The rehabilitation of Bocchoris: Notes and queries from Italy

It has been suggested that the pharaoh Bocchoris was famous for his wisdom, and that accordingly, the production of items bearing his cartouche is unl ikely to have been confined to his short reign (720/19-715/14 BC, correspon ding to the Twenty-fourth Dynasty). The latter therefore cannot provide a v alid terminus post quem for contexts in the Classical world in which such B occhoris-related artefacts occur. This suggestion is reviewed, and found wa nting. It is noted that the evidence against 'Bocchoris the Obscure' comes from later Classical sources rather than from the Egypt of his own time. El sewhere, his dates have never been required to provide more than general su pport for a long-established chronological scheme involving Corinthian pott ery and the foundation-dates of Greek colonies in Sicily, via the Bocchoris scarab from Euboean Pithekoussai (Ischia). The immediate context of this p iece is briefly re-assessed.