Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

DYN. XV—XVII.

THE NAMES OF THE HYKSOS KINGS 109

shapes, notably that of the winged sphinx, were intro-
duced, the Semitic origin of which is obvious at a
glance.

The number of monuments which contain memo-
rials of the time of the Hyksos is very limited; and
names of these kings, on their own memorial-stones, as
well as those of earlier Egyptian kings of the times
before them, have in many cases been carefully chiselled
out, so that, in deciphering the faint traces which
remain, we have to contend with great difficulties.
This gap in the sequence of the monuments may be
explained by the fact that when the native rulers were
re-established they carefully obliterated every record
of the hated usurpers.

The names of the Hyksos kings which cover the
more than life-size statue at Tell Mukhdam, the border
of the colossal sphinx in the Louvre, the Baghdad lion,
and the sacrificial stone at Gizeh, are erased with such
care as to be almost illegible, and science owes merely
to an accident the preservation and deciphering with
certainty of the names of two of them. These are
Aaqenen-Ba, with the family name of Apepi, and Nub,
with the official name of Set, ' the powerful.'

The name of the first, which would have been pro-
nounced in the Memphite dialect Aphephi, differs little
from that of the king Aphobis, who, according to
Manetho, was the fourth of the above-named Hyksos
kings.

The names which designate the other are strikingly
similar in sound to those which the god ' Set-Nub
the powerful' usually bears on the Egyptian monu-
ments.

In the Sallier Eapyrus in the British Museum we
find the name of the foreign king Apepi in connection
with an Egyptian under-king, Seqenen-Ka.