Menés the Law Giver

Alice C. Linsley

The Upper Nile was extremely fertile and had a more diversified population than the Lower Nile region. It was governed by kingdom-building rulers, such as Menés, who is believed to have been the first to unite the peoples of the Upper and Lower Nile Valley. If this is so, his kingdom would have stretched from Abydos to the Mediterranean.

Menes (Mena, Min) was born  c. 2925 B.C., a descendant of the "Horus-people" or the "Falcon-people" (Horus's aviary totem was the falcon.) Menes consolidated the districts around the First Cataract of Aswan and advanced to the north, a movement that led to the unification of the Nilotic populations.

The Falcon people had as many as 50 kings, so Menes represents a very ancient royal lineage. To Menes is attributed the oldest legislative system in history: the law of Tehut. An image of Menes is found on the Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. The South and North wall friezes depict a procession of 18 lawgivers and Menes is the first.

Menes has been identified with Narmer or with a Kushite ruler whose Horus name was Ahauiti. The tombs of both rulers have been excavated at Abydos, the largest tombs of that time in Egypt.

Whether Menes was Narmer or Ahauiti, his unification of the Upper and Lower Nile established him as the founder of a new House/Dynasty. This remained the case even after Mentuhotep II reunited Egypt after the 1st Intermediate Period.  Instead of being recognized as the founder of a new House, Mentuhotep II was considered a ruler of the 11th Dynasty.

The figure below was drawn by Faucher-Gudin after Prisse d'Avenues. The gold medallions engraved with the name of Menés are ancient, perhaps dating to the 20th dynasty. However,  the setting is modern, with the exception of the three oblong pendants of cornelian.

 Source: G. Maspero, History of Egypt

Manetho of Sebennytos, an Egyptian historian, wrote a history for the use of Alexandrine Greeks. Manetho's Aegyptiaca divides ancient Egyptian history into 31 dynasties from Menés to the Macedonian Conquest. All the families inscribed in his lists appear to have ruled in succession, however this has not been fully confirmed by archaeological discoveries. The problem is that Manetho's accounts come from a much later period between 380-343 B.C. and his division is based on historical facts as well as mythology and folklore.

Manetho was a priest during the reigns of Ptolemy I and Ptolemy II who apparently was given the assignment of caring for the royal horses, a high ranking position.  This is indicated by his name - mniw-htr - which means "keeper of the horses."

As a high ranking royal priest, Manetho had access to the temple archives. These included king lists (such as we find in Genesis 4, 5, 11, 22:20-24 and 36). Doubtless there were conflicting claims as rulers vied for acclaim, often introducing mythological accounts to support their authority. 

According to Manetho, Menés reigned 62 years and was killed by a hippopotamus.



Who was Menés?

Some scholars believe that Menés was Ahauiti on the basis of an ivory tablet engraved for a ruler whose Horus name was Ahauiti, the warlike. The actual name that appears on the tablet is Manu. Menés has been various spellings, including Mena, Meni, Manu, Min or simply MN.

According to Manetho, Menes was a native of the Thinite province in Upper Egypt. Monuments belonging to Narmer and Ahauiti, either of whom may be Menes, have been excavated at Abydos, a royal cemetery in the Thinite nome (Tjenu). The earliest evidence of Tjenu as a ruled territory dates to 4000 B.C. the time when the Horite citadel of Nekhen was thriving. The Narmer palette was unearthed at Nekhen.

Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) was a prestigious shrine city of the Horus people, the Horites. Their descendants who were priests are identified in the Bible as Horite Hebrew (Gen. 36). Nekhen appears to be the oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship. Votive offerings at the Nekhen temple were ten times larger than the normal mace heads and bowls found elsewhere, suggesting that this was a very prestigious shrine. Horite priests placed invocations to Horus at the summit of the fortress as the sun rose.

Whether Menés is Narmer or Ahautit, his tomb lies near the village of Nagadeh, not far from Thebes, while those of his immediate successors are in the cemeteries of Abydos. The Nagadeh tomb is a rectangular brick structure 165 feet long and 84 feet wide. The external walls were originally ornamented by deep polygonal grooves, resembling those which score the facade of Chaldaean buildings, but the Nagadeh tomb has a second brick wall which hides the primitive decoration of the monument. The building contains twenty-one chambers.

How are we to reconcile the tradition of Menés' Thinite origin with the existence of his tomb in distant Thebes?  It is likely that he maintained two queens in separate palaces. One would have been at the southern boundary of his empire and the other at the northern boundary. This was a characteristic of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the ancient Horite rulers.

The principal deified ruler of Abydos was called An-hor, which indicates that he was a devotee of Hor/Horus. This is the ruler line from which Abraham's Horite Hebrew people came.


Related reading: The Writing System of Menes, the First Lawgiver; A Kindling of Ancient Memory; Abraham's Annu Ancestors; Who Were the Horites?; Ancient Moral Codes

Evidence of Castes in the Book of Ruth

Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel. (Ruth 4:7)

Alice C. Linsley

In Ruth we find Boaz acting as the levir. In levirate marriage a woman is taken as a wife by her deceased husband's brother in order to produce an heir for her dead husband. Levirate marriage is practiced by societies with a strong clan and caste structures in which exogamous marriage is forbidden.

The Tahash caste is evident in the book of Ruth. They were the tanners who made the leather goods, including leather sandals. A leather sandal was used to finalized the agreement between Boaz and the kinsman redeemer. "Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel." (Ruth 4:7) One of Abraham's nephews was Tahash (Gen. 22:24).

The leather shoe was made of the hide of an animal. It represents a life taken or lost and is appropriate for a solemn oath. The exchange of the leather sandal is not specifically about levirate marriage, but rather about exchanging property after a death. Aben Ezra says that the giving of the leather shoe was "to confirm all things" whether by sale or barter.

The exchange of a leather shoe represents a solemn oath like that signaled by the exchange of a linen cloth, called "sudar." According to the Medieval rabbi Rashi, a linen cloth was used to make purchases and the cloth was called "sudar." Rashi is speaking of a different custom, but it too has ancient precedent given that "sudar" pertains to "Sudra" which refers to the Dravidians. Linen originated in the Nile Valley and was carried from there to India. Among Abraham's Nilo-Saharan ancestors wounds were treated with raw meat and bandaged with linen. Also dead domesticated animals were wrapped in white linen and buried near the towns.

The Dravidian leather workers are called "Madigas" and they are recognized as one of the oldest castes. The Madiga have nucleotide diversity levels as high as those of HapMap African populations. Among Abraham's people these were the "Ta-hash." One of Abraham's nephews was Tahash (Gen. 22:24).

This evidence for the African origin of castes such as the Horites and the Madigas has interesting implications for the Davidic monarchy. David was a direct descendant of Boaz who redeemed Ruth and her deceased husband's property in Bethlehem.

Bethlehem was a Horite settlement. 1 Chronicles 2:55 which says that Caleb's sons were Kenites. They were of Kenaz, a son of Eliphaz by Timna, daughter of Seir the Horite. Caleb's son Salma is designated the "founder" of Bethlehem in I Chronicles 2:51.

Abraham's people were a caste of ruler-priests who originated in the Nile Valley. The Horite Hebrew were devotees of Horus, the son of God, who was called "lord of the sky." In ancient Egyptian HR means "the one on high." The Horus name has been found on Egyptian hieroglyphs at the beginning of dynastic civilization (c. 3000 BC). The totem of Horus was the falcon and some fire altars were built in the shape of the falcon. Images of Horus show him with the body of a man and the head of a falcon. The falcon was a symbol of divine kingship among the ancient Nilotes.

The Horite ruler-priests were regarded as deified "sons" of God. They are often called "gods" (elohiym) as in Exodus 22:28: "Thou shalt not revile the gods (elohiym), nor curse the ruler of thy people."

The Hebrew word "Horim" is used among Jews today to designate parents and ancestors. In Englich Bibles the word is "Horite" and variants forms include the names Hur, Horonaim, Horoni, Horowitz, and Hori. Hori was the son of Lotan son of Seir whose descendants were the "lords of the Horites in the land of Seir" according to Genesis 36:20-29 and 1 Chronicles 1:38-42.


Related reading: The Origin of Castes; The Ethnicity of David and Abraham; Why Does Genesis Speak of Gods?; Threshing Floors and Solar Symbolism; Why Hebrew Rulers Denied Marriage to Royal Women