Netjerkare Siptah (also Neitiqerty Siptah and possibly the origin of the legendary figure Nitocris) was an ancient Egyptian

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 ...

, the seventh and last ruler of the

Sixth Dynasty The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt. Pharaohs Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below. Manetho acc ...

. Alternatively some scholars classify him as the first king of the

Seventh Seventh is the ordinal form of the number seven. Seventh may refer to: * Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution * A fraction (mathematics), , equal to one of seven equal parts Film and television *"The Seventh", a second-season e ...

or Eighth Dynasty.Darrell D. Baker: ''The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume I - Predynastic to the Twentieth Dynasty 3300–1069 BC'', Stacey International, , 2008, p. 279–280 As the last king of the 6th Dynasty, Netjerkare Siptah is considered by some Egyptologists to be the last king of the Old Kingdom period. Netjerkare Siptah enjoyed a short reign in the early 22nd century BC, at a time when the power of the pharaoh was crumbling and that of the local

nomarch A nomarch ( grc, νομάρχης, egy, ḥrj tp ꜥꜣ Great Chief) was a provincial governor in ancient Egypt; the country was divided into 42 provinces, called nomes (singular , plural ). A nomarch was the government official responsib ...

s was on the rise. Although he was male, Netjerkare Siptah is most likely the same person as the female ruler '' Nitocris'' mentioned by

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society ...

and Manetho.Ryholt, Kim Steven Bardrum. 2000. "The Late Old Kingdom in the Turin King-list and the Identity of Nitocris." ''Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde'' 127:87–100.

Attestation

The prenomen ''Netjerkare'' is inscribed on the 40th entry of the Abydos King List, a king list redacted during the reign of

Seti I Menmaatre Seti I (or Sethos I in Greek) was the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom period, ruling c.1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC. He was the son of Ramesses I and Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. The ...

. Netjerkare immediately follows Merenre Nemtyemsaf II on the list. The prenomen Netjerkare is also attested on a single copper tool of unknown provenance and now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. The nomen ''Neitiqerty Siptah'' is inscribed on the Turin canon, on the 5th column, 7th row (4th column, 7th row in Gardiner's reconstruction of the canon).

Identification with Nitocris

In his '' Histories'', the Greek historian

records a legend according to which an Egyptian queen Nitocris took revenge on the murder of her brother and husband by a rioting mob. She diverted the Nile to drown all of the murderers during a banquet where she had gathered them. This story is also reported by the Egyptian priest Manetho, who wrote an history of Egypt called ''

Aegyptiaca Manetho (; grc-koi, Μανέθων ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος) is believed to have been an Egyptian priest from Sebennytos ( cop, Ϫⲉⲙⲛⲟⲩϯ, translit=Čemnouti) who lived in the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the early third ...

'' in the 3rd century BC. Manetho writes of Nitocris that she was "... braver than all the men of her time, the most beautiful of all women, fair-skinned with red cheeks". Manetho goes further and credits her with the construction of the

Pyramid of Menkaure The pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three main pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex, located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. It is thought to have been built to serve as the tomb of the Fourth Dynast ...

"By her, it is said, the third pyramid was reared, with the aspect of a mountain".W. G. Waddell: ''Manetho'', London (1940), p. 55–57 Although the murdered king is not named by Herodotus, Nitocris follows immediately

Merenre Nemtyemsaf II Merenre Nemtyemsaf II was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth and penultimate ruler of the 6th Dynasty. He reigned for 1 year and 1 month in the first half of the 22nd century BC, at the very end of the Old Kingdom period. Nemtyemsaf II likel ...

in Manetho's ''Aegyptiaca'' and so he is often identified as this king. Since the king following Merenre Nemtyemsaf II in the Abydos king list is "Netjerkare", the German egyptologist Ludwig Stern proposed in 1883 that Netjerkare and Nitocris are the same person.L Stern: ''Die XXII. manethonische Dynastie'', ZAS 21 (1883), p. 23, n. 2. The Danish Egyptologist

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 ...

confirmed Stern's hypothesis in a recent study of the matter. Ryholt argues that the name "Nitocris" is a result of conflation and distortion from the name "Netjerkare". Confirming this analysis, the Turin canon, another king list redacted during the early

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 ...

lists a ''Neitiqerti Siptah'' at an uncertain position. Ryholt's microscopic analyses of the fibers of the papyrus suggest that the fragment where this name appears belongs to the end of the 6th Dynasty, immediately after Merenre Nemtyemsaf II. Since on the Abydos king list, Netjerkare is placed in the equivalent spot that Neitiqerti Siptah holds on the Turin canon, the two are to be identified. Additionally, the nomen "Siptah" is masculine indicating that Nitocris was in fact a male pharaoh. The name "Nitocris" probably originates from the prenomen "Neitiqerti", which itself either comes from a corruption of "Netjerkare", or else "Neitiqerti Siptah" was the nomen of the king and "Netjerkare" his prenomen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neitiqerty Siptah 22nd-century BC Pharaohs Pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt