[lit-ideas] Manethoniana
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 07:42:12 -0500
We are discussing utterances in Memphis, and their implicatures.
In a message dated 2/15/2015 7:12:24 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx writes:
""Memphis" means "The City of Good Abode". Apparently the Egyptians of old
were very parsimonious with their words."
Apparently not so according to John Overton, James Winchester, and Andrew
Jackson in their "Memoirs of Memphis", the three egyptologists.
"The reader will speculate why we decided to call this city 'Memphis',
after the old Egyptian 'Memphis'. Let us be reminded that Old Memphis had
several names during its history of almost four millennia."
"Its Ancient Egyptian name was "Inbu-Hedj", which we might translated as
"the white walls".
"Mr. Jackson's original idea was to name the place Inbu-Hej but Winchester
objected on two grounds: "We would need to build the alleged walls, and
have them painted white".
"Because of its size, Old Memphis also came to be known by various other
names that were actually the names of neighbourhoods or districts that
enjoyed considerable prominence at one time or another."
"This was confusing to the neighbours THEN, and we decided that it should
not be confusing NOW."
"According to a text of the First Intermediate Period, old Memphis was
known Djed-Sut, which roughly translates as "everlasting places". But this, as,
again, Winchester found out is merely the name of the pyramid of Teti
("Which would mean, he added in private conversation, "that we should build
the
so-called pyramid to make sense to "Djed-Sut" should we decide to call the
place thus.""
"Old Memphis was also at one point referred to as "Ankh-Tawy". This roughly
translates as "Life of the Two Lands".
The expression stressed the strategic position of Old Memphis (but hardly
New Memphis that we are founding) between Upper and Lower Egypt."
"The name "Ankh-Tawy", pronounced to rhyme with 'ooy', appears to date
from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1640 B.C.), and is frequently found in ancient
Egyptian texts, as it should.
"But one big doubt arose in us: some egyptologist friends of ours let us
know in private correspondence that the name was actually that of the
WESTERN district of the city that lay between the great Temple of Ptah and the
necropolis at Saqqara, an area that contained a sacred tree."
Since there are no necropolis in New Memphis (as per now), not to mention a
sacred tree, we decided against the name."
"Finally, at the beginning of the New Kingdom (c. 1550 B. C.), old Memphis
became known as "Men-nefer", which Overton, in one poetic outburst,
translated as "enduring and beautiful"".
"As Overton goes on to note, "Men-nefer" became "Menfe" in Coptic, which
slightly 'obscures the meaning', as he puts it."
"The famous Egyptian historian Manetho referred to Memphis as
"Hut-ka-Ptah", which Winchester translates as "enclosure of the ka of Ptah".
"Manetho approximated this in Greek as Aί-γυ-πτoς (Ai-gy-ptos), from
which derives the Latin AEGYPTVS and the modern English name of Egypt."
"The term Copt is also believed to be etymologically derived from this
name."
"But we were looking for a name of _city_, not a _country_."
"Now, of course, "Memphis" is merely the Greek adaptation of "Menfe". If
the Italians cannot stand a word ending in 's', apparently the Greeks were
the opposite: they added a sibilant to "Menfe", which thus becomes "Memphis"
-- There is are no 'f'- words in Grecian."
"Interestingly, it is the inverse in Hebrew: in the Bible, Old Memphis is
called merely "Moph", or sometimes "Noph".
"This 'enduring and beautiful', originally referred to a pyramid located
west of the city: the pyramid of Pepi I (Ppj-mn-nfr = Pepi-men-nefer
(roughly: "Pepi is perfection", or "Pepi is beauty")."
"Our wives objected that if "Memphis" means 'enduring and beautiful' as
applied to a a pyramid, "We expect that you'll build the aforementione pyramid
at some point. That point has yet not come."
Cheers,
Speranza
Reference, Manetho, "History of Egypt".
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