Letter from Wermai

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Beginning of the Moscow Papyrus 127 with the letter of Wermai

The Letter of Wermai (also Moscow literary letter , Odyssey of Wermai or Tale of Woe ) is a work of ancient Egyptian literature without a title . The text is written in hieratic script and the New Egyptian language and only survived in Papyrus Moscow 127, which Vladimir Semjonowitsch Golenishchev acquired in an antique trade in 1891 and which was apparently found near the place el-Hibe . Due to the paleography , the manuscript is dated to the early Third Intermediate Period, but the text also shows linguistic features from the Ramesside period . The text is still very difficult for research. The writing of words and the grammar in particular leave many questions unanswered.

The narrative is in the form of a letter and tells of a former high-ranking temple official who is innocently robbed of his office and his belongings and now wandered around penniless in Egypt until he settled in an oasis. Here too he leads a miserable life and suffers from an arbitrary and brutal oasis potentate.

Finding circumstances

Vladimir Golenishtchev that the papyrus Moscow 127 has acquired

The Russian Egyptologist Vladimir Semjonowitsch Golenishchev acquired the papyrus with the letter from Wermay in 1891 in the antique trade in Cairo . According to him, the Fellachians had recently found him together with other papyrus fragments in an earthen vessel near the town of El-Hibe . The other finds that Golenishchev also acquired are Papyrus Moscow 120 with the travelogue of Wenamun and Papyrus Moscow 169 with the so-called Onomasticon of Amenope . The entire Golenishchev collection later passed into the possession of the Pushkin Museum , where the letter from Wermai is exhibited unrolled under glass under inventory number 127 (as Papyrus Moscow 127 or Papyrus Pushkin 127 ).

papyrus

The text with the story of Wermai is on the recto of a 120.8 cm long and 22 cm high papyrus roll, which consists of six joined sheets of about 18.9 cm wide. The verso contains only three lines of fragmentary text. At the left end of the papyrus, a piece measuring 21.8 × 10.8 cm was cut out, probably for secondary use as early as ancient times. The text itself is not affected. Although the unevenly pale brown papyrus is not in the best condition, the text has been completely preserved. Apart from the rubra in the introductory greeting form, the text is written in black ink and is spread over five pages on the papyrus.

Dating

According to Ricardo Caminos, based on palaeography , the script dates to the Ramesside period . For him it is the work of a “second rate scriba librarius ” ( second-rate copyist) who roughly estimated around 1000 BC. Lived at the time of the 21st dynasty , even if the 22nd dynasty cannot be excluded from the paleographical point of view . There are great similarities to the other two papyri, Papyrus Moscow 120 and Papyrus Moscow 169 , which were in the same vessel. Although the three papyri almost certainly do not come from the same scribe, they are probably the product of the same writing school or office of scribes and date to roughly the same time.

Joachim Quack also comes to the conclusion: According to this, the text can provisionally be regarded as a work of the early Third Intermediate Period that was still influenced by the literary usage of the Ramesside period . The linguistic-historical classification is still causing research difficulties and more detailed investigations have to be awaited. Grammatical criteria suggest dating to the 20th dynasty , but the text also has forms that belong to a much older language level.

content

At the beginning a copyist notes that there is a copy of a letter that the Father of God of the temple in Heliopolis , Wermai, son of Huy, sent to his friend, the royal residence scribe Usimaaranacht, son of Ramose.

The sender introduces the letter with a letter form typical for this time, consisting of extravagant greetings and blessings: He wishes the recipient a good old age, a good reputation, good health, joy of life and that he will be well looked after even after death.

Wermai, the protagonist of the story, lived as a high-ranking priest at the temple of Heliopolis. Although he did nothing wrong, he was driven out of office, robbed of his belongings and driven out of town. As the perpetrator, he names so-called "archenemies" who have committed other atrocities.

“They mistreated me, they also slew complete strangers and scattered their children to the winds. Some of them were kept in captivity, others were taken away as booty; like things they were charged before my eyes, my own servant in advance. "

- Letter of Wermai 2.6-2.9

An odyssey through Egypt follows. Wermai roams the country poor and lonely and is ignored or even despised by other people. Old acquaintances also turn away from him. He feels like a stranger in his own country.

“I was always in foreign cities and in places I didn't know: a stranger. My friends from the old days no longer existed, company had to be found again. These people were with me for a while, then they turned away from me because of who I was and ignored my neediness. "

- Letter of Wermai 3.7-3.9

In between, Warmai keeps talking about a nameless savior who will come to the rescue if she takes notice of the hardships and adversities that have happened to him.

“He is kept out of anger and turmoil. He is fine, his former condition is a thing of the past, and I also fared well under his responsibility. He will come straight away when the description of my errors is brought to him. Send him a messenger from your office with a copy of my letter. People will see him with joy when he comes to me in need. Petitioners for whose sake he set out know about it. "

- Letter of Wermai 3,13-4,2

On his hike, Warmai reached the Great Oasis (probably Kharga or Dachla ), where he settled down. Here he is given a small plot of land, with the income from which he leads a miserable life. The place is ruled by an unscrupulous oasis potentate and his unscrupulous henchmen.

“Believe me, I am suffering! Grain has been withheld from me for a month, I and everyone else here are starving. I don't even know what grain looks like, and I certainly don't. There is none! The livelihoods of the people I find myself among are modest: the waters are supplied, their land is parched. For them there is no escape from misery: a supplicant is not even allowed to appear before his master. When a protest arises, the gang only makes flattering ridicule. While their own affairs are settled, they hinder everyone else, not to mention their income and the taxes on salt, baking soda, onions, reeds and rushes. "

- Letter of Wermai 4,2-4,8

Here too, Wermai is exposed to fraud, such as the falsification of the grain size.

At the end, Wermai gives free rein to his emotions and expresses the hope that his situation will turn around and justice will be carried out. Until the end, the story retains the appearance of a letter, but it does not end with a farewell greeting, which differs from common practice.

Interpretations

Limit experience

Gerald Moers sees the story in terms of the history of the motif in the context of the Egyptian travel stories, such as the story of Sinuhe and the travelogue of Wenamun . These deal with the protagonists' identity problems against the background of the respective contemporary circumstances . The loss of identity and the resulting loneliness of a high-ranking priest is also a central issue in the Wermai's letter .

“With only a vague hope of salvation, Wermai writes his letter from this accursed place. As a literary genre, the letter corresponds to the isolation of Wermais as well as its whereabouts: It is the most subjective form of first-person narration and the most private of all narrative situations. As a text, however, this letter in the present form manifests the rupture that separates Warmai from the world, and writes it down. It becomes a sign of a complete dissolution of Egyptian society and the identity concepts behind it. With this, Wermai, the hero of this first-person narration, becomes a metaphorical victim of the developments that began in the Middle Kingdom at the latest with Sinuhe's flight and his individual search. "

- Gerald Moers

Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert also sees the motif of crossing borders as one of the decisive signals of fictionality in the narrative genre . The heroes cross human, geographical, cultural and political borders. For the Wermai's letter , however, he refuses to use the term “travel narrative” as it seems to be trivializing and speaks of the “Passion” of Wermai.

Literary implementation of a divine curse

Another criterion for the literary nature of an Egyptian text is its intertextuality , i.e. the textual relationship to previous or reference texts that are further processed in the following text. The Stèle de l'apanage from the 22nd dynasty shows a close match with the letter of Wermai . This was set up in the Karnak Temple and contains a gigantic curse formula. There are amazing similarities between the two texts, right down to the choice of words. Wermai's letter could thus be the literary implementation and embellishment of a divine curse . Thus, he sees the text as a warning example of what can happen in practice in the event of disregard of a divine decree when its cursing formulas are grasped .

literature

Editions

  • Михаил Александрович Коростовцев : Государственный музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина. Издательство Востоčной Литературы, Москва 1961.
  • Ricardo A. Caminos: A Tale of Woe. From a Hieratic Papyrus in the AS Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow. Griffith Institute Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 1977, ISBN 0-900416-09-2 .

Translations

  • Schafik Allam: Papyrus Moscow 127 (Translation and Notes). In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology (JEA) Vol. 61, 1975, ISSN  0307-5133 , pp. 147-153.
  • Gerald Moers : The letter from Wermai. The Moscow literary letter. In: Texts from the environment of the Old Testament (TUAT). Volume 3: Wisdom Texts, Myths and Epics. Myths and Epics. Delivery 3. Gütersloher Verlag-Haus Mohn, Gütersloh 1995, ISBN 3-579-00082-9 , pp. 922-929.
  • Joachim Friedrich Quack : A New Attempt on the Moscow Literary Letter. In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (ZÄS) Vol. 128, 2001, ISSN  0044-216X , pp. 167-181.

Individual questions

  • Anonymous: Extrait d'une lettre de M. Golénischeff sur ses dernières découvertes. In: Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philologie et à l'archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes. 15, 1893, ZDB -ID 208133-7 , pp. 87-89, (first mention of the text).
  • Ricardo A. Caminos: The Moscow Literary Letter. In: Jan Assmann , Erika Feucht, Reinhard Grieshammer (eds.): Questions to ancient Egyptian literature. Studies in memory of Eberhard Otto . Reichert, Wiesbaden 1977, ISBN 3-88226-002-5 , pp. 147-153.
  • Gerhard Fecht: The Moscow “literary letter” as a historical document. In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprach und Altertumskunde Vol. 87, 1962, 12–31
  • Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert : From curse to passion. On the literary genesis of the “Tale of Woe” (Pap. Pushkin 127). In: Günter Burkard , Alfred Grimm, Sylvia Schoske, Alexandra Verbovsek, Barbara Magen (eds.): Kon-texts (= Egypt and Old Testament. (ÄAT). Vol. 60). Files of the symposium "Searching for Traces - Ancient Egypt as Reflected in Its Texts". Munich, May 2-4, 2003. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2004, ISBN 3-447-05070-5 , pp. 81-89.
  • Antonio Loprieno : La pensée et l'écriture. Pour une analyze sémiotique de la culture égyptienne. Paris 2001, p. 51ff.
  • Gerald Moers: Fictitious worlds in Egyptian literature of the 2nd millennium BC Chr. In: Problems of Egyptology. Vol. 19, 2001, ISSN  0169-9601 , pp. 263-279.
  • Andrzej Niwinski: civil war, military coup and state of emergency in Egypt under Ramses XI. An attempt at a new interpretation of the old sources. In: Ingrid Gamer-Wallert , Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Gegengabe. Festschrift for Emma Brunner-Traut . Attempto-Verlag, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-89308-143-7 , pp. 252-257.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd U. Schipper : The story of Wenamun. A literary work in the field of tension between politics, history and religion (= Orbis biblicus et orientalis (OBO) 209). Academic Press et al., Friborg 2005, ISBN 3-7278-1504-3 , p. 5f .; Gerald Moers: The letter from Wermai. 1995, p. 922.
  2. ↑ Gerald Moers: Letter from Warmai. 1995, p. 922.
  3. ↑ Ricardo Caminos: A Tale of Woe. 1977, p. 3.
  4. ↑ Joachim F. Quack: A new attempt at the Moscow literary letter. In: Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprach und Altertumskunde 128, 2001, p. 172.
  5. ↑ Gerald Moers: Letter from Warmai. 1995, p. 923.
  6. ↑ Gerald Moers: Letter from Warmai. 1995, p. 926.
  7. ↑ Gerald Moers: Letter from Warmai. 1995, p. 927.
  8. ↑ Gerald Moers: Letter from Warmai. 1995, pp. 927-928.
  9. ↑ Gerald Moers: Letter from Warmai. 1995, pp. 927-928.
  10. ↑ Gerald Moers: Letter from Warmai. 1995, p. 923.
  11. ↑ Gerald Moers: Fictitious Worlds in Egyptian Literature of the 2nd Millennium BC Chr. 2001, 278-279.
  12. ↑ Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert: From curse to passion. 2004, p. 81; and: Günter Burkard , Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to ancient Egyptian literary history. Volume 2: New Kingdom (= introductions and source texts on Egyptology. Volume 6). Lit, Münster et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-8258-0987-4 , p. 80.
  13. ↑ Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert: From curse to passion. 2004, pp. 81-82.
  14. ↑ Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert: From curse to passion. 2004, p. 85.
  15. ↑ Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert: From curse to passion. 2004, pp. 88-89.