Pyramid texts

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Pyramid texts in the Unas pyramid
Pyramid texts from the Teti pyramid in Saqqara
Detail of the pyramid texts from the Teti II tomb.

As Pyramid Texts are first referred to the collection of religious sayings on the inside walls of the pyramids of the pharaohs Unas (5th Dynasty), Teti II. , Pepi I , Merenre and Pepi II. , The Queens Anchenespepi II. , Behenu , Neith , Udjebten and Iput II. (6th Dynasty) and King Qakare Ibi (8th Dynasty). They represent the largest closed collection of ancient Egyptian texts. In the Middle Kingdom they also appeared on the inside of the coffins. New texts appearing there are now referred to as coffin texts , although pyramid and coffin texts were often used side by side. Individual sayings were still in use until the late period .

subjects

The pyramid texts, like the afterlife texts of the New Kingdom , are written in the duat to protect the deceased . Unlike later in the Middle and New Kingdom, however , dangers from demons are hardly mentioned. This is more about more tangible things:

  1. getting the name,
  2. the supply of food,
    • expressed by a list (bread and beer always occurs) with the indication 1000, which in Egypt stands for infinity,
    • besides, hunger is ordered to go to the nun . This primal water is considered to be a place where everything is available, so that hunger cannot exist there and it dies.

particularities

The texts are mostly very similar from pyramid to pyramid; only the writing of the hieroglyphs and individual words differ somewhat. That is why they are set in parallel in most text editions for comparison. In addition, some characters to represent living beings, including people, are mutilated or completely suppressed or subsequently chiseled out, since in the Old Kingdom the writing still had a strong magical character. These mutilations, however, were carried out more consistently at other times, such as B. on coffins of the early First Intermediate Period . In the pyramid of Queen Neith , all snake symbols are reproduced intact, only the determinatives in snake names are mutilated. Even in later times it was believed that what was written became truth. The running legs as a determinative
D54
often do not correspond to the direction of writing, but run against it. They point away from a picture of the tomb lord that was next to the hieroglyphs.

literature

Editions

A new internet edition, A New Concordance of the Pyramid Texts by James P. Allen, is forthcoming:

The standard edition up to now was that of Kurt Sethe. It includes 714 proverbs.

  • Kurt Sethe : The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts based on the paper prints and photographs of the Berlin Museum… Volume 1 - 2 : Text; Volume 3: Critical Apparatus, Description, Concordance; Volume 4: Epigraphy. Leipzig 1908–1922. Reprints: Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1960, Olms, Hildesheim 1969. (although in the meantime supplemented by new finds, Set's edition is still the standard edition today)

Since then, additional material has been continuously discovered and published:

  • James P. Allen: The Egyptian Coffin Texts: Middle Kingdom Copies of Pyramid Texts. Vol. VIII, Chicago 2006 ISBN 1-885923-40-6 (pyramid texts on coffins of the Middle Kingdom)
  • James P. Allen: The Pyramid Texts of Queens Jpw.t and Wḏbt-n. (J). In: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt. Vol. 23, 1986, pp. 1-25.
  • Gustave Jéquier : Le monument funéraire de Pepi II. Cairo 1936.
  • Gustave Jéquier: Les pyramides des pure Neit et Apouit. Cairo 1933.
  • Gustave Jéquier: La pyramide d'Oudjebten. Cairo 1928.
  • Gustave Jéquier: La pyramide d'Aba. Cairo 1935.
  • Jean Leclant (ed.): Les Textes de la Pyramide de Pépy Ier. In: Mémoires publiés par les membres de l'Institut Français d'archéologie orientale du Caire. (MIFAO) Vol. 118, Cairo 2001.
  • Wolfgang Kosack : The ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. In a new German translation; completely edited and edited by Wolfgang Kosack; Christoph Brunner, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-9524018-1-1 .
  • Alexandre Piankoff: The Pyramid of Unas. Princeton 1969 (= Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations 5 , Bollingen Series 40 ).

Translations

  • Raymond O. Faulkner: The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, Translated into English. Oxford 1969.
  • Miriam Lichtheim : Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Berkley / Los Angeles / London 1975, pp. 29-50. (Selection of sayings)
  • Peter Der Manuelian (Eds.), James P. Allen: The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by James P. Allen. Leiden / Boston 2005 (Writings from the Ancient World 23).
  • Kurt Sethe: Translation and commentary on the ancient Egyptian pyramid texts I-VI. Glückstadt / Hamburg 1936–1962. (Appeared after the death of Set, not complete)
  • Vincent A. Tobin, in: William K. Simpson (Ed.): The Literature of Ancient Egypt. An Anthologie of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. New Haven / London 2003, pp. 247-262. (Selection of sayings)

General overview

  • Hartwig Altenmüller : Article Pyramid Texts. In: Wolfgang Helck , Wolfhart Westendorf (ed.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie, Volume 5. Wiesbaden 1984, pp. 14-23.
  • Hans Bonnet : Pyramid Texts. In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 620-623.
  • Günter Burkard , Heinz J. Thissen: Introduction to the ancient Egyptian literary history I. Old and Middle Kingdom. Berlin 2008, pp. 49-70.
  • Erik Hornung : Ancient Egyptian afterlife books. An introductory overview. Darmstadt 1997, pp. 5-13.

Special grammars

  • James P. Allen: The inflection of the Verb in the Pyramid Texts. (= Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca . Vol. 2). 2 volumes, Undena Publications, Malibu 1984, ISBN 0-89003-143-6 (softbound); ISBN 0-89003-142-8 (hardbound) (important study of the verb in the pyramid texts; contains a concordance of the pieces not included in Set's edition)
  • Elmar Edel : Ancient Egyptian grammar. 2 volumes, Rome 1955 and 1964 (= Analecta Orientalia: Commentationes scientificae de Rebus Orientis Antiqui. (AnOr) Vol. 34 and 39)

Individual questions

  • Thomas George Allen: Occurrences of Pyramid Texts with Cross Indexes of these and other Egyptian Mortuary Texts. Chicago 1950 (= Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization. (SAOC) Vol. 27).
  • Thomas George Allen: Reading a Pyramid. In: Hommages à Jean Leclant. Le Caire 1993 (= Bibliothèque d'étude. (BdE) Vol. 106/1), pp. 5-28.
  • Hartwig Altenmüller: Texts on the funeral ritual in the pyramids of the Old Kingdom. Wiesbaden 1972 (= Ägyptologische Abhandlungen. (ÄA) Vol. 24).
  • Winfried Barta: The meaning of the pyramid texts for the deceased king. Munich 1981 (= Munich Egyptological Studies. (MÄS) Vol. 39).
  • Otto Firchow: Basics of the style in the ancient Egyptian pyramid texts. Berlin 1953.
  • Frank Kammerzell : Eating the Gods - Religious Imagination or Poetic Fiction? In: Lingua Aegyptia 7 , 2000, pp. 183-218.
  • Jürgen Osing: On the disposition of the pyramid texts of the Unas. In: Communications from the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDIK) bd. 42, 1986, pp. 131-144.
  • Siegfried Schott : Myths and formation of myths in ancient Egypt. Leipzig 1945 (= studies of the history and antiquity of Egypt. (UGAÄ) vol. 15).
  • Siegfried Schott: Comments on the Egyptian pyramid cult. Cairo 1950.
  • Joachim Spiegel : The resurrection ritual of the Unas pyramid. Wiesbaden 1971 (= ÄA 23 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ G. Meurer, The enemies of the king in the pyramid texts. 2002, ISBN 3-7278-1420-9 , p. 306.