DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
171 
this city never recovered any part of its ancient 
splendour. It may be noticed as a curious fact, 
that Ammianus Marcellinus mentions the devasta- 
tion of Thebes by a sudden incursion of the Car- 
thaginians, prior to the expedition of Cambyses in- 
to Egypt. 
In the vicinity of Thebes, in a large island form- 
ed by a branch of the Nile, which separates from 
the principal stream at Ermenth, and unites with 
it again at Memnonium, ought probably to be 
placed the Tathyris of Ptolemy, * the Pathuris of 
Pliny, Pathros of the Hebrew monuments, and 
Pathures of the Septuagint. The change of P in- 
to T is conformable to the Ethiopic pronunciation. 
Ermenth, the ancient Hermonthis, lies about 
twelve miles above Thebes, and exhibits the ruins 
of a magnificent temple. In this city, according 
to iElian, The Good Ge?rius was worshipped un- 
der the symbol of a bull, and denominated Onu- 
phis. t Between Ermenth and Isna lies Asfun, 
a small town founded on the ruins of Aphroditopo- 
lis, sometimes denominated Asphynis, as Wilford 
thinks, from the Sanscrit term Aswini. Esne, or 
Latopolis, is still a considerable town, and since 
the persecution of Dioclesian, has been revered as 
a place of peculiar sanctity by the Copts. An an- 
* Ptolemaei Geogr. a Bertio, p. 122. 
f iElian. Hist. Animal. 1. xif". 
