536 Revieti's of Books who and what was the real hero who inspired this gradual accumulation of traditions, dilating at last into the dominant figure of Egyptian, if not indeed of all ancient Oriental history, has always been of the greatest interest. How fascinating would be the Alexander romance if we did not know to whom it refers ! The subject has been little touched since the days of Lepsius and De Rouge ; with the exception of the careful Meyer all the later histories follow Champollion and Lepsius, who, on the flimsiest evidence, identified Sesostris with Ramses II. We all remember when in 1881 the world was startled by the announcement that the mummy of Sesostris had been discovered and lay in state at Cairo. His face and figure have since become more familiar to the layman than those of any other Pharaoh. Professor Sethe has exhaustively examined in the above essay all the classical references to Sesostris and shows clearly that his identification with Ramses II. is entirely gratuitous, for neither: (i) his name, (2) his date, nor (3) his achievements suggest, much less permit such identi- fication. On the other hand Sethe shows, on the basis of name, date and achievements, that, as Manetho has already indicated, Sesostris was Usertesen I. of the Twelfth Dynasty, a king some 700 years older than Ramses II. of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The writer well remembers the day in the Berlin Museum, when Sethe came in all aglow with the en- thusiasm of discovery. He had been studying the coffin of a certain " Sebek-sen ; " this man's name is composed of two parts; " Sebek " the name of a crocodile god, and "sen" meaning "likeness." The Egyptians in their exaggerated reverence for their divinities alwa3's wrote the god's name first in such a compound as the above, although they pro- nounced it last, thus : " Sen-Sebek " meaning " likeness of Sebek." It had flashed upon Sethe that " Usertesen was another such inversion and that the final "sen should be read first, thus: " Sen-Usret" or properly vocalized " Se/i-JTosret" (in hieroglyphics Sn-wsrt).' Any one who knows how far removed from the hieroglyphic are the forms of Egyptian proper names transmitted to us by the Greeks, will immediately see that Sesostris is a very natural corruption of Senwosret, and vastly nearer the hieroglyphic than the name of Ramses II. (Wsr-m't-R'), long ago accepted without difficulty by the historians. With this obser- vation of Sethe' s, the mighty Sesostris of the Greeks suddenly becomes more than legend, and takes a place in authentic history. The question of name is thus reduced to the following equations : 1. In Manetho : the old Usertesen I. = Sesostris. 2. On monuments : the old " = Senwosret I. 3. Therefore Manetho's " Sesostris " = monumental " Senwosret I." In t/ate Sethe shows that practically all the classic sources place Sesostris far earlier than Ramses II., and inmost cases at a time well suiting Senwosret I. The question of career and achievements is too large to be treated here, but one further point it is essential to note. In harmony with the 1 This bad not been noticed before because Wosret is not a well-known deity.
