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[German version] (Greek Πετεησις/ Peteēsis; Egyptian p′č̣i̯-s.t, 'the one given by Isis'). According to PRylands 63 [4], Egyptian priest in Heliopolis [1] who teaches Plato about melothesia (allocation of parts of the body to astral magnitudes) [2. 81]. Presumably the same traditional figure of a sage as the P. who is mentioned in several variants in Dioscorides, De materia medica 5,98 as an author, possibly also the Petasius of the alchemistic corpus (CAAG vol. 3, 15,3; 26,1; 95,15; 97,17; 261,9; 2…

[German version] (Μούθ/ Moúth; Egyptian mw.t). Egyptian goddess. Her name is written like the Egyptian word for ‘mother’, but is vocalized differently. Beginning in the 18th dynasty in Thebes (Thebes), M., Amun and Chons formed the Theban triad. Other cultic sites of M. can be found in Megeb (near Antaeopolis) as well as at various locations at the tip of the Nile Delta. The Heliopolitan ‘M. who is carrying her brother’ is associated with a fire altar used for punishing criminals. M. is one of the go…

[German version] (Egyptian Wsr-k-R.w). Egyptian king, according to the evidence of the Kings' lists in the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2300-2250 BC), after Teti I and before Pepi I (Phiops [1]); scarcely any contemporary record. He is sometimes regarded as a usurper or anti-king before or during the reign of Pepi I. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) Bibliography J. Vercoutter, L'Égypte et la vallée du Nil, vol. 1, 1992, 322.

[German version] ( R), the most important god in the Egyptian pantheon. Essentially merely the word for 'sun' and as appellative still used as such in Coptic, translated into Greek as Helios. Re is the god who originated in himself, yet the primeval ocean Nun is considered to be his father. In Heliopolis he is linked with the god Atum, and his children are Shu and Tefnut (Tefnut, legend of). Often the epithet 'Horus of the horizon' (Harachte), is bestowed on him. The phases of the sun during the day are classified by the Egyptians as Chepre (morning), Re (midday) and Atum (e…

[German version] (Μίν/ Mín; Egyptian Mnw). Egyptian god, chief deity of Coptus and Achmīm, was responsible for the desert regions accessible from Coptus. Colossi of M. are preserved from Coptus from early times (3rd cent) [6], demonstrating the classical iconography - they are anthropomorphic, with relatively unstructured bodies, ithyphallic, with a tall plume on the head. One arm is raised and bears a scourge. This figure became the model for the ithyphallic form of Amun. The written character for M…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Egypt | Commerce (Λευκὸς λιμήν; Leukòs limḗn; only in Ptol. 4,5,8). Harbour on the Red Sea at the eastern mouth of Wadi Hammamat opposite Coptus, modern Marsa Koseir el-qadim. Leukos Limen (LL) was the starting-point for trips to Punt (coast of Eritrea). From the Ptolemaic period the harbours Myos Hormos and Berenice [9] supplanted LL. Hardly any ancient remains are extant. Quack, Joachim (Berlin)

[German version] Egyptian goddess ( srq.t); her emblem is an animal interpreted as a scorpion or a water scorpion. Her putative origin is in the western Delta. Together with Isis, Nephthys and Neith she protects the viscera of a dead person in a canopic chest (Canope). Her symbol is found among those in the relief depiction of a ruler's jubilee. In medicine and magic her priest, the 'Exorciser of S'., primarily provides help for snake bites and scorpion stings, against miscellaneous dangerous animals…

[German version] (Ὀνουρις; Ónouris). Egyptian god ( Jnj-ḥrt, *ianiy ḥarat, 'the one who fetches the distant one'), attested in cuneiform as anḫara and in Coptic ( a) nhoure. O. is depicted with four feathers on his head, carrying a lance, and wearing a robe. His main cult centres were Thinis (8th Upper Egyptian district) and Sebennytus. O. was often syncretically associated with other gods, especially Haroeris, Shu and Arensnuphis and partly also with Thot (of Pnubs); the Greeks equated him with Ares (dream of Nectanebus…

[German version] (Ῥαμψίνιτος; Rhampsínitos). According to Hdt. 2,121 f., R. was an Egyptian ruler. In scholarship, he is mostly (however, without conclusive arguments) equated with Ramesses [3] III. He is said to have been the successor of Proteus and the predecessor of Cheops. R. may be identified with a Remphis, who is mentioned in Diod. Sic. 1,62,5. The latter part of the name could contain the element s Njt, 'son of Neith', and possibly it should be corrected to Psammsinit, i.e. Psammetichus, son of Neith. R. is said to have constructed the western gateways of the Temple…

(Σαραπεῖον/ Sarapeîon, Σαράπιον/ Sarápion). [German version] [1] Burial and cult sites of dead Apis bulls in Memphis Term for the burial and cult sites of dead Apis bulls in Memphis (Apis [1]), and generally for cult buildings of the god Serapis derived from it in the Graeco-Roman world. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) [German version] [2] Name of various places As a reflexion of presumably Egyptian terms such as pr-wsjr-ḥp a place name in Greek and Latin sources (see also [1]). According to the Tabula Peutingeriana there were three such places in the Nile Delta; one w…

[German version] (Φερῶν; Pherôn). Greek rendering of the Egyptian pr-, Pharaoh, therefore not a personal name, but the Egyptian royal title. According to Hdt. 2,111 (similarly also Diod. Sic. 159), the son and successor of Sesostris I (1971-1928 BC). He is said to have thrown his spear into the flooding Nile and to have been blinded as a punishment, until he could wash his eyes with the urine of a woman who had always been faithful to her husband. After recovering his sight, he had all unfaithful wives …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Commerce | India, trade with | Egypt Main city of the 5th upper Egyptian district (besides Ombos and Qūṣ), Egyptian gbtw, which became Greek κοπτός ( koptós), Copt. kebt and Arab. qifṭ. Important starting-point for expeditions into the Wadi Hamāmat and the Red Sea. Located in C. were temples for  Min (main god),  Isis (also referred to as ‘Widow of Coptus’) and  Horus; records also indicate a cult of Geb. Colossal stone statues of Min stem from the early 1st dynasty. Protect…

[German version] (Σάσυχις; Sásychis). According to Diod. Sic. 1,94,3 one of the great legislators of Egypt. The name has been variously connected with Egyptian proper names. It is most likely a variant of Asychis, who is recorded in Hdt. 2,136 as a follower of Mycerinus and whose name corresponds to Egyptian š-ḫ.t. Interpretations as Shoshenq (Sesonchosis) are phonetically problematic. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) Bibliography 1 A. Burton, Diodorus Siculus, Book I. A Commentary, 1972, 273 2 A. B. Lloyd, Herodotus Book II. Commentary 99-182, 1988, 88-90.

(Σεσόγχοσις, Σεσόγχωσις/ Sesónchosis, Sesónchōsis). Greek form of Shoshenq, Egyptian šš( n) q, name of probably five rulers of the 22nd/23rd dynasties. [German version] [1] Shoshenq I, Egyptian ruler, second half of the 10th cent. BC The best known is Shoshenq I ( c. 945-924 BC) [1. 287-302], who according to 1 Kg 14,25 f. (there called Shishak) laid waste to parts of Judaea and was prevented from conquering Jerusalem by being paid large amounts of gold. A list preserved on the Bubastite Gate in Karnak names places in Judah and Israel allegedly conquered by him. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) …

[German version] Egyptian pwn.t, construed from the New Kingdom on, by means of linguistic reanalysis, as p-wn.t. Omission of the apparent article creates a new name wn.t; this appears in some sources from the Graeco-Roman Period. According to Egyptian sources, a country in the far southeast; today usually sought in the region of Būr Sūdān (Port Sudan) [6] or around Eritrea and the Horn of Africa [1; 2]. In the Old Kingdom, trade goods from P. could reach Egypt by way of staging posts along the Nile; direct trading voya…

[German version] (Οὐχορεύς; Ouchoreús). According to Diod. Sic. 1,50 the eighth child of Osymandias (Ramses [2] II) and the founder of Memphis, which he is supposed to have made into a strong fortress with an embankment and a large lake. Scholars like to identify it with the Ὀχυράς/ Ochyrás mentioned in the Book of Sothis in Syncellus (FGrH III F 28,110,9). The name is customarily explained as a corruption of ὀχρεύς ('the permanent') and considered to be a translation of the Egyptian mn (Menes [1]). Quack, Joachim (Berlin) Bibliography K. Sethe, Beiträge zur ältesten Geschichte Äg…

[German version] (ξείνη/ xeínē, 'stranger'). According to Hdt. 2,112 term for a  manifestation of Aphrodite, with a temple in Memphis. Presumably it was a cult of the Syrian goddess Astarte, i.e. 'the Stranger', who had been worshipped there since the Eighteenth Dynasty [1. 45]. It is uncertain whether it can be identified with a temple of Aphrodite or Selene mentioned in Str. 17,1,31 [2. 136]. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) Bibliography 1 A. B. Lloyd, Herodotus, Book II, Commentary 99-182, 1988 2 J. Yoyotte, P. Charvet, Strabon, Le voyage en Égypte (transl. with comm.), 1997.

[German version] Group of myths about the Egyptian goddess Tefnut (Greek Τφηνις; Tphēnis), the daughter of Atum, who parted with her father in anger and is brought back from Nubia to Egypt by her brother Onuris with the aid of Thoth (Thot). Attestations of the legend can be found in temple inscriptions (mostly in the form of short epithets and allusions) mainly in Nubia and southern Upper Egypt, and in the Demotic Myth of the Eye of the Sun, which was also translated into Greek. This Greek translation (P. Lit. Lond. 192, ed. [4]) has been discussed by scholars as indicati…

[German version] (Θώνις/ Thṓnis). City on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt (Egyptian t ḥn.t), in the area of the Canopian mouth of the Nile, according to Str. 17,1,16 and  Sic. 1,19 once an important trading post. The recent find of a duplicate of the Naucratis stele has made identification with Heracleum likely. The place name T. is probably the origin of the figure of a homonymous hero who plays a part in the tradition of Helena [I]  in Egypt. Hdt. 2,113-115 tells of T. as a guardian of the mouth of the Nile, who notifies King Proteus of the arrival of Paris and Helen. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) Bibl…

[German version] (Σεσῶστρις; Sesôstris). Greek form of the name of three Egyptian rulers of the 12th Dynasty, Egyptian z (j)-n-Wsrt: S. I (1956-1911/10 BC), S. II (1882-1872 BC) and S. III (1872-1853/52 BC). In Hdt. 2,102-110 and Diod. Sic. 1,53-58, S. appears as the greatest general of Egypt, who conquered large parts of Asia and Europe. An alleged settlement of Egyptians in Colchis is reported to go back to his campaigns. He is supposed to have been brought up together with all other Egyptian men who were born o…