Abydos Canon

The Abydos Canon, also known as the Abydos Table or Abydos king list is a list with the names of 76 pharaohs of Ancient Egypt.

It is still in place, on a wall in the Mortuary Temple of Seti I at Abydos in Egypt. 🧭

The king list was part of a ritual where the spirits of the ancestors were invoked. The names on the list wasered or celebrated "ancestors" of Seti I, and was not meant to be a historically correct chronological list. It shows only those pharaohs that were deemed worthy. Queen Hatshepsut and the Amarna period pharaohs were not included, nor any from the Second Intermediate Period.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The incribed list of kings is found in the Mortuary Temple of Seti I, on the right wall of the passage coming from the second Hypostyle Hall, referred to as the Gallery of Lists. Seti I is on the left wearing the blue crown, holding a censor in one hand and gesturing towards the right with the other. In front of him, young prince Ramesses is shown holding a papyrus to read from with an accompanying text before him:

Reciting praises by the hereditary prince; the eldest, of his body, his beloved (son), Ramesses, justified, true of voice.

The text runs in six vertical columns above Ramesses, and is the speech given by Seti I:

Words spoken by King Menmaatra. Bringing the god to his food offering, the making of offerings for the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. Greetings to thee, Ptah Sokar, who is South-of-His Wall! Come, that I may make for thee these (things) which Horus made for his father Osiris.

The first fifty-six names shows an orderly progression of legitime rulers of Memphis. The kings who are not included are those whose rule over the Two Lands is questioned or who had some measure of political/religious bias towards them, for example, not ruling from Memphis.

Content of the list

The list consists of three rows of thirty-eight cartouches on each row. The upper two rows contain names of the ancestral kings, while the third row repeats Seti I’s throne- and birth-names. In all, seventy-six kings are mentioned. The hieroglyphics are read from left to right, the upper row is read before the lower. The cartouches of the kings are preceded by the words n nisu, which translates as "To king.....". The third row with Seti’s names is preceded by "By the gift of.....".

Illustrations

Bibliography

• Mariette, Auguste: Abydos description des fouilles, I, Plate 43 (Paris 1869)
• Dümichen, Johannes: Historische inschriften altägyptischer Denkmäler, Vol II, plate XLV (Leipzig 1869)
• Kitchen, Kenneth A.: Ramesside Inscriptions, I, 176-179, §77 (Oxford 1975)
• Porter and Moss: The Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts, reliefs, and paintings, VI, 25 (229)–(230)
• Frankfort, H., de Buck, A., & Gunn, B.: The Cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos, 2 Volumes. (London 1933)
• Redford, D. B.: Pharaonic King Lists, Annals and Day Books. (Mississauga 1986)
• 360 degree view of the list, courtesy of 360cities.net