After the age of the prophets we hear no more in Scripture of Heliopolis. Local tradition, however, points it out as a place where our Lord and the Virgin came, when Joseph brought them into Egypt, and a very ancient sycamore is shown as a tree beneath which they rested. The Jewish settlements in this part of Egypt, and especially the town of Onias, which was probably only tweh'e miles distant from Heliopolis in a northerly direction, but a little to the eastward {Modern Eyijpt and Thebes, i, 297, 298), then flourished, and were nearer to Palestine than the heatlien towns, like Alexandria, in wliich there was any large Jewi^h population, so that there is much probability in this tradition. And perhaps Heliopolis itself may have had a Jewish quarter, although we do not know it to have been the Ir-ha-heres of Isaiah.
Monumental JJistonj.— The oldest monument of the town is the obelisk, which was set np late in the reign of Sesertesen I, head of the 12th dynasty, dating B.C. cir. 2050. According to Manetho, the bull Jlnevis was first worshiiijied here in the reign of Kaiechos, second king of the 2d dynasty (B.C. cir. 2400). In the earliest times it must have been subject to the first dynasty so long as their sole rule lasted, wliich was perhaps for no more than the reigns of Menes (B.C. cir. 2717) and
ON
371
ON"
Atliotliis; it doubtless next came under the g;overnment of the Memphites, of the 3d (B.C. cir. 2()40), 4th, and 6th dynasties; it then passed into the hands of the Ui- ospolites of the 12th dynasty and tlie Sliepherds of the 15th; but whether the former or the latter held it first, or it was contested between them, we cannot as yet de- termine. During the long period of anarchy that fol- lowed the rule of the r2tli dynasty, when Lower I*;gypt was subject to the Shepherd kings, Heliopolis must have been under the government of the strangers. With the accession of the 18th dynasty it was probably recovered by the Egyptians, during the war which Aiihmes, or Amosis, head of that line, waged with the Shepherds, and thenceforward held by them, though perliaps more than once occupied by invaders (comp. Chabas, Papyrus Ma^igue Ilnrris), befole the Assyr- ians conquered Egypt. Its position near the eastern frontier must have made it always a post of especial im- portance. See No-Amon.
The chief object of worship at Heliopolis was the sun, under the forms Ru, the sun simply, whence the sacred name of the place, Ha-ka, " the abode of the sun," and Atum, the setting sun, or sun of the nether world. Probably its chief temple was dedicated to both. Shu, the son of Atum, and Tafnet, his daughter, were also here worshipped, as well as the bull Mnevis, sacred to Ka, Osiris, and Isis; and the Pha?nix, Benmi, probably rep- resented by a living bird of the crane kind. (On the mythology, see Brugsch, p. 254 sq.) The temple of the sun, described by Strabo (xvii, p. 805, 806), is now only represented by the single beautiful obelisk, which is of
5-* "^~ --^*^~ "^"^ S,^^ Phni ind Obelisk of Ou.
red granite, 68 feet 2 inches high above the pedestal, and bears a dedication showing that it was sculptured in or after his 30th year (cir. 2050) bv Sescrtesen I, first king of the Pith dynasty (B.C. cir. 2080-2045). There were probably far more than a usual number of obelisks before the gates of this temple, on the evidence of an- cient writers, and the inscriptions of some yet remain- ing elsewhere, and no doubt tlie reason was that these monuments were sacred to the sun. From the extent of the mounds it seems to have been always a small town.
An imperfect monumental inscription of the time of Thothmes III mentions the city of On in the following terms : " In his thirty-fifth year the king (Thothmes III) sent forth an army of ten full cohorts against Heth. Then he marched against the city of On, where the unclean race were assembled . . ." — alluding perhaps to the Shepherds, whom Thothmes finally expelled from
Egypt. There are other indications of this Pharaoh having been at Heliopolis or On. Two of the obelisks removed by the Romans from that ancient city bear the well-known cartouche of Thothmes III. The one stands upright before the cathedralof St. John at Pome, the other in the Atmeidan at Constantinople. Osburn declares "that it becomes a historical fact that the patron of Joseph, Pharaoh Apophis, had possession of Pleliopolis, and for a long period held his regal state there" (Monitm. Hist, of Egypt, ii, 87). See Egypt.
Later Notices. — The traces of this city which are found in classic authors correspond with the little of it that we know from the brief intimations of Holy Writ, According to Herodotus (ii, 59), Heliopolis was one of the four great cities that were rendered famous in Egypt by being the centres of solemn religious festivals, which were attended by splendid processions and homage to the gods. In Heliopolis the observance was held in honor of the sun. The majesty of these sacred visits may be best learned now by a careful study of the temples (in their ruins) in which the rites were per- formed (Wilkinson, Anc. Ef/mit.'). Heliopolis had it3 priesthood, a numerous and learned body, celebrated be- fore other Egyptians for their historical and antiquarian lore, and occupying extensive buildings around the temple; it long continued the university of the Egyp- tians, the chief seat of their science (Kenrick, Herod. ii, 3 ; Wilkinson) ; the priests dwelt as a holy com- munity in a spacious structure appropriated to their use. In Strabo's time the halls were to be seen in which Eudoxus and Plato had studied under the direc- tion of the priests of Heliop- olis. A detailed description _^.^ of the temple, M-ith its long