Chemistry:Kyphi
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| kp.t Determ: grains, incense in hieroglyphs |
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Kyphi, cyphi, or Egyptian cyphi is a compound incense that was used in ancient Egypt for religious and medical purposes.
Etymology
Kyphi (Latin: cyphi) is romanized from Greek κυ̑φι for Ancient Egyptian "kap-t", incense, from "kap", to perfume, to cense, to heat, to burn, to ignite.[1][2] The word root also exists in Indo-European languages, with a similar meaning, like in Sanskrit कपि (kapi) "incense", Greek καπνός "smoke", and Latin vapor.[3][4]
History
According to Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride) and Suidas (s. v. Μανήθως), the Egyptian priest Manetho (ca. 300 BCE) is said to have written a treatise called "On the preparation of kyphi" (Περὶ κατασκευη̑ϛ κυφίων), but no copy of this work survives.[5][6] Three Egyptian kyphi recipes from Ptolemaic times are inscribed on the temple walls of Edfu and Philae.[7]
Greek kyphi recipes are recorded by Dioscorides (De materia medica, I, 24), Plutarch[8][6] and Galen (De antidotis, II, 2).[7]
The seventh century physician Paul of Aegina records a "lunar" kyphi of twenty-eight ingredients and a "solar" kyphi of thirty-six.[citation needed]
Production
The Egyptian recipes have sixteen ingredients each. Dioscorides has ten ingredients, which are common to all recipes. Plutarch gives sixteen, Galen fifteen. Plutarch implies a mathematical significance to the number of sixteen ingredients.[7]
Some ingredients remain obscure. Greek recipes mention aspalathus, which Roman authors describe as a thorny shrub. Scholars do not agree on the identity of this plant: a species of Papilionaceae (Cytisus, Genista or Spartium),[7] Convolvulus scoparius,[7] and Genista acanthoclada[9] have been suggested. The Egyptian recipes similarly list several ingredients whose botanical identity is uncertain.[citation needed]
The manufacture of kyphi involves blending and boiling the ingredients in sequence. According to Galen, the result was rolled into balls and placed on hot coals to give a perfumed smoke; it was also drunk as a medicine for liver and lung ailments.[7]
Dioscorides (10 ingredients)
- honey
- wine
- raisins
- myrrh
- juniper berries
- cyperus (Greek κύπειρος)
- turpentine (pine or terebinth resin, Greek ῥητίνη)
- aspalathus (Greek ἀσπάλαθος)
- calamus (Ancient Egyptian "kanen", Hebrew קָנֶה, Greek κάλαμος, Latin culmus)
- rush (Greek σχοῖνος)
Plutarch (+6 ingredients)
Galen (+5 ingredients)
Egyptian (+6 ingredients)
See also
- Ketoret
- Riha (Mandaeism)
References
- ↑ E. A. Wallis Budge (1920), Egytian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, 2, John Murray, p. 786b, https://archive.org/details/egyptianhierogly02budguoft
- ↑ Heinrich Brugsch (1868), Hieroglyphisch-demotisches Wörterbuch, 4, Hinrich, p. 1492, https://archive.org/details/hieroglyphischde04brug
- ↑ August Fick (1871), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen (2nd ed.), Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, p. 52, https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RQ8AAAAAYAAJ
- ↑ Monier Williams (1872), A Sanskrit-English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, p. 202a, https://archive.org/details/1872sanskriten00moniuoft
- ↑ E. A. Wallis Budge (1902), A History of Egypt, 1, Oxford University Press, p. 129, https://archive.org/details/historyofegyptfr01budg
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Leonhard Schmitz (1849), William Smith, ed., Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, 2, Murray, pp. 915a–916a
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Victor Loret (1887), "Le kyphi, parfum sacré des anciens égyptiens", Journal asiatique 10 (juillet-août): 76–132, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k93232q
- ↑ Plutarch (1936), De Iside et Osiride (§80), in Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt., Harvard University Press., https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plut.+De+Iside+80&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0239
- ↑ Immanuel Löw (1881), Aramäische Pflanzennamen, Engelmann, p. 341, https://archive.org/details/AramaeischePflanzennamen
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