View source for Kyphi

{{Short description|Incense used in ancient Egypt}}
{{Hiero|kp.t<br>[[Determinative|Determ:]] grains, [[Incense burner: arm (hieroglyph)|incense]]|<hiero>Aa9:p*Z7-D12:Z2ss</hiero> ''','''<br><hiero>V31-G1-R5-p:X1</hiero> ''','''<br> <hiero>Aa7-p:Z7-N38</hiero>|align=right|era=egypt}}

'''Kyphi''', '''cyphi''', or '''Egyptian cyphi''' is a compound [[incense]] that was used in [[ancient Egypt]] for religious and medical purposes.

== Etymology ==
Kyphi ({{langx|la|cyphi}}) is romanized from Greek κυ̑φι for [[Ancient Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]] "kap-t", incense, from "kap", to perfume, to cense, to heat, to burn, to ignite.<ref>{{citation | author=[[E. A. Wallis Budge]] | entry=kap-t | title=Egytian Hieroglyphic Dictionary | volume=2 | publisher=John Murray | year=1920 | page=786b | url=https://archive.org/details/egyptianhierogly02budguoft}}</ref><ref>{{citation | author=[[Heinrich Karl Brugsch|Heinrich Brugsch]] | entry=kep, kepu | title=Hieroglyphisch-demotisches Wörterbuch | volume=4 | publisher=Hinrich | year=1868 | page=1492 | url=https://archive.org/details/hieroglyphischde04brug}}</ref> The word root also exists in Indo-European languages, with a similar meaning, like in [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] कपि (kapi) "incense", [[Greek language|Greek]] καπνός "smoke", and Latin vapor.<ref>{{citation | author=[[August Fick]] | entry=kvap, kap | title=Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Indogermanischen Sprachen | edition=2nd | publisher=Vandenhoek & Ruprecht | year=1871 | page=52 | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RQ8AAAAAYAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{citation | author=[[Monier Monier-Williams|Monier Williams]] | title=A Sanskrit-English Dictionary | entry=कपि | publisher=Clarendon Press | year=1872 | page=202a | url=https://archive.org/details/1872sanskriten00moniuoft}}</ref>

== History ==
According to [[Plutarch]] (De Iside et Osiride) and the ''[[Suda]]'' (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.<ref>{{citation | author=[[E. A. Wallis Budge]] | title=A History of Egypt | volume=1 | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1902 | page=129 | url=https://archive.org/details/historyofegyptfr01budg}}</ref><ref name="Leonhard Schmitz 1849 915a–916a">{{citation | editor=[[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]] | author=[[Leonhard Schmitz]] | entry=MANETHO | title=[[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]] | volume=2 | publisher=Murray | year=1849 | pages=915a–916a}}</ref> Three Egyptian kyphi recipes from Ptolemaic times are inscribed on the temple walls of [[Edfu]] and [[Temple of Philae|Philae]].<ref name="loret">{{citation | author=[[Victor Loret]] | title=Le kyphi, parfum sacré des anciens égyptiens | journal=[[Journal asiatique]] | volume=10 | issue=juillet-août | year=1887 | pages=76–132 | url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k93232q}}</ref>

Greek kyphi recipes are recorded by [[Dioscorides]] ([[De materia medica]], I, 24), [[Plutarch]]<ref>{{citation | author=[[Plutarch]] | title=De Iside et Osiride (§80), in Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. | publisher=Harvard University Press. | year=1936 | url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plut.+De+Iside+80&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A2008.01.0239}}</ref><ref name="Leonhard Schmitz 1849 915a–916a"/> and [[Galen]] (De antidotis, II, 2).<ref name="loret" />

The seventh century physician [[Paul of Aegina]] records a "lunar" kyphi of twenty-eight ingredients and a "solar" kyphi of thirty-six.{{citation needed|date=March 2015}}

== 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.<ref name="loret" />

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]]),<ref name="loret" /> [[Convolvulus scoparius]],<ref name="loret" /> and [[Genista acanthoclada]]<ref>{{citation | author=[[Immanuel Löw]] | title=Aramäische Pflanzennamen | publisher=Engelmann | year=1881 | page=341 | url=https://archive.org/details/AramaeischePflanzennamen}}</ref> have been suggested. The Egyptian recipes similarly list several ingredients whose botanical identity is uncertain.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}

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.<ref name="loret" />

=== Dioscorides (10 ingredients) ===
* [[honey]]
* [[wine]]
* [[raisins]]
* [[myrrh]]
* [[juniper]] berries
* [[cyperus]] (Greek κύπειρος)
* [[turpentine]] ([[pine]] or [[terebinth]] resin, Greek ῥητίνη)
* [[aspalathus]] (Greek ἀσπάλαθος)
* [[calamus (palm)|calamus]] (Ancient Egyptian "kanen", Hebrew קָנֶה, Greek κάλαμος, Latin culmus)
* [[Acorus calamus|rush]] (Greek σχοῖνος)

=== Plutarch (+6 ingredients) ===
* [[seseli]] (Greek σέσελι)
* [[mastic (plant resin)|mastic]] (Greek σχῖνος)
* [[bitumen]]
* [[sorrel]]
* [[cardamom]]
* small [[juniper]] berries (?)

=== Galen (+5 ingredients) ===
* [[cassia bark|cassia]]
* [[cinnamon]] ([[cardamom]] may substitute)
* [[saffron]]
* [[bdellium]]
* [[spikenard]]

=== Egyptian (+6 ingredients) ===
* [[cassia bark|cassia]]
* [[cinnamon]]
* [[mastic (plant resin)|mastic]]
* [[Mentha|mint]]
* [[henna]]
* [[mimosa]]

== See also ==
* [[Ketoret]]
* [[Riha (Mandaeism)]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Ancient Egyptian religion]]
[[Category:Incense material]]
[[Category:Ancient Egyptian medicine]]