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626.16.2. The following chart illustrates how the Coptic/Arabic names were attached to the individual members of the First Dynasty, and to the corresponding Biblical ethnic eponymi. In the first column (left to right) appear the divine names attached to four of the Biblical eponymi in the Defloratio Berosi (Osiris = Mizraim, Hercules = Lehabim, Neptu[m]nus = Naphtuhim, Horus = Caphtorim/Philistim). As the eight kings of Dynasty I form an Ogdoadic series, and the Ogdoad was interpreted in antiquity as a representation of the four elements (earth, air, fire, water), — each element being viewed as a male god with a female complement, making eight in all, — we may see in these four divinities in the Defloratio the four elemental cosmic gods: Osiris = earth (Osiris being god of the fertilizing principle present in the earth [and the earth itself his spouse Isis]), Hercules = fire (Hercules-Arueris being god of the celestial fire, in this case of the North African desert [earlier = Nergal, god of underworld fire and the winter sun]), Neptu(m)nus = water (Neptu[m]nus being god of the sea and of the subterranean reservoir), Horus = air (Horus being god of the sky). In the sixth column appear the Coptic/Arabic equivalents for the Biblical eponymi and/or the cosmic elements, and there are likewise four of them; but one strand of the tradition represents them duplicated as four original eponymi and four sons of Qoft, with identical names, making eight in all. This Ogdoadic structure suggests the four original eponymi correspond one-on-one to the four elemental deities. The notes and observations which follow the chart show the Coptic/Arabic names are those of cities or regions in Egypt which contain the corresponding divine names, viz. 1) Athrib, the eponymus of Athrib (Eg. Hut-hery-ib) in the central Delta area: the name of this place, “The abode (hut) of him who is upon [or, away from] (hery) the heart (ib),” is itself a reference to the god Chentechthai, viz. Osiris and/or Horus: its earlier name was Kem-wer, that is, the “Great Black (Bull),” meaning Osiris: Osiris = Mizraim-Men; 2) Sa, the eponymus of Sais: Sais is referred to in the title “insibya” (Eg. nsw-byt), “He of the Sedge and the Bee,” containing the element “bya” (byt, bee), which was the emblem of Sais in the western Delta: this was a title first adopted by Mut Semty (Naphtuhim) as king of the North, the Sais or “Bee” area, as he was already king of the South or “Sedge” area; 3) Ashmun = Eshmunein, the city of the Ogdoad or “Eight,” which numeral is found in the name Eshmun = Ama-ushum-gal-ana = Heth/Djet (Lehabim), for the reasons given; 4) Qoft is the eponymus of the Caphtorim, or Keftiu, the topographical name Caphtor being derived, according to Gesenius (Gesenius-Tregelles, s.n.), from k-ph-r with infixed t. The root meaning is “to cover,” whence, amongst other words, Heb. kephor, “frost, cold” (from its covering the ground). If that is the origin of the topographical name it would mean the “cold or cool zone.” Positionally the ethnic eponymus Caphtorim/Philistim corresponds to the royal name Qaa (Eg. Qa‛a), which has an alternative form, Qebeh(u), “cold, cool”: this looks like a derivation from the same primitive bi-consonantal Semitic root q/k-b/p as kephor, in which case the Caphtorim were so named after Qaa-Qebehu himself. The name may be presumed to have originally denoted “northerners,” such as the inhabitants of the cooler or more humid region of Pelusium and the Sirbonian Lagoon bordering the Mediterranean. In the Defloratio the last corresponds to Horus (that is, Horus [Caphtorim] son of Osiris [Mizraim]). This forms the first set of four in the Ogdoad. The remaining four topographical names represent the populations of four regions of the country. The populations of these regions might be viewed as the “female complements” of the four god-kings (bearing names identical to the male elemental deities in the Coptic variation on this tradition, as we shall see), or otherwise as the four females of the elemental Ogdoadic series. These four zones are those of the Pathrusim, Casluhim, Ludim and Anamim. From south to north they are: 1) Upper Egypt in Said (southern Egypt) from Assuan to Eshmunein; 2) the territory in Said from Eshmunein to Memphis (Middle Egypt); 3) the central and eastern parts of the Delta; and 4) the westerly regions of the Delta. Thus, for example, Osiris (Mizraim, Athrib) might be paired with Anamim (Mareotis), as Maroneus, the eponymus of Mareotis, was a sobriquet of Osiris-Dionysus; Hercules (Ashmun) might be paired with Casluhim, as the latter was the eponymus of Eshmunein and of the Ogdoad referenced in his name; Neptumnus (Sa [= Sais]) might be paired with Pathrusim as Pathrusim were the Pilusae or people of Pelusium (Philistim), and the name Sa was applied to both Sais in the western Delta and Sin (Pelusium) in the eastern Delta; and Horus might be paired with Ludim, as the Ludim were equated with the Givtae or Copts (Caphtorim), and the name Horus (Orus) stands for Caphtorim in the Defloratio Berosi. The idea of four regional eponymi was picked up in Coptic tradition, but modified in such a way that the four topographical names associated with the elemental deities became the names of four zones into which Egypt was divided by the Copts, broadly coinciding with the afore-mentioned divisions: viz. 1) Upper Egypt, which was the main area settled by Copts in later times, now called the region of Qoft; 2) Middle Egypt, the region of Ashmun (Eshmunein); 3) the central and eastern areas of the Delta, the region of Athrib (the northern Athrib at the “heart [ib]” of the Delta); and 4) the westerly areas of the Delta, called the district of Sa, Sa being Sais on the Canopic, the most westerly branch of the Nile, and the region itself including territories further west along the Mediterranean littoral as far as Barca. (Maqrizi, ed. trans. Bouriant, pte. II., p. 545f.) A further development was the incorporation of the Biblical eponymus Philistim into the Ogdoadic scheme. The Philistim of Genesis 10 are the Caphtorim under another name, but to make up two sets of four eponymi (Qoft, Ashmun, Athrib, Sa, numbered 1-4 in the 7th and 8th columns of the Chart infra), with Mizraim (Masr) as the founding father of all eight, rather than as one of the eight himself, Philistim came to be treated as an independent eponymus, a second Sa. Sa (or Sai or San) is the Coptic form of the Hebrew topographical name Sin, which can mean (as referenced supra) Pelusium, the ancestral home of the Philistim, but usually means Sais (in the common Coptic tradition, as the name of one of the four regional divisions listed supra), or Syene. It is possible in this light, indeed likely, that the traditional Coptic regional eponymi were formed organically out of the last four Biblical eponymi: Sa was the Coptic equivalent of the Biblical Sin (= Pelusium/Philistim), Qoft of Caphtorim, Casluhim = Hashmonim = Ashmun, and Anthrib was formed out of the Egyptian element “Athr” (Hut-her[y]), which has been commonly traced in the name Pathrusim (as if = Pathr- = Pa+Athr). The notes infra should be consulted for a more complete account of these identifications and for an explanation of what appears in the Chart.