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Psamtik I in hieroglyphs: Wahibre, the king who took Egypt back from Assyria

29 October 2026

Psamtik I's birth name is written with five sound signs, psmṯk: a stool for p, a door bolt for s, an owl for m, a tethering rope for ṯ and a basket for k. His throne name, wꜣḥ-ib-rꜥ, Wahibre, means "constant is the heart of Ra". The Greeks called him Psammetichus.

He ruled from Sais in the Nile Delta from 664 to 610 BC. He began as a vassal of Assyria, one of several local kings in the Delta, and within ten years ruled all of Egypt as founder of the 26th Dynasty.

Five alphabet signs spell psmṯk

Each sign in the birth name stands for one consonant. The stool (Q3) is p, the door bolt (O34) is s, the owl (G17) is m, the tethering rope (V13) is ṯ, said like the ch in "church", and the basket with a handle (V31) is k. Vowels were never written, so "Psamtik" is a modern guess at the sound.

The name is probably a short form of pꜣ-sꜣ-n-mṯk, "the man of Metjek", perhaps a god. Some books translate it as "the seller of mixed wine". Scholars still argue over its origin. The royal family of Sais is often thought to have had Libyan roots.

Stool Door bolt Owl Tethering rope Basket with handle

Write Psamtik in a cartouche

Wahibre puts the sun god first

The throne name has three signs. The sun disc (N5) is rꜥ, Ra. It is written at the top of the cartouche out of respect for the god, though it is read last. The fibre swab (V29) writes wꜣḥ, "to endure, to be constant". The heart (F34) writes ib, "heart". Read in spoken order: wꜣḥ-ib-rꜥ.

The name looked back on purpose. Kings of the 26th Dynasty copied the art and titles of the Old and Middle Kingdoms, and a heart that stays steady was an old royal virtue. Apries, a later king of the same family, was born with it: his birth name was Wahibre.

Sun Fibre swab Heart

A stela at Karnak gave Thebes to his daughter

In 1897 Georges Legrain found a red granite stela at Karnak, about 1.8 metres high. It records that on day 28 of the first month of year 9, March 656 BC, Psamtik's daughter Nitocris sailed south to Thebes. There Shepenupet II, the God's Wife of Amun and a daughter of the Kushite king Piye, adopted her as heir.

Her title, God's Wife of Amun, ends with the god's name, imn, written with the flowering reed (M17), the game board (Y5) and the water ripple (N35). The cloth on a pole (R8) writes nṯr, "god". The God's Wife held great estates and spoke for Amun at Thebes, and Kushite kings had used it to rule the south. The stela lists the bread, beer, meat and land each official and temple had to give Nitocris, Mentuemhat, the mayor of Thebes, among them. With it Psamtik ruled the whole country. The stela is in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Cloth on a pole Flowering reed Ripple of water Game board

Read Karnak

Greek and Carian soldiers won him the Delta

In 664 BC the army of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal drove the Kushite king Tantamani out of Memphis and set up Psamtik, son of Necho I of Sais, as one of its vassal kings. Within a few years Psamtik broke the agreement and removed the Delta rulers loyal to Assyria.

His soldiers came from across the sea. Gyges, king of Lydia, sent Ionian Greek and Carian troops, and Psamtik used them to take Memphis and defeat his rivals. He later placed garrisons at Daphnae on the eastern border and at Elephantine in the south. Herodotus says Egyptian boys were given to these soldiers to learn Greek, and that Egypt's interpreters came from them.

Herodotus tells his strangest story

According to Herodotus, Psamtik wanted to know which people was the oldest on earth. He gave two newborn children to a shepherd, who was never to speak a word near them. After two years the children ran to him with their hands out, saying "bekos". Bekos was the Phrygian word for bread, so the king decided the Phrygians were older than the Egyptians.

No other ancient source tells it, and Herodotus wrote about two centuries later. It shows what Greek visitors heard about Psamtik: a king who opened Egypt to foreigners and asked questions about them.

Questions

What does the name Psamtik mean?

It is probably a short form of pꜣ-sꜣ-n-mṯk, "the man of Metjek". Some sources render it "the seller of mixed wine". Its origin is still debated.

What was Psamtik I's throne name?

Wahibre, wꜣḥ-ib-rꜥ, "constant is the heart of Ra", written with the sun disc, a fibre swab and a heart.

Is Psamtik the same king as Psammetichus?

Yes. Psammetichus is the Greek form used by Herodotus. The Assyrians wrote his name Pishamilki.

Glossary

alphabet sign: A hieroglyph that stands for one consonant, such as the horned viper for f. Egyptian has about 25 of them, used beside signs for two or three sounds.
birth name: The name a king was given at birth, written in the second cartouche after the title "son of Ra". Egyptologists also call it the nomen.
cartouche: An oval ring drawn around a royal name, a loop of rope tied at one end. Kings wrote their two main names in cartouches.
dynasty: A line of kings counted together, usually one family. Egyptologists number Egypt's kings in about 30 dynasties, following the priest Manetho.
God's Wife of Amun: A title of royal women who served the god Amun at Thebes. In the Late Period the God's Wife ran Amun's great estate there.
stela: An upright stone slab carved with words and pictures, set up in tombs and temples or to mark a border.
temple: The house of a god, where priests served the god's statue. Temples for dead kings kept up their offerings after death.
throne name: The name a king took when he came to the throne, written in the first cartouche after the title "King of Upper and Lower Egypt". Egyptologists also call it the prenomen.

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Psamtik I c. 664–610 BC