Two brother tales

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The two-brother fairy tale is an early modern Egyptian literary text from the post-Marna era , which has come down to us on the Papyrus D'Orbiney . One episode of the fairy tale , an unfaithful wife's attempt at seduction, shows parallels with the biblical Joseph .

Papyrus D'Orbiney

Illustration of part of the Papyrus D'Orbiney with rubra

The Papyrus D'Orbiney (Papyrus British Museum 10183) is named after an Englishwoman who acquired it in an art trade in Paris in 1851. The papyrus is written in hieratic script and the text is divided into 24 sections by rubra . So far, the Papyrus D'Orbiney is the only preserved source of the Egyptian two-brother fairy tale. From the postscript and the naming of the prince and later king Seti II on the outside ( verso ) and inside ( recto ) of the papyrus scroll it is evident that a scribe Enene wrote the text during this time. He refers to alleged sources, the scribe of the Treasury Kagab, the scribe Hori and the scribe Mer-em-Ipet. The time of origin of the original of the fairy tale is uncertain, and dating is possible from the Amarna period . What is certain, however, is that this story about Anubis and his brother Bata is based on a god myth. This is also evident from the hieratic original, where the two brothers are marked with a falcon on the standard, the usual god determinative .

content

The scene of Egypt

A strong young man named Bata works on the homestead of his older brother Anubis, who raised him and is now married. Bata manages his household, does the field work for him and tends the cattle. After the flooding of the Nile (Nile sill), at the time of plowing and sowing, he and his brother go to work in the fields. A few days later, when they need new seeds, Anubis sends them back to the house. There he meets Anubis' wife, who is being hairdos. She sends him to the attic to get the seeds. When he returns heavily laden, he finds her alone. She compliments him on his strength and invites him to a lunchtime . Bata refuses, but promises not to talk about the request and goes back to his brother. The wife of Anubis is frightened and uses cunning. When Anubis returns in the evening, she pretends to be ill and claims that Bata made a dishonorable proposal to her and hit her because she refused to do his thing. Anubis believes his wife, wants to kill Bata and hides, armed with a lance, in the entrance of the stable. On returning home, however, Bata is warned by the cows he is driving in front of him and flees. Anubis pursues him. Bata pleads with the god Re-Herachte , who then creates a body of water full of crocodiles between him and his brother. In the morning, Bata tells the real story to his brother, who is still separated from him by the water. As a sign of his innocence, Bata cuts off his member and throws it into the water, where it is swallowed by a catfish . Anubis, who now believes him, feels sorry for the weakened Bata, but cannot contact him because of the crocodiles. Bata explains to his brother that he wants to go to the valley of the cedar, where he wants to take out his heart and place it on the blossom of the cedar. But if the cedar should be felled and something happens to it, the beer of Anubis should froth over. Anubis should then find him and revive him. After that, Anubis returns home and kills the slanderous woman.

Bata in the Cedar Valley in Lebanon

Lebanon cedar

Bata moves into the valley of the cedar, lays his heart on a cedar blossom and builds a house. The Ninth of Heliopolis , looking after him, decides that the creator god Khnum should create a woman for Bata so that he is not alone. Bata loves the beautiful woman, but cannot own her. He reveals his secret to her and warns her about the sea. When the woman steps out of the house one day, the sea rolls behind her and tempts the cedar to hold on to her. The cedar takes a lock of hair from her, and the sea carries her to Egypt, where the Pharaoh's washers work. They cannot wash the scent from their clothes and are scolded. Finally they find the lock of hair and present it to the king. The royal counselors believe that the curl belongs to a daughter of Re-Herachtes. The Pharaoh now has the woman searched for everywhere, including in the Cedar Valley. Bata kills the soldiers, but leaves one alive so he can report. The Pharaoh now sends more soldiers and chariots , as well as a woman who is to lure Bata's companion to Egypt with all sorts of female trinkets. She actually succeeds, and Bata's mate is accepted into the Pharaoh's harem. She tells Bata's secret to the king, who has fallen in love with her. The king sends out new soldiers to cut down and chop the cedar. Bata dies.

Transformations

Cedar of Lebanon

Anubis learns of Bata's death when his beer foams over in the evening. He travels to the Cedar Valley and finds Bata dead on a lounger. After that he searches in vain for Bata's heart for three years. Finally, at the beginning of the fourth year, he finds it in the form of a cedar fruit. He throws the heart into a bowl of fresh water. At night, Bata's motionless body trembles, and Anubis puts the bowl to his mouth. Bata's heart returns to its place and Bata comes to life again.

Bata wants revenge on the unfaithful companion. In the morning he turns into a beautiful bull, and Anubis rides on his back to the king's court. At the sight of the bull the king gets into great joy and presents Anubis. When Bata reveals herself to the unfaithful woman, she becomes frightened. Since the king loves her passionately, she makes him swear at an evening feast that she will grant her a wish and demands to eat the bull's liver. The king is sad, but fulfills her wish and has the bull slaughtered to offer it as a sacrifice. While the Bata bull rests on the shoulders of the porters, it drops two drops of blood to the right and left of the gate of the palace.

During the night, two beautiful trees grow from Bata's drops of blood. When the king drives out of the palace in a golden chariot to inspect the trees, Bata's unfaithful companion follows him in a second chariot. Bata reveals herself again, and she ponders his doom again. In the meantime she has risen to become royal consort, and she causes the slave Pharaoh to cut down the trees to make furniture out of them. A splinter falls into her mouth while watching. As a result, she becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son who is none other than Bata. The Pharaoh recognizes him as heir to the throne.

The End

After the king's death, Bata succeeds him. Bata now holds judgment over his unfaithful wife, who is also his mother ( Kamutef principle ). He ruled Egypt for thirty years as king. Anubis, his older brother, is Bata's successor. The fairy tale ends with a postscript from the writer.

Interpretations

Anubis and Bata von Saka represent as gods the 17th Upper Egyptian Gau , the Schakalsgau. In this respect, the fairy tale is a profaned myth of gods. In the fairy tale, Bata is addressed by the nine as the " bull of the unity of the gods ". He later turns into a bull. In fact, after the 18th Dynasty, Bata is worshiped by Saka as a local bull god.

The fairytale motif that Anubis cannot find his brother's heart is explained by the fact that pine and cedar cones resemble the human heart.

Parallels

Papyrus Jumilhac

In the late “cult topographical” papyrus Jumilhac from the Ptolemaic period , the motif of Batas castration is taken up again. Due to the more than 1000-year interval and the rule of the Libyans , Nubians and Persians , religious ideas have changed. While Bata in the Papyrus D'Orbiney still has Osirian features, he is now equated with Seth , the enemy of Osiris. Based on the Horus myth by Edfu , Anubis pursues Seth. After Anubis has overwhelmed him, he is emasculated by Anubis as a punishment and then merges with Bata to form Seth-Bata.

Attis myth

In its processing of the fairy-tale motifs, the typology and parallels has Emma Brunner-Traut based on Stith Thompson and other tales researchers also looked at the Agdistis and - Attismythos where the castration and the transformation of the drop of blood is taken out. There is still insufficient research into whether this is an archetypal motif or whether it could actually go back to Egyptian influence. Brunner-Traut emphasizes that the two-brother fairy tale is originally an Egyptian subject, whereby she rules out early interactions.

Joseph

The story of the biblical patriarch Joseph ( Genesis 39, 1–20) also shows parallels to the two-brother tale. Joseph, who serves as a slave in the Potiphar's house, is appointed, like Bata, as an administrator over the entire household. Potiphar's wife has her eye on Josef and wants to seduce him. Joseph refuses with words similar to Bata. He escapes, but leaves his robe in the hand of the adulterous woman, who then slanders him at Potifar and the servants for attempted sexual assault. Potifar becomes angry, but, unlike in the two-brothers tale, does not kill Joseph, but has him thrown into dungeon.

Text output

  • Georg Möller: Hieratic reading pieces for academic use. Part II, Hinrichs, Leipzig 1927, pp. 1-20.
  • Alan H. Gardiner: Late Egyptian Stories. Brussels 1973, 9–30a, (Hieroglyphic transcription).
  • Emma Brunner-Traut: Ancient Egyptian Fairy Tales. Diederichs, Düsseldorf / Cologne 1963 (free translation).

literature

  • Emma Brunner-Traut, in: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto, Wolfhart Westendorf: Lexicon of Egyptology. Vol. IV, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1982, pp. 697-704.
  • Susan T. Hollis, in: Chronique d'Égypte. Vol. 59, 1984, pp. 248-257, with further literature and criticism of the state of research.
  • Jacques Vandier: Le Papyrus Jumilhac. Center national de la recherche scientifique, Paris 1961.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Manniche. In: Göttinger Miscellen . Vol. 18, 1975, pp. 33ff.
  2. ^ Deviating from Emma Brunner-Traut: Ancient Egyptian fairy tales. Düsseldorf / Cologne 1963 p. 32ff, "umbrella pine"
  3. ↑ Emma Brunner-Traut, in: W. Helck, E. Otto, W. Westendorf: Lexikon der Ägyptologie. Vol. IV, Wiesbaden 1982, column 699.