The identity of Menes is the subject of ongoing debate, although mainstream Egyptological consensus inconclusively identifies Menes with theNaqada III rulerNarmer[2][3][4][9] or his successor, the First DynastypharaohHor-Aha.[10]
The nameMenes is first documented in the work ofManetho, an Egyptian historian and priest of the relatively latePtolemaic period. Manetho noted the name in Greek as Μήνης (transliterated:Mênês).[5][11] An alternative Greek form, Μιν (transliterated:Min), was cited by the fifth-century-BC historianHerodotus,[12] but this variant appears to be unrelated, the result of contamination from the name of the godMin.[13] The Egyptian form,mnj, is taken from theTurin andAbydos King Lists, which are dated to theNineteenth Dynasty, whose pronunciation has been reconstructed as*/maˈnij/. By the earlyNew Kingdom, changes in the Egyptian language meant his name was already pronounced*/maˈneʔ/.[14] The namemnj means "He who endures", which,I.E.S. Edwards (1971) suggests, may have been coined as "a mere descriptiveepithet denoting a semi-legendary hero [...] whose name had been lost".[5] Alternatively, the name may conceal the collective identity of theNaqada III rulers:Ka,Scorpion II andNarmer, or may simply refer to a functional leadership role.[5]
Two Horus names ofHor-Aha (left and center) and a name of Menes (right) in hieroglyphs.
Ivory tablet of Menes
The ivory label mentioning Hor-Aha along with themn sign.
Reconstructed tablet.
The almost complete absence of any mention of Menes in the archaeological record[5] and the comparative wealth of evidence ofNarmer, a protodynastic figure credited by posterity and in the archaeological record with a firm claim[3] to the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, has given rise to a theory identifying Menes with Narmer.
The chief archaeological reference to Menes is anivory label (from the townNaqada) which depicts theroyal titleAha (the pharaohHor-Aha) next to a building, and within this is theroyal titlemn,[15] generally taken to be Menes.[5][a] From this, various theories on the nature of the building (a funerary booth or a shrine), the meaning of the wordmn (a name or the verbendures) and the relationship between Hor-Aha and Menes (as one person or as successive pharaohs) have arisen.[2]
The Turin and Abydos king lists, generally accepted to be correct,[2] list thenesu-bit-names of the pharaohs, not their Horus-names,[3] and are vital to the potential reconciliation of the various records: thenesu-bit-names of the king lists, the Horus-names of the archaeological record and the number of pharaohs in Dynasty I according to Manetho and other historical sources.[3]
Flinders Petrie first attempted this task,[3] associatingIti withDjer as the third pharaoh of Dynasty I,Teti (Turin) (or anotherIti (Abydos)) with Hor-Aha as second pharaoh, and Menes (anebty-name) with Narmer (a Horus-name) as first pharaoh of Dynasty I.[2][3] Lloyd (1994) finds this succession "extremely probable",[3] and Cervelló-Autuori (2003) categorically states that "Menes is Narmer and the First Dynasty begins with him".[4] However, Seidlmayer (2004) states that it is "a fairly safe inference" that Menes was Hor-Aha.[10]
Two documents have been put forward as proof either Narmer orHor-Aha was Menes. The first is the "Naqada Label" found at the site of Naqada, in the tomb of Queen Neithhotep, often assumed to have been the mother of Horus Aha.[16] The label shows aserekh of Hor-Aha next to an enclosure inside of which are symbols that have been interpreted by some scholars as the name "Menes". The second is the seal impression from Abydos that alternates between aserekh of Narmer and the chessboard symbol, "mn", which is interpreted as an abbreviation of Menes. Inconclusive arguments have been made with regard to each of these documents in favour of Narmer or Hor-Aha being Menes.[b]
The second document, the seal impression from Abydos, shows the serekh of Narmer alternating with the gameboard sign (mn), together with its phonetic complement, then sign, which is always shown when the full name of Menes is written, again representing the name "Menes". At first glance, this would seem to be strong evidence that Narmer was Menes.[20] However, based on an analysis of other earlyFirst Dynasty seal impressions, which contain the name of one or more princes, the seal impression has been interpreted by other scholars as showing the name of a prince of Narmer named Menes, hence Menes was Narmer's successor, Hor-Aha, and thus Hor-Aha was Menes.[21] This was refuted byCervelló-Autuori 2005, pp. 42–45; but opinions still vary, and the seal impression cannot be said to definitively support either theory.[22]
Herodotus, having mentionedMin as the first king of Egypt, wrote thatLinus, or EgyptianManeros, was "the only son of the first king of Egypt" and that he died untimely.[23]
Egyptologists, archaeologists, and scholars from the 19th century have proposed different dates for the era of Menes, or the date of the first dynasty:[24][c]
Ancient tradition ascribes to Menes to uniting Upper and Lower Egypt into a single kingdom[25] and becoming the first pharaoh of the First Dynasty.[26] Although Menes does not appear on extant pieces of the Royal Annals (Cairo Stone andPalermo Stone), his name appears in later sources as the first ruler of Egypt. Some sources credit him as directly inheriting the throne from the godHorus.[27] He also appears in later dated king's lists, always as the first human pharaoh of Egypt. Menes appears in demoticnovels of theHellenistic period, demonstrating that, even that late, he was regarded as an important figure.[28]
Menes was seen as a founding figure for much of the history of ancient Egypt, similar toRomulus inancient Rome.[29] Manetho records that Menes "led the army across the frontier and won great glory".[11][26]
Manetho associates the city ofThinis with the Early Dynastic Period and, in particular, Menes, a "Thinite" or native of Thinis.[11][26] Herodotus contradicts Manetho in stating that Menes founded the city ofMemphis as his capital[30] after diverting the course of theNile through the construction of alevee.[31] Manetho ascribes the building of Memphis to Menes' son, Athothis,[26] and calls no pharaohs earlier thanThird Dynasty "Memphite".[32]
Herodotus and Manetho's stories of the foundation of Memphis are probably later inventions: in 2012 a relief mentioning the visit to Memphis byIry-Hor—a predynastic ruler of Upper Egypt reigning before Narmer—was discovered in theSinai Peninsula, indicating that the city was already in existence in the early32nd century BC.[33]
Diodorus Siculus recorded a story of Menes related by the priests of thecrocodile godSobek atCrocodilopolis, in which the pharaoh Menes, attacked by his own dogs while out hunting,[35] fled acrossLake Moeris on the back of a crocodile and, in thanks, founded the city of Crocodilopolis.[35][36][37]
Gaston Maspero (1910), while acknowledging the possibility that traditions relating to other kings may have become mixed up with this story, dismisses the suggestions of some commentators[38] that the story should be transferred to theTwelfth Dynasty pharaohAmenemhat III and sees no reason to doubt that Diodorus did not correctly record a tradition of Menes.[35] Later, Edwards (1971) states that "the legend, which is obviously filled with anachronisms, is patently devoid of historical value".[36]
InHobby Japan'sQueen's Blade media franchise, there is a character namedMenace. Her name is a play on the ancient Egyptian ruler Menes. She is depicted wearing an outfit inspired by Ancient Egyptian fashion.[41]
^ Originally, the full royal title of a pharaoh wasHorus namexnebty nameyGolden-Horus nameznesu-bit nameaSon-of-Ra nameb. For brevity's sake, only one element might be used, but the choice varied between circumstances and period. Starting with Dynasty V, thenesu-bit name was the one regularly used in all official documents. In Dynasty I, the Horus-name was used for a living pharaoh, thenebty-name for the dead.[3]
^In the upper right hand quarter of the Naqada label is aserekh of Hor-Aha. To its right is a hill-shaped triple enclosure with the "mn" sign surmounted by the signs of the "two ladies", the goddesses of Upper Egypt (Nekhbet) and Lower Egypt (Wadjet). In later contexts, the presence of the "two ladies" would indicate a "nbty" name (one of the five names of the king). Hence, the inscription was interpreted as showing that the "nbty" name of Hor-Aha was "Mn" short for Menes.[17] An alternative theory is that the enclosure was a funeral shrine and it represents Hor-Aha burying his predecessor, Menes. Hence Menes was Narmer.[18] Although the label generated a lot of debate, it is now generally agreed that the inscription in the shrine is not a king’s name, but is the name of the shrine "The Two Ladies Endure," and provide no evidence for who Menes was.[19]
^ Other dates typical of the era are found cited inCapart, Jean,Primitive Art in Egypt, pp. 17–18.
^Herodotus (1958).The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus. Translated by Harry Carter. Haarlem, Netherlands: Joh. Enschedé en Zonen. p. 122.OCLC270617466.
^Budge, EA Wallis (1885),The Dwellers on the Nile: Chapters on the Life, Literature, History and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 54,Many dates have been fixed by scholars for the reign of this king: Champollion-Figeac thought about BC 5867, Bunsen 3623, Lepsius 3892, Brugsch 4455, and Wilkinson 2320.
^P. Tallet, D. Laisnay:Iry-Hor et Narmer au Sud-Sinaï (Ouadi 'Ameyra), un complément à la chronologie des expéditios minière égyptiene, in: BIFAO 112 (2012), 381–395,available onlineArchived 2023-02-28 at theWayback Machine
Heagy, Thomas C. (2014), "Who was Menes?",Archeo-Nil,24:59–92. Available online"[1]". Archived fromthe original on 2017-09-01. Retrieved2017-10-26..
Helck, W. (1953), "Gab es einen König Menes?",Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 103, n.s. 28:354–359.*Kinnaer, Jacques (2003), "The Naqada label and the identification of Menes",Göttinger Miszellen,196:23–30.
Manley, Bill (1997),The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Egypt, London: Penguin,ISBN0-14-051331-0.
Newberry, Percy E. (1929), "Menes: the founder of the Egyptian monarchy (circa 3400 B.C.)", in Anonymous (ed.),Great ones of ancient Egypt: portraits by Winifred Brunton, historical studies by various Egyptologists, London: Hodder and Stoughton, pp. 37–53.
Ryholt, Kim (2009), "Egyptian historical literature from the Greco-Roman period", in Fitzenreiter, Martin (ed.),Das Ereignis, Geschichtsschreibung zwischen Vorfall und Befund, London: Golden House.
Schulz, Regine; Seidel, Matthias (2004),Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs, HF Ullmann,ISBN978-3-8331-6000-4.
Shaw, Ian; Nicholson, Paul (1995),The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, Harry N Abrams,ISBN0-8109-9096-2.
Seidlmayer, Stephan (2010) [2004], "The Rise of the State to the Second Dynasty",Egypt: The World of the Pharaohs, H.f.ullmann,ISBN978-3-8331-6000-4.
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