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ANCIENT EGYPT
 The beginnings of Ancient Egypt are lost in prehistory, the time before there was writing. No one knows the origin of the first kings. Some think they came from Central Africa, others argue for the Fertile Crescent in Mesopotamia. The first descriptions by an outsider are those of the Greek historian Herodotus, who toured Egypt in the fifth century BC and reported on its marvels, ancient even then. Like most tourists, he was dependent on information given him by his guides, who spoke with authority about matters which had taken place more than 2,000 years before. Therefore, much of what he describes should be regarded with caution. In 300 BC, an Egyptian priest named Manetho wrote a history which divided the over 170 pharaohs into 30 dynasties (or 31; some include a dynasty zero). This chronology covers the dates from 3150 BC to 343 BC. After 343 BC, Egypt was governed first by Persian, and then by Greek rulers. The last of these were Cleopatra and her son by Julius Caesar. Egypt then became part of the Roman Empire. Manetho’s history has been combined with other sources to give the list which is generally accepted today.
The dynasties have been divided into the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. Between these were two periods of decline known as ‘Intermediate Periods’. Before the time of Manetho’s first pharaoh there were two countries. One, Upper Egypt, stretched from about the site of present day Cairo to the first cataract. Its king wore the White Crown or hedjet. Lower Egypt consisted of the Nile Delta. Its king wore the Red Crown or deshret.
THE OLD KINGDOM (3150-2181 BC)
 
Egyptian history starts when these two kingdoms were combined and the king adopted the Double Crown or shmty. Unification probably took more than one hundred years to accomplish. It is attributed to the semi-mythical King Menes who may be the same as Narmer. Archaeologists have recently discovered graves from the time of Narmer near what was Memphis (Act I of Aïda is set in Memphis). Menes announced a body of laws which were given to him by the god Thoth. He is also credited with the foundation of the capital city of Memphis. During the Third Dynasty, King Djoser (2668-2649 BC) built the very first stone structure in the world, the famous Step Pyramid at Saqqara. It was designed by Imhotep (above, his treasurer and administrator. Imhotep was also the High Priest of Heliopolis, a builder and sculptor, a doctor and a scribe. He is one of the few Egyptian architects known to us by name. In later years, he was worshiped as the god of architecture and medicine.
The great age of the pyramids was during the Fourth Dynasty. Khufu (Cheops or Suphis) (2589-2566 BC) created the Great Pyramid at Giza, the first of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Its sides are oriented very precisely to north, east, south and west. Its base covers 13 acres and, when the Emperor Napoleon visited it, he calculated that it contained enough stone to build a wall around France, one foot wide and twelve feet high. There are many theories on how it was constructed but none of them are entirely convincing. We may never know how it was done. One of Khufu’s sons Khafre (Chephren) (2558-2332 BC) was responsible for the Second Pyramid and the Great Sphinx at Giza.
After almost one thousand years, the Old Kingdom broke down. While a group of pharaohs claimed to rule all Egypt from Memphis, in reality they were little more than local governors. The various regions then jockeyed for power for over 140 years.
THE MIDDLE KINGDOM (2040-1782 BC)
 At the end of this Intermediate Period, kings from Thebes gained the ascendancy and once more ruled over a united Egypt. Verdi thought that Senusret (Sesostris) III (1878-1841 BC) (left) was the King depicted in Aïda. Over six feet tall, he was a great military leader who subdued his neighbors in Nubia to the south (the Ethiopia of Aïda) and built a series of fortresses along the border. He reorganized the government and built many structures in Thebes, making it a great religious center. However, within sixty years the country disintegrated and, once more, there was an Intermediate Period. The north was conquered by people from Asia Minor, but a new line of rulers emerged in Thebes and expelled the invaders. This heralded the start of the New Kingdom.
THE NEW KINGDOM (1570-1070 BC)
 During this period, Egypt reached the zenith of its power. Its first king was Ahmose (1570-1546) who restored the temple of Ptah at Memphis (the scene of Act I, Scene 2 of Aïda). One of the ‘kings’ of this line was Hatshepsut (1498-1483) (right) who married her half-brother and was made a regent for her step-son and nephew. She soon took control of the kingdom into her own hands. The Egyptian word for queen means ”wife of the king” so she could not be called that. Instead she was given the title of King and was often portrayed wearing a false beard. During her reign, the emphasis was on improving conditions in the kingdom and on trade, rather than conquest. She sent an exposition to Punt (probably today’s Ethiopia or Somalia) which returned with many exotic items such as leopard skins, ostrich feathers, myrrh, frankincense, ivory and monkeys. This expedition is shown on the walls of her mortuary temple. It has been suggested that she was the Queen of Sheba of the Bible and Punt was really Palestine. When she died, her ward, Tuthmosis III (1504-1450), became king. He was a great warrior and conqueror who has been called “The Napoleon of Ancient Egypt”. He was the first to reach the Kushite capital of Napata. Under him, the Egyptian Empire reached its greatest size and strength. Under Amonhotep III (1386-1349) Egypt enjoyed a long period of prosperity and stability. He had a great number of wives, including some foreign princesses and two of his own daughters. It was he who built the great promenade at Karnak, near Thebes (the scene of Act I, Scene 4 of Aïda)
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One of the most interesting kings of the New Kingdom was Amonhotep IV (1350-1334). A thinker and philosopher rather than a warrior, he was abashed by the growing power and behavior of the priests of Amon. They maintained what was effectively a harem at their temple, made animal sacrifices, and indulged in elaborate and expensive rituals. Amonhotep introduced a monotheistic religion devoted to the sun disk, Aten, and changed his name to Akhenaten (or Ikhnaten). He built a temple to Aten at Thebes but decided a new god needed a new capital, so he built the new city of Akhetaten half-way between Memphis and Thebes. It is doubtful the common people had much to do with the new religion. Only Akhenaten had access to the god, and he interpreted Aten to the others. The King worshiped Aten and the rest of the people were supposed to worship the King! The old beliefs continued among everyone else. The change was too radical and too sudden, and the powerful priest caste rose against him. When he neglected the government, the dependent countries revolted, refusing to pay any more tribute. Soon the treasury was empty. When Akhenaten died at age thirty, penniless and friendless, the government was moved back to Thebes, and Akhetaten fell into ruin.
The son-in-law of Akhenaten, Tutankhaten was a very minor king, who died while still in his teens. He changed his name back to Tutankhamon and, because of the wonderful tomb which was discovered in 1922 by the archaeologist Howard Carver, is one of the most famous of the pharaohs. It is because he was so minor that his tomb was well preserved; no one thought it would be worth bothering. Its splendor makes one wonder what the burials of the more important kings were like before they were desecrated by grave robbers.
Some of what we know of the Egyptian kings comes from several King Tables which have been found. One of these is the Table of Abydos, on the wall of the temple of Sety I, which lists the kings from Menes to Sety. Possibly for political reasons, however, a number of pharaohs are omitted including Hatshepsut and Tutankhamon.
Ramesses, or Ramses II (1279-1212), the successor of Sety I, is one of the best known of the kings and is thought to be the Pharaoh of the Bible, although no account of the Exodus has been found in Egyptian records — for them it would have been a relatively minor affair. However, he was not succeeded by his first-born son. Could he have been a victim when all the first-born children of Egypt died? Handsome and brave, Ramses was equally famous for his wives; he had eight legitimate ones, many concubines and over 162 children. A recently discovered tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Thebes was the burial place of 50 of his 52 known sons. The tombs of his daughters have not yet been discovered. Of all the pharaohs, Ramses has left the most monuments, found all over the country. One of the greatest is the huge rock-cut temple at Abu Simbel. He was 92 when he died. When his mummy went to Paris for an exhibition, it was greeted at the airport with a full Presidential Guard of Honor, a considerable improvement over its first voyage. When it was taken to Cairo after its discovery, it was taxed as a load of dried fish!
The New Kingdom was followed by another Intermediate Period (1069-525) during which invasion followed invasion. From 747-656 Egypt was ruled by the Nubians or Kushites, the “Ethiopians” of Aïda. They had been independent of Egypt since the time of Ramses II. Their capital was at Napata which is mentioned in the opera. Radamès inadvertently betrays his country when he reveals the route Egypt’s army will take, “through the gorges of Napata”. In 525 BC Egypt was conquered by the Persians and they ruled as the 27th dynasty until 404 BC. There was a final native dynasty followed by another interval of Persian rule from 404-343 BC. They in turn were replaced by the Macedonian Greeks under Alexander the Great. The line of Ptolemies ended with the son of Cleopatra by the Roman Julius Caesar, Caesarion. (She also had a son and daughter by Mark Antony.) Egypt became a Roman province and was linked with Roman history until the fall of the Roman Empire.
In the following years, many of Egypt’s wonders disappeared and it wasn’t until Napoleon launched his conquest that interest was rekindled. The rage of Europeans for Egyptian antiquities led to widespread looting and, in 1858, Ferdinand de Lessops, who cut the Suez Canal, urged the authorities to take action. In response, Auguste Mariette who wrote the original scenario for Aïda, was named the first Conservator of Egyptian Monuments. It wasn’t until 1880 that Flinders Petrie started the first scientific and careful excavations.
EGYPTIAN RELIGION
THE GODS OF EGYPT
Except for a brief period, religion in Egypt was polytheistic, that is, there were many gods. Furthermore, for most of the time, there was no chief god. The modern principle of the separation of Church and State would have been completely foreign to the ancient Egyptians. The State and Religion were one. Moreover, only the upper classes actively participated. The common people had little contact with the official religion. They attended the great festivals, but their knowledge of the gods was superficial. The temples were not for public worship but for private practice by the priests. There were minor cults for humbler people and several middle eastern sects, brought to Egypt by foreign workmen.
In prehistoric times, the Egyptians worshiped a variety of animals including the bull, the crocodile, the cow, the goat, the cat, and the jackal. Eventually these gods obtained human bodies but kept their animal heads. Later they were represented with human heads. Each god lived in a temple in a single town or village These temples were modest, usually made of mud bricks, and little remains of them. During the Old Kingdom, the gods had limited power and there was no discernible hierarchy. As a town got control over other people, they took their gods with them and some, such as Ptah, the god of Memphis, attained more universal renown.
THE PRIESTS
The pharaoh was considered to be a god-king while he lived, and he actually became a god when he died. He served as the chief priest and was the only one permitted to have direct contact with the god. He led all of the great processions and ceremonies. However, he could not do everything himself. Soon there arose a vast class of priests, adept in magic and ritual. They lived in the temples and had the sacrifices to the god as their food and drink. Often the animal which represented their god was kept in the temple. For example, the Apis bull was kept at Memphis. Herodotus describes the priests as follows: "They are of all men the most excessively attentive to the worship of the gods.…[They think] it is better to be clean than handsome. They shave their whole body [including their heads, eyebrows and lashes] every third day, that neither lice nor any other impurity may be found upon them.…They wash themselves in cold water twice every day and twice every night".
The priests were exempt from taxes and other services to the state, enabling them to keep and accumulate their wealth. Often the priests became more powerful than the king, and the history of Egypt is the history of conflict between them. This can be seen in Aïda, where the high priest Ramfis is the one who makes the decisions and contacts the gods. The king is merely a figurehead. Women could serve as priestesses but usually in minor roles.
KA
Egyptians believed the body was inhabited by a small copy of itself, the ka, and also by a soul. If the ka left the body, the person died immediately. Those who remained free from sin would live forever in the “Happy Field of Food.”
THE MAJOR GODS
Osiris was originally identified with water, vegetation and soil; he later became the god of the underworld. He invented religion and laid down the rules governing it, even inventing the two flutes which were to accompany ceremonial song. He is usually shown as a mummified figure wearing the white crown with two plumes, a false beard, and carrying a crook and flail. Osiris was murdered and dismembered by the god Seth who scattered the body parts around Egypt. His wife Isis, with the help of Thoth, Anubis and Horus, collected all the pieces and restored him to life. (It is because of this story that he became the god of the underworld.) When someone died, Osiris would weigh his heart against a feather to determine the owner’s truthfulness. If the deceased failed, he would spend the rest of eternity in his tomb, hungry and thirsty. But there were ways to cheat on this test. The priests sold prayers and charms with which one could deceive Osiris. The collection of these is called The Book of the Dead.
Isis was the wife of Osiris and was known for her magical powers. She is usually depicted with cow horns and either a solar disk, or with a throne on her head. The Greek historian, Herodotus, described a temple to Isis at Memphis.
Ra or Re was the sun god of Heliopolis (which means ‘city of the sun’). He is usually shown as a falcon-headed man wearing a solar disk on his head. During the New Kingdom, with Amon, he became Amon-Ra, the King of the Gods.
Amon was the God of the wind, the local god of Thebes. His name means “hidden”. Although he was invisible, he needed a physical shape, so he is usually represented as a man wearing a high crown with two plumes and holding a sceptre and ankh. Almost unknown during the Old Kingdom, during the Middle Kingdom he was combined with the sun god and became Amon-Ra. The patron of the most powerful pharaohs, he called them his sons and led them to victory in battle. During the New Kingdom, Amon became the prime national god. His temple was probably the largest ever built. So that Amon could watch over them, the kings began to be buried near Thebes in the Valley of the Kings. He later declined in influence, and under the Ptolemies, became once again a local god.
 Ptah was the god of Memphis. Worshiped there from the very beginning, he later became a god of all Egypt. The Egyptian name for its country was Hetkaptah, Palace of the Spirit (ka) of Ptah, the supreme god and architect of the universe, the creator of all earthly forms. (The name Egypt is from the Greek Aigyptos.) It is said one could see the vastness of the universe in Ptah’s eyes. He first created the gods and then Egypt. Even the other gods were seen as personifications of Ptah. He is shown in human form, mummified, with a tight-fitting cap, a false beard, and holding a scepter. The protector of artists and artisans, he directed the architects and masons during the building of a temple. He was also the protector against noxious animals and all kinds of evil. Maintained by the king, Ptah’s temple was the central feature of the city of Memphis. It must have been as grand or grander than those at Karnak but over the years its stone was used to build other buildings. Only slight remains can now be seen. There was also a small temple to him at Saqqara and another at Thebes. Ptah’s high priest was one of the greatest men in Egypt, a confidant of the King. He could be compared to the Pope of today. Although Ptah was important throughout Egyptian history, he became secondary to Amon-Ra when the capital moved to Thebes.
OTHER IMPORTANT GODS AND GODDESSES
Anubis: The god of mummification, Anubis is represented either as a man with the head of a jackal, or as the jackal itself. He opened the door to the underworld for the dead, took them by the hand, and led them to Osiris for the weighing of their souls. When Osiris died, Anubis bound up his body to preserve it and was therefore known as “The Lord of Mummy Wrappings”.
Apis: The sacred bull at Memphis is shown with a solar disk on his forehead. Ptah’s sacred animal and believed to be his reincarnation, the live Apis bull was kept in his own temple opposite that of the god. The devout went to watch him and, during the Graeco-Roman era, he was a great tourist attraction. When one he died, he was mummified and buried with his predecessors in the tomb complex at Saqqara. (This tomb was discovered by Mariette and may have been the inspiration for the tomb in which Radamès and Aïda die.) The first burials occurred at the time of Ramses II, but the cult is described in the earliest records. In later times, Apis became Osiris-Apis.
Aten: The solar disk, shown with long rays ending in hands holding ankhs. For a short time under Akenaten, Aten was the only god.
Atum: Local god of Heliopolis, northeast of Memphis, Atum fathered the human race. He is usually depicted in human form wearing the double crown.
Horus: One of the most complicated of the gods, there were as many as twenty different Horuses. He was the son of Osiris and Isis, and had the head of a falcon. During his lifetime, each king took Horus as one of his names. Horus revenged his father Osiris’s murder by overcoming Seth and becoming the ruler of earth.
Hathor: The protector of women and the goddess of pleasure, she was represented as a cow or a woman wearing a solar disk between cow horns on her head. She was the Queen of Heaven, the Golden One, and was the wife of Horus.
Imhotep: Originally a mortal, Imhotep was the chief architect of King Zoser and builder of the Step Pyramid. Later, he was deified and considered a son of Ptah at Memphis. As the god of medicine and learning, he is shown seated, with a shaved head, and reading a scroll.
Seth: The evil god who killed Osiris, he is depicted with the body of a man and a dog-like head. He was the god of storms and violence.
Thoth: One of the most powerful gods, Thoth invented hieroglyphics and all of the arts and sciences. He was the god of wisdom and writing. He was represented by a man with the head of either an ibis or a baboon. Thoth was the scribe of the gods. When Horus resigned earthly power, Thoth succeeded him and reigned for three thousand two hundred and twenty-six years. When he finally ascended to the skies, he was given the job of guarding the moon.
DEATH AND BURIAL
Although it might seem that the Egyptians were obsessed with death, it is only because most of what we have left of their civilization are the pyramids and tombs. Other buildings, houses, temples and palaces (except those at Karnak near Thebes) were built of mud bricks and have long since disappeared.
The Egyptians believed in an afterlife and the ka had to have a body for its return. For this reason, the bodies were carefully mummified to preserve them. Provided his friends and relatives kept it furnished with food and drink, once in the tomb, the deceased could return as his ka and come back to life. Since keeping the tomb supplied could be an onerous task, paintings and clay models of the necessary objects were substituted. The ka could use these as well as the real things. In the tombs of later times, funerary figurines called ushabtis are found. They could serve as substitutes if the deceased was called on for corvee labor or other tasks.
Until the time of Djoser (2668-2649 B.C.) the king, like other upperclass Egyptians, was buried in a mastaba. This consisted of a pit cut into rock and divided into rooms by mud-brick walls. A central burial chamber in the lower pit level was flanked by other rooms for the most valuable funerary goods. These rooms were roofed over and covered with mud-brick, and rooms were built above them to hold the less important goods. Some of the mastabas at Saqqara had a low brick bench along the base of the building on which were set bulls’ heads, modeled in clay but with real horns.
The first real pyramid, the Step Pyramid, was built by Djoser. It started as a mastaba but other layers were added until it reached its present form. Several other pyramids were built in this style. Under Khufu (Cheops) pyramid building reached its climax. His great pyramid at Giza was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and the only one of the seven still standing. (The other six wonders are: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon; the Statue of Zeus at Olympia by the sculptor Phidias; The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus; The Colossus of Rhodes; The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus; and the Pharos (lighthouse) of Alexandria. Pieces of the last have recently been dredged from the sea.)
Pyramids continued to be built during the Middle Kingdom but, during the New Kingdom, kings were buried in tombs, not pyramids, in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings near Thebes. There are many pyramids in Egypt and, after they fell into disuse there, the people of Kush continued building them at Napata and Meroë.
 The pyramids do not stand alone but are part of a great complex of structures. There is usually at least one temple with a causeway leading from it to the pyramid. The Great Sphinx is part of the complex around the pyramid of Khafre, one of the three at Giza. It had its own temple with a court surrounded by ten colossal statues of Khafre. Each pyramid complex was the port from which the god-king sailed for the underworld. Each temple had a harbor, and boats in which the pharaoh sailed have been found buried next to the pyramids. In each complex there is also a group of mastabas, the burial places of the important men associated with that king. In a few places, tombs of nobles were found within the walls of the sacred precincts. Supposedly buried in mastabas on the outside of the precinct, tunnels from the mastaba had been dug under the walls, and the bodies placed inside to get closer to the god-king.
Although it is usually thought that the pyramids were built by slave labor, such is not necessarily the case. Many Egyptologists believe that they were built by agricultural workers during off-season. As the common people of medieval Europe built the great cathedrals for the love of God, the Egyptian workers could have built the pyramids for the love of their king. Furthermore, the building of tombs and temples was probably regarded as holy work. These structures would have been desecrated if built by mere slaves.
In later times, the mummified corpses in their coffins were often kept in people’s houses. Some coffins had sliding panels in the cover so that they could be opened and the living could communicate with the dead.
At Saqqara, near Memphis, is the Serapeum with its rock-hewn galleries which was discovered by Mariette and described above. One gallery was associated with a temple of Isis, the mother of Apis, and contained the tombs of the sacred cows who had given birth to the Apis bulls. Another find at Saqqara was the tomb of Khaemwas, a high priest of Ptah, who was a son of Ramses II.
SPHINXES
The sphinxes had human heads and the bodies of lions, just the opposite of the statues of the gods with their human forms and animal heads. Since there is no evidence of worship connected with them, the sphinxes have remained a mystery in spite of generations of exploration and study. No known Old Kingdom texts refer to them! The Great Sphinx was an integral part of the funerary complex of Khafre and it is believed that its face represents that king. If so, it is the oldest large scale royal portrait known. Some claim it is much older but there is no evidence for this. While the Great Sphinx is the most famous, there are many others. There is a sphinx with the head of ‘King’ Hatshepsut, and it was an avenue lined with sphinxes, which led Mariette to the Serapeum at Saqqara.
EGYPTIAN PEOPLE AND PLACES
We know so much of the daily life of the people because of the decorations in the tombs. The walls were covered with vivid paintings and hieroglyphic inscriptions. Many also contained models, including shops for butchers, brewers, and bakers. Even graves of humbler people might have had a pottery model house. All were intended for the deceased to enjoy in the after-life.
Workmen lived in their own planned towns of attached houses along narrow streets. These were very small in size compared with those of the better classes. Tombs of great pharaohs had their own substantial towns for the priests who served those tombs. The pharaohs lived in great complexes with several buildings and temples. Most houses, of all classes, were made of sun-dried bricks, like adobe. The Greek historian, Herodotus, said that Egyptians were divided into castes such as priests, soldiers, herdsmen, swineherds, interpreters, and boatmen. Each caste kept itself quite separate. Sons followed fathers and almost never crossed the boundary to another occupation. The only significant source of fresh manpower was war. There is no specific information on the treatment of captives such as Aïda and Amonasro. They seem to have had legal rights and could be freed after a certain period of time. They were not a permanent social group but were gradually assimilated into the rest of the population (as would have happened if Aïda and Radamès had married). The men of Kush were some of the best warriors in the Egyptian army. There is no evidence of real slaves until the Greek Ptolemaic period. In earlier times, people could sell themselves into slavery on a temporary basis to pay a debt or something similar.
 In theory the position of a scribe was open to all, but it was probably closed to peasants. The training was harsh and repetitive. The scribal schools were attached to the temples. Students started at age five and studied for about twelve years. During this time, they literally wrote, from sunup to sundown, usually with a brush and ink on a wooden board. Papyrus was expensive. They copied the same passages over and over until writing them became second nature. Members of the scribal class were able to rise in society, something impossible for most others. Thus, tedious as was the schooling of the scribe, it was a position much sought after.
Women were legally equal to men. There were no social restrictions on their freedom, and they could hold and bequeath property. The status of married women was secured by contract. With a few exceptions such as Hatshepsut, women had no role in administration but could serve as priestesses to local gods. If a son was unwilling to help his parents he could refuse, but a daughter was compelled to assist them under penalty of the law. The common Egyptian practice of noble men marrying their own sisters and daughters was to keep the inheritance in the family.
The Egyptians worshiped the cat. One could obtain virtue for one’s afterlife by paying for the mummification and burial of a cat. The new Opera House at Cairo, at which Aïda had had its premiere, became overrun with stray cats. Orders were given to destroy the cats, but soon after this was done, the Opera House burned down. The cat goddess had been angered!
MEMPHIS is a Greek name. The Egyptian name was Ineb-hedj, meaning White Wall, named for the wall of dried brick surrounding it. As the residence of Pharaoh, it was a regular army base. The treasury of Ptah, the god of Memphis, served as the central treasury of the kingdom. Even when Thebes was the royal residence, Memphis was an important administrative center. When Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he was welcomed by the high priest of the temple of Ptah as the liberator of Egypt. Subsequent pharaohs were crowned in that temple.
THEBES and Memphis are separated by five hundred miles of river. It took weeks to travel between them. Thebes is now known as Luxor; its Egyptian name was Waset. There is a reference to the house of Ptah, Lord of Waset. Although he was the god of Memphis, Ptah was also one of the three national gods. When Tuthmosis III found Ptah’s mud-brick temple falling into ruin, he had it rebuilt in stone. He also built the processional circuit of Amon-ra, and that god’s statue rested in the temple of Ptah during celebratory processions such as the triumphal march in Aïda. Inside was one room for Ptah and another for Hathor, the ‘Chieftainess of Thebes’. A relief on its walls shows the king making offerings to Ptah and to Imhotep, son of Ptah. Associated with it are a number of small chapels, including one for Osiris. Thebes was the administrative capital of Upper Egypt and sometimes of the entire land. In its heyday it was also the chief religious center.EAO
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