JULCIVIE (S.), the Greek name, and the Arabic o . • Menf. The Hebrew forms were probably in use among the Shemites in Lower Egypt, and perhaps among the Egyptians, in the vulgar dia lect.
The ancient Egyptian common name signifies either ' the good abode,' * or ' the abode of the good one.' Plutarch, whose Egyptian information in the treatise de Iside et Osiride is generally valuable, indicates that the latter or a similar explanation was current among the Egyptian priests. He tells us that some interpreted the name the `haven of good ones,' others, 'the sepulchre of Osiris' (cal Tho Aeo 76Xtv 01 ,t.av erpAop ci-yaKiv ipfunveiov0-w, at bilbi]cas rdOop 'OatpeSts, c. 20). ' To come to port' is, in hieroglyphics, MeNA or MAN, and in Coptic the long vowel is not only preserved but some times repeated (cf. .111.A.11, 11.011, A.R.0111-1, .11.110111). There is, however, no expressed vowel in the name of Memphis, which we take therefore to commence with the word MEN, ' abode,' like the name of a town or village MEN-Hen, 'the abode, or mansion, of assembly,' cited by Brugsch (Geographirche Inschrifien, p. 191, No. Sr,5 tay.
xxxvii.) ' The good abode' is the more probable rendering, for there is no preposition, which, how ever, might possibly be omitted in an archaic form. The special determinative of a pyramid follows the name of Memphis, because it was the pyramid city, pyramids having perhaps been already raised there as early as the reign of Venephes, the fourth king of the first dynasty (Manetho ap. Cory, Anc. Frag., pp. 96, 97; cf. Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr., p. 240). Thus we may read the name or ' MEN-NEFRU, the pyramid city.' The sacred name of Memphis was HA-PTAH, PA