Benerib was a wife of pharaohHor-Aha,[2] but she was not the mother of his heir, Djer. The mother of king Djer is named as Khenthap, another wife of Hor-Aha. Benerib is thought to be the wife of Hor-Aha based on ivories found in her tomb at Abydos which show his name. A fragment of an ivory box with the names of Hor-Aha and Benerib was also found at Abydos and is now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.[3]
Egyptologist John Romer argued that Benerib's name, which can be translated to "sweetheart" or "one who is pleasant at heart", may not even be a name at all but rather a title or epithet for a person whose sex is also not confirmed by the name.[4]
Benerib's titles are not known, and neither is the identity of her parents.
^J. Tyldesley, Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt, 2006, Thames & Hudson
^Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson (2004), p.46
^B. Porter and R.L.B. Moss. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, V. Upper Egypt: Sites. Oxford, 1937, pg 88,89
^Romer, John (2013). A History of Ancient Egypt: From the First Farmers to the Great Pyramid. London: Penguin. p. 218. ISBN978-0-14139-971-3.
^B. Porter and R.L.B. Moss. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, V. Upper Egypt: Sites. Oxford, 1937, pg 88,89
