Egyptians and Amazons

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Egyptians and Amazons is the title of an ancient Egyptian - demotic tale that has been preserved in two fragmentary papyri versions from Roman times .

Text genre

The people named in this story are based on historical figures from the second half of the seventh century BC. And the stories and decorations that emerged in the following years. The story Egyptians and Amazons shows a clear focus on the topics of love and exoticism , which distinguishes it from the usual character of the Inaros-Petubastis texts.

Egyptians and Amazons partly fall into the new genre of the novel , which no longer contains historical events as a basis, but rather has the character of typical romance novels, which are provided with a historical cover. As a further stylistic device, the hero adventure is integrated into the plot.

content

Due to the fragmentary condition of the papyri, the content of the first column can only be guessed, which probably represented the introductory framework in which the Egyptian Petechonsis was asked to report on his adventures.

The ancient Egyptian prince Petechonsis led a military campaign together with Assyrian troops in the "land of women", which lay in the eastern Middle East and probably bordered India . Petechonsis, who initially fought the Amazons from the "land of women", later fell in love with the Amazon queen Sarpot after a tie between the two was postponed because of the setting sunset .

When both revealed their love for each other can no longer be said, since those pieces of papyrite text are missing. The action only started again with the incursion of Indian troops into the "land of women". Petechonsis made an alliance with Sarpot because of the love affair. After several battles, the Indian army was finally defeated and from then on had to pay tribute to the “land of women”. The end of the story is missing. It therefore remains unclear whether Petechonsis and Sarpot married or whether each went his own way.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. Friedhelm Hoffmann, Joachim Friedrich Quack: Anthology of demotic literature . Pp. 107-108.