Papyrus Vandier

The papyrus Vandier (P. Lille 139) contains on the obverse an ancient Egyptian tale in which a magician named Merire descends into the underworld to ask for a further lifetime for the terminally ill Pharaoh Sisobek. On the back of the papyrus there is a copy of the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead .

Dating

The narrative is written in hieratic script. The language of the text stands between the ancient Egyptian language levels New Egyptian and Demotic . Joachim Friedrich Quack has therefore called it Proto-Demotic. Ursula Verhoeven dates the drafting of the story to the end of the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century BC based on the paleography of the texts on the Papyrus Vandier. Chr.

The plot

Pharaoh Sisobek is fatally ill and his magicians give him seven days to live. His only salvation is General Merire, who, however, has to sacrifice his life in order to give the king a longer life. With a heavy heart, Merire agrees to descend into the underworld. Before doing this he asks the king to take care of his wife Henutneferet, not to throw her out of her house and to protect her from the greedy looks of other princes. In addition, he demands to be allowed to take the children of the king's magicians into the underworld. Sisobek agrees to Merire's requests.

So Merire descends into the underworld and succeeds in asking the god Osiris to live for the Pharaoh for 75 more years. Then he learns from the goddess Hathor , mistress of the west, that Pharaoh Sisobek, incited by his magicians, made Merire's wife, Henutneferet, his queen, gave his house to someone else and killed his son. Thereupon Merire forms a man out of earth who haunted the king in his sleep and demands that the magicians be thrown into a burning furnace. First, the king has the magicians thrown into prison. When the Erdmann haunts him a second time, the king causes the magicians to actually be thrown into an oven. The earth man returns to Merire with the news of the death of the magicians and a bouquet of flowers from the god Re . When Osiris saw this bouquet, he cried out, suspecting that Merire had secretly returned to earth.

The further development of the story is difficult to reconstruct due to the fragmentary state of preservation of the papyrus. Merire talks in the underworld with the deceased Pharaoh Meneptah, who is equated in research with the historical Pharaoh Merenptah ( 19th Dynasty ). Later Merire meets King Sisobek and his wife Henutneferet again, as he was allowed to return to earth in the course of the story.

Parallels

A general by the name of Merire is already known as the protagonist of a fragmentary tale of the 19th dynasty (P. Deir el-Medine 39). A suggestion to find a text similar to the story of the Papyrus Vandier on a papyrus from Tebtynis has meanwhile been recognized as being incorrect.

The Legend of the Golem contains some elements from the story of Merire.

literature

Editions and translations

Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert : The Pharaoh, the Magician and the General. The story of the Vandier papyrus. In: Bibliotheca Orientalis. (BiOr) Vol. 44, 1987, pp. 5-21.
Friedhelm Hoffmann , Joachim Friedrich Quack : Anthology of demotic literature (= introductions and source texts on Egyptology. Volume 4). Lit, Münster 2007, pp. 153-160.
Frank Kammerzell : Mi'jar 'in the underworld (Papyrus Vandier). In: Otto Kaiser (ed.): Wisdom texts , myths and epics (= texts from the environment of the Old Testament . (TUAT). Vol. 3). 1990-1997, pp. 973-990.

Georges Posener : Le papyrus Vandier (= Bibliothèque générale. Vol. 7 .; Publications de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire. Vol. 626). Imprimeie de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale, Cairo 1985, ISBN 978-2-7247-0014-5 .

Secondary literature

Andreas Kunz: II Samuel 11f. and the early Demotic Egyptian Merirê story of the Papyrus Vandier. In: Theological Journal. No. 59, 2003, pp. 300-311.
Joachim Friedrich Quack: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Volume III: The demotic and Graeco-Egyptian literature (= introductions and source texts for Egyptology. Volume 3). Lit, Münster 2005, ISBN 978-3-8258-8222-8 , pp. 65-69.

Web links

L'Institut de Papyrologie et d'Égyptologie de Lille: Photographs

Notes and individual references

↑ Since the name of the owner is not given, it is probably a template for other transcripts of the Book of the Dead.
^ Joachim Friedrich Quack: Notes en marge du Papyrus Vandier. In: Revue d'Égyptologie. (RdE) No. 46, 1995, pp. 163-170. See also: Ariel Shisha-Halevy: Papyrus Vandier Recto: An Early Demotic Literary Text? In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. No. 109, 1989, pp. 421-435.
↑ Ursula Verhoeven : Investigations on the late Hieratic book script (= Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. (OLA) Vol. 99). Leuven 2001, pp. 329-337.
↑ Sisobek has not yet been associated with a historically documented king. For the name of King Sisobek see: Richard Jasnow: A Note on Pharao S3-Sbk in Papyrus Vandier. In: Enchoria. No. 23, 1996, p. 179.
↑ In their records, the king's magicians had found a similar case of illness in King Djedkare Asosi from the 5th dynasty . For the reading of the king's name, see: Ursula Verhoeven: Again the name of the former king in the story of the Papyrus Vandier (= recto. (Rto) vol. 1, no. 6). In: Chronique d'Égypte: Bulletin périodique de la Fondation égyptologique Reine Elisabeth. (CdE) No. 72, 1997, pp. 5-9; See also: Frank Kammerzell: Turning night into day. pVandier Rto. 1, 2-7 and Herodotus II 133. In: Göttinger Miscellen . (GM) No. 96, 1987, pp. 45-52.
↑ For the motif of the golem, see: Emma Brunner-Traut : A golem in Egyptian literature. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture. (SAK) No. 16, 1989, pp. 21-26.
↑ Frank Kammerzell: A demotic fragment of the Merire story? pTebtunis Tait No. 9 and pLille 139. In: Göttinger Miszellen. No. 127, 1992, pp. 53-61.
^ Joachim Friedrich Quack : Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Volume III: The demotic and Graeco-Egyptian literature (= introductions and source texts for Egyptology. Volume 3). 2nd, modified edition, Lit, Berlin / Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-8222-8 , p. 72 note 129.

[1] Since the name of the owner is not given, it is probably a template for other transcripts of the Book of the Dead.

[2] Joachim Friedrich Quack: Notes en marge du Papyrus Vandier. In: Revue d'Égyptologie. (RdE) No. 46, 1995, pp. 163-170. See also: Ariel Shisha-Halevy: Papyrus Vandier Recto: An Early Demotic Literary Text? In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. No. 109, 1989, pp. 421-435.

[3] Ursula Verhoeven : Investigations on the late Hieratic book script (= Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta. (OLA) Vol. 99). Leuven 2001, pp. 329-337.

[4] Sisobek has not yet been associated with a historically documented king. For the name of King Sisobek see: Richard Jasnow: A Note on Pharao S3-Sbk in Papyrus Vandier. In: Enchoria. No. 23, 1996, p. 179.

[5] In their records, the king's magicians had found a similar case of illness in King Djedkare Asosi from the 5th dynasty . For the reading of the king's name, see: Ursula Verhoeven: Again the name of the former king in the story of the Papyrus Vandier (= recto. (Rto) vol. 1, no. 6). In: Chronique d'Égypte: Bulletin périodique de la Fondation égyptologique Reine Elisabeth. (CdE) No. 72, 1997, pp. 5-9; See also: Frank Kammerzell: Turning night into day. pVandier Rto. 1, 2-7 and Herodotus II 133. In: Göttinger Miscellen . (GM) No. 96, 1987, pp. 45-52.

[6] For the motif of the golem, see: Emma Brunner-Traut : A golem in Egyptian literature. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture. (SAK) No. 16, 1989, pp. 21-26.

[7] Frank Kammerzell: A demotic fragment of the Merire story? pTebtunis Tait No. 9 and pLille 139. In: Göttinger Miszellen. No. 127, 1992, pp. 53-61.

[8] Joachim Friedrich Quack : Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history. Volume III: The demotic and Graeco-Egyptian literature (= introductions and source texts for Egyptology. Volume 3). 2nd, modified edition, Lit, Berlin / Münster 2009, ISBN 978-3-8258-8222-8 , p. 72 note 129.