Sais, Egypt

Sais (including Sais, Greek Σάϊς; ancient Egyptian sow, Zau, today Arab صا الحجر Sa al - Hagar, DMG Sá al - Ḥaǧar ) is the Greek name of an ancient Egyptian town in the Western Nile Delta governorate of Kafr ash in today - Sheikh.

The city appears in ancient Egyptian texts as early as the Old Kingdom. Excavations have shown that the place was inhabited since about 4000 BC.

History

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Nebet -Sau as mistress of Sais is occupied as the principal goddess since the Middle Kingdom. It was mostly the appearance of Neith, which here had a great temple. In addition, during the New Kingdom is also courage and attested in the late period of Hathor as mistress of Sais.

Psammetichus I, who probably came from Sais, the capital of the country moved here and founded the so-called Saitic dynasty. Sais was then the center of the Greco -Egyptian trade. Herodotus describes the temple complex with the grave sites of the 26th dynasty. ( - 525 BC 664) from Sais the kings of the 26th dynasty came. From the town has been preserved very little.

The kings of Sais

  • Psammetichus I.
  • Necho II
  • Psammetichus II
  • Apries
  • Amasis
  • Psammetichus III.

Reception

A classic topos since antiquity and the early Enlightenment is the alleged inscription above the entrance of the temple of Isis, which relates to the oneness of God and his concealment ( concealment ). He will probably culminate in Friedrich Schiller, The mission of Moses (1790) and On the Sublime (1793 ), but also in Kant, Critique of Judgment (1790). Schiller's ballad The Veiled Image at Sais (1795 ) takes up the issue again.

The Romantic poet Novalis wrote the novel fragment remaining Apprentices at Sais, which focuses on the knowledge of nature is, among other things, allegorized by their embodiment in the goddess Isis and her unveiling.

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