PSAMMETICHUS (Egypt. Psammetk), the name of three kings of the Saite, XXVIth Dynasty, called by Herodotus respec tively Psammetichus, Psammis and Psammenitus. The first of these is generally considered to be the founder of the dynasty; Manetho, however, carries it back through three or four prede cessors who ruled at Sais as petty kings under the XXVth, Ethi opian, Dynasty. It is known from cuneiform texts that 20 local princelings were appointed by Esarhaddon and confirmed by Assur-bani-pal to govern Egypt. Niku (Necho), father of Psammetichus, was the chief of these kinglets, but they seem to have been quite unable to hold the Egyptians to the hated Assyrians against the more sympathetic Ethiopian. The labyrinth built by a king of the XIIth Dynasty is ascribed by Herodotus to the Dodecarchy, or rule of 12, which must represent this com bination of rulers. If the dynasties were numbered thus before Manetho, the numeral may be the cause of Herodotus's con fusion.
After his father's death Psammetichus I. (664-610 B.c.) was able to defy the Assyrians and the Ethiopians, and during a long reign marked by intimate relations with the Greeks restored the prosperity of Egypt. The short reign of the second Psammetichus B.c.) is noteworthy for the graffiti of his Greek, Phoenician and Carian mercenaries at Abu Simbel (q.v.). The third of the name was the unfortunate prince whose reign ter minated after six months in the Persian conquest of Egypt (525 B.c.). It has been conjectured that the family of the Psammetichi was of Libyan origin; on the other hand, some would recognize negro features in a portrait of Psammetichus I., which might con nect him with the Ethiopian rulers.
See EGYPT: History; on the name, F. LI. Griffith, Catalogue of the Rylands demotic papyri; the portrait H. Schafer in Zeitschrift fur aegyptische Sprache, xxxiii. 116. (F. Li.. G.)