Apophis I (Hyksos Egypt)

Apepi, known in Greek as Apophis, was one of the last and best-documented rulers of the Hyksos 15th Dynasty, governing northern Egypt from Avaris for some forty years. A later Egyptian tale, "The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqenenre" (Papyrus Sallier I), has him complain that the hippopotami of Thebes keep him awake, a pretext for war with the Theban king Seqenenre Tao, whose mummy shows fatal axe wounds. Seqenenre's son Kamose attacked the Hyksos, and on his stele boasts of capturing Apophis' messenger carrying a letter seeking an alliance with the ruler of Kush.

Apophis' reign marks the end of Semitic rule in the Delta: around −1550 Ahmose I took Avaris, drove out the Hyksos and pursued them to Sharuhen in southern Canaan. In reconstructions that follow an early Exodus, this change of regime is often linked to the "new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph" (Exodus 1:8). Josephus (Against Apion 1.73–105) quotes the Egyptian historian Manetho on the Hyksos and argued that they were the ancestors of the Jews.