MENES

'Menes' was an Egyptian pharaoh, to some authors the founder of the First dynasty, to others of the Second. He lived ca. 3100-3000 BC.
Ancient Egyptian legend credits a pharaoh by this name with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom. Manetho, a 3rd century BC Egyptian historian, called him 'Menes'; the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as 'Min' ^[1]; and two native-king lists of the 19th dynasty (13th century BC) call him 'Meni'. On the other hand, two king lists from the First Dynasty name Narmer and Hor-Aha as its first and second kings respectively while Menes is missing entirely.
However, the discovery of the Narmer Palette in the late 19th century showing the pharaoh Narmer, possibly pre-dating Menes, wielding the symbols of both Upper and Lower Egypt, cast doubt on the traditional account. Some Egyptologists hold that Narmer and Menes are in fact the same person; others hold that Menes inherited an already-unified kingdom from Narmer; still others hold that Menes completed a process of unification started either unsuccessfully or only partially successfully by Narmer. In any case, Menes is credited with the foundation of Memphis ^[2], which he established as the Egyptian capital. It should be noted that while there is extensive archeological evidence of there being a pharaoh named Narmer, the only indisputable evidence for Menes is an ostracon which contains his name under the Nebty symbols.^[3] There is a general suspicion that Menes either was a name of Narmer, his predecessor, or of his successor, Hor-Aha.
Also spelled 'Hor Aka' or 'Hor-Aka', the name can be translated as "Horus of the Reeds", possibly an allusion to the legend in which Isis hid Horus in the Nile Delta among papyri and reeds. In Ancient Egyptian legend, there was a battle between Horus (a patron deity of Upper Egypt) and Set (patron deity of Lower Egypt). In this mythological unification of the two Egypts, Set was defeated and the kingdom was unified under the rule of Horus, the first king of all Egypt ^[4]. It is possible that this was a real war transformed over time into myth by Euhemerus. A later parallel can be found leading to the establishment of the reign of Pharaoh Khasekhemwy several hundred years later; he may have crushed a civil war between the followers of Set and Horus.
According to historian Emmet Sweeney in his ''The Genesis of Israel and Egypt'', Menes is at least partly mythological, the name being derived from the phallic deity 'Min', whose cult was extremely important during the First Dynasty. Sweeney argued that the custom of circumcision, attested in Egypt from very early times, was attributed to 'Min', and that the pharaohs of the time were given this generic name. Sweeney also sees as significant the fact that the biblical Abraham, also associated with a phallic cult - he initiated the custom of circumcision amongst the Jews - was said by Jewish legend to have introduced literate civilization into Egypt from Mesopotamia. This agrees with the very real Mesopotamian influence on First Dynasty Egypt discovered by archaeology; but it has profound chronological implications, since the Abraham legend is presently dated 1,000 years later than the founding of the First Dynasty.
According to Manetho, Menes reigned 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.
An image of Menes holding an ankh is depicted on the frieze on the south wall of the U.S. Supreme Court building.^[5]

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References

★ Kinnaer, Jacques. ''What is Really Known About the Narmer Palette?'', KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt, Spring 2004.

★ Toby A. H. Wilkinson, ''Early Dynastic Egypt'', Routledge, London/New York 1999, ISBN 0-415-18633-1, 70-71

★ Sweeney, Emmet ''The Genesis of Israel and Egypt'', Janus, London 1997
1. Herodotus, ''Euterpe'', 2.4.1 and 2.99.1ff.
2. cf. Herodotus, ''Euterpe'', 2.99.4.
3. Gardiner, Alan. ''Egypt of the Pharaohs.'' p. 405. Oxford University Press, 1961
4. William Kelly Simpson (ed.), ''The Literature of Ancient Egypt'', 1972: ''The Contendings of Horus and Seth''
5. "Courtroom Friezes: North and South Walls: Information Sheet." Supreme Court of the United States. [1]

bacon

External links

★ Narmer: Titulary

★ The Contendings of Horus and Seth

See also

★ Narmer

★ Hor-Aha