Pi-beseth

PI-BESETH, pî-bê´seth: An Egyptian city mentioned in Ezek. xxx. 17, together with Aven (On); called by the Greeks (and the Septuagint) Boubastos, or, more rarely, Boubastis. It was situated in the Delta on the right bank of the eastern arm of the Nile. The Hebrew name represents the Egyptian Per-Baste(t), "House of Bast," the local goddess who was represented as a cat or as a woman with a feline head. The real name of the city was Bast, from which the name of the goddess was derived. Pi-beseth was the residence of the Lybian kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty, including Shishak; and in Christian times was an episcopal see-city. The extensive ruins of its temples are at Tell Basta, near the modern Zaḳaziḳ.

(G. Steindorff.)

Bibliography: The Eighth Memoir (for 1889–90) of the Egypt Exploration Fund; the literature under Leontopolis, and part of that (on exploration and discovery) under Egypt.