The Decree of Canopus is a trilingual inscription in three scripts, which dates from the
Ptolemaic Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to:
Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty
* Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter
* Ptolemaic Kingdom
Pertaining ...
period of
ancient Egypt. It was written in three
writing system
A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable form ...
s:
Egyptian hieroglyph
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
s,
demotic
Demotic may refer to:
* Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language
* Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language
* Chữ Nôm, the demotic script for writing Vietnamese
See also
*
* Demos (disa ...
, and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, on several ancient Egyptian memorial stones, or
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
s. The inscription is a record of a great assembly of priests held at
Canopus, Egypt
Canopus (, ; grc-gre, Κάνωπος, ), also known as Canobus ( grc-gre, Κάνωβος, ), was an ancient Egyptian coastal town, located in the Nile Delta. Its site is in the eastern outskirts of modern-day Alexandria, around from the cent ...
, on 7 Appellaios (Mac.) = 17 Tybi (Eg.) year 9 of Ptolemy III = Thursday 7 March 238 BC (proleptic Julian calendar). Their decree honoured Pharaoh
Ptolemy III Euergetes;
Queen Berenice, his wife; and Princess
Berenice
Berenice ( grc, Βερενίκη, ''Bereníkē'') is the Ancient Macedonian form of the Attic Greek name ''Pherenikē'', which means "bearer of victory" . Berenika, priestess of Demeter in Lete ca. 350 BC, is the oldest epigraphical evidence. ...
.
Copies of the Decree
In 1866,
Karl Richard Lepsius
Karl Richard Lepsius ( la, Carolus Richardius Lepsius) (23 December 181010 July 1884) was a pioneering Prussian Egyptologist, linguist and modern archaeologist.
He is widely known for his magnum opus ''Denkmäler aus Ägypten und Äthiopien'' ...
discovered at
Tanis
Tanis ( grc, Τάνις or Τανέως ) or San al-Hagar ( ar, صان الحجر, Ṣān al-Ḥaǧar; egy, ḏꜥn.t ; ; cop, ϫⲁⲛⲓ or or ) is the Greek name for ancient Egyptian ''ḏꜥn.t'', an important archaeological site in the ...
the first copy of this Decree (this copy was originally known as the 'Şân Stele'). Another copy was found in 1881 by
Gaston Maspero
Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist known for popularizing the term "Sea Peoples" in an 1881 paper.
Maspero's son, Henri Maspero, became a notable sinologist and scholar of East Asia.
...
at
Kom el-Hisn
Kom el-Hisn ( ar, كوم الحصن ') is a Nile Delta settlement dating back to the Old Kingdom of Egypt with parts dating to the Middle Kingdom. Its location in the 3rd nome of Lower Egypt, or "House of the Lord of Ships (pr nb jmu)", focus ...
in the western Nile Delta. Later on, some other fragmentary copies were found. In March 2004, while excavating at
Bubastis
Bubastis ( Bohairic Coptic: ''Poubasti''; Greek: ''Boubastis'' or ''Boubastos''), also known in Arabic as Tell-Basta or in Egyptian as Per-Bast, was an ancient Egyptian city. Bubastis is often identified with the biblical ''Pi-Beseth'' ( he ...
, the German-Egyptian 'Tell Basta Project' archaeologists discovered yet another well preserved copy of the Decree.
Importance for the decipherment of hieroglyphs
This is the second earliest of the series of
trilingual
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
inscriptions of the "Rosetta Stone Series", also known as
Ptolemaic Decrees. Having a greater number of different
hieroglyphs
A hieroglyph (Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatonis ...
than the Rosetta Stone, the Canopus Stone has proved crucial in deciphering them. There are four such decrees:
# The Decree of Alexandria from 243 BC;
# The Decree of Canopus of Ptolemy III in 238 BC;
# The
Decree of Memphis, for
Ptolemy IV
egy, Iwaennetjerwymenkhwy Setepptah Userkare Sekhemankhamun Clayton (2006) p. 208.
, predecessor = Ptolemy III
, successor = Ptolemy V
, horus = ''ḥnw-ḳni sḫꜤi.n-sw-it.f'Khunuqeni sekhaensuitef'' The strong youth whose f ...
in 218 BC;
# The
Memphis Decree (whose best-known copy is the
Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a Rosetta Stone decree, decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle te ...
), inscribed for
Ptolemy V
egy, Iwaennetjerwymerwyitu Seteppah Userkare Sekhem-ankhamun Clayton (2006) p. 208.
, predecessor = Ptolemy IV
, successor = Ptolemy VI
, horus = '' ḥwnw-ḫꜤj-m-nsw-ḥr-st-jt.f'Khunukhaiemnisutkhersetitef'' The youth who ...
in 196 BC.
Contents of the inscription
The inscription touches on subjects such as military campaigns, famine relief, Egyptian religion and governmental organization in
Ptolemaic Egypt. It mentions the king's donations to the temples, his support for the
Apis and
Mnevis
Mnevis (, ) is the Hellenized name of an ancient Egyptian bull god which had its centre of worship at Heliopolis, and was known to the ancient Egyptians as ''Mer-wer'' or ''Nem-wer''.
Although initially a separate god, it was later assimilat ...
cults, which enjoyed huge success in the Macedonian – Egyptian world, and the return of divine statues which had been carried off by
Cambyses Cambyses may refer to:
* Cambyses I, King of Anshan 600 to 559 BCE
* Cambyses II, King of Persia 530 to 522 BCE
* Cambyses, ancient name of the Iori river in the South Caucasus
* ''Cambyses'', a tragedy (published 1569) by Thomas Preston (writer)
...
. It extols the king's success in quelling insurgencies of native Egyptians, operations referred to as 'keeping the peace.' It reminds the reader that during a year of low inundation, the government had remitted taxes and imported grain from abroad. It inaugurates the most accurate solar
calendar
A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
known to the ancient world, with 365¼ days per year. It declares the deceased princess Berenike a goddess and creates a cult for her, with women, men, ceremonies, and special 'bread-cakes'. Lastly it orders the decree to be incised in stone or bronze in both hieroglyphs and Greek, and to be publicly displayed in the temples.
The Decree of Canopus attested the existence of the ancient city of
Heracleion, which is now submerged, and has only recently been excavated. The Decree informed us, in its Greek version, that a synod of priests was held in the city of
Heracleion during the reign of King
Ptolemy I
Ptolemy I Soter (; gr, Πτολεμαῖος Σωτήρ, ''Ptolemaîos Sōtḗr'' "Ptolemy the Savior"; c. 367 BC – January 282 BC) was a Macedonian Greek general, historian and companion of Alexander the Great from the Kingdom of Macedon ...
.
Calendar reform
The civil
Egyptian calendar
The ancient Egyptian calendar – a civil calendar – was a solar calendar with a 365-day year. The year consisted of three seasons of 120 days each, plus an intercalary month of five epagomenal days treated as outside of the year proper. Eac ...
had 365 days: twelve months of thirty days each and an additional five
epagomenal days. According to the reform, the five-day ''"Opening of the Year"'' ceremonies would include an additional sixth day every fourth year. The reason given was that ''the rise of
Sothis advances to another day in every 4 years'', so that attaching the beginning of the year to the
heliacal rising
The heliacal rising ( ) or star rise of a star occurs annually, or the similar phenomenon of a planet, when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn just before sunrise (thus becoming "the morning star") after a complete orbit of ...
of the star
Sirius
Sirius is the list of brightest stars, brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Ancient Greek language, Greek word , or , meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated α Canis Majoris, Latinisation ...
would keep the calendar synchronized with the seasons.
This Ptolemaic calendar reform failed, but was finally officially implemented in Egypt by
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
in 26 or 25 BC, now called the
Alexandrian calendar, with a sixth epagomenal day occurring for the first time on 29 August 22 BC.
[Chris Bennett]
Egyptian Civil Calendar
an
/ref> Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
had earlier implemented a day year in Rome in 45 BC as part of the Julian calendar
The Julian calendar, proposed by Roman consul Julius Caesar in 46 BC, was a reform of the Roman calendar. It took effect on , by edict. It was designed with the aid of Greek mathematicians and astronomers such as Sosigenes of Alexandr ...
.
See also
* Ptolemaic Decrees
* Decree of Memphis, or Raphia Decree, for Ptolemy IV
egy, Iwaennetjerwymenkhwy Setepptah Userkare Sekhemankhamun Clayton (2006) p. 208.
, predecessor = Ptolemy III
, successor = Ptolemy V
, horus = ''ḥnw-ḳni sḫꜤi.n-sw-it.f'Khunuqeni sekhaensuitef'' The strong youth whose f ...
*Great Mendes Stela The Great Mendes Stela is a commemorative stele erected during the Ptolemaic dynasty by Ptolemy II Philadelphus for Mendes, Lower Egypt. Ptolemies III through V also had stelae: the bilingual, three-script Decree of Canopus and the Rosetta Stone.
...
, for Ptolemy II
; egy, Userkanaenre Meryamun Clayton (2006) p. 208
, predecessor = Ptolemy I
, successor = Ptolemy III
, horus = ''ḥwnw-ḳni'Khunuqeni''The brave youth
, nebty = ''wr-pḥtj'Urpekhti''Great of strength
, gol ...
*Rosetta Stone decree
The Rosetta Stone decree, or the Decree of Memphis, is a Ptolemaic decree issued at Memphis by a council of priests confirming the royal cult of Ptolemy V in 196 BC. It is one of a series that affirm the royal cult of the king. It was recorded in ...
, for Ptolemy V
egy, Iwaennetjerwymerwyitu Seteppah Userkare Sekhem-ankhamun Clayton (2006) p. 208.
, predecessor = Ptolemy IV
, successor = Ptolemy VI
, horus = '' ḥwnw-ḫꜤj-m-nsw-ḥr-st-jt.f'Khunukhaiemnisutkhersetitef'' The youth who ...
References
Sources
*Budge. ''The Rosetta Stone,'' E.A.Wallace Budge, (Dover Publications), c 1929, Dover edition(unabridged), 1989. (softcover, )
*Pfeiffer, Stefan. ''Das Dekret von Kanopos (238 v. CHR).'' Munich: K. G. Sauer, 2004.
External links
The Canopus Decree
full translation by S. Birch (about 1800 words—25 paragraphs; copied a
)
{{authority control
3rd-century BC steles
1866 archaeological discoveries
Multilingual texts
Ancient Egyptian stelas
Decree Of Canopus The Decree of Canopus is a trilingual inscription in three scripts, which dates from the Ptolemaic period of ancient Egypt. It was written in three writing systems: Egyptian hieroglyphs, demotic, and Greek, on several ancient Egyptian memorial sto ...
Canopus
Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina (constellation), Carina and the list of brightest stars, second-brightest star in the night sky. It is also Bayer designation, designated α Carinae, which is Lat ...
Egyptian calendar
Nile Delta
Canopus
Canopus is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina (constellation), Carina and the list of brightest stars, second-brightest star in the night sky. It is also Bayer designation, designated α Carinae, which is Lat ...
Tanis