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prettygoodwordcanopic (kuh-NOH-pik, kuh-NOP-ik) - adj., pertaining to Canopus, an ancient city in the Nile delta; esp. canopic jar, a pottery container in which the ancient Egyptians preserved the viscera of a deceased person for burial with the mummy.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
A set of canopic jars from c. 700 BCE. I'd not known the origin of the name, which is fascinating: Canopus was the Greek name of a city called Peguat/Pikuat by the locals, near the modern town of Abu Qir, which was the major Mediterranean port before the founding of Alexandria. The Greek name comes from mythology: Canopus was the pilot of Menelaus's ship, who died in Egypt on the way home from Troy. As an important city, it had many burials, and the Greeks there came to associate the jar of ancient funerary practices with the city they first met them, a misunderstanding perpetuated by early Egyptologists.
---L.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
A set of canopic jars from c. 700 BCE. I'd not known the origin of the name, which is fascinating: Canopus was the Greek name of a city called Peguat/Pikuat by the locals, near the modern town of Abu Qir, which was the major Mediterranean port before the founding of Alexandria. The Greek name comes from mythology: Canopus was the pilot of Menelaus's ship, who died in Egypt on the way home from Troy. As an important city, it had many burials, and the Greeks there came to associate the jar of ancient funerary practices with the city they first met them, a misunderstanding perpetuated by early Egyptologists.
---L.
