In Latter-day Saint theology, Egyptus is the name of two women in the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. One is the wife of Ham, son of Noah, who bears his children. The other is their daughter, who discovered Egypt while "it was under water". The younger Egyptus places her eldest son on the throne as Pharaoh, the first king of Egypt. Pharaoh was a descendant of the Canaanites, a race of people who had been cursed with black skin. A minority of some early Mormon leaders have taught that Egyptus passed black skin and the curse of Cain through the flood so that the devil might have representation upon the earth, although this has now been repudiated by later leaders. The word Egyptus is considered to be an anachronism in the Book of Abraham among non-Mormon Egyptologists and historians, since the origin of term "Egypt" is believed to have come from another source much later in history from the time of the narrative described in the Book of Abraham. The word "pharaoh" is also considered to be an anachronism in the Book of Abraham for similar reasons.
, a counselor in the presidency of the church, was the first in the church to teach that Ham's wife was black because she was under the curse of Cain. In 1835, he taught that Ham himself was cursed because he had married a black wife. Brigham Young also taught that Egyptus was under the curse of Cain and passed the curse through the flood. John Taylor explained that it was necessary that the curse of Cain was passed through Egyptus so that "the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God". Like many Americans, some Mormons of the 19th century accepted the idea promoted in slavery states that black Africans had Cain's "mark" of black skin, and Ham's curse to be servants of servants. These ideas were eventually abandoned by later church leaders as unsupported by scripture.
Postulated etymology among Mormon scholars
The Babylonian name for "Egypt" was written in syllabic cuneiform as Ḫikuptaḥ, which was taken from an Egyptian name for Memphis, the old capital of Egypt, Ḥwt-kЗ-Ptḥ, "House-of-the-Spirit-of-Ptah", which by extension became the name for "Egypt/ Aegyptus/ Egyptus" = Coptic ekepta, and Αἴγυπτος in Homer as both Nile River and country, and in Bibliotheca, as the eponymous son of Belus & Anchinoe, who first conquers Egypt. The etymological source of the name of Egypt is important since three 1835 prepublication manuscripts of the LDS Book of Abraham read Zeptah instead of Egyptus as the name of the elder Egyptus. This variant name could very well reflect the Egyptian name SЗt-Ptḥ, "Daughter-of-Ptah" which is known from the Middle Kingdom into the late period. Moreover, This recalls the syncretic mythology in the Late Egyptian Hieratic story of "Astarte and the Sea," wherein Semitic Astarte is also called "Daughter-of-Ptah." She is, therefore, the equivalent of Hathor, who is also the daughter of Ptah, and who is the same constellation as Virgo, and which is the first month of the Inundation season. For, after all, "when this woman discovered the land it was under water". Moreover, Hathor is the Eye and Mother of Re, the first king of Egypt. The "Mother of the King of Upper & Lower Egypt", i.e., of the living king, was addressed as "God's daughter" sЗt nṯr, namely the daughter of Ptah, as is the apparent case here with Zeptah/Egyptus, who is both mother ofthe king of Egypt and the granddaughter of Noah. This is significant since Ptah is a parallel for Noah in that, as the Blacksmith-God of Thebes, he is the equivalent of the Phoenician Craftsman-God Khousor, which is Ugaritic Kṯr, Kothar, Kothar-wa-Khasis, "The-Very-Skillful-and-Intelligent-One," which is the same character as the Sumero-Akkadian Noahs: Utnapishtim, Atra-Ḫasīs, and Ziusudra.
