Why is a canopic jar so called?
It’s generally known I think that the canopic jars contained some of the internal body organs removed during mummification. What is less clear to most is the origin of the term. Kanopus (Canopus) was a steersman of the Greek ruler Menelaos. On the way home from Troy, they landed in Egypt, where Kanopus insulted Theonoe, the daughter of the Egyptian king Proteus. For this he was bitten by a snake; he died and was buried at the site later to bear his name on one of the mouths of the Nile. It appears that there a cult of him grew up in the Graeco-Roman period, in a temple which also include the cults of Sarapis, Isis, Anubis and Harpokrates. His image was that of a vessel with a human head; a legend runs that this image was developed by his priests to counteract the adherents of a Chaldean fire-god, who supposed to consume the images of other gods. These priests took a pot, put the head of an old god image on top of it, stopped up the holes in it with wax and filled it with water. When fi
