HELIOPOLIS, he’ lĭ ŏp’ ə lĭs (Heb. אֹ֖ן from Egyp. ’Iwnw; LXX ̔Ηλιουπόλεος, city of the sungod; KJV BETH-SHEMESH běth shē’ měsh, Jer 43:13). Ancient Egyp. city sacred to the sun-god Re (q.v.) whose site centers on Tell-el-Ḥisn near El Matarieh, about ten m. out of Cairo to the NNE.
Heliopolis first attained prominence in the Old Kingdom (Pyramid Age) of Egyp. history, when the pharaohs used a solar symbol (see Pyramid) for their tombs and adopted the title “Son of Re.” The kings of the fifth dynasty may have come from Heliopolis as a subordinate branch of the fourth dynasty (high priests there). However, the major influence of Heliopolis in Egypt was less on the political than on the religious plane—the theological system and cultic usages there elaborated profoundly influenced the religion of Egypt in general. Identified with the local creator-god Atum, Re was at the head of a “family” of nine gods (‘Ennead’) among whom the Heliopolitan theologians skillfully included the funerary god Osiris, chief rival of Re in the late Old Kingdom. The main temple in Heliopolis accordingly was that of Re, or Rē-Atum, the site being marked by the remains of a great enclosure and by the sole remaining obelisk of Sesostris I (twelfth dynasty, t. 1940 b.c.). The latter king rebuilt the great temple of Re (Berlin Leather Roll)—
HELIOPOLIS, he’ lĭ ŏp’ ə lĭs (Heb. אֹ֖ן from doubtless the structure at which Joseph’s father-in-law Potipherah subsequently served as “priest of On” (high priest in Heliopolis ?), an affiliation reflected by his name (“gift of Re,” see Potiphar), Genesis 41:45, 50; 46:20. The greatest pharaohs of the New Kingdom (c. 1550-1070 b.c.) adorned the temples of Heliopolis. The works of Thutmose III included the two well-known obelisks, now in New York and London (“Cleopatra’s Needle”). Under Ramses III, Heliopolis came second only to Thebes in its wealth of royal endowments (Papyrus Harris I). Among other edifices, obelisks were also erected by Amenhotep II, Seti I (now in Rome), and Ramses IV; these were slender, pyramidically-topped shafts sacred to the sun-god. As late as Herodotus, Heliopolis remained important, but thereafter sank into decline. Prior to his time three OT passages of the 8th-7th centuries b.c. appear to refer to Heliopolis. The city of destruction (or: City of the Sun, see City of Sun) in Isaiah 19:18 is possibly Heliopolis. Ezekiel’s judgment on Egypt (30:17) included ‘Aven’, perhaps a pun (“evil”) for On (Heliopolis). Its association with Bubastis (Pibeseth, same v.) and Memphis (Noph, preceding v. KJV) would agree well with this identification. Similarly, Jeremiah (43:13 RSV) threatened that Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon would ravage Egypt’s temples with fire, and “break the obelisks of Heliopolis.” See On.
Bibliography J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, I (1906), §§ 498-506 (cf. de Buck), and IV, §§ 247-304 (Pap. Harris I); B. Porter and R. L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Etc., IV (1934), 59-65; A. de Buck, “The Building Inscription of the Berlin Leather Roll,” Studia Aegyptiaca I (1938), 48-57; A. H. Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, II (1947), 144*, 146* (:400); H. Kees, Der Götterglaube im alten Ägypten (1956), 214-286; P. Montet, Géographie de l’Égypte Ancienne I (1957), 155-171 and figs. 17-19; W. Helck, Materialen zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte des Neuen Reiches I (1960), 124-130; H. Kees, Ancient Egypt, A Cultural Topography (1961), 147-182 passim.