[lit-ideas] Re: Manethoniana

  • From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 14:07:40 -0600

Whatever.  Indeed Memphis, Tennessee has Overton Park and Overton Square in
honor of our father John Overton, we have Winchester Blvd. in honor of
James Winchester and we have Jackson Avenue in honor of Andrew Jackson.  We
also have a statue of General William Bedford Forrest in honor of his
treason against the United States as a Confederate General and founder of
the Ku Klux Klan.  We also have a stainless steel Pyramid which is the 6th
largest pyramid in the world -- 392 ft. high, and 591 feet at the base.  It
was built in 1991 as a sports arena but is now being fitted out as a Bass
Pro fishing gear store.  We also have an obelisque and a statue to Tom Lee
in Tom Lee Park.  The Obelisque, erected in 1928, is engraved:  "Tom Lee, a
Worthy Negro."  So very "Liberal" of them.

*Tom Lee Park* is a city park located to the immediate west of downtown
</wiki/Downtown_Memphis,_Tennessee> Memphis </wiki/Memphis,_Tennessee>,
Tennessee </wiki/Tennessee>, overlooking the Mississippi River
</wiki/Mississippi_River>. Encompassing about 30 acres </wiki/Acre> (12 ha)
parallel to the Mississippi River for about one mile (1.6 km), it offers
panoramic views of the Mississippi River </wiki/Mississippi_River> and the
shores of Arkansas </wiki/Arkansas> on the opposite side. The park is named
after Tom Lee, an African-American </wiki/African-American> riverworker,
who saved the lives of 32 passengers of the sinking steamboat
</wiki/Steamboat> *M.E. Norman </wiki/M.E._Norman>* in 1925.[1]
<#cite_note-USACEtragedy-1>

Tom Lee Park is a popular location for walkers, joggers, roller bladers and
cyclists, and hosts events throughout the year, including the Beale Street
Music Festival that kicks off Memphis in May </wiki/Memphis_in_May>.  So
there.

On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 8:27 AM, Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hm... I believe that the name of Aegyptus in Greek mythology pre-dates
> Manetho. Aegyptus was the brother of Danaus (the forefather of the Danaans).
>
> Manetho lived in the 3rd century B.CE., while people like Solon, Herodotus
> and Plato were visiting Egypt much before that.
>
> O.K.
>
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 1:42 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
> DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> 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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