Harpocrates (Greco-Roman Period)

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Harpocrates in hieroglyphics
Gr.-Roman. time
N1 M17 D21
G43
A17

Harpocrates
(Hor-pa-chered)
Ḥr-p3-ẖrd
Horus , the child
Greek Harpocrates

Harpocrates is the Greek name for a Hellenized Horus child god. He is not identical with the deity Hor-pa-chered, which has been documented since the third intermediate period . With Serapis and Isis , Harpocrates formed a triad of gods and was especially venerated in the Alexandria region .

Former generic name "Harpokrates"

The term Harpocrates was the Greek equivalent of the ancient Egyptian Horus child . Plutarch (approx. 45 to approx. 125 AD) first coined the descriptions of Harpocrates. After that, Harpokrates' legs were handicapped by his posthumous birth and was considered the "master of silence" because Plutarch misinterpreted the representation of the finger on the mouth (a sign of childliness). Other ancient Greek and Roman authors interpreted the iconographic attributes in a similar way as well. In the years 1881 to 1884 Ridolfo di Lanzone published the multi-volume work Dizionario , in which he used Harpocrates as a collective term for seven different Horus child gods. In retrospect, Lanzone's analysis of the associated relief from Armant was flawed, as it has since been proven that there are seven independent child deities.

Lanzone's views found their way into Pauly's Real Encyclopedia of Classical Antiquity in 1913 , where Harpocrates was the personification of the “ideal child”. In 1952, Hans Bonnet defined under “Harpokrates” all youthful gods with “Horus” in their name. The collective term "Harpocrates", which in the past often went back to the Old Kingdom for child gods , was introduced into the Lexicon of Egyptology in 1975, but without considering the temple evidence. Due to a new study from 1988, the term "Harpokrates" was changed until 2002. Now all Egyptian child gods of the late period and Greco-Roman period were considered "Harpocrates". Other Egyptologists went one step further, like Hellmut Brunner , who listed all deities in the lexicon of Egyptology under the generic name “Harpokrates”, “who are presented and represented as child deities”.

After a detailed study in 2006 and the related investigations of all available ancient Egyptian sources, the generic name "Harpocrates" can no longer be used as evidence for the early existence of an "original Harpocrates" or for a matching genealogy , since it is the case with the Horus Child gods were not local "Harpocrates forms", but each Horus child god was viewed and worshiped as an independent deity.

supporting documents

The "Ptolemaic Harpocrates" was first mentioned in Greco-Roman times in the year 243 BC. In a dedicatory inscription of the Isis sanctuary in Philae , the Ptolemy III. and had his family attached. In the Ptolemaic form, Harpocrates is relatively seldom documented compared to the ancient Egyptian Hor-pa-chered . In Egypt Harpocrates is mentioned in only seven sources during the Ptolemaic period; by the fourth century AD in seven other mentions during the Roman Empire . Outside Egypt, he was given less importance than Anubis .

From Herodotus and Manethus traditions, the tradition is known that known ancient Egyptian deities were equated with a deity of Greek mythology . For Harpocrates, however, no Greek counterpart could be found.

See also

literature

  • André Bernand: Époque ptolémaïque (Les Inscriptions grecques de Philae, vol. 1) . Édition du Center National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris 1969, pp. 75-77.
  • Christian Leitz u. a .: LGG , Vol. 5: Ḥ - ḫ - Series of publications: Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta; 114 - . Peeters, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-429-1150-6 , pp. 281-282.
  • Sandra Sandri: Har-Pa-Chered (Harpokrates). The genesis of an Egyptian child of gods (= Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. Vol. 151). Peeters, Leuven et al. 2006, ISBN 90-429-1761-X (At the same time: Mainz, University, dissertation, 2004).

Individual evidence

  1. a b c Sandra Sandri: Har-Pa-Chered (Harpokrates) . P. 23.
  2. Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride : Chapters 19, 65 and 68.
  3. Ridolfo di Vittorio lanzone: Dictionnaire di mitologia egizia, Vol 1 to 4. . Torino 1881-84, pl. 227.
  4. Sandra Sandri: Har-Pa-Chered (Harpokrates) . Pp. 2-3.
  5. Sandra Sandri: Har-Pa-Chered (Harpokrates) . Pp. 3-4.
  6. Sandra Sandri: Har-Pa-Chered (Harpokrates) . P. 71.