The Egyptian namepsmṯk, pronounced asPsamāṯək,[5] was a short form ofpꜣ-sꜣ-n-mṯk, meaning "the man of Meṯek", with Meṯek presumably a deity.[6]
His name was rendered by the Assyrians asPishamilki (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian:𒁹𒉿𒃻𒈨𒅋𒆠,romanized: Pišamilki[7]), by the Ancient Greeks asPsammētikhos (Ψαμμήτιχος), and by the Romans asPsammētichus.
Psamtik was also calledNabu-shezibanni (Neo-Assyrian Akkadian:𒁹𒀭𒀝𒊺𒍦𒀀𒉌 and𒁹𒀭𒉺𒊺𒍦𒀭𒉌[8]Nabu-šezibanni), meaning "ONabu, save me!"[9] by the Assyrians.
Assyrian capture of an Egyptian city from the Kushite PharaohTaharqa orTantamani, possibly Memphis in 663 BCE. British Museum.[10]
In 671 BCE, theAssyrian kingEsarhaddoninvaded Egypt. This invasion was directed against theKushite rulers of theTwenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt, who had been in control ofUpper Egypt, rather than against the native Egyptian rulers. The Assyrians created an administration relying on local Egyptian rulers, and put in place the twelve kinglets who formed aDodecarchy ruling over theNile Delta. They also formed alliances with the ruler of the city ofSais,Necho I, who was the most powerful of the Delta kinglets, as well as withPakruru, the ruler of the importantnome ofPer-Sopdu.[11]
In 665 BCE, the Kushite kingTantamani invaded Lower Egypt again, and Necho I and Pakruru resisted the Kushite attack. Necho I died in battle and his son Psamtik I fled to Syria, while Pakruru became the spokesperson of the Delta kinglets during the peace negotiations with Tantamani atMemphis.[11]
The next year, in 664 BCE, the Assyrians under Esarhaddon's sonAshurbanipal invaded Egypt again, and the Assyrian army retookMemphis, proceeded with theSack of Thebes, and expelled Tantamani from Egypt. Necho I's son Psamtik I returned to Egypt with this invading force, was installed by the Assyrians as the ruler of Sais and Memphis, and concluded with the Assyrians anadû agreement, some type of superior-inferior relation, but none of the Assyrian sources details the arrangements.[11]
For the first two years of his reign, Psamtik I ruled in conformity with the arrangement implemented by the Assyrians in Egypt as one of many vassal kinglets of the Egyptian Dodecarchy. According toHerodotus, during this period, Psamtik unwittingly fulfilled a prophecy by an oracle which promised the kingship of all Egypt to whoever poured a libation from a bronze vessel, after which the other kinglets of the Dodecarchy chased him from Memphis, of which he lost the rule, and he had to flee into the swamps of the Nile Delta.[11]
Egyptian ruler Psamtik I during thefall of Ashdod in 635 BCE, illustration by Patrick Gray, 1900.7th century statue found inKale mentioning Psamtik I. TheIonian Greek inscription reads, "Amphimeos' son Pedon brought me from Egypt and gave as a votive; Psammetichos, the king of Egypt gave him a city for his virtue and a golden diadem for his virtue."[12][13]
After being chased from Memphis, Psamtik I received another similar prophecy from the goddessWadjet ofButo, who promised him the rule over all Egypt should he employ bronze men from the sea. Beginning in 662 BCE, Psamtik I formed contacts withGyges, the king of the Anatolian kingdom ofLydia, who sent to Egypt theIonianGreek andCarian mercenaries that Psamtik I used to reconquer Memphis and defeat the other kinglets of the Dodecarchy, some of whom fled toLibya. Psamtik I might have been also aided in these military campaigns byArabs from theSinai Peninsula.[11]
After having eliminated all his rivals, Psamtik I reorganized these mercenaries and placed them in key garrisons atDaphnae in the East andElephantine in the South to prevent a possible Kushite attack and to control trade.[11] This military aid from Lydia lasted until 658 BCE, at which point Gyges faced an impendingCimmerian invasion.[14] By Psamtik I's 4th regnal year, he completed the forging of an alliance with the powerful family of the Masters of Shipping fromHeracleopolis, and by his 8th regnal year in 657 BCE, he was in full control of the Delta.[11]
Interpretations of Psamtik I's wars as an alliance between Sais and Lydia against Assyria appear to be inaccurate, despite negative attitudes of the Assyrians towards Gyges's and Psamtik's actions.[11] The Assyrians had risen Sais into preeminence in Egypt after expelling the Saites'Kushite enemies from the country, but Psamtik I and Ashurbanipal had signed a treaty with each other, and no hostilities between them is recorded. Thus Psamtik I and Ashurbanipal had remained allies ever since the former had been put in power with Assyrian military support. The participation of the Arab tribes of the Sinai, who were Assyrian vassals, further attest to the lack of enmity between Sais and Assyria at this period, and the silence of Assyrian sources concerning Psamtik I's expansion imply there was no hostility, whether overt or covert, between Assyria and Sais during Psamtik I's unification of Egypt under his rule.[14][11]
Likewise, Gyges's military support of Psamtik I was not directed against Assyria and is not mentioned as hostile to Assyria or allied with other countries against Assyria in Assyrian records; the Assyrian disapproval of Gyges's support for Psamtik I was primarily motivated by Gyges's refusal to form an alliance with Assyria and his undertaking of these actions independently of Assyria, which the Assyrians interpreted as an act of arrogance, rather than by the support itself.[14][11] Psamtik I's campaigns were not directed against Assyrian power and appear to have been conducted only against the rival kinglets of the Delta, and Ashurbanipal's disapproval of his actions were motivated not by his claim of kingship over Egypt, but by his revocation of theadû agreement between the two kings, as well as by Psamtik I's elimination of the other kinglets allied to Assyria, especially Pakruru of Per-Sopdu andŠarru-lū-dāri, since Ashurbanipal was aware that he had to rely on those kinglets to maintain Assyrian power in Egypt.[11]
In Psamtik I's 9th regnal year, in 656 BCE, he sent an expedition to the city ofThebes which compelled the existingGod's Wife of Amun,Shepenupet II, daughter of the former Kushite PharaohPiye, to adopt his daughterNitocris I as her heiress in the so-calledAdoption Stela. This was concluded with the approval of the Theban aristocracy and the tacit support ofMentuemhat, who was the Fourth Priest of Amun and the Mayor of Thebes. Psamtik I had unified all of Egypt under his rule.[11]
In 655 and 654 BCE, that is his 10th and 11th regnal years, Psamtik I carried out a war withLibyan tribes who had seized control of the area from the Oxyrhynchite nome around theBahr Yussef till theMediterranean Sea, and who had been joined by Psamtik I's previously defeated enemies from his wars in the Delta. Following the successful conclusion of this war, Psamtik I placed an Egyptian garrison atMarea to prevent incursions by Libyans from the desert. Thus, by the end of his first decade of rule in 654 BCE, Psamtik I was firmly in control of all Egypt.[11]
According toHerodotus, Psamtik carried out a twenty-nine year siege ofAshdod.[15] The exact dating of this siege is uncertain.[16]
In the later part of Psamtik I's reign, the Neo-Assyrian Empire started unravelling following the death of Ashurbanipal in 627 BC, leaving a power vacuum in theLevant which allowed the Assyrians' formerScythian vassals to overrun the area. Some time between 623 and 616 BCE, the Scythians reached as far south asJudah andEdom until Psamtik I met them and convinced them to turn back by offering them gifts.[16]
Following the encounter with the Scythians, Psamtik expanded his military operations through theVia Maris into the Levant to support the collapsing Assyrian Empire against theMedes,Babylonians,Scythians andChaldeans who had revolted against it. Psamtik I's intervention implied that an alliance had already been concluded between him and the Neo-Assyrian Empire, although it is unknown whether it was a new alliance between him and the new Assyrian kingSin-shar-ishkun or a renewal of the old alliance signed when Psamtik I had been enthroned by the Assyrian army as king of Sais in 664 BCE.[16]
Stela dated to Year 51 of Psammetikhos I, dedicated by Paderpsu. Berlin 8348 (lost).
Psamtik died in 610 BCE and was succeeded by his son,Necho II.
The Greek historianHerodotus conveyed an anecdote about Psamtik in the second book of hisHistories (2.2). During his visit to Egypt, Herodotus heard that Psammetichus ("Psamṯik") sought todiscover the origin of language by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people. When one of the children cried "βεκός" (bekós) with outstretched arms, the shepherd reported this to Psammetichus, who concluded that the word wasPhrygian because that was the sound of the Phrygian word for "bread". Thus, they concluded that thePhrygians were an older people than the Egyptians, and that Phrygian was the original language of men. There are no other extant sources to verify this story.[17]
Psamtik's chief wife wasMehytenweskhet, the daughter of Harsiese, thevizier of the North and High Priest of Re at Heliopolis. Psamtik and Mehytenweskhet were the parents ofNecho II, Merneith, and the Divine AdoratriceNitocris I.[18]
Psamtik's father-in-law—the aforementioned Harsiese—was married twice: to Sheta, with whom he had a daughter named Naneferheres, and to an unknown woman, by whom he had both Djedkare, who succeeded him as vizier of the North, and Mehytenweskhet.[19]
On 9 March 2017, Egyptian and German archaeologists discovered a colossal statue about 7.9 metres (26 ft) in height at theHeliopolis site inCairo. Made ofquartzite, the statue was found in a fragmentary state, with the bust, the lower part of the head and the crown submerged in groundwater.[22]
While the statue was initially speculated to be ofRamesses II, it was later been confirmed to be of Psamtik I due to engravings found that mentioned one of Psamtik's names on the base of the statue.[23][24][25][26][27] A spokesperson at the time commented that "If it does belong to this king, then it is the largest statue of theLate Period that was ever discovered in Egypt."[28][29] The head and torso are expected to be moved to theGrand Egyptian Museum.[22]
The statue was sculpted in the ancient classical style of 2000 BC, establishing a resurgence to the greatness and prosperity of the classical period, and reconstructions bear a strong similarity witha statue of a striding Senusret I (1971–1926 BC), now in the Cairo Museum.[30][31] However, from the many fragments of quartzite collected (now 6,400 of them), it has been established that the colossus was at some time deliberately destroyed. Certain discolored and cracked rock fragments show evidence of having been heated to high temperatures then shattered (with cold water), a typical way of destroying ancient colossi.[32]
Relief of Psamtik I making an offering to Ra-Horakhty (Tomb ofPabasa)
Slab of Psamtik I. The king kneels and makes offerings to fearsome-looking deities, including a double-headed bull god and a snake. From Alexandria; originally from the temple of Atum at Heliopolis, Egypt. British Museum
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Psammetichus".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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