Difference between revisions of "Memphis"

<p> [[Capital]] of [[Lower]] Egypt, on the W. or left bank of the Nile. [[Hebrew]] "Νowph " (Isaiah 19:13). "Μowph ," or [[Memphis]] (Hosea 9:6). Second only to [[Thebes]] in all Egypt; the residence of the kings until the [[Ptolemies]] moved to Alexandria. [[Plutarch]] makes it mean "the port of good things," the sepulchre of Osiris, the necropolis of Egypt, "the haven of the blessed," for the right of burial was given only to the good. [[Diodorus]] Siculus (i. 4) observes, the inhabitants value little this brief life, but most highly the name of a virtuous life after death; they call the houses of the living inns, because they remain in them only a little while, but the sepulchers of the dead everlasting habitations; they are not therefore very careful about their houses, but in beautifying the sepulchers leave nothing undone. "The good" may refer to Osiris, whose sacred animal [[Apis]] was here worshipped, and had its burial place the Serapeum, from whence the village [[Busiris]] is named, namely, "the abode of Osiris," now Aboo Seer. </p> <p> "Memphis shall bury them" is a characteristic description, its burying ground extending 20 miles along the [[Libyan]] desert's border. [[Mem]] means a foundation or wall, and nofre "good"; or mam-Phta "the dwelling of Phta" the god answering to the [[Greek]] Hephaestus, [[Latin]] Vulcan; or from [[Menes]] its founder. [[Near]] the pyramids of Gizeh, and ten miles to the S. of modern Cairo; the court of the idol bull Apis. In hieroglyphics called "the city of pyramids." The monuments of Memphis are more ancient than those of Thebes. Menes (compare [[Minos]] in Crete, [[Genesis]] 10:6; Bochart makes him Mizraim, and thinks Memphis was called Μezri from him, as the Arabs now call it) its founder dates 2690 B.C. (Sir G. Wilkinson), 2717 B.C. (Poole), 2200 or 2300 according to [[Eratosthenes]] compare with Dicaearchus. Many of Manetho's dynasties were contemporaneous, not successive. </p> <p> "Menes" in hieroglyphics is written as the founder of Memphis on the roof of the Rameseum near Gournon in western Thebes, at the head of the ancestors of [[Rameses]] the Great; the earliest mention of the name is on a ruined tomb at Gizeh, "the royal governor Menes," a descendant probably of the first Menes, and living under the fifth dynasty. Caviglia discovered the colossal statue of Rameses II beautifully sculptured. Before Menes the Nile, emerging from the upper valley, bent W. to the Libyan hills, and was wasted in the sands and stagnant pools. Menes, according to Herodotus, by banking up the river at the bend 100 furlongs S. of Memphis, laid the old channel dry, and dug a new course between the hills, and excavated a lake outside Memphis to the N. and W., communicating with the river. Thus Memphis was built in the narrow part of Egypt, on a marsh reclaimed by Menes' dyke and drained by his artificial lake. The dyke began 12 miles S. of Memphis, and deflected the river two miles eastward. </p> <p> At the rise of the [[Nile]] a canal still led some of its waters westward through the former bed, irrigating the western plain. The artificial lake at Abousir guarded against inundation on that side. Memphis commanded the [[Delta]] on one hand and [[Upper]] [[Egypt]] on the other; on the W. the Libyan mountains and desert defended it; on the E. the river and its artificial embankments. The climate is equable, judging from Cairo. Menes built the temple of Phta (his deified ancestor Phut, fourth son of Ham, who settled in Libya, Genesis 10:6), the creative power, represented ordinarily holding the Nilometer or emblem of stability combined with the symbol of life, and a scepter, Moeris, Sesostris, Rhampsiuitis, Asychis, Psammeticus, and [[Amosis]] successively beautified this temple with gateways and colossal statues (including those of summer and winter by Rhampsinitis). </p> <p> In the grand avenue to it fights between bulls (not with men, for the bull was sacred) such as are depicted on the tombs were exhibited. The temple of Apis also was here with a magnificent colonnade supported by colossal Osiride statue pillars; through it on state occasions was led a black bull with peculiarly shaped white spots upon his forehead and right side, the hairs on the tail double, and the scarabaeus or sacred beetle marked on his tongue. A gallery, 2,000 ft. long by 20 high and 20 wide, was the burial place of the embalmed sacred bulls. Apis was thought the incarnation of Osiris, who with [[Isis]] was the universal object of worship in Egypt. Aaron's calf, and Jeroboam's two calves, were in part suggested by the [[Egyptian]] sacred bull, in part by the cherubim ox. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 46:20) alludes to Apis, "Egypt is like a very fair heifer." </p> <p> Isis had a temple at Memphis, and was buried there. The sacred cubit used in measuring the Nile was in the temple of Serapis. [[Proteus]] (a Memphite king), Venus, Ra or Phre ("the sun"), and the Cabeiri too had temples in Memphis. The region of the pyramids (from peram "the lofty"; Ewald translated Job 3:14 built pyramids for themselves"), 67 (Lepsius) in number, or probably fewer as many of the 67 are doubtful, lies wholly W. of the Nile, from a little N.W. of [[Cairo]] to 40 miles S. and thence S.W. 25 miles. The Memphite necropolis ranges about 15 miles to Gizeh, including many pyramids of Egyptian sovereigns; the pyramids at [[Gizeh]] are the largest and oldest. See [[Piazzi]] Smyth, "Our [[Inheritance]] in the Great Pyramid," on the scientific bearings of this extraordinary and, in his view, divinely planned monument, which has no idolatrous emblem on it, unlike other Egyptian monuments. </p> <p> The [[Hyksos]] or shepherd kings (Genesis 49:24), Shofo and Noushofo, 2500 B.C., he thinks, built the great pyramid under God's guidance, and the cities Salem, of which [[Melchizedek]] was shepherd priestking, and Damascus. Isaiah (Isaiah 19:13) foretold, "the princes of [[Noph]] are deceived," i.e. the military caste with all the famed "wisdom of Egypt" err in fancying themselves secure, namely, from Sargon, Nebuchadnezzar, and Cambyses, who successively conquered Egypt. Jeremiah (Jeremiah 46:19), "Noph shall be waste and desolate, without inhabitant "(compare Jeremiah 43:10). Ezekiel, 575 B.C. (Ezekiel 30:13; Ezekiel 30:16), "I will destroy the idols and cause their images to cease out of Noph." [[Half]] a century afterward (525 B.C.) [[Cambyses]] fulfilled it, killing Apis, scourging his priests, opening the sepulchers, examining the bodies, making sport of Phta's image, and burning the images of the Cabeiri (Herodotus, iii. 37). Memphis never recovered. [[Alexandria]] succeeded to its importance. So utter was its fall that the very site for a time was unknown. Mariette and Linant brought to light its antiquities, some of which are in the British Museum. Its dykes and canals still are the basis of the irrigation of Lower Egypt. The village [[Meet]] Raheeneh now stands where once was its center. </p>

<p> Mem'phis. (haven, of the good). A city of ancient Egypt, situated on that western bank of the Nile, about nine miles south of Cairo, and five from the great pyramids and the sphinx. It is mentioned by Isaiah, Isaiah 40:14; Isaiah 40:19, and Ezekiel, Ezekiel 30:13; Ezekiel 30:16, under the name of Noph. </p> <p> Though some regard [[Thebes]] as the more ancient city, the monuments of [[Memphis]] are of higher antiquity than those of Thebes. The city is said to have had a circumference of about 10 miles. The temple of [[Apis]] was one of the most noted structures of Memphis. It stood opposite the southern portico of the temple of Ptah; and Psammetichus, who built that gateway, also erected in front of the sanctuary of Apis, a magnificent colonnade, supported by colossal statues or Osiride pillars, such as may still be seen at the temple of Medeenet Habou at Thebes. Herod. Ii, 153. </p> <p> Through this colonnade, the Apis was led with great pomp upon state occasions. At Memphis was the reputed burial-place of Isis; it has also a temple to that "myriad-named" divinity. Memphis had also its Serapeium, which probably stood in the western quarter of the city. The sacred cubit, until other symbols used in measuring the rise of the Nile, were deposited in the temple of Serapis. The Necropolis, adjacent to Memphis, was on a scale of grandeur corresponding with the city itself. </p> <p> The "city of the pyramids" is a title of Memphis in the hieroglyphics upon the monuments. Memphis long held its place as a capital; and for centuries, a Memphite dynasty ruled over all Egypt. Lepsius, Bunsen and Brugsch agree in regarding the third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth dynasties of the old empire as Memphite, reaching through a period of about 1000 years. The city's overthrow was distinctly predicted by the [[Hebrew]] prophets. Isaiah 19:13; Jeremiah 46:19 The latest of these predictions was uttered nearly 600 years before Christ, and a half a century before the invasion of [[Egypt]] by [[Cambyses]] (cir, B.C. 525). </p> <p> [[Herodotus]] informs us that Cambyses, engaged at the opposition he encountered at Memphis, committed many outrages upon the city. The city never recovered from the blow inflicted by Cambyses. The rise of [[Alexandria]] hastened its decline. The caliph conquerors founded Fostat, (old Cairo), upon the opposite bank of the Nile, a few miles north of Memphis, and brought materials from the old city to build their new capital, A.D. 638. At length, so complete was the ruin of Memphis that, for a long time , its very site was lost. Recent explorations have brought to light many of its antiquities. </p>

<p> <strong> MEMPHIS. </strong> The famous ancient capital of Egypt, a few miles south of Cairo, the present capital. According to tradition, [[Memphis]] was built by Menes, who first united the two kingdoms of [[Upper]] and [[Lower]] Egypt. Kings and dynasties might make their principal residences in the cities from which they sprang, but until [[Alexandria]] was founded as the capital of the [[Greek]] dynasty, no [[Egyptian]] city, except Thebes, under the New [[Kingdom]] equalled Memphis in size and importance. The palaces of most of the early kings (Dyns. 3 12) were at or near Memphis, their positions being now marked by the pyramids in which the same kings were buried. The pyramid-field extends on the edge of the desert about 20 miles, from Dahshur on the south to [[Abu]] Roash on the north, the Great [[Pyramids]] of [[Gizeh]] lying 12 miles north of the central ruins of Memphis. The Egyptian name <em> Menfi </em> (in [[Hebrew]] <strong> [[Noph]] </strong> , Isaiah 19:13 , Jeremiah 2:16; Jeremiah 44:1; Jeremiah 46:14; Jeremiah 46:19 , Ezekiel 30:13; Ezekiel 30:16; once <strong> [[Moph]] </strong> , Hosea 9:5 ), was apparently taken from that of the palace and pyramid of Pepy 1. of the 6th Dynasty, which were built close to the city. At a later period, Tahrak (Tirhakah) ruled at Memphis; Necho, Hophra, and the other kings of the 26th Dynasty were buried at their ancestral city Sais, although their government was centred in Memphis. After the foundation of Alexandria the old capital fell to the second place, but it held a vast population till after the [[Arab]] conquest, when it rapidly declined. The growth of Fostat and [[Cairo]] was accompanied by the destruction of all the stone buildings in Memphis for the sake of the materials, but the necropolis still bears witness to its former magnificence. The bull [[Apis]] (Egyp. <em> Hapi </em> ) (whose name is read in LXX [Note: Septuagint.] at Jeremiah 46:15 ‘Why did Apis flee from thee?’) was worshipped at Memphis as sacred to Ptah (Hephaestus), the principal god of the city. </p> <p> F. Ll. Griffith. </p>

<p> The ancient [[Egyptian]] city of Memphis, though not in existence today, was situated on almost the same site as the present-day city of Cairo; that is, on the [[Nile]] River, about 180 kilometres from its mouth. It was the administrative centre of the first king to unite [[Upper]] and [[Lower]] [[Egypt]] (about 3000 BC), and was capital of Egypt for much of the period before Abraham. It continued to be an important city up till the time of its conquest by [[Alexander]] the Great in 332 BC (Isaiah 19:13; Jeremiah 44:1; Jeremiah 46:14; Jeremiah 46:19; Ezekiel 30:13; Hosea 9:6). (For map and other details see EGYPT.) </p>