Pelousion

Names and identity

The Roman name "Pelusium" was derived from the Koine Greek name, and the Greek from a translation of the Egyptian one. It was variously known as Sena and Per-Amun (Late Egyptian and Coptic: ⲠⲉⲣⲉⲙⲟⲩⲛPeremoun) "House or Temple of the sun god Amun", Pelousion or Saien (Koine Greek: Πηλούσιον or Σαῖν), Imperial Aramaic and Hebrew: סִין, romanized: Sin, and Egyptian Arabic Tell el-Farama). According to William Smith, it was the Sin of the Hebrew Bible in Ezekiel 30:15. Smith surmised that the word in its Egyptian and Greek forms (Peremoun or Peromi; ΠήλοςPelos) had the connotation of a 'city made of mud' (omi, Coptic, "mud").