Revealing, transforming, and display in Egyptian hieroglyphs by David Klotz Andréas Stauder

Author:David Klotz, Andréas Stauder
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2020-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

§ 2. Cols. 3–5 a 3–4

ḫprw=sn pw sɜb [A] jmnt.tj [B]

Their manifestation is (the image of) a western jackal.

A. Drioton interprets the jackal atop a standard as š(ɜ), “country,” by acrophony from šɜs, “travel,” which he identifies as an attribute of Ophois (i.e. Wepwawet), “le Rôdeur.” 691 It is difficult to fathom why such a tortuous solution is preferable to reading the jackal-and-standard as Wepwawet himself, 692 which divine name we might read literally here, as a cryptic rebus: wp(.w) wɜ.wt, “which open the paths,” modifying ḫprw=sn in an A pw nominal construction, “These are their transformations, which open the paths of the Westerner” (B↓). However, perhaps the most straightforward solution is to read the jackal-standard as yet another iteration of sɜb, “jackal,” yielding an A pw B nominal sentence, 693 in reference either to an actual cult image or to the vignette itself as the physical, i.e. written (thus, § 5), expression of the [jackal-headed] bas a “westerners,” described previously (§ 1). 694

B. If we read the preceding sign as wp(.w) wɜ.wt, “which open the paths,” then the group could represent jmnt.t, the “West,” calling to mind the “paths of the West” attested, with variations, in other Underworld compositions. 695 However, other examples of jmnt.t from the present text do not write the ending and include a “hill-country” determinative, or its cryptic equivalent (§ 1, F and L, end of column). It is possible that a feminine nisbe adjective was intended, i.e. wɜ.wt, jmn.tt, “western paths,” but the dual strokes in such a case would still have to be regarded as otiose, influenced perhaps by the masculine nisbe form. Thus, the most likely reading in this case appears to be jmnt.tj, translating either as the paths of the “Westerner” or as a “western” jackal, depending on the interpretation of the preceding sign (A↑). The former epithet occurs in reference to Osiris in the Book of the Earth 696 and as one of the many ḫprw-transformations of the sun god, identified with the justified deceased, in the Litany of Re. 697 The concept of “opening paths” on behalf of the Westerner occurs already in the Pyramid Texts. 698 The interpretation followed above resumes and concludes the description of the [jackal-headed] bas from row 1 as “westerners,” etc.

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