Modulación unilateral

(2.1) Introduction 

Various types of literary heroes are represented in fictional narratives of ancient Egypt where categories vary from the peasant (Eloquent Peasant: Middle Egyptian), to the court official (Story of Wenamun: Late Egyptian), to the warrior prince (Inaros Cycle: Demotic). Among this range of hero types, one remained prominent and consistent throughout the entire historical period of ancient Egypt, namely the priest in his role as the ritual expert, i.e. the magician.

The conventional magical practitioner in Egypt was the “lector priest,”85 _{and his high status in}

Middle Kingdom literature, where he occurs in close contact with the royal court, may point to priestly involvement in composing the texts, but a higher-ranking position among the elite seems not to have been prominent in early periods.86 _{By the Ptolemaic period, people who acted as scribes seem all to}

have held positions as officials, particularly those who had priestly or temple connections.87 _Narrative

fiction from this period onwards that concern magicians vary in their designation of the magician: “prophet”, “high priest” and “lector priest,” all recognizably Egyptian priestly titles that were strictly defined within the hierarchy of the native priesthood and carried on a tradition of more than two millennia.88 _{This variation in priestly titles suggests that the priest’s professional connection to the}

temple, and thus his affiliation to religion, becomes the main factor that confirms his association with restricted knowledge and to secret writings and ritual practice (magic). This is further seen in the topographical affiliation that often is assigned to a priest’s title in the Demotic narratives: e.g. “High priest of Horus of Letopolis” or “Prophet of Atum” in “Heliopolis” etc. At the same time, as noted by John Tait,89 _{narratives from this period (i.e. Greco-Roman period) mostly derive from temple contexts,}

the richest source of which being the temple of Tebtunis in Fayoum,90 _{and a remarkable number of}

85 _{Terminology is discussed below. For the magician priest cf. R. K. Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian}

Magical Practice, 220ff.

86 _{Baines, Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt, 51.}

87 _{See E. Seidl, Demotische Urkundenlehre nach den frühptolemäischen Texten, 3-5; E. Seidl, Äyptische}

Rechtsgeschichte der Saiten- und Perserzeit, 10-13; Baines, Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt, 77.

88 _{For titles in the Middle and New Kingdoms for example: LÄ 4, 1084-97; B.J.J. Haring, Divine Households.}

Administrative and Economic Aspects of the New Kingdom Royal Memorial Temples in Western Thebes, 3-7. Greco-

Roman Period: J. Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in

Egyptian Ritual (100-300 CE), 203ff.

89 _{Tait, "Demotic Literature and Egyptian Society," In Life in a Multi-cultural Society. Egypt from Cambyses to}

Constantine and Beyond, 303-10.

90 _{In general, see for example: S. Lippert and M. Schentuleit, eds., Tebtynis und Soknopaiu Nesos: Leben im}

römerzeitlichen Fajum. Akten des Internationalen Symposions vom 11. bis 13. Dezember 2003 in Sommerhausen bei Würzburg; V. Rondot, Tebtynis II: le temple de Soknebtynis et son dromos. For texts from the Tebtunis temple library,

these stories conformingly concern priests in their function as magicians. Since Demotic was no longer used for documentation during this period, Tait argues, the priests must be the only literate group in this script and therefore, the only writers and readers of the texts.91 _{Thus, in Tait’s view, the temples}

become repositories of written knowledge. In this context, temple texts, stelae that priests set up in the vicinity of the temple building, as well as literary texts provide information that should be regarded as a conscious effort on the part of the priests to construe an ideal and official image of priestly life for the outer world.92

The present chapter specifically explores this self-presentation of the priests in Egyptian fictional narratives. In disagreement with Tait, that the narratives were only read in temple contexts, the present chapter argues for a much broader reception, especially for the Hellenistic and Roman periods,93 _which

is further substantiated by the survival of motifs and stories in other languages and cultures. Accordingly, priests would have been key mediators between the boundary of temples, restricted knowledge and intercultural encounters, controlling and merchandising their self-image. When possible, the archeological context of the manuscripts is also discussed in order to gain a better understanding of the geographic distribution and popularity of the texts.

The first section discusses the literary function of the magician priest. It distinguishes between his role in wisdom literature where he figures as the embedded narrator of the text providing it value and authority through his title, and his role in fictional narratives where he himself is the one who influences the course of events. The second section discusses the archeological and literary context of the priest as a magician and expert in ritual and secret knowledge. Here, some of the most common motifs in the narratives are compared with the archeological evidence. The final section is devoted to the characters in the narratives, which are each discussed separately. I argue that these characters were perceived as historical figures, and, when possible, I link some of the protagonists to actual individuals from the past, arguing that the ancient monuments could have served as an inspiration for constructing literary heroes. This practice of ascribing historicity to the hero figures is perceived as a tool of preserving identity and power, elevating the priests to members of a select sphere in society.

       Soknopaiu Nesos: Leben im römerzeitlichen Fajum. Akten des Internationalen Symposions vom 11. bis 13. Dezember 2003 in Sommerhausen bei Würzburg, 141-70.

91 _{Tait, "Demotic Literature and Egyptian Society," In Life in a Multi-cultural Society. Egypt from Cambyses to}

Constantine and Beyond, 306.

92 _{Dieleman, Priests, Tongues, and Rites: The London-Leiden Magical Manuscripts and Translation in Egyptian Ritual}

(100-300 CE), 204.