Henqu I

thumb|I gave bread to the hungry of the Cerastes-Mountain (the district he governed); I clothed him who was naked therein. ... I never oppressed one in possession of his property, so that he complained of me because of it to the god of my city; never was there one fearing because of one stronger than he, so that he complained because of it to the god. Henqu or Henku (fl. c. 2200 BC) was an Ancient Egyptian nomarch around the end of the 6th Dynasty. He is well known from his rock cut tomb at Deir el-Gabrawi. Quotes I gave bread to all the hungry of the Cerastes-Mountain; I clothed him who was naked therein. I filled its shores with large cattle, and its lowlands with small cattle. I satisfied the wolves of the mountain and the fowl of heaven with [flesh] of small cattle ... I was lord and overseer of southern grain in this nome ... I settled the [feeble] towns in this nome with the people of other nomes; those who had been peasant-serfs therein, I made their offices as officials. I never oppressed one in possession of his property, so that he complained of me because of it to the god of my city; (but) I spake, and told that which was good; never was there one fearing because of one stronger than he, so that he complained because of it to the god.I arose then to be ruler in the Cerastes-Mountain, together with my brother, the revered, the sole companion, ritual priest, Re-am, I was a benefactor to it (the nome) in the folds of the cattle, in the settlements of the fowlers. I settled its every district 24with men and cattle — — small cattle indeed. I speak no lie, for I was one beloved of his father praised of his mother, excellent in character to his brother, and amiable to [his sister] ... In a cliff-tomb at Der el-Gebrâwi; published by N. de G. Davies, Deir-el-Gebrawi, vol. II (London, 1902), pls. 24, 25; Kurt Sethe (from Davies), Urkunden, vol. I (Leipzig, 1906), pp. 76-79. Transl. by J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. 1 (Chicago, 1906), no. 281, p. 126. Note: "This general beneficence toward man and beast includes here the animals sacred in Henku's locality. Across the river the jackal was the sacred animal, while in Henku's own nome the hawk was sacred. It is no accident that these are just the two animals which Henku fed, for the word translated "wolf," should be more general, designating all wild animals of the canine family and the like. We have here then the first symptoms from which the belief in the sacredness of whole classes of animals (as opposed to one member only) afterward grew up. The same thing in a later stage is observable in the Saite time. On a stela in Miramar a man says: 'I gave bread to the hungry, water [to] the thirsty, clothing to the naked; I gave jood to the ibis, the hawk, the cat, and the jackal.' (Bergmann, Hieroglyphische Inschriften, pl. VI, ll. 9, 10)." External links Category:BCE births Category:BCE deaths Category:Ancient Egyptians