Anysis

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Anysis was a king of Egypt, mentioned only in book II of Histories by Herodotus. Herodotus says he came from a city after which he was named. He was blind and was deposed by Aethiopians led by Sabacos. After fifty years of hiding in marshland on the island Elbo, he came back into power.

According to Herodotus, Anysis created the island from the marsh "by heaping up ashes and earth: for whenever any of the Egyptians visited him bringing food, according as it had been appointed to them severally to do without the knowledge of the Ethiopian, he bade them bring also some ashes for their gift." [1]

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140. Then when the Ethiopian had gone away out of Egypt, the blind man came back from the fen-country and began to rule again, having lived there during fifty years upon an island which he had made by heaping up ashes and earth: for whenever any of the Egyptians visited him bringing food, according as it had been appointed to them severally to do without the knowledge of the Ethiopian, he bade them bring also some ashes for their gift. 123ii This island none was able to find before Amyrtaios; that is, for more than seven hundred years 124ii the kings who arose before Amyrtaios were not able to find it. Now the name of this island is Elbo, and its size is ten furlongs each way.

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References

  1. Herodotus Histories 2.137