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Black Holes Viewed from Within: Hell in Ancient Egyptian Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Erik Hornung
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Among the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs is a sign that can be termed and defined as a “Black Hole.” It is a circle (writing being two-dimensional) filled in black, appearing in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts for the first time. Initially serving as a determinative for concepts like “death” or “enemy,” it is also later used for words like “pit,” “hole,” or “cave,” and in a few rare instances this black circle determines the word for the Netherworld (dat) or shade.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 42 , Issue 165 , March 1994 , pp. 133 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

References

Notes

1. §969a, not filled in.

2. Possible renderings of qrrt; see esp. the Eighth Hour of the Amduat. E. Edel has two references to the black disk as a determinative in Die Inschriften der Siut-Gräber (Opladen 1984), 47.

3. Dat: E. Hornung, Texte zum Amduat (Geneva, 1987ff.), 124; shade, ibid., 279.

4. §§ 399a and 434ac.

5. E. Hornung, Das Buch von den Pforten des Jenseits (Geneva, 1979-84), I: 28 and II: 60f.; in Amduat for "punished," another name for the damned: Texte zum Amduat, 167.

6. See also "Hierogyphen: Die Welt im Spiegel der Zeichen," Eranos Yearbook 55 (1986), 403-38.

7. G. Meyrink, Des deutchen Spießers Wunderhorn. Gesammelte Novellen (Munich, 1913), III, 100-105 (reference thanks to F. Teichmann).

8. German translation of the Songs of the Harpers: E. Hornung, Gesänge vom Nil: Dictung am Hofe der Pharaonen (Zürich and Munich, 1990), 163-170. English transla tion : M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature.

9. G.A. Gaballa, MDAIK 35 (1979), 79.

10. E. Hornung, Das Totenbuch der Agypter (Zürich and Munich, 1979, 1990), 309,311.

11. PT § 485c; CT III 3b(?).

12. H. Beinlich, Das Buch vom Fayum (Wiesbaden, 1991), 260 (I. 1228), 287.

13. For the earlier period, cf. R. Grieshammer, Das Jenseitsgericht in den Sargtexten (Wiesbaden, 1970); for the imagery, see Ch. Seeber, Untersuchungen zur Darstellung des Totengerichts im alten Agypten (Berlin, 1976); more general is J. Yoyotte, Jugement des Morts. Sources Orientales (Paris, 1961) IV, 15-80.

14. On the analogies between priests and the declaration of innocence, see most recently, J. Assmann, Ma'at: Gerechtigkeit und Unsterblichkeit im alten Agypten (Munich, 1990), 140-49.

15. Lower register of the Third Hour, see Texte zum Amduat, 304f.

16. Close of Sixth Hour, see Texte zum Amduat, 521ff. The Book of Gates, Scene 31 sends Ba-souls to the Place of Destruction where they are to be eliminated.

17. In Scene 33, at the Hall of Judgment; se. E. Hornung, Das Buch von den Pforten des Jenseits, II, 150.

18. E. Hornung, Ägyptische Unterweltsbücher (Zürich and Munich, 1972, 1989), 358.

19. E. Hornung, JSSEA 13 (1983), 30 and 31, after A. Piankoff, Les Chappelles de Tout-Ankh-Amun (Cairo, 1952), IV.

20. Book of Caverns, see Unterweltsbücher, 324; door-keepers, 321f. Their task is "slitting the throats of the beheaded and hacking off the heads of the eliminated" (321). The parenthetical numbers following the quotes refer to the pages in Unterweltsbücher.

21. E. Hornung, Das Buch der Anbetung des Re im Westen (Geneva, 1975-1976), I, 188f.; translated II, 85.

22. Ibid., I, 175 and II, 83.

23. Texte zum Amduat, 337f.; translation, Unterweltsbücher, 92.

24. E. Brunner-Traut, Altägyptische Märchen (Munich, 1983, 1989), 272.

25. S. Schott, "Zum Weltbild der Jenseitsführer des Neuen Reiches," NAWG (1965) No. 11, 192.

26. G. Fecht, Literarische Zeugnisse zur "Persönlichen Frömmigkeit" in Agypten (Heidelberg, 1965), 75.

27. F.W. von Bissing, ASAE 50 (1950), 557, with pl. I; E. Hornung, Altägyptische Höllenvorstellungen, ASAW 59 (1968).

28. E. Hornung, in: Funerary Symbols and Religion. Festschrift M. Heerma van Voss (Kampen, 1988), 45-51.

29. See Hornung, Höllenvorstellungen.

30. The figure belongs to Address no. 64, and has a parallel in the Fourth Hour of Amduat (no. 310).

31. S. Schott, ZAS 74 (1938), 90f. On the association of darkness and blood, made clear by a passage of the Book of Caverns (49, 3: "The eliminated, whose darkness is blood"), one can also cite the title of a Dynasty VI Chief Butcher, "Privy Coun sellor of Darkness" (see H.G. Fisher, ZÄS 105 (1978), 56f.).

32. Probably to be understood as "He who destroys the existence [of the enemies]," see J.-C. Goyen, Les Dieux-gardiens et la gènese des temples (Cairo, 1985), I, 103.

33. A. & A. Brack, Das Grab des Tjanuni (Mainz, 1977), p. 34 (Text 23). The transla tion offered there cannot be defended. For the following passages, see E. Hornung, Der Eine und die Vielen (Darmstadt, 1971), 166f.; E. Hornung, Egyptian Conceptions of God (Ithaca, NY).

34. Litany of Re, p. 163; on the casket (which becomes the cista of the mysteries), ibid., p. 165. References to the Litany of Re refer to passages quoted from Anbetung (see note 21).

35. "Kabbalah und Mythus," Eranos Yearbook 17 (1949), esp. 309f.

36. M. Sandman, Texts from the Time of Akhenaten (Brussels, 1938), 46, 15 (Tomb of Ahmes).

37. Buch von den Pforten, I, 162-67, Scene 38/39 (see note 5); E. Hornung, JSSEA 13 (1983), 32.

38. E. Hornung, Zwei Ramessidische Königsgräber: Ramses IV und Ramses VII (Mainz, 1990), 122-24.

39. J. Assmann, Agyptische Hymnen und Gebete (Zürich and Munich, 1975), Nos. 21 and 46, 2f.

40. Hymn of Tjanefer, ibid., no. 108, 8f.

41. Ibid., no. 193, after ZÄS 38 (1900), 27.

42. See also the details in my paper, "Zeitliches Jenseits im alten Ägypten," Eranos Yearbook 47 (1978), 269-307.

43. Königsgräber, 125ff. (see note 38).

44. G. Posener, Le Papyrus Vandier (Paris, 1985); German translations H.-W. Fischer-Elfert, BiOr 44 (1987), 5-21; and Märchen, no. 34 (see note 24).

45. Agypten: Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur (Stuttgart, 1984), 155.