The Memphite period, which is usually called the “Ancient Empire,” from the First to the Tenth dynasty:  kings of Memphite origin were rulers over the whole of Egypt during the greater part of this epoch. 2.  The Theban period, from the Eleventh to the Twentieth dynasty.  It is divided into two parts by the invasion of the Shepherds (Sixteenth dynasty). 3.  Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the Thirtieth dynasty, divided again into two parts by the Persian Conquest, the first Saite period, from the Twenty-first to the Twenty-sixth dynasty; the second Saite Period, from the Twenty-eighth to the Thirtieth dynasty.

IV.—­Political Constitution of Egypt

Between the Fayum and the apex of the Delta, the Libyan range expands and forms a vast and slightly undulating table-land, which runs parallel to the Nile for nearly thirty leagues.  The great Sphinx Harmakhis has mounted guard over its northern extremity ever since the time of the followers of Horus.  In later times, a chapel of alabaster and rose granite was erected alongside the god; temples were built here and there in the more accessible places, and round these were grouped the tombs of the whole country.  The bodies of the common people, usually naked and uncoffined, were thrust into the sand at a depth of barely three feet from the surface.  Those of the better class rested in mean rectangular chambers, hastily built of yellow bricks, without ornaments or treasures; a few vessels, however, of coarse pottery contained the provisions left to nourish the departed during the period of his existence.  Some of the wealthy class had their tombs cut out of the mountain-side; but the great majority preferred an isolated tomb, a “mastaba,” comprised of a chapel above ground, a shaft, and some subterranean vaults.

During the course of centuries, the ever-increasing number of tombs formed an almost uninterrupted chain, are rich in inscriptions, statues, and in painted or sculptured scenes, and from the womb, as it were, of these cemeteries, the Egypt of the Memphite dynasties gradually takes new life and reappears in the full daylight of history.  The king stands out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else.  He is god to his subjects, who call him “the good-god,” and “the great-god,” connecting him with Ra through the intervening kings.  So the Pharaohs are blood relations of the sun-god, the “divine double” being infused into the royal infant at birth.

The monuments throw full light on the supernatural character of the Pharaohs in general, but tell us little of the individual disposition of any king in particular, or of their everyday life.  The royal family was very numerous.  At least one of the many women of the harem received the title of “great spouse,” or queen.  Her union with the god-king rendered her a goddess.  Children swarmed in the palace, as in the houses of private citizens, and they were constantly jealous of each other, having no bond of union except common hatred of the son whom the chances of birth had destined to be their ruler.