Cambyses novel

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The Cambyses novel is a late antique story in Coptic language that has only survived in fragments . It is named after the Persian ruler Cambyses II , who, however, is identified several times in the text with the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II . In the story, which apparently serves as propaganda, he appears as a despotic and dishonorable adversary of the noble and virtuous Egyptians, whom he wants to subjugate in a military campaign and with insidious cunning and who oppose him courageously, cleverly and undeterred by his threats.

The author of the text is unknown, the beginning and end of the story are missing; especially at the beginning, the fragment is very sketchy. The dating is also controversial, which makes the exact interpretation of the text even more difficult. The estimates for the period of origin range between the 2nd and 7th centuries, but according to more recent research can be narrowed down to the time from the 5th century.

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The Persian king Cambyses, like Nebuchadnezzar an archetype for the tyrannical and violent ruler, writes a threatening letter to the "inhabitants of the east" and threatens them with annihilation if they do not support his campaign against the Egyptian pharaoh Hophra . Instead of bowing to the demand, they notify the Egyptians of the declaration of war and, on the advice of the Egyptian war hero Bothor, send him a reply in which they contemptuously reject his demand. Shaken and angry, Cambyses, together with his advisors, then devises a deceit : He sends out messengers who, in the name of the Pharaoh, are supposed to announce a ceremony in honor of the god Apis , for which everyone should come unarmed at a central place. There he wants to attack the unsuspecting and defenseless people and make them subject to them. The Egyptians see through the plan, but seemingly accept it in order to then face it fully armed. At this point the narrative breaks off. It remains unclear whether the Egyptians will ultimately be able to successfully repel the attack or not.

To the handwriting

The parchment code, consisting of six sheets, has been badly damaged; it comes from the collection of Carl Reinhardt (1856–1903), who was the first dragoman of the Imperial German Consulate General in Cairo and who handed it over to the Papyrus Collection in Berlin in 1899, which is still in possession today. In the same year Heinrich Schäfer published a first edition and a translation of the text, but today the text edition published five years later by Georg Möller (1876–1921) is decisive.

Dating and interpretation

The interpretation of the narrative, which mainly consists of letters and speeches and hardly any longer narrative passages, depends crucially on its dating. It is obvious to see the invasion of Persian troops in Egypt 617-19 as a reference point. In the case of dating after 640, the story can also be understood as a writing of resistance against the Arab-Muslim rule in Egypt. From a paleographic point of view, however, the date of origin of the Cambyses novel is to be set much earlier.

The frequent use of parallelisms and synonyms is striking in terms of style . In terms of content, the Cambyses novel is fictional, but historicizing and follows the same ancient tradition of narrative writing as the Alexander novel . At the same time it shows strong references to the apocryphal book of Judith . Wilhelm Spiegelberg wanted to have recognized Arabic literary influences in the Kambyses novel; however, this view has been rejected in recent research.

There are also remarkable similarities to the Cambyses cycle of the 7th century world chronicle by Johannes von Nikiu . Due to the difficulties in dating it is unclear whether the Cambyses novel was possibly used here as a model or, conversely, the Cambyses passages in the World Chronicle were a model for the narrative. Possibly both go back to a common, no longer preserved original text and are in the ancient Egyptian tradition of the prophetic king's novella, which tries to preserve the integrity of Egypt in times of foreign rule.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Beltz : Catalog of the Coptic manuscripts of the papyrus collection of the National Museums in Berlin (Part 1) . In: Archive for Papyrus Research 26, 1978, pp. 57–119; P. 109.
  2. ^ Heinrich Schäfer : Fragment of a Coptic novel about the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses . In: Session reports of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin 38, 1899, pp. 727–744.
  3. ^ Georg Möller: P. Berol. 9009 . In: Egyptian documents from the Royal Museums in Berlin. Coptic documents . First volume. Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1904, pp. 33–44.
  4. ↑ Harald Suermann: Copts and the Islam of the Seventh Century . In: Emmanouela Grypeou, Mark N. Swanson, David Richard Thomas: The Encounter of Eastern Christianity With Early Islam . Brill, Leiden 2006, pp. 95-110; P. 101 f. with reference to Leslie MacCoull: The Coptic Cambyses Narrative Reconsidered . In: Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies 23/2, 1982, pp. 185-188.
  5. ↑ Heinz-Josef Thissen: Comments on the Coptic Cambyses novel . In: Enchoria 23, 1996, pp. 145-149.
  6. ^ Hermann Grapow: Studies on the style and language of the Coptic Cambyses novel . In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 74, 1938, pp. 55–68.
  7. ^ Siegmar Döpp : Cambyses' campaign against Egypt. The so-called Cambyses novel and its relationship to Greek literature ( Memento from June 9, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) . In: Göttingen Forum for Classical Studies 6, 2003, pp. 1–17.
  8. ^ Wilhelm Spiegelberg : Arab influences in the Coptic "Cambyses novel" . In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 45, 1909, pp. 83–84.
  9. ^ Tonio Sebastian Richter : Further observations on the Coptic Cambyses novel . In: Enchoria 24, 1997/1998, pp. 54-66 ( online ).
  10. ↑ Andrea Eberle: Possible traces of political resistance in Coptic literature. The Christian and the state order. In: Dieter Kessler (Hrsg.): Texts - Thebes - Tonfragmente. Festschrift for Günter Burkard. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, pp. 83-91; Pp. 89-91.
  11. ↑ John Dillery: Cambyses and the Egyptian chaos Description tradition . In: The Classical Quarterly 55/2, 2005, pp. 387-406.