Khaefra in Ancient Greek Traditions
The ancient Egyptian historian Manetho called Khaefra “Sûphis II.” and credited him with a rulership of 66 years, but didn´t make any further, interesting comments about him.
The ancient Greek historians Diodorus and Herodotus instead depicted Khaefra as a heretic and cruel tyrant: They wrote that Khaefra (whom they both called “Khêphren” in attempt to parody Khaefra´s name) followed his father Khêops on the throne, after the megalomaniac and tyrantly ruler had died. Then Herodotus and Diodorus say that Khaefra ruled for 56 years and that the Egyptians had to suffer under him like under his father before. Since Khufu was said to have ruled for 50 years, the authors claim that the poor Egyptians had to suffer under both kings for altogether 106 years.
But then they describe a king Menkaura (whom they call “Mykerînós”) as the follower of Khaefre and that this king was the counterpart of his two predecessors: Herodotus describes Menkaura as being saddened and disappointed about Khufu´s and Khaefre´s cruelty and that Menkaura brought peace and piety back to Egypt.
Today modern Egyptologists evaluate Herodotus´s and Diodorus´s story as some sort of defamation, based on both author´s contemporary philosophy. Over-sized tombs such as the Giza-pyramids must have appalled the Greeks and even the later priests of the New Kingdom, because they surely remembered the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten and his megalomaniac building projects. This extremely negative picture was obviously projected onto Khaefra and his daunting pyramid. The view was possibly promoted by the fact, that during Khaefra´s lifetime the permission of the creation of oversized statues made of precious stone and their displaying at open places in public was limited to the king only. At their lifetime, the Greek authors and mortuary priests and temple priests couldn´t explain the impressive monuments and statues of Khaefra better than as the result of a megalomaniac character. These views and resulting stories were avidly snapped up by the Greek historians and so they made their also negative evaluations about Khaefra, since scandalous stories were easier to sell to the folks than positive (and therefore boring) tales.
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