The Names “Naneferkaptah,” “Ihweret,” and “Tabubue” in the “First Tale of Setne Khaemwas” Author(s): Steve Vinson Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 68, No. 4 (October 2009), pp. 283-304 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/649612 . Accessed: 02/04/2012 13:53 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Near Eastern Studies. http://www.jstor.org THE NAMES “NANEFERKAPTAH,” “IHWERET,” AND “TABUBUE” IN THE “FIRST TALE OF SETNE KHAEMWAS”* STEVE VINSON, Indiana University—Bloomington It has often been observed that personal names in ancient Egyptian fiction can convey or suggest important information about the characters who bear them—their iden- tities, their roles, and even their destinies.1 Of course, the creation or use of such significant names (sometimes referred to as “charactonyms”) is not unique to Egyptian belles lettres, but is rather an obvious and common technique that has been adopted by many authors working in many literatures.2 In Egypt, however, the name (rn) of an individual was con- ceived of as an integral part of the personality, closely connected to both social identity and to survival in the next world;3 similarly, the name(s) and epithets of a king or divinity expressed crucial aspects of such an entity’s fundamental nature and cosmic significance.4 Thus, in an Egyptian story—as also in poems, hymns, and ritual texts, which frequently contain puns on, or glosses to, names5—the exploitation of the name for literary effect had the potential to create and reveal meaning in an especially powerful way. *I would like to thank Karl-Theodor Zauzich, Kim 4 The importance of a divine name is exceptionally Ryholt, Mark Depauw, Edmund Meltzer, Jacquelyn Jay, clear in the New Kingdom historiola “Isis and the Sara Goldbrunner, and Lothar Goldbrunner for read- Secret Name of Reº,” in which Isis contrives to have a ing all or parts of this article and offering a number of poisonous snake bite Reº so as to force him to reveal helpful comments. This article is adapted from my his secret name; see in P Turin 1993 vs. 6.11–9.5 = essay “Through a Woman’s Eyes and in a Woman’s J. F. Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, Re- Voice: Ihweret as Focalizor in the First Tale of Setne ligious Texts Translation Series, Nisaba 9 (Leiden, Khaemwas,” in P. McKechnie and P. Guillaume, eds., 1978), pp. 51–55 (Text 84). Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his World, Memosyne 5 A particularly striking example is the use of the Supplements 300 (Leiden and Boston, 2008), pp. 303– imperative “Come!” as a name for “Death” in Egyptian 51. I would like to express my gratitude to Paul “Harper’s Songs” that appear in some New Kingdom McKechnie for permission to reproduce and further tombs; see Assmann, Death and Salvation, 119 ff. This develop part of my contribution to that volume here. plays on the alliteration (and probably also the asso- 1 E.g., A. Loprieno, “Defining Egyptian Literature,” nance, certainly present in the Coptic forms of the in Loprieno, ed., Ancient Egyptian Literature: History words) of the Egyptian imperative “come” (hiero- and Forms, Probleme der Ägyptologie 10 (Leiden and glyphic/hieratic m¡, Demotic ¡m, Coptic amoU) and New York, 1996), p. 44; R. Parkinson, Poetry and Cul- the noun for “death” (hieroglyphic/hieratic/Demotic ture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfec- mwt, Coptic moU). Naming puns like this can also tion, Athlone Publications in Egyptology and Ancient appear in narrative fiction, e.g., in the Middle Kingdom Near Eastern Studies (New York and London, 2002), tales of P Westcar 10.9 ff., in which Isis puns on the pp. 154, 163–65, 187, 194, 197–98, 200, 202, 256. names of each of the three future kings of the Fifth 2 See S. Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction: Con- Dynasty, as she assists their mother in their births. See temporary Poetics (London and New York, 1989), W. K. Simpson, “King Cheops and the Magicians,” in pp. 68–69. Simpson, ed., The Literature of Ancient Egypt, An An- 3 See, e.g., J. Assmann, Death and Salvation in thology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies Ancient Egypt, trans. D. Lorton (Ithaca, NY, 2006), and Poetry, 3d ed. (New Haven and London, 2003) often, but esp. pp. 41–42, 111–12. (Simpson, ed., Literature3), p. 22, with n. 19; M. Licht- heim, ed. and trans., Ancient Egyptian Literature, A [JNES 68 no. 4 (2009)] Book of Readings, Vol. 1: The Old and Middle King- ç 2009 by The University of Chicago. doms (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1973) All rights reserved. (Lichtheim, AEL 1), p. 220. Etiological and naming 0022–2968–2009/6804–0004$10.00. puns are ubiquitous in the New Kingdom “Myth of the 283 284 Journal of Near Eastern Studies With this in mind, it is surprising that the names of the principal antagonists of Setne Khaemwas in the early-Ptolemaic Demotic “First Tale of Setne Khaemwas”6—Nanefer- kaptah, Ihweret and Tabubue—have not been the subject of an extended study in over a century. Of the three, only the otherwise-unattested name of the temptress Tabubue has been often discussed—and that with no concensus yet emerging as to what her name refers to, or how the name may help us to understand her role in the story.7 The names “Naneferkaptah” and “Ihweret,” for their part, have received little or no comment in dis- Celestial Cow”; text, translation and extensive com- other characters who bore the religious title Setne (with mentary in E. Hornung, Der ägyptische Mythos von variants), appear to have been popular in Demotic- der Himmelskuh, Eine Ätiologie des Unvollkommenen, reading circles, but aside from “First Setne,” only the Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis (OBO) 46 (Freiburg and Roman-era “Second Tale of Setne Khaemwas” (P BM Göttingen, 1982), pp. 96 ff.; E. Wente, “The Book of the Demotic 10822 [formerly 604]) is essentially complete; Heavenly Cow,” in Simpson, ed., Literature3, pp. 289– see Griffith, Stories, pp. 41 ff. (translation), 142 ff. 98; partial translation also in M. Lichtheim, ed. and (transliteration and philological notes); Lichtheim, trans., Ancient Egyptian Literature, A Book of Read- AEL 3, pp. 138–51; Ritner, “The Adventures of Setna ings, Vol. 2: The New Kingdom (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Si-Osire (Setna II),” in Simpson, Literature3, and London, 1976) (Lichtheim, AEL 2), pp. 197–99. pp. 470–89; idem, “The Childhood of Si-Osire (Jug 6 The initial decipherment of the story was by Strassburg),” in Simpson, Literature3, pp. 490–91. H. Brugsch, “Le Roman de Setnau contenu dans un Two fragmentary stories appear to be closely related papyrus démotique du Musée égyptien à Boulaq,” Re- to “First Setne,” with both mentioning the character vue archéologique, 3d series, 16 (1867), pp. 161–79. Naneferkaptah. The first of these is preserved in one For photographs of the single known, extant manuscript, column of a Ptolemaic-era manuscript in Cairo; see see now S. Goldbrunner, Der verblendete Gelehrte, CGC 30692 in Spiegelberg, Die demotischen Denk- Der erste Setna-Roman (P. Kairo 30646), Umschrift, mäler 2, pp. 112–15 and plate 51; see now a tran- Übersetzung und Glossar, Demotische Studien 13 scription and German translation by Vittmann in the (Sommerhausen, Germany, 2006); also W. Spiegelberg, Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae; important discussion Die demotischen Denkmäler 2, Die demotischen Pa- also by K.-Th. Zauzich, “Die schlimme Geschichte von pyrus, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes dem Mann der Gottesmutter, der ein Gespenst war,” (Strassburg, 1906), plates 44–47. Goldbrunner includes Enchoria 6 (1976), pp. 79–82. A second tale, which a modern transliteration, an annotated German trans- comprises a number of fragments from Copenhagen lation and a glossary, but the fundamental philological and Florence (PSI inv. D 6 + P Carlsberg 423), will study remains that of F. Ll. Griffith, Stories of the High be published by R. Jasnow; see K. Ryholt, “On the Priests of Memphis, The Sethon of Herodotus and the Contents and Nature of the Tebtunis Temple Library: Demotic Tales of Khamuas (Oxford, 1900), pp. 13 ff. A Status Report,” in S. Lippert and M. Schentuleit, eds., and 82 ff. The same year saw the publication of W. Tebtynis und Soknopaiu Nesos: Leben im römerzeit- Groff, “Étude sur les personnages du roman Setné- lichen Fajum (Wiesbaden, 2005), p. 155 (my thanks to Ptah Ha-m-us,” Recueil de travaux relatifs à la philo- Kim Ryholt for this information and reference). logie et à l’archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes (RT) The date of “First Setne” is not certain. Griffith’s 30 (1900), pp. 41–50, which also discusses the names impression was that the handwriting of the MS is late in the story. Accessible modern English translations Ptolemaic or early Roman (Stories, p. 14); Spiegelberg, include R. Ritner, “The Romance of Setna Khaemuas on the other hand, thought the handwriting would fit and the Mummies (Setna I),” in Simpson, ed., Litera- most comfortably in the reign of Ptolemy III (Die de- ture3, pp.