170 
DESCRIPTIONS 6F EGYPT. 
are mentioned by Pliny, * but no particular descrip- 
tion of them has been preserved. The origin of 
this city ascends to a period of unfathomable anti- 
quity. The ancient city was destroyed before the 
era of authentic history, and its power and magni- 
ficence are described by authors who only beheld 
its ruins. The opinions of the Egyptians them- 
selves, as we are informed by Diodorus, were divid- 
ed concerning the founder of Thebes, though, by 
the voice of the majority, that honour was ascribed 
to Osiris. By others, however, the claims of the 
second Busiris, a character whose history is scarcely 
less obscure than that of Osiris, were admitted to 
be preferable. The signification and etymology of 
the name of the city likewise forms a very perplex- 
ing, though not very important, subject of inquiry. 
From a celebrated temple dedicated to that lu- 
minary, Thebes is sometimes denominated The 
City of the Sun. The original decline of Thebes 
was caused by the building of Memphis : It was 
sacked by Salatis, and afterwards by Sabacon, 
kings of the Ethiopian shepherds ; and it was pro- 
bably the vicinity of this rapid and ferocious enemy 
which induced the ancient Egyptian princes to re- 
move the seat of their empire down the Nile to 
Memphis. The mutilation of the ancient monu- 
ments of Thebes was completed by the indiscri- 
minate rage of Cambyses, after whose invasion 
* Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. xxxvi. c. 14. 
