Neferkare and Sasenet
The story of Neferkare and Sasenet (sometimes called The Plaintiff of Memphis ) is a fragmentary work of ancient Egyptian literature . The story deals with a homosexual relationship between Pharaoh Neferkare ( Pepi II ) and his general Sasenet.
Lore
The narrative has only survived on three textual witnesses : a wooden tablet from the 18th or 19th dynasty (now in the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago , OIC 13 539), an ostracon of the 20th dynasty from Deir el-Medine (O DeM 1214) and from a papyrus of the 25th Dynasty ( Papyrus Chassinat I = Papyrus Louvre E 25351; now in the Louvre , Paris ). All three contain only parts of the entire narrative.
The actual time of origin of the story cannot be determined with absolute certainty. In research it is partly classified in the New Kingdom , but partly also in the Middle Kingdom .
content
The beginning of the story is very sketchy. There is talk of a prince who knows about the king's love for General Sasenet. Then the action changes to Sasenet himself. He is walking through the necropolis of Memphis when suddenly the ghost of the deceased Pharaoh Teti II appears to him. Nothing of the details of the meeting has survived; there are some scraps of text in which Sasenet apparently visits several high officials.
The middle section, in which an anonymous plaintiff appears, is much better preserved. He comes to the royal court to bring a complaint to Neferkare, but is not heard by Neferkare. Instead, Neferkare lets the plaintiff drown out loud music and singing until he finally leaves, disappointed. He is then mocked by the courtiers. This occurrence is repeated several times, whereupon the plaintiff turns to his friend Tjeti, son of Henet.
Rumors have been brought to Tjeti about the king and he now decides to shadow him. He notices that Neferkare leaves the palace alone at night. Tjeti secretly follows him and thus notices that the king is going to the house of his general Sasenet and staying there for four hours. When this time had passed ("After the king had done with him [sc. The general] what he wanted"), he went back to the palace and Tjeti went home again. The whole thing repeats itself every night, then the text breaks off. The end of the story is not preserved.
interpretation
The assessment of the homosexual relationship between King Neferkare and his General Sasenet proves to be quite difficult. In the older literature, the topic was either avoided or an immoral act by the king was interpreted into the relationship. However, this is rejected in more recent works, since no evaluation is made at any point in the narrative itself.
The exact assignment of the story to a certain genre is also not clearly clarified . For example, Georges Posener puts the main focus on the figure of Tjeti and therefore moves the story closer to modern detective history . Jacobus van Dijk, on the other hand, comes to a completely different conclusion. The starting point for his considerations is the division of the night into three by four hours as described in the story. According to Van Dijk, the story is a parody of religious texts, namely the union of the two gods Re and Osiris during the four middle hours of the night. Neferkare thus takes on the role of Re and Sasenet that of Osiris.
See also
literature
- Emma Brunner-Traut : Ancient Egyptian Fairy Tales. Myths and Other Popular Tales. 10th edition. Diederichs, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-424-01011-1 , pp. 178-179.
- Günter Burkard , Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Volume 1: Günter Burkard: Old and Middle Kingdom (= introductions and source texts on Egyptology. Volume 1). LIT, Berlin et al. 2003, ISBN 3-8258-6132-5 , pp. 187-191.
- Jacobus van Dijk: The Nocturnal Wanderings of King Neferkare. In: Hommages à Jean Leclant . Volume 4: Varia (= Bibliothèque d'étute. Vol. 106/4). Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1994, ISBN 2-7247-0139-9 , pp. 387-393.
- Frank Kammerzell : From the affair of King Nafirku'ri'a and his general. In: Otto Kaiser : Texts from the environment of the Old Testament. Volume 3: Wisdom Texts, Myths and Epics. Edited by Bernd Janowski and Gernot Wilhelm . Delivery 5: Myths and Epics. Part 3. Gütersloher Verlags-Haus, Gütersloh 1995, ISBN 3-579-00082-9 , pp. 965-969.
- Georges Posener: Le conte de Néferkarè et du général Siséné (Recherches Littéraires VI). In: Revue d'Égyptologie. Vol. 11, 1957, ISSN 0035-1849 , pp. 119-137