Netjerkare Siptah (also Neitiqerty Siptah and possibly the origin of the legendary figure Nitocris) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the seventh and last ruler of the Sixth Dynasty. As the previous king of the 6th Dynasty, Netjerkare Siptah is considered by some Egyptologists to be the last king of the Old Kingdom period. Alternatively, some scholars classify him as the first king of the Seventh or Eighth Dynasty.
Netjerkare Siptah enjoyed a short reign in the early 22nd century BC when the pharaoh’s power was crumbling and that of the local nomarchs was rising. Although he was male, Netjerkare Siptah is most likely the same person as the female ruler Nitocris mentioned by Herodotus and Manetho.
Attestation of Netjerkare Siptah reign
The prenomen Netjerkare is inscribed on the 40th entry of the Abydos King List, a king list redacted during the reign of Seti I. Netjerkare immediately follows Merenre Nemtyemsaf II on the list. The nomen Neitiqerty Siptah is inscribed on the Turin canon, on the 5th column, 7th row (4th column, 7th row in Gardiner’s reconstruction of the Canon). The prenomen Netjerkare is also attested on a single copper tool of unknown provenance and is now in the British Museum.
Identification with Nitocris
In his Histories, the Greek historian Herodotus records a legend in which an Egyptian queen Nitocris took revenge on the murder of her brother and husband by a rioting mob. She diverted the Nile to drown all of the murderers during a banquet where she had gathered them. This story is also reported by the Egyptian priest Manetho, who wrote a history of Egypt called Aegyptiaca in the 3rd century BC. Manetho writes of Nitocris that she was “… braver than all the men of her time, the most beautiful of all women, fair-skinned with red cheeks”. Manetho further credits her with the construction of the Pyramid of Menkaure “By her, it is said, the third pyramid was reared, with the aspect of a mountain”. Although Herodotus does not name the murdered king, Nitocris follows Merenre Nemtyemsaf II in Manetho’s Aegyptiaca, so he is often identified as this king. Since the king following Merenre Nemtyemsaf II in the Abydos king list is “Netjerkare”, the German Egyptologist Ludwig Stern proposed in 1883 that Netjerkare or Nitocris is the same person.
The Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt confirmed Stern’s hypothesis in a recent study of the matter. Ryholt’s microscopic examinations of the fibres of the papyrus suggest that the fragment where this name appears belongs to the end of the 6th Dynasty, immediately after Merenre Nemtyemsaf II. Ryholt argues that the name “Nitocris” results from conflation and distortion from the name “Netjerkare”. The name “Nitocris” probably originates from the prenomen “Neitiqerti”, which itself either comes from a corruption of “Netjerkare”, or else “Neitiqerti Siptah” was the nomen of the king and “Netjerkare” his prenomen. Confirming this analysis, the Turin canon, another king list redacted during the early Ramesside period, lists a Neitiqerti Siptah at an uncertain position. Since on the Abydos king list, Netjerkare is placed in the equivalent spot that Neitiqerti Siptah holds on the Turin canon, the two are to be identified. Additionally, the nomen “Siptah” is masculine, indicating that Nitocris was, in fact, a male pharaoh.
