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[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…

[German version] I. Mesopotamia In Sumerian the adjective kug and in Akkadian the corresponding adjective ellu express the principle of (cultic) purity. Both words also contain the nuance of 'bright', 'shining'. Sumerian kug and Akkadian ellu (when in textual dependence upon kug) mark characteristics of deities, localities (e.g., temples), (cult) objects, rites and periods of time as belonging to the sphere of the divine. This, however, does not necessarily mean that they must be in an uncontaminated state. In this respect kug is most often rendered as 'holy/sacred'. Akkadian ellu, …

(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] [1] Nimbus vitreus Nimbus vitreus (‘glass clouds’), a pun by Martial (14,112), which has been misunderstood mostly since Friedländer's annotations [1. 322] and into the most recent commentary [2. 174] has been misunderstood and is translated as a ‘glass vessel for sprinkling liquids with numerous openings’. What is meant is the effect of such an instrument when wine is sprayed. Willers, Dietrich (Berne) Bibliography 1 L. Friedländer (ed.), M. Valerii Martialis epigrammaton libri (with explanatory notes), vol. 2, 1886 2 T.J. Leary (ed.), Martial Book XIV. T…

[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] [1] Name to describe the plurality of gods In modern scholarship on religious history, the term 'pantheon' is used in systematizing the plurality of ancient gods (Polytheism). In the following, it will be used accordingly to denote all the many deities worshipped in a particular geographical area and socio-historical context. Richter, Thomas (Frankfurt/Main) [German version] I. Mesopotamia Sumerian does not have its own expression for a collective of gods corresponding to the term 'pantheon'. The Sumerian term A-nun-na, 'seed of the prince' (i.e. of Enki, …

[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] I. Introduction The term P. has found its way as a loanword from the Greek translation of the Bible into numerous languages. The Septuagint regularly uses prophḗtēs to translate the Hebrew substantive nābī, which is etymologically connected with Akkadian nabû(m) = 'one who is called'. Since then a very much wider use has emerged. For a more precise demarcation of the concept, it is useful to adopt Cicero's distinction between inductive and intuitive divination ( genus artificiosum, genus naturale: Cic. Div. 1,11,34; 2,26 f.) and to describe as prophets onl…

[German version] [1] City in the 4th upper Egyptian nome This item can be found on the following maps: Egypt | Commerce | Egypt The Egyptian Thebes, city in the 4th upper Egyptian nome. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) [German version] I. Names Actually Ws.t ('the strong'), from which derived, no later than the 17th dynasty, a female personification Ws.t nḫt.tj ('victorious Thebes'). Beginning with the Middle Kingdom ( c. 1990-1630 BC), often called simply njw.t, 'the city (par excellence)' - from which also the Hebrew form no (Ez 30:14 f.; Jer 46:25; Nahum 3:8) and Assyrian Ne [10. 260] -- o…

I. Material [German version] A. Term and manufacture The term papyrus was adopted into the European languages via the Greek πάπυρος/ pápyros, lat. papyrus, and ultimately is the source of the modern terms for paper, Papier, papier, etc.  Papyrus is hypothetically derived from an (unattested) Egyptian * pa-prro ('that of the king'). Papyrus, an aquatic plant with a long stem and a triangular cross-section ( Cyperus papyrus L.), was in its processed form a widespread writing material ('paper') in the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean. Papyrus is produced by p…

I. Ancient Near East [German version] A. Definition When applying the term wisdom literature (WL) to ancient Mesopotamian literature we need to distinguish between the idea of wisdom (Akkadian nēmequ, Sumerian nam.kù.zu, 'precious knowledge') [10; 11] as 'wealth of general human experience' and the concept of wisdom as expertise in a cult. On the one hand, there are a number of non-homogenous, formally different literary genres in which knowledge, procedures, advice and behavioural guidelines are passed on; on the other han…

[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…

[German version] (Νεμανούς/ Nemanoús). According to Plutarch (Plut. De Is. et Os. 15,357 B) one of the names of the Queen of Byblos [1], wife of Malcathrus. She received Isis during her search for Osiris and made her the wet nurse of her children. She is also called Astarte and Saosis and is said to have been called Ἀθηναΐς/ Athēnaís by the Greeks. Her name is derived from nḥm( .t)- n, a frequent variation on the goddess's name nḥm( .t)- wy in the late period. She is the companion of Thot. In the late period (1st millennium BC), she was considered to be an aspect of Hathor. Quack, Joachim (Berlin) B…