Menes

Menes, the name of the founder of the 1st Dynasty of historical kings of Egypt. He appears at the head of the lists not only in Herodotus and Manetho, but also in the native Turin Papyrus of Kings and the lists of Abydos, while the list of Sakkara begins with the sixth king of the 1st Dynasty, a fact which may throw some doubt on the supposed foundation of Memphis by Menes. Until recently he was looked upon as semi-mythical, but the discovery of the tombs of many kings of the 1st Dynasty including probably that of Menes himself, as well as an abundance of remains of still earlier ages in Egypt has given him a personality. He was probably ruler of Upper Egypt and conquered the separate kingdom of Lower Egypt.

See EGYPT; K. Sethe, "Menes and die Grundung von Memphis," in his Untersuchungen zur Geschichte and Alterthumskunde Aegyptens, iii. 121. (F. LL. G.)