XVI.—On the Hieratic Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu, a scribe in the Temple of Amen-Rā at Thebes, about B.C. 305

E.A. Wallis Budge

doi:10.1017/S026134090000761X

XVI.—On the Hieratic Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu, a scribe in the Temple of Amen-Rā at Thebes, about B.C. 305

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012

E.A. Wallis Budge

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The papyrus which is transcribed and translated in the following pages is preserved in the collection of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum, where it bears the number 10188. It was found at Thebes in the year 1860, and was purchased by the late Mr. A. H. Rhind; in 1865 it was sold to the trustees of the British Museum by Mr. David Bremner, together with a number of other papyri collected by Mr. Rhind. A few years later its existence was pointed out by Dr. Birch to Dr. Pleyte, who wrote a short article upon it, in which he gave a description of the chapters and translated some passages principally from the first work written on the papyrus. In November, 1886, a further account of it was given by me, together with hieroglyphic transcripts of some important passages in it.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , 1890 , pp. 393 - 608

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S026134090000761X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1890

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^{page 393 note a} The sign is commonly but erroneously read Khem. The variants of the name are and Renouf, , Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, vol. viii. p. 204, note 2Google Scholar.

^{page 393 note b} The late Dr. Birch informed me that Mr. Rhind had found this papyrus during the excavations which he made at Thebes in 1861. I have searched in Mr. Rhind's Thebes, its Tombs and their Tenants, London, 1862, and in his Account of the Tombs in which the Papyri and Tesserae were found (printed in Birch, Facsimiles of two Papyri found in a Tomb at Thebes, London, 1863, pp. 18–29), for particulars, but no mention of this papyrus appears to exist there. Its registration mark is .

^{page 393 note c} In Recueil de Travaux, t. iii. pp. 57–64.

^{page 393 note d} In the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, 1886–87, pp. 11–26.

^{page 394 note a} The Egyptian , Coptic November 27—December 26.

^{page 394 note b} Alexander IV. son of Alexander the Great, reigned, according to the canon of Ptolemy, about twelve years. He began to reign about B.C. 317, but was murdered six years after; in B.C. 305 his successor Ptolemy Soter began to reign. The scribe appears to have added the six years of the interregnum to those of the actual reign of Alexander IV. Dr. Brugsch has published a decree of this king dated in the “first month of the sowing season of the seventh year,” (Aeg. Zeitschrift, 1871, p. 1) and M. Revillout has published the texts of monuments dated in the thirteenth year of his reign (Revue Égypt. 1880, pp. 8, 15). See also Lepsius, Königsbuch, Synoptische Tafeln, p. 9; and Ueber einige Ergebnisse der Aeg. Denkmäler für die Kenntniss der Ptolemaer-Geschichte, p. 8. Ptolemy Soter became Macedonian governor of Egypt B.C. 322, and assumed the title of king B.C. 305.

The prenomen of Alexander II. was Ḥāā-ȧb-Ȧmen-setep-en-Rā.

^{page 394 note c} i. e. “belonging to Amsu.” The ithyphallic god Amsu was a form of Amen-Rā, the sun-god, and represented the generative power in nature. He is called “Amsu-Amen, bull of his mother,” “Amsu, son of Isis,” and “Amsu, engendered of Rā.” He was worshipped particularly at Panopolis, the modern

^{page 395 note a} i.e. “the gift of Amen, king of the world.”

^{page 395 note b} I am not certain about the reading of this name.

^{page 395 note c} A name of the metropolis of the seventh nome of Upper Egypt (Diospolis parva).

^{page 395 note d} Sept ābu, literally “provided with two horns,” is the original form of the title which Alexander the Great gave to himself as the son of Amen. The Greeks translated it by κερασϕος, the Arabs by and the Ethiopians by

^{page 395 note c} Benenet, or Benbenet, was a tract of land which surrounded the temple of Chensu at Karnak. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 195.

^{page 395 note f} Name of a part of Thebes.

^{page 395 note g} Asher was the name given to a part of Thebes which lay to the south of the great temple at Amen at Karnak, on the right bank of the river. It was the seat of the goddess Mut, the wife of Amen. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 74.

^{page 395 note h} Apt is the name given in the Egyptian monuments to the part of Thebes which lies on the east bank of the river, and which is represented to-day by the ruins at Karnak and Luxor (El-uḳ⊡ûr); it was surrounded by a wall and was called the “fortress of Ap,” and “Ap of the south,” to distinguish it from another town called Ap, situated in Lower Egypt. The name Ap, or Apt, has survived in the Coptic or . The famous temple of Amen-Rā was situated here, and was considered specially sacred. The part of Thebes on the west bank of the river was called em xeft Ǡptet “Contra Apt.” The town of Thebes generally was called or Uast, and was the capital of the fourth nome of Upper Egypt. See Brugsch, , Dict. Géog. I. p. 20Google Scholar; Mariette, Karnak, (Texte), p. 2; Chabas, Recherches sur le nom Egyptien de Thébes, p. 6; and Brugsch, , Geographische Inschriften, I. p. 178Google Scholar.

^{page 395 note i} Nefer-hetep, or more fully, Chensu nefer ḥetep, is one of the names of the god Chensu, under which he was worshipped with great honour at Thebes. He is represented under the form of a man, having on his head a crescent and disk; on the right side of his head is a lock of hair, and in his hand he holds either a palm-notched branch or a sceptre, with the symbols of life , stability , rule and dominion . The statue of this god was sent to Bechten in the 26th year of Rameses XIII. to drive out the evil spirit which had taken possession of the daughter of the prince of this land.

^{page 396 note a} This god is, perhaps, the north wind personified. See Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, p. 325.

^{page 396 note b} This line is omitted in my transcript. The text is Ḥet-ḥert nebt Ḥet-seχem neter ḥen en Meḥit neter hen en.

^{page 396 note c} Het-sechem is the sacred name of the metropolis of the seventh nome of Upper Egypt, or Diospolis parva, which was dedicated to the worship of Hathor and Nephthys; the name is also written .

^{page 396 note d} Nefer-hetep, called also Ǡusar Nefer-ḥetep, and Nefer-χā-ḥetep, was the name of Osiris under the form of a bennu bird , he was the husband of Hathor or Nephthys of Het-sechem and was venerated there.

^{page 398 note a} The word rendered “verses” is and means literally “houses.” Dy. Pleyto translated the word by traité, livre, chapitre, and there is conclusive evidence that has, at times, the meaning of chapitre, as for example in the enumeration of the chapters of a composition. Here, however, the word is best rendered by “verses.” Compare Arab. plur. Syr. plur. Gr. οἷκος, Italian stanza. In Syriac we have the expression “verses which are to be said when they go in for the offering,” and “verses which are to be said when they receive the Mysteries” (i.e., the Lord's Supper). See Payne Smith, Thesaurus, col. 479, and Wright, Arabic Grammar, 2nd ed. vol. ii. pp. 378, 192.

^{page 398 note b} I.e. . The days of the celebration of the festival correspond roughly with our December 25—29th.

^{page 398 note c} ȧpt appears to be used here in the sense of “defiled ” (Comp. Heb. ללָ֗חֻמְ Ezekiel, xxxvi. 23); ȧn ȧpf=undenfiled, pure, unpolluted.

^{page 398 note d} A facsimile of the hieratic text from a manuscript at Berlin is published by de Horrack, J. in his Les Lamentations d'Isis et de Nephthys, Paris, 1866Google Scholar. A hieroglyphic transcript is published in my Egyptian Reading Bool, London, 1888, pp. 46–51Google Scholar, and an English translation by de Horrack, in Records of the Past, 1st ed. vol. ii. pp. 117–126Google Scholar.

^{page 399 note a} literally means “to bring.” It must, however, be translated here by some such word as said, recited, repeated. M. de Horrack (op.cit. p. 15) translates ȧu χertu set sen by “étant amenées deux femmes.”

^{page 401 note a} Not Byblos in Phoenicia, but the papyrus swamps in the north-east of the Delta.

^{page 403 note a} The god Tenen is a personification of the earth, and is also assimilated to the night sun. He is represented sitting on a throne, having on his head horns, disk, and feathers and holding in his hands and See Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pp. 246, 1257 (plate cccci), and Pierret, Panthéon Egypt, pp. 54, 55. He appears to have been the local god of the land on the borders of Lake Moeris, and in an inscription there he is represented as sitting on the hieroglyhic for an island See Brugsch, Dictionnaire Geographique, p. 59.

^{page 403 note b} The night sun as opposed to Rā, the day sun.

^{page 404 note a} Compare maat-f pu seχer-s Sebáu ṭā-s mā-s em seχap Nut ṭā-s seshebsheb Nȧk äm-nef. “His eye overthrows the Sebau, it makes its lance pierce Nut, and makes Nak to vomit what it has eaten.” Grébaut, Hymne à Ammon-Rā, p. 10.

^{page 404 note b} Another name for Sat, or Apepi, the chief adversary of Rā.

^{page 404 note c} Sut, or Set, the Typhon of tlie Greeks, was one of the five sons of Seb and Nut, brother of Osiris, and husband of Nephthys. The worship of this god is as old as the Vth dynasty, and some of the greatest of the Egyptian kings delighted to call themselves “beloved of Sut,” and attributed to him all the good qualities possible. About B.C. 1000–600, however, a violent reaction against this god set in; his statues were broken, he was expelled from the company of the gods, and from being considered the god of all good, lie became the god of all evil, and his very name was a synonym of wickedness. “Nel mito di Hesiri, Set fu riguardato non solamente come il nemico implacabile di suo fratello ed il di lui uccisore, e quegli che ne usurpò il trono, ma pur anche, quale principio cattivo nel sistema de' due opposti principi; cosicchè in quella guisa che ogni beno essere attribuivasi ad Osiride, ogni danno ed ogni male assegnavasi a Set.” Lanzone. Dizionario di Mitologia, p. 1130.

^{page 404 note d} i.e. Rā, the son of Nut.

^{page 405 note a} i.e. Isis and Nephthys.

^{page 405 note b} i.e. Isis and Nephthys.

^{page 405 note c} The Lock was a name given by the Egyptians to that class of cloud owhich resembled a ringlet, curl, or tuft of hair, and which was supposed to be an enemy of the sun-god. He was a mythological personage, and is distinctly spoken of as a demon. In an inscription of the XVIIIth dynasty, he is called “the son of Nut,” a fact which seems to imply an identification with Set. Renouf, , Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch. viii. p. 212Google Scholar.

^{page 406 note a} The broken text in this line is probably to be restored by the insertion of tennu-k. Compare line 17.

^{page 406 note b} i.e. Isis and Nephthys.

^{page 406 note c} i.e. Isis and Nephthys.

^{page 407 note a} See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 1357.

^{page 408 note a} A name of Apepi. (?)

^{page 408 note b} A general name for any Necropolis.

^{page 408 note c} Pa-hennu, “the house of Henmi,” is the name of the 10th nome of Lower Egypt (tho Athribis of the Greeks), where the “divine heart” of Osiris was deposited. Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 498.

^{page 408 note d} i.e. “firstborn.” Comp. Heb. םחֶךֶ֥ ךטֶפֶ Exodus xiii. 2; xxxiv. 19; Numb. iii. 12, etc.

^{page 408 note e} The god of the earth, father of Osiris.

^{page 409 note a} The correct reading of this god's name was first shown by Mr. Renouf, in Proceedings Soc. Bib. Arch. Nov. 1884. See also Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 1112.

^{page 410 note a} “The opener of the ways,” a name given to Anubis.

^{page 410 note b} A name of the nether world.

^{page 410 note c} i.e. Isis and Nephthys.

^{page 411 note a} A name of Apepi. (?)

^{page 412 note a} i.e. Fiends.

^{page 412 note b} The spice land of Arabia.

^{page 412 note c} Tep-ahet, the metropolis of the 22nd nome of Upper Egypt (Aphroditopolis), Coptic the modern Atfih. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog., p. 933; and Juynboll t. i. p.

^{page 412 note d} i.e. Jsis.

^{page 412 note a} 413 Neter ta, “divine land,” is the name given by the Egyptians to the lands to the east of the Nile on. the shore of the Red Sea which extend from the mountains on the south nearly to Suez on the north. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 382.

^{page 413 note b} or “Shenthit,” is the name of a funereal form of the goddess Isis to whom sanctuaries in Abyđos, Busiris, Denderah, etc., were consecrated. See Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 1178. The name of the sanctuary was Pa-Shenthit. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 89.

^{page 413 note c} A name of the god Thoth.

^{page 414 note a} A name of Osiris. For an explanation of tho name, see Henouf, Proceedings Soc. Bib. Arch., April, 1886, p. 111 ff.

^{page 415 note a} Seker is, like Ptah, Osiris, and Tenon, a form of the night sun, with which the deceased is identified. The day of the festival of Seker, or Socharis, was celebrated in the various sanctuaries of Egypt at dawn, “at the moment when the sun casts its golden rays upon the earth.” The festival consisted in drawing the Hennu boat a symbol of the god Seker of Memphis, by a cord round the sanctuary. The god Seker is represented by a hawk-headed mummied figure as early as the time of Seti I. and in this form he is represented sitting on a throne, holding , and in his hands; he appears on a coffin in the Imperial Museum at Vienna, in the form of a bearded man holding a knife in each hand. A list of the shrines of this god is given by Lanzone, Dizionario, pp. 1117–1119.

^{page 416 note a} The Sektet was the boat of the sun in the morning, just as the Māti was the boat of the sun in the evening. A hymn to the sun-god says: Risest thou in the morning in the sekti boat; Settest thou in the māti boat in the evening.

^{page 416 note b} The ḥennu was the boat which was drawn around the sanctuaries of the temples at dawn. Drawings of it are given by Lanzone, Dizionario, plates cclxv-ccclxvii.

^{page 416 note c} Heraeleopolis, the metropolis of the 20th nome of Upper Egypt.

^{page 417 note a} Literally “the door of the funeral passages,” leading to the tomb.

^{page 417 note b} The ȧbtu and ȧnt were mythological fishes. See Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 16.

^{page 417 note c} Aphroditopolis, the metropolis of the 22nd nomo of Upper Egypt.

^{page 417 note d} i.e. “lady of the peninsula of Sinai,” where emerald mines were worked as early as the VIth dynasty.

^{page 417 note e} One of the names of the goddess Hathor mentioned m the eighty-second chapter of the Book of the Dead (Lepsius' ed. pi. xxxi.); it appears to be connected with ta, “fire.”

^{page 417 note f} Neb-ḥetep or is one of the names of Hathor, the local divinity of Pa-ḥern, near Tanis. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 333, and Lanzone, Dizinario, p. 370.

^{page 417 note g} Heracleopolis.

^{page 417 note h} i.e. “the lord of totality,” a name of the god Osiris.

^{page 417 note i} The “town of the red pool,” a district in the mountains east of Memphis.

^{page 418 note a} Bast was one of the four great Hathors and represented the life-giving heat of the sun. For the list of Basts and the towns protected by them, see Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 225.

^{page 418 note b} Seo Lanzone, Dizionario, pp. 1124, 1131.

^{page 418 note c} A form of Hathor, wife of Ptah, mother of Nefer-Aimu. She represented the blazing heat of the sun. See Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 1098.

^{page 418 note d} A form of the goddess Hathor, whose sanctuary, Pa-sat, was situated in Sechem (Letopolis), the capital of the 2nd nome of Lower Egypt. See Brugseh, Dict. Géog. p. 659.

^{page 418 note e} Ammu, i. e. “the town of date trees,” is the name of the sanctuary of the goddess Hathor, which was situated in “the town of Apis,” the metropolis of the 3d nome of Lower Egypt. is a variant of CT1 There was a town also called Ammu in Upper Egpyt; it lay between Abydos and Panopolis. Brugseh, Dict. Géog. p. 327.

^{page 418 note f} There is a play here upon the words ānti and Nit.

^{page 418 note g} In the papyrus one-half of this line is written perpendicularly on the right-hand side oE the list of the twelve Hathors, and the other half on the left.

^{page 418 note h} Suten-henen or Het-suten-henen, the metropolis of the 20th nome of Upper Egypt, called Heracleopolis by the Greeks, by the Copts, and by the Arabs. See Brugseh, Dict. Géog. p. 601, and Juynboll, op. cit. t. i. p.

^{page 418 note i} Aphroditopolis, the metropolis of the 22nd nome of Upper Egypt; the local divinity was the goddess Hathor.

^{page 418 note k} Neh or Pa-neh, a part of the town of Athribis ḥet-la-her-ah, the metropolis of the 10th nome of Upper Egypt, the modern Benha which is famed for its honey, see Juynboll, op. cit. t. i. p. Brugseh, Dict. Géog. p. 349.

^{page 419 note a} Re-ḥesau, a town famous for its temple of the goddess Sechet, was situated near Severn (Letopolis), the metropolis of the 2nd nome of Lower Egypt. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. pp. 71, 460.

^{page 419 note b} Shel-tesher, “the town of the red pool,” was a district situated in the mountains to the east of Memphis, where are to-day the quarries of Ma'⊡ara and Ṭurra. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 971.

^{page 419 note c} Mafek, i.e. the peninsula of Sinai, where the emerald mines were dedicated to this goddess as early as the Vth dynasty. Compare also the list of Hathors quoted by Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 971, and Mariette, Dendérah, t. i. pl. 27.

^{page 419 note d} A town situated to the east of Pelusium and north of Migdol. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. pp. 50–52. In my interlinear translation for Memphis road Aneb.

^{page 419 note e} The country of Uaua was situated in Ethiopia, to the east of the modern town of Korosko. It is mentioned in the inscription of Una (line 16), where it is described as a Negro-land Uauat nehes. In the list of ten Hathors printed by Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 1367, after “Hathor, lady of Aneb,” we have “Hathor, lady of XaXau.”

^{page 419 note f} See Note to column xix. line 30.

^{page 419 note g} Amemet was the sacred name of Pa-uútet, Buto, the metropolis of the 19th nome of Lower Egypt. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 25.

^{page 419 note h} L.e. Lycopolis, the metropolis of the 13th nome of Upper Egypt. Compare var in Brugsch, Dict. Géog. pp. 1067, 1391.

^{page 419 note i} A title of a class of temple official.

^{page 420 note a} P-āa, i.e., the “mighty one,” written inside a cartouche, in this papyrus takes the place of tho name “Osiris,” by which in other papyri the deceased is usually designated.

^{page 422 note a} Bunsen, , Egypt's Place in Universal History, vol. v. p. 193Google Scholar.

^{page 422 note b} Le Livre des Morts des Anciens Egyptiens, pp. 135–140.

^{page 424 note a} I am unable to find an exact meaning for the word xessau which is here translated by dried grass.

^{page 428 note a} A summary of the contents of the Babylonian toxt was published by mo in Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch., November 1883, and the full text in Proc. Soc. Bib. Arch. December 1887, p. 86; an accurate Gorman translation is published in Jensen, Kosmologie, p. 277 ff.

^{page 428 note b} See Cliabas, Le Papyrus Magique Harris, p. 170.

^{page 429 note a} For the Greek text see Pseudo-Callisthenes primum edidit C. Müller, Parisiis, 1877, lib. I. cap. 1., and see my History of Alexander the Great, p. xxxix.

^{page 433 note a} This sentence appears to be the remark of the scribe.

^{page 437 note a} The divine intelligence, the inventor of arts and sciences and the god of astronomy, numbers, geometry, “weights and measures, architecture, sculpture, painting, and music.

^{page 437 note b} Xemennu, Coptie was the sacred name of Pa-Teḥati, “the town of Thoth,” i.e., Hermopolis Magna, the metropolis of the fifteenth nome of Upper Egypt.

^{page 437 note c} A goddess whose shrine Ḥet-ḥeka, was situated at Annu, Heliopolis; she was a form of Hathor of Lower Egypt.

^{page 437 note d} or Ḥetep-ḥemt, the name of a district belonging to the Heliopolitan nome, which, at the time of Ptolemies, formed a kind of supplementary nome with the metropolis i.e., Bilbcis. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 546.

^{page 437 note e} See Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, p. 621.

^{page 437 note f} A name of the great necropolis of Memphis, near the Serapeum, in the desert of Sakkarah; the κωχώνη of Manetho.

^{page 437 note g} I.e., “the protectress,” the feminine counterpart of Horus-Chent-Chattha.

^{page 437 note h} Mendes and Busiris both bore the name of Tattu; here Busiris, the metropolis of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt, is referred to.

^{page 437 note i} Anher was the son of Ra, and a form of the god Shu; his name means the “guide of heaven.” He is called “the god of lofty plumes residing in Thinis,” and is represented wearing See Lanzone, Dizionario di Mit. Egizia, p. 75.

^{page 437 note k} Another name for Pa hen-en-Ämen, the metropolis of the seventeenth nome (Diospolis) of Lower Egypt. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. p. 705. The reading Sam-bohutet was first proved by Mr. Renouf.

^{page 437 note l} Lycopolis, the modern Asyût For a list of the Anubis gods see Lanzone, Dizionario Mit. Eg p. 67.

^{page 438 note a} I.e., lord of the two utats He is thought to be a form of Ǡmsu ȧāh. Amsu, the moon god of Panopolis, is represented with the head of a hawk and wears and ; in each hand he holds See Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 617.

^{page 438 note b} The metropolis of a supplementary nome in Lower Egypt; for the identification of this placo see Brugsch, Dict. Géog, p. 805.

^{page 438 note c} I am unable to transcribe this name.

^{page 438 note d} I.e., Horns, uniter of the North and South.

^{page 438 note e} A name of one of the sacred quarters of Denderah, the metropolis of the sixth nome of Upper Egypt: this namo appears to have some reference to tbo victory of Horus-behutet over Set. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog, p. 370.

^{page 438 note f} Pe and Tep were the names of two districts, which together formed the town of Pa-Uatet, tlio metropolis of tho nineteenth nome of Lower Egypt, where the goddess Uatet was oworshipped.

^{page 438 note g} He was the son of Hathor of Apollinopolis Parva, and brother of Osiris.

^{page 438 note h} See Brugsch, Dict. Géog. pp. 355, 847.

^{page 439 note a} The necropolis of the nome Pharbaethites, the capital of which was Shetennu. Sac Bragsch, Dict. Géog. p. 227.

^{page 439 note b} See Brugsch, Wörterbuch, p. 929.

^{page 439 note c} Chnemu is usually styled the creator and maker of men.

^{page 446 note a} For lines 20–27, col. xxviii., and lines 1–6, col. xxix., see above, col. xxvi., lines 22–24, and col. xxvii.. lines 1–5.

^{page 449 note a} I.e., “mighty flame.”

^{page 457 note a} The words over which a black line printed are, in the papyrus, written in red.

^{page 458 note a} In this papyrus, after every title of the Sun-god, and the name of everything relating to him, the determinative of divinity, , is placed.