Bodleian Library Finds #2

Yesterday I finally managed to sneak back into the Sackler Library to do some more research before the end of the academic term.

First on my list, of course, was Gwyn Griffiths’ “The Contendings”, which I had halfway read last time. Thankfully no one borrowed it in the meantime and my bookmark was still exactly were I had left it, so I could resume my reading exactly where I’d left it off. 

I finally finished it and I will be posting the review in its own post (watch this space) and my notes on Penflip ASAP (probably during the holidays).

In addition to that, I managed to grab some other Seth-related goodies while I was at it.

“Illuminating Osiris – Egyptological Studies in Honour of Mark Smith” ed. R. Jasnow and G. Widmer, Lockwood Press, Atlanta, Georgia, 2017.

I had been trying to track down this anthology for a few months, ever since I saw the title of one of the collected papers pop up in my Academia.edu feed. Leafing through it, I found a couple more interesting papers, which I will briefly review.

1) The “Immortality” of Seth by F. Gaudard, pp 93-98 – cw: violence.

This was my main objective in the anthology. This paper discusses the belief that, contrary to the rest of the Ancient Egyptian deities, Seth was effectively immortal. This theory, that can be supported by some remarks in the late sources, is based on the fact that, no matter what gets thrown at Him, no matter how gruesome or incapacitating, Seth always bounces back and is never completely defeated. In fact, he is renown for “escaping the day of His death” no matter the inordinate amounts of damage he takes. The author links this ability (which He supposedly shares only with A/pep) with His unnatural birth (either spat, or violently ejected from Nut’s womb) and with his role as perpetual adversary of Horus and the forces of authority and order. IMHO, Seth is either really hard to kill permanently (like Deadpool or Wolverine), or has infinite respawns (like Wily Coyote) exactly because A/pep cannot be permanently vanquished. As the champion of Ra, Seth needs to be always present to defend the Barque. I doubt that this repeated “not-quite-dying” is pleasant, though.

2) “Grain for Seth and His Divine Companions (Ostracon Mut 21/4)” by G. Wittmann, pp. 363-374

This short paper describes a hieratic ostrakon from Mut in the Dakhleh Oasis. This document is basically a Purchase Order from the admins of the local temple of Seth, instructing one of the priests to use the money from the taxes collected by the temple to buy a whole load of grain for the offerings to Seth and the other dieties who were worshipped in the temple (Isis, Horus, Osiris and Nephthys). It’s nice to see some more Seth around, but it is nothing to get too excited about, really.

3) “Grappling With the Notion of Evil in Ancient Egypt” by Mpay Kemboly, pp. 173-180

Dr Kemboly has previously written a whole book on the topic of Evil and Ma’at (book reference), and I have the feeling that this paper is a highly condensed version of the book. It discusses the different categories of evil, their meain features and the causes of evil. According to Dr Kemboly, apart from the Creator/trix, who made the world to be in Ma’at, everybody else, including and not limited to deities and humans is responsible for the presence of evil. I have my misgivings about taking the lamentations at face value, as to me it would be tantamount to taking the “Millennials Ruin Everything” articles that appear with impressive regularity on many newspapers as the absolute truth without analysing the socio-economical and political context, but YMMV. What really does it for me about this article, is the strong call to action that Dr Kemboly makes at the end: inaction and laziness are in service of evil.  People need to act for Ma’at through solidarity and reciprocity and keeping the past clear in mind.

On a related note, Jan Assmann has written a book on the topic of Ma’at and social justice in pharaonic Egypt. The book exists in German and French editions and thankfully they have the French one at the Sackler. Someone had checked it out when I went looking for it, but eventually I intend to read it, so stay tuned!

“Lotus and Laurel –  Studies on Egyptian Language and Religion in Honour of Paul John Fransden” ed. R. Nyord and K. Ryholt, Museum Tusculanum Press and CNI Press, 2015.

“Antisocial Gods? On the Transgression of Norms in Ancient Egyptian Mythology” by Alexandra Von Lieven, pp 181-207 – strong CW: assault, sexual violence, rape, incest.

We all know that Seth is not the nicest fellow in Ancient Egyptian mythology by a mile: he drinks too much, fights too much and fucks too much, even people who didn’t really ask him to (shudder…), not to mention the pesky matter of fratricide/regicide… It is all too easy to think that he is the “black sheep” of the family. This paper, however examines the familial relationships of the “perfect Osirian family” in the light of some new documents from the Delta and some well-known minority variants of myths, and paints a pretty different picture. From Geb, to Horus to Osiris, all the men in the family have their own myths in which they behave just as badly. I have not finished reading it yet (I am missing the analysis part and the conclusion) but I can already tell you that it is not an easy read if you are triggered by the theme.

Finally, I have also managed to find a third book that I had been looking for for quite a long time (more or less two years).

“Egypt in Transition – Social and Religious Development of Egypt in the First Millennium B.C.E” ed. F. Barenš, F. Coppens and K. Smolárikóva, Czech Institute of Egyptology, 2010, is another anthology of essays dealing mostly with the Third Intermediate Period. The reason why I have been looking for it far and wide is that it contains an essay by Mark Smith called “The Reign of Seth – Egyptian Perspectives from the First Millennium B.C.E.”, which supposedly examines the “elephant in the room” of the Osiris Cycle: Seth was avtually nsw-bty for quite a long while following the coup and the murder of Osiris. Supposedly, His reign was a hot, disastrous mess, but this paper tries to examine this supposition in the light of mythological and textual evidence. I did not manage to read it, but if I have half a chance, I will try to do it this week and I will report back.

And that’s all for this round. I will try to update the resources and get the material on the Contendings out ASAP, but in the meantime if you have any questions, please let me know in the comments section.