Sais, Egypt

Coordinates: 30°57′53″N 30°46′6″E / 30.96472°N 30.76833°E / 30.96472; 30.76833

Sais
Map of Sais ruins drawn by Jean-François Champollion during his expedition in 1828
Sais
Location in Egypt
Coordinates: 30°57′53″N 30°46′6″E / 30.96472°N 30.76833°E / 30.96472; 30.76833
Country  Egypt
Governorate Gharbia
Time zone UTC+2 (EST)

Sais (Ancient Greek: Σάϊς, Coptic: Ⲥⲁⲓ) or Sa El Hagar (Arabic: صا الحجر‎) was an ancient Egyptian town in the Western Nile Delta on the Canopic branch of the Nile.[1] It was the provincial capital of Sap-Meh, the fifth nome of Lower Egypt and became the seat of power during the Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt (c. 732–720 BCE) and the Saite Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (664–525 BCE) during the Late Period.[2] Its Ancient Egyptian name was Zau.

Overview

Sais in hieroglyphs
z
G39		 G1G43O49

Sau (Zau)
Sȝw
Greek Σάϊς (Sais)

Herodotus wrote that Sais is where the grave of Osiris was located and that the sufferings of the god were displayed as a mystery by night on an adjacent lake.[3]

The city's patron goddess was Neith, whose cult is attested as early as the First Dynasty of Egypt (ca. 3100- 3050 BCE).[2] The Greeks, such as Herodotus, Plato, and Diodorus Siculus, identified her with Athena and hence postulated a primordial link to Athens. Diodorus recounts that Athenians built Sais before the deluge. While all Greek cities were destroyed during that cataclysm, including Athens, Sais and the others Egyptian cities survived.[4]

In Plato's Timaeus and Critias (around 395 BCE, 200 years after the visit by the Greek legislator Solon), Sais is the city in which Solon receives the story of Atlantis, its military aggression against Greece and Egypt, its eventual defeat and destruction by gods-punishing catastrophe, from an Egyptian priest. Solon visited Egypt in 590 BCE. Plato also notes the city as the birthplace of the pharaoh Amasis II.[5]

Plutarch said that the shrine of Athena, which he identifies with Isis, in Sais carried the inscription "I am all that hath been, and is, and shall be; and my veil no mortal has hitherto raised."[6]

Hector Berlioz' L'enfance du Christ ("The Childhood of Christ"), in part Three, has Sais as the setting for the youth of Jesus until age 10, after his parents leave their homeland to escape the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great.

There are today no surviving traces of this town prior to the Late New Kingdom (c.1100 BC) due to the extensive destruction of the city by the Sebakhin (farmers removing mud brick deposits for use as fertilizer) leaving only a few relief blocks in situ.[2]

Though the proposed site has little evidence of this city, Obelisks in Minerva and Urbino Italy are claimed to originate from Sais.

Medical school

The Temple of Sais had a medical school associated with it, as did many ancient Egyptian temples. The medical school at Sais had many female students and apparently women faculty as well, mainly in gynecology and obstetrics. An inscription from the period survives at Sais, and reads, "I have come from the school of medicine at Heliopolis, and have studied at the woman's school at Sais, where the divine mothers have taught me how to cure diseases".[7]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mish, Frederick C., Editor in Chief. "Saïs." Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. 9th ed. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-87779-508-8, ISBN 0-87779-509-6 (indexed), and ISBN 0-87779-510-X (deluxe).
  2. 1 2 3 Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson, The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, British Museum Press, 1995. p.250
  3. ↑ Herodotus, II, 171.
  4. ↑ Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library "Book V, 57".
  5. ↑ Plato, Timaeus.
  6. ↑ Plutarch, Isis and Osiris", ch. 9.
  7. ↑ Silverthorne, Elizabeth and Geneva Fulgham (1997). Women Pioneers in Texas Medicine. Texas A&M University Press. pp. xvii. ISBN 978-0-89096-789-8.
Preceded by
Tanis		 Capital of Egypt
732 – 720 BC		 Succeeded by
Napata/Memphis
Preceded by
Napata/Memphis		 Capital of Egypt
664 – 525 BC		 Succeeded by
Persepolis(Achaemenid Empire)
Preceded by
Babylon(Achaemenid Empire)		 Capital of Egypt
404 – 399 BC		 Succeeded by
Mendes
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