Cynopolis

Cynopolis (Greek for "city of the dog")^[1] was the name for two ancient Egyptian cities.

Cynopolis superior

Cynopolis, the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian town Hardai ^[2] in the seventeenth nome of Upper Egypt, it was home to the cult of Anubis ^[3]. A burial ground for dogs is found on the opposite Nile bank near Hamatha. Rivalries between neighbouring cities are reported: according to Plutarch (De Iside, 72) when an inhabitant of Cynopolis ate an Oxyrhynchos fish the people of Oxyrhynchos started attacking dogs in revenge which resulted in a little civil war.^[4]

According to Ptolemy the town was situated on an island in the river.^[5] The modern settlement identified with Cynopolis is el Kays. ^[6] The nome of Cynopolis extended to both banks of the Nile.^[7]

Cynopolis was destroyed by the vice-roy of Nubia Pinehesy during the reign of Ramses XI, and the survivors were enslaved ^[8].

Cynopolis inferior

There was a second Cynopolis, referred to as Cynopolis Inferior or Cynum,^[9] which was located in the Busirite nome in the Nile delta,^[10][11] modern Meniet ebn Kasib.^[12] Both Cynopolis superior and Cynopolis inferior were bishoprics in Christian times. ^[13]

References and footnotes

1. ^ Room, op.cit., p.102
2. ^ Edwards et al.,op.cit., p.631
3. ^ Helck, op.cit., p.113
4. ^ Sayce et al., op.cit., p.77
5. ^ Lane, op.cit., p.31
6. ^ Lane, op.cit., p.27
7. ^ Lane, op.cit., p.248
8. ^ Edwards, op.cit., p.631
9. ^ Wiltsch, op.cit., p.184
10. ^ Bingham, op.cit., p.356
11. ^ Müller, op.cit., p.786
12. ^ Hardouin, op.cit., p.464
13. ^ Wiltsch, op.cit., pp.184f.

Bibliography

• Adrian Room, Placenames Of The World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features and Historic Sites, McFarland & Company 2006
• I. E. S. Edwards et al. The Cambridge ancient history, Cambridge University Press
• Michael Rice, Swifter Than the Arrow: The Golden Hunting Hounds of Ancient Egypt, I.B.Tauris 2000
• Wolfgang Helck, Die altägyptischen Gaue, L. Reichert 1974
• Edward William Lane, Description of Egypt: Notes and Views in Egypt and Nubia, American Univ. in Cairo Press 2000, ISBN 9774245253. The text was written in the 1830s.
• Archibald Henry Sayce, Gaston Maspero, M. L. McClure, L. W. King, H. R. Hall, History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, The Grolier Society 1904
• Joseph Bingham, The Antiquities of the Christian Church Part 1, Kessinger Publishing 2005
• Jean Hardouin, Ange Augustin Thomas Pihan Delaforest eds., Historiae naturalis libri XXXVII By the Elder Pliny, N.E. Lemaire 1828
• Karl Otfried Müller, Strabonis Geographicorum tabulae XV by Strabo, Editore Ambrosio Firmin

Didot 1877

• Johann Elieser Theodor Wiltsch, Handbuch der kirchlichen Geographie Statistik von den Zeiten der Apostel bis zu dem Anfange des sechszehnten Jahrhunderts