BUTOS or BUTO
BUTOS or
BUTO (
ροῦτος Hdt. 2.59,
63,
155;
Βουτώ,
Steph. B. sub voce p. 183, s. v.: Eth.
Βούτιος, Eth.
Βουτοΐτης,
Βουτοίτης), was the capital town, or according to Herodian, merely the principal village of the Delta, which Herodotus (
l.c.) calls the Chemmite nome; Ptolemy the Phthenothite (
Φθενότης 4.5.48) and Pliny (
5.9. s. 11) Ptenetha. Butos stood on the Sebennytic arm of the Nile, near its mouth, and on the southern shore of the Butic Lake. (
Βουτικὴ λίμνη, Strab. xvii. p.802.)
The town was celebrated for its monolithite temple (
Hdt. 2.155) and oracle of the goddess Buto (Aelian.
V. Hist. 2.41), whom the Greeks identified with Leto or Latona.
A yearly feast was held there in honour of the goddess. At Butos there was also a sanctuary of Apollo (Horus) and of Artemis (Bubastis).
It is the modern
Kem Kasir. (Champollion,
l'Egypte, vol. ii. p. 227.)
The name Buto (
Βουτώ) of the Greeks is nearly allied to that of Muth or Maut, which is one of the appellations of Isis, as “Mother of the World.” (Plut.
Is. et Osir. 18, 38.)
The shrewmouse was worshipped at Butos. (
Hdt. 2.67.)
[
W.B.D]
