ABSTRACT
The Greek version of the decree of the priests of Memphis which is found on the Rosetta Stone was, as has already been said, made from the original Demotic version, and enough has been said to show that it must only be regarded as a paraphrastic and somewhat loose rendering of it. When it was made the priests of Memphis were sufficiently influential to insist that their resolutions at the great Council should be drafted in Egyptian, the native language of the country, and should be written down in Demotic. They succeeded in persuading the young king that it was their god Ptah, and not Amen of Thebes, who had elected him to the throne. In these days when, thanks to the labours of the eminent Demotologists, Dr. H. Brugsch, M. E. Révillout, and Dr. Hess, so much is known of the Demotic version, and an almost complete hieroglyphic version is extant, the Greek rendering is not so important to the Egyptologist as formerly, but it is nevertheless a long and most valuable document, and must always possess the greatest interest for everyone who studies the decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, and the history of Egypt under the Ptolemies.
