The conquest of Joppa
The Conquest of Joppa is an incompletely preserved work of ancient Egyptian literature from the New Kingdom . The text describes the capture of the city of Joppa (today Jaffa ) by the Egyptian general Djehuti during the reign of Thutmose III .
Lore
The story is only preserved on the back of the Harris 500 papyrus together with the story of the haunted prince . The papyrus comes from the beginning of the 19th dynasty from the reign of Sethos I or Ramses II. It is written in hieratic script and only very fragmentary has been preserved. The beginning is completely lost, and the text that has been preserved shows numerous gaps.
content
The beginning of the story is missing, but can be partially reconstructed from the following: General Djehuti stands with his army in front of Joppa and has come up with a ruse to take the city without a fight. Djehuti pretends to surrender and therefore sends an invitation to the Prince of Joppa to come to the Egyptian camp. This appears with an entourage of 120 horsemen. The latter are supplied by the Egyptian army; the prince, meanwhile, went to Djehuti's tent to drink with him.
This is where the remaining part of the story begins: Djehuti reveals to the prince his alleged intention to surrender. At the same time it was reported that King Thutmose's great club had arrived. The prince of Joppa wants to see this club and offers Djehuti a wife (or his, the relevant passage is unclear). Djehuti has the club brought in, but instead of just showing it to the prince, he knocks him out with it and ties him up.
Now Djehuti's ruse comes into play: He has 200 baskets brought in, in which 200 soldiers are hiding. Another 500 soldiers are to act as porters. The prince's charioteer is told that Djehuti was now a prisoner of Joppa, and that the baskets contained the first delivery of tribute. Then the city gates are opened and the baskets are carried inside. Then the hidden soldiers get out of the baskets and the entire city population is captured. The story ends with a letter in which Djehuti reports this victory to his king.
Historical background
Although the events described in this narrative are of a fictional nature, it is set against a real historical background. Thutmose III. between his 22nd and 42nd year in government led a total of 16 campaigns to the Middle East . The taking of Joppa is likely to be one of the first campaigns . General Djehuti is a real person. It is well documented by archaeological finds, such as a gold bowl, which he received from Thutmose III. for his services and which is now in the Louvre . His grave was found in Saqqara in 1824 .
Influence on later works
The ruse Djehuti used to get into the enemy camp covertly appears in numerous literary works around the world, but appears here for the first time. The best-known examples from later times are the Trojan horse in Homer's Iliad , Plutarch's first meeting between Cleopatra VII and Julius Caesar , and the story of Ali Baba . Emma Brunner-Traut suspects that Egyptian literature had at least a partial influence here.
literature
- Emma Brunner-Traut: Ancient Egyptian Fairy Tales. 10th edition, Diederichs, Munich 1991, pp. 182-184.
- Günter Burkard, Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history II. New Kingdom. (= Introductions and source texts on Egyptology. Vol. 6). LIT, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-0987-4 , pp. 62-66.
- Adolf Erman : The literature of the Egyptians. Poems, stories and textbooks from the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC Chr. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1923, pp. 216–218.
Individual evidence
- ^ Thomas Schneider : Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , p. 293.