THEBES
(Luxor) Egypt.
Known to Homer
(
Il. 9.38 1-83), it lies 714 km S of Cairo. It was known to
the Egyptians as Waset, the city of the south, and more
popularly as Diospolis Megale (
Diod. 1.15.97), the great
city of Zeus, identified with the Egyptian god Amun. It
became the capital of Egypt in the 11th Dynasty (ca.
2052 B.C.), supplanting Memphis, the earlier capital. Its
great period was during the 18th-20th Dynasties (ca.
1550-1100 B.C.) when it was the capital of the Egyptian
Empire. Although Thebes had long ceased to be the political center of Egypt in the Ptolemaic period, it was
still important. However the city revolted against
Ptolemy V Epiphanes and was severely punished. The
city is extensively described during that time by both
Diodorus (1.15.97) and Strabo (
17.1.46). Under Roman
rule, building activities continued and the city attracted
attention because of the colossi of Memnon as they were
then known. During the Early Christian period, the W
part of the city became a monastic settlement, and most
of the temples were converted into churches. Modern
Luxor contains but a small part of the remains of the
ancient city, which extended to cover Karnak and a
number of villages on the W bank of the Nile. The contribution both of the Ptolemies and of the Roman emperors to the religious continuity of the city is to be seen scattered all over the vast area. Alexander the Great
has a naos within the enclosure of the Luxor Temple.
The granite sanctuary at Karnak commemorates the
coronation of Philip Arhidaeus by the Egyptian gods in
the presence of Amun Ra. The Temple of Ptah—identified with the Greek Hephaistos, and Hathor, identified
with Aphrodite—has gateways which were added during
the Ptolemaic period. The fine granite gateway which lies
in front of the temple of the war god Mont was built by
Ptolemy Philadelphos. The small chapel to the W of the
temple is also a work of the Ptolemies. The gateway of
the Temple of Mut was erected by Ptolemy I Soter. Here
the king is represented shaking the sistrum, the queen
plays the harp, and a princess beats a tamborine before
Mut and Sekhmet. In Thebes West, across the river,
there still stand the two colossi representing Amenhotep
III seated upon a throne of which the figure to the N
was thought by the Greeks to be that of Memnon, one
of the great heroes of the Trojan War, who was said to
have led an army of the Ethiopians to the siege of that
city. The rather small but beautiful temple at Deir el-Medina is entirely a work of the Ptolemies. Augustus
appears in the Temple of Amun where a statue of him
was found. The additional court and pylon which are to
be seen in the Temple of Nectanebos at Medinet Habu,
were dedicated by Domitian. Hadrian, who visited Thebes
with his wife Sabina (A.D. 130), began the construction
of the temple that stands to the S of Medinet Habu and
dedicated it to Isis. Antoninus Pius completed it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Weigall,
A Guide to the Antiquities
of Upper Egypt (1913) 60 et passim; C. F. Nums,
Thebes
of the Pharaohs: Pattern for Every City (1965)
PMI; K.
Michalowski,
Aegypten (1968) 518ff
PMI.
S. SHENOUDA
