“[...] The population along the river was divided into “nomes,”* in each of which the inhabitants were essentially of one stock, acknowledged the same totem, obeyed the same chief, and worshiped the same gods by the same rites.[...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.8, Part 3, 1935
"[...] As all developing structures tend toward an increasing interdependence of the parts, so in this case the growth of trade and the rising costliness of war forced the nomes to organize themselves into two king- doms— one in the south, one in the north; a division probably reflecting the conflict between African natives and Asiatic immigrants. This dangerous accentuation of geographic and ethnic differences was resolved for a time when Menes, a half-legendary figure, brought the “Two Lands” under his united power, promulgated a body of laws given him by the god Thoth, established the first historic dynasty, built a new capital at Memphis, “taught the people” (in the words of an ancient Greek historian) “to use tables and couches, and...introduced luxury and an extravagant manner of life.”"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.8, Part 3, 1935 (italics and formatting added)
"[...] Herodotus has passed on to us the traditions of the Egyp tian priests concerning this builder of the first of Gizeh’s pyramids:
Now they tell me that to the reign of Rhampsinitus there was a perfect distribution of justice and that all Egypt was in a high state of prosperity;
but that after him Cheops, coming to reign over them, plunged into every kind of wickedness, for that, having shut up all the temples, ... he ordered all the Egyptians to work for himself. Some, accordingly, were appointed to draw stones from the quarries in the Arabian mountains down to the Nile, others he ordered to receive the stones when transported in vessels across the river. . . . And they worked to the number of a hundred thousand men at a time, each party during three months. The time during which the people were thus harassed by toil lasted ten years on the road which they constructed, and along which they drew the stones; a work, in my opinion, not much less than the Pyramid."
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.8, Part 3, 1935 (italics and formatting added)
"Why did these men build pyramids? Their purpose was not architectural but religious; the pyramids were tombs, lineally descended from the most primitive of burial mounds. Apparently the Pharaoh believed, like any commoner among his people, that every living body was inhabited by a double, or 'ka,' which need not die with the breath; and that the ka would survive all the more completely if the flesh were preserved against hunger, violence and decay. The pyramid, by its height,! its form and its position, sought stability as a means to deathlessness; and except for its square corners it took the natural form that any homogeneous group of solids would take if allowed to fall unimpeded to the earth.[...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.8, Part 3, 1935 (italics and formatting added)
"Since the ka was conceived as the minute image of the body, it had to be fed, clothed and served after the death of the frame. Lavatories were provided in some royal tombs for the convenience of the departed soul; and a funerary text expresses some anxiety lest the ka, for want of food, should feed upon its own excreta .“ One suspects that Egyptian burial customs, if traced to their source, would lead to the primitive interment of a warrior’s weapons with his corpse, or to some institution like the Hindu suttee — the burial of a man’s wives and slaves with him that they may attend to his needs. This having proved irksome to the wives and slaves, painters and sculptors were engaged to draw pictures, carve bas- reliefs, and make statuettes resembling these aides; by a magic formula, usually inscribed upon them, the carved or painted objects would be quite as effective as the real ones. [...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.8, Part 3, 1935 (italics and formatting added)
"Finally the ka was assured long life not only by burying the cadaver in a sarcophagus of the hardest stone, but by treating it to the most pains- taking mummification. So well was this done that to this day bits of hair and flesh cling to the royal skeletons.[...]"
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.8, Part 3, 1935 (italics and formatting added)
"[...] Civilization, like life, destroys what it has perfected. Already, it may be, the growth of comforts and luxuries, the progress of manners and morals, had made men lovers of peace and haters of war. Suddenly a new figure appeared, usurped Menkaure’s throne, and put an end to the pyramid-builders’ dynasty."
Will Durant, Story of Civilization, Vol.1: Our Oriental Heritage, Book 1, Ch.8, Part 3, 1935 (italics and formatting added)
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