Dedi

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Dedi in hieroglyphics
R11 R11 M17

Dedi
Ddj
The permanent one

Dedi von Djed-Snofru is the name of a fictional ancient Egyptian magician who appears in one of the five sagas of the Westcar ( Middle Kingdom ) papyrus and performs a miracle at the court of the king ( Pharaoh ) Cheops ( 4th Dynasty ).

The literary person

Dedi only appears in the fourth story of the Westcar papyrus - there is no historical or even archaeological evidence. However, this literary figure is of great importance for Egyptology , since his magic trick described in the papyrus is related to the later reception of the character of the Pharaoh Cheops and the latter is still the subject of controversial debates today.

The story of Dedi

According to the papyrus, Dedi was invited to the palace of Cheops because he was able to bring decapitated creatures back to life and also had information about a sanctuary that Cheops had been looking for for a long time. Cheops' dubious proposal to behead a criminal who has been sentenced to death in order to convince himself of Dedi's magical powers is indignantly rejected by the magician. Instead, Dedi beheads a goose, an indefinable bird and a bull and reattaches their respective heads without the animals perishing. Then Dedi Cheops reveals another prophecy , which revolves around an object that cannot be defined in detail, which Cheops so desires and which the ruler should receive from the founders of a new dynasty. Cheops is initially disappointed to learn that his dynasty is about to come to an end, but Dedi consoles the ruler with the fact that only three sons of Cheops would rule before the bearer of the object comes to power. When Dedi promises the king to generate a flood that will safely bring Cheops' boat to the fulfillment of the prophecy, Cheops causes Dedi to live in the palace with his son Djedefhor in thanks .

Modern considerations

Magic historians and Egyptologists (e.g. Adolf Erman ) consider the reports about Dedi's alleged magical powers to be pure folklore . Magic tricks, in which the heads of animals are apparently cut off and reattached, have only been known in their execution for a few centuries and are rarely shown today for aesthetic reasons. Verena M. Lepper and Miriam Liechtheim resolutely disagree with an assessment as "folklore", as literary hero figures with magical powers that resemble those of Dedi and are obviously based on the sagas of the Westcar papyrus appear again and again in later writings. Dedi must therefore have been known to later writers of heroic stories, which is why, according to Lepper and Liechtheim, his person does not fit into a mere folklore tale.

literature

  • Verena M. Lepper: Investigations on pWestcar. A philological and literary (re-) analysis. In: Ägyptologische Abhandlungen Volume 70, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, ISBN 3-447-05651-7 .
  • Adolf Erman : The fairy tales of the Papyrus Westcar I. Introduction and Commentar. In: Messages from the Oriental Collections. Book V, National Museums in Berlin, Berlin 1890.
  • Miriam Lichtheim : Ancient Egyptian literature: a book of readings. The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Volume 1, University of California Press, Berkeley 2000, ISBN 0-520-02899-6 .
  • Alan B. Lloyd: Herodotus, book II: introduction. Volume 1, Brill, Leiden 1975, ISBN 90-04-04179-6 .
  • Udo Bartsch: entertainment art AZ (= paperback of the arts ). 2nd edition, Henschel, Leipzig 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Westcar Papyrus, column 7, line 1.
  2. ↑ Verena M. Lepper: Investigations on pWestcar. Wiesbaden 2008, p. 103.
  3. ^ "Djed-Snofru" was the name of Dahshur in the Old Kingdom (cf. Jean Claude Goyon, Christine Cardin: Proceedings of the ninth International Congress of Egyptologists. Volume 1, p. 1128).
  4. ↑ a b Verena M. Lepper: Investigations on pWestcar. Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 308-310.
  5. ↑ Miriam Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian literature . Berkeley 2000, pp. 215-216.
  6. ↑ Miriam Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian literature . Berkeley 2000, pp. 218-220.
  7. ↑ Verena M. Lepper: Investigations on pWestcar. Wiesbaden 2008, pp. 41-47.
  8. ↑ Adolf Erman: The fairy tales of the Papyrus Westcar. Berlin 1890, pp. 10-11.
  9. ↑ Udo Bartsch: entertainment art . Leipzig 1977, p. 85.
  10. ↑ Alan B. Lloyd: Herodotus, book II. Leiden 1975, pp. 104-106.
  11. ↑ Miriam Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian literature . Volume 1, Berkeley 2000, p. 211.