Aphroditopolis
APHRODITO´POLIS, APHRODITO, VENERIS OPPIDUM (Ἀφροδίτης πόλις, Ἀφροδιτόπολις, Ἀφροδίτω : Eth. Ἀφροδιτοπολίτης), the name of several cities in Egypt. I. In Lower Egypt. 1. [ATARBECHIS.] 2. A town of the Nomos Leontopolites. (Strab. 17. p. 802.)--II. In the Heptanomis, or Middle Egypt. 3. AFRODITO (Itin. Ant. p. 168: Ἀφροδίτω, Hieroc. p. 730, Atfyeh, mounds, but no Ru.), a considerable city on the E. side of the Nile; capital of the Nomos Aphroditopoltes. (Strab. 17. p. 809; Ptol.) It was an episcopal see, down to the Arab conquest. Its coins are extant, of the reigns of Trajan and Hadrian, with the epigraph ΑΦΠΟΔΕΙΤΟΠΟΛΙ. (Rasche, s. v.)--3. In Upper Egypt, or the Thebais. 4. (Tachta) on the W. side of the Nile, but at some distance from the river, below Ptolemais and Panopolis; capital of the Nomos Aphroditopolites (Plin. Nat. 5.9, 10. s. 11, Veneris iterum, to distinguish it from No. 5; Strab. 17. p. 813; Agatharch. de Rub. Mar. p. 22; Prokesch, Erinnerungen, vol. 1. p. 152.) 5. (Deir, Ru.), on the W. side of the Nile, much higher up than the former, and, like it, a little distance from the river; in the Nomos Hermonthites, between Thebes and Apollonopolis Magna; and a little NW. of Latopolis. (Plin. Nat. 5.10. s. 11.)
[P.S]ca. 16 km S of Arment. One of several sites where Hathor, whom the Greeks identified with Aphrodite, was worshiped. This site was noted by Strabo (17.1.47). The remains of a temple dedicated to Hathor were rebuilt by Ptolemy Euergetes II. A necropolis from the Ptolemaic period has yielded Greek papyri and ostraca.
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. Weigall, A Guide to the Antiquities of Upper Egypt (1913) 297-99; Porter & Moss, Top. Bibl., V. Upper Egypt: Sites (1937) 161-64; E. Brunner-Traut & V. Hell, Aegypten (1966) 627.
S. SHENOUDA