Sesostris

For other uses, see Sesostris (disambiguation).

Sesostris (Ancient Greek: Σέσωστρις) is the name of a king of ancient Egypt who, according to Herodotus, led a military expedition into parts of Europe. Tales of Sesostris are probably based on the life of Senusret I, Senusret III and perhaps other Pharaohs such as Shoshenq I^[1][2] and Ramesses II.^[3]

"The great Sesostris", identified in this 19th-century engraving as Ramesses II during the Battle of Kadesh.

Herodotus misidentified the relief of King Tarkasnawa of Mira, as belonging to Sesostris. Karabel relief, circa 1350 BC.

Sesostris' name is also given as Sesoösis or Sesonchosis in other sources.^[1]

Account of Herodotus

In Herodotus's Histories there appears a story told by Egyptian priests about a Pharaoh Sesostris who, the priests say, had led an army overland northward to Asia Minor, then fought his way westward into Europe, where he defeated the Scythians and the Thracians—possibly in modern Romania and Bulgaria. Sesostris then returned home, leaving colonists behind at the river Phasis in Colchis. Herodotus cautioned the reader that much of this story came second hand via Egyptian priests, but also noted that the Colchians were commonly believed to be Egyptian colonists.^[4]

Herodotus also relates that when Sesostris defeated an army without much resistance he erected a pillar in their capital with an image of a vulva on it to shame the defeated side by comparing them to women.^[5] Pliny the Elder also makes mention of Sesostris, who, he claims, was defeated by Saulaces, a gold-rich king of Colchis.^[6]

Herodotus wrote that Sesostris was the father of the blind king Pheron, who was less warlike than his father Sesostris.

According to Professor Alan Lloyd, "the core of Herodotus’ narrative is provided by an Egyptian tradition which presented Sesostris as a model of the ideal of kingship. This certainly contained an historical element, but it has been supplemented and contaminated by folklore, nationalist propaganda, and Greek attitudes."^[7]

Diodorus Siculus

According to Diodorus Siculus (who calls him Sesoosis) and Strabo, he conquered the whole world, even Scythia and Aethiopia, divided Egypt into administrative districts or nomes, was a great law-giver, and introduced a caste system into Egypt and the worship of Serapis.^[8] Diodorus also wrote that "with regard to this king not only are the Greek writers at variance with one another, but also among the Egyptians the priests and the poets who sing his praises give conflicting stories” (1.53).^[9]

Modern research

In his Aegyptiaca, the Hellenistic-era Egyptian priest and historian Manetho wrote that a pharaoh he calls "Sesostris" occupied the same position as the known pharaoh Senusret III of the Twelfth Dynasty; "Sesostris" is now usually viewed as a Greek corruption of "Senusret"/"Senwosret"/"Senwosri". Moreover, Manetho's "Sesostris" is believed to be based on the historical Senusret III—possibly conflated with memories of other namesake pharaohs of his dynasty—as well as on Seti I and Ramesses II of the much later Nineteenth Dynasty.^[10][8]

The images of Sesostris carved in stone in Ionia which Herodotus describes^[11] should likely be identified with the Luwian inscriptions of Karabel Pass, the Karabel relief, now known to have been carved by Tarkasnawa, king of the Arzawan rump state of Mira in Anatolia.^[12] The kings of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties were possibly the greatest conquerors that Egypt ever produced, and their records are much clearer than the older dynasties^[8] on the limits of Egyptian expansion. Senusret III raided into the Levant as far as Shechem,^[13] also into Aethiopia, and at Semna above the second cataract set up a stela of conquest that in its expressions recalls the stelae of Sesostris in Herodotus: Sesostris may, therefore, be the highly magnified portrait of this Pharaoh.^[8]

Sesostris is also mentioned in the Alexander Romance where Alexander the Great is described as "the new Sesostris, ruler of the world.^[1]

See also

• War of Vesosis and Tanausis
• Sesostris (play): a play based on the life of Sesostris