HYKSOS or "SHEPHERD KINGS," the name of the earliest invaders of Egypt. Josephus (c. Apion. i. 14), who identi fies the Hyksos with the Israelites, preserves an account of them from bk. ii. of Manetho. According to it, in the days of King Timaeus, Egypt was invaded from the east by a destructive band who elected a king named Salatis. He made all Egypt tributary and established garrisons and fortresses in various parts of the country. His successors Beon, Apachnas, Apophis, Jannas and Asses reigned c. 199 years, and all aimed at extirpating the Egyp tians. Their race was named Hyksos, i.e., "shepherd kings," and some say they were Arabs (another explanation found by Josephus is "captive shepherds") . When their successors had held Egypt for 5I I years, a rebellion began at Thebes. Misphragmuthosis con fined the "Shepherds" in Avaris ; and his son Thutmosis, failing to capture the stronghold, allowed them to depart ; whereupon they established themselves, 240,00o in number, in Judea and built Jerusalem.
In Manetho's list of kings, the six above named form the 15th dynasty, and are called "six foreign Phoenician kings." The i6th dynasty is made up of thirty-two "Hellenic shepherd kings," the I7th is of "shepherds and Theban kings" (reigning simultane ously) . The lists vary greatly in different versions, but the above seems the most reasonable selection of readings. For "Hellenic" see below. In 1847 E. de Rouge proved from a papyrus of the British Museum, that Apopi was one of the latest of the Hyksos kings, corresponding to Aphobis ; he was king of the "pest" and suppressed the worship of the Egyptian gods in favour of his god Setekh or Seti.
In 185o a record of the capture of Hawari (Avaris) from the Hyksos by Ahmosi, founder of the I 8th dynasty, was discovered by the same scholar. A large class of monuments was afterwards attributed to the Hyksos. Some statues, found in 1861 by Mariette at Tanis, had peculiar "un-Egyptian" features. One of these bore the name of, Apopi engraved lightly on the shoulder, and on other grounds it was concluded that the features were those of the Hyksos. In 1893 Golenischeff produced an inferior example bear ing its original name, which showed that it represented Amenemhe III. In consequence it is now generally believed that they all belong to the 12th dynasty. Meanwhile a headless statue of a king named Khyan, found at Bubastis, was attributed to the Hyksos, the soundest arguments being his foreign name and the boastful un-Egyptian epithet "beloved of his ka." His name was afterwards recognized on a lion found in Baghdad. Flinders Petrie then pointed out a group of kings named on scarabs of peculiar type, which, including Khyan, he attributed to the period between the Old Kingdom and the New, while others were in favour of assigning them all to the Hyksos, whose appellation seemed to be recogniz able in the title Hek-khos, "ruler of the barbarians," borne by Khyan.