| Heryshaf | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Heryshaf | |||||
| Name inhieroglyphs |
| ||||
| Major cult center | Heracleopolis Magna | ||||
| Equivalents | |||||
| Greek | Heracles Dionysos | ||||
InEgyptian mythology,Heryshaf, orHershef (Ancient Egyptian:ḥrjšf "He who is on His Lake"),[1] transcribed inGreek asHarsaphes orArsaphes (Koinē Greek:Ἁρσαφής) was an ancientram deity whose cult was centered in ancientHeracleopolis Magna. He was identified withRa andOsiris inancient Egyptian religion,[1] as well asDionysus[2] orHeracles in theinterpretatio graeca. The identification with Heracles may be related to the fact that in later times his name was sometimes reanalysed asḥrj-šf.t "He who is over strength". One of his titles was "Ruler of the Riverbanks". Heryshaf was a creator and fertility god who was born from theprimordial waters. He was pictured as a ram or a man with a ram's head.
The site goes back to theEarly Dynastic Period or theOld Kingdom of Egypt. The precise founding date of Herakleopolis is not known, but an entry on the Palermo Stone reporting king Den's visit to thesacred lake of Heryshef at Nenj-neswt, suggests that the town had already been founded by the 1st Dynasty. The site was callednn-nswt inDemotic which was pronouncedǝhnes inCoptic, Heracleopolis (Magna) during theHellenistic period and theRoman Empire and Ihnasiyya inEgyptian Arabic.[3]
No remains of the Old Kingdom temple survive.Flinders Petrie found remains of a temple at the site dating to theTwelfth Dynasty. The Twelfth Dynasty temple was rebuilt during theEighteenth Dynasty and later refurbished during theNineteenth Dynasty.[4] During the reign ofRamesses II, apronaos was added to the temple. The sixteen palm columns used were taken from existing temples, possibly those ofDjedkare Isesi orSahure. Yasuoka speculates that Ramesses II's fourth son, PrinceKhaemweset, may have been the official who directed this project.[5]
Many of these names are known from theStela of Pasenhor.
Nedjemankh, whose coffin was looted from Egypt in 2011 and sold to theMetropolitan Museum of Art before being returned to Egypt in 2019,[7] is also believed to have been a priest of Heryshaf.[8]
Media related toHeryshaf at Wikimedia Commons
