Astarte and the insatiable sea

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Papyrus Bibliothèque nationale 202 (above) and Papyrus Amherst IX (Astarte-Papyrus) (below), which belong together

As Astarte and the insatiable sea (also Astarte papyrus or the gods against the sea ) is an untitled original story of ancient Egyptian literature referred. It is a mythological tale that tells of the battle of the Egyptian gods against the sea. It has been handed down on the extremely fragmentary Amherst IX papyrus , which is also called the Astarte papyrus, since the Near Eastern goddess Astarte is mentioned several times in the text . In 2000, the Papyrus Bibliothèque nationale 202 (pBN 202) could also be assigned to the Papyrus Amherst IX. The story dates to the time of the ancient Egyptian king ( Pharaoh ) Amenophis II. (Approx. 1400 BC). The text is in hieratic script , the script of Egyptian hieroglyphics written. The language has features of the Middle Egyptian and New Egyptian languages , which probably corresponded to the state of the language at the beginning of the 18th dynasty .

As a template for the narration, tales of the East Asian weather gods were used , as found in the Ugaritic Jam Baal cycle and the Hittite Kumarbi cycle . Due to phraseological comparisons and an Anatolian loan word, there is a particularly close connection to the latter. The text probably testifies to the establishment of the cults of Asian deities in Egypt by Amenhotep II, especially in the area around Memphis .

Lore

The story of Astarte and the voracious sea is preserved on the fragmentary Amherst IX papyrus, better known as the Astarte papyrus. Since the goddess Astarte is mentioned several times in the text, Spiegelberg gave the papyrus her name. According to Gardiner, however, the sea and its insatiable demands are in the foreground of the story.

Philippe Collombert and Laurent Coulon found out in 2000 that a large papyrus fragment, which is kept as Papyrus Bibliothèque nationale 202 (pBN 202) in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris , can also be assigned to this story. It is the upper part of the first page of the Amherst IX papyrus. This fragment was originally part of the Rollin Collection (as Papyrus Rollin 1887).

The exact origin of the Amherst IX papyrus is not known. It must have been bought before 1871 as it was published for the first time by S. Birch in that year. The Papyrus Bibliothèque nationale 202 also does not provide any precise information on the origin and purchase. It was bought by the Bibliothèque nationale (formerly Bibliothèque impériale) before 1868 the Parisian antique dealer Cl. Rollin bought it. It can be assumed that the two papyri were sold through the same intermediary, since there are counterparts from the Amherst collection for other manuscripts from the Rollin collection.

Presumably the papyri originally come from Memphis : the primacy of Ptah, the correspondence of the place with the gods and the Near Eastern mythology as well as the lack of any Theban reference imply a more or less direct connection with Memphis.

The papyrus BN 202 measures 29.4 cm in width and 17.2 cm in height in its current state. The Amherst IX papyrus is 20 cm high in its current state, its width is more or less unknown due to the gap. The reconstructed length of the narrative is extraordinarily large and has no equivalent in Egyptian literature. Collombert and Coulon estimate as a "deep" assumption (25 lines on 20 pages) that the story was originally about three times as long as the story of Horus and Seth and more than four times as long as the Wenamun's travelogue .

Amenhotep II in whose time the story dated and who introduced the new Near Eastern cults in Egypt

Dating

The beginning, handed down on papyrus BN 202, dates the text to the time of Amenophis II (approx. 1425 to 1397 BC):

“Year 5, 3rd month of the pr.t season, day 19. Long live the King of Upper and Lower Egypt […], he live, be safe and sound (LHG), the son of Re, Amenophis, God and Ruler of Heliopolis LHG, gifted with life forever and ever, enthroned [...] "

- Astarte papyrus

The Amherst IX papyrus was originally dated to the time of Haremhab for paleographical reasons . Collombert and Coulon have shown that palaeographically it clearly belongs to the 18th Dynasty and that there are also no reasons against dating it to the time of Amenhotep II. This makes it one of the relatively few literary texts that were written in the 18th dynasty. Even linguistic criteria do not contradict this dating.

In terms of content, the text fits very well into the time of Amenhotep II, as he promoted Near Eastern cults, especially in Memphis. The cults of Hauron, Reschep , Baal and Astarte appear in Egypt for the first time under his government . In addition, an Astarte sanctuary in Perunefer (Memphis naval port) was probably completed on this date.

content

Egyptian representation of the Near Eastern goddess Astarte

The sea (called Jm / Jam ) demands tributes from the Egyptian gods and otherwise threatens to overwhelm heaven, earth and mountains. On the part of the Egyptian gods Ptah , Nut , Renenutet and Astarte , who is called the "daughter of Ptah", are mentioned. Astarte is sent to deliver tributes to the sea. But the sea not only demands Astarte as a woman, but also the ring of the Geb and the ornament of the groove, that means nothing less than the dominion over the earth. The ending is almost entirely lost. There is talk of Seth and a fight.

From a mythological allusion in the medical papyrus Hearst , Gardiner was finally able to deduce that the sea is ultimately defeated in the battle of Seth. So it says in relation to a disease:

"[...] just as Seth conquered the sea, so Seth will conquer you, you Asiatic [ie disease]."

- Papyrus Hearst 11, 12/4

The medical papyrus Berlin 3038, 21, 2–3 should also allude to the end of the story: as if the sea listens to the voice of Seth ...

language

Gardiner noticed that the spelling corresponded mainly to the Middle Egyptian language level , but the grammar is reminiscent of texts from the Amarna period and historical inscriptions from the time of Haremhab and Seti I , as it shows characteristics of the "classical" Middle Egyptian and New Egyptian languages . According to Collombert and Coulon, the grammatical features of the language are similar to those found in private documents in the time of Thutmose III. until Amenhotep IV was used. Accordingly, the emergence of “classical” forms should not be seen as an anachronistic reference to the “classical” literature of the Middle Kingdom, but merely reflects the state of the language at the beginning of the 18th dynasty. Thus the New Egyptian is literarily attested earlier than previously assumed.

Stela of Baal from the Baal temple in Ugarit. Baal as god of thunderstorms and weather with thunder club and lightning spear. The lower wavy line represents the rule over the sea after defeating Yam.

origin

The Astarte papyrus is clearly the processing of a weather god story. Such stories arose from an old Levantic myth tradition and led in the Ugarit of the 14th century BC. For the writing of the Baal cycle (see also Ugaritic religion ), the most important literary work of the late Bronze Age Syrian-Palestinian region. The Baal cycle is about Baal's victory over the sea god Yam , who was actually preferred by El as divine ruler.

These mythical ideas were passed on by the Hurrites to northern Syria and Anatolia and found there around 1350 BC. Its literary precipitate (see also Hittite mythology ). Almost nothing has survived from the original Hurrian versions. The Hittite versions do not seem to be simple translations, but adaptations on a high linguistic level. According to the El Baal constellation, the gods Kumarbi and Teššup can be found here .

Francis Breyer has shown that the Astarte papyrus has parallels to various passages of the Hittite Kumarbi cycle, so there are some phraseological similarities between the Egyptian and Hittite texts. By identifying an Anatolian loan word in the Egyptian story, he was even able to identify a direct dependency on a textual level. This means that there is a very close dependency, even if it is not entirely clear whether or to what extent the impetus comes from Hittite texts, or whether both source groups are not rather fed from common northern Syrian traditions. In other ancient Egyptian stories, too, a strong processing of ancient oriental weather god stories could be identified in recent years. These are in particular the story of the shipwrecked man , the story of Baal and Anat and the two-brother tale .

Wolfgang Helck already pointed out a few passages that suggest an origin in Hurrian-Hittite literature. He suspects that the Astarte papyrus contains a translation of a story from that culture. There is evidence that there were scribes in Egypt who had learned Hittite. Accordingly, they may have learned the foreign language by reading and translating foreign epics, among other things.

Interpretations

According to Collombert and Coulon, the introduction of the gods Hauron, Reschep, Baal and Astarte clearly goes back to the personal will of Amenhotep II. On the one hand, Reshep, Astarte and Baal are warlike deities, which goes well with Amenhotep's quick-tempered character, on the other hand, Reshep and Astarte are horse deities, which did not exist in Egypt, which suggests that Amenhotep because of his preference for horses Put deities under his protection. The emphasis on his sporting achievements and the introduction of the cults of these warlike gods therefore arises from the same concept of a king as a "heroic" person.

In the Memphis region there is evidence of the establishment of Asian cults, especially in connection with Perunefer, a port zone that was a transshipment point for goods from the Middle East and the starting point for military expeditions to the Levant. Most Egyptologists locate Perunefer in the vicinity of Memphis, but since the descriptions are rather imprecise, the area around Auaris would also be possible. The gods worshiped in Perunefer are Amun-Re, Astarte and Seth-Baal, whose cult was strongly promoted by Amenhotep.

Seen in this way, the Astarte papyrus is about the establishment of the cults of Asian deities and the role that the king himself plays in it: According to Collombert and Coulon, the "person of Heron" is deliberately left open - it is also an identification of the king with the god of war Seth / Baal possible. Overall, they come to the following conclusion:

"The text provides additional evidence of the impulse that Amenhotep II gave to the cults of Asian gods in Egypt, especially in the Memphis area, and it demonstrates the personal involvement of the ruler in this process [...] The text illustrates in a striking way, how the foreign imports were integrated into an expanded vision of the Egyptian universe; and how, within what we call 'literature', mythology was mobilized to anchor a royal ideology in the time of the gods based on the cult of the war hero . In this respect, the clarification of the seat in the life of this narrative invites one to rethink the status of this work and - in general - that of the 'mythological narrative'. "

- Philippe Collombert and Laurent Coulon

literature

Editions

  • Alan H. Gardiner : Late-Egyptian Stories. Éditions de la Fondation Égyptologique, Brussels 1932, 1981, pp. 76–81. ( Online , as a zip file for download )
  • Alan H. Gardiner: The Astarte Papyrus. In: Studies Presented to Francis Llewellyn Griffith. London 1932, pp. 74-85.
  • Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. The debut of the “papyrus d'Astarté” (pBN 202). In: Le Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale. (BIFAO) Vol. 100, 2000, pp. 193-242. ( Online pdf )

Translations

  • Francis Breyer : Egypt and Anatolia. Political, material and linguistic relations between the Nile Valley and Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC Chr. Wien 2011, pp. 467–469.
  • Emma Brunner-Traut : Ancient Egyptian fairy tales (= fairy tales of world literature. ). Diederichs, Düsseldorf a. a. 1963, no.10.
  • Robert K. Ritner: The Legend of Astarte and the Tribute to the Sea. In: William W. Hallo, K. Lawson Younger Jr. (Eds.): The Context of Scripture I: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical World. Leiden 1997, pp. 35-36.
  • Edward F. Wente, in: William Kelly Simpson (Ed.): The Literature of Ancient Egypt. An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. Cairo 2003, pp. 108-111. ( Online )

General overview

  • Günter Burkard , Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Volume II: New Kingdom. 2nd edition, Lit, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-0987-4 , pp. 57-61.
  • Rainer Stadelmann : Article Astartepapyrus. In: Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Volume I. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, pp. 509-511. ( Online )

Individual questions

  • George Posener : La légende égyptienne de la mer insatiable. In: AIPHOS. No. 13, 1953 (Mélanges Isidore Lévy), Bruxelles 1955, pp. 461-478.
  • Wolfgang Helck : The origin of the story of the so-called "Astartepapyrus". In: Manfred Görg (Ed.): Fontes atque Pontes. A festival for Hellmut Brunner (= Egypt and Old Testament. [ÄAT] Volume 5). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1983, ISBN 978-3-447-02347-4 , pp. 215-223.
  • Pascale M. Teysseire: The Portrayal of Woman in the Ancient Egyptian Tale. Dissertation, Yale 1998, pp. 148-150.
  • Francis Breyer: Egypt and Anatolia. Political, material and linguistic relations between the Nile Valley and Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC Chr. Wien 2011, p. 467ff.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rainer Stadelmann: Article Astartepapyrus. In: Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Volume I. Wiesbaden 1975, p. 509.
  2. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. The debut of the “papyrus d'Astarté” (pBN 202). In: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale (BIFAO) 100. 2000, p. 193.
  3. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. S. 195 with reference to S. Birch: Varia In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (ZÄS) 9, 1871 , pp. 119–120.
  4. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 195.
  5. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 199.
  6. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 199.
  7. ^ Francis Breyer: Egypt and Anatolia. Political, material and linguistic relations between the Nile Valley and Asia Minor in the 2nd millennium BC Chr. Vienna 2011, p. 467.
  8. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 209ff.
  9. ↑ Günter Burkard, Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history II. New Kingdom. 2009, p. 58.
  10. ^ A b Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 211ff.
  11. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 217.
  12. ↑ a b Breyer. Egypt and Anatolia. P. 467.
  13. ^ Table of contents according to Günter Burkard, Heinz J. Thissen: History of literature. Vol. II, p. 56ff. and Stadelmann: Startepapyrus. In: Lexicon of Egyptology. P. 509f.
  14. ↑ Andrea Maria Gnirs: The Levantic origin of the snake god. In: Heike Guksch, Daniel Polz (Ed.): Stations. Contributions to the cultural history of Egypt. (FS Stadelmann). 1998, p. 199.
  15. ↑ Manfried Dietrich , Oswald Loretz : Myths and epics in Ugaritic language. In: Texts from the environment of the Old Testament, Volume III, delivery 6. S. 1091ff.
  16. ↑ Bernd Janowski, Beate Ego (ed.): The biblical worldview and its ancient oriental contexts. Tübingen 2001 (research on the Old Testament 32), p. 338. and Erich Ebeling, Bruno Meissner: Reallexikon der Assyriologie and Near Eastern Archeology. Seventh volume. Berlin 1987-1999, p. 74.
  17. ^ Breyer: Egypt and Anatolia. P. 469.
  18. ^ Breyer: Egypt and Anatolia. P. 470.
  19. ^ Breyer: Egypt and Anatolia. P. 466.
  20. ^ Breyer: Egypt and Anatolia. P. 466f.
  21. ↑ Wolfgang Helck: The origin of the story of the so-called "Astartepapyrus". In: Manfred Görg (Ed.): Fontes atque Pontes. A ceremony for Hellmut Brunner. 1983 (= Egypt and Old Testament (ÄAT) vol. 5 ), p. 215ff.
  22. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 217.
  23. ^ Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer. P. 217 f.
  24. ^ Günter Burkard, Heinz J. Thissen: History of literature. Vol. II, p. 61 with reference to Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer.
  25. ^ Günter Burkard, Heinz J. Thissen: History of literature. Vol. II, p. 61, translation from the French by Philippe Collombert, Laurent Coulon: Les dieux contre la mer.