Rosetta Stone Decree
A foreign Greek-speaking dynasty can secure its legitimacy in Egyptian eyes only by having Egypt's own priesthood formally declare, in Egypt's own sacred script, that the king has honored the gods and their temples.
- a Ptolemaic king's legitimacy affirmed by Egypt's own priesthood
- the same decree recorded in three scripts for three audiences
- one of a series of similar Ptolemaic priestly decrees
- the trilingual format that enabled the decipherment of hieroglyphs
A priestly decree issued by a synod convened at Memphis honoring King Ptolemy V Epiphanes on the first anniversary of his coronation, inscribed in three scripts on the same stone, hieroglyphic for the gods and temples, Demotic for everyday administration, and Greek for the ruling dynasty and its officials. The text itself is a fairly conventional priestly decree praising the king's tax relief, temple donations, and military mercy, one of a series of similar Ptolemaic decrees. Its lasting significance lies not in its content but in the trilingual format, which supplied Jean-Francois Champollion the key to deciphering hieroglyphic script in 1822.
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