John Tait
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter discusses aspects of Demotic Egyptian prose narratives of the Greek and Roman periods, viewed against the background of the growing significance of reception theory in the study of ...
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This chapter discusses aspects of Demotic Egyptian prose narratives of the Greek and Roman periods, viewed against the background of the growing significance of reception theory in the study of ancient Egyptian literature in general. It reviews the development since the nineteenth century of ideas on the ancient audiences for Demotic literature. The problematic evidence for readers and performance is examined, to a very limited extent with reference to the nature of the finds and find-spots of manuscripts, but chiefly by paying attention to their format and their contents. As for the relationship with oral literature, it is suggested that the material essentially belonged to a written tradition, and was designed primarily for oral performance within temple communities.Less
This chapter discusses aspects of Demotic Egyptian prose narratives of the Greek and Roman periods, viewed against the background of the growing significance of reception theory in the study of ancient Egyptian literature in general. It reviews the development since the nineteenth century of ideas on the ancient audiences for Demotic literature. The problematic evidence for readers and performance is examined, to a very limited extent with reference to the nature of the finds and find-spots of manuscripts, but chiefly by paying attention to their format and their contents. As for the relationship with oral literature, it is suggested that the material essentially belonged to a written tradition, and was designed primarily for oral performance within temple communities.
Jean Bingen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748615780
- eISBN:
- 9780748670727
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748615780.003.0020
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Archaeology: Classical
Although most of the evidence for the history of Ptolemaic Egypt comes from texts on papyrus, Egypt has also produced a large number of inscriptions on stone, the type of document that makes up most ...
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Although most of the evidence for the history of Ptolemaic Egypt comes from texts on papyrus, Egypt has also produced a large number of inscriptions on stone, the type of document that makes up most of the surviving evidence in other parts of the ancient Greek world. This chapter examines the nature of this epigraphical evidence from Egypt and asks what contribution it makes. There the Greek inscriptions co-exist with a native epigraphical tradition of an entirely different sort, the hieroglyphic texts written on temple walls. There are also inscriptions in Demotic, the late cursive form of Egyptian, which connect more readily with the Greek documents. Some types of Greek inscriptions in Egypt are distinctive, such as the proskynema dedications with which visitors to temples left a permanent mark of their presence in words before the god.The trilingual decrees of synods of Egyptian priests (most famously the Rosetta Stone) are also without close parallel. And the asylum decrees of the late Ptolemaic period concerning temples raise major issues about the relative power of the king and the temples.Less
Although most of the evidence for the history of Ptolemaic Egypt comes from texts on papyrus, Egypt has also produced a large number of inscriptions on stone, the type of document that makes up most of the surviving evidence in other parts of the ancient Greek world. This chapter examines the nature of this epigraphical evidence from Egypt and asks what contribution it makes. There the Greek inscriptions co-exist with a native epigraphical tradition of an entirely different sort, the hieroglyphic texts written on temple walls. There are also inscriptions in Demotic, the late cursive form of Egyptian, which connect more readily with the Greek documents. Some types of Greek inscriptions in Egypt are distinctive, such as the proskynema dedications with which visitors to temples left a permanent mark of their presence in words before the god.The trilingual decrees of synods of Egyptian priests (most famously the Rosetta Stone) are also without close parallel. And the asylum decrees of the late Ptolemaic period concerning temples raise major issues about the relative power of the king and the temples.
Koenraad Donker van Heel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774166341
- eISBN:
- 9781617975875
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774166341.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
Reconstruction of the actual life of the ancient Egyptian female entrepreneur Tsenhor daughter of Nesmin (6th-5th century BCE). Her papers—papyri written in Demotic—are now kept in museums in London, ...
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Reconstruction of the actual life of the ancient Egyptian female entrepreneur Tsenhor daughter of Nesmin (6th-5th century BCE). Her papers—papyri written in Demotic—are now kept in museums in London, Paris, Turin, and Vienna. The story is embedded in a general framework describing the age she lived in (which saw the conquest of Egypt by the Persians), as well as the extraordinary legal position of women in Ancient Egypt. The papers left by Tsenhor strongly suggest that she was a liberated woman, almost 2,500 years before the concept was invented. This book aims to change the general view on women in ancient Egypt, which is far too often based on the lives of Nefertiti, Hatshepsut, and Cleopatra.Less
Reconstruction of the actual life of the ancient Egyptian female entrepreneur Tsenhor daughter of Nesmin (6th-5th century BCE). Her papers—papyri written in Demotic—are now kept in museums in London, Paris, Turin, and Vienna. The story is embedded in a general framework describing the age she lived in (which saw the conquest of Egypt by the Persians), as well as the extraordinary legal position of women in Ancient Egypt. The papers left by Tsenhor strongly suggest that she was a liberated woman, almost 2,500 years before the concept was invented. This book aims to change the general view on women in ancient Egypt, which is far too often based on the lives of Nefertiti, Hatshepsut, and Cleopatra.
Kenneth Chan
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9789888208166
- eISBN:
- 9789888313488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Hong Kong University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5790/hongkong/9789888208166.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter deliberates on Evans Chan’s critical vision in The Map of Sex and Love’s absurd connections while at the same time refracting theoretically through Paul Gilroy’s conception of “demotic ...
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This chapter deliberates on Evans Chan’s critical vision in The Map of Sex and Love’s absurd connections while at the same time refracting theoretically through Paul Gilroy’s conception of “demotic cosmopolitanism.” The film, which shows a moment when three Hong Kong lives intersect, allows Chan to marry the local with the global, in ironic resistance to and contestation of unrelenting transnational capitalist strategies, to envision a world of codependence, connection, and conviviality. The film does not eschew political complicities and human failings, for it embraces the notion of shared responsibility and critique, to create a roadmap guiding us into an uncertain global future.Less
This chapter deliberates on Evans Chan’s critical vision in The Map of Sex and Love’s absurd connections while at the same time refracting theoretically through Paul Gilroy’s conception of “demotic cosmopolitanism.” The film, which shows a moment when three Hong Kong lives intersect, allows Chan to marry the local with the global, in ironic resistance to and contestation of unrelenting transnational capitalist strategies, to envision a world of codependence, connection, and conviviality. The film does not eschew political complicities and human failings, for it embraces the notion of shared responsibility and critique, to create a roadmap guiding us into an uncertain global future.
Jason Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774165993
- eISBN:
- 9781617976520
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774165993.003.0014
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
Talented individuals continued to make major contributions to Egyptology. Even in Britain, where public support was almost non-existent, the attorney Charles Wycliffe Goodwin became a leading scholar ...
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Talented individuals continued to make major contributions to Egyptology. Even in Britain, where public support was almost non-existent, the attorney Charles Wycliffe Goodwin became a leading scholar of hieratic in his spare time. In France, Emmanuel de Rougé at last took up where Champollion had left off and raised the study of the ancient Egyptian language to a much higher level. In Germany, Lepsius reigned supreme until he reluctantly had to recognize the accomplishments of Heinrich Brugsch who put ancient Egyptian philology, and especially Demotic studies, on a sound footing. Meanwhile, Lepsius’ achievements included establishment of the basis for ancient Egyptian chronology. In Egypt, the archaeological attainments of Joseph Hekekyan Bey and Alexander Henry Rhind, though little recognized at the time, anticipated the careful methods of later excavators. Yet, the outlook for Egyptology in Egypt appeared problematic at best at the time of Mariette's death in 1881. As it turned out, Egyptology in Egypt and Egyptology in general were about to enter some of their most glorious years.Less
Talented individuals continued to make major contributions to Egyptology. Even in Britain, where public support was almost non-existent, the attorney Charles Wycliffe Goodwin became a leading scholar of hieratic in his spare time. In France, Emmanuel de Rougé at last took up where Champollion had left off and raised the study of the ancient Egyptian language to a much higher level. In Germany, Lepsius reigned supreme until he reluctantly had to recognize the accomplishments of Heinrich Brugsch who put ancient Egyptian philology, and especially Demotic studies, on a sound footing. Meanwhile, Lepsius’ achievements included establishment of the basis for ancient Egyptian chronology. In Egypt, the archaeological attainments of Joseph Hekekyan Bey and Alexander Henry Rhind, though little recognized at the time, anticipated the careful methods of later excavators. Yet, the outlook for Egyptology in Egypt appeared problematic at best at the time of Mariette's death in 1881. As it turned out, Egyptology in Egypt and Egyptology in general were about to enter some of their most glorious years.
Koenraad Donker van Heel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774166341
- eISBN:
- 9781617975875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774166341.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
Description of Tsenhor’s family, the archive she left behind, and her social background, also focusing on her profession, viz. that of being a choachyte, a funerary priest bringing libations to the ...
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Description of Tsenhor’s family, the archive she left behind, and her social background, also focusing on her profession, viz. that of being a choachyte, a funerary priest bringing libations to the dead in the necropolis of ancient Thebes. Tsenhor married at least twice in her life. Three of her children from two marriages are known to have survived their early childhood, although her eldest son from her first marriage may have died shortly after that. With an excursus on the Persian administration after the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses.Less
Description of Tsenhor’s family, the archive she left behind, and her social background, also focusing on her profession, viz. that of being a choachyte, a funerary priest bringing libations to the dead in the necropolis of ancient Thebes. Tsenhor married at least twice in her life. Three of her children from two marriages are known to have survived their early childhood, although her eldest son from her first marriage may have died shortly after that. With an excursus on the Persian administration after the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses.
Koenraad Donker van Heel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774166341
- eISBN:
- 9781617975875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774166341.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
In 556 BCE Tsenhor’s father Nesmin received a sizable portion of land in exchange for his work as a choachyte, which is the technical term for a mortuary priest bringing libations to the dead. His ...
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In 556 BCE Tsenhor’s father Nesmin received a sizable portion of land in exchange for his work as a choachyte, which is the technical term for a mortuary priest bringing libations to the dead. His deceased client was a woman also called Tsenhor, who may therefore have been Tsenhor’s name-giver. She would be born only a few years after this agreement was concluded. This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the Demotic contract describing the agreement involved: Papyrus Louvre E 10935. The text mentions various Late Period dignitaries who are also known from the archaeological evidence.Less
In 556 BCE Tsenhor’s father Nesmin received a sizable portion of land in exchange for his work as a choachyte, which is the technical term for a mortuary priest bringing libations to the dead. His deceased client was a woman also called Tsenhor, who may therefore have been Tsenhor’s name-giver. She would be born only a few years after this agreement was concluded. This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the Demotic contract describing the agreement involved: Papyrus Louvre E 10935. The text mentions various Late Period dignitaries who are also known from the archaeological evidence.
Koenraad Donker van Heel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774166341
- eISBN:
- 9781617975875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774166341.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
Somewhere between 530 and 526 BCE Tsenhor’s second-husband-to-be, Psenese, received his share of the parental inheritance, which probably means that he was to start his own household. Excursus on the ...
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Somewhere between 530 and 526 BCE Tsenhor’s second-husband-to-be, Psenese, received his share of the parental inheritance, which probably means that he was to start his own household. Excursus on the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses and his alleged criminal behavior, including a reassessment of the evidence purporting that the well-known Egyptian dignitary Wedjahorresne was a collaborator. Description of one day in March 517 BCE on which Tsenhor and her husband Psenese had four Demotic contracts written to arrange their marital property and the shares their children would receive. Excursus on the 4,500-year-old contract of Wepemnefret, one of the sons of Pharaoh Kheops.Less
Somewhere between 530 and 526 BCE Tsenhor’s second-husband-to-be, Psenese, received his share of the parental inheritance, which probably means that he was to start his own household. Excursus on the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses and his alleged criminal behavior, including a reassessment of the evidence purporting that the well-known Egyptian dignitary Wedjahorresne was a collaborator. Description of one day in March 517 BCE on which Tsenhor and her husband Psenese had four Demotic contracts written to arrange their marital property and the shares their children would receive. Excursus on the 4,500-year-old contract of Wepemnefret, one of the sons of Pharaoh Kheops.
Koenraad Donker van Heel
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9789774166341
- eISBN:
- 9781617975875
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- American University in Cairo Press
- DOI:
- 10.5743/cairo/9789774166341.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
In 517 BCE Tsenhor bought a male slave, probably a young boy. The purchase included a transfer of the original title deed to the new owner and a contract to the name of Tsenhor herself. Remarkably, ...
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In 517 BCE Tsenhor bought a male slave, probably a young boy. The purchase included a transfer of the original title deed to the new owner and a contract to the name of Tsenhor herself. Remarkably, this boy features in the second written contract, assenting to the sale through an oral statement in the notary office, which was then recorded in writing. Excursus on the right of ancient Egyptian women to own property including slaves, using sources from the Middle Kingdom.Less
In 517 BCE Tsenhor bought a male slave, probably a young boy. The purchase included a transfer of the original title deed to the new owner and a contract to the name of Tsenhor herself. Remarkably, this boy features in the second written contract, assenting to the sale through an oral statement in the notary office, which was then recorded in writing. Excursus on the right of ancient Egyptian women to own property including slaves, using sources from the Middle Kingdom.
Mario C. D. Paganini
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780198805663
- eISBN:
- 9780191843617
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198805663.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter provides a critical analysis of Demotic and Greek sources concerning private associations of Hellenistic Egypt, putting them into perspective in order to overcome the traditional divide ...
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This chapter provides a critical analysis of Demotic and Greek sources concerning private associations of Hellenistic Egypt, putting them into perspective in order to overcome the traditional divide into Greek and Egyptian associations. Apart from language choice—which in the case of Greek does not necessarily imply specific cultural identity—associations in Egypt display no fundamental features to uphold the traditional view, which should therefore be discarded. This chapter argues that instead of being forcefully segregated into Egyptian and Greek, associations should simply be treated as ‘associations of Egypt’: they were embedded in the local society and culture, while at the same time also drew elements—exclusively or inclusively—from various cultural and associative traditions (Greek, Egyptian, as well as others besides).Less
This chapter provides a critical analysis of Demotic and Greek sources concerning private associations of Hellenistic Egypt, putting them into perspective in order to overcome the traditional divide into Greek and Egyptian associations. Apart from language choice—which in the case of Greek does not necessarily imply specific cultural identity—associations in Egypt display no fundamental features to uphold the traditional view, which should therefore be discarded. This chapter argues that instead of being forcefully segregated into Egyptian and Greek, associations should simply be treated as ‘associations of Egypt’: they were embedded in the local society and culture, while at the same time also drew elements—exclusively or inclusively—from various cultural and associative traditions (Greek, Egyptian, as well as others besides).
Witold Witakowski
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780199236428
- eISBN:
- 9780191863349
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199236428.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Historiography
This chapter focuses on how the Christians of Egypt and Ethiopia were closely connected by ecclesiastical bonds for nearly 1,700 years. The connection lasted from the time when Ethiopia's first ...
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This chapter focuses on how the Christians of Egypt and Ethiopia were closely connected by ecclesiastical bonds for nearly 1,700 years. The connection lasted from the time when Ethiopia's first bishop was consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria in the 340s, until the dependence of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on the Coptic Orthodox Church ended formally in 1951. As a consequence of this long allegiance of the former Church to the latter, contacts in the cultural sphere developed strongly. The chapter shows how Coptic literature was written in two languages: in Coptic itself, written in an original alphabet that was based on the Greek, but expanded with seven letters borrowed from the Demotic writing system to represent sounds that did not exist in Greek; and in Arabic, as after about AD 700 Coptic began to lose its position as the language of the Egyptians.Less
This chapter focuses on how the Christians of Egypt and Ethiopia were closely connected by ecclesiastical bonds for nearly 1,700 years. The connection lasted from the time when Ethiopia's first bishop was consecrated by the Patriarch of Alexandria in the 340s, until the dependence of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church on the Coptic Orthodox Church ended formally in 1951. As a consequence of this long allegiance of the former Church to the latter, contacts in the cultural sphere developed strongly. The chapter shows how Coptic literature was written in two languages: in Coptic itself, written in an original alphabet that was based on the Greek, but expanded with seven letters borrowed from the Demotic writing system to represent sounds that did not exist in Greek; and in Arabic, as after about AD 700 Coptic began to lose its position as the language of the Egyptians.
