The worship of the three great pyramid-building kings continued in Memphis down to the time of the Greeks and Romans.  Their statues, in granite, limestone, and alabaster, were preserved also in the buildings annexed to the temple of Phtah, where visitors could contemplate these Pharaohs as they were when alive.

[Illustration:  196.jpg THE GRANITE SARCOPHAGUS OF MYKERINOS]

     Drawn by Faucher-Gudin, from a chromolithograph in Prisse
     D’Avennes, Histoire de l’Art Egyptien.

Those of Khephren show us the king at different ages, when young, mature, or already in his decadence.  They are in most cases cut out of a breccia of green diorite, with long irregular yellowish veins, and of such hardness that it is difficult to determine the tool with which they were worked.  The Pharaoh sits squarely on his royal throne, his hands on his lap, his body firm and upright, and his head thrown back with a look of self-satisfaction.  A sparrow-hawk perched on the back of his seat covers his head with its wings—­an image of the god Horus protecting his son.  The modelling of the torso and legs of the largest of these statues, the dignity of its pose, and the animation of its expression, make of it a unique work of art which may be compared with the most perfect products of antiquity.  Even if the cartouches which tell us the name of the king had been hammered away and the insignia of his rank destroyed, we should still be able to determine the Pharaoh by his bearing:  his whole appearance indicates a man accustomed from his infancy to feel himself invested with limitless authority.  Mykerinos stands out less impassive and haughty:  he does not appear so far removed from humanity as his predecessor, and the expression of his countenance agrees, somewhat singularly, with the account of his piety and good nature preserved by the legends.  The Egyptians of the Theban dynasties, when comparing the two great pyramids with the third, imagined that the disproportion in their size corresponded with a difference of character between their royal occupants.  Accustomed as they were from infancy to gigantic structures, they did not experience before “the Horizon” and “the Great” the feeling of wonder and awe which impresses the beholder of to-day.  They were not the less apt on this account to estimate the amount of labour and effort required to complete them from top to bottom.  This labour seemed to them to surpass the most excessive corvee which a just ruler had a right to impose upon his subjects, and the reputation of Kheops and Khephren suffered much in consequence.  They were accused of sacrilege, of cruelty, and profligacy.

[Illustration:  198.jpg DIORITE STATUE OF KHEPHREN, GIZEU MUSEUM]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Emil Brugsch-Bey.  It
     is one of the most complete statues found by Mariette in the
     temple of the Sphinx.