Memphis in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

Capital of Lower Egypt, on the W. or left bank of the Nile. Hebrew "Nowph" (Isaiah 19:13). "Mowph," 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. "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 Mezri 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. "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. 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...

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