iphtah-Minephtah--The foreign captives
in Egypt; the Exodus of the Hebrews and their march to Sinai--An
Egyptian romance of the Exodus: Amenophis, son of Pa-apis._

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CHAPTER II--THE REACTION AGAINST EGYPT

_The XIXth dynasty: Harmhabi--The Hittite empire in Syria and in Asia
Minor--Seti I. and Ramses II.--The people of the sea: Minephtah and the
Israelite Exodus._

While none of these ephemeral Pharaohs left behind them a, either
legitimate or illegitimate, son there was no lack of princesses, any of
which, having on her accession to the throne to choose a consort after
her own heart, might thus become the founder of a new dynasty. By such a
chance alliance Harmhabi, who was himself descended from Thutmosis III.,
was raised to the kingly office.* His mother, Mutnozmit, was of the
royal line, and one of the most beautiful statues in the Gizeh Museum
probably represents her. The body is mutilated, but the head is charming
in its intelligent and animated expression, in its full eyes and
somewhat large, but finely modelled, mouth. The material of the statue
is a finegrained limestone, and its milky whiteness tends to soften the
malign character of her look and smile. It is possible that Mutnozmit
was the daughter of Amenothes III. by his marriage with one of
his sisters: it was from her, at any rate, and not from his
great-grandfather, that Harmhabi derived his indisputable claims to
royalty.**

* A fragment of an inscription at Karnak calls Thutmosis
III. "the father of his fathers." Champollion called him
Hornemnob, Rosellini, Hor-hemheb, Hor-em-hbai, and both
identified him with the Horos of Manetho, hence the custom
among Egyptologists for a long time to designate him by the
name Horus. Deveria was the first to show that the name
corresponded with the Armais of the lists of Manetho, and,
in fact, Armais is the Greek transcription of the group
Harmhabi in the bilingual texts of the Ptolemaic period.

** Mutnozmit was at first considered the daughter and
successor of Harmhabi, or his wife. Birch showed that the
monuments did not confirm these hypotheses, and he was
inclined to think that she was Harmhabi's mother. As far as
I can see for the present, it is the only solution which
agrees with the evidence on the principal monument which has
made known her existence.

He was born, probably, in