MEMPHIS mĕm’ fĭs (Heb. מֹ֣ף, [only Hos 9:6], נֹ֑ף; Gr. Μέμφις), was a city of Egypt, on the left (W) bank of the Nile, some 13 m. S of Cairo, in an area including the modern village of Mit Rahineh.
Name. The city was first called inb-ḥḏ, “the White Wall,” but later was known as Mennefer, after the pyramid of Pepi I of the 6th dynasty. This name was later corrupted to the form Memphis, by which the city is now commonly known. Memphis was also called Ḫi-k-up-tah (from ha[t]-k3-ptaḥ, “the house of the spirit of Ptah”), from which later the name Αἴγυπτος, G131, “Egypt,” developed.
General history. According to legend, Memphis was the first capital of united Egypt, being built by the traditional unifier and first king, Menes. It remained the capital until the end of the Old Kingdom (c. 2200 b.c.). After it lost the seat of government it was still a city of importance, particularly in religion, and kings of later times built temples and other structures. In 670 b.c. the city was captured by the Assyrians. During the Pers. period it was a cosmopolitan city and was visited by the Gr. historian, Herodotus. Little of its late history is known; after the Moslem conquest the ruins of Memphis were used for the construction of Fostat, which later became Cairo.
Archeological history. Excavations were conducted here in 1909-1913 by Flinders Petrie around the acropolis and the temple of Ptah. Later (1915-1919, 1921-1922), C. S. Fisher excavated the palace of Merneptah. These earlier excavations also revealed part of a temple of Ramses II (1301-1234 b.c.), a chapel of Seti I (1313-1301 b.c.), some tombs dated c. 800 b.c., and remains of the embalming house of the Apis bulls, with inscrs. of Necho, Apries (Biblical Hophra), and Sheshonk (Biblical Shishak). Further work by the Pennsylvania University Museum and the Egyp. Dept. of Antiquities in 1954-1956 was carried out in the area of the enclosure wall of Ptah.
Religious importance. The supreme god of Memphis was Ptah, a creator-god, patron of arts and crafts, depicted usually in the form of a man wearing the straight beard, having a smooth (hairless?) head, and holding the w3s-scepter, the symbol of dominion. A late stela, dating from the time of Shabaka, c. 700 b.c., preserves an early text of Memphite theology, which affirms that Ptah created everything, essentially by the simple processes of thought and speech. At Memphis the divine triad consisted of Ptah, his wife, the lionessheaded Sekhmet, and their son, Nefertem. The Apis bull, also worshiped here, is shown with the solar disc and uraeus serpent between its horns. It was regarded as an incarnation of Ptah and Osiris (the latter also combined with Apis to make Serapis).
Other Memphite remains. To the W of the city site is a vast cemetery at Sakkarah, with royal tombs, or cenotaphs, of rulers of the first two dynasties. From the third dynasty there is the world’s “first monumental architecture in stone,” the step-pyramid of King Djoser. The fourth dynasty royal inhabitants of Memphis created at Giza the most impressive group of tomb structures known, the Giza pyramids; around these clustered the lesser tombs of royal retainers and officials. The fifth dynasty kings built their sun temples and pyramids at Abusir, between Sakkarah and Giza. At Sakkarah, dynasties five and six provided excellent examples of scenes of daily life executed in painted relief on the walls of rooms of funerary complexes of officials such as Ptahhotep, Ti, Mereruka, and Kagemni. Here were the royal pyramids of those dynasties, such as that of Pepi I, mentioned above as the source of the name of Memphis. The pyramids of dynasties five and six are esp. significant because of the religious spells, the Pyramid Texts, inscribed upon their walls. Also of importance at Sakkarah is the Serapeum, the burial place of the Apis bulls, whose monuments range in date from dynasty eighteen to the end of the Ptolemaic period.
Biblical associations. In the Bible the name Memphis appears only eight times, all in the OT prophets. Hosea prophesied that the Israelites would return to Egypt and that Memphis would bury them (Hos 9:6). In Isaiah 19:13 “an oracle concerning Egypt,” the Lord declares that “the princes of Memphis are deluded; those who are the cornerstones of her tribes have led Egypt astray” (RSV). In Jeremiah 2:16 the prophet states that as a consequence of apostasy and false worship Israel has suffered at the hands of the Egyptians: “The men of Tahpanhes and Memphis have broken the crown of your head” (RSV). After the murder of Gedaliah by Ishmael, the Israelite remnant fled to Egypt in fear of possible reprisals by the Babylonians, in spite of the warnings of Jeremiah (cf. Jer 43:5-7). In Egypt the refugee Jews were further admonished by the Lord; Jeremiah 44 contains a prophetic message addressed to “all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Memphis, and in the land of Pathros” (v. 1, RSV). Jeremiah 46 is largely a prophecy against Egypt; the report of war was to be published in her cities, including Memphis (see vv. 14, 15): “Stand ready and be prepared, for the sword shall devour round about you!’ Why has Apis fled? Why did not your bull stand? Because the Lord thrust him down” (RSV). Perhaps the most striking predictions concerning Memphis are in Ezekiel 30:13 where the Lord declares, “I will destroy the idols, and put an end to the images, in Memphis,” while the prophet Jeremiah stated that the city will become “a waste, a ruin, without inhabitant” (Jer 46:19). The ruins of Memphis give silent witness to the fulfillment of these prophecies and the scarcity of statues of Egyp. deities is quite mark ed, particularly in view of the long history of the building of temples at this city.
Bibliography J. Capart and M. Werbrouck, Memphis a l’ombre des pyramides (1930); A. Badawi, Memphis als zweite Landeshauptstadt im neuen Reich (1948); M. Dimick, Memphis, the City of the White Wall (1956); R. Anthes, Mit Rahineh 1955 (1959); Anthes, Mit Rahineh 1956 (1965).