Hermopolis
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- This article is about Hermopolis Magna; for other cities called Hermopolis, see Hermopolis (disambiguation)
Hermopolis Magna or simply Hermopolis (Ammian, ii. 16) or Hermopolis Megale (Greek: Ἑρμοῦ πόλις μεγάλη, Steph. B. s.v.; Ptol. iv. 5. § 60) or Hermupolis (It. Anton. pp. 154, seq.) or Mercurii Oppidum (Plin. v. 9. § 11) is the site of ancient Khmun, and is located near the modern Egyptian town of Ashmounein (Coptic: Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛⲉⲓⲛ Shmounein) in the governorate of Al-Minya.
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[edit] History
The city was situated on the left bank of the Nile, about latitude 27° 4′ North, and was the capital of the Hermopolite nome (the 15th Nome of Upper Egypt) in the Heptanomis. Hermopolis stood on the borders of Upper and Lower Egypt, and, for many ages, the Thebaïd 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 to Thebes alone. A little to south of the city was the castle of Hermopolis, at which point the river craft from the upper country paid toll (Ἑρμοπολιτάνη φυλακή, Strabo xvii. p. 813; Ptol. l. c.; the Bahr Jusuf in Arabic). The grottos of Beni-hassan, near Antinopolis, upon the opposite bank of the Nile, were the common cemetery of the Hermopolitans, for, although the river divided the city from its necropolis, yet, 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. The principal deities worshipped at Hermopolis were Typhôn and Thoth. The former was represented by an hippopotamus, on which sat a hawk fighting with a serpent. (Plut. Is. et Osir, p. 371, D.) Thoth or Tauth, which the Ancient Greeks associated with Hermes, the inventor of the pen and of letters.
Hermopolis comparatively escaped the frequent wars which, in the decline both of the Pharaonic and Roman eras, devastated the Heptanomis; but, on the other hand, its structures have suffered severely under its Muslim rulers, who have burned its stones for lime or carried them away for building materials.
[edit] Structures
The town is in a ruinous state, as it was built in the cultivation and has mostly disappeared under the water table. However, some important ruins remain. The Ibis-headed god, was, with his accompanying emblems, the Ibis and the Cynocephalus or ape, 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 the Pharaonic era; but the erections of the Ptolemies at Hermopolis were upon 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 tile 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 of Gournou. (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 in height; the greatest circumference is about 28 1/2 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.
[edit] Museum
Currently there is a small open air museum in which stand 2 massive statues of Thoth as a baboon worshipping the sun, and a few carved blocks of masonry.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography by William Smith (1857).
