Else-now scheme

The otherwise-now scheme is a special stylistic device of ancient Egyptian literature that was introduced at the end of the first intermediate period in the Middle Kingdom and describes the reversal of the ancient Egyptian cosmological world order (Maat) .

The otherwise-now scheme specifically refers to the process when the deities leave Egypt through foreign conquests or are made responsible for catastrophes, no longer grant people protection and chaos (Isfet) reigns. The otherwise natural order no longer exists, so that even nature no longer follows the other conditions, for example if the Nile flood does not occur. In the teaching of Hasheschonqi , the otherwise-now scheme is used in the context of the framework plot, in which the wrath of the sun god Re is thematized:

“If Re is angry with a country, his ruler will neglect the law, he will let the laws and purity as well as the mate cease in it, he will reduce values in it, he will not allow trust in it, he will make his little ones great and make his greats humble, he will let the stupid masters be the wise, he will order his ruler to do evil to his subordinates, he will make his clerk the chief administrative officer, he will make his washer chief police chief. "

- Column 5, 1-13

literature

Andreas Blasius: Apocalyptic and Egypt: A critical analysis of the relevant texts from Greco-Roman Egypt . Peeters, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-429-1113-1
Joachim Friedrich Quack : The teaching of the Chascheschonqi . In: Friedhelm Hoffmann , Joachim Friedrich Quack: Anthology of demotic literature (= introductions and source texts for Egyptology. Volume 4). LIT, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-8258-0762-2 , pp. 273-298 and 365-367.
Wolfgang Schenkel : Else-Now: Variations on a literary formula . In: The World of the Orient. Volume 15, 1984, ISSN 0043-2547 , pp. 51-61. ( online )
Heinz Josef Thissen: The teaching of the Anchscheschonqi . In: Otto Kaiser , Günter Burkard : TUAT , Vol. 3, Delivery 2: Wisdom Texts II . Mohn, Gütersloh 1991, ISBN 3-579-00073-X , pp. 251-277.

Individual evidence

↑ Heinz Josef Thissen: The teaching of the Anchscheschonqi . Pp. 255-256.

[1] Heinz Josef Thissen: The teaching of the Anchscheschonqi . Pp. 255-256.