Listed 7 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "MEMPHIS Ancient city EGYPT".
About 32 km S of Cairo, a short distance E of El-Bedreshein, the first capital of the united Upper and Lower Egypt (cf. Diod. 1.50 et passim; 16.48-51). Menes (ca. 3000 B.C.) had founded a fortress here, the White Wall (Mennofer), which became Memphis in Greek and later also Pephis (Hierocles, Synecdemus, ca. A.D. 535). The city venerated the god Ptah, who in his capacity as a creator of the universe, was identified with the Grecian Hephaistos. Consequently, the Egyptian temple was known as the Hephaisteion. Herodotos (ca. 450 B.C.), wrote at length (2. passim; 3.27) about the city and her kings, mentioning a chapel, dedicated to Aphrodite the Refugee, which was erected within the court of the Palace of King Proteus (cf. Hom. Od. 4384ff). This Aphrodite is not the goddess, wife of Hephaistos, but Menelaus' wife (Herod. 2.1 lf), who, having been rescued from Paris, resided with the king until she was claimed by her husband. In 332 B.C., when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, he celebrated his victories here in the Greek manner. On his return from the Oasis of Ammon (Siwa), he was crowned Pharaoh in the Hephaisteion and when he died in 323 B.C., his body was kept here until his tomb was completed in Alexandria. Politically, Ptolemy I transferred the capital to Alexandria, but Memphis continued to be the religious capital (cf. the decree of the Rosetta Stone) with Ptah, however, losing his importance and prestige to Serapis. The Bull Apis, the incarnation of Osiris, resumed his functions as symbol of the new official god Serapis and, consequently, the burial place of the sacred bulls has since been known as the Serapeion. Imitating Alexander, the Ptolemies were crowned in the Temple of Ptah, a custom that survived until Ptolemy Physkon ca. 171-130 B.C. (Diod. 33.13). When Strabo visited Egypt (ca. 25 B.C.), Memphis still attracted visitors. They saw (Strab. 17.31) the Temple of Apis room and the Hephaisteion. They could amuse themselves by watching the bullfight until an edict of Theodosius in A.D. 389 put an end to all such diversions. In 640, when Fustat was chosen to be the capital of Arabic Egypt, it was built out of the ruined blocks of the edifices of Memphis. The colossal statue of Ramses II, now erected in front of Cairo Railway Station, was probably the one seen by Strabo at Memphis. Although there is little now to be seen at Memphis, its necropolis, Saqqara, reflects its lost prosperity. This lies a short distance to the W, where the site is easily recognized by the Step Pyramid. Apart from the rich tombs of the Old Kingdom, the sanctuaries and the labyrinth of subterranean galleries related to Imhotep, there are the Serapeion and the Exedra of the poets and philosophers. The Serapeion, N of the Step Pyramid, contains in its subterranean passages the granite and basalt sarcophagi of 24 sacred bulls. These sarcophagi were kept in separate rooms, hewn in either side of the passage. The latest sarcophagi were in use until the late Ptolemaic period. The approach to the Serapeion was flanked by a long corridor of sphinxes, confirming what Strabo had seen (17.32), and nearby in the Exedra were set up statues of ten of the Greek poets and philosophers arranged in a semicircle around Homer. They date from the reign of Ptolemy I.
S. Shenouda, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Part of the necropolis of Memphis.
(Memphis; in the Old Testament, Moph). A great city of Egypt, second in importance only to Thebes, after the fall of which it became the capital of the whole country, a position which it had previously shared with Thebes. It is said to have been founded by Menes. It stood on the left bank of the Nile, about ten miles above the Pyramids.
Memphis (Memphis, Herod.ii. 99,114,136, 154; Polyb. v. 61; Diod. i.
50, seq.; Steph. B. s. v.: Eth. Memphites), the Noph of the Old Testament (Isaiah,
xix. 13; Jerem. ii. 16, xliv. 1), was the first capital of the entire kingdom
of Aegypt, after the Deltaic monarchy at Heliopolis was united to the Thebaid
capital at This or Abydos. It stood on the western bank of the Nile, 15 miles
S. of Cercasorus, in lat. 30° 6' N.
The foundation of Memphis belongs to the very earliest age of Aegyptian
history. It is ascribed (1) to Menes, the first mortal king; (2) to Uchoreus,
a monarch of a later dynasty; and (3) to Apis or Epaphus. (Hygin. Fab. 149.) But
the two latter may be dismissed as resting on very doubtful authority. (Diod.i.
51.) The only certainty is that Memphis was of remote antiquity, as indeed is
implied in the ascription of its origin to Menes, and that it was the first capital
of the united kingdom of Upper and Lower Aegypt. The motives which induced its
founder to select such a site for his capital are obvious. Not far removed from
the bifurcation of the Nile at Cercasorus, it commanded the S. entrance to the
Delta, while it was nearer to the Thebaid than any of the Deltaic provincial cities
of importance, Heliopolis, Bubastis, and Sais. It is also clear why he placed
it on the western bank of the Nile. His kingdom had little to apprehend from the
tribes of the Libyan desert; whereas the eastern frontier of Aegypt was always
exposed to attack from Arabia, Assyria, and Persia, nor indeed was it beyond the
reach of the Scythians. (Herod, i. 105.) It was important, therefore, to make
the Nile a barrier of the city; and this was effected by placing Memphis W. of
it. Before, however, Menes could lay the foundations of his capital, an artificial
area was to be provided for them. The Nile, at that remote period, seems to have
had a double bifurcation; one at the head of the Delta, the other above the site
of Memphis, and parallel with the Arsinoite Nome. Of the branches of its southern
fork, the western and the wider of the two ran at the foot of the Libyan hills;
the eastern and lower was the present main stream. Between them the plain, though
resting on a limestone basis, was covered with marshes, caused by their periodical
overflow. This plain Menes chose for the area of Memphis. He began by constructing
an embankment about 100 stadia S. of its site, that diverted the main body of
the water into the eastern arm; and the marshes he drained off into two principal
lakes, one to N., the other to W. of Memphis, which thus, on every side but S.,
was defended by water.
The area of Memphis, according to Diodorus (i. 50), occupied a circuit
of 150 stadia, or at least 15 miles. This space, doubtless, included much open
ground, laid out in gardens, as well as the courts required for the barracks of
the garrison, in the quarter denominated the White Castle, and which was successively
occupied, under the Pharaohs, by the native militia; in the reign of Psammetichus
(B.C. 658-614), by Phoenician and Greek mercenaries; by the Persians, after the
invasion of Cambyses (B.C. 524); and finally by the Macedonian and Roman troops.
For although Memphis was not always a royal residence, it retained always two
features of a metropolis: (1) it was the seat of the central garrison, at least
until Alexandreia was founded ; and (2) its necropolis-the pyramids-was the tomb
of the kings of every native dynasty.
The mound which curbed the inundations of the Nile was so essential
to the very existence of Memphis, that even the Persians, who ravaged or neglected
all other great works of the country, annually repaired it. (Herod. ii. 99.) The
climate was of remarkable salubrity; the soil extremely productive; and the prospect
from its walls attracted the notice of the Greeks and Romans, who seldom cared
much for the picturesque. Diodorus (i. 96) mentions its bright green meadows,
intersected by canals, paven with the lotus-flower. Pliny (xiii. 10, xvi. 21)
speaks of trees of such girth that three men with extended arms could not span
them. Martial (vi. 80) says that the navita Memphiticus brought roses in winter
to Rome (comp. Lucan, Pharsal. iv. 135); and Athenaeus (i. 20. p. 11) celebrates
its teeming soil and its wine. (Comp. Joseph. Antiq. ii. 14. § 4; Horace, Od.
iii. 26. 10.) And these natural advantages were seconded by its position in the
narrows of Aegypt, at a point where the Arabian and Libyan hills converge for
the last time as they approach the Delta, and whence Memphis commanded the whole
inland trade, whether ascending or descending the Nile. On the coins of Hadrian
the wealth and fertility of Memphis are expressed by a figure of the Nile on their
reverse, holding in his left hand a cornucopia. (Mionnet, Suppl. ix. No. 42.)
The position of Memphis, again, as regarded the civilisation which
Aegypt imparted or received, was most favourable. A capital in the Thebaid would
have been too remote for communication with the East or Greece: a capital in the
Delta would have been too remote from the Upper Kingdom, which would then have
pertained rather to Aethiopia than to Aegypt; while the Delta itself, unsupported
by the Thebaid, must in all probability have become an Assyrian province. But
the intermediate situation of Memphis connected it both with the southern portions
of the Nile valley, as far as its keys at Philae and Elephantina, and also through
the isthmus of Suez and the coast, with the most civilised races of Asia and Europe.
After the foundation of Alexandreia, indeed, Memphis sunk into a provincial city.
But the Saracen invaders in the seventh century confirmed the wisdom of Menes's
choice, for they built both Old and New Cairo in the neighbourhood of Memphis,
only changing the site from the western to the eastern bank of the river, because
their natural alliances, unlike those of the Pharaohs, were with the Arabians
and the Syrian Khalifates.
The history of Memphis is in some measure that of Aegypt also. The
great works of Menes were probably accomplished by successive monarchs, if not
indeed by several dynasties. In the 1st. period of the monarchy we find that the
3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th dynasties consisted of Memphite kings. Athotis, who
is styled a son of Menes, is said to have built the palace, and thus stamped the
new city as a royal residence. In the reign of Kaiechos, in the 2nd dynasty, the
worship of Apis was established at Memphis, which was equivalent to rendering
it a cathedral city. In the 7th dynasty we have a record of seventy Memphite kings,
each reigning for one day: this probably denotes an interregnum, and perhaps a
foregone revolution; for, as Herodotus remarks (ii. 147), the Aegyptians could
not exist without a monarchy. After the 8th dynasty no series of Memphite kings
occurs; and the royal families pass to Heracleopolis, in the first place; next,
after the expulsion of the Shepherds, to Thebes; afterwards to the Deltaic cities
of Tanis, Bubastis, and Sais.
The shepherd kings, though they formed their great camp at Abaris,
retained Memphis as the seat of civil government (Manetho, ap. Joseph. cont. Apion,
i. 14); and although, after they withdrew into Syria, Thebes became the capital,
yet we have a proof that the 18th dynasty-the house of Rameses-held their northern
metropolis in high esteem. For Sesostris, or Rameses III. (Herod. ii, 108), on
his return from his Asiatic wars, set up in front of the temple of Ptah at Memphis
a colossal statue of himself 45 feet high; and this is probably the colossal figure
still lying among the mounds of ruin at Mitranieh. Under the 25th dynasty, while
the Aethiopians occupied Aegypt, Memphis was again the seat of a native government,--apparently
the result of a revolution, which set Sethos, a priest, upon the throne. A victory
obtained by this monarch over the Assyrians was commemorated by a statue in the
temple of Ptah-Sethos holding in his hand a mouse, the symbol of destruction.
(Horapol. Hieroglyph. i. 50; comp. Aelian, H. Anim. vi. 41; Strab. xiii. p. 604;
Herod. ii. 141.) Under Psammetichus (B.C. 670) the Phoenician soldiers, who had
aided him in gaining the crown, were established by him in the Tyrian camp, -at
least this seems to be the meaning of Herodotus (ii. 112),-but were removed by
his successor Amasis into the capital itself, and into that quarter of it called
the White Castle.
Of all the Aegyptian cities, Memphis suffered the most severely from
the cruelty and fanaticism of the Persians. Its populace, excited by the defeat
of the Aegyptian army at Pelusium, put to death the Persian herald who summoned
the Memphians to surrender. The vengeance of the conqueror is related by. Herodotus.
Memphis became the head-quarters of a Persian garrison; and Cambyses, on his return
from his unfortunate expedition against Aethiopia, was more than ever incensed
against the vanquished. Psammenitus, the last of the Pharaohs, was compelled to
put himself to death (Herod. iii. 15); Cambyses slew the god Apis with his own
hand, and massacred his priests; he profaned the Temple of Ptah and burned the
images of the Cabeiri (id. ib. 32). Under Darius Aegypt was mildly governed, and
his moderation was shown by his acquiescence in the high-priest's refusal to permit
the erection of a statue to him at Memphis. (Herod. ii. 110; Diodor. i. 58.) The
next important notice of this city is in the reign of Artaxerxes I. Inaros, son
of Psammetichus, had revolted from Persia, and called in the aid of the Athenians.
(Diod. xi. 71.) The Persians were defeated at Papremis in the Delta (ib. 74; comp.
Mannert, Geogr. x. p. 591), fled to Memphis, and were besieged in the White Castle.
(Thucyd. i. 108-109.) The siege lasted for more than a year (Diodor. ii. 75),
and was at length raised (Ctesias, c. 33), and the authority of the king of Persia
restored. Under Nectanebus I., the first monarch of the Sebennytic dynasty, Memphis
expelled its Persian garrison, nor did it return to its allegiance, until Nectanebus
II., the last representative of thirty dynasties, was driven into Aethiopia. (Athenaeus,
iv. p. 150.) From this period Memphis loses its metropolitan importance, tend
sinks to the level of the chief provincial city of Aegypt.
If, as Diodorus remarks (i. 51), Thebes surpassed Memphis in the grandeur
of its temples, the latter city was more remarkable for the number of its deities
and sacred buildings, and for its secular and commercial edifices. It might, indeed,
as regards its shrines, be not improperly termed the Pantheon of the land of Misraim.
The following were its principal religious structures, and they seem to include
nearly all the capital objects of Aegyptian worship except the goat and the crocodile:
1. The temple of Isis, was commenced at a very early period, but only completed
by Amasis, B.C. 564. It is described as spacious and beautiful (Herod. ii. 176;
Heliodor. Aethiop. vii. 2, 8, 11), but inferior to the Iseium at Busiris (Herod.
ii. 59, 61).
2. The temple of Proteus, founded probably by, Phoenicians, who had a commercial
establishment at Memphis. It was of so early date as to be ascribed to the era
of the Trojan War. (Plutarch, de Gen. Socrat. c. 7.)
3. The temple of Apis, completed in the reign of Psammetichus (Herod. ii. 153;
Aelian, Hist. An. xi. 10; Clemens Alexand. Paedag. iii. 2; Strab. xvii. p. 807),
stood opposite the southern portal of the great temple of Ptah or Hephaestos,
and was celebrated for its colonnades, through which the processions of Apis were
conducted. Here was also an oracle of Apis, in connection with one of Osiris and
Isis (Plin. viii. 46; Pausan. vii. 22.) This temple was the cathedral of Aegypt,
and not only established there a numerous, opulent, and learned college of priests,
but also attracted thither innumerable worshippers, who combined commercial with
religious purposes.
4. The temple of Serapis, in the western quarter of Memphis. This Serapis was
of earlier date than the Alexandrian deity of similar name. To the Memphian Serapeium
was attached a Nilo-meter, for gauging and recording the periodical overflows
of the river. It was removed by Constantine as a relic of paganism, but replaced
by his successor Julian. (Socrat. Hist. Eccles. i. 18; Sozomen, v. 2 ; comp. Diodor.
i. 50, 57; Senec. Quaest. Nat. iv. 2 ; Plin. viii. 46.)
5. A temple of Phre, or the Sun, mentioned only in the Rosetta inscription (Letronne,
Recueil des Inscr. Grecques et Lat. de l'Egypte; Brugsch, Inscript. Rosettan.)
6. The temple of the Cabeiri (Herod. iii. 37), into which none but the high-priest
might lawfully enter. The statues of the pigmy gods were burned by Cambyses, and
the temple mutilated,
7. The temple of Ptah or Hephaestos, the elemental principle of fire, worshipped
under the form of a Pygmy. This was the most ancient shrine in Memphis, being
coeval with its foundation. (Diodor. i. 45; Herod. ii. 99, iii. 37; Strab. xvii.
807 ; Ammian. xvii. 4.) It was enlarged and beautified by several successive monarchs,
apparently through a spirit of rivalry with the great buildings at Thebes. (1.)
Moeris erected the great northern court (Herod. ii. 101 ; Diod. i. 51). (2.) Rameses
the Great raised in this court six colossal figures of stone,-portrait-statues
of himself, his queen, and their four sons. (Herod. ii. 108-110; Strab. xvii.
p. 807.) (3.) Rhampsinitus built the western court, and erected two colossal figures
of summer and winter. (Herod. ii. 121; Diodor. i. 62 ; Wilkinson, M. and C. i.
p. 121.) (4.) Asychis added the eastern court. (Herod. ii. 136.) It was, in the
opinion of Herodotus, by far the noblest and most beautiful of the four quadrangles.
(5.) Psammetichus, the Saite king, added the south court, in commemoration of
his victory over the Dodecarchy (Polyaen. Stratag. vii. 3; Herod. ii. 163; Diodor.
i. 67); and Amasis (Herod. ii. 176) erected or restored to its basis the colossal
statue of Ptah, in front of the southern portico. Prom the priests of the Memphian
temples, the Greeks derived their knowledge of Aegyptian annals, and the rudiments
also of their philosophical systems. It was at Memphis that Herodotus made his
longest sojourn, and gained most of his information respecting Lower Aegypt. Democritus
also resided five years at Memphis, and won the favour of the priests by his addiction
to astrological and hieroglyphical studies. (Diog. Laert. Democrit. ix. 34.) Memphis
reckoned among its illustrious visitors, in early times, the legislator Solon,
the historian Hecataeus, the philosophers Thales and Cleobulus of Lindus; and
in a later age, Strabo the geographer, and Diodorus the Sicilian.
The village of Mitra-nieh, half concealed in a grove of palm-trees,
about 10 miles S. of Gizeh, marks the site of the ancient Memphis. The successive
conquerors of the land, indeed, have used its ruins as a stone-quarry, so that
its exact situation has been a subject of dispute. Major Rennell (Geography of
Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 121, seq.), however, brings incontestable evidence of the
correspondence of Mitranieh with Memphis. Its remains extend over many hundred
acres of ground, which are covered with blocks of granite, broken obelisks, columns
and colossal statues. The principal mound corresponds probably with the area of
the great temple of Ptah.
There are several accounts of the appearance of Memphis at different
eras. Strabo saw the Hephaesteium entire, although much of the city was then in
ruins. In the twelfth century A.D. it was visited by the Arabian traveller Ab-dallatif,
who was deeply impressed with the spectacle of grandeur and desolation. Its ruins
offer, he says, to the spectator a union of things which confound him, and which
the most eloquent man in the world would in vain attempt to describe. He seems
to have seen at least one of the colossal statues of the group of Rameses in the
northern court of the Hephaesteium. Among innumerable idols, as he terms them,
he measured one which, without its pedestal, was more than 30 cubits long. This
statue was formed of a single piece of red granite, and was covered with a red
varnish. (Ab-dallatif, De Sacy's Translation, 4to. p. 184.) Sir William Hamilton
(Aegyptiaca, 4to. p. 303) visited the spot, and says, that high mounds enclose
a square of 1800 yards from N. to S., and 400 from E. to W. The entrance in the
centre of each side is still visible. The two principal entrances faced the desert
and the river (that is W. and E.). He entered by the latter, and found immediately
thirty or forty large blocks of very fine red granite, lying on the ground, evidently
forming parts of some colossal statues, the chief ornaments of the temple.
The district in which these remains are found is still termed Memf
by the Coptic population, and thus helps to confirm the identity of the village
of Mitranieh with the ancient capital of Aegypt.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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