Ancient Egyptian legend credits a pharaoh by this name with uniting Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom. Manetho, a 3rd century BC Egyptian historian, called him Menes; the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus referred to him as Min; and two native-king lists of the 19th dynasty (13th century BC) call him Meni.
However, the discovery of the Narmer Palette in the late 19th century showing the pharaoh Narmer, possibly pre-dating Menes, wielding the unified symbols of both Upper and Lower Egypt has caused some controversy. Some Egyptologists hold that Narmer and Menes are in fact the same person; others hold that Menes inherited an already-unified kingdom from Narmer; still others hold that Menes completed a process of unification started either unsuccessfully or only partially successfully by Narmer. In either case, Menes is credited with the foundation of Memphis, which he established as the Egyptian capital. It should be noted that while there is extensive archeological evidence of there being a pharaoh named Narmer, so far there is no contemporaneous archeological evidence for a pharaoh called Menes. The growing academic consensus is that Menes either refers to Narmer or, more likely, to his successor, Hor-Aha.
Another name for Menes has various spellings: Hor Aka, Hor-Aka, and Hor Aha; Hor-Aka can be translated as "Horus of the Reeds", possibly in allusion to the legend in which ISIS hid Horus in the Nile Delta among papyri and reeds. In Ancient Egyptian legend, there was a battle between Horus (a patron Deity of Lower Egypt) and Set (patron deity of Upper Egypt). In this mythological unification of the two Egypts, Set was defeated and the kingdom was unified under the rule of Horus, the first king of all Egypt. It is possible that this war was transformed over time into myth. A much later parallel can be found leading to the establishment of the reign of Pharaoh Khasekhemwy several hundred years later; he crushed a civil war between the followers of Set and Horus.
According to Manetho, Menes reigned 62 years and was killed by a Hippopotamus.
| Preceded by: Narmer | Pharaoh of Egypt First Dynasty | Succeeded by: Djer |
| [image] | Notable Ancient Egyptians | [image] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Old Kingdom Rulers: Narmer | Menes | Djoser | Sneferu | Khufu | Khafra | Menkaura | Pepi II | |||
| Middle Kingdom Rulers:Mentuhotep II | Mentuhotep IV | Senusret III | Amenemhat III | Sobekneferu | |||
| New Kingdom Rulers: Hatshepsut | Thutmose III | Amenhotep III | Akhenaten | Tutankhamun | Ramesses I | Ramesses II | |||
| Other Rulers: Psammetichus I | Shoshenq I | Piye | Taharqa | Ptolemy I | Cleopatra VII | |||
| Consorts: Tetisheri | Ahmose-Nefertari | Ahmose | Tiy | Nefertiti | Ankhesenpaaten | Nefertari | Mark Antony | |||
| Court officials: Imhotep | Weni | Ahmose, son of Ebana | Ineni | Senemut | Yuya | Maya | Yuny | Manetho | Pothinus | |||