Between an exclamation and a hymn: scaling sacred communication in ancient Egypt
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2024-7-4-12-41
Abstract
The article is based on the assumption that an exclamation, a certain hand gesture, and prostration are the minimal form of greeting and propitiation of a deity in Egypt. These are already mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, and stay in use further on: since the New Kingdom we are aware of the mysterious language of baboons, welcoming the birth of the solar god with their screams and dances. Brief quotations of texts (again in the Pyramid Texts) supposedly spoken before the deity merely proclaim the beauty and goodness of the god, essentially putting the addressee in the necessary frame of mind for sacred communication to take place. The “contemplation of the beauty of God” by the common people becomes possible with the spread of religious processions, which provide the context for the manifestation of personal piety in texts that testify to the whole world about the beneficial intervention of God in the private life of a mere mortal. The phenomenon of personal piety is regarded by J. Assmann as a natural result of the development of both the hymn tradition, which explored the diversity of manifestations of the divine will in the world, and the religious upheavals of the Amarna era. However, the grain of such texts, reflecting the connection between a person’s attitudes in everyday life and the deity, the necessity to appease the deity with one’s behavior, can be found already in the tomb autobiographies of the Old Kingdom. This study compares evidences for Egyptians approaching deities expressed in varying degrees of eloquence in order to separate synchronic (variation in volume, typical for the textualization of mythological motifs) and diachronic (development of theological thought, formation of new text-generating models) mechanics of unfolding texts of sacred communication.
Supporting agencies: Support from the Basic Research Program of the HSE University of is gratefully acknowledged
About the Author
E. V. Aleksandrova
HSE University; Russian State University for the Humanities
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ekaterina V. Aleksandrova, Cand. of Sci. (Cultural Studies)
101000; 20, Myasnitskaya av.; 125047; 6, Miusskaya Square; Moscow
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Review
For citations:
Aleksandrova E.V. Between an exclamation and a hymn: scaling sacred communication in ancient Egypt. Folklore: Structure, Typology, Semiotics. 2024;7(4):12-41. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-5294-2024-7-4-12-41
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