Benerib was a queen consort of ancient Egypt from First Dynasty. Benerib's name means "sweet(bene) of heart(ib)".

Biography

Benerib was a wife of

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

Hor-Aha, but she was not the mother of his heir, Djer. The mother of king Djer is named as

Khenthap Khenthap (also written Khenet-Hapi) was allegedly a queen of Ancient Egypt. She is said to have lived during the 1st Dynasty. Her historical figure is very obscure, since there are no contemporary sources for her name. She appears only once in a ...

, another wife of Hor-Aha. Benerib is thought to be the wife of Hor-Aha based on ivories found in her tomb at Abydos which show his name. A fragment of an ivory box with the names of Hor-Aha and Benerib was also found at Abydos and is now in the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

. Egyptologist John Romer argued that Benerib's name, which can be translated to "sweetheart" or "one who is pleasant at heart", may not even be a name at all but rather a title or epithet for a person whose sex is also not confirmed by the name. Benerib's titles are not known, and neither is the identity of her parents. Benerib was buried at

Umm el-Qa'ab Umm El Qaʻāb (sometimes romanised Umm El Gaʻab, ar, أم القعاب) is a necropolis of the Early Dynastic Period kings at Abydos, Egypt. Its modern name means "Mother of Pots" as the whole area is littered with the broken pot shards of o ...

in tomb B14.B. Porter and R.L.B. Moss. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, V. Upper Egypt: Sites. Oxford, 1937, pg 88,89

References

{{Queens of Ancient Egypt 31st-century BC women Queens consort of the First Dynasty of Egypt Hor-Aha