MEMPHIS (mem'phis), (Heb. r1n, mole), a very ancient city, the capital of lower Egypt, standing at the apex of the Delta, ruins of which are still found not far from its successor and modern representative, Cairo.
(1) Name. Its Egyptian name, in the hiero glyphics, is Menofri; in Coptic. Memfi. Manfi. Membe, Panoufi orMefi, being probably corrupted from Man nofri, 'the abode,'or, as Plutarch terms it (Isid. et Osir. ch. xx), 'the haven of good men.' It was called also Pthah-ei, the abode of Pthali (Wilkinson, Ane. Egypt. iii. 278). ln Hebrew the city bears the name of ltlofe (Hos. ix:6), or Nofe Noph (Is. xix:13). These several names are obviously variations of one, of which Meph seems to contain the essential sounds. N-Vhether we may hence derive support to the statement that the place was founded by Menes, the first hu man king of Egypt, or whether we have here very early instance of the custom which prevailed so extensively among the Greeks and Romans, of inventing founders of cities, having names cor respondent with the names of the places they were said to have built, it is impossible. with the materials we possess, to determine with any fair approach to certainty.
(2) Founder. Menes. however, is universally reputed to have founded not only Memphis but Thebes; the addition of the latter may seem to in validate his claim to the former, making us sus pect that here, too, we have a case of that cus tom of referring to some one distinguished name great events which happened, in truth, at differ ent and far distant eras. If. as is probable. Theboi: as well as Memphis was. at any early period. the seat of a distinct dynasty, the cradle and the throne of a line of independent sovereigns, they could scarcely have had one founder.
(3) Bed of the Nile. The statement, however, is, that having diverted the course of the Nile, which had washed the foot of the sandy moun tains of the Libyan chain, Menes obliged it to run in the center of the valley, and built the city Memphis in the bed of the ancient channel. This change was effected by constructing a dyke about a hundred stadia above the site of the projected city, whose lofty mounds and strong embank ments turned the water to the east and confined the river to its new bed. The dyke was carefully kept in repair by succeeding kings, and even as late as the Persian invasion, a guard was always maintained there to overlook the necessary re pairs; for, as Herodotus asserts, if the river were to break through the dyke, the whole of Memphis would be in danger of being overwhelmed with water, especially at the period of the inundation.
Subsequently, however, when the increased de posit of the alluvial soil had raised the circum jacent plains,the precautions became unnecessary ; and though the spot where the diversion of the Nile was made may still be traced, owing to the great bend it takes about fourteen miles above ancient Memphis, the lofty mounds once raised there are no longer visible.
(4) Identification of Site. The site of Mem phis was first accurately fixed by Pocock, at the village of Metrahenny. According to the reports of the French, the heaps which mark the site of the ancient buildings have three leagues of cir cumference; but this is less than its extent in early times, since Diodorus gives it 15o stadia, or six leagues and a quarter. Memphis declined after the foundation of Alexandria, and its ma terials were carried off to build Cairo (Kenricic, Egypt of Herodatus, p. 129; Rennell, 115; Champoll, Egypte et les Ph. i, 336).
(5) History. The kingdom of which Memphis was the capital, was most probably the Egypt of the patriarchs (in which Abraham, Jacob, and the Israelites resided. Psammetichus, in becom ing sole monarch of all Egypt, raised Memphis to the dignity of the one metropolis of the en tire land (Plin. Hist. Nat. v, 9), after which Memphis grew in the degree in which Thebes de clined. It became distinguished for a multitude of splendid edifices, among which may be men tioned a large and magnificent temple to Vulcan, who was called by the Egyptians Phthah, the demiurgos, or creative power (Wilkinson, i, 96; Herod. ii, t36, 154; Strabo, xvii, p. 8o7; Plin. Hist. Nat. viii, 71; Diod. Sic. i, 57, 67). Under the dominion of the Persians, as well as of the Ptolemies, Memphis retained its preeminence as the capital, though even in the time of the former it began to part with its splendor; and when the latter bestowed their favor on Alex andria, it suffered a material change for the worse, from which the place never recovered. In the days of Straho many of its fine buildings lay in ruins, though the city was still large and popu lous. The final blow was given to the prosper ity of Memphis in the time of Abdollatif, by the erection of the Arabian city of Cairo.