Psammetichus I

	Email		Print
	Bookmark		Link

Psammetichus I

Psamtik I (also spelled Psammeticus or Psammetichus), was the first of three kings of the Saite

Sais, Egypt

Sais or Sa el-Hagar was an ancient Egyptian town in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopus, Egypt branch of the Nile. It was the provincial capital of the fifth nome of Lower Egypt and became the seat of power during the Twenty-fourth dynasty of Egypt and the Saite Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt during the Late Period of Ancient Egypt....
, or Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt

Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt was the last native dynasty to rule Ancient Egypt before the History of Persian Egypt in 525 BC Before Christ ....
. His prenomen, Wahibre, means "Constant is the Heart of Re

Ra is an ancient Egyptian Solar deity . By the Fifth dynasty of Egypt he became a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon, with other deities representing other positions of the sun....
." The story in Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
of the Dodecarchy and the rise of Psamtik is fanciful. It is known from cuneiform

Cuneiform script

Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of writing system. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium , cuneiform writing began as a system of pictography....
texts that twenty local princelings were appointed by Esarhaddon

Esarhaddon

Esarhaddon , was a king of Neo-Assyria who reigned 681 ? 669 BC. He was the youngest son of Sennacherib and the Aramean queen Naqi'a , Sennacherib's second wife....
and confirmed by Assurbanipal to govern Egypt. Necho I

Necho I

Necho I was the Prince of Sa?s or Governor of the Egyptian city of Sais, Egypt. He was the first attested local Saite king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt who reigned for 8 years, according to Manetho's Epitome....
, the father of Psammetichus by his Queen Istemabet, was the chief of these kinglets, but they seem to have been quite unable to hold the Egyptians

Egyptians

Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the Cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the Easte...
to the hated Assyria

Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
ns against the more sympathetic Nubia

Nubia

Nubia is a region in Southern Egypt along the Nile and in what is now northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt....
ns.

Discussion

Ask a question about 'Psammetichus I'

Start a new discussion about 'Psammetichus I'

Answer questions from other users

Full Discussion Forum

Encyclopedia

Psamtik I (also spelled Psammeticus or Psammetichus), was the first of three kings of the Saite

Sais, Egypt

Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt

Herodotus

Cuneiform script

Esarhaddon

Necho I

Egyptians

Assyria

Assyria was a political state centered on the Upper Tigris river, in Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times in history....
ns against the more sympathetic Nubia

Nubia

Nubia is a region in Southern Egypt along the Nile and in what is now northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt....
ns. The labyrinth

Labyrinth

In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos....
built by Amenemhat III

Amenemhat III

Amenemhat III, also spelled Amenemhet III , was a pharaoh of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt of Ancient Egypt. He ruled from ca.1860 BC to ca.1814 BC, the latest known date being found in a papyrus dated to Regnal Year 46, I Akhet 22 of his rule....
of the Twelfth dynasty of Egypt

Twelfth dynasty of Egypt

The Eleventh , Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Middle Kingdom of Egypt....
is ascribed by Herodotus to the Dodecarchy, or rule of 12, which must represent this combination of rulers. Psamtik was the son of Necho I who died in 664 BC when the Kushite king Tantamani tried unsuccessfully to seize control of lower Egypt from the Assyrian Empire. After his father's death, Psamtik managed to both unite all of Egypt and free her from Assyrian control within the first ten years of his reign.

Military campaigns

Psamtik I reunified Egypt in his 9th regnal year when he dispatched a powerful naval fleet in March 656 BC to Thebes

Thebes, Egypt

Thebes was a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile . It was the capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian Nome ....
and compelled the existing God's Wife of Amun

God's Wife of Amun

God's Wife of Amun was the highest ranking priestess of the Amun cult, an important Ancient Egyptian religious institution centered in Thebes during the second millennium BCE , at these times the most important city in Egypt....
at Thebes to adopt his daughter Nitocris I as her Heiress in the so-called Adoption Stela. Psamtik's success destroyed the last vestiges of the Nubian Dynasty's control over Upper Egypt under Tantamani

Tantamani

Tantamani or Tanwetamani or Tementhes was king of History of Ancient Egypt , and a member of the Nubian or Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt....
since Thebes now accepted his authority. Nitocris would serve in office for 70 years from 656 BC until her death in 586 BC. Thereafter, Psamtik I campaigned vigorously against those local princes who opposed his reunification of Egypt. One of his victories over certain Libyan marauders is mentioned in a Year 10 and Year 11 stela from the Dakhla Oasis. Psamtik I proved to be a great Pharaoh of Egypt who won Egypt's independence from the Assyrian Empire and restored Egypt's prosperity through his long 54 Year reign. The pharaoh proceeded to establish intimate relations with the Greeks

Hellenic Greece

Ancient Greece in the eighth through fourth centuries BC, between the Greek Dark Ages and the Hellenistic period, is referred to as Hellenic Greece. It is made up of two epochs:...
and also encouraged many Greek settlers to establish colonies in Egypt and serve in the Egyptian army.

Discovering the origin of language

The Greek historian Herodotus

Herodotus

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Greeks historian who lived in the 5th century BC and is regarded as the "Father of History" in Western culture....
conveyed an anecdote about Psamtik in the second volume of his Histories
Histories (Herodotus)

The Histories of Herodotus of Halicarnassus is considered the first work of history in Western literature. Written about 440 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories tells the story of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Polis in the 5th century BC....
. During his travel to Egypt, Herodotus heard that Psammetichus ("Psamtik") sought to discover the origin of language by conducting an experiment with two children. Allegedly he gave two newborn babies to a shepherd, with the instructions that no one should speak to them, but that the shepherd should feed and care for them while listening to determine their first words. The hypothesis was that the first word would be uttered in the root language of all people. When one of the children cried "bekos" with outstretched arms the shepherd concluded that the word was Phrygian

Phrygian

Phrygian can refer to:*A person from Phrygia*Phrygian cap once characteristic of the region* Phrygian language*Phrygian mode in music* Phrygian Valley, a historic location in northwestern Turkey...
because that was the sound of Phrygian word for "bread." Thus, they concluded that the Phrygians were an older people than the Egyptians, and that Phrygian was the original language of men. There are no other extant sources to verify this story.

Wives

Psamtik I's chief wife was Mehtenweskhet, the daughter of Harsiese, the Vizier

Vizier

A Vizier , is a term for a high-ranking political advisor or minister, often to a Muslim monarch such as a Caliph, or Sultan. It sometimes refers to ministers and advisors of the Persian Empire's Shahs....
of the North and High Priests of Atum

Atum

Atum is an important deity in Egyptian mythology, whose cult centred on the city of Heliopolis . His name is thought to be derived from the word 'tem' which means to complete or finish....
at Heliopolis. Psamtik and Mehtenweshket were the parents of Necho II

Necho II

Necho II was a king of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt , and the son of Psammetichus I by his Great Royal Wife Mehtenweskhet. His prenomen or royal name Wahemibre means "Carrying out the Wish of Ra Forever." Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Assyrian Empire, Babylonia and the Kingdom of Judah....
, Merneith, and the Divine Adoratice Nitocris I.

Psamtik's father-in-law--the aforementioned Harsiese--was married three times: to Sheta, with whom he had a daughter named Naneferheres, to Tanini and, finally, to an unknown lady, by whom he had both Djedkare, the Vizier

Vizier