ONU´PHIS
ONU´PHIS (
Ὄνουφις,
Hdt. 2.166;
Steph. B. sub voce Ptol. 4.5.51;
Plin. Nat. 5.9. s. 9: Eth.
Ὀνουφίτης), was the chief town of the Nomos Onuphites, in the Aegyptian Delta.
The exact position of this place is disputed by geographers. D'Anville believes it to have been on the site of the modern
Banoub, on the western bank of the Sebennytic arm of the Nile. Mannert (vol. x. pt. i, p. 573) places it south of the modern
Mansour. Belley (
Mém. de l'Acad. des Inscript. tom. xxviii. p. 543) identifies it with the present village of
Nouph, in the centre of the Delta, a little to the E. of Buto, about lat. 31° N. Champollion, however, regards the site of this nome as altogether uncertain (
l'Egypte sous les Pharaohs, vol. ii. p. 227). The Onuphite nome was one of those assigned to the Calasirian division of the native Aegyptian army. Coins of Onuphis of the age of Hadrian--obverse a laureated head of that emperor, reverse a female figure, probably Isis, with extended right hand--are described in Rasche (
Lex. R. Num. III. pars posterior, s. v.).
This town is mentioned by ecclesiastical writers, e. g. by Athanasius. (Athanas.
Opera, tom. i. pt. ii. p. 776, ed. Paris,. 1698; Le Quien,
Oriens Christian. tom. ii. p. 526, Paris, 1740; comp. Pococke,
Travels in the East, fol. vol. i. p. 423.)
[
W.B.D]
