Cynopolis

Cynopolis (Greek for "city of the dog")[1] was the Hellenistic name for two cities in Ancient Egypt. Both Cynopolis superior and Cynopolis inferior were bishoprics in Christian times.[2]

Cynopolis superior

Cynopolis, the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian town Hardai[3] in the seventeenth nome of Upper Egypt, it was home to the cult of Anubis, [4] a canine-shaped god.

According to Claudius 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]

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.[8]

Cynopolis was destroyed by the vice-roy of Nubia Pinehesy during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses XI, and the survivors were enslaved.[9]

Titular see

The diocese, which probably faded under Islam, was nominally restored in 1933 as a Latin Catholic titular bishopric under the name Cynopolis in Aegypto, distinguishing it from its homonym below.

It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, both of the lowest (episcopal) rank :

Cynopolis inferior

There was a second Cynopolis, referred to as Cynopolis Inferior or Cynum,[10] which was located in the Busirite nome in Lower Egypt (the Nile delta),[11][12] modern Meniet ebn Kasib, [13] (El-Queis, or Cheikh-Fadl). or Banâ, Benâ.

It was a suffragan bishopric of Oxyrhynchus, the Metropolitan Archbishopric and provincial capital of the Late Roman province of Arcadia Aegypti.

Titular see

The diocese, which probably faded under Islam, was nominally restored in 1922 as a Latin Catholic titular bishopric under the name Cynopolis, which was changed in 1933 to Cynopolis in Arcadia, distinguishing it from its homonym above.

It is vacant since decades, having had the following incumbents, all of the lowest (episcopal) rank :

References

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

Bibliography

Didot 1877

Sources and External links

Coordinates: 28°29′00″N 30°47′00″E / 28.4833°N 30.7833°E / 28.4833; 30.7833

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