XOIS
XOIS (
Ξόις,
Strab. xvii. p.802;
Ptol. 4.5.50;
Ξόης,
Steph. B. sub voce a town of great antiquity and considerable size, was situated nearly in the centre of the Delta, upon an island formed by the Sebennytic and Phatnitic branches of the Nile.
It belonged to the Sebennytic Nome. The 14th dynasty, according to Manetho, consisted of 76 Xoite kings.
This dynasty immediately preceded that of the shepherd kings of Aegypt.
It seems probable, therefore, that Xois, from its strong position among the marshes formed by the intersecting branches of the river, held out during the occupation of the Delta by the Hyksos, or at least compromised with the invaders by paying them tribute.
By some geographers it is supposed to be the Papremis of Herodotus (
2.59,
3.12). Champollion (
l'Egypte sous les Pharaons, vol. ii. p. 214) believes its site to have been at
Sakkra, which is the Arabian synonyme of the Coptic
Xeos and of the old Aegyptian
Skhoo (Niebuhr,
Travels, vol. i. p. 75.)
The road from Tamiathis to Memphis passed through Xois.
[
W.B.D]
