Heliopolis (ancient Egypt): Difference between revisions

Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, occupied since [[prehistoric Egypt]].<ref name = "Dobrowolska, 15">{{citation |last=Dobrowolska |author2=Dobrowolski |display-authors=1 |title=Heliopolis: Rebirth of the City of the Sun |isbn=9774160088 |date=2006 |page=15 |publisher=American Univ in Cairo Press }}.</ref> It greatly expanded under the [[Old Kingdom of Egypt|Old]] and [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt|Middle Kingdom]]s but is today mostly destroyed, its temples and other buildings having been scavenged for the construction of medieval Cairo. Most information about the ancient city comes from surviving records.

 

 

{{anchor|Toponymy|Etymology|Name}}

==Names==

{{hiero|Heliopolis<br>''{{lang|egy|iwnw}}''{{efn|Variant representations of Iunu include <hiero>iwn</hiero>.{{sfn|Collier|Manley|1998|p=29}}}}|<hiero>iwn-nw:niwt</hiero>|align=right|era=egypt}}

 

Its [[endonym|native name]] was {{lang|egy|iwnw}} ("The Pillars"), whose exact pronunciation is uncertain because ancient Egyptian recorded only consonantal values. Arabic : Iwan إيوان.

<ref>{{ cite book|last=Hawas|first=Zahi|title=مخطوط معجم اللغة المصرية القديمة احمد كمال كمال. الجزء االثاني عشر|language=Arabic|year=2002|publisher=Al-maǧlis al-aʿlá li-l-aṯār, high council of antiquities|place=Cairo|pages=496|isbn=9773053474|quote=}}</ref>

 

 

The city also appears in the [[Old Kingdom]] [[Pyramid Texts]] as the "House of Ra".<ref>{{citation |title=Reallexikon der Ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte |first=Hans |last=Bonnet }}. {{in lang|de}}</ref>

During the [[Amarna Period]] of [[Dynasty XVIII]], [[Pharaoh]] [[Akhenaten]] introduced a kind of [[henotheism|henotheistic worship]] of [[Aten]], the deified solar disc. As part of his construction projects, he built a Heliopolitan temple named "Elevating Aten" (''{{lang|egy|Wṯs I͗tn}}'' or ''Wetjes Aten''), whose stones can still be seen in some of the gates of Cairo's medieval city wall. The cult of the [[Mnevis]] bull, another embodiment of the Sun, had its altar here as well. The bulls' formal burial ground was situated north of the city.

 

 

===Hellenistic===

 

The temple of Ra was said to have been, to a special degree, a depository for royal records, and Herodotus states that the priests of Heliopolis were the best informed in matters of history of all the Egyptians. Heliopolis flourished as a seat of learning during the Greek period; the schools of philosophy and astronomy are claimed to have been frequented by [[Orpheus]], [[Homer]],<ref>The Historical Library of Diodorus Siculus, [https://books.google.com/books?id=agd-eLVNRMMC Book I, ch VI].</ref> [[Pythagoras]], [[Plato]], [[Solon]], and other Greek philosophers. [[Ichonuphys]] was lecturing there in 308 BC, and the Greek mathematician [[Eudoxus of Cnidus|Eudoxus]], who was one of his pupils, learned from him the true length of the year and month, upon which he formed his [[octaeterid]], or period of 8 years or 99 months. [[Ptolemy II]] had [[Manetho]], the chief priest of Heliopolis, collect his history of the ancient kings of Egypt from its archives. The later Greek rulers, the [[Ptolemies]], probably took little interest in their "father" Ra as Greeks were never much of sun worshipers and the Ptolemies favored the cult of [[Serapis]], and [[Alexandria]] had eclipsed the learning of Heliopolis; thus with the withdrawal of royal favour Heliopolis quickly dwindled, and the students of native lore deserted it for other temples supported by a wealthy population of pious citizens. By the first century BC, in fact, [[Strabo]] found the temples deserted, and the town itself almost uninhabited, although priests were still present.

 

 

===Roman===

 

==Legacy==

 

 

The "Syrian Heliopolis" [[Baalbek]] has been claimed to have gained its solar cult from a priest colony emigrating from Egypt.<ref>[[Macrobius]], ''Saturn.'', i. 23.</ref>