ext_22894 ([identity profile] goliard.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] sovay 2010-11-03 10:16 pm (UTC)

Here's the relevant paragraph (though I can't find the right coding to make the characters display):

Actually Ws.t ('the strong'), from which derived, no later than the 17th dynasty, a female personification Ws.t nḫt.tj ('victorious Thebes'). Beginning with the Middle Kingdom (c. 1990-1630 BC), often called simply njw.t, 'the city (par excellence)' - from which also the Hebrew form no (Ez 30:14 f.; Jer 46:25; Nahum 3:8) and Assyrian Ne [10. 260] -- or in more detail 'the southern city' (in contrast to Memphis). In addition, there is also the expression Jwn.w rsj ('southern Heliopolis'). The Greek Θῆβαι/Thêbai first in Hom. Il. 9,381-384 as 'hundred-gated T.' (in contrast to the seven-gated T. [2] in Boeotia). This form may stem from the adaptation of an Egyptian form which sounded similar to the well-known Greek city; the starting point is probably the Egyptian č̣i̯-m, Coptic Čēme, actually the name for the area on the west bank around Madīnat Hābū. Due to the equation of the chief god Amun with Zeus, T. was often called Diòs Pólis ('City of Zeus') by the Greeks, frequently with the addition ἡ μεγάλη/hē megálē ('the great'); beginning in the 1st cent. AD, also officially a mētrópolis [2].

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