DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4031#0036
SITE OF HERMOPOLIS.
23
tlie Delta the people are far from any quarry.
It is not easy to get limestone there, and the
smallest piece found on the tell would speedily
have been carried away. That seems to be the
reason why there are hardly any remains to be
seen there, excepting big blocks of granite, for
which there is no ordinary use.
Such fragments of inscriptions as I found
were discovered in the village of Baklieh ; they
are four in number. The first is a piece of lime-
stone, the lower part of a door-post, on which
9Tf
are the following signs : tM
. . . worshipper of the great, the lord of Bah.
The second is a fragment of hard stone used as
the threshold to the tomb of a sheikh of a neigh-
bouring village (pi. iii. B.). The inscription is
of the time of Nectanebo IT., and states that
the king was a worshipper of Thoth. Pro-
bably the name of the city in which Thoth is
said to reside immediately follows upon the
name of the god, and this supposition might
easily have been verified had the Arabs allowed
me to remove a brick of the door-post covering
a few inches of the stone. But after having re-
mained there a long time, after having tried all
kinds of argument, even that which is to them
the most persuasive of all arguments—the
sight of gold, I failed to overcome their
obstinacy. They feared to irritate the deceased
saint, who would deeply resent any damage
done to the door of his tomb, and who
would cause his wrath to be felt. So I was
obliged to go away without the sight of those
few signs. A third fragment is a large piece
of a basalt coffin which I had taken out of a
mill. The name of the deceased was * n
Aahmes. He had several titles, the most impor-
tant of them being ^ ^ V& lit. the bald-
headed, the title of one of the high-priests of
the XVth nome of Lower Egypt, the nome of
V25 of the ibis, or of Thoth. The names
which I found on these inscriptions all point to
that nome in which the ibis was worshipped,
and this is in good accord with the fact of the
sacred birds' having had their necropolis at
Baklieh.
The name of the nome of the ibis lyjs would
lead us to think that this was the Hermopolitan
nome of the Greeks, and that its capital was
Hermopolis Parva, known to have been in the
Delta. But it is not so; wo do not know of
any Hermopolitan nome having existed in the
Delta, whereas the city of Hermopolis Parva
in Lower Egypt is spoken of several times.
The name occurs three times in Strabo, and it
is probable that the Greek geographer meant
two different cities.1 Of the first, he says that
it was on the river near Lake Mareotis, and
also that it was on an island near Buto.
Evidently this was the city which Ptolemy had
in view, when he says that Hermopolis was
the metropolis of the nome of the Alexan-
drians.2 That city was on the site of the
present town of Damanhoor,3 and by far the
most important city of the name in Lower
Egypt, probably much more important than its
Greek namesake in the eastern part of the
Delta. I believe that the eastern Hermopolis,
which would be far more correctly entitled to
the name of " city of Hermes " than the western
one, is also mentioned by Strabo, who says
that it was situate in the country above the
Sebennytic and the Phatnitic mouths, along
with Lycopolis and Mencles. It is quoted also
by Stephanus Byzantinus, who speaks of a city
of Hermopolis Kara ©jaovlv,4, near Thmuis, and
lastly by the geographer of Ravenna, who also
1 Pp. 802, 803.
2 'A\e£av8p£<jw ^wpas yOyUos /cat jxrjTpoTTo\i% 'Epfiov 7roAis
fiLKpa. P. 123, ed. Bert.
3 D'Anville, Mem. sur VJSgypte, p. 70. It is difficult to
understand why the Greeks called Hermopolis a city
dedicated to Horus and not to Thoth.
4 The only edition I have now at hand (1568) reads /care*
'Vv/jlovcv, an evident mistake. The article in Pauly, Real,
Encycl. reads koto. ®/ju>vlv.
23
tlie Delta the people are far from any quarry.
It is not easy to get limestone there, and the
smallest piece found on the tell would speedily
have been carried away. That seems to be the
reason why there are hardly any remains to be
seen there, excepting big blocks of granite, for
which there is no ordinary use.
Such fragments of inscriptions as I found
were discovered in the village of Baklieh ; they
are four in number. The first is a piece of lime-
stone, the lower part of a door-post, on which
9Tf
are the following signs : tM
. . . worshipper of the great, the lord of Bah.
The second is a fragment of hard stone used as
the threshold to the tomb of a sheikh of a neigh-
bouring village (pi. iii. B.). The inscription is
of the time of Nectanebo IT., and states that
the king was a worshipper of Thoth. Pro-
bably the name of the city in which Thoth is
said to reside immediately follows upon the
name of the god, and this supposition might
easily have been verified had the Arabs allowed
me to remove a brick of the door-post covering
a few inches of the stone. But after having re-
mained there a long time, after having tried all
kinds of argument, even that which is to them
the most persuasive of all arguments—the
sight of gold, I failed to overcome their
obstinacy. They feared to irritate the deceased
saint, who would deeply resent any damage
done to the door of his tomb, and who
would cause his wrath to be felt. So I was
obliged to go away without the sight of those
few signs. A third fragment is a large piece
of a basalt coffin which I had taken out of a
mill. The name of the deceased was * n
Aahmes. He had several titles, the most impor-
tant of them being ^ ^ V& lit. the bald-
headed, the title of one of the high-priests of
the XVth nome of Lower Egypt, the nome of
V25 of the ibis, or of Thoth. The names
which I found on these inscriptions all point to
that nome in which the ibis was worshipped,
and this is in good accord with the fact of the
sacred birds' having had their necropolis at
Baklieh.
The name of the nome of the ibis lyjs would
lead us to think that this was the Hermopolitan
nome of the Greeks, and that its capital was
Hermopolis Parva, known to have been in the
Delta. But it is not so; wo do not know of
any Hermopolitan nome having existed in the
Delta, whereas the city of Hermopolis Parva
in Lower Egypt is spoken of several times.
The name occurs three times in Strabo, and it
is probable that the Greek geographer meant
two different cities.1 Of the first, he says that
it was on the river near Lake Mareotis, and
also that it was on an island near Buto.
Evidently this was the city which Ptolemy had
in view, when he says that Hermopolis was
the metropolis of the nome of the Alexan-
drians.2 That city was on the site of the
present town of Damanhoor,3 and by far the
most important city of the name in Lower
Egypt, probably much more important than its
Greek namesake in the eastern part of the
Delta. I believe that the eastern Hermopolis,
which would be far more correctly entitled to
the name of " city of Hermes " than the western
one, is also mentioned by Strabo, who says
that it was situate in the country above the
Sebennytic and the Phatnitic mouths, along
with Lycopolis and Mencles. It is quoted also
by Stephanus Byzantinus, who speaks of a city
of Hermopolis Kara ©jaovlv,4, near Thmuis, and
lastly by the geographer of Ravenna, who also
1 Pp. 802, 803.
2 'A\e£av8p£<jw ^wpas yOyUos /cat jxrjTpoTTo\i% 'Epfiov 7roAis
fiLKpa. P. 123, ed. Bert.
3 D'Anville, Mem. sur VJSgypte, p. 70. It is difficult to
understand why the Greeks called Hermopolis a city
dedicated to Horus and not to Thoth.
4 The only edition I have now at hand (1568) reads /care*
'Vv/jlovcv, an evident mistake. The article in Pauly, Real,
Encycl. reads koto. ®/ju>vlv.