Kyphi

, ,
kp.t Determ: grains, incense
Egyptian hieroglyphs

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

Word[edit]

Kyphi (Latin: cyphi) is romanized from Greek κυ̑φι for Ancient Egyptian "kap-t", incense, from "kap", to perfume, to cense, to heat, to burn, to ignite.^[1][2] The word root also exists in Indo-European languages, with a similar meaning, like in Sanskrit कपि (kapi) "incense", Greek καπνός "smoke", and Latin vapor.^[3][4]

History[edit]

According to Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride) and Suidas (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.^[5][6] Three Egyptian kyphi recipes from Ptolemaic times are inscribed on the temple walls of Edfu and Philae.^[7]

Greek kyphi recipes are recorded by Dioscorides (De materia medica, I, 24), Plutarch^[8][6] and Galen (De antidotis, II, 2).^[7]

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

Production[edit]

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.^[7]

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),^[7] Convolvulus scoparius,^[7] and Genista acanthoclada^[9] have been suggested. The Egyptian recipes similarly list several ingredients whose botanical identity is uncertain.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[7]

Dioscorides (10 ingredients)[edit]

• honey
• wine
• raisins
• myrrh
• juniper berries
• cyperus (Greek κύπειρος)
• turpentine (pine or terebinth resin, Greek ῥητίνη)
• aspalathus (Greek ἀσπάλαθος)
• calamus (Ancient Egyptian "kanen", Hebrew קָנֶה, Greek κάλαμος, Latin culmus)
• rush (Greek σχοῖνος)

Plutarch (+6 ingredients)[edit]

• seseli (Greek σέσελι)
• mastic (Greek σχῖνος)
• bitumen
• sorrel
• cardamom
• small juniper berries (?)

Galen (+5 ingredients)[edit]

• cassia
• cinnamon (cardamom may substitute)
• saffron
• bdellium
• spikenard

Egyptian (+6 ingredients)[edit]

• cassia
• cinnamon
• mastic
• mint
• henna
• mimosa

See also[edit]

• Ketoret
• Riha (Mandaeism)

References[edit]