Letrouae, la CicilisaUon cf/i/ptienne, p. l

426 FRAGMENTS d'uN COMMENTAIRE

quelques-uns des noms qu'on lit sur les murailles ont-ils appartenu à ces Samiens dont parle Hérodote : ils venaient rendre leurs hommages au dieu avant de prendre la route qui mène de la vallée du Nil à l'Oasis.

The stèle C 14, publislied by Lepsins (Auswahl, taf. ix) and Prisse d'Avennes {Monuments égyptiens, pi. VII), bas been often alluded to, but never translated. It was foimd in Abydos by Thédenat du Vent, sold to Cousinéry , and then to the Louvre. Champollion^ struck by the conformity of style which it oiïers to the stèle 45 in Turin, ascribed it to the XXP^ Dynasty, and tried to discover on it the names of King Smendes and King Psousennes {Lettres à M. le duc deBlacas, deuxième Lettre, p. 114-118). E. deRougéthought « it might be considered on the whole as being one of the master-pieces of Egyptian sculpture » {Catcdogue des Monuments égyptiens de la salle du Res-de-chaussée, 1849, p. 47, and Rapport adressé à M. le Directeur général des Musées Nationaux, 1851, p. 17), and his opinion was fuUy re-echoed by Orcurti. The fact is, the first draught of the hieroglyphics, which was done in red ink, and remains to this day visible, is exceedingly fine, but the carving, although very élabora te, is by no means excellent.

C 14 was erected for a certain Iaaaa^a Iritisen, in the

reign of Mentuhotep, i?a-/ie6-A7ie/'» (XI"' Dynasty). Iritisen and his wife ^ V^ Hapu, are figured twice on it. First, in the lower part, sitting together upon one seat, the lady witli

1. Publié dans les Transactions of the Society of Bihlical Archœology, t. V, p. 555-562; la traduction a été ïeproduite dans les Records ofthe Past, V ser., t. V, p. 1-4.

one arm lovingly put around tlie neck of lier lord, the man raising to his nose an alabastron full of perfumed oil, ^. Before them is a low table, piled witli every description of victuals, over them a legend :

S "vx I « Funereal meal of bread and

liquor, thousands of loaves, liquors, oxen, geese, ail good and pure things, to the pious Iritisen; his pious wife who loves him, Hapu. » In the middle register, they are represented standing. Iritisen holds in the left hand the long stick of elders and noblemen, in the right the '=3>^ sceptre; both are making front to a procession of their own family.

5>= . I711 ^ i]'^-^— ' ^§ <' His son, his eldest, who

loves him, Usortese/i » heads it; then follow :

n [| ^^:=^ /vwwN ^ I (( His son, who loves

him, Mentwhotep, » and ^^ n \\^^ ^'^^^-^^'^^ | (( his son, who loves him, Si-Mentu; » immedicitely after

r\t\f^j\rv\ j\N\N\f\

whom we find a lady <^^ a V\ ^^^-^^ {sic