The first known Theban monarch is a certain Antef or Enantef, whose coffin was discovered in the year 1827 by some Arabs near Qurnah, to the west of Thebes.  The mummy bore the royal diadem, and the epigraph on the lid of the coffin declared the body which it contained to be that of “Antef, king of the two Egypts.” The phrase implied a claim to dominion over the whole country, but a claim as purely nominal as that of the kings of England from Edward IV. to George III. to be monarchs of France and Navarre.  Antef s rule may possibly have reached to Elephantine on the one hand, but is not likely to have extended much beyond Coptos on the other.  He was a local chieftain posing as a great sovereign, but probably with no intention to deceive either his own contemporaries or posterity.  His name appears in some of the later Egyptian dynastic lists; but no monument of his time has come down to us except the one that has been mentioned.

Antef I. is thought to have been succeeded by Mentu-hotep I., a monarch even more shadowy, known to us only from the “Table of Karnak.”  This prince, however, is followed by one who possesses a greater amount of substance—­Antef-aa, or “Antef the Great,” grandson, as it would seem, of the first Antef—­a sort of Egyptian Nimrod, who delighted above all things in the chase.  Antefaa’s sepulchral monument shows him to us standing in the midst of his dogs, who wear collars, and have their names engraved over them.  The dogs are four in number, and are of distinct types.  The first, which is called Mahut or “Antelope,” has drooping ears, and long but somewhat heavy legs; it resembles a foxhound, and was no doubt both swift and strong, though it can scarcely have been so swift as its namesake.  The second was called Abakaru, a name of unknown meaning; it has pricked up, pointed ears, a pointed nose, and a curly tail.  Some have compared it with the German spitz dog, but it seems rather to be the original dog of nature, a near congener of the jackal, and the type to which all dogs revert when allowed to run wild and breed indiscriminately.  The third, named Pahats or Kamu, i.e. “Blacky,” is a heavy animal, not unlike a mastiff; it has a small, rounded, drooping ear, a square, blunt nose, a deep chest, and thick limbs.  The late Dr. Birch supposed that it might have been employed by Antefaa in “the chase of the lion;” but we should rather regard it as a watch-dog, the terror of thieves, and we suspect that the artist gave it the sitting attitude to indicate that its business was not to hunt, but to keep watch and ward at its master’s gate.  The fourth dog, who bears the name of Tekal, and walks between his master’s legs, has ears that seem to have been cropped.  He has been said to resemble “the Dalmatian hound”:  but this is questionable.  His peculiarities are not marked; but, on the whole, it seems most probable that he is “a pet house-dog"[9] of the terrier class, the special favourite of his master.  Antefaa’s dogs had their appointed keeper, the master of his kennel, who is figured on the sepulchral tablet behind the monarch, and bears the name of Tekenru.