even by this explanation free ourselves from difficulty. For, according to Plutarch, wine was considered by the Egyptians as the blood of Typhon, inasmuch as it was the product of the vine, and not in consequence of its having previously undergone a fermentation. Even the accounts of ancient authors permit us not to doubt, that from the most ancient times, the vine was cultivated in Egypt. Herodotus in many ways contributes to this proof. Thus, according to him, dried grapes appear among the things which are placed in the body of the bullock offered to Isis, together with bread, honey, etc.* The grapes can only have reference to the domestic culture of the vine. Also the identification of Osiris with Bacchus in Herodotust is an argument for the origin of the cultivation of the vine in Egypt. Bacchus and wine stood, at least according to the popular idea which is all that is here important, in indissoluble union. Diodorus, in like manner, not only asserts the identity of Osiris and Bacchus, but also expressly attributes to Osiris the discovery of the art of cultivating the vine.§ "But it is said that he first discovered the vine near Nysa, and after having acquired skill in the management of its fruit, first made use of wine himself, and taught other men the planting of the vine-stock, the gathering of the grapes, the drinking of wine, and its preservation." But the authority of Diodorus is of itself sufficient to outweigh that of Plutarch. Further, according to Hellanicus in Athenaeus, the cultivation of the vine was first discovered in the Egyptian city Plinthinus. But these passages of ancient authors have no longer much interest for us, since we have upon the monu "Quae pertinent," remarks Creuzer, Comm. 1. p. 115, "ad frumenta inventa vitesque cultas," etc. † 2. 42 and 144. In Book I. chap. 11. § 1. 15. || Compare this and other passages quoted in Jablonski, Opusc. II. p. 119 seq. 1. 432, 72. ments a testimony for the origin of the culture of the vine in Egypt far more sure, and sufficient in itself. How little that assertion of Herodotus* agrees with these was first remarked in the Description.t. Since then, the proofs from the monuments for the cultivation of the vine have very much multiplied, and the fact may now, since the appearance of Champollion's Letters and the Works of Rosellini and Wilkinson, be considered as fully settled. According to Champollion there are found in the grottoes of Beni Hassan, "representations of the culture of the vine, the vintage, the bearing away and the stripping off of the grapes, two kinds of presses, the one moved merely by the strength of the arms, the other by mechanical power, the putting up of the wine in bottles or jars, the transportation into the cellar, the preparation of boiled wine," etc. Rosellini has a separate section on grape gathering and the art of making wine. "Numerous," says he, "are the representations in the tombs, which relate to the cultivation of the vine, and these are found, not merely in the tombs of the time of the 18th and some later dynasties, but also in those which belong to the time of the most ancient dynasties." "The described pictures," it is said, "show more decidedly than any ancient written testimony, that in Egypt, even in the most ancient times, the vine was cultivated and wine made." In the inscriptions of the time of the Pharaohs, at least seven different kinds of wine are represented, among which is the wine of * 2.77. T. 6. p. 124. ed. Pancret. It is there said: "Among the numerous details given by Herodotus concerning the diet of the Egyptians, this is found: As they have not the vine, they drink beer (2. 77). Our paintings prove, conclusively, that the Egyptians cultivated the vine, and also made wine. Many critics have previously remarked, that this observation of Herodotus wants accuracy." + S. 51. § Vol. II. 1. p. 365 et seq. || Page 373. Lower Egypt and the wine of Upper Egypt.* Wilkinsont gives the engraving and description of an Egyptian vineyard, and the different kinds of labor bestowed on it. In a painting from Thebes, boys are seen frightening away the birds from the grape clusters. In one from Beni Hassan, the kids appear which are allowed to browse upon the vines after the vintage. The substance of what is communicated by Rosellini and Wilkinson, with the necessary plates, can be found in Taylor.S The assertion of Herodotus, that there is in Egypt no vine, must be considered as an entire mistake. The attempt made first by Dupuy and Larcher, finally also by Bähr, to rescue his authority, without disparaging the witnesses who attest the existence of the cultivation of the vine in ancient Egypt, by saying that Herodotus speaks only of a part of Egypt, the cultivated part, has been already set aside as inadmissible by Rosellini. "Certainly," says he,** "Herodotus speaks only of fertile Egypt, but only there could the vine be cultivated, and most certainly was cultivated. The remainder was either desert or swamp."++ The many representations on the monuments of wineofferings, which the kings present to the gods, show how little reliance is to be placed on the assertion of Plutarch, that before the time of Psamaticus wine was neither offered Page 377. + Page 149. * ↑ Vol. II. p. 143 et seq. || In the Mem. de l'Acad. d. Inscr. t. 31. Hist. p. 20. + Even Bähr says, in remarking upon the words, oì μèv negì tǹv σπερομένην Αίγυπτον οἰκέουσι, in the beginning of C. 77. B. II: "Est enim Aegyptus ad Nili utramque ripam sita per aliquot dierum itinera fertilis frugibusque colendis apta, quam rustici incolae habitant; quae sequuntur regiones pastorum potius sunt atque nomadum neque frugum capaces." See also Heeren, S. 146 ff. nor made use of as drink.* This is one of those numerous fabrications, by which the Egyptians attempt to give astonished foreigners an idea of the nobility and piety of their ancestors. Even Herodotus does not think of anything at all like this. If wine had been considered as the blood of Typhon, how could it be explained, that even in his time, the priests received a regular allowance of wine.t Their practice would surely have corresponded to their theology, if indeed the kings and the people had been led astray by Grecian customs. When v. Bohlen asserts, that the vine could not have found entrance into Egypt, except at some few points, on account of the inundation, we can against this refer to Michaud among others, who says, vines flourish in Egypt in the water like water-plants. And when J. D. Michaelis alleges, that the Delta is in August and September, the months of the wine-harvest, entirely overflowed, we, in opposition to him, refer to Hartmann, according to whom the grape-gathering takes place in part even in July, and is finished in August, while the inundation, as a general thing, does not begin until the end of August, and never before the middle of that month.¶ * Comp. Ros. S. 376. Wilk. II. p. 164 et seq. According to Wilkinson, p. 168, men are seen in the sculptures who, unable to walk from excess in drinking, are carried home from a feast by servants. For proof, that the prohibition of wine and other intoxicating drinks to the priests who were to perform the service of the sanctuary, in Lev. 10, v. 8 seq., was not inappropriate among a people who had come from Egypt, where both wine and other intoxicating drinks were much loved, see Wilk. Vol. III. p. 172 seq. ↑ Comp. 2. 37. T. 7, der Correspondenz aus dem Orient. p. 12. Compare also concerning the cultivation of the vine in the Delta, Hartmann, Aegypten, S. 187. § See passage above referred to. ¶ Page 118. || Page 214-15. We add here, in conclusion, an explanation from Egyptian antiquity, of some objections, which, although they have not yet been, easily might be made to the credibility of the Pentateuch. The Origin of Civilization in Egypt. It has often been confidently affirmed in modern times, that colonization and civilization descended from Ethiopia down the Nile to Egypt. From this view one can hardly avoid a certain suspicion of the notices respecting Egypt in the Pentateuch. Already, in Abraham's time, we find the seat, not of a, but of the flourishing Egyptian kingdom in Lower Egypt, whither colonization and civilization could scarcely, at that time, have been carried. Zoan or Tanis in the Delta appears in Numbers 13: 23, as one of the oldest cities in Egypt. But this position is entirely hypothetical, and its inadmissibility, as is now more and more acknowledged, appears, even when we for the present leave the Pentateuch, out of the account. From antiquity arises a distinguished witness, Herodotus, who* derives the civilization of Ethiopia from the deserters from the army of Psamaticus. Among the moderns, Jomardt has most thoroughly confuted this position. "Nubia," he remarks, "consists almost entirely of barren rocks. Such a land, where the most urgent wants of man can only be supplied with the utmost exertion, is not the cradle of the fine arts. Accordingly the majority of French travellers have not embraced the opinion, that the arts have descended further and further from the mountains of Ethiopia." "So soon as I received information of the true character of the antiquities of Nubia, when I in the pictures * 2. 30. In the Descript. of the Scholars who accompanied the French Expedition into Egypt, t. 9. p. 163 et seq. |