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TYPHAINE HAZIZA

Université de Caen Normandie

Leader of an Egyptian REBELLION against Persian rule in the late 450s BCE (cf. Thuc. 1.112). After the death of INAROS (between 456 and 453), Amyrtaeus—no doubt an ally of Inaros—maintained control of a marshy region in the NILE Delta without being disturbed by the Persians.

Herodotus mentions this “Prince of the Marshes,” originally from SAIS, who was nearly his contemporary, in two passages. The first is very allusive (2.140): in narrating the return to power of ANYSIS, the blind pharaoh who fled to the marshes of the DELTA for fifty years during the reign of the Ethiopian SABACOS, Herodotus notes that the man‐made ISLAND which served as a refuge for Anysis, named ELBO, had not been discovered before the reign of Amyrtaeus, more than 700 years later. Anysis is not identifiable as an Egyptian ruler; the Ethiopian (i.e., Nubian, 25th) Dynasty dates to the eighth century BCE; and the island Elbo is unknown from Egyptian sources. This passage should rather be imagined in a symbolic manner, related to Amyrtaeus’ revolt during the reign of ARTAXERXES. The flight into the marshes is, in fact, an Egyptian topos and can have mythological connections, particularly with the episode of the young HORUS, hidden in the marsh of CHEMMIS.

The second passage (3.15) is more informative, since it evokes the role of Amyrtaeus in the revolt initally led by Inaros, which remains difficult to reconstruct: Amyrtaeus perhaps surrendered Inaros in exchange for his own safety, but it is more likely that he continued the struggle and that it was on his initiative that ATHENS sent a rescue fleet which was annihilated by the PHOENICIANS (cf. Thuc. 1.110) around 450 BCE Herodotus also gives the name of Amyrtaeus’ son, PAUSIRIS, whom the Persians supposedly kept in the position which Amyrtaeus had held, on the condition that he accept the role of a “client king.”

SEE ALSO: Athenian Empire; Egypt; Ethiopians; Persia; Thannyras