Muthis

Muthis may have been an ephemeral ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Twenty-ninth Dynasty.

Muthis
Pharaoh
Reignpossibly a year between 393 and 380 BCE (29th Dynasty)
Predecessoruncertain
Successoruncertain

Biography

He is sometime reported as a son of Nepherites I who ruled for a brief time before being deposed by an usurper, Psammuthes.[1] However, this statement is based on an interpretation of a passage in the Demotic Chronicle:

His son (i.e. of Nepherites I) was allowed to succeed him. (But) a short time was vouchsafed to him...

Nevertheless, the Demotic Chronicle never mentions the name of Muthis and, as pointed out by the Egyptologist John D. Ray, "his son" could be a reference to Hakor instead.[2]

It is also possible that Muthis was a very shadowly usurper, maybe related to the other usurper Psammuthes. Another option is that "Muthis" was simply a copying error, and therefore never existed; the latter hypothesis is supported by the fact that the name is clearly hellenized but there are no clues of what could have originally meant "Muthis" in Egyptian.[3]

Attestations

His name does not appear on any monument, and he is only mentioned by Eusebius's Epithome of Manetho. Eusebius gave him a single year of reign and placed him at the very end of the dynasty, after Nepherites II; however, the Armenian version of Eusebius placed him between Psammuthes and Nepherites II.[4]

References
  1. Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, Blackwell Books, 1992.
  2. Ray, op. cit., p. 155.
  3. Ray, op. cit., p. 152.
  4. Ray, op. cit., p. 158.

Bibliography

Ray, J.D., 1986: "Psammuthis and Hakoris", The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 72: 149-158.

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