in the temple of Khensu at Thebes, and is now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris; it was discovered by Champollion, and removed to Paris by Prisse d’Avennes in 1846. The text was first published by Prisse d’Avenues,[1] and it was first translated by Birch[2] in 1853. The text was republished and translated into French by E. de Rougé in 1858,[3] and several other renderings have been given in German and in English since that date.[4] When the text was first published, and for some yearn afterwards, it was generally thought that the legend referred to events which were said to have taken place under a king who was identified as Rameses XIII., but this misconception was corrected by Erman, who showed[5] that the king W8S in reality Rameses II. By a careful examination of the construction of the text he proved that the narrative on the stele was drawn up several hundreds of years after the events described in it took place, and that its author was but imperfectly acquainted with the form of the Egyptian language in use in the reign of Rameses II. In fact, the legend was written in the interests of the priests of the temple of Khensu, who
- ↑ Choix de Monuments Égyptiens, Paris, 1847, plate xxiv.
- ↑ Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, New Series, vol. iv., p. 217 ff.
- ↑ Journal Asiatique (Étude sur une Stele Égyptienne), August, 1856, August, 1857, and August-Sept., 1858, Paris, 8vo, with plate.
- ↑ Brugsch, Geschichte Aegyptens, 1877, p. 627 ff.; Birch, Records of the Past, Old Series, vol. iv., p. 53 ff.; Budge, Egyptian Reading Book, text and transliteration, p. 40 ff.; translation, p. xxviii. ff.
- ↑ Aeg. Zeit., 1883, pp. 54-60.
