In a message dated 2/16/2015 9:27:36 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx writes: 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. Mmm. Interesting. http://amazingbibletimeline.com/blog/memphis-of-ancient-egypt/ says that "Memphis was said to be founded by King Menes." "Memphis was associated with many names." "It was the historian Manetho who named it Memphis." "Manetho was the one who shared the story of how King Menes united the two kingdoms and then built Memphis to be its capital city." Manetho refers to 'ka', which means 'soul'. In the old Egyptian mythology, Ptah was said to be the creator of everything. Ptah created the universe, and justly enough a temple was built for him. The ruins of the temple of Ptah were excavated at the borders of today’s Mit Rahina. The Egyptians believed that Ptah had constructed the universe with his heart and tongue. His temple was referred to as "Hut-ka-Ptah", "Hut-ka-Ptah" means, 'the enclosure of the ka of Ptah', i.e., the enclosure of the SOUL of Ptah. Manetho approximated this as follows: Hut -- Aί Ka -- γυ Ptah -- πτoς "Hut-ka-Ptah" becomes "Ai gy ptos", which in Latin inscriptions became ÆGYPTVS So what Manetho is merely doing is associating the name of the 'enclosure of the soul of Ptah' (excavated at the borders of today's Mit Rahina) with Memphis and Egypt. It all made perfect sense to Manetho seeing that the ruins of this temple are located near what is today the town of Mit Rahina, 20 km south of Cairo, in what was THEN Old Memphis. We would have here a specimen of one of L. J. Helm's favourite words, synecdoche -- seeing that the 'part' (an enclosure of the soul of a god of a country) was taken for the name of the 'whole', i.e. the whole country. Cheers, Speranza ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html