Menkaure

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(Redirected from
Menkaura
)
Not to be confused with Menkare.
Menkaure
Menkaura, Mykerinos, Menkheres
Greywacke statue of Menkaure Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Greywacke statue of Menkaure
Egyptian Museum, Cairo
Pharaoh
Reign18 to 22 years,[1] starting c. 2530 BC
PredecessorKhafre (most likely) or Bikheris
SuccessorShepseskaf
Royal titulary
Horus name
Hor-Kakhet
ῌr-k3-ḫt
Bull of the divine company
G5
D28E1
F32
Nebty name
Ka-Nebty
Nbt.j-k3
Bull of the two Ladies
G16
D28E1
Golden Horus
Netjer-bik-nebu
Nṯr-bjk-nb.w
The divine golden falcon
R8G7S12

Kas will stay like Ra
<
N5Y5
n		 D28
Z2
>

Saqqara Tablet

...kaure
...kꜣ.w-rꜥ
<
N5HASHHASHD28
D28
>
Nomen
Menkaura
mn-kꜣw-rꜥ
His
ka-souls will stay like Ra[1]

<
N5
Y5		 D28 D28
D28
>

Alternative spellings:
mn-kꜣ(w)-rꜥ
<
N5
Y5		 D28
>

<
N5
Y5		 D32
>
Consort
Fourth Dynasty

Menkaure or Menkaura (

romanized: Mukerînos by Herodotus); in turn Latinized as Mycerinus, and Menkheres (Μεγχέρης, Menkhérēs by Manetho). According to Manetho, he was the throne successor of king Bikheris, but according to archaeological evidence, he was almost certainly the successor of Khafre. Africanus (from Syncellus) reports as rulers of the fourth dynasty Sôris, Suphis I, Suphis II, Mencherês (=Menkaure), Ratoisês, Bicheris, Sebercherês, and Thamphthis in this order.[2] Menkaure became famous for his tomb, the Pyramid of Menkaure, at Giza
and his statue triads, which showed him alongside the goddess Hathor and various regional deities.

Family

See also: Fourth Dynasty of Egypt family tree

Menkaure was the son of Khafre and the grandson of Khufu. A flint knife found in the mortuary temple of Menkaure mentioned a king's mother Khamerernebty I, suggesting that Khafre and this queen were the parents of Menkaure. Menkaure is thought to have had at least two wives.

  • Queen Khamerernebty II is the daughter of Khamerernebty I and the mother of a king's son Khuenre. The location of Khuenre's tomb suggests that he was a son of Menkaure, making his mother the wife of this king.[3][4]
  • Queen Rekhetre is known to have been a daughter of Khafre and as such the most likely identity of her husband is Menkaure.[3]

Not many children are attested for Menkaure:

  • Khuenre was the son of queen Khamerernebty II. Menkaure was not succeeded by Prince Khuenre, his eldest son, who predeceased Menkaure, but rather by Shepseskaf, a younger son of this king.[5]
  • Shepseskaf was the successor to Menkaure and likely his son.
  • Sekhemre is known from a statue and possibly a son of Menkaure.
  • A daughter who died in early adulthood is mentioned by Herodotus. She was placed at a decorated hall of the palatial area at Sais, in a hollow gold layered wooden zoomorphic burial feature in the shape of a kneeling cow covered externally with a layer of red decoration except the neck area and the horns that were covered with adequate layers of gold.[6]
  • Khentkaus I – possible Menkaure's daughter[7]

The royal court included several of Menkaure's half brothers. His brothers Nebemakhet, Duaenre, Nikaure, and Iunmin served as viziers during the reign of their brother. His brother Sekhemkare may have been younger than he was and became vizier after the death of Menkaure.[8]

Reign

Menkaura flanked by the goddess Hathor (left) and the personification of the nome of Sesheshet (right). Graywacke statue in Cairo Museum.

The length of Menkaure's reign is uncertain. The ancient historian Manetho credits him with rulership of 63 years, but this is surely an exaggeration. The Turin King List is damaged at the spot where it should present the full sum of years, but the remains allow a reconstruction of "..?.. + 8  years of rulership". Egyptologists think that 18-year rulership was meant to be written, which is generally accepted. A contemporary workmen's graffito reports about the "year after the 11th cattle count". If the cattle count was held every second year (as was tradition at least up to king Sneferu), Menkaure might have ruled for 22 years.[9]

In 2013, a fragment of the sphinx of Menkaure was discovered at Tel Hazor at the entrance to the city palace.[10]

Pyramid complex

Main article: Pyramid of Menkaure

Menkaure's pyramid at Giza was called Netjer-er-Menkaure, meaning "Menkaure is Divine". This pyramid is the smallest of the three main pyramids at Giza. This pyramid measures 103.4 m (339 ft) at the base and 65.5 m (215 ft) in height.[11] There are three subsidiary pyramids associated with Menkaure's pyramid.

These other pyramids are sometimes labeled G-IIIa (East subsidiary pyramid), G-IIIb (Middle subsidiary pyramid) and G-IIIc (West subsidiary pyramid). In the chapel associated with G-IIIa a statue of a queen was found. It is possible that these pyramids were meant for the queens of Khafre. It may be that Khamerernebti II was buried in one of the pyramids.[4][8]

Valley temple

The Valley temple was a mainly brick built structure that was enlarged in the fifth or sixth Dynasty. From this temple come the famous statues of Menkaure with his queen and Menkaure with several deities. A partial list includes:[8]

Mortuary Temple

At his mortuary temple more statues and statue fragments were found. An interesting find is a fragment of a wand from Queen Khamerernebty I. The piece is now in the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Khamerernebti is given the title King's Mother on the fragment.[8]

Sarcophagus

Burial chamber of Menkaure, today, and as discovered with now lost sarcophagus

In 1837, English army officer

Richard William Howard Vyse, and engineer John Shae Perring began excavations within the pyramid of Menkaure. In the main burial chamber of the pyramid they found a large stone sarcophagus 8 feet 0 inches (244 cm) long, 3 feet 0 inches (91 cm) in width, and 2 feet 11 inches (89 cm) in height, made of basalt. The sarcophagus was not inscribed with hieroglyphs although it was decorated in the style of palace facade. Adjacent to the burial chamber were found wooden fragments of a coffin bearing the name of Menkaure and a partial skeleton wrapped in a coarse cloth. The sarcophagus was removed from the pyramid and was sent by ship to the British Museum
in London, but the merchant ship Beatrice carrying it was lost after leaving port at Malta on October 13, 1838. The other materials were sent by a separate ship, and those materials now reside at the museum, with the remains of the wooden coffin case on display.

It is now thought that the coffin was a replacement made during the much later

Coptic period in the first centuries AD.[12]

Records from later periods

According to

bull (which Herodotus claims survived to his lifetime), died before him. Subsequently the oracle at Buto
predicted he would only rule six more years.

The king deemed this unjust, and sent back to the oracle a message of reproach, blaming the god: why must he die so soon who was pious, whereas his father and his uncle had lived long, who shut up the temples, and regarded not the gods, and destroyed men? But a second utterance from the place of divination declared to him that his good deeds were the very cause of shortening his life; for he had done what was contrary to fate; Egypt should have been afflicted for an hundred and fifty years, whereof the two kings before him had been aware, but not Mycerinus. Hearing this, he knew that his doom was fixed. Therefore he caused many lamps to be made, and would light these at nightfall and drink and make merry; by day or night he never ceased from revelling, roaming to the marsh country and the groves and wherever he heard of the likeliest places of pleasure. Thus he planned, that by turning night into day he might make his six years into twelve and so prove the oracle false.[13]

Trivia

  • Menkaure was the subject of a poem by the nineteenth century English poet Matthew Arnold, entitled "Mycerinus".
  • Menkaure, using the Greek version of his name, Mencheres, is a major character in the Night Huntress series of books by Jeaniene Frost, depicted as an extremely old and powerful vampire living in modern times. He is a protagonist of one book in the series.

Gallery of images

  • Colossal alabaster statue of Menkaura at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts
    Colossal alabaster statue of Menkaura at the
    Boston Museum of Fine Arts
  • Greywacke statue of Menkaura and Queen Khamerernebty II at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
    Greywacke statue of Menkaura and Queen Khamerernebty II at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
  • Menkaure's Pyramid in Giza.
    Menkaure's Pyramid
    in Giza.
  • Fragmentary statue triad of Menkaura flanked by the goddess Hathor (left) and a male nome god (right), Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
    Fragmentary statue triad of Menkaura flanked by the goddess Hathor (left) and a male nome god (right), Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
  • Fragmentary alabaster statue head of believed to depict either Menkaure[14] or Shepseskaf[15] at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
    Fragmentary alabaster statue head of believed to depict either Menkaure[14] or Shepseskaf[15] at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
  • Drawing of the anthropoid coffin fragment inscribed with the name of the king Menkaura made by excavator Richard Vyse and published in 1840.
    Drawing of the anthropoid coffin fragment inscribed with the name of the king Menkaura made by excavator Richard Vyse and published in 1840.
  • Menkaura alongside Hathor and the nome goddess Anput
    Menkaura alongside Hathor and the nome goddess Anput
  • Basalt cylinder seal of pharaoh Menkaure, from Egypt. Neues Museum, Berlin
    Basalt cylinder seal of pharaoh Menkaure, from Egypt. Neues Museum, Berlin
  • Greywacke Statue of Menkaure flanked by Hathor and Anput, Cairo Museum 2023
    Greywacke Statue of Menkaure flanked by Hathor and Anput, Cairo Museum 2023

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 3-491-96053-3
    . pp. 163–164.
  2. ^ "LacusCurtius • Manetho: History of Egypt (And other Fragments)".
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-9547218-9-3
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-500-05145-3
  5. ^ Clayton, pp.57-58
  6. ^ Herodotus, Historia, B:129-132
  7. ^ Hassan, Selim: Excavations at Gîza IV. 1932–1933. Cairo: Government Press, Bulâq, 1930. pp 18-62
  8. ^ a b c d Porter, Bertha and Moss, Rosalind, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings Volume III: Memphis, Part I Abu Rawash to Abusir. 2nd edition (revised and augmented by Dr Jaromir Malek, 1974). Retrieved from gizapyramids.org
  9. ^ Miroslav Verner: Archaeological Remarks on the 4th and 5th Dynasty Chronology. In: Archiv Orientální, Vol. 69. Prague 2001, page 363–418.
  10. ^ Ancient Egyptian leader makes a surprise appearance at an archaeological dig in Israel July 9, 2013, sciencedaily.com
  11. ISBN 978-1-904994-68-8
    .
  12. ^ Boughton, Paul "Menkaura's Anthropoid Coffin: A Case of Mistaken Identity?" Ancient Egypt. August/September 2006. p.30-32.
  13. Histories, 2.129-133
  14. ^ "Head of King Menkaura (Mycerinus)". Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Catalog number 09.203.
  15. OCLC 7427345
    .

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Menkaura.
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