CHAP. XIII. APE, TAPE, THEBES. f)l 



sign of " land." The formation of the name of 

 the city and its corruption into Thebes is singular. 

 The original word is Ap or Ape, being the Coptic 

 ape, " head " or *' capital." With the feminine 

 article t (by which in the hieroglyphics it is al- 

 ways followed), it becomes Tape, or " the Ape ; " 

 and this being pronounced by the Egyptians, 

 as by the Copts, Taba *, and in Lower Egypt 

 Thaba (the Memphitic dialect substituting tJt for 

 t)i was readily converted into Thebes. For this 

 dialect being prevalent in the part of the country 

 mostly frequented by the Greeks, Thaba was the 

 name by which the city was usually known to 

 them ; and Thaba was too near the Greek not to 

 be converted into their 0rjS'a<. 



The idea that Thebes was derived from Theba 

 or Thebh, 'PilPi the "ark," is evidently erroneous, 

 and on a par with those etymological fancies which 

 trace from Noah the word vaug, nauta, and navy ; 

 or with that of the learned in Soodan, who find in 

 their Bernoo the Biir-nooJi, or " the land of Noah." 



Pliny t and Juvenal X have both given Thebe 

 as a singular word, adhering more closely to the 

 Egyptian original. Amunei, '* the abode of Amun," 

 has been translated Diospolis ; and the scriptural 

 name No, or No Amun, appears to have the 

 same import, unless " iVo " was applied to the 

 whole of the Thebaid. I had formerly imagined 

 that Papa was corrupted from Tape, especially as 



* It is possible that the name of Taphis in Nubia was taken from 

 the capital of Upper Egypt. 



f Plin. V. 9. " X Juv. Sat, xv. 6. 



