Apepi was a ruler of some part of
Lower Egypt during the
Second Intermediate Period
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 b ...
c. 1650 BC. According to the egyptologists
Kim Ryholt
Kim Steven Bardrum Ryholt (born 19 June 1970) is a professor of Egyptology at the University of Copenhagen and a specialist on Egyptian history and literature. He is director of the research centeCanon and Identity Formation in the Earliest Litera ...
and Darrell Baker, 'Apepi was the fifty-first ruler of the
14th Dynasty.
[ K.S.B. Ryholt: ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c.1800–1550 BC'', Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, vol. 20. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997]
excerpts available online here.
/ref>[Darrell D. Baker: The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC, Stacey International, , 2008, p. 57] As such he would have ruled from Avaris over the eastern Nile Delta and possibly over the Western Delta as well. Alternatively, Jürgen von Beckerath sees 'Apepi as a member of the late 16th Dynasty and a vassal of the Hyksos
Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC).
T ...
rulers of the 15th Dynasty.
Attestation
'Apepi's only secure attestation is the Turin canon, a king list redacted in the Ramesside period
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore togeth ...
. 'Apepi is listed on a fragment of the document corresponding to column 10, row 15 (column 9 row 16 as per Alan H. Gardiner's reconstruction of the Turin canon).prenomen
The ''praenomen'' (; plural: ''praenomina'') was a personal name chosen by the parents of a Roman child. It was first bestowed on the ''dies lustricus'' (day of lustration), the eighth day after the birth of a girl, or the ninth day after the birt ...
as Ap ... which, Ryholt argues, may be restored to Apepi".
King's son Apophis
Ryholt's reconstruction of the name of 'Apepi is significant because five scarab seals inscribed with "King's son Apophis" are known.[Frederick George Hilton Price: ''A catalogue of the Egyptian antiquities in the possession of F.G. Hilton Price'', London 1897]
available online
see No 171 p. 25 On two of these seals the inscription is furthermore enclosed in a cartouche and followed by ''di-ˁnḫ'' meaning "given life". These two attributes are normally reserved to kings or designated heirs to the throne and 'Apepi could be the Apophis referred to on the seals.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Apepi
17th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Fourteenth Dynasty of Egypt