The history of the VIth dynasty loses itself in legend and fable.  Two more kings are supposed to have succeeded Papi Nofirkeri, Mirniri Mihtimsaut (Metesouphis II.) and Nitauqrit (Nitokris).  Metesouphis II. was killed, so runs the tale, in a riot, a year after his accession.*

* Manetho does not mention this fact, but the legend given by Herodotus says that Nitokris wished to avenge the king, her brother and predecessor, who was killed in a revolution; and it follows from the narrative of the facts that this anonymous brother was the Metesouphis of Manetho.  The Turin Papyrus assigns a reign of a year and a month to Mihtimsaul- Metesouphis II.

His sister, Nitokris, the “rosy-cheeked,” to whom, as was the custom, he was married, succeeded him and avenged his death.  She built an immense subterranean hall; under pretext of inaugurating its completion, but in reality with a totally different aim, she then invited to a great feast, and received in this hall, a considerable number of Egyptians from among those whom she knew to have been instigators of the crime.  During the entertainment, she diverted the waters of the Nile into the hall by means of a canal which she had kept concealed.  This is what is related of her.  They add, that “after this, the queen, of her own will, threw herself into a great chamber filled with ashes, in order to escape punishment.”  She completed the pyramid of Mykerinos, by adding to it that costly casing of Syenite which excited the admiration of travellers; she reposed in a sarcophagus of blue basalt, in the very centre of the monument, above the secret chamber where the pious Pharaoh had hidden his mummy.*

* The legend which ascribes the building of the third pyramid to a woman has been preserved by Herodotus:  E. de Bunsen, comparing it with the observations of Vyse, was inclined to attribute to Nitokris the enlarging of the monument, which appears to me to have been the work of Mykerinos himself.

The Greeks, who had heard from their dragomans the story of the “Rosy-cheeked Beauty,” metamorphosed the princess into a courtesan, and for the name of Nitokris, substituted the more harmonious one of Rhodopis, which was the exact translation of the characteristic epithet of the Egyptian queen.  One day while she was bathing in the river, an eagle stole one of her gilded sandals, carried it off in the direction of Memphis, and let it drop in the lap of the king, who was administering justice in the open air.  The king, astonished at the singular occurrence, and at the beauty of the tiny shoe, caused a search to be made throughout the country for the woman to whom it belonged:  Rhodopis thus became Queen of Egypt, and could build herself a pyramid.  Even Christianity and the Arab conquest did not entirely efface the remembrance of the courtesan-princess.

[Illustration:  286.jpg THE ENTRANCE TO THE PYRAMID OF UNAS AT SAQQARA]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.