sir Gardner Wilkinson, however, 

 decides that Sesortasen I. is Sesostris, while Lepsius favours Sesor- 

 tasen II., and many, from the fact that the third Tothmes treated 

 him with divine honours, find the great conqueror in Sesortasen III. 

 Onnos is represented as the father of the first of the Osirtasens or Sesor- 

 tasens."^ It is possible that Achashtari may have married a daughter 

 of the Onnos or Cannes whom, as Sesostris or Xisuthrus, he expelled 

 from On, but more probable that confusion has taken place of his 

 name with that of his brother Hepher, who certainly did so, and 

 who, as a son of Ashchur, had equal right to the name Osir-tasen. 

 To Sesonchosis, who is made by Manetho the first of the Sesortasens? 

 Dic8Barchus ascribes the use of the horse and the institution of 

 castes. We have already found the name of Achuzam associated 



159 The ].ieriod of Sesostris would agree with this since we find his nephew Jehaleleel ruling ia 

 Gerar or Eluaa immediately after the destruction of the Cities of the Plain. 



«o Among other notices of the same kind, we. have the Welsh tradition of Seithenin, the 

 drunkard. 



•^ Guigniaut, iii. 620. 



'2 Gliddou's Ancient Egypt, Philadelphia, 52, 



