Pithom

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Pithom (Hebrew: פתם) or Heroöpolis or Heroonopolis (Greek: Ἠοώων πόλις or Ἡρώ, Strabo xvi. 759, 768, xvii. 803, 804; Arrian, Exp. Alex. iii. 5, vii. 20; Joseph. Ant. Jud. ii. 7. § 5; Plin. v. 9. § 11, vi. 32. § 33; Mela, iii. 8; Steph. B. s. v.; Ptol. ii. 1. § 6, iv. 15. § 54), is an ancient city of Egypt known from both biblical and Ancient Greek and Roman sources.

1 The name
2 Biblical Pithom
3 Graeco-Roman Heroöpolis
4 Location
5 References
6 External links

[edit] The name

The Egyptian name, "Pithom" (Pi-Tum or Pa-Tum), means "house of Tum" [or "Atum,"], i.e., the sun-god of Heliopolis; and the Greek word "Hero" is probably a translation of "Atum."

[edit] Biblical Pithom

Pithom is one of the cities which, according to Exodus 1:11, was built for the Pharaoh of the oppression by the forced labor of the Israelites. The other city was Ra'amses; and the Septuagint adds a third, "On, which is Heliopolis." The meaning of the term , rendered in the Authorized Version "treasure cities" and in the Revised Version "store cities," is not definitely known. The Septuagint renders πόλεις ὀχυραί "strong [or "fortified"] cities." The same term is used of certain cities of King Solomon in I Kings 9:19 (comp. also II Chronicles 16:4).

[edit] Graeco-Roman Heroöpolis

Heroöpolis was a large city east of the Nile Delta, situated near the mouth of the Royal Canal which connected the Nile with the Red Sea. Although not immediately upon the coast, but nearly due north of the Bitter Lakes, Heroöpolis was of sufficient importance, as a trading station, to confer its name upon the arm of the Red Sea (Ἡρωοπολίτης κόλπος, Ptol. v. 17. § 1, Latin: Heroopoliticus Sinus) which runs up the Egyptian mainland as far as Arsinoë (near modern Suez) (κόλπος Ἡρώων); the modern Gulf of Suez. (Theophrast. Hist. Plant. iii. 8.) It was the capital of the Heroopolite nome (the 8th nome of Lower Egypt) later renamed the Arsinoite nome. (Orelli, Inscr. Lat. no. 516.)

[edit] Location

The location of Pithom was a subject of much conjecture and debate until its site was discovered by Édouard Naville in the spring of 1883. Herodotus (ii. 158) says that the canal made by Necho II to connect the Red Sea with the Nile "passes Patumos, a city in the Arabian nome." This district of Arabia was the twentieth nome of Lower Egypt, and its capital was Goshen (Egyptian, "gsm" or "Gesem").

The site of Pithom, as identified by Naville, is to the east of Wadi Tumilat, south-west of Ismaïlia. Here was formerly a group of granite statues representing Ramesses II., standing between two gods; and from this it had been inferred that this was the city of Ra'amses mentioned in Exodus 1:11. The excavations carried on by Naville for the Egypt Exploration Fund uncovered a city wall, a ruined temple, and the remains of a series of brick buildings with very thick walls and consisting of rectangular chambers of various sizes, opening only at the top and without any entrances to one another. These are thought to have been the granaries or store-chambers, from which, possibly, the army may have been supplied when about to set out upon expeditions northward or eastward. As the city stood in the eighth nome, adjoining that of Arabia; so that the statement of Herodotus is not exactly correct.

The discovery of the ruins of Pithom confirms the Biblical statement and points to a pharaoh from Horemheb to Ramses II as the Pharaoh that oppressed Israel (Pi-Tum's construction was first started during the reign of Horemheb under vizier Pa-Ramses, later Ramses I, and it had a very small addition during the reign of Ramesses II). The name of the city Pi-Tum is first found on Egyptian monuments of the nineteenth dynasty. Important evidence is thus afforded of the date of the Exodus, which must have taken place toward the end of the eighteenth dynasty or in the first hundred years of the nineteenth dynasty.

In the Middle Ages, Al Fayyum was called "Pithom" by the Jews, so that Saadia Gaon is termed "Al-Fayyumi" in Arabic (Hebr. "Ha-Pitomi"), and he himself translates "Pithom" in Exodus 1:11 by "Al Fayyum."