Hermopolis Aramaic Papyrus 4
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Hermopolis ( grc, Ἑρμούπολις ''Hermoúpolis'' "the City of
Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...
", also ''Hermopolis Magna'', ''Hermoû pólis megálẽ'', egy, ḫmnw , Egyptological pronunciation: "Khemenu"; cop, Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ ''Shmun''; ar, الأشمونين) was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...
. A provincial capital since the
Old Kingdom of Egypt In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning c. 2700–2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth ...
, Hermopolis developed into a major city of
Roman Egypt , conventional_long_name = Roman Egypt , common_name = Egypt , subdivision = Province , nation = the Roman Empire , era = Late antiquity , capital = Alexandria , title_leader = Praefectus Augustalis , image_map = Roman E ...
, and an early
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
center from the third century. It was abandoned after the
Muslim conquest The early Muslim conquests or early Islamic conquests ( ar, الْفُتُوحَاتُ الإسْلَامِيَّة, ), also referred to as the Arab conquests, were initiated in the 7th century by Muhammad, the main Islamic prophet. He estab ...
but was restored as both a
Latin Catholic , native_name_lang = la , image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran , caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...
(meanwhile suppressed) and a Coptic Orthodox
titular see A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...
. Its remains are located near the modern town of el Ashmunein (from the Coptic name) in
Mallawi Mallawi ( ar, ملوي  ; Saidi pronunciation: , ) is a city in Egypt, located in the governorate of Minya. Overview Situated in a farm area, the town produces textiles and handicrafts. The total area of the city is about . The souther ...
, Minya Governorate, Egypt.


Name

''Khemenu'' ('), the
Egyptian language The Egyptian language or Ancient Egyptian ( ) is a dead language, dead Afroasiatic languages, Afro-Asiatic language that was spoken in ancient Egypt. It is known today from a large Text corpus, corpus of surviving texts which were made acces ...
name of the city, means "Eight-Town", after the Ogdoad, a group of eight "primordial" deities whose cult was situated there. The name survived as Coptic ''Shmun'', from which the modern name ''el Ashmunein'' ( ar, الأشمونين) is derived.G. Mussies in: Matthieu Sybrand Huibert, Gerard Heerma van Voss (eds.), ''Studies in Egyptian Religion: Dedicated to Professor Jan Zandee'' (1982),
p. 92
In
Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...
, the city was called "The City of
Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...
" since the Greeks identified Hermes with Thoth, because the city was the main cult centre of Thoth, the Pharaonic god of magic, healing, and wisdom and the patron of scribes. Thoth was associated in the same way with the Phoenician deity
Eshmun Eshmun (or Eshmoun, less accurately Esmun or Esmoun; phn, 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍 '; akk, 𒅀𒋢𒈬𒉡 ''Yasumunu'') was a Phoenician god of healing and the tutelary god of Sidon. History This god was known at least from the Iron Age period at S ...
. Inscriptions at the temple call the god "The Lord of Eshmun".


History

The city was the capital of the Hare nome (the fifteenth nome of
Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...
) in the Heptanomis. Hermopolis stood on the borders of Upper and
Lower Egypt Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...
, and, for many ages, the
Thebaid The Thebaid or Thebais ( grc-gre, Θηβαΐς, ''Thēbaïs'') was a region in ancient Egypt, comprising the 13 southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. Pharaonic history The Thebaid acquired its name from its proximity to ...
or upper country extended much further to the north than in more recent periods. As the border town, Hermopolis was a place of great resort and opulence, ranking second to Thebes alone. A little to south of the city was the castle of Hermopolis, at which point rivercraft from the Thebaid paid tolls (, the
Bahr Yussef The Bahr Yussef ( ar, بحر يوسف; "the waterway of Joseph") is a canal which connects the Nile River with Fayyum in Egypt. In ancient times it was called Tomis () by the Greeks which was derived from its Egyptian name ''Tm.t'' "ending canal ...
in
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
). The grottos of
Beni Hasan Beni Hasan (also written as Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) ( ar, بني حسن) is an ancient Egyptian cemetery. It is located approximately to the south of modern-day Minya in the region known as Middle Egypt, the area between Asyut and Mem ...
, near
Antinoöpolis Antinoöpolis (also Antinoopolis, Antinoë, Antinopolis; grc, Ἀντινόου πόλις; cop, ⲁⲛⲧⲓⲛⲱⲟⲩ ''Antinow''; ar, الشيخ عبادة, modern ''Sheikh 'Ibada'' or ''Sheik Abāda'') was a city founded at an older Egyp ...
on the opposite bank of the Nile, were the common cemeteries of the Hermopolitans because although the river divided the city from its necropolis, from the wide curve of the western hills at this point, it was easier to ferry the dead over the water than to transport them by land to the hills. Hermopolis became a significant city in the
Roman province The Roman provinces (Latin: ''provincia'', pl. ''provinciae'') were the administrative regions of Ancient Rome outside Roman Italy that were controlled by the Romans under the Roman Republic and later the Roman Empire. Each province was rule ...
of Thebais Prima in the administrative diocese of Egypt. The principal Egyptian deities worshipped at Hermopolis were
Typhon Typhon (; grc, Τυφῶν, Typhôn, ), also Typhoeus (; grc, Τυφωεύς, Typhōeús, label=none), Typhaon ( grc, Τυφάων, Typháōn, label=none) or Typhos ( grc, Τυφώς, Typhṓs, label=none), was a monstrous serpentine giant an ...
(
Set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...
) and
Thoth Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a ...
. Typhon was represented by a
hippopotamus The hippopotamus ( ; : hippopotamuses or hippopotami; ''Hippopotamus amphibius''), also called the hippo, common hippopotamus, or river hippopotamus, is a large semiaquatic mammal native to sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of only two extan ...
, on which sat a hawk fighting with a serpent. Thoth, whom the
ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cultu ...
associated with
Hermes Hermes (; grc-gre, Ἑρμῆς) is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Hermes is considered the herald of the gods. He is also considered the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orato ...
because they were both gods of magic and writing, was represented by the
ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word f ...
.


Ecclesiastical history

A Christian tradition holds it to be the place where the
Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first ...
found refuge during its exile in Egypt. Hermopolis Maior was a
suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ...
of the provincial capital's Metropolitan
Archdiocese of Antinoe In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
, in the sway of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Like most, it faded under Islam. List of bishops of Hermopolis: * Conon (circa 250) * Fasileus (in 325) * Dios (circa 350) * Plusianus (4th century) * Andreas (in 431) * Gennadius (circa 444 - after 449) * Victor (circa 448/463) * Ulpianus (6th century) * Johannes I (6th century) * Johannes II (6th-7th century) * Isidorus (7th century) * Eugenius (?) * Paulus (?) The city was a titular diocese in the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, and still is (?) in the
Coptic Orthodox Church The Coptic Orthodox Church ( cop, Ϯⲉⲕ̀ⲕⲗⲏⲥⲓⲁ ⲛ̀ⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ⲛ̀ⲟⲣⲑⲟⲇⲟⲝⲟⲥ, translit=Ti.eklyseya en.remenkimi en.orthodoxos, lit=the Egyptian Orthodox Church; ar, الكنيسة القبطي ...
. The diocese was nominally restored in the 18th century as Latin Titular bishopric of Hermopolis Maior (Latin; 1925-1929 renamed Hermopolis Magna) / Ermopoli Maggiore (Curiate Italian) Its territory was reassigned in 1849 to the Coptic Catholic Eparchy of Mina, as a restoration of Hermopolis (as its Latin title attests). In 1949 the titular see was suppressed, having had the following incumbents, all of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank : * Luigi Antonio Valdina Cremona (1729.03.23 – death 1758.10.24) (Italian) no actual prelature recorded * Dominik Józef Kiełczewski (1760.07.21 – death 1776.02.28) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Roman Catholic Diocese of Chełm The Roman Catholic Diocese of Chełm(-Lublin) was a Latin Catholic bishopric in southeastern Poland, from 1257 (until 1358 as Łuków) until its suppression in 1805, which was restored as Latin titular see in 2009. History * Established on ...
(Poland) (1760.07.21 – retired 1775.07.14) and on emeritate * Bishop-elect? Bernardo Maria Serio (1802.08.09 – death ?) as Auxiliary Bishop of
Archdiocese of Palermo The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Palermo ( la, Archidioecesis Panormitana) was founded as the Diocese of Palermo in the first century and raised to the status of archdiocese in the 11th century.Apostolic Administrator An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...
of
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(Warschau, Poland) (1844 – 1856.09.18); later succeeded as Metropolitan Archbishop of Warszawa (1856.09.18 – 1861.10.05) * Agostino Franco (1858.06.15 – death 1877) as
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of Silicia of the Italo-Albanese (Italy) (1858.06.15 – 1859) and Ordinary of Italia continentale of the Italo-Albanese (Italy) (1858.06.15 – 1860) * Charles-Bonaventure-François Theuret (1878.07.15 – 1887.03.15) as
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(
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) (1878.07.15 – 1887.03.15); later (see promoted) first Bishop of
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(England, UK) (1899.01.29 – 1901.12.06); later Bishop of
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(England) (1901.12.06 – 1915.06.01), emeritus as Titular Bishop of Tacapæ (1915.06.01 – death 1916.06.27) * Juan Bautista Benlloch y Vivo (1901.12.16 – 1906.12.06) as
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(Spain) (1919.01.07 – death 1926.02.14), created Cardinal-Priest of S. Maria in Ara Coeli (1921.06.16 – 1926.02.14) * John Jeremiah Lawler (1910.02.08 – 1916.01.29) as Auxiliary Bishop of Archdiocese of Saint Paul (USA) (1910.02.08 – 1916.01.29); later Bishop of Lead (1916.01.29 – 1930.08.01), Bishop of
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) (1931.07.14 – 1932.05.24).


Remains

Hermopolis comparatively escaped the frequent wars which, in the decline both of the Pharaonic and
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
eras, devastated the Heptanomis; but, on the other hand, its structures have undergone severe changes under its
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
rulers, who have burned its stones for lime or carried them away for building materials. A surviving
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrology, papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient Landfill, rubbish dump near Oxyrhync ...
of the 3rd century AD indicates that high-rise buildings with seven stories existed in the town. The collection of Arabic papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, contains many documents referring to Hermopolis (''Ushmun''); they date from the 2nd to 4th centuries AH.


The temple

The Ibis-headed god Thoth was, with his accompanying emblems, the
Ibis The ibises () (collective plural ibis; classical plurals ibides and ibes) are a group of long-legged wading birds in the family Threskiornithidae, that inhabit wetlands, forests and plains. "Ibis" derives from the Latin and Ancient Greek word f ...
and the Cynocephalus monkey, the most conspicuous among the sculptures upon the great portico of the temple of Hermopolis. His designation in inscriptions was "The Lord of Eshmoon". This portico was a work of the Pharaonic era, but the erections of the
Ptolemies The Ptolemaic dynasty (; grc, Πτολεμαῖοι, ''Ptolemaioi''), sometimes referred to as the Lagid dynasty (Λαγίδαι, ''Lagidae;'' after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal dynasty which ruled the Ptolemaic K ...
at Hermopolis were on a scale of great extent and magnificence and, although raised by Greek monarchs, are essentially Egyptian in their conception and execution. The portico, the only remnant of the temple, consists of a double row of pillars, six in each row. The architraves are formed of five stones; each passes from the centre of one pillar to that of the next, according to a well-known usage with Egyptian builders. The intercolumnation of the centre pillars is wider than that of the others; and the stone over the centre is twenty-five feet and six inches long. These columns were painted yellow, red and blue in alternate bands. There is also a peculiarity in the pillars of the Hermopolitan portico peculiar to themselves, or at least discovered only again in the temple of Gournou. (Dénon, ''L'Egypte'', plate 41.) Instead of being formed of large masses placed horizontally above each other, they are composed of irregular pieces, so artfully adjusted that it is difficult to detect the lines of junction. The bases of these columns represent the lower leaves of the lotus; next come a number of concentric rings, like the hoops of a cask; and above these the pillars appear like bunches of reeds held together by horizontal bonds. Including the capital, each column is about 40 feet high; the greatest circumference is about 28 feet, about five feet from the ground, for they diminish in thickness both towards the base and towards the capital. The widest part of the intercolumnation is 17 feet; the other pillars are 13 feet apart.


Coptic Basilica

Outside the temple complex stand the remains of a
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...
, built in the 5th century over earlier buildings. It is one of the most impressive
Coptic Coptic may refer to: Afro-Asia * Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya * Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century * Coptic alphabet ...
buildings: 55 m long, it features a colonnaded
transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building withi ...
ending in
exedra An exedra (plural: exedras or exedrae) is a semicircular architectural recess or platform, sometimes crowned by a semi-dome, and either set into a building's façade or free-standing. The original Greek sense (''ἐξέδρα'', a seat out of d ...
s and side galleries. The
nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
with the
apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...
is 14.7 m wide, and the width of the
aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parl ...
s is 5.6 m. The church was discovered in 1942 by Moharam Kamal, later cleaned by an expedition from the Alexandria University, and in the years 1987–1990 documented by a Polish-Egyptian expedition from the
Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw (PCMA UW; pl, Centrum Archeologii Śródziemnomorskiej UW im. Kazimierza Michałowskiego) operates as an independent research institute of the University of Warsaw under the p ...
, State Ateliers for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, and the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities.


Museum

Currently there is a small open-air museum in which stand two massive statues of
Thoth Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a ...
as a baboon worshipping the sun, and a few carved blocks of masonry.


Famous people

*
David of Hermopolis David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
*
Severus Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ Severus ibn al-Muqaffaʿ ( ar, ساويرس بن المقفع) or Severus of El Ashmunein () (died 987) was a Coptic Orthodox Bishop, author and historian. In Arabic, his name is spelled Sawires ساويرس. Severus is sometimes confused with t ...


See also

* List of ancient Egyptian towns and cities * List of Catholic dioceses in Egypt *
Coptic architecture Coptic architecture is the architecture of the Copt, Coptic Christians, who form the majority of Christianity in Egypt, Christians in Egypt. Coptic churches range from great cathedrals such as Saint Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral to the smalle ...


References


Sources and external links

{{commons, Hermopolis Magna
Silhouette of Hermopolis Magna temple-from A History Of Egypt Volume V by J Graflon Milne
retrieved 20:34GMT 27.9.11

* Sayed Hemeda, Abdulrahman Fahmy, Abbas Moustafa, Mahmoud Abd El Hafez,The Early Basilica Church, El-Ashmonein Archaeological Site, Minia, Egypt: Geo-Environmental Analysis and Engineering Characterization of the Building Materials, Open Journal of Geology 09/03 (2019) * Marek Barański
Excavations at the basilica site at el-Ashmunein/ Hermopolis magna in 1987–1990. Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean 3 (1992)
; Bibliography - Ecclesiastical history * Pius Bonifacius Gams, ''Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae'', Leipzig 1931, p. 461 * Konrad Eubel, ''Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi'', vol. 5, p. 219; vol. 6, p. 234 * Michel Lequien, ''Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus'', Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 595-596 * Gaetano Moroni, ''Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica'', Vol. 22, p. 61 * Klaas A. Worp, ''A Checklist of Bishops in Byzantine Egypt (A.D. 325 - c. 750)'', in ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' 100 (1994) 283-318 Cities in ancient Egypt Archaeological sites in Egypt Former populated places in Egypt Minya Governorate