Poole, Reginald S.: Horae Aegypticae: or, the chronology of ancient Egypt: discovered from astronomical and hieroglyphic records upon its monuments, including many dates found in coeval inscriptions from the period of the building of the Great Pyramid to the times of the Persians ; and illustrations of the history of the first nineteen dynasties, shewing the order of their succession, from the monuments (London, 1851)

Sect. III.]

MENOPHRES.

33

The well-known passage of Theon Alexandrinus,
given by Cory in his " Ancient Fragments," * speaks of
the commencement of the Sothic Cycle which com-
menced in the year B.C. 1322 in terms which justify
us in saying that it was called the Era of Menophres.
To which of the Pharaohs is this name applied ? It
has been suggested that MENO<3>PH2 is a corruption
of some Greek transcription of the name Men-ptah, or
Men-phthah. On the monuments we find four Kings
bearing the name of Men-path; Men-ptah Sethee I.,
the father of Rameses II.; Men-ptah Hotp-har(?)-
tma, the son, and Men-ptah Si-ptah, the son-in-law, of
the latter King; and Men-ptah Sethee II., his second
legitimate successor. I have shown that the ceiling of
the Rameseum of El-Kurneh dates during the first
hundred and twenty years of the Sothic Cycle which I
am considering; and, consequently, the Menophres of
the Sothic Cycle would be Men-ptah Sethee I., the

father and immediate predecessor of Rameses II. This
is confirmed by our finding that the earliest astrono-
mical ceiling which has been discovered is that of the
great chamber of his tomb, in which Sothis occupies a
conspicuous position. The chronology of the Nine-
teenth Dynasty, as obtained from Manetho, shows, on
being compared with the records of the risings of Sothis,
that this Sothic Cycle cannot have commenced before
the reign of Men-ptah Sethee L, whom Manetho calls

* Second edit., pp. 329, 330.

D