The dispute between Apopi and Seqenenre

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The dispute between Apopi and Seqenenre (also Apophis and Seqenenre ) is a work of ancient Egyptian literature without a title . The story comes from the late 19th dynasty (around 1200 BC) and literarily thematizes the causes of the conflict between the Hyksos , who ruled from Avaris (Auaris) in the Nile Delta , and the Theban dynasty that formed the 17th dynasty , during the Second Intermediate Period . The Hyksos king Apopi I provokes his Theban adversary Seqenenre by sending him a message demanding that he shut down the canal of the hippos because their roaring while sleeping disturbs him.

Historical background

Egypt at the time of the Second Intermediate Period

In the politically unstable Second Intermediate Period (approx. 1648–1550 BC) Egypt was divided into two parts. In the north, the so-called Hyksos ( Ḥq3---3swt - "rulers of foreign countries") ruled , who are immigrants from the Middle East who were able to make themselves politically independent. A Theban dynasty ruled in the south, who saw themselves as the legal successors of the 13th dynasty , but owed tribute to the Hyksos . Around the time of the Hyksos king Apopi I ( 15th dynasty ) and the Theban king Seqenenre ( 17th dynasty ) there was increasing hostility. It is possible that the Hyksos, who ruled Avaris and at least ruled the entire Nile Delta , imposed a trade embargo on the south. Thebes was cut off from the eastern Mediterranean and lost its economic importance.

Five serious head injuries were found on the Seqenenre's mummy. This led to the theory that he actually died fighting the Hyksos. While these injuries are widely accepted as the cause of death, the sequence in which they were inflicted and the exact circumstances of death remain controversial. Nevertheless, from a historical point of view, Seqenenre may have fueled the conflict with the Hyksos. His successors, Kamose and Ahmose , continued the fight. Two steles and a writing table tell of the Kamose campaigns against the Hyksos . However, only Ahmose succeeded in taking Avaris, finally driving out the Hyksos and thus reuniting the country. With this he founded the New Kingdom .

Lore

The fragmentary narrative has come down to us on the Sallier I papyrus , which is now in the British Museum (Inv. PBM 10185). It is counted among the miscellanies , that is, the student manuscripts. The manuscript dates to the late 19th dynasty , probably the 10th year of Merenptah's reign . The text is incomplete and incorrect and also breaks off in the 3rd line and 3rd column in the middle of the sentence. This is followed by a letter teaching. A scribe named Pentawaret is named as the copyist of the papyrus . The recto contains the teaching of Amenemhet .

content

The story fantasizes about the origins of the conflict between the Theban ruler Seqenenre and the Hyksos king Apopi ( Jppj - Ippi). It is noticeable that Seqenenre is referred to only once, in the introduction, as “King” ( nsw - nesu) and later only as “Prince ( ḥq3 - Heka) of the southern city”. Apophis, on the other hand, is always called "King".

Faience sculpture from the New Kingdom of Egypt

According to the story, there is chaos in Egypt. Apopi worshiped the god Seth , to whom he built a temple. The whole country paid him tribute, as did the north. Apopi provokes his opponent in Thebes, 500 km away, by sending him a message demanding that he shut down the canal (or pond) of the hippopotamuses, as the hippos' roaring while sleeping disturbs him. A messenger delivers the following message:

“It is King Apopi who sent [me] to you to say:“ I should withdraw from the Hippopotamus Canal, which is to the east of the city, because they do not allow sleep to come to me during the day and at night, because their roar is in his (?) ears "."

- The dispute between Apopi and Seqenenre

Due to the absurd request, Seqenenre pauses for a while and cannot give an immediate answer. Finally, he sends the messenger back well cared for, with the answer that he will fix the matter. He then consults with his court, who, however, has no suitable reaction. After the reference to another message from Apopi, the tradition breaks off.

Interpretations

Due to the fragmentary state of the text, one can only speculate about its meaning.

Gaston Maspero and Emma Brunner-Traut see it as a fairy tale that amounted to a test of acumen, as is the case with a large part of oriental fairy tales. Even Günter Burkard and Heinz J. Thissen believe it is possible that the text is settled at this level. Pathor Labib characterized him as "a storytelling in the language and style of a folk tale".

Seth is harpooned in the form of a hippopotamus

Torgny Säve-Söderbergh attributes the conflict to a religious political contradiction. The Hyksos worshiped the Egyptian god Seth, whom they equated with the Near Eastern god Baal . The hippopotamus , which lives in water and mud, is a manifestation of the storm god Seth. On the other hand, hippo hunting was one of the cultic activities of an Egyptian king. By killing it, he symbolically triumphed over chaos. For the Hyksos, the hippopotamus was a sacred animal. In contrast , the Thebans harpooned it as an enemy of the gods. In a figurative sense, the cries of the tortured animals in Thebes hurt Apopis' ears.

For Jan Assmann , the text makes it clear that the Hyksos experience occupied an important place in Egypt's cultural memory . Last but not least played for Amarna - Trauma an important role. Almost two centuries after the Hyksos reign, King Akhenaten carried out a religious overthrow when he only worshiped the sun god Aton . Since all traces of this revolution were later destroyed, this traumatic experience did not find its way into official tradition. Nevertheless, it left traces in the collective memory: the postponed Amarna recollection was increasingly projected onto the Hyksos and the god Baal / Seth. They subsequently appeared as "Seth monotheists " and "religious wicked ". For example, in the story we learn that Apopi allegedly practiced a monotheistic religion:

“King Apopi made Seth his lord by not serving any other god in the whole land except Seth. He built a temple of perfect labor for eternity next to the house of King Apopi, and he appeared at dawn to make sacrifices [...] daily for Seth, while the nobles [of the palace] wore wreaths, just like it is done in the temple of Re-Harachte. "

- The dispute between Apopi and Seqenenre

By dealing with religious otherness, the god Seth was gradually included in the figure of the religious other.

Badly damaged head of the Mummy of the Seqenenre

According to Anthony Spalinger, the narrative focuses on "war" and "royalty", two interwoven themes that are widespread in the corpus of the "Late Egyptian Stories". Whether Seqenenre's role in the narrative corresponds to that of a “hidden hero” remains speculative. Nevertheless, Spalinger assumes that in terms of collective memory, that aspect of Seqenenre was best remembered, that he was confronted with an attack on the commonwealth of Egypt, in this case Thebes. Thereby he roused the people in their nationalism .

Thomas Schneider considers that the pond created by Seqenenre with the hippos of specific Lower Egypt - and thus the claim of the Theban king to the delta ruled by Apopi - symbolizes, which could amount to a declaration of war. The dispute between the Thebans and the Avaris dynasty must be understood primarily as a struggle for political supremacy. Although the change of power sought by the Thebans was portrayed as ideologically charged as a war against Asian barbarians, according to Schneider, it may in fact initially mean nothing more than a change of king.

literature

Editions

  • Ernest A. Wallis Budge: Facsimiles of Egyptian Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum. Second series. British museum, London 1923, pp. 26-27, pl. LIII-LV.
  • Alan H. Gardiner : Late Egyptian Stories (= Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca . I). Édition de la Fondation égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, Bruxelles 1932, pp. 85–89.
  • Hans Goedicke : The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqenenreˁ. Van Siclen Books, San Antonio TEX 1986, ISBN 978-0-933175-06-8 .

Translations

  • Emma Brunner-Traut : Ancient Egyptian fairy tales (= The fairy tales of world literature. ). Diederich, Düsseldorf a. a. 1963, no.25.
  • Günter Burkard , Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Volume II: New Kingdom. (= Introductions and source texts on Egyptology. Vol. 6). 2nd edition, Lit, Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-0987-4 , pp. 67-68.
  • Adolf Erman : The literature of the Egyptians. Poems, stories and textbooks from the 3rd and 2nd millennium. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1923, pp. 214-216.
  • Battiscombe Gunn, Alan H. Gardiner: New Renderings of Egyptian Texts. II. The Expulsion of the Hyksos. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. No. 5, 1918, pp. 36-56.
  • Edward F. Wente: The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqnenre. In: William Kelly Simpson, Robert Kriech Ritner (eds.): The Literature of Ancient Egypt. An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. 3rd edition, Yale University Press, New Haven CONN / London 2003, ISBN 978-0-300-12856-7 , pp. 69-71.

Individual contributions and further reading

  • Jan Assmann : Exodus. Old World Revolution. Beck, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-406-67430-3 .
  • Jan Assmann : Moses the Egyptian. The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Harvard university press, Cambridge / London 1998, ISBN 978-0-674-58739-7 .
  • Manfred Bietak , Eugen Strouhal: The death circumstances of the Pharaoh Seqenenre '. In: Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna. No. 78, 1974, pp. 29-52 ( online ).
  • Ingrid Bohms: Mammals in the ancient Egyptian literature (= Habelt's dissertation prints. Series Ägyptologie. 2). Lit, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-12104-2 .
  • Hellmut Brunner : Article Apophis and Seqenenre. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto, Wolfhart Westendorf (eds.): Lexicon of Egyptology. Volume 1, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 978-3-447-01876-0 , column 353-354.
  • John G. Griffiths: Allegory in Greece and Egypt. II. Anterior Developments in Egypt. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. No. 53, 1967, pp. 79-102.
  • Colleen Manassa: Imagining the Past. Historical Fiction in New Kingdom Egypt. Oxford University Press, New York 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-998222-6 .
  • Daniel Polz : Thebes and Avaris. To "expel" the Hyksos. In: Rainer Stadelmann , Heike Guksch, Daniel Polz (eds.): Stations. Contributions to the cultural history of Egypt. Dedicated to Reiner Stadelmann. von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 978-3-8053-2526-4 , pp. 219-231.
  • Torgny Säve-Söderbergh: On egyptian representations of hippopotamus hunting as a religious motive. (= Horae Soederblomianas Travaux publ. Par la Société Nathan Söderblom. 3). Uppsala 1953.
  • Thomas Schneider : Foreigners in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom and the Hyksos period. Part 1. The foreign kings (= Egypt and Old Testament. Vol. 42). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1998, ISBN 978-3-447-04049-5 .
  • Lothar Störk: What bothered Hyksos Apophis about the roar of the Theban hippos? In: Göttinger Miscellen . 43, 1981, pp. 67-68.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karin Kopetzky: Tell el-Dab'a XX. The chronology of the settlement ceramics of the Second Intermediate Period from Tell el-Dab'a. Volume 1, Vienna 2010, p. 275.
  2. ↑ Manfred Bietak, Eugen Strouhal: The circumstances of the death of Pharaoh Seqenenre '. In: Annals of the Natural History Museum Vienna. 78, 1974, pp. 29-52 ( online ).
  3. ^ RL ten Berge, FRW van de Goot: Seqenenre Taa II, the violent death of a pharaoh. In: Journal of Clinical Pathology. Volume 55, No. 3, March 2002, p. 232 ( PMC 1769615 (free full text)).
  4. ↑ G. Burkard, HJ Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Münster 2009, p. 67.
  5. ↑ Colleen Manassa: Imagining the Past. Historical Fiction in New Kingdom Egypt. Oxford 2013, p. 32.
  6. ↑ G. Burkard, HJ Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Münster 2009, p. 68.
  7. ↑ G. Burkard, HJ Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Münster 2009, pp. 66–72.
  8. ^ Gaston Maspero: Les contes populaires de l'Egypt ancienne. Paris 1911.
  9. ^ Emma Brunner-Traut: Ancient Egyptian fairy tales. Munich 1963.
  10. ↑ G. Burkard, HJ Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Münster 2009, p. 72.
  11. ↑ Pathor Labib: The rule of the Hyksos in Egypt and their overthrow. Glückstadt 1936, p. 37.
  12. ^ Torgny Säve-Söderbergh: On egyptian representations of hippopotamus hunting as a religious motive. Uppsala 1953, pp. 43-45.
  13. ↑ Jan Assmann: Exodus. Old World Revolution. Munich 2015, pp. 57–59.
  14. ↑ G. Burkard, HJ Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Münster 2009, p. 68.
  15. ↑ Jan Assmann: Moses the Egyptian. The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism. Cambridge / London 1998, pp. 28-29.
  16. ↑ Anthony Spalinger: Two Screen Plays: “Kamose” and “Apophis and Seqenenre” . In: Journal of Egyptian History. Volume 3, No. 1, 2010, pp. 115-135.
  17. ↑ Thomas Schneider: Foreigners in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom and the Hyksos period. Part 1. The foreign kings. Wiesbaden 1998, pp. 162-163.

annotation

  1. ↑ The older literature in particular uses Apophis instead of Apopi or Apapi. However, Thomas Schneider has shown that Jppj is an Egyptian “nickname or Lall name in the manner of Pepi”. The reading as "Apophis" goes back to a vocalized form in Manetho, which for a long time was considered a foreign name that suggests an echo of the chaos snake Apophis (ˁ3pp) . The notation and pronunciation of the king's name Apopi was certainly still different from that of the chaos snake Apophis at that time. See: Thomas Schneider: Foreigners in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom and the Hyksos period. Part 1. The foreign kings. Wiesbaden 1998, pp. 36-39.