Daemons and Spirits in Ancient Egypt , livre ebook

University of Wales Press - Carolyn Graves-Brown

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

154 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

This book is about the weird and wonderful lesser-known ‘spirit’ entities of ancient Egypt –daemons, the mysterious and often fantastical creatures of the Egyptian ‘Otherworld’ – and the closely related spirits of the dead, which together conjure the excitement of all things otherworldly. Daemons and spirits are generally defined in Egyptology as creatures not of this world, which do not have their own cult centre, and both groups are frequently listed together in protective spells. This volume explores the general nature of daemons and spirits in ancient Egypt and discusses a selection in more detail: it uses artefacts from Wales’s important collection of Egyptian objects at the Egypt Centre at Swansea University, in which are to be found a dwarf daemon with sticking out tongue; several guardian daemons of the Otherworld; creatures who are part snake and part feline; spirits of deceased humans; and a Greek satyr Silenus, companion to the wine god Dionysus.

List of figures
Chronology
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Preface
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: The Realm of the Dead and Daemons, the Otherworld
Chapter 3: Early Daemons and a Magic Wand
Chapter 4: Those with sticking out tongues, dwarves, hippopotami and problems of gender: Daemons from the New Kingdom and later.
Chapter 5: Spirits of the Dead
Chapter 6: Daemons on Coffins, the Book of the Dead and the Star-lit Sky
Chapter 7: Quasi-Daemons
Chapter 8: Conclusions
References

Sujets

Histoire

Egypt

Ancient

History

Informations

Publié par	University of Wales Press
Date de parution	01 septembre 2018
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781786832900
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	4 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,2400€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

DAEMONS & SPIRITS
IN
ANCIENT EGYPT
LIVES AND BELIEFS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
Series Editor
C. Graves-Brown
Egypt Centre, Swansea University
Editorial Board
Dr Emily Teeter
The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Dr Campbell Price
Curator of Egypt and Sudan, Manchester Museum,
The University of Manchester
LIVES AND BELIEFS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS
DAEMONS & SPIRITS
IN
ANCIENT EGYPT
CAROLYN GRAVES-BROWN
© Carolyn Graves-Brown, 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the University of Wales Press, University Registry, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff CF10 3NS.
www.uwp.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-78683-288-7
eISBN: 978-1-78683-290-0
The right of Carolyn Graves-Brown to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Cover image: First century AD, painted and inscribed wooden funerary stela. Collection The Egypt Centre, Swansea University.
Dedicated to those yonder. Know you are loved, know you are valued.
CONTENTS
List of figures
Chronology
Acknowledgements
Preface
1 Introduction: Problems
2 Dwellings of the Dead and Daemons
3 Early Daemons and a Magic Wand
4 Those with Sticking-out Tongues, Dwarves, Hippopotami and Problems of Gender: Daemons from the New Kingdom and Later
5 Spirits of the Dead
6 Daemons on Coffins, the Book of the Dead and the Star-lit Sky
7 ‘Quasi-Daemons’
8 Conclusions
Notes
References
LIST OF FIGURES
1. W922 and W923. Greek and Roman ideas of the Otherworld. Note Anubis with the key to Hades around his neck.
2. EA38192. British Museum wand.
3. LIH9 Faience frog amulet.
4. W219 Pottery frog.
5. ‘Amarna’ beaded collar.
6. Close up of W9 showing Bes or Beset.
7. W1156. Amarna pendant of a foreign captive or a liminal daemon?
8. W961p. Pendant showing a dancing Bes playing a hand drum.
9. W553. Sistrum showing Bes.
10. A collection of Bes moulds.
11. W2052a and b. Bed legs showing Bes and a hippopotamus daemon.
12. Hippopotamus daemon amulet. Taweret or Ipet?
13. AB110. Cippus showing Bes head above Horus the Child.
14. Back of Horus stela.
15. W1702. Part of a pottery vessel showing Bes.
16. EC257. Part of a faience Bes vessel.
17. W1283. Ptolemaic Period Bes vessel.
18. EC546. Late Period Bes vessel.
19. WK44. Faience Bes bell.
20. W56. Isis-Thermouthis (with elements of Agathe Tyche) and on the right Serapis (with elements of the Agathodaimon).
21. W867. A fragment of the Book of the Dead belonging to Ankh-Hapi.
22. Simplified offering formula.
23. W481. Pottery offering tray.
24. W484. Pottery cistern.
25. W1015. Stone offering table.
26. EC710. Fragment of a stone offering table.
27. W1041. Offering stela from Edfu.
28. W1043. Offering stela from Edfu.
29. W1982. The coffin of Iwesemhesetmut. Photograph by Keith Arkley.
30. W1982. Weighing of the heart scene on a Twenty-first Dynasty coffin.
31. W651. Weighing of the heart scene on Tashay’s shroud.
32. W869. Rifeh shroud painted with scenes from the Book of the Dead.
33. W1050. Third Intermediate Period coffin fragment showing the Lake of Fire.
34. W5029 and WK34. Shabtis declaring the deceased as ‘the illuminated one’.
35. W5081. Shabti with breasts.
36. W649 Tashay’s shroud showing the deceased on a funerary bed.
37. W1052. Coffin fragment of a Chantress of Amun but showing the deceased as male.
38. W648. A coffin fragment showing Khepri embraced by the sun-disk.
39. Depiction of the writing ‘for the ka of’.
40. W1982. Ba-bird and sycamore tree goddess.
41. A group of wooden ba -birds.
42. W1056. Ba-bird on the interior of a coffin.
43. A232. An ancestor stela.
44. W920. Fragment of a Ptolemaic funerary mask with Book of the Dead 151 upon it, associating the deceased with various deities.
45. W498. Canopic jar.
46. PM6–PM9. The Four Sons of Horus in amuletic form.
47. W948b–W948e. The Four Sons of Horus in bead form.
48. W868 A fragment of the Book of the Dead showing the Four Sons of Horus and daemons of the mounds.
49. W1982. Feline-headed male daemon.
50. W1982. She Who Embraces.
51. W1982. Osiris on the mound scene.
52. W1982. Ammut the Devourer.
53. W1982. Gods in the snake.
54. W1982. Nut separated from Geb.
55. W1307. Coffin fragment showing the Ouroboros.
56. W870 and W945 Wind daemons.
57. Selected Amarna ring bezels with the names of kings.
58. W1371. Relief from the memorial temple of Thutmose III.
59. W1367a and W1367b. Coffin fragments of Amenhotep, son of Hapu.
60. GR104. A so-called ‘grotesque’.
61. EC1290. ‘Grotesque’ with furrowed brow.
62. EC1301 and EC1302. Brazier fragments showing daemons or actors?
63. W946. Stela to the mother of the Buchis bull.
64. Coffin clamps from Armant.
65. Selected coffin footboards showing the Apis bull.
66. EC308. A mummified snake.
CHRONOLOGY
Predynastic
5500–3100 BC
Early Dynastic
3100–2686 BC
Old Kingdom
2686–2181 BC
First Intermediate Period
2181–2055 BC
Middle Kingdom
2055–1650 BC
Second Intermediate Period
1650–1550 BC
New Kingdom
1550–1069 BC
Third Intermediate Period
1069–747 BC
Late Period
747–332 BC
Ptolemaic Period
332–30 BC
Roman Period
30 BC – AD 395
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
S EVERAL PEOPLE have been invaluable in producing this volume. Firstly, those patient individuals who have helped edit deserve a special mention. These include my husband, Paul Graves-Brown. Ken Griffin, a long-standing supporter of the Egypt Centre and lecturer at Swansea University was also roped in. My work colleagues all deserve a mention for their patience, and especially Wendy Goodridge, a curator at the Egypt Centre. I also owe a special debt of gratitude to the University of Wales’s anonymous reviewers. Finally, without the publisher and its commissioning editor Sarah Lewis, this volume would certainly not exist!
PREFACE
T HIS BOOK IS ABOUT the weird and wonderful lesser-known ‘spirit’ entities of ancient Egypt, daemons, the mysterious and often fantastical creatures of the Egyptian ‘Otherworld’ and the closely related spirits of the dead. While several publications deal with major gods, few discuss lesser-known entities, such as daemons like Bes or She Who Embraces, and those that exist are largely intended for scholars of Egyptology. 1 This volume is illustrated with artefacts from the collection of the Egypt Centre at Swansea University and is intended for both academic Egyptologists and the wider public.
Writing the volume was not without problems. Naturally, the ancient Egyptians did not classify their world as we would today, so spirits of the dead, living people able to commune with spirits, and even cult objects were considered very similar. They were all liminal beings, those who were between states or locations, as well as sometime inhabitants of the Duat or ‘Otherworld’. 2 The word ‘daemon’ is used here to reinforce the point that the group is not quite the same as those entities classified as demons today. However, many others use the term’ demon’, ‘lesser god’, or ‘genie’.
The first chapter explores classifications in more detail, including the once common realm of both daemons and spirits of the dead, the Duat . In summary, daemons and spirits of the dead were active beings, liminal, divine, lesser than the ‘great’ gods, did not have cult centres and could be either malevolent or benevolent. However, ancient Egyptian states of being were fluid with, for example, entities fluctuating between classification as greater gods or as humans with special powers.
The Egypt Centre opened in 1998 as a museum of around 5,000 largely Egyptian antiquities and is part of Swansea University. One might say that this book is an exercise in object-centred learning in that it is based on the museum’s collection. This has advantages and disadvantages. Because this volume is bounded by the artefacts in the Egypt Centre it can never be an exhaustive study and it is biased towards certain perspectives. For example, several daemons decorate the Twenty-first Dynasty coffin (accessioned as W1982) belonging to the centre. Had the centre contained, say, a Middle Kingdom coffin, the volume would depict a quite different set of daemons. On the positive side, this approach allows exploration of many objects until now unknown in Egyptological circles.
Unfortunately, the ‘biographies’ of the artefacts are incomplete. It has not always been possible to trace provenance, though it is indicated where known.
Some artefacts which form the basis of the collection were held in the university as early as the 1950s. Previous professors, notably Professor George Kerferd, collected classical artefacts and some replicas which he donated to the university. However, the bulk of the artefacts now housed in the Egypt Centre came to Swansea in 1971 from that part of the Wellcome Collection that had been housed in the Petrie Museum. 3 Post 1971, a few artefacts were donated by private donors. The coffin, (accession number W1982), which features heavily in chapters five and six, came to Swansea in 1981