During the 2nd and 1st millennia BCE, the Nile’s Eastern Delta was supposedly the locale of truculent “shepherds” who were inimical to Egypt. These problematic herdsmen seem largely to have been refractions of foreign powers generated by independent etymological confusions, behind which lie the Hyksos and the Assyrians; however, the caricature may contain a grain of truth. The shepherd-rebels from the Delta, who have intriguing overlaps with the (proto)Israelites of the Exodus, ultimately found their way into Greek novels.