Hermopolis Magna
| Chemenu in hieroglyphics | ||||
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Chemenu Ḫmnw City of Eight |
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| Greek | Hermopolis, Hermupolis | |||
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Hermopolis Magna (also Hermupolis ; ancient Egyptian Chemenu ) is the Greek - Latin name of the capital of the 15th Upper Egyptian district ("Hasengau"). Hermopolis Magna is in close proximity to the modern town of el-Aschmunein .
It lies roughly halfway through the north-south extension of Egypt on the west bank of the Nile . The city of Tell el-Amarna , Akhenaten's former capital Akhet-Aton , is almost at the same height on the east side.
Archaeological evidence
 
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Map of Egypt |
Only a few stray finds are known from the early days. In the Old Kingdom , Hermopolis ("City of Hermes " or "City of Thoth "; the Greeks identified the ancient Egyptian god Thoth with Hermes) was already a cult center for Thoth. However, no traces of a temple have been archaeologically proven.
The district administration has also been here since the Old Kingdom. In the nearby Hatnub quarry, alabaster was occasionally mined for the king ( pharaoh ).
In the first interim period , the princes became independent and took over the quarries in their area of responsibility. In the Middle Kingdom was of Amenemhet II. A temple of Thoth built.
Sesostris III. ended the Gau principality, and in the Second Intermediate Period Hermopolis sided with the Hyksos and defended the southern border of the empire against the Thebans.
In the New Kingdom the Temple of Thoth was restored by Hatshepsut , Amenhotep II built a chapel and Amenhotep III. donated baboon statues for the temple . Ramses II expanded the temple area with an enclosure wall with an entrance pylon and also began to build a small Amun temple southwest of the Thott temple. Further south he began another temple, which can perhaps be attributed to the god Ptah and was completed by Merenptah . Merenptah also had the temple of Amun continued to be built, but it was only completed under Seti II . Several chapels within the Thoth district can be seen by Ramses III. ascribe.
During the Saïten period , the Thoth cult continued to grow, and under Nectanebo I , new buildings and restoration work were carried out in the temple area.
Further construction activities can be found under Nectanebo II , Petosiris , Alexander III. and IV. , and the Ptolemies . A large portico by Philipp Arrhidaios still stood at the beginning of the 19th century and is depicted in numerous works of early expeditions. It has almost completely disappeared today. It consisted of two rows of six columns each and formed the entrance to an otherwise largely disappeared temple, of which only a few blocks of the facade could be found. Especially in Roman times, the interior of the city was completely built in the Hellenistic style with a basilica and other Hellenistic buildings. Remains of a temple in the Egyptian style were found from the Roman emperor Domitian . Here, too, only individual relief blocks could be copied. A plan of the temple could not be found during the excavations.
More finds
The so-called talatat from the reign of Akhenaten are among the most important finds in Hermopolis . The numerous small blocks were found in the temple of Ramses II and most likely come from nearby Amarna.
religion
The main god of Hermopolis was the moon god Thoth, the "Lord of Chemenu", whose sacred animals the baboon and ibis are considered. The Greeks equated him with Hermes. As a city god, the god of knowledge and writing received the local role of creator god. His wife was originally the rabbit-shaped goddess Unut , the "mistress of Wenu", who then became Nehemetawai at the time of the New Kingdom . In the myth of Horus and Seth , he plays the role of arbiter between the two.
Furthermore, the Gaugott Aha is documented, as well as Schepsi in Chemenu, who has lunar features. Chemenu, the Egyptian name of the settlement, means eighth , which stands for an eight-headed group of gods from Hermopolis. Their figures carry snake, frog and ram heads. At the time of the birth of Christ there was also a large Jewish colony in Hermopolis Magna.
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Hermopolis. In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. (formerly: Reallexikon der Ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte. ) Nicol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 293-295.
- Wolfgang Helck u. a .: Lexicon of Egyptology. Vol. 2. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1977
- Günther Roeder : Hermopolis 1929-1939. Excavations of the German Hermopolis expedition in Hermopolis, Upper Egypt. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1959.
- AJ Spencer: Excavations at el-Ashmunein Part 2: The temple area. British Museum Publications, London 1989, ISBN 0-7141-0950-9 .
- AJ Spencer: el-Ashmunein. In: Kathryn A. Bard (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London 1999, ISBN 0-415-18589-0 , pp. 147-150.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Steven Snape, Donald Bailey: The Great Portico of Hermopolis Magna: Present State and Past Prospects (= British Museum Occasional Paper. [BMOP] Vol. 63). British Museum, London 1988
- ^ SR Snape: British Museum expedition to Middle Egypt: a Temple of Domitian at El-Ashmunein (= British Museum Occasional Paper. [BMOP] vol. 68). British Museum, London 1989, ISBN 978-0-86159-068-1 .
Web links
- Dieter Kessler: Hermopolis. In: Michaela Bauks, Klaus Koenen, Stefan Alkier (eds.): The scientific biblical lexicon on the Internet (WiBiLex), Stuttgart 2006 ff., Accessed on February 25, 2009.
Coordinates: 27 ° 46 '53.9 " N , 30 ° 48' 14.3" E