Conversation of a weary man with his soul

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Papyrus Berlin 3024 ( Neues Museum , Berlin)

The conversation of a life weary with his soul (also conversation of a man with his ba or simply life weary ) is a poetic text from ancient Egypt , the author of which is unknown. It was written in the period of the 12th Dynasty (around 1900 BC), i.e. during the Middle Kingdom .

The dialogue partner of the life-weary man is his Ba- soul, one of the aspects of the soul in ancient Egyptian mythology . In the Old Kingdom period such a soul was apparently only ascribed to the king; this text is one of the earliest records of a Ba soul in a private individual.

Various damages in the manuscript, some typographical errors and the appearance of some rare and unclear words make it difficult to understand the text as a whole. To date, none of the assessments of the tired of life have met with general approval.

Text transmission

The conversation, together with the shepherd's story, has only been handed down in a single textual witness, the Papyrus Berlin 3024, which is a palimpsest . Fragments of the beginning of the conversation are partially preserved in the Amherst III papyrus. The Papyrus Berlin 3024 is dated palaeographically to the middle of the 12th dynasty. Richard Lepsius bought the papyrus in Egypt in 1843; he published the text for the first time (1859). The text transmission is incomplete; the beginning is partly missing. Fragments from the beginning were published in 2017 after they were identified in a collection in Mallorca. Therefore, the occasion and the external circumstances of the conversation are unknown.

Literary classification

The question of the genre is not easy to answer, since there are links to lamentation literature , wisdom literature and didactic literature. Katherina Lohmann assigns the text to the didactic literature, under the impression that the instruction is the triggering moment for the writing of the text. Jan Assman assigns the tired of life to the literary genre Klagen : [The text] refers to the vision of a world from which Maat has disappeared and in which consequently the traditional ideas of a continuation in this world, through grave, cult and commemoration , have become obsolete are.

You can find both forms of lamentation literature, the this-world and the hereafter. Both forms are associated with very specific ideas of death. The this world lament is aimed at changing the world, the afterlife lament at the change of being. The man laments the here and now because he thinks of death as the ideal state of a life that is provided for, and the Ba praises life because he sees death as the otherworldly activity of God.

The disintegration of the solidarity community, which ultimately led to the abandonment of the beliefs of the pyramid era, is seen as the reason for the genesis of the hereafter. With the awareness that earthly continued existence in death is only guaranteed with regard to this-worldly precautions, the idea of ​​an Osirian redeeming death developed, which makes the fate of the hereafter dependent solely on the way people live.

construction

The text received can be structured as follows:

  • (incomplete) first speech of the ba - first speech of the man,
  • second speech of the ba - second speech of the man,
  • third speech of the ba,
  • two parables (parables) of Ba,
  • four songs of the man
  • Closing words of the Ba.

The text consists of three speeches by the Ba and three speeches by the man, which are in dialogue with one another. Furthermore, there are three petitions, three prayers and three complaints throughout the text. What is noticeable is the three-part structure of the functional groups, which was probably chosen very carefully.

content

Since the description of the text depends crucially on the understanding of some words and lines, a table of contents free of interpretation is hardly possible.

It is not clear how much is missing from the beginning of the text. But the essence of the speech seems to emerge from the remaining words. The decisive words are: their tongue is not partial. These words indicate a jurisprudence committed to the Maat. Jan Assmann points out the reference to the judgment of the dead, since the content of the conversation is about the question of the fate of the hereafter. In this question, the Ba is likely to identify itself as an expert.

The introduction to the man's speech is addressed to an indefinite audience. He explains the value of speaking and listening and then addresses himself as a supplicant to his ba:

My ba, it is foolish to disregard worries about continued life: bring me to a death (which is so) that an unwelcome mine is not possible! Make the West comfortable for me! Isn't “unhappiness” just a phase of life? Trees are like this: they shed.

The man ends his speech with the invitation to lean towards the beleaguered and adds a prayer. The prayer is outside the argumentation process and was probably added later.

In his second speech, the ba accuses the man of disregarding life and taking precautions like a master of treasure.

The man defends himself against the accusations of the Ba: He has not left (from life) and prevention is not possible because he is robbed of all treasures. In the subsequent request, the man expresses the desire for a funeral like in the pyramid era with an heir at the grave.

After a prayer for his ba follows a threat: The ba would find no place of rest in the west if he allowed an ominous state of death "in this form". With the request for an heir who guarantees the post-mortem existence, the generally formulated desire for the cared for death is concretized.

In his third speech, the ba denies the prospect of rebirth. Even the graves of the most famous men have been forgotten due to a lack of bereaved relatives, which means a departure from the beliefs of the pyramid era. The man should follow the beautiful day and forget the worries about the continued life.

In his first parable, the Ba accuses the man of lamenting not the transience of life, but the downfall of a vague prospect of a future existence. The second parable appeals to man's reason to adapt to the realities of life and to keep an open ear for words of enlightenment when a wish is not fulfilled.

The man answers with three lamentations. The first deals with the damage to the name, the second describes the effects of a disintegrated order and the third describes death as a place of fulfillment who does not know the misery of the world. The man ends his speech with a prayer in which death is portrayed as a divine form of being in the hereafter.

In his fourth speech, the ba once again urges the man to give up lamenting and join life:

Let the lamentation rest, this you who belong to me, my brother. Lay on the fire basin and join the struggle for life - as you have described. Be fond of me here and put the west aside for yourself. Do not wish to get to the west until your limbs bend towards the ground. After your weariness I will settle down and we will make a dwelling together.

Interpretations

According to the most important editors, the interpretation and translation of the word jhm in line 18 play a key role in understanding the text. The difficulty of the passage is that the verb jhm both the translation follow or accompany and restrain permits and thus conflicting interpretations concerning the intention of the tired of life. Adolf Erman translated the passage with “guide me to die”. Alexander Scharff and Raymond O. Faulkner preferred the meaning “hold back”: holdest me back from death ere I come to it .

The difficult nature of the text leaves so much room for interpretation that one interpretation cannot simply be refuted by another.

Adolf Erman sees the man as someone who desperately wants to be alive and wants to commit suicide. He is only held back because he has no offspring who will perform the necessary burial rites. His ba as part of his personality advises him to throw himself into the fire, since a corpse that has been burned to ashes no longer needs care due to its non-existence.

Alexander Scharff considers the man to be a learned priest and the poet of conversation who, due to the revolutionary circumstances of the time, can no longer live as a pious Egyptian and sacrifice to the deity according to ancient custom. He does not want to accept the new views of the time. Out of disgust for life, he intends to commit suicide by burning, with the hope of immortality in the afterlife. His ba tries to prevent him from suicide as a representative of the joy of life and as an evil tempter calls on him to enjoy life.

Helmuth Jacobsohn, a supporter of depth psychology according to CG Jung , considers the conversation to be a unique, personal experience. A person despairing of life, who through the terrible events of his time gets to know the horror of the distance from God and the loss of God, stands in his torment on the verge of suicide. According to his traditional thinking, however, he must regard suicide as a serious sin. In this situation, in which the longing for salvation and traditional law are incompatible, the man comes into contradiction to his innermost essence, to his own Ba, which H. Jacobson understands as a psychic archetype.

The price of death

The man expresses his point of view in four songs. One of them is:

Death stands before me today
(how) when a sick person gets well,
like stepping out into the open after being locked up.
Death stands before me today
like the scent of myrrh,
like sitting under a sail on a windy day.
Death stands before me today
like the scent of lotus flowers,
like sitting on the bank of drunkenness.
Death stands before me today
like the withdrawal of the rain (or: like a trodden path),
like when a man returns from a campaign.
Death stands before me today
as when the sky is revealed
like when a person finds the solution to a riddle.
Death stands before me today
how a man longs to see his home again
after many years in captivity.

literature

Editions

  • Winfried Barta: The conversation of a man with his Ba (Papyrus Berlin 3024). In book series: Munich Egyptological Studies (MÄS) Volume 18, Berlin 1969
  • Adolf Erman: Conversation of a life weary with his soul. From Papyrus 3024 of the Royal Museums. Berlin 1896
  • Raymond O. Faulkner: The Man Who Was Tired of Life. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology (JEA) Volume 42, 1956, pp. 21-40

Translations

  • Winfried Barta: The conversation of a man with his Ba (Papyrus Berlin 3024). In book series: Munich Egyptological Studies (MÄS) Volume 18, Berlin 1969
  • Miriam Lichtheim : Ancient Egyptian Literature. Volume 1: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. 1973, pp. 163-169
  • Richard B. Parkinson: The Tale of Sinuhe and other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940-1640 BC. 1997, pp. 151-165

General literature and individual contributions

  • James P. Allen: The Debate Between a Man and His Soul. A Masterpiece of Ancient Egyptian Literature. Brill, Leiden 2010.
  • Jan Assmann : Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. Beck, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-406-49707-1 , pp. 496-500.
  • Jan Assmann: Egypt. A story of meaning. 1996
  • Jan Assmann: Maat. Justice and Immortality in Ancient Egypt. 1990
  • Jan Assmann: The “just suffering man” in ancient Egypt. On the conflict potential of the Egyptian religion. , in: Christoph Elsas u. Hans G. Kippenberg (ed.), Loyalty Conflicts in the History of Religions. Festschrift for Carsten Colpe , Würzburg 1990, pp. 203–224, pp. 208 ff. II The Egyptian text of "Lebensmüden" - the Egyptian Job?
  • Günter Burkard , Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history I. Old and Middle Kingdom. 2008
  • Adolf Erman : The literature of the ancient Egyptians. 1923, pp. 122-130
  • Hans Goedicke : The Report about the Dispute of a Man with his BA. Papyrus Berlin 3024. 1970
  • Helmuth Jacobsohn: The conversation of a life weary with his ba. 1951.
  • Katherina Lohmann: A man's conversation with his ba. In: Studies on ancient Egyptian culture (SAK) Volume 25, 1998, pp. 207–236 [regarding the dating question of outsider opinion]
  • Richard B. Parkinson: Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt. A dark side to perfection. 2002
  • Richard B. Parkinson: The Missing Beginning of "The Dialogue of a Man and His Ba": P. Amherst III and the History of the "Berlin Library", In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde. (ZÄS) Volume 130, 2003, pp. 120-133
  • Odette Renaud: Le dialogue du Désespéré avec son Âme. Une interprétation littéraire. In: Cahiers de la Société d'Egyptologie. Volume 1, 1991.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Burkard, Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to ancient Egyptian literary history I. S. 155
  2. ↑ Marina Escolano-Poveda: New Fragments of Papyrus Berlin 3024 , in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 2017, 144 (1). Pp. 16-54
  3. ↑ Klaus Koch: History of the Egyptian religion. Stuttgart 1993, pp. 252-261; Gerhard Fecht: The first interim period in the mirror of pessimistic literature. In: Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap "Ex Oriente Lux" 24 (1975/76), pp. 50-61.
  4. ↑ cf. Katherina Lohmann: A man's conversation with his ba. In: SAK 25 , pp. 210f.
  5. ↑ Jan Assmann: Maat. Justice and Immortality in Ancient Egypt. P. 116
  6. ↑ cf. Katherina Lohmann: A man's conversation with his ba. P. 211
  7. ↑ Burkard & Thissen: History of Literature I. S. 155
  8. ↑ cf. Katherina Lohmann: A man's conversation with his ba. P. 234ff.
  9. ↑ In the following, the translation and comments by Katherina Lohmann are largely followed: Lohmann, Katherina: The conversation of a man with his Ba. P. 211ff.
  10. ↑ cf. Katherina Lohmann: A man's conversation with his ba. P. 213.
  11. ↑ cf. Jan Assmann: Egypt. A story of meaning. P. 199.
  12. ↑ Katherina Lohmann: A man's conversation with his ba. P. 215.
  13. ↑ Katherina Lohmann: A man's conversation with his ba. P. 225.
  14. ↑ Adolf Erman: The literature of the Egyptians. S. 123. Gardiner, Suys, Weill, Sethe, A. Hermann, S. Herrmann, Thausing and M. Lichtheim have also followed this interpretation.
  15. ^ Raymond O. Faulkner .: The Man Who Was Tired of Life. P. 27.
  16. ↑ cf. Winfried Barta: The conversation of a man with his Ba (Papyrus Berlin 3024). Pp. 101-102.
  17. ↑ cf. Winfried Barta: The conversation of a man with his Ba (Papyrus Berlin 3024). Pp. 102-103.
  18. ↑ cf. Winfried Barta: The conversation of a man with his Ba (Papyrus Berlin 3024). P. 107.
  19. ^ Translation according to Assmann: Death and Beyond in Ancient Egypt. P. 498f. (slightly changed); see. the translations of Barta: A man's conversation with his Ba (Papyrus Berlin 3024). P. 27f., Lichtheim. The Old and Middle Kingdoms. P. 168.