(5.1) Introduction
It is my impression that Egyptological research on the topic of women has branched out into separate areas of focus, the results of which have not extensively been considered within a comparative context. For example, studies that focus on the economic and legal status of women have placed the ancient Egyptian woman on a par with her male companion (except for her not appearing as a witness).563 This
aspect has hardly been compared to the construction of women’s identity in, for instance, a literary context.564 Accordingly, studies that focus on literary constructions of female identity often refrain from
addressing the subject within a broader cultural framework that contrasts results with other areas in Egyptology, in order to define similarities and differences within these subfields: for example, an evaluation of the different types of discourse regarding women is lacking within literature, the genre of wisdom texts, fictional narratives and judicial texts. Another problem when approaching the subject of representations of women in ancient Egypt is that several Egyptological studies do not include the Hellenistic and Roman periods, perhaps considering these as less culturally indigenous in nature.565
Where such studies do exist, their focal point tends to be the Greek material, which in return leaves us with conclusions that reflect representations of the Hellenic or Hellenized women of Egypt and not necessarily the indigenous woman adhering to Egyptian traditions. This is naturally influenced by several factors such as the circumstance that fewer Egyptologists in general are studying the Demotic material, as well as the lack of communication between Classicists and Egyptologists: as Pomeroy put it
563 e.g.: J. Johnson, "The Social, Economic, and Legal Status of Women in Ancient Egypt," In The Life of Meresamun:
A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt, 82-91; J. Johnson, "The Legal Status of Women in Ancient Egypt," In Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt, 175-86.
564 For portrayals of women in literature, see e.g.: L. H. Lesko, "The Perception of Women in Pharaonic Egyptian Wisdom Literature," In Ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean Studies, 163-71; J. Dieleman, "Fear of Women? Representations of Women in Demotic Wisdom Texts," ZÄS 25, (1998); L. H. Lesko, "Women and Priests in Two Egyptian Stories," In Hesed ve-emet. Studies in Honor of Ernest S. Frerichs; P. M. Teysseire, “The Portrayal of Women in the Ancient Egyptian Tale” (Yale University, 1998). None of these studies include a comparative analysis with documentary sources and mainly evaluate the portrayal of women within the literary genre itself.
565 Middle Kingdoms, e.g.: W. Grajetzki, "Women and Writing in the Middle Kingdom: Stela Louvre C 187," RdE 60, (2009): 209-14. The author proposes that girls could participate in the informal home-schooling where fathers taught their boys; W. A. Ward, "Non-Royal Women and their Occupations in the Middle Kingdom," In Women's Earliest
Records from Ancient Egypt and Western Asia: Proceedings of the Conference on Women in the Ancient Near East, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, November 5-7, 1987, 33-46. New Kingdom, e.g.: J. Toivari-Viitala, Women at Deir el-Medina. A Study of the Status and Roles of the Female Inhabitants in the Workmen's Community during the Ramesside Period. Greco-Roman period, e.g.: K. Vandorpe and S. Waebens, "Women and Gender in Roman
Egypt: the Impact of Roman Rule," In Tradition and Transformation: Egypt under Roman Rule. Proceedings of the
International Conference, Hildesheim, Roemer- and Pelizaeus-Museum, 3-6 July 2008, 415-35; S. B. Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt, from Alexander to Cleopatra. In general for Ancient Egypt: G. Robins, Women in Ancient Egypt.
“…social historians interested in Ptolemaic Egypt ... would welcome more studies of the indigenous women by Demotists.”566
Since the diachronic aspect of literary development is an important aspect of the present dissertation, it would lie beyond its scope to include several literary motifs of women. Therefore, I narrow down the discussion to the two most common motifs in narrative fiction throughout the historical period, namely the “good” and the “bad” wife through linking three Egyptological fields pertaining to the subject: fictional narratives, instructions and documentary/judicial texts.
The main point of departure consists of the motifs of good and bad wife in narrative literature. Since this thesis has defined cultural identity as a the conscious reification of ideas, beliefs, values, attitudes and practices, selectively extracted from social existence but also subject to variation, the diachronic aspect of the approach helps in defining change and permanence in the representations. I have also argued that cultural manifestations arise from society and are formed and conditioned by it, and that they also create and perpetuate these. By extracting the recurrence of motifs in narratives and comparing these with the wisdom texts and documentary sources, representations of the “ideal” as opposed to “bad” wife may be understood within a cultural context. This is based on the hypothesis that an audience makes sense of a text through a process of naturalization:567 “to naturalize a text is to
bring it into relation with a type of discourse or model which is already, in some sense, natural and legible,”568 i.e. the construction of the reading process on the basis of a frame of reference with which
the reader is familiar.569 These frames of references may derive from reality, i.e. concepts which govern
our perception of the world, such as cultural conventions, each forming a label constituting an answer to questions such as: What is happening? What is the state of affairs? What is the situation? and so on.570 Accordingly, instructions, i.e. texts that have an ethical voice, and documentary sources, i.e. the
actual behavior towards women, are relevant because, for a extinct pharaonic civilization, they serve as sources for the models of coherence: the cultural codes which constitute a system of values. This is the context I apply in forming a clearer understanding of the motifs of good or bad wife in narrative literature.
566 Pomeroy, Women in Hellenistic Egypt, from Alexander to Cleopatra, vii.
567 Culler, Structuralist Poetics, Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature, 159.
568 Culler, Structuralist Poetics, Structuralism, Linguistics and the Study of Literature, 138. Referred to as “Gestalten” in: W. Iser, "The Reading Process: A Phenomenological Approach," New Literary History 3:2 (1972): 279-299. “frame of reference” in: B. Hrushovski, Segmentation and Motivation in the Text Continuum of Literary Prose: The First
Episode of War and Peace. “Intertextual frames” in U. Eco, The Role of the Reader: Explorations in the Semiotics of Texts.
569 M. Perry, "Literary Dynamics: How the Order of a Text Creates Its Meanings," Poetics Today 1, (1979): 36. 570 M. Perry, "Literary Dynamics: How the Order of a Text Creates Its Meanings," Poetics Today 1, (1979): 43.
The present chapter begins with a brief overview of the terminology that constituted “marriage,” “husband,” and “wife,”571 in order to form a better contextualization of the motifs. This is a
complicated matter in its own right due to the “scarcity and laconic nature of the sources as well as problems connected with the interpretation of the concept [marriage] itself.”572 Then two sections
follow: one focuses on the good wife, the other on the bad wife. Each of these aspects is contextualized within two separate historical periods, namely before and after the 9th century BC, which
is the period where marriage becomes institutionalized and “marriage contracts” make their appearance.
(5.2) Terminology
In interpreting the sources, especially with regards to the early periods of Egyptian history from which no actual “marriage contacts” survive, different traditions in different parts of the country may, in some cases, explain the inconsistency of the terminology. Moreover, the historically disconnected nature of the sources along with their imbalanced geographical spread do not allow for a full picture to emerge.
In general, the nature of the relationship between man and woman may be deduced from the designations of the women and men in the texts. “Married” women are referred to as “Hm.t,” which is Coptic xime “wife” (Copt. Dict. 385) commonly used as the designation for a married woman, but it could also simply mean “woman.” Women who do not appear to be in such a relationship are most commonly referred to as “sHm.t,” (old s.t Hm.t) Coptic sxime “woman” (Copt. Dict. 385). In Middle and Late Egyptian texts as well as Demotic “husband” would often be referred to as h(A)y, which corresponds to Coptic xai (Copt. Dict. 636).
With regards to the association between man and woman, there are the expressions Hm.t TAy (Wb. 4, 345) “wife of a man” as well as the expression iw=s m-di NN “(while) she is/was with NN.” (see below) The expressions are grammatically different: the former has the direct object “wife” indicating possession and narrowing the attachment of the woman to a certain man; the latter uses the preposition “with” suggesting a more detached characterization of the relationship between the man and the woman. Both expressions are extensively attested in the Deir el-Medina documents discussed below where men and women are accused of adultery. The Deir el-Medina sources convey the behavioral
571 For marital relations, see e.g.: J. Johnson, "Sex and Marriage in Ancient Egypt," In Hommages à Fayza Haikal, 149- 59; J. Johnson, "Speculations on Middle Kingdom Marriage," In Studies on Ancient Egypt in Honour of H.S. Smith, 169-72; J. Johnson, "'Annuity Contracts' and Marriage," In For his Ka: Essays Offered in Memory of Klaus Baer, 113- 32.
572 J. Toivari, "Marriage at Deir el-Medina," In Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists,
code that, regardless which of the idioms characterizes the relationship, monogamy was expected. In comparison with h(A)y “husband,” there seems to be a difference between the former and TAy “man:” the former appears to signify a “formal” characterization of a married man, while the latter, in the expression Hm.t TAy, appears to indicate an “informal” classification of a man who has a woman. Generally speaking, the Deir el Medina documents suggest a formal designation Hm.t and HAy “wife” and “husband,” and an informal but socially recognized relationship between a “man” and “woman” in the expression “she is with NN.”
In the 9th century BC “marriage contracts” appear in the historical records. However, any
ceremonial activity or celebration that might have taken place when such unions were formed seem to have been located outside of the public sphere since no records of such proceedings are extant.573 In
this context, there is an exceptional example in one story from the 2nd century AD that contains the
phrase Hb n TAy Hm.t “celebration of taking a wife,” which is so far the only reference in narrative fiction to a “wedding celebration” and thus a unique portrayal of the social practice, at least in Roman Egypt.
With regards to the legal aspects of marriage, Pestman’s work574 presents a comprehensive
outline of the documents concerning marriage that groups the texts according to their theme in an attempt to present an in-depth analysis of the sources. Several studies that followed Pestman’s revision focus on specific periods, locations, or types of texts.575 As a whole, legal documents that convey a
written agreement between a man and a woman are extant from the 9th century onwards.
573 J. J. Janssen, "An Allusion to an Egyptian Wedding Ceremony?," GM 10, (1974): 25-8; S. Allam, "An Allusion to an Egyptian Wedding Ceremony?," GM 13, (1974): 9-11.
574 P. W. Pestman, Marriage and Matrimonial Property in Ancient Egypt. A Contribution to Establishing the Legal
Position of the Woman.
575 A review of the publication on the subject of “marriage” in ancient Egypt is presented in; P. W. Pestman, Marriage
and Matrimonial Property in Ancient Egypt. A Contribution to Establishing the Legal Position of the Woman, x. To
these references may be added: S. Allam, "Quelques aspects du mariage dans l'Égypte ancienne," JEA 67, (1981): 116- 35; C. Eyre, "Crime and Adultery in Ancient Egypt," JEA 70, (1984): 92-105; J. J. Janssen, "Marriage Problems and Public Reactions," In Pyramid Studies and Other Essays. Presented to I. E. S. Edwards, 134-7; Johnson, "Sex and Marriage in Ancient Egypt," In Hommages à Fayza Haikal, 149-59; Toivari, "Marriage at Deir el-Medina," In
Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists, Cambridge, 3-9 September 1995, 1157-63; T.