Hermopolis
Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ | |
Alternative name | الأشمونين |
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Location | El Ashmunein, Minya Governorate, Egypt |
Region | Upper Egypt |
Coordinates | 27°46′53″N 30°48′14″E / 27.78139°N 30.80389°E |
Type | Settlement |
Site notes | |
Condition | In ruins |
Hermopolis
A provincial capital since the
Its remains are located near the modern town of el-Ashmunein (from the Coptic name[3]) in Mallawi, Minya Governorate, Egypt.
Name
| |||||
ḫmnw[4] in hieroglyphs | |||||
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Era: Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 BC) | |||||
Khemenu (Ḫmnw), the
In Koine Greek, the city was called "The City of Hermes" since the Greeks identified Hermes with Thoth, because the city was the main cult centre of Thoth, the Pharaonic god of magic, healing, and wisdom and the patron of scribes. Thoth was associated in the same way with the Phoenician deity Eshmun. Inscriptions at the temple call the god "The Lord of Eshmun".[6]
History
The city was the capital of the
Hermopolis became a significant city in the
The principal Egyptian deities worshipped at Hermopolis were Typhon (Set) and Thoth. Typhon was represented by a hippopotamus, on which sat a hawk fighting with a serpent.[8] Thoth, whom the ancient Greeks associated with Hermes because they were both gods of magic and writing, was represented by the ibis.
Ecclesiastical history
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2017) |
A Christian tradition holds it to be the place where the Holy Family found refuge during its exile in Egypt.
Hermopolis Maior was a
List of bishops of Hermopolis:
- Conon (circa 250)
- Fasileus (in 325)
- Dios (circa 350)
- Plusianus (4th century)
- Andreas (in 431)
- Gennadius (circa 444 - after 449)
- Victor (circa 448/463)
- Ulpianus (6th century)
- Johannes I (6th century)
- Johannes II (6th-7th century)
- Isidorus (7th century)
- Eugenius (?)
- Paulus (?)
The city was a titular diocese in the
In 1949 the titular see was suppressed, having had the following incumbents, all of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank :
- Luigi Antonio Valdina Cremona (1729.03.23 – death 1758.10.24) (Italian) no actual prelature recorded
- Dominik Józef Kiełczewski (1760.07.21 – death 1776.02.28) as Auxiliary Bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Chełm(Poland) (1760.07.21 – retired 1775.07.14) and on emeritate
- Bishop-elect? Bernardo Maria Serio (1802.08.09 – death ?) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Palermo(Sicily, Italy) (1802.08.09 – ?)
- Denis-Antoine-Luc de Frayssinous (French) (1822.04.19 – death 1841.12.12) no actual prelature recorded
- Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski (1842.01.27 – 1856.09.18) as Archdiocese of Warszawa(Warschau, Poland) (1844 – 1856.09.18); later succeeded as Metropolitan Archbishop of Warszawa (1856.09.18 – 1861.10.05)
- Italia continentale of the Italo-Albanese(Italy) (1858.06.15 – 1860)
- Charles-Bonaventure-François Theuret (1878.07.15 – 1887.03.15) as Monaco(Monaco) (1887.03.15 – death 1901.11.11)
- Father Jan Ignacy Korytkowski (1888.04.27 – 1888.05.14) as Auxiliary bishop of Archdiocese of Gniezno (Gnesen, Poland) (1888.04.27 – 1888.05.14)
- Raphael Valenza (1889.05.24 – death 1897.12.22) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Chieti(Italy) (1889.05.24 – 1897.12.22)
- Tacapæ(1915.06.01 – death 1916.06.27)
- S. Maria in Ara Coeli(1921.06.16 – 1926.02.14)
- John Jeremiah Lawler (1910.02.08 – 1916.01.29) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Saint Paul (USA) (1910.02.08 – 1916.01.29); later Bishop of Lead (1916.01.29 – 1930.08.01), Bishop of Rapid City(USA) (1930.08.01 – death 1948.03.11)
- Giorgio Glosauer (1917.07.07 – death 1926.06.09) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Praha(Prague, Czech Republic) (1917.07.07 – 1926.06.09)
- Eduardo José Herberhold, Territorial Prelature of Santarem (Brazil) (1928.01.07 – 1931.01.30); later Bishop of Ilhéus(Brazil) (1931.01.30 – death 1939.07.24)
- Francesco Fulgenzio Lazzati, O.F.M. (born Italy) (1931.07.14 – 1932.05.24) as Mogadishu (then Italian Somalia) (1931.07.14 – 1932.05.24).
Remains
Hermopolis comparatively escaped the frequent wars which, in the decline both of the Pharaonic and
The temple
The Ibis-headed god Thoth was, with his accompanying emblems, the
Coptic Basilica
Outside the temple complex stand the remains of a
Museum
Currently there is a small open-air museum in which stand two massive statues of Thoth as a baboon worshipping the sun, and a few carved blocks of masonry.
Famous people
- David of Hermopolis[18]
- Severus Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ
See also
References
- ^ (Ammianus Marcellinus, II 16)
- ^ "Great Hermopolis", for distinction with Lesser Hermopolis, e.g. Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Ἑρμοῦ πόλις; Ptolemy IV 5. § 60. Antonine Itinerary pp. 154f.
- ^ a b G. Mussies in: Matthieu Sybrand Huibert, Gerard Heerma van Voss (eds.), Studies in Egyptian Religion: Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee (1982), p. 92.
- ^ Gauthier, Henri (1927). Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques Vol. 4. p. 176.
- ^ Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, British Museum Press, 1995. p.125
- ^ "Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography". artflx.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ^ Strabo xvii. p. 813; Ptol. loc. cit.
- ^ Plut. Is. et Osir, p. 371, D.
- ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Hermopolis Magna". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ^ Wikisource. . Littell's Living Age – via
- ISBN 3-8053-3276-9, p. 29
- ^ Margoliouth, D. S. (1933) Catalogue of Arabic Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester. Manchester: the John Rylands Library
- ^ "B.C. Archaeology: Ashmunein". www.bcarchaeology.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
- ^ a b "Ashmunein". pcma.uw.edu.pl. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
- ^ Barański, Marek (1992). "Excavations at the basilica site at el-Ashmunein/ Hermopolis magna in 1987–1990" (PDF). Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean. 3.
- ^ Barański, Marek. "Konserwacja wczesnochrześcijańskiej bazyliki w Aszmunein" (PDF). Ochrona Zabytków. 43.
- ^ Moharam Kamal, Excavations in the so-called Agora of El Ashmunein. ASAE - Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte 46/1 947, 289–295
- ^ "St. David of Hermopolis in Egypt - Orthodox Church in America". Oca.org. Retrieved 2017-03-19.
Sources and external links
- Silhouette of Hermopolis Magna temple-from A History Of Egypt Volume V by J Graflon Milne retrieved 20:34GMT 27.9.11
- GCatholic - (former &) titular Latin see
- Sayed Hemeda, Abdulrahman Fahmy, Abbas Moustafa, Mahmoud Abd El Hafez,The Early Basilica Church, El-Ashmonein Archaeological Site, Minia, Egypt: Geo-Environmental Analysis and Engineering Characterization of the Building Materials, Open Journal of Geology 09/03 (2019)
- Marek Barański. Excavations at the basilica site at el-Ashmunein/ Hermopolis magna in 1987–1990. Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 3 (1992)
- Bibliography - Ecclesiastical history
- Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 461
- Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 5, p. 219; vol. 6, p. 234
- Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 595-596
- Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, Vol. 22, p. 61
- Klaas A. Worp, A Checklist of Bishops in Byzantine Egypt (A.D. 325 - c. 750), in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 100 (1994) 283-318