WHY TO CHOICE
MENMAATRE SETHY MERENPTAH ?
Sethy Ist ' cartouches.
- The father .
- Historic context .
- Art .
- The Art of High relief .
- Temples .
- The name of Sethy .
- Choices .
Sethy Ist was the father of the most known pharaoh, Ramses II .
His reign was eclipsed by his son , nevertheless the facts relative of his reign
are as important as those of Ramses II .
Does not did it conquer the fortress of Qadech ? While his son ( Ramses II ) has not succeeded.
(see the famous poem of Pentaur ) .
Horemheb 's cartouches
The real founder of the XIXth dynasty is in reality Sethy, Horemheb
would have chosen his old companion Paramessou who will become Ramses Ist,
especially because of the presence of his son Sethy . Horemheb had noticed the real value of a futur king
in this young warrior . When Horemheb chooses his vizir he called , the named , Paramessou , Sethy was
at this present time the father of an appointed child Ramses ; named as his grand father. Therefore Horemheb ,
like a political informed advise man , had the vision of a new dynasty , which would promise to be fertile for Egypt . He
did not suspect that Ramses II would have more 100 children ( a fifty of
sons and so much girls ! )
Ramses Ist s ' cartouches
Art reached under his reign an almost unequalled level and entirely remarkable .
Some people reproaches to this art , a certain coldness ; for me I am very proud for it .
I think that this art is the heir of the period of Tell-el-Amarna ; and I said
that the influence ofAkhenaton is feeled again . There is no more than a
forty of years that the former has left AkhetAton . The temple of Abydos
is , according to me , the most beautiful temple of Egypt ; with its colors magnificently
preserved, with its 8 chapels devoted to various divinities ( exceptional for pharaonic
Egypt) . The Osireion is , also, very interesting to study , especially
for the funeral books , the Book of Gates they are especially engraved in the Cenotaph of
Abydos , also , on the funeral sarcophagus of Sethy Ist ( now in to the Sloane Museum in London) .
Don't forget that this text appeared for first time in the Kings's Valley in the tomb of Horemheb .
His tomb is recognized as being the most beautiful of the King's Valley ( tomb
n°17 quoted KV17)
Under its reign the art of the High relief ( again called relief in covering ) had reached its higher perfection degree;
its son Ramses II has rather preferred the technique of the incised relief ( again called relief in the hollow );
technik more rapid than the high relief! It is one of the explanations of the presence of so much monuments of Ramses II.
It is more rapid to engrave a relief in hollow that to realize it in covering. Of course I do not forget the length of the
reign of Ramses II, this is an other favorable factor to the number of sites and monuments that we can see currently in Egypt ,
what has contributed to the Glory and reappointed it Ramses II .
For an annealing approach , a thesis exists ( according to Wolgang Müller ) , which give the paternity of incised relief to Sethy
in the great representations of battles which had rework and extended under the XIXth and XXthe dynasties .
There are representations of Sethy's wars in on the extern north wall of the hypostyl hall in Karnak .
One other argue is the famous Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak . It's the monument most
important in Egypte after the Great Pyramids of Guizah . This large hall of 53 meters long and of 102 meters width possessed
12 open papyriforme columns , 23 m high . On each side from this 12 central columns we find 122 papyriforms columns .
For every one who visit Egypt , they don't forget this hall in memory .
We could attribut , too , the paternity of heavy style columns ( according to P.Barguet ) these one are the monostyl columns papyriform with
bud capital , we find for the first time into theHypostyl roon in Abydos .
An another creation for this epoch and which had an influence for the rest of dynasty is the creation of two rooms for barks linked to the main room
devoted to Amun . In fact these barks rooms are devoted to Mut and Khonsu .
An anther realization of Sethy is the erection of the famous Osireion behind the temple of millions of years in Abydos .
In preamble it is necessary to note the spelling which has to be used SETHY , I want to speak the final Y .
Spellings of typical Seti or Sethi have to be prohibited , even if we found them in a majority of books .
In his book "L'Egypte et la vallée du Nil" , Nouvelle Clio , PUF Paris , Claude Vanderleyen explain clearly : ( page 497 )
"...Comme le nom , en hiéroglyphes , est toujours écrit au moyen de l'idéogramme d'un dieu que tous les ouvrages nomment Seth , et que cet idéogramme est toujours suivi du "double roseau fleuri" ( M17 ) transcrit y par Lefebvre , Grammaire § 20 et 33 ; et par Gardiner , Grammar , § 19-20 , la transcription qui rend le meiux compte , en français de la graphie hiéroglyphique du nom de ce roi est donc sethy " .
That I translate :
". ..As the name , in hieroglyphs , is always written by means the ideogram of a god that all works appoint Seth , and that this ideogram is always followed by the "double flowery reed" ( M17 )
transcribes there by Lefebvre , Grammaire § 20 and 33 ; and by Gardiner , Grammar , § 19 - 20 , the transcription that renders the best account , in French of the hieroglyphic writing of the name of this king is
therefore sethy " .
I think that some English people has to write also : Sethy or Sety , for this language all depends how is written the name of the god Set or Seth .
An another reason for this choice, it is the name itself of Sethy , where we find the dishonoured-name of Seth, the adversary
of Osiris . Sethy could have mean "the Man of Seth. To wear a such name did not have to be easy, especially if his
son was a red-haired man ! This colour for a men , signify a relationship with Seth . He won to keep and strengthened the Unit
of the Kingdom of the Two Lands ( = Egypt ) , even so against the Priests of Amun .
He won to spare the ascent in power of the clergy of Amun following the Amarna-time ; he increased the favour of the cult such as Ptah
( he was designated in its cartouche beloved of Ptah) . He built , probably , a large palace near the ancient Avaris ( the dishonoured
Hyksôs-City, devoted to the god Seth ) ; the Museum of the Louvre possesses beautiful green-glazzes of its palace
(designated in the present as Quantir). Would that it means that his son Ramses had enlarged the city around this palace ,
city which will be known later by Bbible under the name of Piramses ? We will develop a later bit this hypothesis .
The importance point of vue that Sethy brought to the constructions of his temples ( that is Abydos or the temple of Gurnah ) is not harmless , whole
has been surely thought . I want some for proof the choice of his temple of "millions of years" in Gurnah . That is the temple positioned the most northern ,
this has had for consequence that during the " Beautiful Valley Festival " this temple was the first visited by the divine barks ! This temple serves furthermore model for his successors .
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