Seven, seventy
See Numrer, voL iii pp. 562 f., 56o*. SEVENEH (nji? ; Gr. ^vijvri, Syene ; Egyp. Swn, Dem. Swne, Copt, coyan [Swan] ; Arab. ^^'^ [Asioan]).—A city on the east hank of the Nile SEVER SHA^VEAI.M 471 immediately above the First Cataract, the southern frontier post of Egypt. For some distance north of Aswan the cultivable portiim of the Nile Valley is extremely narrow. At A.
swan the hills draw in rapidly on either side, and the town is built against a rocky barrier of sandstone supported by a dvke of granite that crosses the Nile and forms tlie cataract. Here there is no cultivation on either bank beyond that of a few palm trees and tiny p.atches of t-'arden ; but the little island of F.lepliantine in the middle of the stream oppo.site Aswan is almost clothed with vegetation, and formed the ancient capital of the lirst nome of Upper Egypt.
West of the river are cliffs, shrouded with sand, but pierced by countless tombs of the former inhabitants of the island. Ele|)hantine-Syene must have formed an almost ideal frontier fortress. Immediately above this point the narrow passage of the Nile was rendered dangerous and very tedious for boats by the rocks and islands and rushing currents of the cataract.
On the west bank there is not even a path ; the adventurous sightseer must clamber over the rocks ; on the east bank there was only one clear road, and this led through a long narrow defile p.ir.illel to tlie river into the open ground opposite I'liiUc. Elephantine, the island, was the secure metropolis of the district, the residence of the governor, and the centre of the local cult of the cataract gods.
Its name in Ei'yptian was 'bw, ' elephant,' demotic 1/6 (ItjiS), a name which seems to have been applied not only to the island but also to the surrounding district, including the quarries of gianite. Syene itself was probably considered a-s only a mainland suburb of Elephantine. ' Wine of su'ii ' is mentioned in very early inscriptions, but it is doubtful whether the reference ia to Syene.
In the Egyptian inscriptions the name of the town is known only at a very late date ; its temple is of Ptolemaic age. Gradually the im- portance of Elephantine waned, and that of Syene rew ; with the fall of paganism even the name Vi (Elephantine) was given up and that of Sionn took its jilace. It is remarkable that Ezekiel employs the name Suieneh and not Yeb for the Boutliem frontier ; the references are Ezk 29'° 30* ; the reading of RVni ' from Migdol to Syene' is the best. (See MlGDOl,).
Herodotus often refers to 'EXf^oj'Tli'j;. In ii. 30 he speaks of Ele- phantine, Daphnre near Pelusium, and Marea as the garrison cities re.sj>eetivcly against the Ethi- opians, against the Syrians ancf Arabs, and against Libya. His only reference to Syene is in li. 28, where he mentions ' hills between {sic) Syene and Ele|ihantine ' in a fantastic passage which is no guide to facta ; his geography in L pper Egypt ia always faulty. F. Ll. Griffith.