Sesostris
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Sesostris (Template:Langx) is the name of a king of ancient Egypt who, according to Herodotus, led a military expedition into parts of Europe. Tales of Sesostris are probably based on the life of Senusret I, Senusret III and perhaps other Pharaohs such as Shoshenq I<ref name="Dieleman"/><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Ramesses II.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Sesostris' name is also given as Sesoösis or Sesonchosis in other sources.<ref name="Dieleman">Template:Cite book</ref>
Account of Herodotus
In Herodotus's Histories there appears a story told by Egyptian priests about a Pharaoh Sesostris who, the priests say, had led an army overland northward to Asia Minor, then fought his way westward into Europe, where he defeated the Scythians and the Thracians—possibly in modern Romania and Bulgaria. Sesostris then returned home, leaving colonists behind at the river Phasis in Colchis. Herodotus cautioned the reader that much of this story came second hand via Egyptian priests, but also noted that the Colchians were commonly believed to be Egyptian colonists.<ref>"For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others." Herodotus Histories 2.104</ref>
Herodotus also relates that when Sesostris defeated an army without much resistance he erected a pillar in their capital with an image of a vulva on it to shame the defeated side by comparing them to women.<ref> Herodotus Histories 2.102</ref> Pliny the Elder also makes mention of Sesostris, who, he claims, was defeated by Saulaces, a gold-rich king of Colchis.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Herodotus wrote that Sesostris was the father of the blind king Pheron, who was less warlike than his father Sesostris.
According to Professor Alan Lloyd, "the core of Herodotus’ narrative is provided by an Egyptian tradition which presented Sesostris as a model of the ideal of kingship. This certainly contained an historical element, but it has been supplemented and contaminated by folklore, nationalist propaganda, and Greek attitudes."<ref name="Lloyd">Template:Cite book</ref>
Diodorus Siculus
According to Diodorus Siculus (who calls him Sesoosis) and Strabo, he conquered the whole world, even Scythia and Aethiopia, divided Egypt into administrative districts or nomes, was a great law-giver, and introduced a caste system into Egypt and the worship of Serapis.<ref name=EB1911>{{#if: |
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}}{{#ifeq: ||}}</ref> Diodorus also wrote that "with regard to this king not only are the Greek writers at variance with one another, but also among the Egyptians the priests and the poets who sing his praises give conflicting stories” (1.53).<ref name="Jay">Template:Cite book</ref>
Modern research
In his Aegyptiaca, the Hellenistic-era Egyptian priest and historian Manetho wrote that a pharaoh he calls "Sesostris" occupied the same position as the known pharaoh Senusret III of the Twelfth Dynasty; "Sesostris" is now usually viewed as a Greek corruption of "Senusret"/"Senwosret"/"Senwosri". Moreover, Manetho's "Sesostris" is believed to be based on the historical Senusret III—possibly conflated with memories of other namesake pharaohs of his dynasty—as well as on Seti I and Ramesses II of the much later Nineteenth Dynasty.<ref>Silverman, David P., Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press (5 Jun 2003), Template:ISBN, p. 29</ref><ref name=EB1911/>
The images of Sesostris carved in stone in Ionia which Herodotus describes<ref>"Most of the memorial pillars which King Sesostris erected in conquered countries have disappeared, but I have seen some myself in Palestine with the inscription I mentioned and the drawing of a woman's genitals. In Ionia also there are two images of Sesostris cut on rock, one on the road from Ephesos to Phocaea, the other between Sardis and Smyrna; in each case the carved figure is nearly seven feet high and represents a man with a spear in his right hand and a bow in his left, and the rest of his equipment to match – partly Egyptian, partly Ethiopian." Herodotus II.106</ref> should likely be identified with the Luwian inscriptions of Karabel Pass, the Karabel relief, now known to have been carved by Tarkasnawa, king of the Arzawan rump state of Mira in Anatolia.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The kings of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties were possibly the greatest conquerors that Egypt ever produced, and their records are much clearer than the older dynasties<ref name=EB1911/> on the limits of Egyptian expansion. Senusret III raided into the Levant as far as Shechem,<ref name=Aldred>Template:Cite book</ref> also into Aethiopia, and at Semna above the second cataract set up a stela of conquest that in its expressions recalls the stelae of Sesostris in Herodotus: Sesostris may, therefore, be the highly magnified portrait of this Pharaoh.<ref name=EB1911/>
Sesostris is also mentioned in the Alexander Romance where Alexander the Great is described as "the new Sesostris, ruler of the world.<ref name="Dieleman"/>
See also
- War of Vesosis and Tanausis
- Sesostris (play): a play based on the life of Sesostris
References
Bibliography
- Herodotus ii. 102-111
- Diodorus Siculus i. 53-59
- Strabo xv. p. 687
- Kurt Sethe, "Sesostris," in Unters. z. Gesch. u. Altertumskunde Agyptens, tome ii. Hinrichs, Leipzig (1900).