33. Appendix 4: The Story of Isis and Osiris According to Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride and the First Dynasty of Egypt (§§612-626)

612. Sections 12-19 of Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride relate the main events in the lives of Isis and Osiris. The first section, that is section (12), is as follows, the notes and commentary to each part of it being given individually infra at §613. Sections 13-19 follow thereafter. (Square brackets [ ] and braces { } enclose my notes. Section numbers in the original are in round brackets. For the background of this story in Diodorus Siculus and in the Sibylline traditions comprising the Defloratio Berosi, see §889.35ff., below, >>.)

Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 12ff.:

“(12) Here follows the story related in the briefest possible words with the omission of everything that is merely unprofitable or superfluous: They say that the Sun, when he became aware of Rhea’s intercourse with Kronos, invoked a curse upon her that she should not give birth to a child in any month or year; but Hermes, being enamored of the goddess, consorted with her. Later, playing at checkers with the moon, he won from her the seventieth part of each of her periods of illumination, and from all the winnings he composed five days, and intercalated them as an addition to the three hundred and sixty days. The Egyptians even now call these five days intercalated and celebrate them as the birthdays of the gods. They relate that on the first of these days Osiris was born, and at the hour of his birth a voice issued forth saying, “The Lord of All advances to the light.” But some relate that a certain Pamules, while he was drawing water in Thebes, heard a voice issuing from the shrine of Zeus, which bade him proclaim with a loud voice that a mighty and beneficent king, Osiris, had been born; and for this Kronos entrusted to him the child Osiris, which he brought up. It is in his honor that the festival of Pamulia is celebrated, a festival which resembles the phallic processions. On the second of these days Arueris was born whom they call Apollo, and some call him also the elder Horus. On the third day Tuphon was born, but not in due season or manner, but with a blow he broke through his mother’s side and leaped forth. On the fourth day Isis was born in the regions that are ever moist; and on the fifth Nephthus, to whom they give the name of Finality and the name of Aphrodite, and some also the name of Victory. There is also a tradition that Osiris and Arueris were sprung from the Sun, Isis from Hermes, and Tuphon and Nephthus from Kronos. For this reason the kings considered the third of the intercalated days as inauspicious, and transacted no business on that day, nor did they give any attention to their bodies until nightfall. They relate, moreover, that Nephthus became the wife of Tuphon; but Isis and Osiris were enamored of each other and consorted together in the darkness of the womb before their birth. Some say that Arueris came from this union and was called the elder Horus by the Egyptians, but Apollo by the Greeks.”

613. My commentary and notes to the same passage (section 12):

“(12) Here follows the story related in the briefest possible words with the omission of everything that is merely unprofitable or superfluous: They say that the Sun,

[The “Sun” here = Ra, viz. (H)ammon(-Ra), son of Triton, son of Saba (Sheba) son of Cur (Cush) in the Defloratio Berosi. Hammon or Ammon = Amun. There was a Trinity of Amuns in the ancient Egyptian system: viz. Amun (1) = Kem-Atef, Amun (2) = Ptah Ta-tenen, Amun (3) = Amun of Siwa or Ra, each Amun being the son of the preceding Amun. As explained at §123ff., above, >>, Amun (1) = Noah, Amun (2) = Ham son of Noah, Amun (3) = Cush son of Ham. Amun (2) can also be equated with Poseidon, §337, above, >>, and Poseidon with Triton, §337.5, above, >>, so Amun (3) might be called the “son of Triton.” In the genealogy in the Defloratio Ammon likewise is son of Triton. In this case, however, Amun (Ammon) is a later incarnation of the god. The kings or patriarchs referred to under these divine names in the Defloratio are not the generations immediately after the Inundation of Noah, as in the Egyptian Trinity of Amuns, but Cushites of a slightly subsequent generation: Saba (Sheba) in the Defloratio is a son of Cush (in Genesis a grandson of Cush by Raamah), and Ammon son of Triton son of Saba is a Sabaean or Minaean descended from Cush, not Cush himself. Multiple Ogdoadic series could be traced from the original Ogdoad of Noah’s sons, each series being equated with successive patriarchs in a national genealogy. See for example, §884.4.5.8, below, >>: Nimrod, one of a first series of “Curetes” (that is, an Ogdoadic series) descended from Cush/Cur, the ultimate ancestor of the Curetes, begets a second series of 8 Curetes, which, in turn, gives rise to a third series of Curetes of the line of Hercules Libycus, son of Mizraim-Osiris. In this case, the second series of Curetes covers the position in the Defloratio genealogy occupied by Triton and Ammon (who bear Ogdoadic names of the Amun [2] and Amun [3] type), the immediate genealogical predecessors of Mizraim-Osiris. Cf. also the Defloratio genealogical chart at §886.2, below, >>. At §181.4ff., above, >>, it is explained how Ammon in this passage of the Defloratio = Jupiter Lycaeus/Lycaonius = the Minaean (Hivite) Zibeon, Gen. 36. 24. ]

when he became aware of Rhea’s intercourse

[That is, the intercourse of Ammon’s wife Rhea.]

with Kronos,

[Kronos = Saturnus = the “Egyptian Saturn” in the Defloratio Berosi, Chemesenuus (Ham son of Noah). Chemesenuus is Min (Pan) of Koptos, not Geb who is Kronos-Nimrod (Mar Abas Catina). Ham is Amun (2) of the Trinity of Amuns. Amun is commonly equated with Min (the Defloratio’s Chemesenuus), and Amun (2), the second member of the Trinity of Amuns, is equated also with Ptah (Ta-tenen), and Ptah with Ham in Mar Abas Catina. Ptah in turn is equated with the Canaanite Kothar-wa-Hasis and the latter with the Babylonian Ea, who is equated with El and Kronos. So Ham is Min and Ptah (Amun [2]) in Egypt, the Canaanite Kothar-wa-Hasis and El, and the Greek Kronos (Saturn). Kronos’ consort Rhea, here, is a Mother-goddess, probably the Egyptian Hathor, the consort of Min, or Mut the consort of Amun. Hathor was equated with Mut.]

invoked a curse upon her

[Cp. Noah’s curse. The Defloratio implies the actions of Saturn (Chemesenuus-Ham) in taking Rhea were, in terms of morality, on a level with his magical castration (sic) of Noah.]

that she should not give birth to a child in any month or year; but Hermes,

[Hermes = Thoth-Hermes II = Cush]

being enamored of the goddess, consorted with her.

Later, playing at checkers with the moon,

[That is, playing games with the lunar calendar.]

he won from her the seventieth part of each of her periods of illumination, and from all the winnings he composed five days, and intercalated them as an addition to the three hundred and sixty days.

[This intercalation occurred immediately before the 1st of Thoth (the Egyptian month so called after the god), the beginning of the ancient Egyptian New Year, which was in the Fall: the reference is to the time of the autumn harvest festival at which Noah was drunk and his concubine, pregnant with Canaan, was transferred to Ham: the birth of Adonis, viz. Sidon the son of Phoenix-Canaan, a.k.a. Maneros-Linos, the re-embodied Osiris, was connected directly with this event in Phoenician myth, see §327, above, >>, and so here too in Egypt.]

The Egyptians even now call these five days intercalated and celebrate them as the birthdays of the gods. They relate that on the first of these days Osiris was born,

[Osiris = Mizraim (Men, Menes, Narmer), son of Ham (Kronos), the founder of Egypt]

and at the hour of his birth a voice issued forth saying, “The Lord of All advances to the light.” But some relate that a certain Pamules, while he was drawing water in Thebes, heard a voice issuing from the shrine of Zeus, which bade him proclaim with a loud voice that a mighty and beneficent king, Osiris, had been born; and for this Kronos entrusted to him the child Osiris, which he brought up. It is in his honor that the festival of Pamulia is celebrated, a festival which resembles the phallic processions.

[Pamules is a licentious dwarf associated with the rites of Osiris. The Pamulia occurred at the very end of the old year, which in the Roman world was late December. Since “Saint” Nicholas (“Santa Claus”) is a form of the dying and reviving god of the ancient East (Arabic Al Khidr = Tammuz, Osiris, etc.), the sacred tree at his cult-center at Myra, Lycia, being a duplicate of the Myrrh-tree (“Christmas tree”) at Byblos (see further at this link: http://​www.​christianhospitality.​​​org/​resources/​​first-church-rome-online/​content/first-church-rome20.​​html), and since Nicholas is accompanied, in popular representations of his “Christmas” exploits at the winter solstice (that is, on the birthday of the Christianized sun-god Sol Invictus [= “Osiris-Jesus”]) by dwarfs and elves, the latter are a survival, most probably, of the dwarfs of the Pamulia celebration.]

On the second of these days Arueris was born whom they call Apollo, and some call him also the elder Horus.

[Arueris = Apollo, the sun-god. Phaethon was a by-name of the sun-god, Helios, Apollo, in Graeco-Roman mythology, and Phaethon, according to the Defloratio Berosi (Chart at §886.2, below, >>, §889.61, below, >>, §889.64, below, >>, §889.94, below, >>), was the Biblical Phut, the son of Ham (Kronos), who is listed immediately after his elder brother Mizraim in Gen. 10. 6, as Arueris is listed here immediately after his elder brother Osiris. (For the rationale behind the identification see §626.1.1, below, >>.) The Greek verb phaetho means “to shine,” and likewise the biconsonantal root from which the name Phut is formed, p-ṭ = b- ṭ = b-d, etc., means “to shine,” lit. “to sprinkle light” (also, sprinkle words, viz. to babble, calumniate, and, of material, to sprinkle, scatter, strew, etc.). The meaning of his name, along with the fact that Phut was the father of the Libyans (Africans), and the idolaters of the line of Nimrod were opposed to his influence with his clansmen, gave rise to the myth that Phaethon (that is, the “light of the sun”) went astray, by trying to control his father’s chariot (viz. when he succeeded to the mantle of his father Ham), and singed all the people of Africa by his wayward career through the heavens, turning them dark-skinned. On Phut as the ultimate progenitor of the Cushite Abyssinians, and of all the principal tribes of Africa, and his relation to the Phaethon myth, see §626.48ff., below, >>.]

On the third day Tuphon

[Tuphon = Canaan, son of Ham (Kronos), listed immediately after Phut in Gen. 10. The Egyptian anti-god Shutekh-Seth (Gk. Tuphon) represents the Asiatics of Canaan in the Egyptian system, as also in Manetho where Tuphon is the god of the “Phoenician” (Canaanite) kings of Avaris (cf. Canaan = Phoenix).]

was born, but not in due season or manner, but with a blow he broke through his mother’s side and leaped forth.

[This is an atypical birth, as in the case of Canaan.]

On the fourth day Isis was born

[Here Isis is either the daughter of Kronos (Ham) or of Hermes (Cush) by Rhea. Isis is Balthi, the concubine of Noah, referred to in Syriac sources as the daughter of Sin the Babylonian Moon-god, who corresponds to Thoth, the Egyptian Moon-god, Plutarch’s Hermes.]

in the regions that are ever moist; and on the fifth Nephthus,

[Nephthus = Sanchuniathon’s Persephone, sister of Athena: Nephthus = “Mistress [nbt] of the Abode [ḥt],” viz. of the Realm of the Dead, equivalent to Nin-edina, Belet-seri, “Mistress of the (Heavenly) Field.” See §336, above, >>.]

to whom they give the name of Finality and the name of Aphrodite, and some also the name of Victory. There is also a tradition that Osiris and Arueris were sprung from the Sun,

[The Sun = Hammon(-Ra), as supra. They were truly the sons of Amun (2), viz. Ptah = Ham, but here this Amun has become confused with the later Amun (Hammon), the descendant of Sheba, as implied by the wording of the alternative tradition re. Tuphon and Nephthus infra.]

Isis from Hermes,

[Hermes = Thoth = Cush, as supra.]

and Tuphon and Nephthus from Kronos.

[Kronos = Chemesenuus, Ham, as supra. The more negative figures are associated with Kronos in this tradition.]

For this reason the kings considered the third of the intercalated days as inauspicious, and transacted no business on that day, nor did they give any attention to their bodies until nightfall. They relate, moreover, that Nephthus became the wife of Tuphon;

[Likewise Persephone is taken to wife by Plouto = Nergal = Baal Melqart = Tuphon.]

but Isis and Osiris were enamored of each other and consorted together in the darkness of the womb before their birth. Some say that Arueris came from this union

[Here Arueris is treated as a son of the concubine (Isis), who was transferred from Noah to Ham, rather than a son of Kronos (Ham) by Rhea.]

and was called the elder Horus by the Egyptians, but Apollo by the Greeks.

614. (13) One of the first acts related of Osiris in his reign was to deliver the Egyptians from their destitute and brutish manner of living. This he did by showing them the fruits of cultivation, by giving them laws, and by teaching them to honor the gods. Later he traveled over the whole earth civilizing it without the slightest need of arms, but most of the peoples he won over to his way by the charm of his persuasive discourse combined with song and all manner of music. Hence the Greeks came to identify him with Dionysus.

615. During his absence the tradition is that Tuphon attempted nothing revolutionary because Isis, who was in control, was vigilant and alert; but when he returned home Tuphon contrived a treacherous plot against him and formed a group of conspirators seventy-two in number. He had also the co-operation of a queen from Ethiopia who was there at the time and whose name they report as Aso. Tuphon, having secretly measured Osiris’s body and having made ready a beautiful chest of corresponding size artistically ornamented, caused it to be brought into the room where the festivity was in progress. The company was much pleased at the sight of it and admired it greatly, whereupon Tuphon jestingly promised to present it to the man who should find the chest to be exactly his length when he lay down in it. They all tried it in turn, but no one fitted it; then Osiris got into it and lay down, and those who were in the plot ran to it and slammed down the lid, which they fastened by nails from the outside and also by using molten lead. Then they carried the chest to the river and sent it on its way to the sea through the Tanitic Mouth. Wherefore the Egyptians even to this day name this mouth the hateful and execrable. Such is the tradition. They say also that the date on which this deed was done was the seventeenth day of Athyr, when the sun passes through Scorpion, and in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Osiris; but some say that these are the years of his life and not of his reign.

616. (14) The first to learn of the deed and to bring to men’s knowledge an account of what had been done were the Pans and Satyrs who lived in the region around Chemmis, and so, even to this day, the sudden confusion and consternation of a crowd is called a panic. Isis, when the tidings reached her, at once cut off one of her tresses and put on a garment of mourning in a place where the city still bears the name of Kopto. Others think that the name means deprivation, for they also express “deprive” by means of “koptein.” But Isis wandered everywhere at her wits’ end; no one whom she approached did she fail to address, and even when she met some little children she asked them about the chest. As it happened, they had seen it, and they told her the mouth of the river through which the friends of Tuphon had launched the coffin into the sea. Wherefore the Egyptians think that little children possess the power of prophecy, and they try to divine the future from the portents which they find in children’s words, especially when children are playing about in holy places and crying out whatever chances to come into their minds.

617. They relate also that Isis, learning that Osiris in his love had consorted with her sister through ignorance, in the belief that she was Isis, and seeing the proof of this in the garland of melilote which he had left with Nephthus, sought to find the child; for the mother, immediately after its birth, had exposed it because of her fear of Tuphon. And when the child had been found, after great toil and trouble, with the help of dogs which led Isis to it, it was brought up and became her guardian and attendant, receiving the name of Anubis, and it is said to protect the gods just as dogs protect men.

618. (15) Thereafter Isis, as they relate, learned that the chest had been cast up by the sea near the land of Byblos and that the waves had gently set it down in the midst of a clump of tamarisk. The tamarisk in a short time ran up into a very beautiful and massive stock, and enfolded and embraced the chest with its growth and concealed it within its trunk. The king of the country admired the great size of the plant, and cut off the portion that enfolded the chest (which was now hidden from sight), and used it as a pillar to support the roof of his house. These facts, they say, Isis ascertained by the divine inspiration of Rumor, and came to Byblos and sat down by a spring, all dejection and tears; she exchanged no word with anybody, save only that she welcomed the queen’s maidservants and treated them with great amiability, plaiting their hair for them and imparting to their persons a wondrous fragrance from her own body. But when the queen observed her maidservants, a longing came upon her for the unknown woman and for such hairdressing and for a body fragrant with ambrosia. Thus it happened that Isis was sent for and became so intimate with the queen that the queen made her the nurse of her baby. They say that the king’s name was Malcander;

[Melcander stands for Sanchuniathon’s Melkathros = Melqart.]

the queen’s name some say was Astarte, others Saosis, and still others Nemanous, which the Greeks would call Athenaïs.

619. (16) They relate that Isis nursed the child by giving it her finger to suck instead of her breast, and in the night she would burn away the mortal portions of its body. She herself would turn into a swallow and flit about the pillar with a wailing lament, until the queen who had been watching, when she saw her babe on fire, gave forth a loud cry and thus deprived it of immortality. Then the goddess disclosed herself and asked for the pillar which served to support the roof. She removed it with the greatest ease and cut away the wood of the tamarisk which surrounded the chest; then, when she had wrapped up the wood in a linen cloth and had poured perfume upon it, she entrusted it to the care of the kings; and even to this day the people of Byblos venerate this wood which is preserved in the shrine of Isis. Then the goddess threw herself down upon the coffin with such a dreadful wailing that the younger of the king’s sons expired on the spot. The elder son she kept with her, and, having placed the coffin on board a boat, she put out from land. Since the Phaedrus river toward the early morning fostered a rather boisterous wind, the goddess grew angry and dried up its stream.

620. (17) In the first place where she found seclusion, when she was quite by herself, they relate that she opened the chest and laid her face upon the face within and caressed it and wept. The child came quietly up behind her and saw what was there, and when the goddess became aware of his presence, she turned about and gave him one awful look of anger. The child could not endure the fright, and died. Others will not have it so, but assert that he fell overboard into the sea from the boat in the way that was mentioned above.

[This, seemingly, is a reference to the death of Diktus, the charge of Isis, by falling into the river, as described by Plutarch earlier in this work, section (8).]

He also is the recipient of honors because of the goddess; for they say that the Maneros of whom the Egyptians sing at their convivial gatherings is this very child. Some say, however, that his name was Palaestinus or Pelusius, and that the city founded by the goddess was named in his honor. They also recount that this Maneros who is the theme of their songs was the first to invent music. But some say that the word is not the name of any person, but an expression belonging to the vocabulary of drinking and feasting: “Good luck be ours in things like this!,” and that this is really the idea expressed by the exclamation “maneros” whenever the Egyptians use it. In the same way we may be sure that the likeness of a corpse which, as it is exhibited to them, is carried around in a chest, is not a reminder of what happened to Osiris, as some assume; but it is to urge them, as they contemplate it, to use and to enjoy the present, since all very soon must be what it is now and this is their purpose in introducing it into the midst of merry-making.

621. (18) As they relate, Isis proceeded to her son Horus, who was being reared in Buto, and bestowed the chest in a place well out of the way; but Tuphon, who was hunting by night in the light of the moon, happened upon it. Recognizing the body he divided it into fourteen parts and scattered them, each in a different place. Isis learned of this and sought for them again, sailing through the swamps in a boat of papyrus. This is the reason why people sailing in such boats are not harmed by the crocodiles, since these creatures in their own way show either their fear or their reverence for the goddess.

[Horus reared in Buto is Harsiesis, Horus son of Isis, Hor-Aha of the First Dynasty, the Biblical Ayyah, Huas or Dionysus, the Greek Zeus (= Baal) of Nysa-Sinai.]

622. The traditional result of Osiris’s dismemberment is that there are many so-called tombs of Osiris in Egypt; for Isis held a funeral for each part when she had found it. Others deny this and assert that she caused effigies of him to be made and these she distributed among the several cities, pretending that she was giving them his body, in order that he might receive divine honors in a greater number of cities, and also that, if Tuphon should succeed in overpowering Horus, he might despair of ever finding the true tomb when so many were pointed out to him, all of them called the tomb of Osiris.

623. Of the parts of Osiris’s body the only one which Isis did not find was the male member, for the reason that this had been at once tossed into the river, and the lepidotus, the sea-bream, and the pike had fed upon it; and it is from these very fishes the Egyptians are most scrupulous in abstaining. But Isis made a replica of the member to take its place, and consecrated the phallus, in honor of which the Egyptians even at the present day celebrate a festival.

624. (19) Later, as they relate, Osiris came to Horus from the other world and exercised and trained him for the battle. After a time Osiris asked Horus what he held to be the most noble of all things. When Horus replied, “To avenge one’s father and mother for evil done to them,” Osiris then asked him what animal he considered the most useful for them who go forth to battle; and when Horus said, “A horse,” Osiris was surprised and raised the question why it was that he had not rather said a lion than a horse. Horus answered that a lion was a useful thing for a man in need of assistance, but that a horse served best for cutting off the flight of an enemy and annihilating him. When Osiris heard this he was much pleased, since he felt that Horus had now an adequate preparation. It is said that, as many were continually transferring their allegiance to Horus, Tuphon’s concubine, Thueris, also came over to him; and a serpent which pursued her was cut to pieces by Horus’s men, and now, in memory of this, the people throw down a rope in their midst and chop it up.

625. Now the battle, as they relate, lasted many days and Horus prevailed. Isis, however, to whom Tuphon was delivered in chains, did not cause him to be put to death, but released him and let him go. Horus could not endure this with equanimity. He laid hands upon his mother and wrested the royal diadem from her head; but Hermes put upon her a helmet like upon the head of a cow.

626. Tuphon formally accused Horus of being an illegitimate child, but with the help of Hermes to plead his cause it was decided by the gods that he also was legitimate. Tuphon was then overcome in two other battles. Osiris consorted with Isis after his death, and she became the mother of Harpocrates, untimely born and weak in his lower limbs.”

[Harpocrates = Shad-rapha = Sanchuniathon’s Sadidos, §334.1, above, >>.]

End of the Extract from Plutarch

626.1. The historical setting of Plutarch’s account, given the identifications suggested here, of Mizraim-Menes with Osiris etc., should be at the transition of the Egyptian Pre-dynastic and early Dynastic (corresponding to late Jemdet Nasr and Early Dynastic I in Mesopotamia). This is as expected, since the Tower Episode and Dispersion are dateable to the later phases of Jemdet Nasr, and the presence of Enmerkar (= Nimrod = Kronos = Geb) at the Tower, and his subsequent reign in Uruk in Early Dynastic I, dateable to the transition of the Pre-Dynastic and early Dynastic in terms of Egyptian chronology. Nimrod’s uncle, Mizraim, would be dateable to the same period, and the traditional identification (Syncellus) of Mizraim with Menes (Men), the first king of Dynasty I, confirms the general reliability of the chronology. Osiris (Mizraim) reigned towards the end of the era of god-kings, which began with Ptah, Ra, Shu and Geb. The Turin Papyrus from Dynasty XIX and the Saft el-Henneh text both depict these gods of the Ennead as primordial “kings” of Egypt preceding Dynasty I. The situation in Mesopotamia immediately prior to the Early Dynastic was of a gradual assumption of regal powers by charismatic leaders (originally priests or prophets rather than kings); we would expect a similar process to be going on in Egypt at the same time, particularly since there was not only contact between the two countries, but an incursion of an élite from the one to the other in the Jemdet Nasr phase (the Dispersion from the Tower). The status of the dominant figures of the period as charismatic prophets or priests explains the belief in later times that they were “gods” who ruled on earth. To what extent they were resident, permanently or otherwise, in Egypt is unclear. In some cases, we may imagine, the dominion exercised was spiritual more than political — as that of a divine being would be: the “god” was physically present in some other land, and his power or authoritry, only, extended (or was held to extend) as far as Egypt.

626.1.1. The first god-king Ptah is Puzur, viz. Ham, son of Noah. His appointed domain was Africa west of the Nile, and he may be presumed to have occupied some part of it in obedience to the command of God given to Noah for him and his family to disperse over the earth. The brief record relating to Chemesenuus’ actions in Egypt in the Defloratio Berosi belong to this phase of his life. In the event, on account of the transfer of his father’s concubine and her subsequent adultery with Sidon (Tammuz, Djer), Ham was murdered out of jealousy by Sidon. (That would be in the early Dynastic period.) Ptah was closely associated in Egyptian tradition with Memphis, which may have been the specific place he settled. The concubine, known as Isis in Egypt, was interred in Memphis: later her remains (or a portion of them) seem to have been transferred to their final resting-place in the island of Philae. (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheke, I. xxii. 2-3.) Ra was Ham’s son Cush, who settled in Ethiopia around the junction of the Blue and White Nile. He identified himself with the sun-god, hence his divine name Ra. He lived on well into the Dynastic period. His son Geb was Nimrod (Enmerkar, Sanchuniathon’s Elos-Kronos). The divine name Geb or Seb (Gb/Sb or Gbb/Sbb, as it was also written) was probably a phonetic echo in Egyptian of the Sumerian Zababa, viz. Ninurta, the patron deity of the Houses of Kish and Uruk: Zababa’s bird form, the eagle-like storm-bird, Anzu, was represented in Egypt by a water-bird of the river, the goose, since fertility in Egypt was dependent on river-water, not directly on rain-water from storms, as in Mesopotamia. Shu (asimilated to Arueris) was originally Ham, but his role (as king of what was anciently known as Libya, the land of the Lehabim, that is the African territory west of the Nile), devolved secondarily on Phut (the Greek Phaethon, Arueris in Plutarch’s account supra), then on the “African Hercules” (Arueris), Heth son of Canaan = Djet of the First Dynasty. (Shu corresponds in a cosmic sense to the Sumerian En-lil: lil means atmospheric vapor, as does Shu in Egyptian, but also an ethereal phantom. Gilgamesh [Amraphel] was said to have been begotten by a lil, which might mean a “phantom,” as well as an “obscure man.” See §124, above, >>, on the assimilation of Shu and the Nergal-like Anhur, Onuris = Ares, Mars, which is the planet-god identified with Gilgamesh-Amraphel in Canaan.) Both Geb (Nimrod, Elos-Kronos) and Shu (in his latter incarnation as Heth = Djet ) lived on well into the Dynastic period, the former eventually in Pathros (around the junction of the Blue and White Nile), having migrated thither from Mesopotamia via Byblos (see further §626.25.1, below, >>), the latter conducting military campaigns in Egypt itself, and around the Eastern Mediterranean seaboard of Egypt and Canaan, in order to oust the Semites from their lands. (See §884.5.6, below, >>, on the “circuit” of Heth = the Elder Horus, Arueris, Shu, Anhur, the “Libyan Hercules” or “Egyptian Mars.”) Osiris’ first (post-diluvian) incarnation was Mizraim-Menes. His second incarnation was Sidon (Sidos, Tammuz, Djer). Like his “brother” Amraphel, Sidon was of Mesopotamian origin, of the family of Canaan (Lugal-banda). He was resident in Byblos as a young child, then was transported to Egypt, where he became the third king of the First Dynasty (Djer). He perished in a hunting accident in the cedar-forests of Lebanon. Osiris’ son Horus had multiple forms, but Horus son of Isis was Ayyah, son of Zibeon = Hor-Aha, the second king of the First Dynasty of Egypt.

The Kabeiroi and the First Dynasty of Egypt

626.2. The tradition (§349.0.3ff., above, >>) identifying Mizraim-Menes, the founder and first king of Egypt, with Suduk (otherwise Osiris, or, the planet-god Jupiter Justus = Zedek), implies the seven sons of Suduk in Sanchuniathon are the seven successors of Menes, who, along with the founder himself, comprise the First Dynasty of Egypt. This is the second set of eight Kabeiroi, or Dioskouroi, “boys of Zeus [Zedek],” as opposed to the first set, which are the four male, four female, members of the family of Noah. Eratosthenes’ list of the first eight kings of Egypt offers traditional translations of their names, which can be compared with the modern interpretations based on archaeological discoveries in Abydos, Saqqara, etc., in Egypt itself. The following is Eratosthenes’ list as quoted by Apollodorus, apud Syncellus, Chronographica, ed. Mosshammer p. 103 = ed. Dindorf p. 171, and ed. Mosshammer p. 109 = ed. Dindorf p. 180. Some of the readings are from Mosshammer’s footnotes; all are as found in at least one of the two principal codices [Mosshammer’s A or B], without emendation).

Eratosthenes list of the first eight kings of Egypt (“Thebans”):

“1. Menes the Theban, the Thinite, whose name means “The Zeus-like” (Diônios). He reigned 62 years.

2. The second of the Thebans, Athothes son of Menes, reigned 59 years. His name means “Born of Hermes” (Hermogenês).

3. The third of the Thebans, Athothes, having the same name as the former, reigned 32 years.

4. The fourth of the Thebans, Diabies, the son of Athothes, reigned 19 years. His name means “A friend who differs from the average” (Phileteros).

5. The fifth of the Thebans, Pemphos, son of Athothes, which means “Of the family/order/type of Herakles” (Hêrakleidês) reigned 18 years.

6. The sixth of the Thebans of Egypt, Toigar, “Irresistable” (Amachos), Momcheiri the Memphite, reigned 79 years. This last name [Momcheiri] means, “One who acquits himself of his obligations [Tês–] to his fellow man [-andros] in methods of support [-melês, lit. limbs, parts] beyond the average [perisso–].” (Têsandros [for Teisandros or Tisandros, sic Scaliger] perissomelês).

7. The seventh of the Thebans of Egypt, Stoichos his son, which means “Unfeeling Ares” (Ares anaisthêtos), reigned 6 years.

8. The eighth of the Thebans of Egypt, Gosormies, which means “All cool north wind” (Etêsipantos), ruled 30 years.”

626.2.1. Sanchuniathon’s account of the eight sons of Suduk reads as follows (the translation of Sanchuniathon by Philo of Byblos apud Eusebius Praeparatio Evangelica [PE] I. x. 19ff):

[PE I. x. 19] “After this Kronos builds a wall round his own dwelling, and founds the first city in Phoenicia, Byblos.

[PE I. x. 20] “Soon after this he became suspicious of his own brother Atlas, and, with the advice of Hermes, threw him into a deep pit and buried him. At about this time the descendants of the Dioskouroi put together rafts and ships, and made voyages; and, being cast ashore near Mount Kassios, consecrated a temple there. And the allies of Elos, who is Kronos, were surnamed Eloim, as these same, who were surnamed after Kronos, would have been called Kronioi.

[PE I. x. 21] “And Kronos, having a son Sadidos, dispatched him with his own iron weapon, because he regarded him with suspicion, and robbed him of his soul, by thus becoming the murderer of the child.

“In like manner he cut off the head of his own daughter [viz. Athena: she was the sole surviving daughter up to this point in the narrative]; so that all the gods were dismayed at the disposition of Kronos.

[PE I. x. 22] “But as time went on Ouranos, being in banishment, secretly sends his maiden daughter Astarte with two others her sisters, Rhea and Dione, to slay Kronos by craft. But Kronos caught them, and though they were his sisters, made them his wedded wives.

[PE I. x. 23] “And when Ouranos knew it, he sent Heimarmene and Hora with other allies on an expedition against Kronos, and these Kronos won over to his side and kept with him.

“Further, he says, the god Ouranos devised Baitulia [= “Bethels” or sacred stone pillars], having contrived to put life into stones. And to Kronos there were born of Astarte seven daughters, Titanides or Artemides: [PE I. x. 24] and again to the same there were born of Rhea seven children, of whom Most Youthful was offered up, and his life too, in a sacred ritual; and of Dione females, and of Astarte again two males, Desire (Pothos) and Love (Eros). [PE I. x. 25] And Dagon, after he discovered corn and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrios.

“And one of the Titanides united to Suduk, who is named the Just, gives birth to Asklepios.

[PE I. x. 26] “In Trans-Euphrates there were also born to Kronos three sons, Kronos of the same name with his father, and Zeus Belos, and Apollo. Opposed to these [rather than “contemporary with these”] are Pontos, and Tuphon, and Nereus father of Pontos.

[PE I. x. 27] “And from Pontos is born Sidon (who from the exceeding sweetness of her voice was the first to invent musical song) and Poseidon. And to Demarous is born Melkarthos [viz. Melqart, text: Melkathros], who is also called Herakles.

….. [PE I. x. 30] …. Again, the historian adds to this, after other matters: [PE I. x. 31] “But Astarte, the greatest goddess, and Zeus Demarous and Adodos, king of gods, reigned over the country with the consent of Kronos. And Astarte set the head of a bull upon her own head as a mark of royalty; and in traveling round the world she found a star that had fallen from the sky, which she took up and made the object of a cult in the holy island Tyre. [PE I. x. 32] And the Phoenicians say that Astarte is Aphrodite.

“Kronos also, in going round the world, gives the kingdom of Attica to his own daughter Athena. [PE I. x. 33] But on the occurrence of a pestilence and mortality Kronos consecrates his only begotten son to his father Ouranos as a fruit-offering wholly burnt by fire, and cuts his private parts completely off, compelling also his armed companions to do the same, along with him. [PE I. x. 34] After a not much different sequence of events, his child by Rhea, named Mouth [Death], once dead, he offers up in a sacred ritual. [Alternative translation: “And after a short space of time, he offers up a different child of his, named Mouth by Rhea, once dead.”] The Phoenicians thus denominate Thanatos [Death] and Plouto [the god of the Underworld]. [PE I. x. 35] And after this Kronos gives the city Byblos to the goddess Baaltis, who is also called Dione, and Berutos to Poseidon and to the Kabeiroi and Agrotai and Halieis, who also consecrated the remains of Pontos at Berutos.

[PE I. x. 38] “And when Kronos came into the Land of the South he gave all Egypt to the god Tauthos, that it might be his royal dwelling-place. And these things, he says, were recorded first by Suduk’s seven sons the Kabeiroi, and their eighth [or, own] brother Asklepios, as the god Tauthos commanded them.

[PE I. x. 39] “All these stories the child [pais] of Thabion, the first hierophant of all the Phoenicians from the beginning [or, Thabion, who was the very first (reading the variant pamprôtos, instead of pais prôtos) hierophant of all the Phoenicians from the beginning], allegorized and mixed up with the physical and cosmical phenomena, and delivered to the prophets who celebrated the orgies and inaugurated the mysteries: and they, purposing to increase their vain pretensions from every source, handed them on to their successors and to their foreign visitors. Ei Sirios [or, Is Iris, or, Eisirios, or, Isiris, or, Irios, or, Iris] was also one inventor [or, discoverer] of these [mysteries, viz. the mystery] of the three letters, being brother of Khna, who first was renamed Phoinix.

[The following sections from Sanchuniathon’s other work, History of the Jews, have been relocated here because of the similarity of the subject-matter.] [PE I. x. 42] “The same author, in his History of the Jews, further writes thus concerning Kronos:…. And soon after he says ….:

[PE I. x. 44] “It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons; and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Kronos then, whom the Phoenicians call Elos, who was king of the country and subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star [i.e. planet] Saturn, had by a nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this account called Ieoud, the only begotten being still so called among the Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed him.”

626.2.2. The sequence of events in Sanchuniathon’s account, as well as the order of the sons, and the geographical context, should be carefully noted. Elos-Kronos is located first in Trans-Euphrates. There he built a “wall” around his own dwelling. (Cf. the Eana temple-tower, the Tower in Shinar, around which was constructed the suburbs and city-wall of Uruk-Erech.) Later he moved to Canaan and built Byblos. Later still, he moved to the “Land of the South,” viz. Pathros, Upper Egypt in the area of Thebes, and the neighboring territories around the junction of the Blue and White Nile. In between his sojourn in Byblos and Pathros occurred the adventure of the descendants of the Dioskouroi at Mount Kassios (Pelusium), suggesting a phase of sea-travel between Byblos and northern Egypt in the eastern Delta. The first son of Elos-Kronos, Sadidos, is mentioned during the Byblos-Pelusium phase. The same time-frame encompasses the life and death of Athena. Ei Sirios is referenced in the same phase, by implication, since he is described as the very first hierophant “from the beginning,” who worked up the stories recorded by the eight sons of Suduk, and is coeval with Mizraim himself in Biblical terms, as he is a brother of Khna-Canaan, and Canaan is Mizraim’s brother according to Gen. 10. 6. Likewise in the later account Athena is mentioned as still alive immediately prior to the account of the “consecration” of Ieoud, followed quickly by that of Mouth. (The latter was offered up “once dead,” which implies some time intervened between the consecration and the sacrifice, and a similar sequence of events is said to have occurred in the case of Ieoud.) Following the granting of Attica to Athena, and somewhat preceding the removal of Elos-Kronos to the “Land of the South,” Berutos (Beirut) is said to have been granted to Poseidon. Poseidon therefore must be located in the Byblos-Pelusium phase. The remaining sons are placed after that phase, viz. most probably during the residence of Elos-Kronos in Pathros. For these and the reasons outlined infra the names of the sons of Suduk-Mizraim can be listed as follows, Sanchuniathon’s names in the left-hand column, and the equivalent names of the successive kings of the First Dynasty of Egypt in parallel in the right-hand column:

Mizraim-Menes identified with Asklepios (posthumous son and reincarnation of Suduk)	Men = Narmer
Ei Sirios	Hor-Aha
Poseidon (Sidon, Sidos)	Djer
Ieoud	Djet
Mouth	Mut (Den, Udimu)
Neotatos	Anedjib Merbiape
Pothos	Semerkhet
Eros	Qaa

626.3. a) Mizraim himself being identified traditionally with Osiris, it is not surprising to find Men (Narmer, Menes, Mizraim) in ancient memorials from the First Dynasty tombs at Abydos, identified with Khenty-Amentiu, the primitive dog-god of Abydos, who was the earliest form of the god Osiris. His dog-form is reminiscent of the dog-form of the Sumerian Damu. Damu is the Canaanite Eshmun or Asklepios (azugallu), the “Healer.” The star-sign of Eshmun-Asklepios was Ophiuchus-cum-Scorpio (the stars of which two constellations coalesce). A macehead from this period shows a star-like rosette and a scorpion in front of the head of a figure identical in other respects to Narmer (= Men, Menes, Mizraim). This suggests an identification of Narmer with Scorpio-Ophiuchus, as well as with Khenty-Amentiu. The star-like rosette probably represents the Pleiades cluster in Taurus, which culminates at midnight when the sun is in Scorpio: the month when the sun is located in Taurus was called Aiaru (“rosette”) in ancient Mesopotamia and is still called Iyyar in Hebrew. The coincidence of the sun’s location in Scorpio and the culmination of the Pleiades at midnight was an important seasonal marker: that is, the beginning of “winter” according to the scheme which divided the year into two six-monthly seasons, “summer” (sun in the six signs Taurus through Libra) and “winter” (sun in the six signs Scorpio through Aries). The tradition that Osiris taught the Egyptians agriculture is nicely illustrated on the same macehead, as it shows the king using a plow. The plowing began, and the seed went into the earth, when the sun was in Scorpio, as Osiris entered into the coffin thrust out upon the sea, and Noah went into the container thrust out over the waters of the Inundation, on precisely the 17th of the same month. (See §346, above, >>, §615, above, >>.) Another macehead (image infra), this inscribed with the name Narmer, depicts the king in the typical pose of Osiris, except crowned with the red crown of the North, not the white crown of the South, slumped forward, seated on a throne within a shrine in the form of a canopy, holding the flail in his hand, and at the top of a flight of steps. The steps, evidently, are those of the tomb of Osiris mentioned in the Book of the Dead. The first part of the Osiris myth in Plutarch’s interpretation relates, accordingly, to Mizraim (Menes, Men). Osiris in Plutarch’s account was killed by Tuphon. Manetho records Menes was killed by a hippopotamus; but the hippopotamus was a Tuphonic animal, so the real culprit was Tuphon, operating through, or in the guise of, the hippopotamus. Plutarch De Iside et Osiride 49. 4 through 50. 3:

“49. 4. But Tuphon is the passionate and titanic and reasonless and impulsive [aspect] of the Soul, while of its corporeal [side he is] the death-dealing and pestilent and disturbing, with unseasonable times and intemperate atmospheres and concealments of sun and moon, as though they were the charges and obliterations of Tuphon. 5. And the name is a predicate of Seth, as they call Tuphon; for [Seth] means “that which oppresses and constrains by force;” it means also, frequently, “turning upside down,” and, again, “overleaping.” 6. Some, moreover, say that one of the companions of Tuphon was Bebon; while Manetho [says] that Tuphon himself was also called Bebon, and that the name signifies “holding back” or “hindering,” since the power of Tuphon stands in the way of things going on their way and moving towards what they have to. 50. 1. Wherefore also of domestic animals they apportion to him the least tractable ass; while of wild ones, the most savage, the crocodile and hippopotamus. 2. As to the ass, we have already given some explanation. At Hermes-city {Hermopolis, Eshmunein}, however, as image of Tuphon, they show us a hippopotamus on which stands a hawk fighting a snake, indicating by the hippopotamus Tuphon, and by the hawk power and rule, of which Tuphon frequently possessing himself by force, ceases not from being himself in and throwing [others] into a state of disorder by means of evil. 3. Wherefore also when they make offerings on the seventh of the month Tybi, which [day] they call “Arrival of Isis from Phoenicia,” they mould on the cakes a bound hippopotamus.”

The slaughtered god, Khenty-Amentiu, Osiris (Mizraim-Men), was next thrown into a chest, and carried away by the Nile. The chest is said to have formed into a tree in Canaan: that is, the chest returned to its natural elements and these were imagined to have “refashioned themselves” into a tree. The tree was cut down, made into a pillar in the palace at Byblos, then transported to Egypt by Isis, where it was worshiped as the Djed pillar. The youngster (Sidon, Sidos, Diktus, Dumuzi, [Tammuz] Shu-nigin Pesh, Djer) brought back by Isis from Byblos, who was the human embodiment of the hero, as opposed to the tree-form, subsequently became the third king of Egypt (see section [c] infra). He was killed in an hunting accident in Lebanon. His tomb in Abydos after c. 2000 BC, was regarded uniquely as the Tomb of Osiris. The myth originally related to Mizraim as a form of Khenty-Amentiu (= Osiris), but was subsequently recast to incorporate the Canaanite traditions relating to Sidon (= Osiris). There were two figures in the earlier tradition: first was Mizraim (Narmer-Men, Menes), the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, and second was Sidon (Djer, Sid, Sidos, Dumuzi), the human re-embodiment of the former. The fact that the n‛r fish in Narmer’s name (Egyptian n‛r-mr) was the Sumerian nagar or nangar, the water-creature featuring in the Zodiacal sign Cancer, and was a title of Dumuzi, will have supported the identification of the two figures. (See on the name Nagar, §62, above, >>, §172ff., above, >>.)

Upper: Narmer palette with Thetet in front of Narmer. Lower left: drawing of Thetet from palette. Lower right: drawing of Thetet from Narmer macehead

Thetet on the Narmer macehead standing behind seated Narmer in his Osiris-like pose (reproduction)

Sidos was termed son of Aiguptos (= Mizraim, Menes), perhaps merely in the sense that he was the son of Khent-hap = Nin-sumun = Astarte (see section [c] infra), the concubine of Elos-Kronos (Nimrod) and of Canaan (Demarous), which latter was the brother of Mizraim. Balthi or Isis being originally also the consort of Noah, and later of Osiris-Mizraim, Sidos could be considered her “son” (descendant), and consequently the son of Mizraim. Aiguptios (Mizraim) was the son of Side, the “huntress, or captivating one.” The etymology of this latter name is treated in detail at §334.0.4ff., above, >>. It comes from the Sumerian nigin = Akkadian ṣâdu, to noose, bind, tie or trap an animal, fish, or person. Side = Hebrew Sidon (“trapper, catcher, captivator”). On the macehead which shows Narmer in the Osiris-pose, and on the Narmer palette, a prominent female is located immediately behind or in front of the king and she is named “the hobbler,” viz. precisely the binder (of animal[s]), written with the “hobble” sign, followed by the letter “t.” The “hobble” sign is a rope of plaited fibers, viz. a band to put round the feet of animals: it represents the sound “th,” because the verb thet, meaning “to hobble, tie, capture,” begins with this letter. The Egyptian “th” corresponds to the Semitic samekh. In the ancient script the “hobble” sign probably represents the verb “thet” rather than just the initial “th” sound. The sign is followed on the palette by the feminine termination “t.” Originally the name might have been pronounced Thet-et, that is, the verb thet, “tie” + the female termination (-t), meaning “the (female) captivator.” It would be equivalent to the Semitic Sad-at/Said-a = Side/Sidon, which is likewise the verb “tie” (Akkadian ṣâdu) + the female termination (-at, -a). Side, of course, is the mother of Aiguptos (Mizraim, Narmer), and grandmother of Sidos (Djer), the “captivating” one. The same verb thet (written with the “hobble” sign) in Egyptian could mean to “captivate,” to capture or bind hearts, as well as to bind objects. The Semitic place-name Sidon was written with an initial samekh as well as with tsade, and thus is the exact equivalent of the Egyptian name with initial th (= samekh). (Aramaic Sodani = “Sidonian” with initial samekh = Sidoni, with initial tsade). As Egyptian “th” = Semitic “s” (samekh), and Egyptian “t” = Semitic “d,” the Egyptian verb thet is the precise equivalent of Semitic sâdu/ṣâdu. Eratosthenes translates the name Menes as “Dionios, Zeus-like,” on which see §349.0.3.3, above, >>.

626.4. b) The second king of the First Dynasty of Egypt is Hor-Aha. The first element in his

Hor-Aha visiting the shrine of Neit (top right, the sign of Neit being marked by the crossed arrows)

Hor-Aha with the name “Men” in a shrine-like structure (top right)

name is the falcon, Horus. The second element in the Egyptian name (Aha) means the “violent one” or “the fighter,” or “contentious one,” also “calamitous” when used in respect of the calendar, an inauspicious, ill-omened day. This is an Egyptian form of the Semitic root‛-w-h, “twist, be perverse, refractory, contentious.” It is related to the roots ’-y-h, ’-w-h, “twist in agony, be woeful.” One might also compare the dual meaning of the Hebrew noun Ayyah, root ’-y-h, “Woe” and “Falcon” (from the screeching, woeful, call of the falcon). The two meanings are combined in a single Egyptian sign: the mace and shield (meaning “fighter, contentious, calamitous”) are drawn as if held in the talons of the falcon. This nicely represents the dual meaning of the Hebrew Ayyah (who is the Egyptian Hor-Aha), viz. 1) falcon (lit. the “crier”), and 2) woeful, calamitous (“crying”). On a label of Hor-Aha found in a First Dynasty tomb, signs reading (according to one interpretation) “son of Isis” appear. This suggests Hor-Aha is the “Horus son of Isis” of Egyptian mythology. Hor-Aha is depicted on a number of labels visiting a primitive shrine of Neit (= Anat, the Biblical Anah, sister of Ayyah, Sanchuniathon’s Athena). Since Hor-Aha is the Hebrew Ayyah, the Ei Sirios of Sanchuniathon, the Huas (Dionysus) of Classical Greek myth and the Dionysius of the Defloratio Berosi, this implies the daughter of Elos-Kronos (Nimrod) called Athena (Neit), died at her father’s hands some time before the demise of Ayyah. Ayyah had a special relationship with Anah-Anat-Athena-Neit: he was believed to have discovered Anah, an exposed infant, at the Sirbonian lagoon (lake “Triton”), and to have adopted her into his family, then to have joined her in the other world, when, as a form of Osiris (Khenty-Amentiu), he fell into the waters mourning for her loss. The label shows Hor-Aha’s reverence for his departed sister Neit. On a remarkable ivory label found at Naqada the Horus-name Hor-Aha is depicted next to a shrine-like structure enclosing the Two Ladies (Nebty) sign, that is the two mother-goddesses of the north and south of Egypt respectively, above the name Men (Menes-Mizraim). This is doubtless connected with the assertion of the Defloratio Berosi that Dionysius, viz. Huas-Ayyah (Hor-Aha), adopted Osiris-Mizraim into his family and bequeathed on him the land of Egypt. (See further §183, above, >>.) Eratosthenes gives Hor-Aha’s other name, Itet (see §180, above, >>), in the form Athothes and interprets it as “Born of Hermes.” Evidently he saw in the element -tet, the name Thoth (= Hermes). As the sons of Suduk, the Kabeiroi, are said in Sanchuniathon to have been under the instruction of Tauthos (the Second Hermes = Cush son of Ham, and brother to Mizraim), the name is probably a reference to the spiritual authority (“fatherhood”) exercised by Tauthos over Hor-Aha. In Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle (§626.20, below, >>) this name is translated Kourodes, that is “Warrior-like” (viz. Aha, “fighter, the contentious one”).

626.5. c) The next king is Djer, whose identity with with Sidon (Poseidon), Sidos and Maneros-Linos has already been examined and explained. The mother of Maneros-Linos was Astarte (Eshterah), whose name means literally “Productive female herd-animal,” particularly of the bovine order, as though she was the sexual partner of a bull, and the fruitful producer of multiple calves. It is appropriately translated Nin-sumun or Nin-suna in Sumerian meaning “Producer (or, Mistress, or Priestess [Nin]) wild cow, or, of wild cows [sumun2/sun2].” In an annalistic fragment known as the Cairo Stone, Djer is said to be the son of Khent-hap, and this name means “Priestess/Concubine [of] the bull [Apis],” which is an alternative way of translating the name Eshterah (Astarte). The same fragment mentions a “smiting of Setjet [Asia, the Levant]” in his reign, which confirms Djer operated in the region traditionally identified as the site of the death of the shepherd-hunter Tammuz (= Osiris, viz. Djer himself, Sidon, Dumuzi Shu-nigin Pesh). On the expedition of Sidos (Djer) to Canaan, cf. John Malalas’ Chronicle (= Dindorf p. 57-58, but this from ‘The Chronicle of John Malalas’ [3. 2, with minor adjustments], Jeffreys et al., Melbourne, 1986; brackets show pages of Dindorf’s edition): “2. In the time of Abraham, there lived Melchisedek, a god-fearing man and a Gentile; he was descended from the family of Sidos, son of Aiguptos {= Men}, king of the land of Libya, from whom the Egyptians took their name. (58) Sidos left Egypt and invaded the land of the people known as the Canaanites, that is, the land now known as Palestine. He subjugated it and lived there, and built a city which he called Sidon after himself; it is now within the territory of Phoenicia.” Eratoshenes gives the king’s alternative name, Itet (see §180, above, >>), in the form Athothes, as in the case of his predecessor. In Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle (§626.20, below, >>) this name is translated Aristarkhos, “Chief ruler,” which probably represents the common title of Osiris incorporating the name of Djer, viz. “Neb er Djer,” that is “Lord of All.” The Egyptian word djer corresponds precisely to the Akkadian napharu = “total, complete, all,” which translates Sumerian “nigin” and “shu-nigin” (otherwise translatable as Ṣaidu, Sidon) in the name Shu-nigin Pesh attached to Dumuzi son of Nin-sumun. The tomb of Djer was identified as the tomb of Osiris from at least as early as the Middle Kingdom.

The tomb of Djer (Osiris) at Abydos

626.6. d) The next king is Djet. Djet is Heth the younger brother of Sidon, and son of Canaan, the name Djet corresponding to Ama-ushumgal-ana = Heth, see §333, above, >>. The eye of Horus (his solar/lunar form) was called Djet/Wadjet, and the Wadjet eye in Egyptian mathematics represented the number “One,” cf. ushumgal = edu/ettu = Heth, “only one.” The Biblical Heth is Sanchuniathon’s Ieoud, the Sumerian Ushumgal-ana, and the Egyptian Arueris or Elder Horus. Arueris, the Elder Horus, is the “Libyan Hercules” of the Defloratio Berosi, see further §884.5.6, below, >>. The Elder Horus became confused with the younger Horus, the son of Osiris, and their mythologies intertwined. In the Spanish history of Francisco Sota called Chronica de los Principes de Asturias y Cantabria, Madrid, 1681, pp. 64, 155, etc., the Libyan Hercules, the colonizer of Spain (as in the Defloratio Berosi), is explicitly identified with Horus. The latter is termed in Sota the “son of Osiris,” as is Hercules (= Arueris) in the Defloratio. Djet is associated with a great Queen of the First Dynasty, called “king’s mother,” whose name is usually transcribed as “Meryet-Neit.” This woman clearly is the “Ano-bret” of Sanchuniathon, the concubine of Elos-Kronos, and mother of Ieoud. The name of the goddess Neit appears here in the form “Ano,” which is probably a better representation of its original pronunciation, and in the initial, rather than the second, position in the name. There is often a doubt about the order of the ancient hieroglyphic signs in the pronunciation of Egyptian royal names. Sanchuniathon appears to have read “Neit-meryet” (Ano-bret), not “Meryet-Neit.” The second element “meryet” is represented in Sanchuniathon as “bret,” “m” and “b” being interchangeable in Egyptian. Meryet-Neit is doubtless the Myrina (meryet > myri, neit > na) of Diodorus Siculus (III. 54-55), and otherwise the daughter of Japheth (Atlas Maurus), the world-conquering Amazonian queen, referenced in §626.48.3, below, >>, who made peace with Osiris (Mizraim) and Horus son of Isis (Djet) in the early post-diluvian period. Eratosthenes translates the

The ivory comb of Djet

name “A friend who differs from the average,” which nicely represents the sense of the Semitic edu/ettu = “uniquely beloved, only one etc.” = Sumerian ushumgal (“serpent” and “only one”), corresponding to Egyptian Djet/Uadjit (= “serpent” and as a numeral “one”). In view of the identification of this king in later tradition with Horus of Edfu, the Elder Horus, it is remarkable to find an ivory comb surviving from the era of Djet himself, inscribed with his name, and above that with the earliest instance of the downward bending pinions of the winged disk of Horus of Edfu (minus the solar disk at this period in the development of the symbol). Located above them on the same comb is a representation of the solar boat, in which, according to the legend, Horus the Winged Disk, at the head of the Mesentiu, or Metal-workers, and Shemsu-Hor, the Followers of Horus, was believed to have sailed forth in battle against Seth and his confederates. In Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle (§626.20, below, >>) this name is translated Spanios, viz. “Unique” (cf. “only one”).

626.7. e) The name of the king who followed Djet is usually written Den or Udimu. He similarly is associated in some undefined way with Queen Neit-meryet (“Meryet-Neit”). His name is written with two signs: a hand, pronounced “d/t” or “udi, uti” and a wavy line, representing water, pronounced “n” or “mu.” In this case, too, the signs should be read in reverse order, and the name pronounced “Mu-d/t,” that is “Mut,” “Mouth” in Sanchuniathon (the Semitic “t” being represented in Egyptian as “d/t”), which is the name of the son sacrificed by Elos-Kronos immediately after Ieoud. The name means “Death” in Canaanite. The transcription of the Canaanite name in the primitive Egyptian hieroglyphs implies the native language spoken by these kings was either identical to, or incorporated the vocabulary of, Canaanite (Semitic). (See further on this name and its Semitic origin, §626.17.5, below, >>.) The verb spelled mt in Egyptian, as in Canaanite, means “to die.” The other name of this king was Semty, written with two identical signs representing a range of hills. It means “desert” or alternatively “a burial area” and is also a name of the god Seth as presiding spirit of such desolate places. The word is doubtless related to the Semitic root sh-m, meaning “to be desolate (physically or emotionally), be dumfounded, awestruck,” from which similarly nouns meaning “desert, desolate region” are formed. Given the identity of Mouth (Mut) and the Biblical patriarch Hazar-Maveth, suggested elsewhere (§332, above, >>, and §889.6, below, >>), it is noteworthy that the dual name Mut Semty, meaning “Death, He of the Burial zone,” corresponds precisely to the Hebrew Hazar-Maveth, “(He of the) Zone [Hazar] of Death [Maveth].” The custom of sacrificing a son to avert a natural calamity, copied in the case of Mouth from Ieoud, was passed on to future generations of Canaanites, as Sanchuniathon informs us. Hence also in Egypt, the “Feast of Djet” was inaugurated after his reign, and its first occurrence is noted in the dynastic Annals. The dressing up of the sacrificed son in royal robes was an important part of the ceremony, according to Sanchuniathon. In a label from the reign of Mut (“Den, Udimu”), there is a depiction of the king celebrating what was later known as the Heb-Sed, in which the king is dancing in front of a canopy containing a seated, slumped-over, figure (a corpse? or mummy?), in the pose of Osiris. The king wore a special coronation robe at the Heb-Sed. Doubtless in the original rite, as depicted on the label, the Osiris-figure (Khenty-Amentiu) was Mut’s predecessor, Djet (Ieoud, Heth), and the royal robe worn by the dancing king, an imitation of the one worn by Djet at his sacrifice. It has been conjectured the Heb-Sed involved originally the ritual slaughter of the king, or was a symbolic representation of it, replacing the literal sacrifice. It was celebrated at varying intervals in the reigns of subsequent kings. Here in the case of Mut, it might be the literal sacrifice that is being celebrated, rather than a symbolic rite. Eratosthenes translates the name “Of the order/type of Herakles,” Herakles being the Oriental god of the Underworld and Death (Nergal), corresponding to the Canaanite Mot, and Sanchuniathon’s Mouth (§332, above, >>). In view of the identification of his predecessor Ieoud/Djet with Herakles/Hercules (as in the Defloratio Berosi), and of the

Mut (Den) dancing in front of a figure under a canopy

Mut (Den) smiting an Asiatic with the wolf-like canine Wepwawet, the god of death, on the standard beside him (credit: BM, London)

similarity between the sacrifice of Ieoud/Djet and that of Mouth/Mut, according to Sanchuniathon, Eratosthenes’ name is particularly appropriate. In Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle (§626.20, below, >>) this name is translated Serapis, viz. Plouto, the god of death. There is a label showing Mut (Den) smiting an Asiatic with the standard of the death-god Wepwawet (Gk. Ophois) beside him.

626.8. f) The king who followed Mut was Anedjib or Adjib, meaning “Strong/forceful of heart/will/spirit,” also called Merbiape(n). Eratosthenes’ rendering of the first name Anedjib (or what appears to be a rendering of the name: Adjib = Toigar, dj > t-g) is “Irresistable” (Gk. Amachos), viz. “forceful of will.” The latter name, Merbiape(n), begins with the verb “mer” (“love”). Merbiape is a “companion, devotee” (mer[i]) of the “bronze (that is, strong, stable) throne.” He was also known as Meri-gereg-ipen, and this seems to be what Eratosthenes transcribes in the form Mom-cheir-i. It means “devotee who founds/establishes the throne,” Eratosthenes translates: “One who acquits himself of his obligations [Tês–] to his fellow man [-andros] in methods of support [-melês, lit. limbs, parts] beyond the average [perisso–].” (Têsandros [for Teisandros or Tisandros, sic Scaliger] perissomelês).” Bronze, referenced in the name Merbiape, is a copper alloy, smelted in Egypt from mafkat. This was the Egyptian word for turquoise, which occurs in copper deposits, and malachite, the latter being the ore of copper. It was mined especially in Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai. Turquoise is blue and malachite a bluish green. These stones were the nearest native Egyptian equivalent of the strikingly blue, gold-speckled lapis lazuli, mined in far off Afghanistan; on account of its starry-sky color, lapis lazuli was sacred to the Mesopotamian Great Goddess Inana, “Queen of Heaven,” along with the various goddesses assimilated to her, Ishtar, Eshterah, and Hathor, and so also the native Egyptian equivalent turquoise and malachite. The same Egyptian word for bronze meant also “sky, heaven,” and the goddess of mafkat was the goddess of heaven. Hathor under her various names, Eshterah, Ashtartu, Aphrodite, Venus, etc., was the patron-goddess of the copper smelted from malachite and similar rocks, and of copper-mining: the symbol of the planet and goddess Venus, and of the ideal female, was employed accordingly as the alchemical symbol for copper (♀). Thus the word “bronze” in the royal name under discussion signifies, in religious terms, “Hathor, Eshterah, Ashtartu.” The “throne” in Egyptian hieroglyphs was a symbol of the same mother-goddess, Isis, Hathor etc. The devotee who benefitted the “bronze throne” (the kingdom) benefitted the goddess who was the divine embodiment of that kingdom. Typically the male companion of the Mother-goddess, the “Bull of His Mother,” was depicted seated on this divininty-cum-throne, otherwise on the lap of the mother-goddess, being at once her son and lover. In other words, and in Canaanite mythological terms, the “lover (of) the bronze throne” (as the royal name might also be translated) was the consort of Ashtartu, the male “Venus,” Ashtar. In the Baal Cycle fragments discovered at Ras Shamra (Ugarit) the stripling Ashtar attempts to occupy precisely the heavenly throne of the chief god Baal whilst the latter is absent in the Underworld, but proves too small for the task, and is compelled to quit. Ashtar is translated Neotatos, “Most Youthful,” i.e. a “male at full breeding capacity,” in Sanchuniathon.

626.9. g) The next king is called Se-mer-khet, which means “Male (se) who loves (mer) the body, or the flesh, or the belly, or the Corps, or the Corporate Body, or Assembly” (khet = flesh, womb, belly, body, corps, community, assembly, etc.”). This name corresponds to Pothos (an alternative name for Eros, “carnal love”) in Sanchuniathon, the son of Astarte and Elos-Kronos, and elder brother of Eros sui nominis, the word khet in this case being understood to mean “flesh, womb, belly,” so that Semer-khet is a “lover of the flesh or womb.” It is translated “Unfeeling Ares” in Eratosthenes, and in this case the word khet is understood to mean “corps, body of troops,” as Ares represents a martial or masculine male, and Semer-khet a “comrade (lit. lover) of the corps.” His Nebty name is written with the archaic version of Gardiner’s hieroglyphic sign A19, viz. Semsu or Semsem, meaning the “Aged One” or the “Elder.” In the Abydos king-list this sign takes the form of a divine, bearded, figure, wearing a garment reaching down to his ankles, and holding in his hands the was scepter. In Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle (§626.20, below, >>) the king’s Horus name Semerkhet is translated Sesonkhosis, which looks like a native Egyptian name, but makes sense also in Greek: “The state of (-osis) eagerness for (ses- = seis[is], agitation, eagerness, (or sync. perf. pass. participle, ses[o]-, cf. inf. sesoesthai, from seio = seuo = soeo, “eager for”) the body (onkh[os] with a khi = onkh[os] with a kappa, body).”

626.10. h) Last of the eight kings of the First Dynasty is Qaa. Qaa means “to vomit.” A later form of the name in the Abydos king-list (and partially in the fragmentary Turin papyrus) is Qebeh, meaning “He from the north,” for which the Sakkara king-list has Qebehu-khenti, meaning “He from the cool north.” Eratosthenes translates this as “All cool north (Etesian) wind.” Qebehu-khenti is corrupted in Manetho to Bieneches, Oubiethes, Vibenthis. It is followed by the god’s name Khenty-Amentiu on a seal found in the tomb of Qaa at Abydos, containing the names of all eight kings of the dynasty. The king at the head of the series on that seal, Narmer (Men, Mizraim), the founder of the line, is identified with the same divinity on another seal, found at Abydos in the tomb of Mut (“Den”), containing the first five royal names on it, by the placement of the name Khenty-Amentiu in front of his, and similarly in the case of the names of his two successors, Hor-Aha and Djer, though not in the case of the last two kings and the “king’s mother” named on that seal, Djet, Mut (“Den”), and Neit-meryet. The sequence of names is as follows on the latter seal: “Khenty-Amentiu Horus Narmer, Khenty-Amentiu Horus-Aha, Khenty-Amentiu Horus Djer, Horus Djet, Horus Mut, King’s Mother Neit-meryet.” In Sanchuniathon “Asklepios” (= Eshmun, Damu, Khenty-Amentiu) is referred to as the “eighth” (Eshmun, as though from sh-m-n, “eight”) son of Suduk (= Zedek, Jupiter Justus, Osiris, viz. Mizraim, Narmer, Khenty-Amentiu), in a way analogous to the association of the god’s name Khenty-Amentiu with the eighth and last king of the dynasty, Qaa, on the first-mentioned seal. As the god’s name appears in that instance at the end of the series of eight names, it might otherwise, or additionally, signify the identification of all preceding eight kings with Khenty-Amentiu. On either interpretation the last of the eight corresponds to Sanchuniathon’s “eighth” son of Suduk, Asklepios, or rather to Eros viewed as the eighth incarnation of Asklepios (Khenty-Amentiu). Eros in the Orphic system was a cosmic demiurge, equated with Phanes (Pan) and Dionysus (Osiris, Khenty-Amentiu). In Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle (§626.20, below, >>) this name is translated Amenemes, which looks like a native Egyptian name, but makes sense also in Greek: = “Fleetingly (amen- = meno with privative a = non-lasting) vomitous (emeo, “to vomit”),” translating Qaa = “to vomit.”

Label from the Tomb of Qaa, Egypt Dynasty I: (each royal name, accompanied by a Horus falcon, appears twice, once on the top row, and once immediately below) Royal Names from right to left: 1. Narmer 2. Hor-Aha 3. Djer 4. Djet 5. Mut (Den) 6. Anedjib 7. Semerkhet 8. Qaa followed by the god’s name Khenty-Amentiu

The list of nations descended from Mizraim in Genesis 10. 13f.

626.11. In the list of the sons of Mizraim in Genesis 10. 13f. the names are those of tribal or national groups: “And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, 14. And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (in respect of the place whence the Philistim migrated,) also Caphtorim.” In Hebrew the copulative complementing the final national name Caphtorim, translated “also” supra, follows the parenthetical phrase regarding the Philistines instead of preceding it. The relevant phrase reads literally: “Casluhim, which from there the Philistines migrated.” In this phrase, the relative pronoun “which” (Heb. asher) belongs with the word “from there” (Heb. mi-sham), so the meaning is “from which place the Philistines migrated.” It is nonsensical to treat these national names, particularly in the context of a genealogy, as if they were place-names, therefore the relative clause beginning “from which place …” cannot define the preceding national name Casluhim, “Casluhites,” as that is not a place, but a national name. The phrase must rather modify the principal verb “begat” (v. 13): “in respect of the place whence the Philistines migrated he (viz. Mizraim) also (begat) Caphtorites.” The whole sentence now reads: “And Mizraim begat Ludites (Ludim), and Anamites (Anamim), and Lehabites (Lehabim), and Naphtuhites (Naphtuhim), 14. And Pathrusites (Pathrusim), and Casluhites (Casluhim); in respect of the region whence the Philistines (Philistim) migrated, (he) also (begat) Caphtorites (Caphtorim).” The interpretation adopted here accords with the information found elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures that the Philistines migrated into the coastal strip of Canaan at the end of the second millennium BC from Caphtor (the “place whence the Philistines migrated”). Thus, as the Philistines were Caphtorites, in the sense that they migrated from Caphtor, then Mizraim could “also” be said to have begotten Caphtorites (meaning Philistines). The Caphtorites were commonly identified in antiquity with the Cappadocians, the eponymus of the latter being Cappadox, son of Ninuas, son of Ninus (Eustathius ad Dionys. Peri. 772, Stephanus Byz. s.v. Kappadokia). A similar national genealogy underlies the statement in the Samaritan chronicle Asatir that there were two Nimrods separated by 1000 years or more, the first Nimrod son of Cush, the second “from the Kaftorites” in the time of Abraham. (Asatir Ch. VI. 3, p. 248, trans. Gaster, Pitron ad loc., p. 227.) As Asatir here follows a longer chronology like that in the Septuagint, we should see in its second Nimrod, contemporary with Abraham, the Ninuas-Zames of the Classical accounts, as in Albiruni (§79, above, >>): the ethnic affiliation expressed in the Classical manner in Eustathius (Ninuas father [prince] of Cappadox) is expressed in the Biblical manner in Asatir (Nimrod “from the Kaftorites [= Caphtorim = Cappadocians]).” As also the context in Asatir is the period of Abraham’s life when he fought against Chedorlaomer, and the latter is mentioned in the verses immediately succeeding the reference to Nimrod of the Kaftorites, we can conclude the Kaftorites here are the Cappadocians of Mazaca, viz. the “Armenians” of the army of Chedorlaomer, whom Nimrod son of Canaan (Amraphel) served as an allied commander. Returning to the Egyptian genealogy: for the reasons stated, the Philistines only, not the Caphtorites sensu stricto, are listed in Genesis 14 as sons of Mizraim.

626.12. In the Defloratio Berosi the national names are converted into individual eponyms: Mizraim (called Osiris), begets Lydus Priscus, Anameon (or, Meon), Casleus (from whom came the Syrians and Cappadocians), Petreius (from whom came the Palestinians), Libyus (titled Hercoles = Hercules), Neptumnus (father of Lestrigon), and finally Orus (= Horus son of Osiris). Here Lydus is the eponymous ancestor of the Ludim, Anameon of the Anamim, Casleus of the Casluhim, Petreius of the Pathrusim, Libyus of the Lehabim, and Neptumnus (= Neptunus, Neptune) of the Naphtuhim. These were not mere cyphers, as, for example, the exploits of Liby(c)us Hercules in Africa, Spain, Italy, and Europe, comprise a significant part of the Defloratio’s post-diluvian history (§889.78, below, >>), and Neptumnus is the Roman sea-god Neptune, father of Laestrygon (Lestrigon in the Defloratio), ancestor of the monstrous Laestrygones of Sicily, Laestrygon being described in Dictys Cretensis as the brother of Cyclops. The tradition in the Defloratio dates in its original form from c. 300 BC.

626.13. There are eight ancestors in this scheme including Mizraim-Osiris, as in the genealogy in Genesis, and in the analogous Kabeiric scheme in Sanchuniathon (of the eight sons of Suduk). Suduk corresponds to Mizraim-Osiris-Jupiter-Justus in the Defloratio. As in Sanchuniathon the last or eighth Kabeiric brother is Asklepios, who is the serpent-wrestling Ophiuchus, or otherwise Apollo, crushing Scorpio, so in the Defloratio the eighth Mizraimite is Horus, that is, in the interpretatio Graeca, Apollo. Some, at least, of the first eight kings of the First Dynasty are known to have been identified in their own era with Khenty-Amentiu, an early form of Osiris, and all of them in the later Osirian theology were identified with Osiris re-embodied in his son Horus (Apollo). These two gods were turned into eight in a process analogous to that whereby the two original Kabeiroi, Zeus and his son Dionysus, became eight Kabeiroi, according to the scholiast quoted at §347, above, >>. Zeus = Khenty-Amentiu/Osiris = Mizraim, Dionysus = Horus = Hor-Aha. This implies the eight national eponymi in Genesis, beginning with Mizraim himself, represent the eight kings of the First Dynasty of Egypt, and the second group of eight Kabeiroi of Sanchuniathon.

626.14. The original Kabeiroi were the eight occupants of Noah’s container, represented in the Hermopolitan Ogdoad as four male and four female “primeval ancestors,” who settled on the first mountain emergent from the waters of the cosmic ocean. The second set of Kabeiroi were these eight kings of the First Dynasty. The Mizraimite component in the population of each nation referred to in Genesis 10. 13f. seems to have been traced back to one of the eight kings of the First Dynasty, as though they were descended from that particular god-king. These kings, indeed, were believed to be so many forms of one god, Horus, or Khenty-Amentiu, — that is, Mizraim himself, the ancestor of all Egyptians, — and comprised the second series of eight Kabeiric “primeval ancestors:” this was a duplicate of the deified family of Noah, traversing now, in the person of their respective tribal groupings and representing their particular patron gods, the waters of the Mediterranean, instead of the waters of the Flood, and settling new lands in the north and west along the coasts of the Mediterranean, as Noah and his family settled the original homeland in Ararat.

626.15. The root form of each national name in Genesis 10. 13f., the corresponding form in the Defloratio, the First Dynasty Egyptian royal name, and the equivalent figures in Sanchuniathon, Peri Theon and the Arabic (based on Coptic) tradition (§626.27.1ff., below, >>), are as follows:

Biblical Name	Defloratio Name	Egyptian Name	Sanchuniathon’s Name	Name in Peri Theon	Arabic Name
Mizraim	Mizraim-Osiris	Men	Suduk/Asklepios	Mizraim	Mizraim-Beisar/Busiris
Ludim	Lydus Priscus	Hor-Aha	Ei Sirios	Faunus (Pan = Amun I)	Qoft/Qobtim/Mizraim (son of Beisar)
Anamim	Anameon (or, Meon)	Djer	Poseidon	Hephaistos (Ptah = Amun II)	Masr-Mizraim-Osiris (son of Beisar)
Lehabim	Libyus Hercoles	Djet	Ieoud	↓  Helios (Ra = Amun III)*	Farek (eponymus of Africa and son of Beisar)
Naphtuhim	Neptumnus	Mut Semty	Mouth	Sosis (Shu)*          ↑	Sa (son of Qoft/Mizraim)
Pathrusim	Petreius	Anedjib	Neotatos	Keb (Geb)	Athrib (son of Qoft/Mizraim)
Casluhim	Casleus	Semerkhet	Pothos	Osiris	Ashmun (son of Qoft/Mizraim)
Caphtorim/Pelishtim	Orus	Qaa	Eros	Horos	Qaftorim (son of Qoft/Mizraim)

* In Peri Theon Sosis (Shu), the successor of Helios, usurps the dominion of Hephaistos (Ptah) by committing adultery with his wife. He is rebuked for this by Helios (Ra). Keb (Geb), the successor of Sosis (Shu) is the son of Helios (Ra) in Peri Theon, not of Sosis (Shu). Sosis (Shu) appears here in the position he occupies in native Egyptian theogonic schemes and in Peri Theon, viz. Sosis (Shu) follows, and is begotten by, Helios (Ra) and precedes Keb (Geb). The arrows indicate the positions implied by the usurpation of Sosis (Shu), in the direction of the up arrow, and by the genealogical relationship between Keb (Geb) and Helios (Ra), in the direction of the down arrow, and, accordingly, Sosis (Shu) in Peri Theon corresponds to Libyus Hercoles in the Defloratio Berosi, and to Djet in the native king-lists, etc. (see infra).

626.16. The national names appear to be labels attached to the gods (cf. Hercoles and Neptumnus in the Defloratio), with whom the kings of the First Dynasty were identified, viz. the Kabeiroi of Sanchuniathon, indicating an affinity, or association, of each deity with a particular nation descended from Mizraim (cf., in the Defloratio, Libyus Hercoles, Hercoles or Hercules as patron deity of the Libyans, and Neptumnus specifically as father of the Laestrygones). The eponymus represents, in that case, a title of the relevant deity: Ei Sirios “of Lydia” (Ludi), Poseidon “of Maeonia” (Anami), Ieoud (Hercules) “of Libya” (Lehabi), Mouth (Neptumnus) “of the Laestrygones” (Naphtuhi), Neotatos “of Pathros” (Pathrusi), Pothos “of Colchis or the Cappadocians” (Casluhi), Eros “of the Philistines” (Pelishti). These identifications, doubtless, sprang out of the practice attested as early as the First Dynasty itself of identifying living kings with Horus and deceased kings with Khenty-Amentiu. There are eight gods in total, similarly, in the expedition of Osiris (= Khenty-Amentiu), according to the account of Diodorus Siculus I. 17f.: Osiris is accompanied on his travels outside of Egypt by his “brother” Apollo (Arueris), by Anubis (symbol: dog, strictly, jackal), Makedon (symbol: a wolf-like canine, Gk. lukos, viz. the death and war-god Wepwawet = Ophois of Lukopolis = Asyut), Pan, Maron, Triptolemos and Apollo Mousegetes.

626.16.1. The circuit of Osiris according to Diodorus is as follows:

Diodorus Siculus I. xvii. 3ff.: “3 Now after Osiris had established the affairs of Egypt and turned the supreme power over to Isis his wife, they say that he placed Hermes at her side as counselor because his prudence raised him above the king’s other friends, and as general of all the land under his sway he left Heracles, who was both his kinsman and renowned for his valor and physical strength, while as governors he appointed Busiris over those parts of Egypt which lie towards Phoenicia and border upon the sea and Antaeus over those adjoining Ethiopia and Libya; then he himself left Egypt with his army to make his campaign, taking in his company also his brother, whom the Greeks call Apollo. 4 And it was Apollo, they say, who discovered the laurel, a garland of which all men place about the head of this god above all others. The discovery of ivy is also attributed to Osiris by the Egyptians and made sacred to this god, just as the Greeks also do in the case of Dionysus. 5 And in the Egyptian language, they say, the ivy is called the “plant of Osiris” and for purposes of dedication is preferred to the vine, since the latter sheds its leaves while the former ever remains green; the same rule, moreover, the ancients have followed in the case of other plants also which are perennially green, ascribing, for instance, the myrtle to Aphrodite and the laurel to Apollo.

18 1 Now Osiris was accompanied on his campaign, as the Egyptian account goes, by his two sons Anubis and Macedon, who were distinguished for their valor. Both of them carried the most notable accoutrements of war, taken from certain animals whose character was not unlike the boldness of the men, Anubis wearing a dog’s skin and Macedon the fore-parts of a wolf; and it is for this reason that these animals are held in honor among the Egyptians. 2 He also took Pan along on his campaign, who is held in special honor by the Egyptians; for the inhabitants of the land have not only set up statues of him at every temple but have also named a city after him in the Thebaid, called by the natives Chemmo, which when translated means City of Pan. In his company were also men who were experienced in agriculture, such as Maron in the cultivation of the vine, and Triptolemus in the sowing of grain and in every step in the harvesting of it. 3 And when all his preparations had been completed Osiris made a vow to the gods that he would let his hair grow until his return to Egypt and then made his way through Ethiopia; and this is the reason why this custom with regard to their hair was observed among the Egyptians until recent times, and why those who journeyed abroad let their hair grow until their return home.

4 While he was in Ethiopia, their account continues, the Satyr people were brought to him, who, they say, have hair upon their loins. For Osiris was laughter-loving and fond of music and the dance; consequently he took with him a multitude of musicians, among whom were nine maidens who could sing and were trained in the other arts, these maidens being those who among the Greeks are called the Muses; and their leader (hegetes), as the account goes, was Apollo, who was for that reason also given the name Mousegetes. 5 As for the Satyrs, they were taken along in the campaign because they were proficient in dancing and singing and every kind of relaxation and pastime; for Osiris was not warlike, nor did he have to organize pitched battles or engagements, since every people received him as a god because of his benefactions. 6 In Ethiopia he instructed the inhabitants in agriculture and founded some notable cities, and then left behind him men to govern the country and collect the tribute.

19 1 While Osiris and his army were thus employed, the Nile, they say, at the time of the rising of Sirius, which is the season when the river is usually at flood, breaking out of its banks inundated a large section of Egypt and covered especially that part where Prometheus was governor; and since practically everything in this district was destroyed, Prometheus was so grieved that he was on the point of quitting life willfully. 2 Because its water sweeps down so swiftly and with such violence the river was given the name Aetus; but Heracles, being ever intent upon great enterprises and eager for the reputation of a manly spirit, speedily stopped the flood at its breach and turned the river back into its former course. 3 Consequently certain of the Greek poets worked the incident into a myth, to the effect that Heracles had killed the eagle which was devouring the liver of Prometheus. 4 The river in the earliest period bore the name Oceane, which in Greek is Oceanus; then because of this flood, they say, it was called Aetus, and still later it was known as Aegyptus after a former king of the land. And the poet also adds his testimony to this when he writes:

On the river Aegyptus my curved ships I stayed.

For it is at Thonis, as it is called, which in early times was the trading-port of Egypt, that the river empties into the sea. Its last name and that which the river now bears it received from the former king Nileus.

5 Now when Osiris arrived at the borders of Ethiopia, he curbed the river by dikes on both banks, so that at flood-time it might not form stagnant pools over the land to its detriment, but that the flood-water might be let upon the countryside, in a gentle flow as it might be needed, through gates which he had built. 6 After this he continued his march through Arabia along the shore of the Red Sea as far as India and the limits of the inhabited world. 7 He also founded not a few cities in India, one of which he named Nysa, wishing to leave there a memorial of that city in Egypt where he had been reared. He also planted ivy in the Indian Nysa, and throughout India and those countries which border upon it the plant to this day is still to be found only in this region. 8 And many other signs of his stay he left in that country, which have led the Indians of a later time to lay claim to the god and say that he was by birth a native of India.

20 1 Osiris also took an interest in hunting elephants, and everywhere left behind him inscribed pillars telling of his campaign. And he visited all the other nations of Asia as well and crossed into Europe at the Hellespont. 2 In Thrace he slew Lycurgus, the king of the barbarians, who opposed his undertaking, and Maron, who was now old, he left there to supervise the culture of the plants which he introduced into that land and caused him to found a city to bear his name, which he called Maroneia. 3 Macedon his son, moreover, he left as king of Macedonia, which was named after him, while to Triptolemus he assigned the care of agriculture in Attica. Finally, Osiris in this way visited all the inhabited world and advanced community life by the introduction of the fruits which are most easily cultivated. 4 And if any country did not admit of the growing of vine he introduced the drink prepared from barley, which is little inferior to wine in aroma and strength. 5 On his return to Egypt he brought with him the very greatest presents from every quarter and by reason of the magnitude of his benefactions received the gift of immortality with the approval of all men and honor equal to that offered to the gods of heaven. 6 After this he passed from the midst of men into the company of the gods and received from Isis and Hermes sacrifices and every other highest honor. These also instituted rites for him and introduced many things of a mystic nature, magnifying in this way the power of the god.”

626.16.2. The following chart illustrates how the Coptic/Arabic names were attached to the individual members of the First Dynasty, and to the corresponding Biblical ethnic eponymi. In the first column (left to right) appear the divine names attached to four of the Biblical eponymi in the Defloratio Berosi (Osiris = Mizraim, Hercules = Lehabim, Neptu[m]nus = Naphtuhim, Horus = Caphtorim/Philistim). As the eight kings of Dynasty I form an Ogdoadic series, and the Ogdoad was interpreted in antiquity as a representation of the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), — each element being viewed as a male god with a female complement, making eight in all, — we may see in these four divinities in the Defloratio the four elemental cosmic gods: Osiris = earth (Osiris being god of the fertilizing principle present in the earth [and the earth itself his spouse Isis]), Hercules = fire (Hercules-Arueris being god of the celestial fire, in this case of the North African desert [earlier = Nergal, god of underworld fire and the winter sun]), Neptu(m)nus = water (Neptu[m]nus being god of the sea and of the subterranean reservoir), Horus = air (Horus being god of the sky). In the sixth column appear the Coptic/Arabic equivalents for the Biblical eponymi and/or the cosmic elements, and there are likewise four of them; but one strand of the tradition represents them duplicated as four original eponymi and four sons of Qoft, with identical names, making eight in all. This Ogdoadic structure suggests the four original eponymi correspond one-on-one to the four elemental deities. The notes and observations which follow the chart show the Coptic/Arabic names are those of cities or regions in Egypt which contain the corresponding divine names, viz. 1) Athrib, the eponymus of Athrib (Eg. Hut-hery-ib) in the central Delta area: the name of this place, “The abode (hut) of him who is upon [or, away from] (hery) the heart (ib),” is itself a reference to the god Chentechthai, viz. Osiris and/or Horus: its earlier name was Kem-wer, that is, the “Great Black (Bull),” meaning Osiris: Osiris = Mizraim-Men; 2) Sa, the eponymus of Sais: Sais is referred to in the title “insibya” (Eg. nsw-byt), “He of the Sedge and the Bee,” containing the element “bya” (byt, bee), which was the emblem of Sais in the western Delta: this was a title first adopted by Mut Semty (Naphtuhim) as king of the North, the Sais or “Bee” area, as he was already king of the South or “Sedge” area; 3) Ashmun = Eshmunein, the city of the Ogdoad or “Eight,” which numeral is found in the name Eshmun = Ama-ushum-gal-ana = Heth/Djet (Lehabim), for the reasons given; 4) Qoft is the eponymus of the Caphtorim, or Keftiu, the topographical name Caphtor being derived, according to Gesenius (Gesenius-Tregelles, s.n.), from k-ph-r with infixed t. The root meaning is “to cover,” whence, amongst other words, Heb. kephor, “frost, cold” (from its covering the ground). If that is the origin of the topographical name it would mean the “cold or cool zone.” Positionally the ethnic eponymus Caphtorim/Philistim corresponds to the royal name Qaa (Eg. Qa‛a), which has an alternative form, Qebeh(u), “cold, cool”: this looks like a derivation from the same primitive bi-consonantal Semitic root q/k-b/p as kephor, in which case the Caphtorim were so named after Qaa-Qebehu himself. The name may be presumed to have originally denoted “northerners,” such as the inhabitants of the cooler or more humid region of Pelusium and the Sirbonian Lagoon bordering the Mediterranean. In the Defloratio the last corresponds to Horus (that is, Horus [Caphtorim] son of Osiris [Mizraim]). This forms the first set of four in the Ogdoad. The remaining four topographical names represent the populations of four regions of the country. The populations of these regions might be viewed as the “female complements” of the four god-kings (bearing names identical to the male elemental deities in the Coptic variation on this tradition, as we shall see), or otherwise as the four females of the elemental Ogdoadic series. These four zones are those of the Pathrusim, Casluhim, Ludim and Anamim. From south to north they are: 1) Upper Egypt in Said (southern Egypt) from Assuan to Eshmunein; 2) the territory in Said from Eshmunein to Memphis (Middle Egypt); 3) the central and eastern parts of the Delta; and 4) the westerly regions of the Delta. Thus, for example, Osiris (Mizraim, Athrib) might be paired with Anamim (Mareotis), as Maroneus, the eponymus of Mareotis, was a sobriquet of Osiris-Dionysus; Hercules (Ashmun) might be paired with Casluhim, as the latter was the eponymus of Eshmunein and of the Ogdoad referenced in his name; Neptumnus (Sa [= Sais]) might be paired with Pathrusim as Pathrusim were the Pilusae or people of Pelusium (Philistim), and the name Sa was applied to both Sais in the western Delta and Sin (Pelusium) in the eastern Delta; and Horus might be paired with Ludim, as the Ludim were equated with the Givtae or Copts (Caphtorim), and the name Horus (Orus) stands for Caphtorim in the Defloratio Berosi. The idea of four regional eponymi was picked up in Coptic tradition, but modified in such a way that the four topographical names associated with the elemental deities became the names of four zones into which Egypt was divided by the Copts, broadly coinciding with the afore-mentioned divisions: viz. 1) Upper Egypt, which was the main area settled by Copts in later times, now called the region of Qoft; 2) Middle Egypt, the region of Ashmun (Eshmunein); 3) the central and eastern areas of the Delta, the region of Athrib (the northern Athrib at the “heart [ib]” of the Delta); and 4) the westerly areas of the Delta, called the district of Sa, Sa being Sais on the Canopic, the most westerly branch of the Nile, and the region itself including territories further west along the Mediterranean littoral as far as Barca. (Maqrizi, ed. trans. Bouriant, pte. II., p. 545f.) A further development was the incorporation of the Biblical eponymus Philistim into the Ogdoadic scheme. The Philistim of Genesis 10 are the Caphtorim under another name, but to make up two sets of four eponymi (Qoft, Ashmun, Athrib, Sa, numbered 1-4 in the 7th and 8th columns of the Chart infra), with Mizraim (Masr) as the founding father of all eight, rather than as one of the eight himself, Philistim came to be treated as an independent eponymus, a second Sa. Sa (or Sai or San) is the Coptic form of the Hebrew topographical name Sin, which can mean (as referenced supra) Pelusium, the ancestral home of the Philistim, but usually means Sais (in the common Coptic tradition, as the name of one of the four regional divisions listed supra), or Syene. It is possible in this light, indeed likely, that the traditional Coptic regional eponymi were formed organically out of the last four Biblical eponymi: Sa was the Coptic equivalent of the Biblical Sin (= Pelusium/Philistim), Qoft of Caphtorim, Casluhim = Hashmonim = Ashmun, and Anthrib was formed out of the Egyptian element “Athr” (Hut-her[y]), which has been commonly traced in the name Pathrusim (as if = Pathr- = Pa+Athr). The notes infra should be consulted for a more complete account of these identifications and for an explanation of what appears in the Chart.

Defloratio Divine Names	Ogdoadic Elements	Genesis Ethnic Eponymi	Royal Names Egyptian Dynasty I	Original Egyptian Key-words/​Names	Coptic/​Arabic Primary Equivalents	Coptic/​Arabic Secondary Equivalents	Coptic/​Arabic Alternative Secondary Equivalents
Osiris	Earth	Mizraim	Men	ḥwt-ḥry-ib	Athrib		Masr
		Ludim	Hor-Aha				1. Qaftorim/​Qoft
		Anamim	Djer				2. Athrib
Hercules	Fire	Lehabim	Djet	ḫmnw	3. Ashmun
Neptumnus	Water	Naphtuhim	Mut Semty	n[sw-]byt	4. Sa
		Pathrusim	Anedjib			1. Athrib
		Casluhim	Semerkhet			2. Ashmun
Horus	Air	Caphtorim/	Qa‛a	qbḥ	Qoft	3. Qaftorim/​Qoft
		Philistim				4. Sa

626.17.1. Mizraim = Osiris = Men = Suduk/Asklepios, for the reasons already stated. This is the Osiris of Diodorus.

626.17.2.

Biblical name: Ludim

Targum name: Givtae = Ludim, Givtae being the Copts, initial gimel, not nun, as in Schwarz’s text of the Targum (Schwarz, A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, J. Schwarz, Philadelphia, 1850, p. 472). Copt is considered in Coptic tradition to be equivalent to the Hebrew Caphtorim and the Greek Aiguptos (“Egypt”).

Arabic name: Al-Tanisiyyin (inhabitants of Tennes [Bochart, Phaleg, 3rd ed., 1692, col. 263] on the Sirbonian Lagoon). In the Coptic/Arabic list of kings: Qoft/Qobtim.

Defloratio name: Lydus Priscus.

Name in Diodorus’ Osiris Expedition: Apollo Mousegetes.

The semantics of the phrase “Mizraim begot Ludim, viz. Ludites,” not “Mizraim begot Lud, ancestor of the Ludites,” implies Mizraim was not the literal ancestor of Lud, but that through intermingling of the genealogical lines, Mizraim became the ancestor of some Ludites. Similarly in the case of the other national names appended to Mizraim in this list. Actually Lud was a son of Shem (Gen. 10. 22). The physical location of these Mizraimite Ludites was the Sirbonian Lagoon (Arabic Al-Tanisiyyim). The Targum identification (Copts) implies a similar location, as the Copts traced their descent from the Caphtorim (Philistines), who were the people of Pelusium on the Sirbonian Lagoon. This suggests a connection in the earliest phase of settlement in Egypt with the Canaanites of Byblos. Arabic tradition identified the earliest inhabitants of Egypt as offspring of the Semite Lud, under the legendary chiefs Shaddid and Shaddad. Ad/Adim the father of Shaddad/Sheddad was the son of Qoftim/Qoft (Maqrizi, ed. trans. Bouriant, pte. II, p. 395), or a son of Amlak, and Amlak a son of Lud (see §626.27 sub fin., below, >>, §626.48, sub fin., below, >>). Similarly in the Samaritan Asatir the Ludim are identified with the Copts (Gibtae, Givtae), the eponymus being described as the firstborn of the Ludim, §626.25.1, below, >>. The name Shaddid is identical in form to the Canaanite Sadidos of Sanchuniathon, Sadidos being a member of the family of Elos-Kronos in Byblos. “Lydus Priscus,” the “Original Lydus,” is the eponymus of the Mizraimite Ludim in the Defloratio Berosi. As Ludim is the first listed offspring of Mizraim in Genesis, Hor-Aha is the first king following Men. The first three names in the Arabic list are, in fact, so many different forms of the eponymus Egypt (1. Mizraim [Egypt], 2. Qoft = Aiguptos [Egypt, Mizraim, see infra], 3. Masr [Egypt]), which is a reflex of the ancient tradition that Men (Mizraim, “Egypt”) was the original Osiris (Arabic Beisar = Busiris = Osiris), that he was reincarnated, so to speak, in his son Horus son of Isis (Hor-Aha, the second king, Arabic Qoft, “Egypt”), and also re-embodied in the youngster brought by Isis from Byblos, viz. Djer (the third king, Arabic Masr, “Egypt”).

Further observations: Shad-Rapha = Harpocrates (Horus, Apollo) or Liber Pater, otherwise Dionysus, and Sardus Pater, the eponymus of Sardis, in Lydia, which was the ancient seat of the kings of that country. (§334.1, above, >>.) The Arabic Shaddid/Shaddad and Sanchunithon’s Sadidos doubtless represent the element Shad- in the name Shad-Rapha, who is the Canaanite Sid. Sid, in turn, is a transcription of the Sumerian element zi(da) in the names Nin-gish-zi(da) and Dumu-zi(da). Shaddid and Shaddad, presumably, therefore, are the two god-men Nin-gish-zida (Sadidos, Khenty-Amentiu) and Dumu–zi(da), the two guardians of the pillared gates of the Otherworld. They are “sons of Ad,” meaning “sons of Eternity,” Ad being the Arabic equivalent of the Biblical Olam in the phrase “asher me-olam,” “who were of ancient times,” used to describe the gibborim (mighty men, giants) before and after the Inundation (Gen. 6. 4). As Sadidos is the son of Elos-Kronos in Sanchuniathon and Elos-Kronos is Nimrod the gibbor (“Adite”), we can readily comprehend how the mythology of Sadidos (Shaddid) became esconced in Egypt amongst Nimrod’s close relatives and fellow-religionists, the Mizraimites. The intermingling of the Semitic line of Lud with the Hamitic line of Mizraim in Egypt produced Mizraimite Ludim, viz. gibborim or Adites in this sense, and similarly in the case of the Edomite Amalekites who invaded Egypt in the First Intermediate Period: thus “Ad” (the eponymus representing Adite gibborim) could be described variously as the offspring of Ham (via Mizraim) or of Amlak (via the Mizraimite Amalekites) or of Lud (via the Mizraimite Ludim). The word Sardi, meaning “Sardians, people of Sardis” in Latin, is a synonym of “Lydians,” as well as of “Etruscans,” the latter being migrants into Italy from Lydia. Thus Sardus Pater (Shad-Rapha), as an eponymus, is equivalent to Lydus or Ludi. Ludim, “Lydians,” means “keepers of gladiators” and “gladiators,” as well as “public games” in later Hebrew (Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary s.v.), with reference to the Roman tradition that the Latin “ludi” or public gladiatorial games were derived from, and named after the Ludim or Lydians (Etruscans) who settled in Italy. Gesenius suggests the meaning of the biconsonantal root l-d is “to contend” (Gesenius-Tregelles, s.n. Lod, s.v. l-d-d, cf. Arabic l-w-d [final thal]) = strive to overcome, be hostile to, and l-w-d [final dal] = be perverse, rebellious, refractory). Lud is the eponymus of the Ludim, and a son of Shem, according to Gen. 10. 22. The Semite Lud is represented in Arabic legend as the ancestor of the giant Amalekites who settled in Egypt after the Flood, and fell under the dominion of their Adite giant-kinsmen, the two brothers, Shaddad ben Ad and Shaddid ben Ad. The father Ad was the son of Uz, the son of Aram son of Shem, or simply the son of Aram son of Shem, and Aram himself the brother of Lud son of Shem. Ad is alternatively represented to have been an Amalekite, a son of Amlak (Imliq, Imlaq, etc.), and Amlak the son of Ham, or the son of Lud son of Shem (see §626.27 sub fin., below, >>, §626.48, sub fin., below, >>). According to a tradition quoted by Tabari (MS. p. 218f.) Imliq was Urayb son of Lud son of Shem, and brother of Emim son of Lud, being the first to speak Arabic after the Dispersion from the Tower, and Imliq, along with Jurhum, who was Hadhram son of Eber, son of Siba son of Joktan son of Eber son of Shelah son of Arphaxad son of Shem, were the Aribah Arabs. Both the Amalekites who invaded Egypt and their offspring the Adites were consequently Ludim, or descendants of Lud. The Amalekites were identified by the Arabs with the primeval giant inhabitants of Canaan, opposed by the Israelites in the Bible, and particularly with the Philistines (Caphtorites), who inhabited in early post-diluvian times the coastal area of the Nile Delta. As the Copts traced their origin from the Caphtorites, we can see why Ludim the offspring of Mizraim are called Givtae (Qift, Qoft, Copts) in the Targum of Jonathan, and in the Arabic traditional history of Egypt, Qoft. Likewise in the Samaritan chronicle Asatir the Copts (Gibtae) are identified as the Ludim, the eponymus being described as the firstborn of Ludim, §626.25.1, below, >>. (See further on the Arabic legendary history of Egypt, §626.27.1ff., below, >>.) Note the Defloratio (chart at §886.2, below, >>) has Lydus Priscus, the “Primal or Chief Lydian (Lydus)” as the founding father and eponymus of the Ludim, these Ludim being identified with the Lydians of Asia Minor known to the Greeks and Romans. It suggests some differentiation of the kind intimated supra was envisaged between the eponymus of the Mizraimite Ludim and the original Semitic eponymus Lud, the latter being called Lugdus in the Defloratio (ibid.). As the Ludim are Givtae or Copts, viz. Caphtorim, and Caphtorim is Horus in the Defloratio Berosi, Ludim likewise might be identified with Horus. Hor-Aha is second in succession after Men, as Ludim is positioned immediately after Mizraim in the genealogy in Genesis 10. Hor-Aha is Horus “son of Isis,” and would consequently be also in the interpretatio Graeca, Apollo, that is, Apollo Mousegetes (“leader of the Muses,” the younger Horus, Apollo son of Leto, reared at Buto), one of the eight deities named in Diodorus’ Osirian expedition. The “Muses” whom he led were so named after Moses (Mousaios), according to Artapanus: Harpocrates (Horus the Child) is identified with Shad-Rapha, and Shad-Rapha with Liber Pater (“Father Hor”), that is, Dio-nysus, the “Zeus of Mount Nysa,” Mount Nysa being the same Sinai frequented by Moses. The process by which Hor-Aha became known as the founding father of the Ludim was probably as follows: Hor-Aha was identified with Khenty-Amentiu = Nin-gish-zida = Damu = Sid = Shad-Rapha (Sadidos, Shaddid) = Sardus Pater, the eponymus of the Sardians of Lydia or Ludim.

626.17.3.

Biblical name: Anamim

Targum name: Maryotae = Anamim, Maryotae being the inhabitants of Lake Mareotis south of Alexandria.

Arabic name: Al-Askandaraniyyin (inhabitants of Alexandria, more strictly of Mareotis [Anamim]). In the Coptic/Arabic list of kings: Masr-Mizraim-Osiris.

Defloratio name: Anamaeon or Maeon.

Name in Diodorus’ Osiris Expedition: Maron.

The Anamim or Anamites (Defloratio: Maeonians) of Lake Mareotis traced their descent from Mizraim through the eponymus of Mareotis, viz. Meriti (“He of Mareotis,” Budge, Hieroglyphic Dictionary, s.n.), that is, Osiris = Djer = Sidon or Sidos the son of Aiguptos (Mizraim). The people of Mareotis were noted for their production of wine, the cultivation of which was intimately associated with Osiris. The Egyptian eponymus Meriti corresponds precisely to the Greek eponymus Maroneus (“He of Maron”), which was a sobriquet of Dionysus (= Osiris). Anamim is second after Mizraim in Genesis, and Djer second after Narmer-Men in the First Dynasty king-list. Djer was identified already in Early Dynastic times with Khenty-Amentiu, and his tomb was later specially identified as the tomb of Osiris.

Further observations: The Targum Jonathan (§626.27.1, below, >>) equates the Anamim with the Maryotae, that is the inhabitants of Lake Mareotis south of Alexandria, and the Arabic versions, following the Targums, with the Alexandrians themselves. Alexandria was a later Greek development in the region and Mareotis was the native Egyptian name for it. The name Mareotis is formed out of the topographical name Mare(i)a, of a town bordering the Lake near Alexandria, where a spring bubbled forth. The same town gave its name to Maron, the attendant, and son, or grandson, of Osiris-Dionysus which latter was titled “Maroneus” after the wine, or alternatively the son of Silenus (Nonnus, XIV. 99), who is Marsyas (viz. Damascus-Eliezer, son of Nimrod, son of Mizraim-Osiris). Maron is simply another form of the eponymus of the Egyptian vine-growing region at the lake. He became particularly famous for the wine (Dionysus in fluid form) named after him, vines of a superior sort being abundant around Lake Mareotis in Classical times. In view of the association of this eponymus with wine the derivation of the Heb. name is probably from an otherwise unused Heb. root = Arabic ‛-n-m, whence the Arabic noun ‛anam, “vine tendrils,” and the adjective ‛anamiyi, “red, rosy.” The Defloratio adds the Hebrew word Maon (M[a]eon) to the name in Genesis (that is, to “Anam[i]”). The two words are placed in juxtaposition so as to form a compound name, “Anam(a)eon,” otherwise “M(a)eon.” M(a)eon is represented in the Defloratio as the eponymous ancestor of the Maeonians of Asia Minor. According to Isidore, Etym. IX. 2. 4, the Maeonians were the offspring of Mash son of Aram. Their first king was Masnes/​Manes/​Masses/​Damases, §349.0.0.1,above, >>, otherwise Maron’s father, Marsuas (Marsyas), whose personal name was believed to be the final element in the city-name Da-mascus (§140, above, >>, and cf. the form Damases), Hebrew Dam-mesheq: Meshech is an alternative form of the name Mash. (§894.2, below, >>.) Thus Masses (Manes, Masnes, Marsuas, Damases) = Mash, founding father of the Maeonians. The Marsyas who took up against Dionysus at Damascus (Damascus Eliezer) bore the eponymus of this clan. The inhabitants of Mareotis, therefore, belonged to the tribe of Mash son of Aram, which is not surprising as their relatives the Ludim, descended from Aram’s brother, Mash’s uncle, Lud, played a prominent part in the Semitic settlement of Egypt (supra). The Maeonians of Asia Minor were later incorporated with and thus named Lydians after Lydus (Lud) “son of Atys son of Masnes,” but in the days of Atys himself they were still known as Maeonians.

626.17.4.

Biblical name: Lehabim

Targum name: Livqae = Lehabim, Livqae for Libyci, Libyans.

Arabic name: Al-Bahnasiyyin (Libyans of the Bahnasa Oasis, Oasis Parva, see §626.27.1, below, >> [Lehabim]). In the Coptic/Arabic list of kings: Farek (eponymus of Africa).

Defloratio name: Libyus Hercoles (Hercules).

Name in Diodorus’ Osiris Expedition: Apollo brother of Osiris.

Those Libyans (“fiery ones”) descended from Mizraim traced their descent from the “fiery” Horus, king Djet. Lehabim is the third name following Mizraim in Genesis and Djet the third following Narmer-Men. Djet was identified, like the other kings of the First Dynasty, with Horus, this Horus being the “elder Horus” of later tradition (Arueris), identified by the Greeks with Apollo (the brother of Osiris) and Herakles (Hercules).

Further observations: Djet (dj-t) was probably pronounced something like “Edjo,” that is, Edj-et = Eṣ-et = Eṣtu = Edtu = Ettu = Heth, the “(female) Smooth, glossy one,” the female gender dependent on the fact the king thus named was castrated before being sacrificed. (See §333, above, >>.) If pronounced Uadjit, Wadjet, etc. it would mean the “Green one,” but little, if any, distinction was made in antiquity between green and yellow, and yellow connoted brightness and fire, that is, in respect of a serpent, the brightness or glossiness of its coat, or the fieriness of its venom. Lehabi (whence Lehabim, Libyans) means “yellow, flame-colored, fiery.” The Sumerian equivalent of Djet in the sense “serpent” is ushumgal, and this can be written with the signs bur2.gal, in which gal means “great” and bur2 is translated nalbubu, “rage (of fever, anger etc.), be inflamed” from l-b-b, cognate to l-h-b, “be fiery, flame-colored, flash, be bright, yellow, etc.” The first element, ushum, in the name ushumgal, which means “only one” in Sumerian, is presumably, therefore, at the same time, a phonetic echo of the Semitic word for “fire,” Akkadian ishum, ishatu, etc., Hebrew esh, followed by gal, “great.” In the Defloratio Hercoles (Hercules) is the Libyan, that is, the Canaanite, Hercules, “lord of fire,” who was Baal Melqart, the High god of Tyre. Baal Melqart was identified with the Libyan Ammon, viz. Amun of Siwa, as well as with Bel of Babylon. Amun of Siwa was identified with Horus, as were the kings of the First Dynasty, including Djet. Amun of Siwa was independently identified with Bel of Babylon, and Bel with Damu, and hence with Tammuz and Ushumgal-ana (= Djet). See §613, above, >>, on Djet = Arueris, the Elder Horus. Arueris is Ḥr-wr in Egyptian, Ḥr being the name Horus, wr meaning “great, superior, elder, etc.” The initial aspirated ḥ can substitute for the Semitic ayin (‛) so Ḥr (Horus) would be equivalent to the Hebrew Er (‛r), which, according to Nanni’s Commentary on the Defloratio Berosi is the root meaning of the first element in the Classical name Hercules: Er-col (‛r–kl) = “pelletus totus,” “totally covered in skin” (Hercules being commonly so depicted). (Nanni [Annius], Antiquitates, ed. 1512, Commentary, fol. LXVIIb, etc.) The root meaning of ‛r is “be aroused, ardent, burning, watchful, alert,” whence ‛wr, “skin,” that which is “aroused.” From the same biconsonantal Hebrew root is formed the word ‛yr, “city” (the “alert place”), cf. Gesenius-Tregelles s.vv. The Sumerian divine name of the god Mars (Hercules) was Era-gal, “Great (gal) City (Era)” (the alternative form Nergal [Ne-era-gal] means “Lord of the Great City”), reflecting a derivation of the first element from the identical Semitic root ‛r. The Sumerian Era-gal corresponds to the Egyptian Ḥr-wr. In Hebrew Sumerian gal became kl, as Hebrew hy‑kl for Sumerian e2-gal, “great house,” so Era-gal (Nergal, Hercules) is Er-col (‛r–kl) = “pelletus totus,” in Hebrew, as the Defloratio Berosi claims, though the name might be interpreted variously “totally covered in skin, all alert, thoroughly burning,” etc., depending on the precise nuance of the biconsonantal root ‛r understood in each case. In Egypt the name of the solar god Horus (Ḥr = ‛r) was probably taken to mean originally the “Burning, bright, white, resplendent” one, though the interpretation “watchful” seems also to have been in view: cf. the “eye of Horus,” the all-seeing solar eye. Another sense of the root in Hebrew (ḥr = ‛r) is “eminent, noble, lofty, freeborn,” because, as has been conjectured (Gesenius-Tregelles, s.v. ḥwr, ḥrr), noblemen were considered “splendid, unsullied.” Most modern Egyptologists favor a derivation of the name Horus from an Egyptian root meaning “to be high, lofty, noble” etc. The second element wr in the Egyptian name Arueris (Ḥr-wr) likewise corresponds to the Semitic second element kl (in the name ‛r–kl = Er-col, Hercules) and the Sumerian gal (in the name Era-gal, Nergal = Mars, Hercules), as “l” in Egyptian becomes “r” and the initial k or g can be softened to a guttural or a breathing, and then elided: kol > ‛wl > ‛wr > wr. The Sumerian element ushumgal, “great dragon/serpent” (Hebrew Heth, Egyptian Djet), in the name (Ama-)ushumgal-ana, is more specifically a lion-dragon, and, accordingly, the lion features prominently in the Egyptian iconography of the Elder Horus, the god with whom this character was identified in Egypt, and then in the Classical iconography of Herakles/Hercules. Doubtless, in part, this was due to the fact that the Semitic root ’r = ḥr = ‛r, whence the god’s name “burning, fiery, raging one,” was that from which was formed also the common words for “lion” (Sumerian ur, Heb. ary[h], etc.), the “fiery, consuming, raging” beast. Further, Sumerian ur = Akkadian labbu = Hebrew laby’, “lion,” from the biconsonantal root l-b (triconsonantal l-b-b, l-h-b etc.), “be fiery, rage,” whence Libya, Liby(c)us etc. in the name Hercules Liby(c)us. In Classical texts Libya is a synonym of Africa and the adjective Libycus of Afer or Africus. Hence the Defloratio’s Hercules Libycus son of Mizraim-Osiris appears as Farek (otherwise rendered Farik, Fareq, viz. Africus), the eponymus of Africa and son of Beisar son of Ham, in the Arabic list of kings drawing on earlier Coptic sources. (Yakut I. 228, Maqrizi, ed. trans. Bouriant, Descriptionn topographique et historique de l’Égypte, Paris 1895, pte. II, p. 545). This would be the Apollo who was the brother of Osiris, viz. Arueris, of Diodorus’ Osirian expedition.

626.17.5.

Biblical name: Naphtuhim

Targum name: Panteskinae = Naphtuhim, Panteskinae being the inhabitants of Pentaschoenum on the Sirbonian Lagoon. Other texts (e.g. Bomberg’s Jerusalem Targum) read “Lustae” here (corr. Lustae to Lystae, cf. Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary, s.v. lwwts, the latter corrupted from lystys, which is also sometimes spelled defectively, e.g. pl. lstyn, id. s.v., and s.v. lyst’) = Gk lēistai, “pirates, robbers, freebooters, rovers.”

Arabic name: Al-Faramiyyin (inhabitants of Al-Farama, Pelusium on the Sirbonian Lagoon [Naphtuhim]). In the Coptic/Arabic list of kings: Sa.

Defloratio name: Neptumnus (Neptunus).

Name in Diodorus’ Osiris Expedition: Makedon.

The Naphtuhim, the people of the watery “Opening” (Heb. Nephtoah) to the Underworld, traced their descent from the “underworld” god-king Mut (“death”) of the First Dynasty. Naphtuhim is the fourth following Mizraim in Genesis and Mut (Den, Udimu) the fourth following Narmer-Men. Mut’s standard bore the symbol of the wild canine Wepwawet, the “Opener of the way” (cf. “Opening,” Heb. Nephtoah), who was a form of Khenty-Amentiu, viz. Osiris, otherwise, in Greek terms, Asklepios, or, in Canaanite terms, Eshmun: Eshmun was also known as the Baal of Sidon = Greek Poseidon, Latin Neptu(m)nus, hence Naphtuhim = Neptumnus in the Defloratio Berosi. Mut was the first to use the “insibya” royal title, which denoted he was king of the “Bee” (bya) area of what was later known as Sais in the North of Egypt, as well as of the “Sedge” area in the South. Thus he might anachronistically be termed “king of Sais,” which is “Sa” in Coptic. Sais was actually founded, according to Manetho, by the first Hyksos king Salites, and he became known as “Saites” (“He of Sais”) on that account. (Manetho apud Africanus and Eusebius, in Syncellus, Chronographica, ed. Dindorf p. 113f. = ed. Mosshammer p. 67f., Manetho, ed. Waddell, LCL, Fr. 42, 43, 48, 49, from Josephus Contra Apionem, I. 14. 78, Manetho ut cit. and Armenian version of Eusebius, Scholia to Plato’s Timaeus 21E [Hermann].) His Saite territory included at the time, according to the same account of Manetho, what was later known as the Sethroite nome, centered on Al-Farama or Pelusium on the Sirbonian Lagoon. It was in this easterly section of his “Saite” kingdom that the Hyksos capital of Avaris (later known as Ramesses, Pi-Ramesse) was founded, somewhat south and west of the Lagoon at Al-Faqus on the Pelusiac (known by Manetho as the “Bubastite”) branch of the Nile. The Hyksos descended from “Saites” operated in their heyday from Avaris, not Sais. Thus the Naphtuhim are identified as the “people of Al-Farama” in the Arabic, and the “people of Pentaschoenum” in the Greek sources, both these towns being located on the Sirbonian Lagoon. That is where the “sons of Neptumnus” (Naphtuhim) were found in the later periods of Egyptian history. They were the Laestrygonians of Classical legend, noted pirates and freebooters of the Mediterranean, being familiar with those maritime regions at the edge of the Sirbonian Lagoon since their earliest days.

Further observations: The Naphtuhim in the Targums are located at Pentaschoenum on the edge of the Sirbonian Lagoon between Mount Cassius and Pelusium. The Defloratio equates Naphtuhim with Neptumnus. A sea-god (Neptumnus = Neptune) in this region must be a form of Baal Zaphon (Zeus Kassios), corresponding to the Egyptian Seth. Seth in one aspect was the Baal of Sidon (Eshmun, Asklepios). He was also Melqart the Baal of Tyre = Melikertes = Glaukos = Poseidon = Neptumnus = Naphtuhim. The sea-god was considered the “father” of pirates, freebooters and sea-rovers, particularly Canaanite and other Levantine pirates, who offered up human sacrifices. The Laestrygonians (as in the Defloratio: Naphtuhim = Neptumnus, father of Laestrygon) were believed likewise to devour human flesh. The name Laistrugon (Laestrygon) may be taken to be a combination of the words laist- = lēist-, “pirate,” and trugao = “rob.” Hence in some Targum texts for Naphtuhim is substituted Lystae = Greek lēistai, “pirates, sea-rovers,” see infra. Semty, another name of king Mut, is a title of Seth as god of desolate regions. The waters of the Sirbonian Lagoon were believed to be the haunt of Tuphon (Seth), and otherwise the waters of the underworld which swallowed up Osiris. Neptumnus is the Greek Poseidon, the Canaanite Baal or El, and the Mesopotamian Ea, Enki or Apsu, god of the netherworld ocean, and the realm of departed spirits. Mut is the Canaanite god of the underworld and death, and the name Hazar-Maveth (= Mut Semty) means “Zone of Death.” Mut is the Makedon of Diodorus’ Osirian expedition: Makedon’s symbol was the lukos (a wolf-like canine), representing the native Egyptian god Wepwawet (or Upuaut, Gk. Ophois). Makedon is the eponymus of Macedonia (Gk. Makedonia). According to Maqrizi, Egypt was, surprisingly, once known as “Macedonia,” this name being of Hebrew derivation, from a word meaning “refuge.” It was given to the country of Egypt by Beisar or Bensar (Mizraim), son of Ham, when he retired there. (Maqrizi, ed. trans. Bouriant, Descriptionn topographique et historique de l’Égypte, pte. I, Paris 1895, p. 58, citing Ibn Khaluiat.) The reference seems to be to the Hebrew root m-‛-d, with a hard medial guttural ayin (m-‛-d > m-k-d > maked-on), cognate to m-w-d, n-w-d, n-d-d and roots of a similar form (Gesenius-Tregelles, s.v. mwd, Fürst, Hebrew Lexikon, s.v. m‛d), which mean “stagger, totter, waver,” but also, “stagger off, flee, become a refugee, wander,” whence presumably, this nominal form ending in -on, “place of refuge.” The corresponding Arabic root m-‛-d, with a hard medial guttural ghayin, and the cognate Arabic roots, mean “stagger,” both in the sense “incline,” and in the sense “extend, prolong, draw out,” and hence “be laid out,” including amongst them the root m-w-t, “to die, be laid out in death.” (cf. Fürst, Hebrew Lexikon, s.v. mwt.) Thus Mut (Semty) is literally Makedon. It is a fact that Mera was an ancient name for Egypt and mer = mut, “to die” (Budge, Hieroglyphic Dictionary, s.vv.). The name Mut is spelled with two signs Mu+udi, mu meaning “water,” and udi meaning “draw with the hand,” implying some such etymology as “drawer of water.” The Arabic roots referred to supra, as well as meaning “draw out” in the sense “extend,” also mean “draw, as of water,” confirming the root meaning of the Egyptian name. In Hebrew the word “water” can be spelled with a waw and final aleph or with a final ayin. (See Gesenius-Tregelles s.v. m-‛–h.) Thus the name spelled mw-d in Egyptian might be represented in Hebrew as m-‛-d and hence Maked(on). Probably the original meaning, when applied to the newborn Egyptian royal infant, was “drawn out,” that is, “tall, extended,” but it was later interpreted to mean “Death.” Indeed the Greeks believed the eponymus Makedon meant “long” (Gk. makros), which coincides with this interpretation of the king’s name. Modern authorities believe the name Makedon was derived from a non-Greek substrate language, and that accords with the derivation suggested here. Another of the cognate Arabic roots is m-‛–ṭ, meaning to “experience a drawing out, or, plucking, of hair,” and this is used commonly of the loss of fur by a “wolf” (wild canine), which is doubtless, alongside the more general association of canines with carrion, the reason that animal became the symbol of Mut (and of Makedon). Like his “brother” Anubis, the jackal-god, Wepwawet was a form of Khenty-Amentiu. It is his totem which appears on the standard of Mut Semty (supra). Wepwawet was the wolf-like god of death, iconographically represented standing alert on the solar boat with a wind-filled sail in front of him. The underworld waters of the Sirbonian Lagoon were precisely those kind of waters crossed by Wepwawet on the solar boat. The Biblical Naphtuhim corresponds to the Arabic Sa or Sai. The latter is the eponymus of Pelusium (LXX “Sais,” Arabic version Sa = Heb. Sin [Vulgate: Pelusium]) on the Sirbonian Lagoon, see infra, as also of Sais in the western Delta. The western Sais was a cult-center of Wepwawet. Wepwawet means “Opener of the way,” and Hebrew Nephtoah (same root as Naphtuhim) means “opening.” There was an Hebrew place-name “waters of Nephtoah,” that is, waters which gush out of an opening, or chasm, such as would be considered an exit from or entrance to the Underworld. It was located in Judah near the (Underworld) valley Ben-hinnom (whence the word “Ge-henna” for Hell), Joshua 15. 9, 18. 15. This suggests Nephtoah was a divine name equivalent to the Egyptian Wepwawet, and the Latin Neptumnus, of the god of the waters of the Underworld. The Naphtuhim would be the people of Nephtoah, a watery location named after the god, and freebooters who prided themselves in their identity with the wolf-like god of death, the predacious master of the solar boat.

626.17.6.

Biblical name: Pathrusim

Targum name: Nesyotae. Nesyotae are the inhabitants of “Aiguptos neseuomene,” the region of “Egypt subject to inundation” through the seasonal overflowing of the Nile, centered on Athribis in the Delta, see infra. Other texts read “Pilusae” here (e.g. Targum Neofiti [variant], Bomberg’s Jerusalem Targum), the inhabitants of Pelusium on the Sirbonian Lagoon, which is the most easterly section of that region.

Arabic name: Al-Biymayyin (’–l b-y-m-y-y-n): Bimaites, the inhabitants of Bima. Bima is the Coptic name for Lower (Northern) Egypt. Biymayyun is the reading in Saadia etc. (Some texts of Saadia read ’–l y-m-y-n-y-w-n, which would appear to mean “Yemenites,” “Southerners,” see Michaelis, Spicilegium Geographiae Hebraeorum, Pars Prima, Goettingae, 1769, p. 272, and this reading is preferred by Bochart s. Pathrusim “Jemanaei,” but not only is this ethnic term not used in Egypt, also the other ancient sources without exception locate the Pathrusim in the north of the country, so Biymayyin, people of Bima, which is “Northern Egypt above Memphis,” is the correct reading.) On Bima as the native Coptic name for Lower Egypt, as opposed to Said, Upper Egypt, see Quatremère, Recherches sur la langue de l’Égypt, Paris 1808, p. 177ff.

Defloratio name: Petreius (“from whom came the Palestinians” viz. Philistim of Pelusium).

Name in Diodorus’ Osiris Expedition: Anubis. In the Coptic/Arabic list of kings: Athrib.

The Pathrusim descended from Mizraim are located in Lower Egypt (“Bima”), in the area “subject to inundation.” The Philistim or “Pelusiacs,” the offspring of Pathrusim, gave their name to the Pelusiac or easternmost branch of the Nile. Later, through the silting and drying up of its channels, this was replaced by the Tanitic or Athribitic branch in the easternmost position, so what might be termed the “Pathrusitic” (= “Pelusiac”) zone was later the Athribitic. The river received its name from Athrib(is), a city located on what was known in that earlier era as the “Pelusiac” branch. It was a cult-center of Osiris and/or Horus (Osiris reincarnated in Horus), in the form of the Black Bull, Kem-wer. Pathrusim is the fifth following Mizraim in Genesis and Anedjib the fifth following Narmer-Men. Anedjib = Khenty-Amentiu = Anubis = Asterius = Ashtar = Neotatos, a male “Hathor” (Hut-her), like Osiris/Horus referenced in the toponym Athribis (Hut-hery-ib).

Further observations: The Pathrusim were the “people of the land subject to inundation” (Targum Jonathan), which was centered on the northern Athrib in the Delta. Athrib was believed to house the “heart” of Osiris, for the reason it was located at the “heart” of the interconnected branches of Nile-water (the Nile itself being a form of Osiris) which comprise the Delta. Hence also it was a center of the cult of Eros (the god of the heart) in Classical times.

Confirming a northern location of the Pathrusim, the Defloratio identifies “Petreius” (as in Arabia Petraea, “Rocky, Stony Arabia,” Petreius = “Rocky,” Arabic Hajar) as the eponymus of the Pathrusim and says the Palestinians (of Pelusium) sprang from him, whilst the Jerusalem Targum similarly substitutes the ethnic term Pilusae (the people of Pelusium, viz. the Palestinians) for the Biblical Pathrusim. The common derivation of Pathrusim from the southern toponym Pathros is unlikely to be correct, not only because the Pathrusim are traditionally located in the north, but also because the other ethnic eponymi in the list in Gen. 10 are Hebrew in form, whilst Pathros is a transcription of the native Egyptian toponym Pa-to-res, “Land of the South.” The Hebrew triconsonantal root p-t-r, from which the name Pathrusim is formed, is cognate to b-t-r, meaning “to cleave, divide, separate,” and the latter gives rise to words denoting “broken rock formations, clefts etc.” Thus the Pathrusim might truly have sprung from an eponymous ancestor whose name included the element p-t-r = “cloven rock formation,” which is reflected in the corresponding eponymus in the Defloratio, Petreius. Another cognate root, p-ṭ-r, is used to transcribe Gk. petra, petros etc., which is the actual origin of the term Petraea (the region of “Petra,” the Rock-city). Thus Nanni in his commentary to the Defloratio correctly divines (or transmits) a semantic affinity between the ethnic name Pathrusim, from the root p-t-r, and the geographical name Arabia Petraea, which latter would correspond in Hebrew transcription to a formation from the root p-ṭ-r. There are numerous Arabic place-names in the region bordering Egypt to the east which include the element Hajar, “Rock” (equivalent to the Greek Petra), and this may reflect a more ancient Semitic tradition denominating the inhabitants of the region Pathrusim, interpreted as “Petreians,” the Rock-folk: the term seems to have specially denoted the Pelusiacs or Philistines of “Rocky Arabia.”

In Coptic tradition the area “subject to inundation” was known as Athrib, from the city Athribis located on what used to be termed the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, but later, through the drying up of the Pelusiac, the Tanitic or Athribitic. The name Athribis (Greek Athribis = Egyptian Hut-hery-ib, “the Abode of him who is distant from the heart”) incorporates the words Hut-her, which form the divine name Hathor (Eg. ḥt-ḥr, Gk. Athur). There are two cities called Athribis by the Copts, one in the south in Fatira near Thebes, and this one in the north. The Pathrusim of the Athribis district in the north might be confused with the inhabitants of Athribis in Fatira in the south. The Arabic name Fatira is derived from that of the Greek city and nome called Pathuris near Thebes, as Michaelis pointed out long ago (Spicilegium, p. 273). Pathuris is “The [Pa-] City of Hathor [Athur(is)],” Hathor being the Egyptian Aphrodite or Venus. Hence Pathuris bore the Greek name Aphroditopolis, “the city of Aphrodite.” Pathuris was situated in the land of Pathros (Pa-to-res), and all these factors have encouraged a tendency to confuse Pathuris with Pathros, and the northern Athrib (in the land of the Pathrusim) with the southern Athrib in the district of Fatira in the land of the similarly-named Pathros. We must differentiate not only between Pathros and the Pathrusim, but also etymologically between the two Athribs. The names of the two Athribs derive from slightly different ancient Egyptian place-names, which became assimilated in Coptic. However, the name Pathuris (= Fatira) of the district where the southern Athrib is located is formed from the same two Egyptian words as are found in the name of the northern Athrib, viz. ḥt-ḥr(y), which becomes Ath(u)r in Greek, or with the definite article (Pa-), Pa-Ath(u)r.

The Targumic interpretation Nesyotae for Pathrusim implies a connection of this sort between the Pathrusim of the Delta and Athribis of the “area subject to inundation [neseuomene].” In that case the Egyptian name Athribis itself, otherwise Pa-Athrib (including the Eg. definite article pa-), may have been formed as a phonetic echo of the earlier Semitic name Pathrus. The Athribitic arm of the Nile, so named after Athribis, was also called the Tanitic from the city of Tanis near its mouth, and the Arabic name of Tanis is San El-Hajar, “Rocky Tanis.” This suggests the area was known for rock-formations of the type reflected in the Semitic name Pathrus (Defloratio: Petreius). But the interpretation of the Semitic name itself may have undergone an evolutionary development, from some more primitive stage in which the Semitic root p-t-r meaning “to cleave” was employed to form the name of an infant (“rocky” being an unlikely choice in that event), to a later stage in which it came to be understood to denote the rocky (“cloven”) terrain inhabited by the patriarch’s descendants. The archaic Semitic eponymus Pathrus might mean “bursting forth (or, that which bursts forth, lit. cleaves, splits, divides) [p-t-r] by an effort of will [’–w-s = ’–w-š, blow hard, make an effort, be strong],” being given to some new-born infant, it may be presumed, as a memorial of the mother’s effort during labor. It might subsequently be transmogrified into an equivalent native Egyptian form by the representation of the medial element “athr” in the Semitic name as Egyptian ḥt-ḥr[y], as Athtar becomes Hathor (Eg. ḥt-ḥr, Gk. Athur), or Pathures might be viewed as a transcription of Pathros and of Pa-Athur, Aphroditopolis. Pa-athr-us (Pathrus) would be echoed phonetically as Pa-ather-ib (Athrib), meaning “The (Pa-) position (-ath-, ḥt, lit. abode, place) of him who is at some remove from/by (-er-, ḥry) the central/inner will (-ib, lit. heart),” which not only echoes the sound of, but also conveys a similar meaning to, the Hebrew original.

The divine name Hathor traceable in the Egyptian words comprising the toponym Athribis in the land of the Pathrusim, allows a connection to be drawn between this particular eponym and the First Dynasty king Anedjib. The latter name means “lover of the bronze throne,” and this is an indication he was identified with Osiris or Horus, the lover and son of Isis or Hathor. The god Ashtar is the male complement of Eshterah/Astarte in Canaanite mythology, and his name is a male version of the Egypian Hathor, as Hathor is the Egyptian equivalent of the Canaanite Astarte. In fact, the Egyptian name of the goddess is likely to have originated as a transcription of the Canaanite Athtar (Ashtar) transmogrified into an Egyptian form, “Hath-Hor,” as if it meant the “Abode [Ḥt-] of Horus [Ḥr ].” This is the same name (Hathor, Athur) found in the Greek Pathuris and, in a modified form, in the name of the northern Athrib. An interesting survival of the personal name Ashtar (Latin Asterius) is found in the chronicle of the Spanish friar Sota. (Chronica de los Principes de Asturias y Cantabria, Madrid, 1681, pp. 68, 100, 128ff., 195, etc.) He traces the name of the district of Asturias in northern Spain from the god-man “Astur,” whom he equates with Jupiter Asterius of Crete (= Ashtar) and Jupiter Anxur of Italy. The Canaanite deity Ashtar figured prominently in Cretan (Caphtorite) mythology under the Greek form of his name Asterios. Asterios was equated with Minos, the eponymus of the Minoans (Minaei, Min-folk) of Crete, and with the Cretan dying-god, Zeus, the father and alter ego of Minos, who was equated, in turn, with the Libyan Amun, Min etc. Asterios (Ashtar, Anedjib) in this case too might be exchanged for the eponymus of the Pathrusim (Min-folk). Sota’s sources are traditional, some of them regional Spanish, and may be presumed to depend on medieval legend and monastic chronicle. He claims Astur was the personal name of an ancient king of Egypt, who was deified as Anubis (the earliest form of the jackal-god Anubis being Khenty-Amentiu), and that he accompanied the Libyan Hercules (the latter known also as Apollo or Horus in Egypt) in his expedition into Spain. For Spain, we should read Tubal, which in its original application as an ethnic and geographical term included parts of Asia Minor. Sota supposes the divine name Anxur is a deformation of Astur. Anxur designates the youthful god of Terracina south of Rome, the popular etymology of Anxur being (Gk.) “an(eu) xur(ou),” that is “not needing to shave.” Ashtar (Astur) similarly means “youthful,” Gk. Neotatos. Anedjib-Pathrusi would be the Anubis of Diodorus’ Osirian expedition

626.17.7.

Biblical name: Casluhim (LXX Khasmonieim = Hashmonim)

Targum name: Pantpolitae = Casluhim. Pantpolitae are the inhabitants of Pentapolis, viz. Cyrenaica. (Other texts, erroneously, “Panteskinae,” the inhabitants of Pentaschoenum on the Sirbonian Lagoon.) Pantpolitae (Jastrow, ibid., s.v.) stands in a different position in some texts, translating the Heb. Lehabim, meaning the Libyans of Cyrenaica.

Arabic name: Al-Saidiyyin (the Sahidic Copts [Casluhim]), the inhabitants of Egypt south of the Delta. In the Coptic/Arabic list of kings: Ashmun.

Defloratio name: Casleus.

Name in Diodorus’ Osiris Expedition: Triptolemos.

Those Casluhim who were descended from Mizraim, being the inhabitants of the city of the Ogdoad, Eshmunein (LXX Khasmonieim), were associated with the god-king Semerkhet. The name Semerkhet could be interpreted to mean “comrade (se-mer) of the (divine) Body (khet, viz. of the Ogdoad).” Semerkhet was the leader of the Cushite Sabaean nation, and Eshmunein was founded by Cush. Both Cush and Semerkhet were identified with the sun-god who brought forth the Ogdoad. Casluhim is the sixth following Mizraim in Genesis and Semerkhet the sixth following Narmer-Men. Casluhim = Casleus, the eponymus of Eshmunein = Eshmun = Triptolemos = Herakles/Ares = Semerkhet.

Further observations: Hebrew Casluhi = k-s-l, by transposition from s-k-l (“be obvious, clear to the vision, capable of observation, capable in observing” = azu-gal) + h-y (heth, yod), meaning “beast, viz. serpent,” the Oriental equivalent of the Greek divine name Askl-epi-os (Eshmun). In the Arabic tradition examined at §626.27.2, below, >>, Casluhim is equated with Ashmun (= Eshmun), the eponymus of Eshmunein (Hermopolis) in Middle Egypt. In the Targum to Psalms 68. 32 Heb. Hashmannim (cf. LXX Khasmonieim = Casluhim = Ashmun) is taken to be a district of Egypt (“Ham”) and is translated into Aramaic as “the sons [inhabitants] of Ham Usmana” (’-w-s-m-n-’, with medial samekh), not otherwise attested, with a variant “Husmanaya” (ḥ-w-s-m-n-y-y-’, with medial samekh), meaning the “Husmanites” (Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary, s.v. Usmana). These appear to be transcriptions of the Egypian toponym ḫmnw (the city of “Eight”) = Arabic Eshmunein, and the corresponding ethnic name. The connection of Eshmunein with Libya (cf. Casluhim = inhabitants of Pentapolis, Cyrenaica in Libya) was via a caravan-route to Oasis Parva (Bahnasa) in the Libyan desert. Along this route, we may presume, the Cushites (Sabaeans) of Eshmunein infiltrated into Libya and on to the Mediterranean littoral in Cyrenaica. Eshmunein was the center of the cult of the Ogdoad, the Greek Kabeiroi. These were the eight deities represented or re-embodied, so to speak, in the eight offspring of Mizraim. The Casluhim were identified in antiquity with the Colchians of Cappadocia, from whom the Kabeiroi were believed to have sprung; whilst here in Genesis 10 the Caphtorim or Philistines are said to have migrated from the homeland of the Caphtorim, which was Cappadocia also. Included amongst the Caphtorim were the Keftiu of Crete. We might imagine a scenario in which Semerkhet, identified with Khenty-Amentiu, and therefore with the Semitic god Eshmun (Asklepios), became the eponymus of Eshmunein, and the chief Kabeiric deity and founding father of the Casluhim (the “Asklepians”), who took his cult, via the Caphtorites (Keftiu, Cretans), to Colchis in Asia Minor. Colchis itself was so named after him. (Colchis from Casluhi, with disappearance of the medial samekh, see Gesenius-Tregelles, s.v. Casluhim.). Semerkhet means “man (se) who loves (mer) the body, or the belly, or womb (khet)” and hence is well represented by the Greek Pothos/Eros (carnal love). Pothos/Eros in the Oriental Orphic theology was a form of the demiurgic Phanes, Herakles, Pan or Protogonos (“Firstborn”), who emerged out of the mundane egg. In Egypt this demiurge was, in early Dynastic times, Min, later, Amun. Both Min and Amun were identified with the Greek god Pan. One of the titles of the solar demiurge in Egypt was Semsu. This title can be shown to have been applied to the founder of Heliopolis, the city of the sun-god, who was, according to medieval Arabic tradition, the Yemenite (Sabaean) king Amer Saba, and proves to be the same person as Semerkhet. Amer Saba was known as Abd Shams, “Servant (or, worshiper, priest) of Shams, the sun-god,” because he first worshiped the sun. Semerkhet’s personal name, written with the sign of a man with a staff, was read as Semsu in the Abydos king-list, meaning “Eldest, Firstborn, Elder” which was a name of Ra, the sun-god. The form Semsu (written with the sign of the old man with a staff) alternates with the form Shemshu (written with the sign meaning “follower”) as a name of a god of the underworld, and the latter is derived from the same root (sh-m-sh) as the common Semitic name of the sun, Shemesh, Shamshu, Shams, etc. (Budge, Hieroglyphic Dictionary s.vv. Shemshu and shems.) In the Orphic theology the name of the demiurgic god of light, identified with the sun, is Protogonos, “Firstborn,” equivalent in meaning to the Egyptian Semsu. The Egyptian word also appears in the form semsem, and this (Semsem) is how king Semerkhet’s name was read in the Turin Canon. The Egyptian word denoted a “priest” or “worshiper” because the “firstborn son” was the one on whom devolved the responsibility of conducting worship in a house on the death of the father. Therefore, Semerkhet’s personal name Semsu had the same meaning precisely as the Arabic Abd Shams, viz. “1) worshiper of 2) Shams, the sun.” The Orphic demiurge Phanes (Pan) and Protogonos (“Firstborn”) was identified also with Herakles, viz. Arueris, the Elder Horus, or Egyptian Mars (Gk. Ares), who was similarly titled Semsu (“Eldest, Firstborn”), and was principally god of the sun. Semerkhet’s name is translated accordingly “Unfeeling Ares” in Eratosthenes. Employing the nomenclature of Diodorus’ Osirian expedition Semerkhet-Casluhi is Triptolemos, Herakles, §349, above, >>.

626.17.8.

Biblical name: Pelishtim

Targum name: Qappudqae = Caphtorim, Qappudqae being the Cappadocians.

Arabic name: Al-Palestiniyun (the Palestinians or Philistines [Philistim]). In the Coptic/Arabic list of kings: Qaftorim.

Defloratio name: Orus.

Name in Diodorus’ Osiris Expedition: Pan.

Those Pelishtim (Philistines) who were descended from Mizraim and located around the Sirbonian Lagoon, traced their descent, more particularly, from the god-king Qaa: Qaa was the Horus “Palaestinus/Palaistinos,” the eponymus of the Philistines, §334.0.7, above, >>, who fell into the waters there and gave his name to the city of Pelusium. Pelishtim is the seventh following Mizraim in Genesis and Qaa the seventh following Narmer-Men. Pelishtim = Orus (Horus) = Qaa = Khenty-Amentiu = Osiris = Pan = Pothos/Eros.

Further observations: Pelishti is formed from the root p-l-sh, which is cognate to p-l-ṭ, meaning (in Aramaic) “to vomit.” Qaa in Egyptian likewise means “to vomit,” and is represented in hieroglyphic symbol by a mouth spewing out liquid. Perhaps this was thought to have given the king Qaa, deified as Horus and Khenty-Amentiu, a particular affinity to the Canaanite (and Philistine) god Eshmun, the god of healing (Greek Asklepios). Asklepios (Eshmun) in Sanchuniathon is the eighth and last son of Suduk, which is the position occupied by Pelishti. Qaa-Pelishti would be the Pan of Akhmim (“Khemmo”) of Diodorus’ Osirian expedition.

The gods and kings of the First Dynasty and of the Old Kingdom in the Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle

626.18. The “Sirius Cycle” of the Old Chronicle — which inspired Manetho, according to Syncellus (ed. Mosshammer p. 56ff., ed. Dindorf, p. 95ff.) — depicted fifteen “generations” of kings, otherwise described as “Dynasties,” as having ruled Egypt at the very beginning of its history. These ran up to the time either shortly before, or precisely when, the Hyksos kings invaded Egypt, at the beginning of the First Intermediate Period. Manetho himself based his Sirius Cycle on the Old Chronicle, but altered it to suit his own requirements. Manetho never expected his readers to presume the fuller king-lists of his Dynasties, as he set them out individually, represented the actual historical sequence of rule in Egypt: his Sirius Cycle (based ultimately on the Old Chronicle) he understood to reflect that authentic, historical, succession. It is of prime importance, therefore, to elucidate the Sirius Cycle, so that we can retrieve the framework of the earliest era in Egyptian history, and synchronize it accurately with the Biblical record. Syncellus preserved a summary of the Old Chronicle, but failed to list the kings who reigned during its first 15 “generations” or “Dynasties.” We would be ignorant of the important contents for that period, covering the whole of what modern archaeologists term the “Early Dynastic Period” and the “Old Kingdom,” if it were not for a few entries in medieval Syriac Christian chronicles, which purport to list these earliest kings of Egypt, and are tabulated infra. The names, as we might expect, differ from those found in Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle. (Manetho’s version is tabulated after the Syriac scheme by way of comparison.) The Syriac scheme duplicates what Syncellus describes as the framework of the Old Chronicle’s Sirius Cycle for those oldest Dynasties. In these Syriac chronicles we find 15 generations-cum-Dynasties listed at the very beginning of the history of Egypt, as in the Old Chronicle according to Syncellus’ account, with the names of the kings in Syriac transcription. (Some anomaly in the record in generation 3 appears to have disrupted the sequence a little, so the Dynasties thereafter in the Syriac chronicles are out of step with the generations by one position. Perhaps originally Saba the king of Cush, a contemporary of the third generation, formed Dynasty 3, and his conqueror “Sanos,” likewise of the third generation, Dynasty 4. See the table infra.) For the identification of these kings, see further §626.34.2, below, >>. The earliest kings of Egypt from the “Sirius Cycle” of the Old Chronicle, as preserved in Syriac Chronicles are as follows:

	Kings of Egypt in Michael of Syria’s Chronicle [ed. trans. Chabot t. I p. 20ff. left margin and p. 28]	Forms of name in other sources: A = Agapius B = Bar Hebraeus	Dynastic designation in Michael of Syria’s Chronicle	Reign (years) in Michael of Syria’s Chronicle (B = Bar Hebraeus)	Events (B = Bar Hebraeus)
1.	Panouphis	Manouphis (Menes) [A]	Dynasty I	68	Founder of Mizraim-Egypt
2.	Eupipaphios or Eupropis	Apiphanyos [B]		46	First built and sent out a ship by sea
3.	Sanos called Ethiopos	Athanopyos [B]		60	Fought with and killed the Cushite king Saba, who was succeeded by his daughter.
4.	Pharaon son of Sanos	Per’on Bar Sanos [B]	Dynasty V	35
5.	Karimon	Karimon [B]	Dynasty VI	4
6.	Aphintos or Aphantos	Antoutis [A]: Apintos [B]	Dynasty VII	32	Imported idol Cainan from Kisaronos king of Babylon. Built Apantos on the Nile and called it Babylon (Old Cairo).
7.	Arsakos	Auronkos [B]		33	Built a city named after himself.
8.	Samonos or Samos	Simonos [B]		20
9.	Armios or Hermios or Hirkos	Arminos [B]	Dynasty X	27	Killed by Belos king of Babylon in battle.
10.	Pharnados	Parandos [B]	Dynasty XI	43
11.	Phanos	Panos [B]	Dynasty XII	—	Took Abraham’s wife Sarah and gave him Hagar.
12.	Hysqos	Isokos [B]	Dynasty XIII	21
13.	Sysynos	Sosonos [B]		44
14.	Taracos	Tarkos or Tarakos [B]	Dynasty XV	44
15.		Setis [B]		19 [B]	First of the Shepherd kings (Hyksos) [B]

626.19. The Setis (no. 15) of Bar Hebraeus is Saites or Salitis the first king of the Hyksos, whose 19-year reign in Egypt commenced 1957 BC (Appendix 1, §412, above, >>). Working back from that, employing the regnal figures in Michael of Syria, we obtain the following results: 1957 + 109 (years inclusive) = 2065 BC for the reign of Phanos who took Sarah from Abraham (no regnal figure given either in Michael of Syria or Bar Hebraeus, perhaps because it was insignificant or not reckoned for some other reason, see infra). This falls at the correct period of Abraham’s life, according to the Biblical chronology (§89, above, >>, cf. Gen. 12. 4 and 10). Counting back another 123 years brings us to the 32-year reign of Aphintos, viz. 2220-2188 BC, which corresponds to the era of the First Dynasty of Uruk, including Amraphel = Dhu’l Karnaim (Kisaronos). Counting back another 213 years brings us to the beginning of the reign of Panouphis (= Manouphis-Menes, according to Agapius [Vasiliev]), the founder of Egypt, the Biblical Mizraim, at 2433 BC. (Panouphis/Manoupis [etc.] is the eponymus of Noph, Pa-noph, or Menoph, Memphis, which city is called in Arabic Masr or Misr after Mizraim-Menes, §626.24, below, >>, §626.27, below, >>, see Book of Adam and Eve, trans. Malan, Bk. III. xxiii, p. 174: “Yanuf [sic] reigned over the land of Egypt. He is the first king who reigned over it; and he built the city of Memphis, and named it after his own name. That is Misr; whose name is rendered Masrin [Mizraim].”) This is two years after the Flood. Presumably, Mizraim-Menes’ reign has been dated back to his birth. The total number of years is 477. According to Syncellus (ed. Mosshammer, p. 56), the total for the first XV generations (and Dynasties) in the Old Chronicle was 443 years. These generations are said to have been derived from the “Sirius Cycle” (Gk. Kunikos Kuklos, so called after the Dog [Kuon] Star, Sirius or Sothis) and likewise in the case of another list of successive kings employed by Manetho (Waddell’s “Book of Sothis” in the LCL Manetho). Perhaps the length of Menes’ reign in the latter (35 years) was derived from the Old Chronicle, according to the text used by Manetho, but another text of the Old Chronicle had the higher value (68 years) given here. Different versions of Manetho’s full listing of Dynasty I also give different figures for the reign of Menes, either in the 60s or the 30s: 60 and 62 years in Eusebius (Greek) and Africanus respectively, but 30 years in the Armenian version of Eusebius. If the total is 443 years, year 1 = 2400 BC, not 2433 BC, and 2400 − 443 = 1957 BC (the first year of the first Hyksos king Saites-Salitis). This would tend to confirm the insignificant figure, viz. zero or less than a single year, suggested for the reign of Phanos. It should be noted the Syriac chronicles synchronize the Sirius Cycle with the chronology of the Septuagint in such a way that Phanos is allotted, by implication, a reign of 42 years (in the fullest account, viz. Michael of Syria, margin). However, in no case is the reign of Phanos cited directly from the Sirius Cycle, in contrast to the reigns of the other kings. The synchronisms with the chronology of the Septuagint can be disregarded, as the construction of the particular Christian chronicler(s) responsible for harmonizing the Biblical with the Hellenistic Egyptian sources.

626.20. Manetho’s list of the earliest kings of Egypt from the “Sirius Cycle” in Syncellus’ Ecloga Chronographica ed. Mosshammer p 102ff. (= ed. Dindorf p. 170ff.), inspired by the Old Chronicle (ibid. ed. Mosshammer, p. 56):

Manetho’s first section of the Sirius Cycle = Dynasty I				Manetho’s following 15 Generations	Royal Name	Reign
Manetho’s Name	Meaning of Greek Name	Ancient Name	Reign			(BC 2400)
Mizraim = Menes	—	Men	35	Generation 1	Amasis	Total of following reigns = 354 <+ 5> years to 1957 BC (viz. from 2316 BC) 2
Kourodes	Warrior-like	Hor-Aha	63
Aristarkhos	Chief ruler	Djer	34
Spanios	Unique	Djet	36
<2 kings’ names omitted>	—	—	72
Serapis	God of death	Mut (Den)	23
Sesonkhosis	Eager for the body	Semerkhet	49
Amenemes	Fleetingly vomitous	Qaa	29
				Generation 2	Akesephthres	13
				Generation 3	Ankhoreus	9
				Generation 4	Armiuses	4
				Generation 5	Khamois	12
				Generation 6	Miamous	14
				Generation 7	Amesesis	65
				Generation 8	Ouses	50
				Generation 9	Rameses	29
				Generation 10	Ramesomenes	15
				Generation 11	Ousimare	31
				Generation 12	Ramesseseos	23
“He is the first Pharaoh mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. In his days the patriarch Abraham went down into Egypt.” (Date of commencement of the 19 years ascribed to him here = 19 + 39 + 29 + 5 before 1957 BC, viz. 2049 BC.)				Generation 13	Ramessameno	19
				Generation 14	Ramesse Ioubasse	39
				Generation 15	Ramesse son of Ouaphres	29
				<Dynasty XVI>	<Konkharis>	<5>
				<Dynasty XVII>	<Salites>	starting 1957 BC <19>

626.21. Note that in the Sirius Cycle, as expressed in the Old Chronicle, the reigns of the gods (Ptah-Hephaistos and his successors) and of the Demigods, were all counted as belonging to the First Dynasty, along with Menes and the other human kings of that same Dynasty (Syncellus, ed. Mosshammer, p. 57, ed. Dindorf p. 97). A similar arrangement is implied in the treatment of the earliest Egyptian kings in Peri Theon. (See §126.1ff., above, >>.) The first fifteen Dynasties reached to the beginning of the reign of the first king of the Hyksos (1957 BC) in the First Intermediate period. These fifteen Dynasties thus comprised the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom, according to the interpretation of the Sirius Cycle. The Sirius Cycle was so called because it pictured the whole of Egyptian history up to the end of Dynasty XXX in the late first millennium BC as lasting 36,525 years (viz. the number of days in a solar year multiplied by 100, otherwise the Sothic period of 1461 years, that is, the “Sirius Cycle,” multiplied by 25), a large part of that vast period of time being taken up by the made-for-the-purpose, hugely inflated, reigns of the gods at its beginning. Go to §626.22, below, >>, to continue this account, omitting the following Note.

626.21.1. Note on the Sirius Cycle and its adaptation to form the LXX chronology. (The basic texts can be read in the original and in translation in Waddell LCL Manetho Aegyptiaca, p. 3ff.) The 36,525 year artificial scheme of the Old Chronicle originated from a multiplication of the Sothic cycle of 1461 years by 25. The Sothic Cycle marks the time (1461 years) when a notional 365 day solar year, after gradually falling further and further out of line with the true year as measured by the first appearance of the star Sirius (Sothis) at sunrise the same precise time each year, finally catches up with this true (so called “sidereal”) year, and begins on the same day as in year one of the cycle. The figure 25 is introduced into the scheme because 25 solar years is the period discovered to have elapsed when the lunations, or cycles of the moon from one new moon to another, commence the same day as in year one of the lunar cycle. The 36,525 year cycle is based therefore on a combination of these lesser cycles of the sun and moon: that is, the 1461 years of the Sothic Cycle multiplied by the 25 years of the lunar cycle = 36,525 years. Both the sun and moon then arrived back at their start positions.

When the first and largest part of this 36,525 year cycle is reduced from lunar (30-day) “years” to actual solar years, and the latter part of it comprises the historical king list going back to Menes measured in solar years, it is found to have started 5487 years before Christ. In other words, deducting the total of all the years of the human kings of Egypt, from Menes the first king to the end of Dynasty XXX, from the total of 36,525 years, the remainder is treated as the total of the years of the “reigns of the gods and demi-gods” preceding the human reigns, and these “years,” being those of supernatural beings, are understood to be so many “lunar years” (months of 30 days), not solar years. The “gods and demi-gods” ruled 34,201 “years” (Syncellus on the Old Chronicle) in total. This leaves 2324 years (36,525 – 34,201 = 2324) as the sum of the human reigns down to Nectanebo (who is the last king of the XXXth Dynasty in Manetho’s adaptation of the Old Chronicle, which latter, in the epitome of Syncellus, does not name individual kings). 34,201 “lunar years” (viz. months of 30 days) = somewhat over 2809 (rounded up to 2810) solar years. Thus the total of solar years is 2810 + 2324 = 5134 solar years (preceding Nectanebo) for the reigns of the human kings, gods and demi-gods to the beginning of Egyptian history. Syncellus dates Manetho’s Nectanebo to Anno Mundi (“from the Creation”) 5147, the birth of Christ being dated by Syncellus to Anno Mundi 5500, therefore this date Anno Mundi 5147 corresponds to 353 BC, which means the Egyptian era, according to this calculation, commenced around 5134 + 353 = 5487 years BC.

All this explains the dating system of the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures known as the Septuagint (LXX for short), a product of Egyptian Alexandria, which, in its extant forms, alters the Hebrew Scriptural chronology to accommodate the pagan Egyptian scheme. The LXX accepts the date c. 5300-5500 BC as the beginning of history, and this is almost one and one half of a millennium earlier than the Hebrew chronology going back to Adam according to the Hebrew Bible. Hundreds of years are added in the LXX to the ages of the early Biblical patriarchs and other chronological adjustments made to Biblical historical eras in order to lengthen the period covered in the Scriptures and otherwise conform as much as possible the Biblical to the Egyptian scheme. Thus, for example, the pre-diluvian era in the Hebrew text comprises 1,656 years, but in the LXX 2,242 years. In the post-diluvian period the fact that only 200 or so years separated Aphophis, the Pharaoh contemporary with Joseph, from Misphragmuthosis-Amosis, the Pharaoh of the Exodus, in the (faulty) native Egyptian chronology, meant the Sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt had to be shortened to accommodate the Egyptian scheme: the Hebrew text was reinterpreted to indicate the 430 years of the Sojourn of the patriarchs in Egypt covered the whole time from the vision of Abraham in Canaan foretelling the Sojourn to the Exodus itself, that is, it represented the period of the Sojourn of the patriarchs in Canaan and Egypt, not in Egypt only. 215 years were held to have been spent by the patriarchs in Canaan, the other 215 years in Egypt, making 430 years in total. Thus the sum of years between the patriarchs’ entering Egypt and the Exodus (215 years) was made to match the native Egyptian sum of 200 years more or less between Aphophis and Misphragmuthosis-Amosis. This was the system employed by the Hellenistic writer Demetrius and that found in the chronology of the LXX in its extant forms. The Exodus was dated to the last year of Misphragmuthosis-Amosis (when he drowned in the Red Sea), viz. to Anno Mundi 3816 in the native Egyptian chronology followed by these later writers (as in Syncellus ed. Mosshammer pp. 147, 172 = ed. Dindorf pp. 238, 278), and the beginning of the 61-year reign of Aphophis, during which Joseph and Jacob were believed to have entered Egypt, to Anno Mundi 3576, the entry of Jacob itself being dated to Anno Mundi 3602 (Syncellus ed. Mosshammer p. 126 = ed. Dindorf p. 206), 215 years inclusive before the Exodus.

Manetho the Egyptian priest in the early Hellenistic period based his scheme on the Old Chronicle but altered it to suit his own purposes. The era of the gods and demi-gods is computed differently in Manetho’s adaptation of the Old Chronicle as 2206, not 2810, solar years. However, it is not certain how Manetho calculated this figure: the totals of the reigns of gods, demi-gods etc. as he gives them himself, if reckoned as lunar “years” (months of 30 days), amount to 2046, not 2206, solar years. Possibly Manetho reckoned some of these reigns in horoi otherwise tropoi, that is, periods of 3 lunar months. Such a method of measuring time, according to Eusebius, relaying what he calls the “foolish myths” of the Egyptians, was the practice of the kings known as demi-gods. (Waddell LCL Manetho Aegyptiaca Fr. 2, p. 11.) This would have the effect of lengthening the era when recalculated in solar years: in this case, it might be reasoned, from 2046 to 2206 solar years. Depending on the precise method of recalculation and on the size and number of regnal figures in any particular traditional account underlying the recalculation, the total for the era of gods and demi-gods might, and did, differ in different accounts. Some of the earlier Hellenistic chroniclers dated the beginning of Biblical history to c. 5300 BC (Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology, 1998, p. 140ff.): this figure, if based, as we have suggested the LXX was based, on Egyptian chronology, accords better with a total on the order of 2046, rather than 2206, solar years for the era of gods and demi-gods.

Eusebius takes the era of gods and demi-gods to represent the pre-diluvian era (Menes-Mizraim the first human king being dateable shortly after the Flood). Using Manetho’s chronology and Eusebius’ understanding of it, the Flood would be dated to c. 3100-3300 BC. This is the LXX’s dating of the Flood, though the LXX allocates 2242 years, rather than 2206 years, to the whole pre-diluvian era. Demetrius allocates 2264 and Africanus 2262 years to the same period. Variations in this figure, as related supra, are to be expected.

Panodorus under the late Roman Empire went further than Eusebius in his attempt to reconcile the Egyptian pagan with the Biblical account, and looked for a time in the Biblical pre-diluvian era when “gods” could be held to have reigned on earth, as the Egyptians claimed. He found what he was looking for in Genesis 6. This describes how the nephilim or fallen spirits came down to earth before the Flood. He employed the figures of Manetho, and formed a scheme of his own, selecting out of Manetho’s list of gods and demi-gods Manetho’s first six gods and nine demi-gods following them, reckoning the reigns of the former in lunar “years” (months of 30 days) and the reigns of the latter in horoi otherwise tropoi (periods of 3 lunar months), to make up a total of 1183½ solar years. These he believed began to be computed in the days when the “watchers” or “sons of God” descended to earth roughly half-way through the pre-diluvian era in the days of Enoch, and revealed the secrets of time-reckoning to humans. The whole pre-diluvian era comprises 2242 solar years in Panodorus’ scheme, as in the LXX (based ultimately on the aforesaid interpretation of the Old Chronicle). As the reigns of the gods and demi-gods he selected total 1183½ solar years, and these were believed by Panodorus to comprise the latter portion of the pre-diluvian era, terminating with the Flood, the earlier 1058 solar years (1058 + 1183½ = 2242) were ascribed by him to the period from Adam to the beginning of the reign of the gods in the days of Enoch.

626.22. In Manetho’s extract from the Sirius Cycle the king who ruled Egypt when Abraham went down there to find sustenance in a famine (Gen. 12. 10ff.) is called Ramessameno. In the Old Chronicle preserved in the Syriac chronicles the king who took Sarah into his household on that occasion is called Panos or Phanos. As in these sources, and in the transcription of Egyptian names generally, p or b alternates with m, the original Egyptian name in this case may have been Meni or something similar, thereafter transformed into Panos (= Manos, Meni etc.) in Syriac. Meni is found as an abbreviation in ancient Egyptian of the name Amenemhat, and the first two syllables of the latter may be transcribed into Greek as Amen-. In this case, likewise, the last element, -ameno of the name Ramess-ameno, may have provided an abbreviated form of the name, Meni, which became Panos (or Phanos) in Syriac. Coptic tradition preserved in Arabic chronicles identifies the Pharaoh who took Sarah with the planet-god “Mercurius,” and in Peri Theon Mercurius (Hermes) is Faunus or Pan. The Syriac Panos might alternatively, or additionally, represent the name Pan or the equivalent Egyptian divine name Min or Menu (Mnw). In the Syriac sources the king represents the Old Chronicle’s XIIth Dynasty, and is dateable around 2065 BC, which accords with the Biblical chronology (on which see §89, above, >>). In Manetho’s text the king represents the 13th generation and his 19-year reign commences in 2049 BC, which is too late to accord with the Biblical chronology. The explanation for the discrepancy may lie in the omission of a regnal figure for Panos in the Syriac sources, and in the different principles employed by Manetho as compared to the Old Chronicle which inspired him, in the presentation of the regnal data. The Old Chronicle lists one king only to represent a whole Dynasty, in this case the Old Chronicle’s Dynasty XII. Manetho lists so many generations, but not Dynasties. In the case of Dynasty I, Manetho “expands” the single entry in the Old Chronicle into a full listing of all eight kings of his Dynasty I, and thus, at the same time, pushes the chronology back another 300 years or so. The single representative of Dynasty I listed in the Old Chronicle, by contrast, is the first king thereof, viz. Menes (“Manouphis,” “Panouphis” etc.). If Manetho followed the same principle in the case of the Old Chronicle’s Dynasty XII, expanding a single entry into a fuller list, and if that Dynasty stretched back in its origin to the era of the First Dynasty, then Manetho might be listing in his extract the earliest kings of the Old Chronicle’s XIIth Dynasty, from the first generation (king Amasis), which reigned in the time of his Dynasty I, to the 15th generation (Ramesse son of Ouaphres), which reigned a little before the Asiatic (Hyksos) incursions of the First Intermediate Period. The principle in the Old Chronicle appears to have been to select one person out of each Dynasty to be treated as the king of the whole land in each generation. The 11th such person was Panos (otherwise called Ramessameno) of the Old Chronicle’s Dynasty XII, viz. of the Dynasty founded by Manetho’s Amasis in the 2300s.

626.23. For some reason, however, the period of time Panos ruled as king of all Egypt was omitted in, or obliterated from, the Old Chronicle. The most likely reason for this, given his association with Abraham, was the fact that he and his household were visited with plagues by the judgment of God, on account of the potential marriage a member of his household could have contracted with the wife of Abraham. The superstitious Egyptians may well have considered his reign over all Egypt cursed as a result, and therefore backdated the reign of his successor (Hysqos of the Old Chronicle’s Dynasty XIII) to the first year of his reign. He might still, however, have served as king of his own local Dynasty (the Old Chronicle’s Dynasty XII), as soon as that position became vacant, which it did evidently in 2049 BC. He then served as king in his home territory for 19 years, according to Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle.

626.24. The cult of Ra was favored by the Heliopolitans, and especially at this period in history (the Old Kingdom) by the kings who built the Giza Pyramids. The name Ra features prominently in the names of the kings who ruled Egypt about the time of Abraham, according to Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle, including in that of the particular king who welcomed him, Ramessameno. That this was the same dynasty referred to in the Old Chronicle is suggested not only by the evidence already adduced, but further by the fact that in Arabic sources the king who received Abraham is traced from king Amer called “Abd Shams” (meaning “worshiper of the sun-god”). He is otherwise known as “Saba,” the “Plunderer,” of the tribe of Sabaean Yemenites, who ruled over Egypt and built Cairo. Heliopolis, known as Beth-Shemesh, “House of the Sun” in Hebrew (cf. Abd-Shams), has been incorporated within the suburbs of the modern city of Cairo. This same king Saba features in the Old Chronicle in the note attached to generation 3 (under Sanos the “Ethiopian” in the Syriac Chronicles) as an Ethiopian king killed by Sanos and succeeded by his daughter, as was customary thereafter amongst the Sabaeans. Maqrizi (ed. trans. Bouriant, Maqrizi, Descriptionn topographique et historique de l’Égypte, pte. I, Paris 1895, p. 51ff.), quoting Abd el-Melek ben Hesham in the book Precious Gifts, traces the descent of Amer Abd Shams as follows: Amer, otherwise known as Abd Shams and Saba, son of Yashkhob son of Ya’rab (the eponymus of the Arabs), son of Qahtan (Biblical Joktan), son of Hud brother of Ad, son of Amer, son of Shelah, son of Arphaxad, son of Shem son of Noah. He was the first worshiper of the sun-god. The name Amer for the father of Ad (Ad being the ancestor of the giant Adites) is alternatively written in the Biblical fashion, Aram. Amer Abd Shams or Saba was the father of Himyar and Kahlan, who ruled over Yemen after his father Yashkob, assembled the tribes of Qahtan and Hud, and embarked on a military campaign, invading Babel, Armenia, Syria and Egypt. The purpose of this campaign was to win back from the Canaanites the lands of Shem upon which the latter had encroached (anonymous Syriac chronicle, Anon. Chron. Ad An. 1234, ed. trans. Chabot, ms. pp. 47f., 49f.): “(p. 47f.) And the sons of Canaan saw the land of Palestine up to the borders of Egypt, noting that it was very good and pleasant. Now the land of Palestine belonged to the sons of Joktan, the nephews of Ham. And it pleased them {viz. the sons of Canaan}, and they placed their residence there, and they refused to depart to their hereditary possession, and they transgressed the mandate of Noah, and they brought down upon themselves the curse which he had pronounced prophetically upon them …. (p. 49f.) At this time when the sons of Shem saw that they were not able to set foot on their hereditary possession, they appointed from amongst their brethren three kings, Saba, Ophir and Havilah. {In The Book of the Bee, trans. Budge, ch. xxii, they are said to be the progenitors of the Amorites; cf. the personal name of Sheba/Saba, Amer, which has an obvious affinity to the tribal name Amorite, Amurru.} These three mighty kings of the family of Joktan began to make weapons, and went forth in battle against those peoples who had taken their land, and prevailed against them all, because they fought against them with weapons, and no-one up to that time had imparted the knowledge of procuring instruments of war. On that account they fled before them and built themselves citadels. And when the peoples saw that they were defeated by them they yielded their hereditary territory to them. And then the peoples began to procure instruments of war for themselves, and nation began to attack nation and tribe tribe, and to take one another captive, and to buy and sell male and female slaves.” That this Pharaonic Saba is the same as the Joktanite chief is indicated by the tradition recorded in Kitab al-Magall (Apocrypha Arabica, trans. Gibson, 1901, p. 35: “… a king reigned over the town of Saba and annexed to his kingdom the cities of Ophir and Havilah, his name was Pharaoh. He built Ophir with stones of gold, for the stones of its mountains are pure gold. After him there reigned over Havilah a king called Hayul. He built it and cemented it, and after the death of Pharaoh women reigned over Saba until the time of Solomon son of David.” On the banks of the Nile Saba built a city at the border of the Orient and the Occident called Masr (= “Mizraim,” the Arabic name for Old Cairo), and left as governor of the same his son Babiliun. Subsequently the latter’s name was applied to the city (Babylon = Old Cairo). Saba attacked the descendants of Ham in the desert regions of Egypt, and took their children. He then returned through Syria and Arabia to Yemen, where he built Mareb. Meanwhile back in Egypt, the Hamites rebelled against Babiliun, and started to ravage Egypt, but were subdued with the aid of Babiliun’s brother Himyar. Babiliun’s son Amri’l-Qais succeeded him, upon his death at Masr (Old Cairo), then his son Amer, the king who gave Hagar to Abraham. In the kingdom of Yemen, Himyar was succeeded by his son Uail, and the latter by Saksak amidst internal troubles, which arose when Amer was king in Egypt, just before Amer’s reception of Abraham. It is possible that the initial element in the name of the Pharaoh who received Abraham in Manetho’s Sirius Cycle, Rames(s)- in Ramessameno, represents the Aramaic name Aram (“Amer”) of this Sabaean tradition, supplemented by the Egyptian phrase ms-sw, conventionally transcribed mes-su, “he who gave birth to him.” The Egyptian name would in that case represent an underlying form (A)ram-mes-su, meaning “Aram is he who gave birth to him,” transmogrified into the pagan Egyptian form Ra-mes-su, “Ra is the one who gave birth to him,” by a phonetic echo of the original. That is, the Sabaean name of the king was Aram, meaning “He of Aram, Aramite, descendant of Aram,” and the Egyptians transcribed it into the Egyptian name Ra-m(es-su), meaning “descendant of Ra,” to reflect a similar meaning and a similar sound in respect of its most significant initial component. In the Sabaean tradition more than one of the kings in this line bore the name Aram or Amer, and likewise in Manetho there are several royal names beginning Rames(s)-. Aram ibn (Amr’l Qais), “Aram son of (Amr’il Qais),” would become, according to this principle, Rames-imin-, and then Ramessameno.

626.25. The Sabaean tradition follows the general outline of the early part of the Old Chronicle as preserved in the Syriac sources, viz. the Yemenite king Saba has dealings with Egypt about the time of the Shinar Tower, three generations before Abraham (generations 2 and 3 in the Old Chronicle: Saba is killed by the king in generation 3, and may be presumed to have flourished already in generation 2), and he is succeeded by a king who is the eponymus of Old Cairo or “Babylon” (generation 6 = Dynasty VII in the Old Chronicle). He is succeeded in turn, after an interval, by the king who receives Abraham (generation 11 = Dynasty XII in the Old Chronicle). The conflict initiated by Saba and the Sabaeans against the descendants of Ham is reflected in the Defloratio Berosi, according to which the patriarch Ham and his people fought in North Africa against the people of the Yemenite Saba (“Saba turifer”) at the dawn of Egyptian history. (§889.33, below, >>.) It is the internecine struggle between the factions of Horus and Seth evidenced in the earliest archaeological remains of Dynasties I and II (modern terminology) in Egypt. (See §337.4, above, >>.) The same struggle is reflected in the Iranian epic of Cush Fildendan (§677.0.1.10, below, >>), in which the Kushan (“Cush Fildendan son of Cush”), or descendants of Sheba and Dedan, the sons of Raamah son of Cush, ravage Ethiopia and Egypt and are resisted by the efforts of Feridun (Noah), who first sends the patriarch Cush himself to Ethiopia in order to modify their behavior, and, on the lapse of Cush into self-divinization, then sends his son Salm (Selim, Sairima), viz. Ham (§668, below, >>), to deal with the rebels. The latter succeeds in that enterprise, as Ham does in the Defloratio Berosi by dismissing Ammon the descendant of Saba into Crete.

626.25.1. An earlier phase of this conflict seems to have been preserved in the c. 10th century AD Samaritan chronicle Asatir (trans. [with modifications] Gaster, p. 239ff., original Samaritan text online as at 11/17 at http://cal.huc.edu/index.html [Asatir link: http://cal.huc.edu/get_a_chapter.php?file=56100&cset=H]), drawing on Arabic and earlier Coptic sources: Asatir, chap. 5. 6ff.: “6. And He {God} put an end to their building {at the Shinar Tower} and the building was shattered and the children of man were scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. 7. And none did know the language of his neighbor. 8. And then was the beginning of wars which were fought [seven] for death and one for life. 9. And these are the first to start wars which led to their death, viz: Lehadim {l-h-d-y-m = Heb. l-w-d-y-m, Ludim}, Eynamim (‛–y-n-m-y-m = Heb. ‛-n-m-y-m, Anamim), Lehabim, Naphtuḥim, Pathrusim, Caphtorim, Casluḥim {these are the offspring of Mizraim, Gen. 10. 13f.} 10. And they placed above them to be the head over them the first born of Lehadim whose name was Giṭṭ (g-y-ṭ-ṭ) and they were called by his name Gibṭai {g-y-b-ṭ-’-y = Givtae, “Copts”}. 11. And the men of the Philistines came out and made the first war upon the Canaanites and the young men (z-ṭ-w-ṭ–’-y). And they took away the kingdom from Nimrod. And the Philistines ruled from Egypt to the river of Cush. 12. And Nimrod came and he encamped against them (i. e. Giṭṭ), and he asked of them (i.e. Joktanites) to help against Egypt. 13. And the children of Joktan started and turned away and went out and they dwelt from Mesha unto Sifra unto Tmnta, a country called the towns of Yemen. 14. And Giṭṭ the head of Egypt died and Nimrod returned to Ashur and ruled there. 15. And when he became king there he made war with Nahor. 16. And he did unto Arphaxad just as Pharaoh did afterwards to the Hebrews, for he saw in the Book of Signs that there would come from Arphaxad a mighty man who would smite all the worshipers and destroy all the idols. {This is the slaughter of the Semitic infants by Nimrod.} Etc.” And in the Pitron or Commentary to the same passage (trans. Gaster, with orthographic modifications, pp. 221, 223): Chap. 5. 9ff.: “(9) …. It says in the Book Asatir, [the beginning of the wars of the dying with the living,] were the beginning of the wars, because the Lehadim {Ludim}, Eynamin {Anamim}, Naphtuḥim, Pathrusim and Casluhim gathered together with the others. (10) And they chose for themselves a leader whose name was Giṭṭ the first born of the Lehadim {Ludim}, which were called by his name, Gibṭai. (11) And they went from Philistia and made war first with the Canaanites and Perizites, and took the kingdom from the hand of Nimrod, and ruled [p. 60] from the land of Egypt unto the river of Cush. (12) And Nimrod went and pitched his camp against Giṭṭ, and he asked the children of Joktan to help him against Mizraim and his seed. (13) And the children of Joktan turned away and did not listen unto him, and went away until they reached a place for camping, of which it is said, “from Mesha until thou comest unto Sifra of the mountain of the East, that is Timnata, whose name was called Yemen, Sifra, the mountain of the East until Timnata.” (14) And Giṭṭ died in the land of Mizraim, and when Nimrod heard of the death of Giṭṭ he rose up to fight the inhabitants of the town of Ashur, and that is the place called Almosa {Mosul, Nineveh}; and he ruled over it, (15) and when he became king over it, [p. 61] he rose up and made war with Nahor. (16) And Nimrod did unto Arphaxad just as Pharaoh did unto the Hebrews. For at that time, they had seen in the Book of Signs which had been handed down to them, that there would arise a man who would smite everyone who worshiped idols, and he would destroy them. Etc.” The setting here is immediately after the Dispersal from the Shinar Tower. The Ludim in Egypt are identified with the “Copts” (Gibtae, Qift, Qoft, Gift etc.), otherwise with the “Philistines,” meaning strictly the Caphtorim, as the Copts traditionally identified themselves as the Biblical Caphtorim. Evidently at the time envisaged in Asatir they were settled around Pelusium, the ancient Philistine homeland. The Greeks knew them as Aiguptioi, “Egyptians.” These earliest inhabitants of Egypt, however, were Ludim or descendants of the Semite Lud. This is why they objected to the occupation of the lands east and north of them by the Hamitic Canaanites. Hence also their conflict with the latter and their opposition on the part of the Hamite Nimrod son of Cush son of Ham. Nimrod brought the Semitic Joktanites with him from Shinar on this expedition as his allies (as Nimrod, Joktan and Phinehas were the three tribal leaders at the Tower), but the Joktanites withdrew from the conflict and settled in Yemen. Note the explanation here for the presence of Nimrod, deified subsequently as the Egyptian god Geb, in the Nile valley shortly after the Dispersal from Shinar (see §329, above, >>). From Yemen somewhat later the Joktanites took up the project of their Semitic brethren the Ludim and attempted to remove the Canaanites from the Levant as detailed supra.

626.26. That this Arabic tradition is related to the Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle, and the dependent Syriac scheme, is proven by the fact that Amer son of Amri’l-Qais, the Pharaoh who received Abraham, is said to have been the same king the Copts knew as Tutis (Toutis), and Tutis appears in the Arabic list as the 13th of 15 kings going back to Mizraim, the founder of the line, who preceded the kings of the Amalekite Hyksos. This, therefore, is the Arabic version of the Sirius Cycle, comparable to that found in the Syriac Christian chronicles.

626.27. The original Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle, as opposed to Manetho’s adaptation of it, comprised in its earlier phase 15 generations-cum-Dynasties preceding the Hyksos incursions, somewhat as they appear in the Syriac Christian chronicles. The kings in the Arabic tradition are as follows (from the convenient summary of the medieval Arabic sources in Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, Tom. I, p. 75ff., following “Gelaldinum Abdalhekem, Anbahni, Othman ex Salcha, Anbahni, Lahaia, Ben Gabasch, Alkatbahni, Abdalla Elsaiana, Ismael Sciainscia,” ibid. p. 75, with additional matter from Maqrizi). They represent the family of Tutis, the pharaoh who gave Hagar to Abraham, his ancestors and immediate descendants, in contrast to the Old Chronicle’s 15 dynasties of kings of Egypt, which include the king who gave Hagar to Abraham (Panos = Tutis), but are not otherwise related to him. This Arabic list probably comprises the complete line of the Old Chronicle’s Dynasty XII, viz. the dynasty of Panos-Tutis:

1) Ar. b-y-ṣ-r, Beithir, Bithir, Bosiris or Busiris, son of Ham (Bensar or Beisar in Maqrizi, who in some accounts, e.g. Maqrizi, pte. I, p. 54, can only be Mizraim himself, as he is described as the son of Ham, and the brother of Cush, Phut and Canaan, Gen. 10. 6), the first to inhabit Egypt after the Flood, an author of Magic and divination. {The name Busiris = Osiris, viz. Sidon-Tammuz, identified with Mizraim, as Osiris is with Mizraim in the Defloratio Berosi. In Greek myth Busiris, the sacrificer of strangers, is slain by Herakles, as Tammuz in the Syriac tradition is slain by Ares [= Nergal = Herakles].)

2) Ar. m-ṣ-r, Mesra, or Masr, Osiris II, that is, Mizraim or “Egypt,” elder son of Bithir, and founder of Memphis, the first Pharaoh, who led his people into Egypt, giving his name to the country. (Enoch, Idris, is called Osiris [that is, Osiris I], Hermes, in the pre-diluvian list p. 79.)

3) Ar. q-b-ṭ, Copht, or Coptus, his son, who inhabited Memphis, whence came the Greek name Aegyptus for Egypt. {Maqrizi, pte. I, p. 146f.: Qoft son of Masr son of Bensar son of Ham, Qoft being the father of Budchir, see infra.} The first three names in the Arabic list are different forms of the eponymus Egypt (1. Mizraim [Egypt], 2. Qoft = Aiguptos [Egypt, see Maqrizi, ut cit., pte. I, p. 55, Qoft/Qoftim etc. = Mizraim], 3. Masr [Egypt]), which is a reflex of the ancient tradition that Men (Mizraim) was the original Osiris (Arabic Beisar = Busiris = Osiris), that he was reincarnated, so to speak, in his son Horus son of Isis (Hor-Aha, Arabic Qoft), and also re-embodied in the youngster brought by Isis from Byblos, viz. Djer (Arabic Masr-Osiris).

4) Ar. ’-š-m-w-n, Ashmun brother of Copht, whence the region so named, Eshmunein.

5) Ar. ’-t-r-y-b, Atrib, or Athrib, his brother, whence the topographical name Athribis (Benha al-Assal), the founder of Ain-Shams, that is, Heliopolis (Abulfeda).

6) Ar. ṣ–’, Sai, or Sa, his brother, whence the topographical name Sais.

7) Ar. ’-d-r-y-s, t-d-’-r-y-s, Adris or Tadaras, Tedaras, Todras, Idris Osiris III, son of Sa, about the time of Shelah son of Arphaxad, son of Shem. {Maqrizi, pte. I, p. 214: Nedares son of Sa.) Idris Osiris III appears here some time shortly after the end of the First Dynasty (which is represented by the eponymous sons of Beithir). Osiris was otherwise known as Asklepios. Asklepios appears in a similar position in the Manethonian king-list at the head of Dynasty III, and as the son of the first king of Dynasty II. In the unamended text of Manetho Asklepios is a title given to Djoser the builder of the step-pyramid. Some think this is an error, since the name Asklepios was otherwise attached to Im-hotep, the vizier of Djoser, and the vizier is mentioned under the reign of Djoser in Manetho. However kings at that time were commonly identified with the god Khenty-amentiu (= Osiris, Asklepios), so Djoser, as well as Im-hotep, may have acquired the name Asklepios, or “Idris Osiris” in Arabic terminology. Asklepios (the Egyptian Asklepios, that is, Serapis or Osiris), holding a rod with a serpent twined around it, was identified with the constellation Ophiuchus, and in Hermetic tradition this star-sign was held to be the prophet Enoch, called Idris by the Arabs, ascending to heaven. (See §346.1, above, >>.)

8) Ar. m-l-y-w, Maliu his son. {Maqrizi ibid.: Maliq son of Nedares.}

{(8 or 9) Budchir son of Qoft, or Maliq El Budsir son of Todras son of Sa, Maqrizi, pte. II, p. 393, who surpassed his uncles in power, and brought them under his sway. He sent the priest Hermes to Mount Qomr at the source of the Nile. Maqrizi pte. I, p. 146f. Also referred to in a different author as Budchir son of Qantarim son of Qobtim son of Mizraim, id. ibid., p. 148.}

10) Ar. h-r-b-t-’, Harbata his son. {Maqrizi ibid.: Kharbata, or Hazaba, son of Maliq.}

11) Ar. k-l-k-n, Kolken, or Kalkala, his son, for about 100 years. {Maqrizi ibid.: Kalkun son of Kharbata, Kalkala son of Hazaba. He was contemporary with, and a rival in magic of, Nimrod, the king in Abraham’s time, Maqrizi, pte. II, p. 403f.}

12) Ar. m-l-y-’, Malia his brother, because he had no son. {Maqrizi pte. I, p. 202f..: Malia father of Toutis.}

13) Ar. ṭ-w-ṭ-y-s, Tautis, or Mercurius [the same god called Hermes supra], his son, who retained Sarah the wife of Abraham. {Maqrizi ibid.: Toutis [Tutis] son of Malia, who resided at Memphis.} There are variations on the name in this form: it also occurs with a second radical “l” thus: Tulis (ṭ-w-l-y-s) in Abulfeda (ed. trans. Fleischer, Historia Anteislamica, Leipzig, 1831, p. 20ff., 100f.). Tulis is the Thoulis of Suidas (s.v.) and Byzantine chroniclers, following Malalas (Chronographia p. 25, ed. Migne PG 97, cf. Waddell, LCL Manetho, p. 22ff.). He conquered the lands westwards of Egypt as far as the Atlantic, and gave his name to Thule (Suidas), which included parts, at least, of the Britannic Isles, and the remotest regions of which were called Ultima Thule. In Malalas and the Byzantine chronicles Thoulis follows Horos (Horus), the fifth and last of the god-kings descended from Hephaistos, and this, according to Malalas, was how it stood in Manetho. Thoulis here is the sixth king, and he is also the first king of Manetho’s Dynasty VI, according to §626.36, below, >>, which suggests a one-to-one relationship between the gods and the dynasties in Malalas’ excerpt from Manetho, terminating with the Tuphonic invasion of the Hyksos at the end of Dynasty VI. From ed. Müller, FHG IV, p. 543, Joannis Antiocheni Fr. 6. §8f.: “[8] After the death of Hephaistos Helios reigned over the Egyptians …. [9] After the death of Helios reigned Sosis, and then two more {Osiris and Horos}, and after them Thoulis, who took all the land along with the Ocean {the Atlantic}, then arrived at the Oracle {“of Serapis” Suidas loc. cit.} in Africa, offered sacrifice, and made inquiry as follows: “{Suidas adds: “Tell us, O Master of Fire, the Unerring, the Blessed, Who regulate the course of the stars,} who before my reign was able to subdue the whole world, and who after me?” And he received the following reply:

“First God, then the Word {Gk. Logos}, and the Spirit with them,
All from the same root, and merging into one,
Whose might is everlasting. {The fragment in FHG ends here.}

{Suidas adds:}

Go quickly, mortal one, of uncertain fate.”

Leaving the Oracle, he was slain by his own people in the land of the Africans.”

14) Ar. ḥ-z-w-b-h, Hazubah, or Hazupha, or Gouriaq, his daughter, because he had no other son, the first woman to rule Egypt.

15) Ar. ’-m-h-’-z [also ‛-m-h-’-z] ’-l-p-’, or Amaaz Alpha, or Zalfa, daughter of Mamun {Ar. m-’-m-w-m, viz. Mamun son of Malia, and brother of Toutis, Maqrizi}.

Now follow the Hyksos (“Amalekite”) kings, the Amalekites multiplying and filling the land:

Alualid (El Walid, El Oualid), of the progeny of Amalek son of Lud, son of Shem. {The significant element of the name Al ualid, Arabic ’-l w-l-y-d, might be represented in Greek as Salit-is (with initial euphonic s, and d > t, followed by the Greek grammatical termination -is); Salitis is the name of the first of the Hyksos kings in Manetho. El-Oualid is called the son of Darma or Dauma’, and his invasion of Egypt via Syria described, along with his journey to the source of the Nile at Mount Qomr in Negro territory, Maqrizi, pte. I, p. 147ff. Arabic walid means “offspring,” as does “Sa” in the Egyptian toponym Sais (written with the hieroglyph of the goose), whilst Salitis (El Walid) is otherwise referred to in Manetho as “Saites” and is said to have been the eponymous founder of the city and nome of Sais. On Sais and Salitis, see §626.17.5, above, >>.}

Alrian, in whose time Joseph was sold into slavery, whose dream was interpreted by Joseph, resulting in his release from prison. (Al Rian, Arabic ’-l r-y-’-n.) As the name has a variant Nahraush (infra), it probably represents the Rikayon of Sefer ha-Yashar, otherwise Nakhor/Narekho (Neferirkare): this Egyptian king was, as we shall see (§626.40, below, >>), a contemporary of Abraham and Eliezer, otherwise Hermes Trismegistos, and came to be treated also, by an anachronism in Byzantine chronicles, as a contemporary of the latter’s pupils, Asklepios (Joseph) and Sesostris III, with whom the god-prophet interacted in the Hermetic literature. Aphophis (Apupu) was the Hyksos king who imprisoned Joseph, according to the Christian chroniclers.

Some time thereafter ruled Daram, in whose time Joseph died.

The Amalekite kings are as follows, according to Murray, following Maqrizi:

Duma’

El Walid

El Rian (Nahraush)

Dumush (Darem)

Ma’adius (Mo’dan)

Aksames (Kasem)

Latis

followed by the “Pharaoh of Moses” {According to Maqrizi, pte. I, p. 200, Al-Oualid son of Mos’ab, also known as Talma, son of Qoumes, was one of the seven Amalekite kings, but the Copts knew him as the Pharaoh of Moses.}

626.27.1. The topographical names in the early part of this list are probably based on the Biblical list of the offspring of Mizraim, as interpreted in the Aramaic Targums. The name Masr, of course, for Mizraim comes from the Arabic. In the Targum of Jonathan (the Jerusalem Targum) these appear as follows:

Mizraim = Mizraim.

Givtae = Ludim, Givtae being the Copts (from Gk. Aiguptos, Egypt), initial gimel, not nun, as in Schwarz’s text of the Targum (Schwarz, A Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine, J. Schwarz, Philadelphia, 1850, p. 472).

Maryotae = Anamim, Maryotae being the inhabitants of Lake Mareotis south of Alexandria.

Livqae = Lehabim, Livqae for Libyci, Libyans.

Panteskinae = Naphtuhim, Panteskinae being the inhabitants of Pentaschoenum on the Sirbonian Lagoon. Other texts (e.g. Bomberg’s Jerusalem Targum) read “Lustae” here (corr. Lustae to Lystae, cf. Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary, s.v. lwwts, the latter corrupted from lystys, which is also sometimes spelled defectively, e.g. pl. lstyn, id. s.v., and s.v. lyst’) = Gk lēistai, “pirates, robbers, freebooters, rovers.”

Nesyotae = Pathrusim, Nesyotae being the inhabitants of “Aiguptos neseuomene,” the region of “Egypt subject to inundation” through the seasonal overflowing of the Nile, see infra, though other texts read “Pilusae” here (e.g. Targum Neofiti [variant], Bomberg’s Jerusalem Targum), the inhabitants of Pelusium on the Sirbonian Lagoon.

Pantpolitae = Casluhim, Pantpolitae being the inhabitants of Pentapolis, viz. Cyrenaica. (Other texts, e.g. Targum Neofiti [variant], Bomberg’s Jerusalem Targum, read Panteskinae, probably as a result of a confusion of the similar-sounding names, see Jastrow, Talmudic Dictionary, s.vv., though Jastrow prefers the variant reading). Pantpolitae (Jastrow, ibid., s.v.) also translates Heb. Lehabim, meaning the Libyans of Cyrenaica.

Qappudqae = Caphtorim, Qappudqae being the Cappadocians.

In Saadia’s Arabic version of Genesis 10. 13-14 the names of Mizraim and his offspring are Arabized thus:

“13. And Masr [Mizraim] begot

Al-Tanisiyyin (inhabitants of Tennes [Bochart, Phaleg, 3rd ed., 1692, col. 263] on the Sirbonian Lagoon [Ludim]),

and Al-Askandaraniyyin (inhabitants of Alexandria, more strictly of Mareotis [Anamim]),

and Al-Bahnasiyyin (Libyans of the Bahnasa Oasis, see the note infra [Lehabim]),

and Al-Faramiyyin (inhabitants of Al-Farama, Pelusium on the Sirbonian Lagoon [Naphtuhim]),

14. Al-Bimayyin (inhabitants of Bima, Bima being the Coptic name of Lower Egypt, the Delta area [Pathrusim], as opposed to Said, the zone south of Memphis/Cairo).

and Al-Saidiyyin (the Sahidic Copts [Casluhim]),

and from them came forth Al-Palestiniyun (the Palestinians or Philistines [Philistim])

and Al-Damietiyun (the inhabitants of Damietta on the Sirbonian Lagoon [Caphtorim]).”

Note on Nesyotae = Pathrusim: Bochart (ut cit. infra) explains this name in the Targum as a transcription of the Greek Nesiotai, meaning “inhabitants of the zone subject to inundation.” He refers to the following entry in the Etymologicum Magnum s.v. Athribes: “Athribes [Athribis], a city of Egypt. It is also written Athlibes. Athlibites, a citizen of the same ….The Delta is the head of that area of Egypt subject to inundation [Aiguptou nēseuomenēs], and is supplied with liquid nourishment by the Nile, in the same manner the heart supplies the areas around it; which is why they gave the name Athribes to the nome: if one were required to translate it into Greek, one could only render it thus: “One who is away, or at a distance, from the heart” [Gk. kardian apiōn. Sic Orion.” (There is no need to emend the text, as Bochart suggests, apiōn to apiou, “heart of a pear,” with reference to the pear-shaped Delta.) The Egyptian name Athribis is Ḥwt-ḥry-ib, meaning “The Abode [Ḥwt] of Him who is distant from [ḥry] the heart [ib],” also written Ḥwt-ta-ḥry-ib, “The Abode of the land distant from the heart,” the “heart” being here the “heart” of the Delta, where the city was located, but equally the heart of Osiris (Osiris = the Nile), which was believed to have been swallowed and preserved in Athribis by the crocodile god of the city, Khenty-Khety.

Note on Al-Bahnasiyyin (= Lehabim): these are the inhabitants of the Oasis of Bahnasa, or Bahariya Oasis, the Roman Oasis Parva in the Libyan desert, which is on the caravan route from Oxyrynchus, the Arabic Bahnasa, near the Fayum. The name Bahnasa for the Oasis is derived from the latter.

626.27.2. Thus Masr (“son of Busiris”) is the Biblical Mizraim. Masr’s firstborn Coptus, Qoft, or Qift, the eponymus of the Copts or native Egyptians, is the Givtae of the Targum, viz. Ludim offspring of Mizraim. The three “brothers,” alternatively “sons” (Maqrizi, ed. trans. Bouriant, pte.I, p. 56, II, p. 392, cf. 545f.), of Qoft are Ashmun, Athrib and Sa, with Qaftorim being Qoft’s fourth son. Qoft/Qaftorim held the territory in Said (southern Egypt) from Assuan to Eshmunein (Hermopolis), Ashmun the territory in Said from Eshmunein to Memphis, Athrib the territory in the Delta (northern Egypt) from Memphis to Sais, and Sa the territory in the Delta from Sais to the sea and the environs of Barca (Maqrizi, ibid. 545f.). The first three are three of the other offspring of Mizraim in Genesis 10: 1) Ashmun, the eponymus of Eshmunein, corresponds to the Biblical Casluhim, otherwise, as the latter stands in some LXX texts, Khasmonieim, which is a transcription of Heb. Hashmonim (ḥšmnym), viz. Eshmunein in Middle Egypt (Fürst, Hebrew Lexicon, s.v. Hashmannim [2], following Ibn Saruk on Ps. 68. 32, Hashmannim = inhabitants of Eshmunein, also Michaelis in Abulfedae Descriptio Aegypti, 1776, p. 105f., n. 225); 2) Athrib is the eponymus of Athribis (Coptic and Arabic Athrib), which was considered the “heart” of that area of “Egypt subject to inundation” (Gk. Aiguptos nēseuomenē, Etym. Magn. s.v. Athribes), and hence is translated Nesyotae, “the inhabitants of the zone subject to inundation” (sic Bochart, Phaleg, 3rd ed., 1692, col. 274f.), in the Targum, corresponding to the Biblical Pathrusim; and 3) Sa is the eponymus of Sais (Sa/San el-Hajar in Arabic). However, the name Sais (Sa) is exchanged in the LXX and Arabic versions at Ezk. 30. 15 for the Hebrew topographical name Sin, and Sin is identified with Pelusium in Jerome, borrowing from Origen: this suits the context, as Sin is referred to in that verse as the “fortress” or “military bulwark” of Egypt, and Pelusium on the eastern border of the country was in Ezekiel’s day the region where military campaigns were assembled to attack Canaan. Sa in Maqrizi is Sais in the western Delta, but in the Coptic tradition Sa was employed as an equivalent of the Biblical Sin, which denoted three different places: Sais, Pelusium and Syene. Sa = Sin = Pelusium corresponds to Pelishtim (Philistim), the Philistines, in the list of eponymi in Gen. 10 (Pelusium being named after Palaistinos, the eponymus of the Philistines, according to Plutarch), or otherwise the Biblical Naphtuhim, as the latter in Saadia are identified with the inhabitants of Al-Farama = Pelusium. Thus Masr = Mizraim, Qoft = Ludim, Ashmun = Casluhim, Athrib = Pathrusim, and Sa = Philistim/Naphtuhim. Qaftorim, the fourth son of Qoft, is the Biblical Caphtorim (the latter-day Philistines).

626.28. There was another Arabic list of 15 pre-diluvian kings, and they seem to be related to Manetho’s variation on the Sirius Cycle. Most likely they were relegated to the pre-diluvian era on account of the fact that Mizraim in the list already given was the first post-diluvian king, and he stood at the head of the roster in the Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle, going back about 400 years before the Hyksos: but Manetho extended his list, and backdated Mizraim another 300 years or so by expanding his first Dynasty, as already described. The kings of this extended era would have to be considered “pre-diluvian” in the Arabic system. On this reckoning Manetho’s Mizraim could only have been some otherwise unknown “pre-diluvian Mizraim.” The alternative Arabic list, accordingly, represents there to have been precisely such a pre-diluvian Mizraim. This “pre-diluvian” Mizraim’s “son” (sic) Nacraus, that is, Manetho’s Amasis (see infra), must likewise have been pre-diluvian. Maqrizi, in his account of these kings, repeatedly expresses his doubts as to whether they actually reigned in the pre-diluvian era. However, since this is the line of the kings who built the Giza pyramids, which were commonly thought to have been constructed by the pre-diluvian prophets Seth and Enoch (Idris) as their tombs, the relegation of the whole line to the pre-diluvian era is understandable.

626.29. From Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus, Tom. I, Rome, 1562, p. 72ff.:

From “Mahumed filius Almaschaudi”:

Kings of Egypt “before the Flood”:

1) Ar. n-k-r-’-w-s, Nacraus, called Amasus, Ar. ’-m-s-w-s, 180 years. Expert in magic. Made two idols of stone. {Maqrizi, pte. I, p. 146.: Naqraouch made an expedition into Nubia in relation to channeling the waters of the Nile.}

2) Ar. n-t-r-’-s, Nathras his son, expert in magic. Built the city of Salcha in Egypt, and three other cities.

3) Ar. m-ṣ-r-’-m, Mesram his brother, expert in magic. Tamed a lion, was carried by demons on a throne to the middle of the Ocean, where he built a dome, containing an idol of the Sun, inscribed with his deeds and greatness.

4) Ar. ‛-y-k-’-m, Aikam, his vizier or successor

in whose days Idris (Idris Osiris [I]) was translated {on the theory these kings were pre-diluvian. Idris Osiris (III) appears in the post-diluvian list (supra) as son of Sa, the latter being the fourth generation from the founding of the post-diluvian line. Presumably it was this same Idris III who originally featured here, being subsequently confused with, or viewed as an incarnation of, the pre-diluvian translated Idris, Enoch, when this list came to be considered pre-diluvian}.

5) Ar. ’-r-y-’-q, also ‛-r-y-’-q, Ariak, his son

in whose days were Haruth and Maruth {the pre-diluvian fallen angels, on the theory these kings were pre-diluvian. Again there existed a tradition that Haruth and Maruth were post-diluvian, dateable to the fifth generation after the Noachide Flood: 1) Noah, 2) Ham, 3) Cush 4) Nimrod, 5) Eliezer, the contemporary of Haruth and Maruth, §432, above, >>}.

6) Ar. ḥ-ṣ-y-l-y-m, Hasilim who first made a Nilometer, and made a marble house by the Nile, with a fishpond.

7) Ar. h-w-ṣ-l, Husal

in whose time lived Noah {on the theory these kings were pre-diluvian. Noah lived on 350 years after the Inundation, and therefore to at least as late as the 7th round of post-diluvian kings of Egypt}.

8) Ar. t-t-r-ṣ–’-n, also t-d-r-ṣ–’-n, Tatrasan his son.

9) Ar. s-r-q-’-q, Sarkak.

10) Ar. s-h-l-w-q, Sahaluk his son.

11) Ar. s-w-r-y-d, Surid his son, made canals, and built the pyramids, in which he was buried with his treasures.

11 [sic margin p. 74]) Ar. h-w-g-y-t, Hugit his son, he also was buried in a pyramid.

12) Ar. m-n-w-s, also m-n-’-w-s, and m-n-q-’-w-s, Manaus his son, called also Manakaus.

13) Ar. ’-f-r-w-s, Aphrus {son of Hugit, buried in yet another pyramid, Kircher, ibid. Tom. II, p. 301.}

14) Ar. m-l-y-n-w-s, also m-’-l-y-n-w-s, Malinus

15) Ar. ’-b-n ‛-m-h f-r-‛-w-n, or f-r-‛–’-n, Abn Ama Phara(u)n, last Dynast

in whose days came the Flood {on the theory these kings were pre-diluvian. The Flood of Noah was confused with the Ogygian Flood, or Flood of Og, as already explained, §181.4.0.1 sub fin., above, >>. The latter was dated, according to one chronological construction, to the generation of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and this, in turn, coincided with the end of the Old Kingdom, or otherwise with the fifteenth dynasty-cum-generation of the Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle}.

626.30. Kircher notes (p. 74) these first 15 dynasties before the Flood correspond to the scheme in Manetho where the first post-diluvian dynasty is the “16th” comprised “of Thebans” (that is, of Menes etc., using Eratosthenes’ terminology, “Theban”). Here Kircher alludes to the first fifteen dynasties of gods and demi-gods listed in Manetho before the historical dynasties. See Syncellus, Ecloga Chronographica ed. Mosshammer, p. 19 = Dindorf, p. 33f., who gives 15 names of gods and demi-gods, in 16 positions, one name (position 6) being omitted. The context is pre-diluvian in Syncellus. Cf. ed. Mosshammer p. 103 = Dindorf, p. 171 for Menes the “Theban” and his successors after the Flood, and ed. Mosshammer, p. 59 = Dindorf p. 100, for the standard Manethonian post-diluvian human dynasties. The gods, demi-gods and spirits of the dead were believed by some Christian chroniclers to have ruled “before the Flood” (Waddell LCL Manetho p 6f., from Eusebius Chronicle [Armenian] ed. Mai p. 93ff.), since their hugely-inflated regnal figures of thousands of years must have, on any reckoning, reached back well before the Noachide flood, to a much earlier age, even, than Manetho’s variation on the Sirius Cycle. Eusebius interpreted the many years of their reigns as so many months, in order to reduce the regnal figures and co-ordinate them with the Biblical pre-diluvian chronology. Panodorus had a similar scheme (Waddell ibid. p. 11ff., from Syncellus ed. Mosshammer p. 41f. = Dindorf p. 73f.), counting the gods’ reigns in months, and the demi-gods’ reigns in horoi or tropoi (periods of 3 months). The native Egyptian belief (exemplified in the myth of the Destruction of Mankind, or of the Hathor Eye) was that the gods reigned before the Flood, viz. as cosmic deities, and after the Flood as kings of Egypt. In the pre-Manethonian Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle the era of the reigns of the gods and demi-gods comprised, along with the reigns of the human kings beginning with Menes, the first of the thirty dynasties of that cycle. Syncellus further referred to Hephaistos, the first of the gods, as having reigned long after the Flood and after the dispersal from the Tower (ed. Mosshammer p. 57 = Dindorf p. 97). On this interpretation the 15 or 16 gods and demi-gods might have been treated as the spirits of patriarchs or prophets (“gods”) of the earliest post-diluvian period, themselves reincarnations of the nephilim of the pre-diluvian period, reincarnated subsequently in the first 15 kings of the Sirius Cycle, as, for example: Hephaistos (Ptah) = Ham, Helios (Ra) = Cush, Geb (Kronos) = Nimrod, in Mar Abas Catina, but Hephaistos, Helios, Kronos, etc., kings of Egypt, the immediate successors of Mizraim, in Peri Theon.

626.31. The original, post-diluvian, character of the Arabic list is evidenced by the appearance 1) at its beginning of Nacraus “son of Mizraim,” Mizraim being originally post-diluvian, and 2) of Mesram (= Mizraim) in third position, the eponymus of “Mizraim,” or “Masr” = Old Babylon, Cairo, as well as 3) of Surid, the builder of the Great Pyramid, which historically was built by Khufu of the fourth post-diluvian dynasty. These fifteen names, therefore, represent the first fifteen generations or Dynasties of the Sirius Cycle, preceding Salitis of the First Intermediate Period. The appearance of the name “Amasus” as an alternative name for “Nacraus,” the first of these 15 kings in the Arabic king-list, suggests it is identical to or based originally on Manetho’s adaptation of the Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle, in which the first king of his 15 “generations” is similarly called “Amasis.”

626.32. Returning now to a consideration of Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle: his first of the 15 “generations” is occupied by Amasis, who immediately follows the last of the eight kings of Dynasty I, the dynasty of Menes-Mizraim. This would place him somewhere in Dynasty II, around the time of the king archaeologists know as Khasekhemwy, in whose reign the internecine struggle between the adherents of Horus and those of Seth were reconciled, as symbolized by his use of the combined animal signs of Horus and Seth in his titulary. The name Khasekhemwy might be transcribed in Greek as Amasis (Kha– > A-, –sekhem > Coptic ousem and bousem, Arabic ausim, pronounced ashim, hence, hypothetically, A-bousem > A-bashim > A-mashim > A-masis). This element in his name, sekhem, is a place-name, viz. the earlier name for Letopolis or Old Cairo, ancient Egyptian Sekhem, Coptic Ousem or Bousem, modern Arabic Ausim. In Manetho’s regular dynastic list, Khasekhemwy appears at the beginning of the Third Dynasty as “Nekherophes” or “Nekherokhis,” the latter forms representing presumably Khasekhemwy’s personal name Neterui-wonef-ḥotep (Waddell, p. 40, n. 2, Meyer, Geschichte, 3rd ed., 1.2, §215, p. 145). Khasekhemwy’s wife was the mother of Djoser, the most famous king of the IIIrd Dynasty, hence his appearance at the head of Dynasty III in Manetho’s regular dynastic list. Manetho’s form of the name, Nekherophes, looks like Nacraus (a.k.a. Amasus) of the Arabic list. The consonantal form n-k-r-’-w-s might be vocalized Nekerowes = Greek Nekherophes, with medial ph > v > w. Assuming Amasus/Amasis represents the Egyptian Khasekhemwy, and taking further into account the fact that the element sekhem contained within it is the name of Letopolis or Old Cairo (ancient Egyptian Sekhem, Coptic Ousem or Bousem, modern Arabic Ausim), it comes as no surprise to find that Maqrizi describes Amasus, or Amsus (Nacraus), as the eponymus of a city “Amsus,” which he says was the “pre-diluvian” name of Memphis (meaning Old Cairo and/or the region thereabouts in the period represented by the earlier phase of the king-list). Amasis likewise, in Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle, according to the reconstruction supra, represents the first of the 15 pre-Hyksos generations. Dynasties III, IV and VI in Manetho’s regular dynastic list are kings of Memphis, and in the Arabic list there appears a “Mesram” who is the eponymus of Masr or Old Cairo, that is, of the ancient Egyptian Memphis. In Manetho’s regular dynastic list, the Libyans are said to have revolted against the Egyptians in the reign of Nekherophes, being cowed only by an unnatural increase in the moon’s light. This relates, most probably, to the Horus-Seth rebellion in the time of Khasekhemwy, otherwise of the tribe of Sheba in Libya against the Egyptians, as described in connection with the Arabic traditions of king Saba. The identification of some, at least, of the “pre-diluvian” kings of the Arabic list with the kings of Manetho’s regular Dynasties III and IV is confirmed 1) by the placement in the 11th position (inclusive) from Nekherophes, in the regular Manethonian dynasties III and IV, of Souphis the builder of the Great pyramid, there being either 9 or 8 kings, including Nekherophes the first of them, in Dynasty III, followed by Souphis as either the second, or the third, king of Dynasty IV; and 2) by the placement similarly here in the Arabic list of Surid as the 11th king (inclusive) following Nacraus-Amasus, Surid (transcribed “Surit” in Kircher) being precisely the builder of the Great Pyramid in Arabic tradition. The Manethonian Souphis is the historical Khufu (initial kh > s), the builder of the Great Pyramid. The Arabic Surid may be a corruption of the name Souphis or, more probably, a representation of the second element, the patronymic, in “Souphis Soridos,” that is “Souphis (Khufu) son of (genitive) Soris (Gk. Soris = Snofru, Sneferu, father and predecessor of Khufu).” In Manetho’s Dynasty IV Souphis is followed by Souphis II, who corresponds to the Khabrues of Diodorus I. 64 = Khefren, Khefren being the builder of the second pyramid at Giza, as the successor of Surid in the Arabic list is also the builder of a pyramid; and Souphis II is followed in Manetho’s Dynasty IV by Menkheres, or Mycerinus (Menkherinos in Diodorus), that is Menkaure, the builder of the third pyramid at Giza. This would appear to be the Manakaus (or Manaus) of the Arabic list, the second following Surid.

626.33. There are 16 names altogether in the Arabic list (though only 15 positions), beginning with Nacraus, and there are 16 (alternatively 17) names in the regular Manethonian Dynasties III and IV, beginning with Nekherophes. The Arabic names need not be one-on-one deformations of the names in the regular Manethonian lists, since another list was available to Manetho in which Souphis, the builder of the great Pyramid, was the third king of Dynasty IV amongst 17 kings of Memphis belonging to “an alternative line” (Waddell p. 48, Eusebius’ Chronicle [Armenian version] and apud Syncellus). The same phrase about an “alternative line” occurs in Africanus’ version of Dynasty IV (apud Syncellus, Waddell, p. 44), but there 8 kings, including Souphis and the other two Pyramid builders, are individually named. Evidently these 8 (which cannot all be identified in the Arabic list) are different from the line of 17 (which also included Souphis, the other kings apart from Souphis being left unnamed by Eusebius). The Arabic “pre-diluvian” list may represent some, at least, of these 17 kings, that is a different line of Memphite kings from those who are named individually in Dynasties III (9 kings) and Dynasty IV (8 kings) in Manetho’s regular list, including Nacraus-Amasus (Nekherophes) in first position, Surid (Souphis) in twelfth and Manakaus (Mycerinus) in fourteenth.

626.34. This suggests Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle comprised in its earlier phase 15

Chart of Syriac, Arabic and Coptic Traditions of Early Egyptian History

	Old Chronicle Sirius Cycle	Reign	Dynastic Line of Teti				= Historical Name	Line of Giza Pyramid kings (“Pre-diluvian”)	= Historical Name
1.	Panouphis	68	Beithir son of Ham				Men/ Mizraim (Dynasty I)	Mizraim father of Nacraus or Amasus	Khasekhemwy (Dynasty II)
2.	Eupipaphios or Eupropis	46	Mesra Osiris II son of Beithir					Nathras son of Nacraus and brother of Mesram
3.	Sanos called Ethiopos	60	3. Copht son of Mesra	4. Ashmun brother of Copht	5. Atrib brother of Copht	6. Sai brother of Copht		3. Aikam vizier and successor of Nathras
								4. Ariak son of Aikam
								5. Hasilim
								6. Husal
4.	Pharaon son of Sanos	35	7. Adris/Idris Osiris III son of Sai				Djoser/ Asklepios (Dynasty III)	7. Tatrasan son of Husal
5.	Karimon	4
6.	Aphintos or Aphantos	32
7.	Arsakos	33
8.	Samonos or Samos	20	Maliu son of Idris					Sarkak
9.	Armios or Hermios or Hirkos	27	Budchir son of Copht					Sahaluk son of Sarkak
10.	Pharnados	43	Harbata son of Budchir					Surid son of Sahaluk	Khufu (Dynasty IV)
11.	Phanos (= Tautis of next column) (Dynasty V)	—	Kolken son of Harbata					Hugit son of Surid
12.	Hysqos	21	Malia brother of Kolken					Manaus son of Hugit	Menkaure
13.	Sysynos	44	Tautis son of Malia (Dynasty VI)				Teti (Dynasty VI)	Aphrus brother of Manaus	Khafre
14.	Taracos	44	Hazubah daughter of Tautis					Malinus
15.			Amaaz Alpha daughter of Mamun brother of Tautis					Abn Ama Pharaun

The chart supra represents the medieval Syriac and Arabic traditions, based on Coptic sources, relating to the Predynastic and Old Kingdom periods of Egyptian history, showing how the different traditions cover Dynasties I through VI

generations of kings, some, at least, of them Memphites from Dynasties III, IV and VI, according to his regular lists, from Amasis (Khasekhemwy, Nekherophes), the first king of Dynasty III, through Dynasty VI, including, towards its end, a Memphite from Dynasty VI, the contemporary of Abraham (see infra), placed chronologically at the beginning of Dynasty V as in Eusebius’ epitome of Manetho (see supra). This king-list was preceded by an “expansion” of the first generation in the form of a list of the 8 kings of Manetho’s regular Dynasty I, from Menes-Mizraim to Qaa, the immediate predecessors of the Dynasty of Amasis-Khasekhemwy. Manetho seems to have counted the reigns of the Pyramid kings of Dynasty IV and of Africanus’ Dynasty V as illegitimate, and “Ramessameno,” the contemporary of Abraham, as the legitimate founder of Dynasty V (see further infra): this would explain why he traces him back in his version of the Sirius Cycle to the father of Djoser of Dynasty III through an otherwise unknown line of kings named after Ra, the sun-god. The Arabic “pre-diluvian” list may represent, partially or in toto, the alternative list of kings (belonging to Dynasties III and IV) referred to by Manetho. All the lines terminated at the time of the Asiatic (Hyksos) incursions in the First Intermediate Period c. 2000-1950 BC.

626.34.1. Maqrizi gives a fuller account of the early kings of Egypt, which can be used to identify the kings listed in the Syriac chronicles. The latter represent the first 15 dynasties-cum-generations of the Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle, which was drawn on by Manetho, and the historical succession in the Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods. The fuller account is found in Maqrizi, ed. Bouriant, pte. II, p. 388ff. (orthography Bouriant’s).

1) Beisar son of Cham son of Noe: 4 sons: Masr [the eponymus of Egypt], Fareq [the eponymus of Africa], Mag, Yag.

Beisar built Memphis as first city after the flood, along with his 4 sons and descendants, 30 in all, hence its name Mafah, meaning 30 in Coptic.

According to Ibrahim ben Ouacif Shah, Beisar was accompanied by the priest Qlimoun [= Asklepios, who was thought to have survived the flood], and Qlimoun married his daughter to Beisar. He died 1806 years (sic) after the flood.

Beisar begot

2) Misraim (a.k.a. Masr) by her. He was on the ark with Noe, requesting the land of Egypt for his inheritance. He died 2600 (or 2700) years (sic) after the flood. Misraim had a son

3) Qoftim or Qobtim or Qoft, the youngest of four brothers, Ashmoun, Atrib, Sa and Qoft. Each fought the other for dominance till finally Qoft was victor and ruled the land. He had 4 sons:

Qaftorim, Ashmoun, Atrib and Sa, amongst whom the land was divided in four, and who built a city in each, named after themselves. Qoft reigned for 480 years, in which time occurred the confusion of tongues.

Ashmoun ben Masr, Qoft’s brother, ruled next, Qoft having installed his son [the first of the 4 brothers, the sons of Qoft], Qaftorim, in his own territory.

The Four Brothers, Sons of Qoft (4-7)

4) Qaftorim (son of Qobtim son of Masr) was installed by Qoft in his own territory. He (and/or Ashmoun ben Masr) ruled during the time of the destruction of Ad, when the pre-diluvian idols had been reinstalled by some. He ruled 480 years (sic).

[Maqrizi inserts here the following information: Ibn Abd el Hakem gives the succession as follows:

a) Masr ben Beisar

b) Qoft ben Masr

c) Ashmoun ben Masr

the country was invaded by Sheddad ben Haddad ben Sheddad ben Ad, who destroyed many buildings, built pyramids and then retired. Ashmoun ruled the country thereafter

d) Atrib ben Masr

e) Sa ben Masr

f) Todras ben Sa

during whose time lived Saleh the prophet to Thammoud

g) Maliq ben Todras

who sent Hermes to Mount Qomr the source of the Nile. According to Masa’oudi he was the first who changed religious worship to the worship of the planets, only allowing the people to come into his presence once a year when the sun entered Aries.

ii) After him reigned his son Araqlimoun, the priest and magician, who was carried away on clouds and could be seen by the people when the sun entered Aries in the solar disk. On his advice they gave the throne to Adim ben Qoftim. He ruled 140 years and died at age 730 years (sic).

iii) After him reigned his son Shaddat ben Adim, a.k.a Sheddad ben Ad, the great magician, who built the pyramids at Dahchour [Dashur].

iv) After him reigned his son Minqaoush, who built Memphis for his daughters and Ain Shams. He ruled 91 years.

v) After him reigned his son Adim ben Minqaoush. In his time descended the two angels who taught men magic and afterwards came down to Babel.

vi) After him reigned his brother Menaoush ben Minqaoush, who first worshiped the ox.

vii) After him reigned his son Hermes, for 11 years, doing nothing remarkable.

h) Hazaba ben Maliq

i) Kalkala ben Hazaba.]

5) Ashmoun ben Qobtim (ben Masr ben Beisar ben Ham ben Nouh [Noe]). He established his residence at Ashmounein [Eshmunein], built Antinoe, and founded Ain Shams. He reigned 800 years (sic), but in year 600 the Adites invaded the land, remained for 90 years, then driven out by disease retired to Medina. Ashmoun recovered his throne, established the Nourouz [New Year] festival and built Bahnesa.

ii) His son Sa

iii) His son Todras, or, according to others, Menaqioush, who founded Akhmim, reigned around 40 years and was buried in the “eastern pyramid”.

iv) His (unidentified) son

v) Merqourah his son

vi) Bilates his son for 13 years, with his mother whilst a minor. After him power passed to his uncles

6) Atrib ben Qobtim ben Misraim lived 500, reigned 360 years. His brother Sa was accused of having killed him.

ii) Tadrourah his daughter.

iii) Qlimoun ben Atrib her brother, reigned 90 years, old Tennis and Damietta being built during his reign.

iv) Farsoun his son reigned 260 years

v) 4 unnamed kings succeeded.

7) Sa son of Qobtim.

ii) Nourriat the female magician

iii) Marqounos son of the daughter of the king of Nubia, lived 240 reigned 73 years.

iv) Aisad his son at age 45, lived less than 120 years, died by poison.

v) Sa ben Marqounos. “If that is true he was the brother of Aisad” (Maqrizi). He was attacked by a Frank king who took parts of Egypt, including Memphis, but subsequently Sa returned to power ruling 67 years out of a total of 170.

8) Todras ben Sa [whose record is identical to that of Todras ben Sa the immediate successor of Sa ben Masr in Ibn Abd el Hakem. Apparently in this account in Maqrizi his father is Sa ben Marqounos, though the genealogical relationship of the latter Sa to Marqounos is questioned by Maqrizi; cf. also Todras son of Sa son of Ashmoun ben Qobtim ben Masr]. He reigned in time of Saleh, campaigned against Amalekites in Syria and against Zing in Nubia, and settled the Nubians on the border of Egypt on account of their devotion to the writings of Adam, Seth and Edris.

9) Maliq son of Todras

10) Hazaba son of Maliq

11) Kalkala son of Hazaba

12) Malia ben Hazaba

13) Toutis son of Malia

14) Gouriaq the princess his only child

15) Zalfa bent Mamoun her cousin.

Fuller List of Kings in Maqrizi
15 generations numbered in bold within brackets Proposed 15 kings of the Sirius Cycle in Syriac Chronicles numbered in bold and marked S within square brackets
(1) Beisar son of Ham, son of Noah [S1] [Panouphis] begot four sons (a-d) ↓
a) (2) Masr/​Misraim [S2] [Eupipaphios] begot four sons (a-d) ↓	b) Fareq	c) Mag	d) Yag
a) Ashmoun	b) Atrib	c) Sa	d) (3) Qoft/​Qobtim begot four sons (a-d) → Qaftorim being installed in his own position
				a) Qaftorim ben Qobtim ↓	b) Ashmoun ben Qobtim ↓	c) Atrib ben Qobtim ↓	d) Sa ben Qobtim [S3] [Sanos] ↓
					Sa	Tadrourah	(4) Nourriat
					Todras	Qlimoun ben Atrib ben Qobtim [S: missing Dynasty IV]	(5) Marqounos
					1 unnamed king	Farsoun [S4] [Peron Bar Sanos]	(6) Aisad ben Marqounos
					Merqourah	4 unnamed kings: i) — [S5] [Karimon]	(7) Sa ben Marqounos
					Bilates	ii) — [S6] [Aphintos]	(8) Todras ben Sa
						iii) — [S7] [Arsakos]	(9) Maliq son of Todras
						iv) — [S8] [Samonos]	(10) Hazaba or Kharbata son of Maliq
							(11) Kalkala son of Hazaba/​Kharbata [S9] [Armios]
							(12) Malia ben Hazaba [S10] [Pharnados]
							(13) Toutis son of Malia [S11] [Phanos]
							(14) Gouriaq or Hazubah [S12] [Hysqos]
							(15) Zalfa bent Mamoun [S13] [Sysynos]
[S14] [Taracos]	<Darma>
[S15] Setis	<El Walid>

626.34.2. Comments on the Chart.

The list of kings in the Syriac Christian chronicles seems to be based on a combination of sections of different lines featuring in the fuller account of Maqrizi (supra). The Syriac chronicles start with the two first kings of Maqrizi’s account: 1) Beisar 2) Masr, except they use other names for these figures:

1) Beisar = the Biblical Mizraim = Panouphis, variant Manouphis, in the Syriac chronicles = Menes [according to Vasiliev’s edition of Agapius] and Menes = Mizraim (Syncellus).

2) Masr, the eponymus and founder of Masr-Memphis is called Eupipaphios (etc.) in the Syriac chronicles, for Epaphos, the founder of Memphis in Greek tradition.

Instead of Qoft the third king in Maqrizi, who granted his domain to his son Qaftorim, the Syriac chronicles place Qaftorim’s brother, Sa in third position:

3) Sa = Sanos in the Syriac chronicles.

A story relating to the supposed murder of Athrib by Sa is related by Maqrizi (ed. trans. Bouriant, pte. 1, p. 353f., trans. from French mine) as follows:

“It is said that At{h}rib bin Qobt bin Masr bin Beisar bin Ham bin Nouh, at the time of his death, recommended to his brother Sa to put his body in a boat and bury him on an island in the middle of the river. When he died, Sa executed the order of his brother, without any Egyptian knowing it. He was accused of the murder of Atrib and a nine-year uprising was brought against him. At the end of the fifth year, Sa proposed to the rebels to lead them to the tomb of Atrib. They went there, but after having dug his grave, found no body, as the demons had transported it to the place where Abu’l-hol {the Giza Sphinx} is, to bury him near the tomb of his father and his grandfather Beisar. The suspicions then only increased against Sa, and the rebels, returned to Memphis, continued the war. The Devil went to them and made them see the body of Atrib where he had transported him. Atrib was removed from his tomb and placed on a bed, and the devil spoke to them through his {Atrib’s} tongue, bringing them round to his ideas, so that they prostrated themselves before him and adored him as idols are worshiped. Sa was killed and his body buried on the banks of the Nile; but the Nile, while rising, did not submerge his tomb. Seeing this, a part of the rebellious rallied to him, declaring that he had been killed unjustly, and went to prostrate themselves on his grave as the others did for Atrib; some cut a stone and gave it the form of Ashmum {’-š-m-w-m}. This stone, later called Abu’l-Hol, was placed between the two pyramids and became an object of worship. Thus there were three sects in Egypt. And the Sabaeans have never ceased to worship Abu’l-Hol, to sacrifice white cocks to him and to burn sandarac to him.”

Sa was believed by some to have murdered his brother At(h)rib and to have taken the kingdom, but the Syriac chronicles continue with Atrib’s descendants, the last four of whom are not named. In Maqrizi’s more detailed account we see that Sa did not actually kill Athrib. Also Athrib was “revived” by a demon, who spoke through his corpse lying on a bed. An analysis of the story shows: 1) The worshipers of the idol later known as Abu’l-hol (the Giza Sphinx), were Sabaeans of the party of Sa; 2) these were earlier of the party which rebelled on account of the supposed murder of Athrib; 3) Saba is said to have been killed by Sanos (= Sa) in the Syriac chronicles. We may therefore assume Maqrizi’s account is an explanation of the conflict between Sanos and Saba (Saba = the Sabaean party of Athrib, under their king Amer Saba), during which Saba was murdered. Sanos acquired the title Ethiopos, the “Ethiopian” as the slayer of Saba, according to the Syriac chronicles. The Sa who features in the first quaternion of the Ogdoad of eponymi in the Coptic/Arabic tradition represents the anti-god Seth, and the Athrib of that same first quaternion represents the hero-god Osiris/Horus (supra). Osiris was believed to have lived on after his decease and was often so depicted by the ancient Egyptians lying on a bed, precisely in the manner of Athrib in Maqrizi’s account. Here, evidently, the myth of Athrib and Sa, otherwise of Osiris and Seth, has been grafted onto the identically named Athrib and Sa of the second quaternion. The party of Amer Saba saw themselves as the party of the hero-god Osiris/Horus (Athrib) and their opponents of the party of Sa as the party of the anti-god Seth. The murdered king Saba (Semerkhet of Dynasty I) is said to have been the founder of Heliopolis, and this is the location of the speaking corpse (the “revived” Athrib) and the idol (the Sphinx) in Maqrizi, worshiped by the Sabaeans. Semerkhet is succeeded in Dynasty I by Qaa, whom we have identified as the eponymous ancestor of the Philistines, and the founder of Pelusium. Sa is the eponymus of Sais, and the name Sais is exchanged in the LXX for the Biblical Sin, that is Pelusium. Presumably, therefore, Qaa (titled “Sa”) slew his predecessor Semerkhet (Saba). This is evidence of a civil war or an internecine conflict between members of the ruling elite, interpreted in terms of the conflict between Osiris/Horus and Seth. It is precisely towards the end of Dynasty I and within the next Dynasty II that the conflict between the parties of Horus and Seth played out. There is, accordingly, a bifurcation of royal lines immediately following Athrib and Sa in Coptic/Arabic and Syriac tradition, one line descending from Athrib (the Syriac list), and one from Sa (Coptic/Arabic tradition, main line) through Todras ben Sa. Todras seems to be Djoser of Dynasty III (supra), whose immediate predecessor Nekherophes (Khasekhemwy) reconciled the conflicting houses of Horus and Seth, or, according to Manetho, received the submission of rebel “Libyans” (viz. Sabaeans).

[4) A missing Dynasty occurs here, Dynasty IV, which leaves the following numbers out of sequence by one in the Syriac list. Positionally this missing place corresponds to Maqrizi’s Qlimoun son of Atrib]

4) Farsoun son of Qlimoun = (Peron) Bar Sanos

5) 6) 7) and 8) are not named in Maqrizi but correspond to generations 5-8, Karimon, Aphintos, Arsakos and Samonos, in the Syriac chronicles.

9) Kalkala son of Hazaba, a.k.a. Kharbata in Maqrizi corresponds to Armios in the Syriac chronicles, Armios standing for “Kharbatios” (son of Kharbata), with exchange of “m” for “b,” as commonly in Egyptian. Kharbatios > Kharmatios > Arm(ad)ios.

10) Malia ben Hazaba/Kharbata = Pharnados for Bar Arnados/Armados = Son (Bar) of Kharbata (Armados).

11) Toutis son of Malia = Phanos, for the reasons given, or Phanos = Manos = Mal(i)os (son of Malia).

12) Gouriaq or Hazubah = Hysqos, viz. Husqos for Huzbah < Hazubah.

13) Zalfa (Amaaz Alfa) = Sysynos, viz. Samaaz Alfa > Suwuz-anos > Susunos, in which the initial “s” represents the guttural ayin-like sound at the beginning of the name Amaaz.

Because there is a missing Dynasty IV, generation 13 in the Syriac chronicles should be generation 14, and generation 15 is Setis = Salitis, the first of the Hyksos kings. Thus in the Syriac chronicles the next two generations represent the Hyksos kings, specifically Daram and his son El Walid:

14) Darma = Taracos (from Darma > Darwa > Taruas, Gk. “c” for “s,” probably as the patronymic of the next king).

15) El Walid = Setis (for Salitis = Walid), son of Darma.

626.35. Reverting to the Arabic post-diluvian king-list: this includes notably, towards its end, the “first female” ruler of Egypt, Hazubah or Guriaq. This surely is the queen Nitokris, who was the first queen on the throne of Egypt, according to Manetho, and the last ruler of Dynasty VI at the end of the Old Kingdom. She is the Nit-oqerty of the Turin Canon. The latter element in the name gave rise, most probably, to the Arabic name Guriaq. Hazubah, according to the Arabic tradition, introduced the Asiatic foreigners (Hyksos) into Egypt under El Walid, and Nitokris terminated the Old Kingdom, introducing a period of internal instability and chaos, during which Canaanite princes (the first Hyksos kings), beginning with Salitis, according to Manetho, seized power in Memphis.

626.36. In the Arabic post-diluvian tradition, Hazubah is the granddaughter of Tutis (Toutis, Tautis), the Pharaoh who took Sarai (Sarah) into his household. The name Tutis is interpreted “Mercurius.” It was believed, evidently, to incorporate the name of the Egyptian god Thoth (Thoth > Tutis), whom the Greeks equated with their god Hermes or Pan, and the Romans with Mercurius or Faunus. Hence, as has been suggested, the alternative name for the king who took Sarah in the Syriac chronicles, Panos = Pan or Faunus, viz. Thoth. As Nitokris appears in Dynasty VI in Manetho’s regular lists (Africanus’ epitome), she belongs to the same dynasty as Othoes, the first king of Manetho’s Dynasty VI (Africanus), who is the king archaeologists know as “Teti.” This name Teti is spelled identically to the name of the second king of Dynasty I, and the latter appears transcribed as Athothis in Manetho, which is interpreted in Eratosthenes “Hermogenes,” that is, “born of Thoth.” In other words, Eratosthenes saw in the two consonants t-t of this royal name, Teti, or Atet, the name of the god Thoth = Mercurius. There is only one king in Dynasties II through VI (as represented in the Arabic post-diluvian list) who bears a name incorporating these same consonants, and that is Teti, the first king of Dynasty VI (alternatively, the first king of Dynasty V in Eusebius’ epitome of Manetho). His name occupies a position, in addition, towards the end of the Old Kingdom, equivalent to the last few positions in the Arabic king-list where Tutis appears. Teti (Othoes) was overthrown by his own people, his bodyguard, according to Manetho, as Tutis (Thoulis) is said to have been in Suidas (ut cit. supra). The Arabic form of the name was borrowed from the Copts, who borrowed it, in turn, we may presume, from native Egyptian sources. It seems to occur likewise in connection with Sarai in the much earlier Greek Hellenistic source Artapanus (2nd century BC). He says king “Pharethothes” (Pharethōthēs) was the ruler of Egypt who took Sarai into his household. The name Pharethothes should probably be broken down into two elements: 1) Phare- = Pharaoh, the king who took Sarai being the first person referred to as “Pharaoh” in the Hebrew Scriptures (Gen. 12. 15ff.); and 2) -Thothes = Tutis, Teti, the personal name of the king himself, which incorporates the divine name Thoth. In Josephus, similarly, the Pharaoh who took Sarai into his household is called Pharaothes. (Pharaōthēs appears in Antiq. I. viii. 1 [= I. 163], probably for Phara[ō]–Othēs = Phare-Thothes, cf. the form Othoes, Othoēs, for Tutis, Teti, in Manetho, like the Arabic Afṭûṭîs and Ûṭîs instead of Ṭûṭîs, but see also infra on an alternative name for the Pharaoh in Josephus’ War. The word for “Pharaoh” is Pharaō simply in the latter place.)

626.36.1. The passage in Josephus’ Antiquities (loc. cit.) reads as follows (trans. Whiston, modified): “[I. viii. 1 = I. 163] Now, as soon as he came into Egypt, it happened to Abram as he supposed it would; for the fame of his wife’s beauty was greatly talked of; for which reason Pharaoh Othes [Gk. Phara ōthēs], the king of Egypt, would not be satisfied with what was reported of her, but would needs see her himself, and was preparing to enjoy her; [164] but God put a stop to his unjust inclinations, by sending upon him a distemper, and a sedition against his government. And when he inquired of the priests how he might be freed from these calamities, they told him that this his miserable condition was derived from the wrath of God, upon account of his inclinations to abuse the stranger’s wife. [165] He then, out of fear, asked Sarai who she was, and who it was that she brought along with her. And when he had found out the truth, he excused himself to Abram, that supposing the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, he set his affections on her, as desiring an affinity with him by marrying her, but not as incited by lust to abuse her. He also made him a large present in money, and gave him leave to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians; from which conversation his virtue and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had been before. [I. viii. 2] [166] For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another’s sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on that account, Abram conferred with each of them, and, confuting the reasonings they made use of, every one for their own practices, demonstrated that such reasonings were vain and void of truth: [167] whereupon he was admired by them in those conferences as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them arithmetic, and delivered to them the science of astronomy; [168] for before Abram came into Egypt they were unacquainted with those parts of learning; for that science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt, and from thence to the Greeks also. [I. viii. 3] [169] As soon as Abram was come back into Canaan …. etc.”

626.37. The king Tutis of the Arabic list who took Sarai into his household, therefore, must be Teti, the first king either of Dynasty V (Eusebius) or of Dynasty VI (Africanus), depending on which epitome of Manetho we follow. On a stone from the historical king Teti’s Pyramid complex found in the Pyramid complex of Pepi I, appears the name of a prominent female, usually taken to be, without explicit evidence, Teti’s wife. The second element of this name is missing, thus: “Khent…..” Khent in Egyptian means “Mistress.” The view of many Egyptologists is that the full name of this Egyptian woman was actually “Khent-kaus,” meaning “Mistress Her own spirits.” This nicely translates Sarai in the sense “Great guardian spirit,” lit. “Guardian spirits” (Heb. sar = “guardian spirit” [lit. “prince”], with the pluralis excellentiae -ai, cf. Gesenius-Tregelles, s.v. Adonai). Petrie pointed out (History of Egypt, Vol. I, New York 1897, p. 120) that the Egyptian word “ka” (as used in this name -kaus = kau “spirits” + s = “her”), properly referred to the spirit body known as the “double,” but as used in an Egyptian name for an Asiatic foreigner might mean something like “guardian spirit.” Thus Khent-kaus was both “Mistress” (Khent-) and, literally, “Her own guardian spirits” (kau-s),” meaning spirits, kau-, who attend a person (not “spirit doubles” of herself, as the individual had only one ka or “double,” according to the ancient Egyptian belief). We have already seen (§206, above, >>) that Sarai’s name in Sumerian, Ubara-bi-ana, similarly means “Mistress [-ana = khent] Its own [bi = -s, presumably the child’s] Guardian Spirit [ubara = kau].” Sarai’s name was eventually changed by God Himself to Sarah (from the same verbal root) which means “Princess, Ruler” rather than “Great guardian spirit,” to represent the physical change she underwent to bear her God-promised, Royal or Messiah-like, child.

626.38. Further confirming the identification of Khent-kaus with the Biblical Sarai, Khent-kaus seems to have had, like Sarai, a reputation for beauty. Khent-kaus is mentioned indirectly in this connection in a notice of Manetho relating to the Egyptian queen Nitokris. Under the name Nitokris of Dynasty VI in Manetho’s regular dynastic lists appears the following entry (Eusebius’ epitome, in Syncellus, Chronographica, ed. Mosshammer, p. 64, and cf. Africanus’ epitome, p. 63 = ed. Dindorf, p. 109, cf. p. 108): “A queen Nitokris came to the throne, being a rosy-complexioned woman, the noblest and most beautiful type, according to the views of her time, which (type of woman) also is said to have built the Third Pyramid.” This translation interprets the relative clause, beginning “which …,” as defining, by syllepsis, and as frequently elsewhere in such grammatical constructions in Greek, the type of complexion (Gk. khroia, “color,” feminine gender, which is the noun immediately preceding it), not queen Nitokris herself. The relevant phrases, therefore, read literally as follows: “Nitokris … being noblest and most beautiful, according to the views of her time, a rosy (female) by color, which (color) [by syllepsis for: “(a woman of) which (color)”] also is said to have built the Third Pyramid.” This surely is the correct interpretation, as opposed to the usual modern one: “Nitokris … a rosy (female) by color, who also is said to have built the Third Pyramid.” If understood to relate to Nitokris, the final relative clause would be an historical error: the Third Pyramid was built by Menkaure (Mukerinos) in the IVth Dynasty, as even Herodotus, otherwise maligned by Manetho for his poor knowledge of Egyptian history, was aware, not by Nitokris in the late VIth Dynasty. However, Herodotus comments on the very tradition referred to here by Manetho: that some held the Third Pyramid was built by a woman called, in Greek, “Rhodopis,” meaning “Rosy face.” There was considerable doubt in ancient times about who this Rhodopis was. The truth was revealed in the 1930s when an Egyptian archaeologist uncovered the ruins of the so-called “Fourth, or False, Pyramid” lying in the form of a shapeless mound at the foot of the Third Pyramid. He found this belonged to a woman of high status called Khent-kaus. Khent-kaus is surely the beautiful “rosy-complexioned” woman referred to by Manetho. The Armenian translation of Eusebius’ Chronicle actually adds to its entry on Nitokris the following note “…. they say she {the rosy-complexioned woman} built the Third Pyramid, which is a mound rising in the manner of an hillock” (following Aucher’s translation of the Armenian: “ipsamque ajunt tertiam pyramidem aedificasse, quae est moles erecta collis instar” in Eusebii Chronicon, Pars I, Venice, 1818, p. 209). Khent-kaus was responsible for the building of the Third Pyramid in the sense that a significant part of its subsidiary constructions belonged to her, viz. the so-called “Fourth Pyramid” and the edifices accompanying it, though it is also possible the work on the latter went hand in hand with the laying of the final superstructure on the Third Pyramid, which was left unfinished at Menkaure’s death. That Pyramid’s stonework, incidentally, is of a “rosy” hue, as the lowest sixteen courses of the cladding are of pink granite.

626.39. Evidence has been presented supra that Teti (Panos = Tutis, Teti) assumed the throne several years after he first received Sarai into his household and granted Hagar to Abraham. Arabic legends relate that in a subsequent period of her life Hagar renewed her association with Tutis, and that he was at that time, after a significant interval, king of Egypt. The circumstances were as follows: Abraham left Egypt, and returned to Canaan. Thereafter the patriarch compelled Hagar to take up her abode in Sinai, in order to prevent conflict between Ishmael, the son of Hagar, and Isaac, the son of Sarah, which latter was born in 2044 BC. The departure of Hagar is said to have occurred shortly after the weaning of Isaac (Gen. 21. 8f.), say around, or somewhat later than, 2040 BC. In Sinai, in the land of Shur on the western seaboard adjoining Egypt, Hagar sought and received sustenance, as the Arabic legends relate, from Pharaoh Tutis her erstwhile master. This would be around 2030 BC. If Tutis was Pharaoh in that later phase of Abraham’s history, it is probable another Pharaoh ruled Egypt when Sarai entered the royal household 35 years or so earlier c. 2065 BC. In that case Teti (Tutis) originally received Abraham and Sarai into Pharaoh’s household as a member of the ruling elite within that household, or as a Pharaoh himself of a rival line. After the return of Sarai to Abraham and some time subsequent to their departure from Egypt, Teti took power for the first time, or regained it after an intermission. If, as Arabic tradition affirms and as good sense would suggest, Abraham had contact with Hagar and Ishmael in the land of Shur bordering Egypt at that later period, he may also have renewed, to some degree, his contact with Tutis just across the Gulf of Suez. That would explain why Artapanus (§626.45, below, >>) believed Abraham was in Egypt over a period of 20 years (viz. c. 2060-2040 BC), and why the Egyptians believed he was 110 years old at the time (§626.43, below, >>), which was his age during Hagar’s sojourn in Shur, rather than around 90 years old as he was c. 2060 BC, when he first went down to Egypt.

626.40. This reconstruction accords with the little information that can be gleaned from early Jewish and Christian post-Biblical tradition relating to the seizure of Sarai. Only in Artapanus and Josephus’ Antiquities does the name Pharethothes or Pharaothes occur (= Pharaoh Thothes/Othoes, viz. Teti, see supra); in all the other early sources, a different form of name is attested for the Pharaoh who took Sarai, or otherwise, for the Pharaoh who was contemporary with Abraham: that name is 1) Nekhaos in Josephus’ War (1st century AD, Bell. Jud. V. ix. 4 [= V. 379-381]); 2) Nekhaoth in Theophilus of Antioch (2nd century AD, Ad Autolycum, ii. 31, there simply as a contemporary of Abraham, and the first Pharaoh, viz. the first so named in the Hebrew Scriptures); 3) Narakho in the Byzantine chronicler Malalas (Waddell p. 22ff., Chronographia p. 25, ed. Migne PG 97); 4) Nakhor in the Chronicon Paschale (Chronicon Paschale, ed. Dindorf, p. 86), there following Hermes Trismegistos (viz. Eliezer, Abraham’s servant who accompanied him to Egypt and to the court of Teti = Tutis = Thoulis, Thoulis being the immediate predecessor of Narakho in Malalas [ut cit. supra]), and also following Hermes’ (Eliezer’s) pupils Asklepios (Joseph) and Sesostris (III), §140, above, >>, the latter two anachronistically inserted between Thoulis and Nakhor because of their dependence on Hermes Trismegistos; 5) Narekho in Cedrenus (ed. Bekker, p. 37), there likewise following Hermes Trismegistos and his pupils; 6) “Riqayon” in Sefer ha-Yashar (ed. Haktav Institute, Jerusalem, 1987 [www.hebrewbooks.org, 2009], p. 40ff. = trans. Noah, 14. 1ff.), Riqayon being an anagram of Narakho/Nakhor (sic Beer, Leben Abrahams, p. 128): n-y-q-r (cf. Nakhor) or n-r-q-y (cf. Narakho) > r-q-y-n, as riqayon means “Good for nothing” in Hebrew.

626.41. The earliest extra-Biblical detail about the seizure of Sarai is found in Josephus’ War. His account reads as follows (Whiston, modified): “[V. ix. 4 = V. 379-381]. [379] Nekhaos, who bore also the name of Pharaoh, at that time king of Egypt, came down with a prodigious band, and carried off queen [sic, Whiston, Niese: basilis, queen or princess] Sarah, the mother of our race. [380] And what, then, did her husband Abraham, our progenitor? Did he take vengeance on the wanton one with the sword? — and yet he had three hundred and eighteen prefects under him, each at the head of a countless host. Or did he deem them nothing, if unaided by God, and uplifting pure hands towards this place, which you have now polluted, enlist the unconquered Supporter on his side? [381] And was not the queen [Niese: basilissa, queen] sent back the next morning, uninjured, to her husband; while the Egyptian, revering the place which you have stained with the blood of your countrymen, and terrified by nocturnal visions, fled, making presents of silver and gold to the Hebrews, beloved of God?”

626.42. In relation to this Pharaoh, Nekhaos, only, is Sarai termed “queen.” If Sarai is the Khent-kaus of the Egyptian monuments, then Nekhaos is Pharaoh Neferirkare, not only because the Greek form of the name (Nekhaos, Narakho etc.) is a fair representation, according to the canons of those times, of the ancient Egyptian Neferirkare, but also because Neferirkare alone terms Khent-kaus his “wife” and therefore his “queen.” We have seen that Teti (Pharaothes), according to Josephus’ Antiquities, suffered a “sedition” because of his attempt to possess Sarai (ut cit. supra “[I. 164] … God put a stop to his unjust inclinations, by sending upon him a distemper, and a sedition against his government.”) Nekhaos (Neferirkare) in Josephus’ War is depicted as having violently seized Sarai, in contrast to the account in Antiquities, which represents a more tempered approach on the part of Pharaothes (Teti). The most probable scenario is that the plague visited on Teti, and perhaps also the respect he accorded as a consequence to the religion of Abraham, spurred on the ruling elite to remove him from his position as the rightful heir. Neferirkare of a rival house seized Sarai in the coup, and took her as his wife. This situation did not continue long, however: Neferirkare first refers to Khent-kaus as his “wife,”

Khent-kaus from a Portico Pillar in her Pyramid Complex at Abusir

then this title is dropped, and she is referred to only as the “mother of the king of Northern and Southern Egypt, of the king of Northern and Southern Egypt.” The reference presumably is to younger members of the royal household who looked on Khent-kaus as “mother” on account of her marriage to Neferirkare. Nefirirkare will have dropped the title “wife” when God plagued his house. He may originally have believed the plague visited on Teti proved the latter’s illegitimacy, and the propriety of his own claim to be the prized woman’s husband, and king of Egypt, but if so, he now learned otherwise. Manetho preserves two versions of the succession following Dynasty IV. In one epitome of Manetho (Eusebius) Teti (Othoes) is the first king of Dynasty V. In the other (Africanus) a different line of kings appears, including in third place Nepherkheres (Neferirkare). The first three kings of Dynasty V, including Neferirkare the third of them, were brothers, and attempted to justify their rule by claiming direct descent from the sun-god. All this was prophesied, they alleged, by Djedi the “magician” to king Khufu. The story in the Westcar papyrus concerning Khufu and Djedi provided the setting. This is as expected if they seized power by deposing Teti, who was the legitimate heir. When the family-line of Neferirkare came to its end, however, Teti took the throne. He is therefore listed alternatively (in Africanus’ epitome of Manetho) as the first king of Dynasty VI. It was at that later period Teti resumed contact with Hagar, as suggested supra. In this series of events we have an explanation of the suppression of a regnal figure for “Panos” (Teti) in the Old Chronicle as preserved in the Syriac chronicles, and the appearance of the Pharaoh who gave Hagar to Abraham somewhat later (after Abraham had returned to Canaan, according to the Biblical chronology) in Manetho’s version of the Sirius Cycle, this same Teti being called “Ramessameno” in the latter.

626.43. Though modern historians are uncertain as to the identity of Khent-kaus they have settled to their own satisfaction that she played an important part in the transition from Dynasty IV (the dynasty of the builders of the Pyramids at Giza) and Dynasty V. Her temple complex is located next to the third pyramid, and she was revered by Neferirkare at the beginning of Dynasty V. This same dynastic transition is highlighted, as they have pointed out, in the story of king Khufu and Djedi in the Westcar Papyrus. (Go to §1026ff., below, >>, for the full translation, and §1026.4f., below, >>, for the sections recounting the story of Djedi and the “birth” of the first three kings of Dynasty V.) There the very aged, yet surprisingly sprightly, seer Djedi informs king Khufu that he knows where the design of the “secret chambers of Thoth” can be found which Khufu needs to build his “horizon” (pyramid), meaning the Great Pyramid at Giza. Djedi prophesies it will be brought to Khufu by the eldest of the three “sons of Ra” who are at that very point in time being “conceived” by the priestess of Ra at Heliopolis. The three named brothers turn out to be the first three kings of Dynasty V, the youngest of whom is Neferirkare. The Westcar Papyrus is fragmentary, and the denouement of the story lost. However Khufu clearly received the design and built his pyramid, which gloriously stands to this day. Modern historians have searched in vain for a family connection between Khent-kaus and these monarchs. She seems, in fact, to have been of non-royal stock (Helck) as she is referred to in the inscriptions as the “daughter of God.” Is not the key to her identity contained, as suspected, in the story of Khufu and Djedi? The only other non-royal figure to play an important role in that dynastic transition, as Khent-kaus is thought to have done, is Djedi the seer. If Khent-kaus is Sarai, for the reasons already given, is not the “seer” Djedi himself Abraham, the “brother,” actually the husband, of Sarai-Khent-kaus? The credit given by the court to Djedi, his advanced age (he reached at least 110 years, according to the papyrus), his incorporation into the household of Khufu, as the story goes on to inform us, and his familiarity with the astronomical secrets of the “chambers of Thoth” employed to build the Great Pyramid, coincide with what we are told of Abraham both in the Bible, and in post-Biblical Hellenistic and Rabbinic sources. The Egyptian name Djedi means “Enduring,” and this is a precise translation of the Chaldaean (Aramaic) Etana (Ethan), which was Abraham’s alternative name. (See §204, above, >>.) Ethan-Abraham was famed for being renewed in strength at an advanced age to produce Isaac, as Etana was for partaking of the “plant of birth” and for thus being enabled to beget a son, and as Djedi was for his youthful longevity. Doubtless the circumstantial details of the story in the Westcar Papyrus are exaggerated for effect and fanciful. The miraculous conception of the three sons of Ra is one such, a pious fiction to justify the dynastic succession of the new house. Presumably what is meant is that the three brothers who founded Dynasty V became, during the lifetime of Hor-djedef, “sons of Ra” by incorporation into the priesthood of Ra at Heliopolis. Their adoptive “father” was the priest of Ra, Userre, so named in the Papyrus. In the Hebrew Sefer ha-Yashar (ed. Haktav Institute, Jerusalem, 1987 [www.hebrewbooks.org, 2009], p. 40ff. = trans. Noah, 14. 2, 28-31), Rikayon (= Narakho, Neferirkare, see supra) rises to power, or rather usurps power, precisely as a surrogate king or co-regent under another “king” called Osweires (’-s-w-y-r-s), which is a good representation of the name Userre. According to that account Rikayon was originally an immigrant from Shinar (southern Babylonia). Petrie noted the possible Mesopotamian influence on the Heliopolitan priesthood in the Delta which usurped power as Dynasty V (A History of Egypt, Vol. I, New York, 1897, p. 85). There is also a conflation of historical chronology in the Westcar Papyrus which represents the founders of Dynasty V as contemporaries of Hor-djedef, the son of Khufu in Dynasty IV. The first of them was foretold to bring Khufu in the Otherworld the design of the “secret chambers of Thoth,” whose location was provided by Djedi at the request of Hor-djedef. The design was required to construct Khufu’s “horizon” (pyramid, tomb), and this implies the chambers of the pyramid, at least, were completed in the time of Hor-djedef and the first king of Dynasty V. Khent-kaus similarly could have been a contemporary of Hor-djedef and of the first three kings of Dynasty V; as well as of Teti, presuming he was a rival claimant to the first position in Dynasty V. This is a strikingly early demonstration that Manetho’s standard scheme of successive dynasties, with long lists of kings ruling one after the other, does not reflect the actual succession of events: the only relevant, native, written account of the history of the period is contained in the Westcar Papyrus, and that reflects the rather conflated scheme we have concluded was embodied in the Sirius Cycle of the Old Chronicle.

626.43.1. Note on the Interpretation of the Westcar Papyrus in light of the identification Djedi = Ethan = Etana

Djedi is depicted as being 110 years old in Papyrus Westcar.

Djedi = Ethan-Abra(ha)m.

Abram entered Canaan at age 75;

Abram entered Egypt not long thereafter;

Ishmael was born at age 86, after his return to Canaan from Egypt;

Isaac was born when Abraham was age 100.

626.43.2. Immediately before the birth of Ishmael Abram was granted the vision of his seed’s sojourning and affliction in Egypt at the sacrifice of the pieces (Gen. 15). In that visionary experience the eagle which dismembered the sacrifice represented Pharaoh during Abram’s visit to Egypt some years prior, when the king separated Abram from his wife Sarai (“dismembering the body of the sacrifice”), and that event, again, prefigured the affliction his seed would endure in Egypt for four hundred years (= generations, Gen 15. 13, 16). The reassembling of the pieces of the sacrifice by Abram represented the recovery of his wife from the house of Pharaoh, achieved by the miraculous intervention of God in plaguing Pharaoh’s house. (Gen. 15. 11, Heb. heshib otham interpreted in the sense “he [Abram] restored them [the pieces].”) This, again, foreshadowed the final deliverance of the seed of Abraham by the plaguing of Egypt at the Exodus.

626.43.3. Implied further is that the seed referred to in the vision was not Hagar’s line by Ishmael, since the sacrificial victims represented the seed-body of Abram during his sojourn in Egypt, and Hagar was not then part of that experience, being only granted to Abram at its close. We can see, then, that what happened personally to Abram in Egypt “prefigured” what happened later to Abram’s seed-line (Israel), during the 400 years of captivity in Egypt and in the Exodus, and that was represented symbolically in the events which transpired after Abram’s return to Canaan at the sacrifice of the pieces (Genesis 15). The scattering of the pieces of the sacrifice by the eagle, and the restoration of the pieces by Abram, “transpired” in Egypt during his sojourn there, in the sense that Abram’s wife was separated from him by Pharaoh and then restored. So in the Westcar Papyrus the dismembered pieces are restored “spiritually” in the otherworld in the presence of Khufu’s spirit by Djedi. The dismembered creatures in the Papyrus are the same as in the Genesis account, viz. a pair of birds, and the “noble cattle,” which is a technical term denoting animals of the type of cattle, goats and sheep, all three of which are mentioned in Gen 15. 9. It would not be proper, according to Djedi, for these “noble cattle” to be dismembered, as Khufu had commanded to be done to a captive, the reason being that such creatures were sacred in Egypt and not allowed to be slain. Other circumstances in the Papyrus parallel those found in Genesis as described hereafter.

626.43.4. Thus “spiritual” events were transpiring all the while Abram was in Egypt when he was between ages 75 and 86. These events only played out in the personal history of Abra(ha)m at a later stage in his life between the ages of 86 and around 110, beginning with the sacrifice of the pieces and continuing till the latter age when Hagar’s line was ousted into the wilderness of Paran.

626.43.5. Accordingly in the Westcar Papyrus Djedi (Ethan-Abram) is brought into the royal household in the generation of Hor-djedef, viz. one generation subsequent to king Khufu of Dynasty IV, at the very beginning of Dynasty V, when the first of the new line of kings of Dynasty V was not yet deceased: the founder of the new dynasty is foretold to bring Khufu the design of the chambers, viz. to die and take them with him into the Otherworld, some time in the future. Yet the first three kings of that line were alive then and ready to be “adopted” into the family of the sun-god. This is precisely the point in time we have concluded on other grounds Abram entered Egypt. The events involving Djedi (Ethan-Abram) are depicted in the Westcar Papyrus as occurring in the “spirit-world” when Hor-djedef brings the sage into the “presence” of his late (“justified”) father king Khufu. Khufu has been busy sailing down the celestial Nile in his royal barge, entertaining himself with stories of what departed magicians accomplished for the earlier kings of his line. Now his living son Hor-djedef presents him, in that same spiritual realm, with the living sage Djedi (Ethan-Abram) and Khufu is able to “see” and “experience” the spiritual events which were foreshadowed, as outlined supra, during the historical sojourn of Abram in Egypt. That is why Djedi is presented to Khufu in the spirit-world as if he is already 110 years old, which was Abra(ha)m’s age when the last of the foreshadowings was historically fulfilled (in the flight of the servant-girl). Here they are depicted as occurring “spiritually,” telescoped, as it were, into the single point in time when Hor-djedef brings him into the royal household. It is a typically Egyptian, graphic, narrative way of depicting the unfolding of these spiritual events, in a way reminiscent of the fusion of spiritual and mundane realms in one Egyptian artist’s depiction of the “ba” or soul, as a human-headed bird, emerging out of a tomb to eat the sacrificial meal provided by the deceased’s relatives. Apart from prophecies uttered by Djedi in the Westcar Papyrus the events therein described are principally the dismembering and reconstituting of the slain animals (the sacrifice of the pieces, just preceding Abram’s age 86), the attempt to incorporate the kings of Dynasty V into the line of Khent-kaus (Sarai, here under a new name Rud-djedet [= Sarah, see infra], when she was taken by Abimelech of Gerar, viz. after Abraham had reached 100 years old), and the flight and swallowing up of the latter’s servant-girl (Hagar, around Abraham’s age 110).

626.43.6. Therefore, the dialog and supernatural phenomena all occur “spiritually” in the presence of the deceased Khufu in the afterlife in Papyrus Westcar. The events which transpired when Abra(ha)m was brought into Pharaoh’s household physically by Hordjedef at the time of the transition from Dynasty IV to Dynasty V (and VI), are represented spiritually in the phenomena showed to Abra(ha)m at a later stage in life.

626.43.7. Ethan = Djedi probably derives from the toponym Djed-Snofru, which is where Djedi is found by Hor-djedef when he brings him into the royal household. Though surprisingly sprightly at age 110, Djedi is found on that occasion lying recumbent, his limbs being treated medicinally by his servant. This is as expected if Djedi is Ethan-Abram, as there was a famine when Abram entered Egypt, and he is likely to have been under physical duress. Djedi would mean in that case “He of Djed(-Snofru),” the fuller Hebrew form of the name being Ethan (“Abiding” = Djed) Ezrahi (“Radiant/Offspring” = Snofru), viz. He of the Enduring/Abiding (dj–d) Radiant, blessed, happy (n–f–r) Offspring (s3). The toponym Djed(-Snofru), then, is Hebrew Ethan(-Ezrah), and that is the territory east of the Nile stretching towards Petra (see §204.1, above, >>). Becoming a patronymic it would pass down to the son, and so it seems to have done: but with a particular transformation and reinterpretation of the second element, not now Ezrah, Radiant/offspring, but Yishaq, He is radiant, beaming, from the root ṣ-q > ṣ–ḥ-q, = break forth, of light, happiness, laughter etc., rather than the related z-ḥ > z-r-ḥ, break forth, of light and offspring; so the Beth-Yishaq of Amos 7. 16, is the Hebrew equivalent of the toponym, the Abiding-place (Beth) of the Radiant one (Yishaq). As a patronymic it passed down further to Ethan’s people, and became a name for what is known otherwise as the “House of Shalem” (Kish) in Mesopotamia, which was the “family-tree” of Etana (Ethan), that family tree being named “Radiant (a2) face (sag3)” or, if treated as a fever-demon, “Inflamed (a2) face (sag3)”, or, if treated as a malevolent serpent “Horned/Rayed (a2) head (sag3)”, viz. the Asag or Asakku demon. The name bears an obvious phonetic similarity to the Hebrew name Yishaq, and in fact the equivalent Akkadian verb ṣiahu/ṣâhu, laugh, gives rise to the noun ṣihtu, laughter, happiness, radiant aspect, which is represented in Sumerian with a combination of the signs a (= a2) and igi (a synonym of sag3), meaning identically “radiant (a2) face (igi).” Sarah herself represents the verbal noun ṣeḥoq (“laughter”) as the meaning of the name Isaac (Gen. 21. 6). Since the initial “a” (a2) in the name A-sag/k/q can also be read “it” it is likely the Sumerian name was intended originally to be a transcription of the Semitic Yishaq (pronounced Yitshak), viz. It-sak (initial Western Semitic verbal yi– becoming -i in Eastern Semitic), and was written with the two Sumerian signs a2 (vocalized “it”) and sag3 (vocalized “sak”) as a reflex of the Sumerian a2 and igi, which meant identically “radiant face,” exchanging sag3 for the synonymical igi in order to reproduce the sound of the Semitic name. In the myth Ninurta and the Stones, Ninurta, representing the First Dynasty of Uruk, or more specifically Gilgamesh (Amraphel), fights against the demonic “warrior” Asakku (House of Kish = Abraham’s line of Shalem, Beth-Yishaq) and the conflict is reflected cosmically in a storm of stones (asteroid particles = stones [kernels] of the Asakku tree, following in part Jacobsen’s interpretation, according to which Asakku is a tree, Harps That Once, p 251 n. 8, cf. the dominant Biblical motif of the “seed of Abraham”): the shower of kernels/stones descends from the sky, causing water to back up and flood in the highlands to the north of Mesopotamia. It is a symbolic representation of the Sodom asteroid event which occurred in the same era as Amraphel’s invasion of the Levant and the birth of Isaac. Ninurta brings order to chaos by turning the asteroid particles into sacred gem-stones. In the Iranian interpretation Amraphel, or Nimrod son of Canaan, is Feridun, and Feridun’s opponent (corresponding to Asakku) is Zohak, Arabic al-Dahhak, the latter name formed from the Arabic verb ḍ–ḥ-k = Hebrew ṣ–ḥ-q, laugh. Here there is a survival of an older level of tradition in which the Asakku demon represents the “House of Isaac.”

626.43.7.1. In Artapanus the name of Abraham’s son is Mempsasthenoth (seemingly an Egyptian name) and this appears to be a Greek transcription of the native P3 djd s3 nfr, Pa (the) Djed (Abiding) Sa-nufr (Snofru). The passage in Artapanus (apud Eusebius, Praep. Evang. IX. 27. 1) reads as follows: “Artapanus says in his work Concerning the Jews that when Abraham was dead, and his son Mempsasthenoth, and likewise the king of the Egyptians, the latter’s son [= descendant] Palmanothes took the throne.”

Pa Djed sa nufr

Pe seth sa noth

> Mpe seth sa noth

[with nasalization of initial “p” by the insertion of preceding “m,” sigma for Eg. dj, and theta for Egypian “d” and “f(r),” the final “r” being dropped in the latter as in Heb. Noph = Nufr in Men-nufr, Memphis]

> Emp seth sa noth

[with transposition of vowel “e”]

> Emps (s)eth sa noth

[with syncrasis of “p” and following “s”]

> Meps (s)eth sa noth

[with transposition of “e” and “m”]

> Memps (s)eth sa noth

[with inserted “m” before “p” for a second time]

> Memps (s)ath se noth

[with transposition of vowels “e” and “a”]

626.43.8. By the time Abram/Abraham is age 110, according to Genesis, Sarai/Sarah has been taken by two foreign rulers as wife:

1) Pharaoh king of Egypt, under her earlier name Sarai; and 2) Abimelech king of the Philistine city Gerar, under her latter-day name Sarah.

626.43.9. Likewise in the Egyptian history underlying the account in the Westcar Papyrus:

Khent-kaus/Rud-djedet, many Egyptologists think, is the same woman under two names, being the “mother” of the kings of Dynasty V. That being granted, she must have been the wife of two figures: 1) of Neferirkare (Nekhaos etc. = Pharaoh), under the earlier name Khent-kaus (= Sarai) and 2) of User-re, under the later name Rud-djedet (= Sarah). From the latter name, it may be, arose the Greek name “Rhod-opis” for Khent-kaus, as in later Egyptian (Coptic) the initial element Rud = Rhod. The first husband of Khent-kaus (Neferirkare) was king of Egypt as in the Biblical account and the second (User-re) was a prominent person, a priest of “Ra of Sakhbu”, and spiritual “father” of Neferirkare and the two preceding kings of Dynasty V. A priest in the Egyptian sense of the word might be classed a “king” (melekh, originally “counsellor”) in Hebrew, particularly if he exercised authority in a neighboring region (like Gerar in the Negev). The book of Genesis depicts Abimelech as a person who feared God, and therefore as having qualities befitting a priest. Osweiris (= User-re) is described as an Egyptian “king”, an upright one in contrast to his evil successor Rikayon (= Nekhaos/Nefirkare), in the Hebrew book Sefer ha-Yashar. There he is called the son of “Anom”. Anom is probably the eponymus of the “Anamim”, who are listed in Genesis amongst the descendants of Mizraim. In the Targums the Anamim are located in the western Delta. The toponym Sakhbu of the cult-center of Ra may be constructed out of a Cushite tribal eponymus (see infra), and is, likewise, thought to have been located in the western Delta. If User-re is the Osweiris of Sefer ha-Yashar, then the patronymic “son of Anom” is confirmation of his derivation from a priestly line in the western Delta. The name Abimelech, according to Rabbinic tradition, was a title of the rulers of Gerar. In that case, Abimelech was his title and User-re his personal name.

626.43.10. Featuring prominently in the account of Abraham’s contact with Abimelech is the toponym Beer-Sheba. The LXX reads Gerar (Gerara) for Gedor in I Chron. 4. 39ff., referring to this same area, as the location inhabited by Min-Ham and the Meunim (Minaeans). Since Min-folk (Sabaeans) were present here, Sheba is likely to have been originally the eponymus of the Sabaeans, and Beer-Sheba would denote the “Well of the Sabaeans”. If so, it was (re)interpreted at a later date to mean the “Well of the Oath” (between Abimelech and Abraham), and the “Well of Seven” (the seven sheep of the sacrificial oath). The “oath” referred to in the toponym was that Abraham would not perfidiously break covenant with Abimelech’s “offspring” and “progeny” (Gen. 21. 23): in terms of Dynasty V, this meant with Rud-djedet’s “sons”, the first kings of the Dynasty. Ra was the god of the Cushite Sabaeans, which suggests the possibility that the line of User-re, priest of Ra, had Cushite roots. Indeed the Sabaeans were believed to have spread from Cush (Ethiopia) northwards along the Nile, and westwards along the African coast from the Nile, and more specifically, in the case of the North African littoral, from the region of the western Delta. Manetho, accordingly, describes Dynasty V as having originated in Elephantine on the southern border of Egypt with Cush. The word Sakhbu is, or might be taken to be, from the same Semitic root (with transposition of the final breathing/aspirate) as Sheba (in Beer-Sheba). Gesenius-Tregelles takes the Cushite eponymus Seba (initial samekh) to represent the same Ethiopian word as Sheba (initial shin), and to be cognate to the verb s-b-‛ (initial sin), “to absorb, be glutted with (drink or food)”, whilst the Egyptian s-kh-b (whence Sakhbu, the initial sibilant being the Egyptian equivalent of Hebrew samekh) means identically to “swallow, lick up, chew up”. The spiritual family of User-re’s wife Rud-djedet is connected with a miraculous provision of water by Djedi in the Westcar Papyrus as is Beer-Sheba for the opening of a water-source there by Abraham when he was making the compact with Abimelech for the settlement of his family at the newly dug well.

626.43.11. So, the spiritual chronological context is some time after Ishmael and Hagar left Canaan for Paran, which latter event occurred when Abraham was around 105 years of age or more, a long time after Abram first went down to Egypt. When Abram went down to Egypt (between 75 and 86 year of age) Khufu was dead (“justified”) and it was near the transition to Dynasty VI. The first three Dynasty V kings were due to be adopted as “sons of Ra” in the spiritual womb of Rud-djedet. This was a later phase of Abraham’s life, but is depicted as spiritually transpiring in the days of his visit to Egypt. The whole period of Abraham’s contact comprised 20 years according to Artapanus. This figure may be based on a spiritual interpretation of the vision of the pieces like that found in Papyrus Westcar. Similarly in the account already examined in Josephus, War (V. ix. 4 = V. 379-381), Nekhaos (Neferirkare) is stated specifically to have revered the “place” (Gk. khôros, otherwise, land, country) stained with blood by the Jews besieged in Jerusalem, which is an element in the story not drawn from the Bible. It implies Nefirirkare had a religious connection of some kind with the promised land, and this is as expected if he was adopted as the spiritual son of User-re/Abimelech, the priest-king of Gerar (part of the land promised to Abraham) and of Beer-Sheba. The account in Josephus reads as follows (italics mine) “[War, V. 379] Nekhaos, who bore also the name of Pharaoh, at that time king of Egypt, came down with a prodigious band, and carried off queen [sic, Whiston, Niese: basilis, queen or princess] Sarah, the mother of our race. [380] And what, then, did her husband Abraham, our progenitor? Did he take vengeance on the wanton one with the sword? — and yet he had three hundred and eighteen prefects under him, each at the head of a countless host. Or did he deem them nothing, if unaided by God, and uplifting pure hands towards this place, which you have now polluted, enlist the unconquered Supporter on his side? [381] And was not the queen [Niese: basilissa, queen] sent back the next morning, uninjured, to her husband; while the Egyptian, revering the place which you have stained with the blood of your countrymen, and terrified by nocturnal visions, fled, making presents of silver and gold to the Hebrews, beloved of God?”

626.43.12. Khufu in the Otherworld is apprised of Djedi’s spiritual powers by Khufu’s son, the sage Hordjedef (who is still alive) and witnesses them himself in the Otherworld, since the dead creatures (dismembered) are brought before Khufu and reconstituted by the “magic spell” of Djedi in front of Khufu in his otherworldly palace. Khufu wants Djedi to bring him (viz. likewise at death) the secret chambers of Thoth, but is advised that the eldest of the sons of Rud-djedet will do that (viz. as the first of the three to die, and thus bring Khufu the design in the Otherworld). One coincidental implication is that Hordjedef was notified of the whereabouts of the design of the chambers by Djedi and built them into Khufu’s “horizon” (pyramid tomb), either towards the end of Dynasty IV or when Dynasty V was in power. Sarah no longer had her old name Khent-kaus (“Mistress Her own guardian spirits” = Sarai) by this time, but the new name Rud-Djedet (“Ruler” [Rud] + Matriarch [Djedet] = Sarah [Djedet being the female equivalent of Djedi = Ethan, Patriarch). See further §206 sub fin., above, >>. Under her new name she is termed wife of User-re, who therefore must be Abimelech, since Sarah was only so named when she was taken by Abimelech, not in the earlier incident with Pharaoh when she was still called Sarai (Khent-kaus).

626.43.13. Hordjedef in that spiritual realm is well acquainted with Abraham and knows he can “rejoin” parts of slaughtered animals. That means Djedi had experienced the vision of the pieces “already”, as it were, in the chronological context of the spiritual interview with Khufu. Actually Abra(ha)m was in Egypt for the first time before he was 86 years old, over 24 years prior to age 110.

626.43.14. Rud-djedet becomes (by premonition in the account in the Westcar Papyrus) wife of User-re (Abimelech) the priest of Ra. She is considered therefore to be the wife of Ra and Ra’s sons (the first three kings of Dynasty V) are held to be her sons.

626.43.15. Seemingly the Egyptian kings of Dynasty V looked to Khent-kaus/Rud-djedet as the spiritual matron of their House, long after the initial seizure of her by Neferirkare, and saw themselves as her promised “seed”. Thus in Neferirkare’s inscriptions Khent-kaus is first termed “wife” of the king, but subsequently the “mother” of two kings of that dynasty. When she was taken to wife by User-re (Abimelech), they seem to have had themselves adopted as “sons of Ra” of Sakhbu under the priesthood of User-re, presumably in order to legitimize their line as the “seed” line through that relationship rather than through the failed marriage relationship. The fact Khent-kaus (Sarai) was physically reinvigorated (to bear Isaac) when she became the mother of the “seed-kings” of Dynasty V (viz. by becoming the “wife” of User-re-Abimelech), is illustrated by the two depictions of Khent-kaus in the building complex of Neferirkare, first as an old woman then as a young woman.

Khent-kaus as old woman (left) and young woman (right)

626.43.16. Khufu is concerned he will be unable to visit Rud-djedet (viz. spiritually) by “sailing” to the location of the “birth,” because the canals are dry, but Djedi provides to fill the Two Fishes canal there with water, and thus enable him to journey thither. The filling of the Two Fishes canal is comparable to Abraham’s opening up the wells around Beer-Sheba. Though the name may have been applied to at least one literal waterway in Egypt or its vicinity at some point in history it is likely it indicated originally the “heavenly” river, in the Egyptian context the celestial Nile, through which the “two fishes” of the constellation Pisces are depicted swimming already in the first half of the second millennium BC in Mesopotamia (the Chaldaean Ethan-Abram’s home).

626.43.17. A visit of these usurping kings by Khufu would be understood to be an event with negative consequences, as it may be presumed Khufu would seek to harm the “new-born” infants, who replaced his dynastic line. By helping Khufu achieve his end, Djedi would be thought to have supported the claims of the House of Khufu and Hor-djedef over the usurpatory claims of Dynasty V.

626.43.18. Rud-djedet is depicted, of course, as concerned for her (spiritual) children, but Rud-djedet’s maid (Sarah’s maid Hagar) as disobedient to her mistress. The maid threatens to betray the secret adoption of these kings into the family of Ra via Rud-djedet to Khufu in the Otherworld (presumably in order for Khufu to deprive them of the right to rule), but comes to a bad end (swallowed by a crocodile = annulling of her line). In other words, Hagar failed to recognize the heavenly origin of the “seed” (interpreted by the Egyptian writer to be the line of Dynasty V, not the line of Isaac, as in Genesis), and supported rather, it may be surmised, her patron and originally her master, Teti of Dynasty VI, who eventually replaced them.

626.43.19. The connection of the seed-line of Sarah-Rud-djedet with the priesthood of Heliopolis seems to have been maintained in the time of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt. Joseph (Osarseph is the transmogrification of his name in Manetho) was married to Asenath daughter of the priest of Heliopolis (On), and Moses was treated as having descended from his line. The priests of Heliopolis, accordingly, portrayed Moses in a more positive light. On this connection between the Israelites and Heliopolis see The True Date of the Exodus, §S-202d, footnote 2, at the following link: https://www.christianhospitality.org/resources/exodus-online/content/exodus10.html#Section202dfn2. It is possible Joseph was given a wife of Heliopolitan priestly origin by the Hyksos pharaoh of his day precisely because he was a descendant of Sarah-Rud-djedet, the “mother” of the priestly Dynasty V Heliopolitan kings. This would explain the (re-)interpretation of the name Serapis/Sarapis (= Osiris, who was identified with Joseph, cf. Osar-seph) in Greek as “Sarra-pais,” “child of Sarah” (Firmicus, De Error. ed. Ziegler, cap. xiii, cf. also on Serapis = Joseph Suidas, s.v. Sarapis, Melito, Apol., ed. Cureton, p. 24, l. 21, Tertullian, Ad Nationes II. 8.10, Abodah Zarah, 43a, Rufinus, Hist. Eccl. ii. 23).

626.44. Hellenistic testimonies to the astrological (and/or astronomical) expertise of Abraham:

a) Eusebius Praeparatio Evangelica IX. xvii. 2-9. (trans. Gifford [modified]): “2. [FROM ALEXANDER POLYHISTOR] ‘Eupolemus in his book Concerning the Jews of Assyria says that …. 3. in the thirteenth generation Abraham was born, who surpassed all men in nobility and wisdom, who was also the inventor of astronomy and the Chaldaic art, and pleased God well by his zeal towards religion.

“‘4. By reason of God’s commands this man came and dwelt in Phoenicia, and pleased their king by teaching the Phoenicians the changes of the sun and moon and all things of that kind. And afterwards … 6. … when there came a famine Abraham removed into Egypt with all his household, and dwelt there, and the king of Egypt took his wife in marriage, Abraham having said that she was his sister.

“‘7. He also related fully that the king was unable to consort with her, and that it came to pass that his people and his household were perishing. And when he had called for the soothsayers, they said that the woman was not a widow; and thus the king of Egypt learned that she was Abraham’s wife, and gave her back to her husband.

“‘8. And Abraham dwelt with the Egyptian priests in Heliopolis and taught them many things; and it was he who introduced astronomy and the other sciences to them, saying that the Babylonians and himself had found these things out, but tracing back the first discovery to Enoch, and saying that he, and not the Egyptians, had first invented astrology.

“‘9. … But the Greeks say that Atlas invented astrology, and that Atlas is the same as Enoch: and that Enoch had a son Methuselah, who learned all things through angels of God, and thus we gained our knowledge.’”

626.45. b) Ibid. IX. xviii. 1 “ARTAPANUS in his Jewish History says that the Jews … were called Hebrews from Abraham. And he, they say, came with all his household into Egypt, to Pharethothes the king of the Egyptians, and taught him astrology; and after remaining there twenty years, removed back again into the regions of Syria: but that many of those who had come with him remained in Egypt because of the prosperity of the country.”

c) Ibid. IX. xviii. 2. “In certain anonymous works, however, we found … that Abraham having been instructed in the science of astrology came first into Phoenicia, and taught astrology to the Phoenicians, and afterwards passed on into Egypt.”

626.46. d) Ibid. IX. xvi. 4. “[FROM JOSEPHUS] … Nicolaus Damascenus, in the fourth book of his Histories, speaks thus: …. 5. ‘Abraham, having been informed that the Egyptians were in prosperity, was eager to cross over to them, both to partake of their abundance, and to be a hearer of their priests, to learn what they said about the gods; intending either to follow them, if they were found superior, or to bring them over to the better belief, if his own opinions were preferable.

“6. Then next he adds:

“‘And he associated with the most learned of the Egyptians, and the result was that his virtue and his consequent reputation became more illustrious from this cause.

“‘7. For whereas the Egyptians delight in different customs, and disparage one another’s usages, and are for this reason ill-disposed towards each other, he by conferring with them severally, and discussing the arguments which they used in defense of their own practices, proved them to be empty and devoid of all truth.

“‘8. Being therefore admired by them in their conferences as a very wise man, and strong not only in intelligence but also in persuasive speech on whatever subjects he undertook to teach, he freely imparts to them the science of arithmetic, and also communicates to them the facts of astronomy. For before Abraham’s arrival the Egyptians were ignorant of these subjects; for they passed from the Chaldaeans into Egypt, and thence came also to the Greeks.’”

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