Hermopolis

Coordinates: 27°46′53″N 30°48′14″E / 27.78139°N 30.80389°E / 27.78139; 30.80389
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Hermopolis
Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ
Basilica of Hermopolis
Hermopolis is located in Egypt
Hermopolis
Shown within Egypt
Alternative nameالأشمونين
LocationEl Ashmunein, Minya Governorate, Egypt
RegionUpper Egypt
Coordinates27°46′53″N 30°48′14″E / 27.78139°N 30.80389°E / 27.78139; 30.80389
TypeSettlement
Site notes
ConditionIn ruins

Hermopolis

Arabic: الأشمونين, romanizedal-Ashmunayn, lit.'The Two Shmun') was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt. Its name is derived from the Ogdoad
, eight associated deities residing in Hermopolis.

Black siltstone obelisk of King Nectanebo II (r. 358 to 340 BCE). According to the vertical inscriptions he set up this obelisk at the doorway of the sanctuary of Thoth Thrice-Great, Lord of Hermopolis. It is now on display in the British Museum, London.

A provincial capital since the

Muslim conquest of Egypt but was restored as both a Latin Catholic (meanwhile suppressed) and a Coptic Orthodox titular see
.

Its remains are located near the modern town of el-Ashmunein (from the Coptic name[3]) in Mallawi, Minya Governorate, Egypt.

Name

Z1 Z1 Z1 Z1
Z1 Z1 Z1 Z1
nwwniwt
t Z1
ḫmnw[4]
in hieroglyphs
Era: Middle Kingdom
(2055–1650 BC)

Khemenu (Ḫmnw), the

Arabic: الأشمونين) is derived.[3]

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

Djehutynakht, a nomarch
during the Middle Kingdom era of Egypt.

The city was the capital of the

Antinoöpolis
on the opposite bank of the Nile, were the common cemeteries of the Hermopolitans because although the river divided the city from its necropolis, from the wide curve of the western hills at this point, it was easier to ferry the dead over the water than to transport them by land to the hills.

Hermopolis became a significant city in the

Thebais Prima in the administrative diocese of Egypt
.

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

A Christian tradition holds it to be the place where the Holy Family found refuge during its exile in Egypt.

Hermopolis Maior was a

Patriarchate of Alexandria
. Like most, it faded under Islam.

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

Roman Catholic Church,[9] and still is (?) in the Coptic Orthodox Church
. The diocese was nominally restored in the 18th century as Latin
Titular bishopric
of Hermopolis Maior (Latin; 1925-1929 renamed Hermopolis Magna) / Ermopoli Maggiore (Curiate Italian) Its territory was reassigned in 1849 to the
Coptic Catholic Eparchy of Mina
, as a restoration of Hermopolis (as its Latin title attests).

In 1949 the titular see was suppressed, having had the following incumbents, all of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank :

Remains

Hermopolis comparatively escaped the frequent wars which, in the decline both of the Pharaonic and

John Rylands Library, Manchester, contains many documents referring to Hermopolis (Ushmun); they date from the 2nd to 4th centuries AH.[12]

The temple

The Ibis-headed god Thoth was, with his accompanying emblems, the

Ptolemies at Hermopolis were on a scale of great extent and magnificence and, although raised by Greek monarchs, are essentially Egyptian in their conception and execution. The portico, the only remnant of the temple, consists of a double row of pillars, six in each row. The architraves are formed of five stones; each passes from the centre of one pillar to that of the next, according to a well-known usage with Egyptian builders. The intercolumnation of the centre pillars is wider than that of the others; and the stone over the centre is twenty-five feet and six inches long. These columns were painted yellow, red and blue in alternate bands. There is also a peculiarity in the pillars of the Hermopolitan portico peculiar to themselves, or at least discovered only again in the temple of Gournou
. (Dénon, L'Egypte, plate 41.) Instead of being formed of large masses placed horizontally above each other, they are composed of irregular pieces, so artfully adjusted that it is difficult to detect the lines of junction. The bases of these columns represent the lower leaves of the lotus; next come a number of concentric rings, like the hoops of a cask; and above these the pillars appear like bunches of reeds held together by horizontal bonds. Including the capital, each column is about 40 feet high; the greatest circumference is about 2812 feet, about five feet from the ground, for they diminish in thickness both towards the base and towards the capital. The widest part of the intercolumnation is 17 feet; the other pillars are 13 feet apart.

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

See also

References

  1. ^ (Ammianus Marcellinus, II 16)
  2. ^ "Great Hermopolis", for distinction with Lesser Hermopolis, e.g. Stephanus of Byzantium s.v. Ἑρμοῦ πόλις; Ptolemy IV 5. § 60. Antonine Itinerary pp. 154f.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Gauthier, Henri (1927). Dictionnaire des Noms Géographiques Contenus dans les Textes Hiéroglyphiques Vol. 4. p. 176.
  5. ^ Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, British Museum Press, 1995. p.125
  6. ^ "Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography". artflx.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
  7. ^ Strabo xvii. p. 813; Ptol. loc. cit.
  8. ^ Plut. Is. et Osir, p. 371, D.
  9. ^ Public Domain Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Hermopolis Magna". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  10. ^ "Destruction of Egyptian Monuments" . Littell's Living Age – via Wikisource.
  11. , p. 29
  12. ^ Margoliouth, D. S. (1933) Catalogue of Arabic Papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester. Manchester: the John Rylands Library
  13. ^ "B.C. Archaeology: Ashmunein". www.bcarchaeology.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  14. ^ a b "Ashmunein". pcma.uw.edu.pl. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  15. ^ Barański, Marek (1992). "Excavations at the basilica site at el-Ashmunein/ Hermopolis magna in 1987–1990" (PDF). Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean. 3.
  16. ^ Barański, Marek. "Konserwacja wczesnochrześcijańskiej bazyliki w Aszmunein" (PDF). Ochrona Zabytków. 43.
  17. ^ 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
  18. ^ "St. David of Hermopolis in Egypt - Orthodox Church in America". Oca.org. Retrieved 2017-03-19.

Sources and external links

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