PHITHOM. - A city of northern Egypt (Hebr. Pitōm; Egyptian pr-jtm; Coptic πεθομί or πειθομί; Septuagint Πειθώ). According to Ex. 1:11, an Egyptian king, presumably Ramses II, had this city built, along with another, as a store-city by the Hebrews settled in Egypt; Herodotus (II, 158) would recall it under the name Πάγνωρος Ἀραβίας, because in its vicinity ran the canal of Necho (v.) between the Nile and the Red Sea. The Peregrinatio of Egeria names it Patumos or Phitona civitas.

Its precise location has long been debated: most scholars today, after the excavations carried out by E. Naville (1883), incline toward the site of Tell el-Mashútah, near the railway station of Abú Suejr; others identify P. with the Thou of the Anonymous of Piacenza, now Tell Abú Sulajmán; others with Tell ar-Ratábah.

Bibliography15 works

BIBL.: E. Naville, The store city of P., 4th ed., London 1903; J. Lieblein, The Exodus of the Hebrews, in Proc. Soc. bibl. arch., 29 (1907), p. 214 ff.; C. Sourdille, La durée et l'étendue du voyage d'Hérodote en Egypte, Paris 1910, p. 3 ff.; C. Lagier, s. v. in DB. V (1912), col. 322 ff.; V. L. Trumper, The route of the Exodus, in Pal. expl. fund. Quartier. stat., 47 (1915), pp. 22 ff., 152 ff.; J. Cledat, Notes sur l'isthme de Suez, in Bull. Inst. franc. arch. orient., 18 (1921), p. 175 ff.; 23 (1924), p. 46 ff.; P. Mallon, Les Hébreux en Egypte, Rome 1922, p. 131 ff.; A. H. Gardiner, The geographie of the Exodus, in Rec. Champoll., Paris 1922, p. 203 ff.; id., The geographie of the Exodus: an answer to prof. Naville and others, in Journ. egypt. arch., 10 (1924), p. 87 ff.; H. M. Wiener, P. and Ruames, in Anc. Egypt., 8 (1923), p. 75 ff.; A. Ermann-H. Grapow, Wörterbuch der aegypt. Sprache, I, Leipzig 1925, p. 144; Cl. Bourdon, Anciens canaux, anciens sites et ports de Suez, Cairo 1925, p. 19 ff.; A. Mallon, La géographie de l'Exode, in Compt. rend. du Congr. intern. géogr. du Caire, 5 (1925), p. 84 ff.; H. Gauthier, Dictionn. des normes géographiques contenues dans les textes hiéroglyphiques, I, Cairo 1925, p. 59 ff.

Aristide Calderini

@incollection{ec9_phithom, author = {Calderini, Aristide}, title = {Phithom}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1315}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/phithom} }

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