Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ | |
 Basilica of Hermopolis | |
  Shown within Egypt | |
| Alternative name | الأشمونين |
|---|---|
| Location | El Ashmunein,Minya Governorate,Egypt |
| Region | Upper Egypt |
| Coordinates | 27°46′53″N30°48′14″E / 27.78139°N 30.80389°E /27.78139; 30.80389 |
| Type | Settlement |
| Site notes | |
| Condition | In ruins |
Hermopolis[1] (Ancient Greek:ἙρμούπολιςHermoúpolis "the City ofHermes", alsoHermopolis Magna,Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μεγάληHermoû pólis megálẽ,[2]Ancient Egyptian:ḫmnw,lit. 'Eight'/χaˈmaːnaw/ (reconstructed pronunciation),Egyptological pronunciation: "Khemenu";Coptic:ϢⲙⲟⲩⲛShmūn, and thusArabic:الأشمونين,romanized: al-Ashmunayn,lit. 'The Two Shmun') was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary betweenLower andUpper Egypt. Its name is derived from theOgdoad, eight associated deities residing in Hermopolis.
A provincial capital since theOld Kingdom of Egypt, Hermopolis developed into a major city ofRoman Egypt, and an earlyChristian center from the third century. It was abandoned after theMuslim conquest of Egypt but was restored as both aLatin Catholic (meanwhile suppressed) and a Coptic Orthodoxtitular see.
Its remains are located near the modern town of el-Ashmunein (from the Coptic name[3]) inMallawi,Minya Governorate, Egypt.
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| ḫmnw[4] inhieroglyphs | |||||
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| Era:Middle Kingdom (2055–1650 BC) | |||||
Khemenu (Ḫmnw), theEgyptian language name of the city,[5] means "Eight-Town", after theOgdoad, a group of eight "primordial" deities whose cult was situated there. The name survived as CopticϢⲙⲟⲩⲛShmun, from which the modern nameel Ashmunein (Arabic:الأشمونين) is derived.[3]
InKoine Greek, the city was called "The City ofHermes" since the Greeks identified Hermes withThoth, 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 thePhoenician deityEshmun. Inscriptions at the temple call the god "The Lord of Eshmun".[6]
The city was the capital of theHare nome (the fifteenthnome ofUpper Egypt) in theHeptanomis. Hermopolis stood on the borders of Upper andLower Egypt, and, for many ages, theThebaid 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 toThebes alone. A little to south of the city was the castle of Hermopolis, at which point rivercraft from the Thebaid paid tolls (Ἑρμοπολιτάνη φυλακή,[7] theBahr Yussef inArabic). The grottos ofBeni Hasan, nearAntinoöpolis 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 theRoman province ofThebais Prima in the administrativediocese of Egypt.
The principal Egyptian deities worshipped at Hermopolis wereTyphon (Set) andThoth. Typhon was represented by ahippopotamus, on which sat a hawk fighting with a serpent.[8] Thoth, whom theancient Greeks associated withHermes because they were both gods of magic and writing, was represented by theibis.
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A Christian tradition holds it to be the place where theHoly Family found refuge during its exile in Egypt.
Hermopolis Maior was asuffragan diocese of the provincial capital's MetropolitanArchdiocese of Antinoe, in the sway of thePatriarchate of Alexandria. Like most, it faded under Islam.
List of bishops of Hermopolis:
The city was a titular diocese in theRoman Catholic Church,[9] and still is (?) in theCoptic Orthodox Church.The diocese was nominally restored in the 18th century as LatinTitular bishopric ofHermopolis Maior (Latin; 1925-1929 renamed Hermopolis Magna) /Ermopoli Maggiore (Curiate Italian)Its territory was reassigned in 1849 to theCoptic 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 :
Hermopolis comparatively escaped the frequent wars which, in the decline both of the Pharaonic andRoman eras, devastated the Heptanomis; but, on the other hand, its structures have undergone severe changes under itsMuslim rulers, who have burned its stones for lime or carried them away for building materials.[10] A survivingOxyrhynchus Papyrus of the 3rd century CE indicates that high-rise buildings with seven stories existed in the town.[11] The collection of Arabic papyri in theJohn Rylands Library, Manchester, contains many documents referring to Hermopolis (Ushmun); they date from the 8th to 11th centuries CE.[12]
The Ibis-headed god Thoth was, with his accompanying emblems, theIbis 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 thePharaonic era, but the erections of thePtolemies 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 ofGournou. (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 281⁄2 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.
Outside the temple complex stand the remains of abasilica,[13] built in the 5th century over earlier buildings.[14] It is one of the most impressiveCoptic buildings:[15] 55 m long, it features a colonnadedtransept ending inexedras and side galleries. Thenave with theapse is 14.7 m wide, and the width of theaisles is 5.6 m.[16] The church was discovered in 1942 by Moharam Kamal,[17] later cleaned by an expedition from theAlexandria University, and in the years 1987–1990 documented by a Polish-Egyptian expedition from thePolish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw, State Ateliers for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, and theEgyptian Ministry of Antiquities.[14]
Currently there is a small open-air museum in which stand two massive statues ofThoth as a baboon worshipping the sun, and a few carved blocks of masonry.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913)."Hermopolis Magna".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
