A Metaphor for Troubled Times. The Evolution of the Seth Deity Determinative in the First Intermediate Period
2007; De Gruyter; Volume: 134; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2196-713X
Autores Tópico(s)Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
ResumoBetween the First Intermediate Period and the early Middle Kingdom, the name of the obscure goddess Hereret is written with a Seth deity determinative in three contexts: the tomb inscription of Iti-ibi in Asyut, a Coffin Texts manuscript, and a papyrus containing an early Book of the Underworld. The first of these writings represents a crucial stage in the development of the metaphorical domain associated with the Seth deity determinative. The present paper explores the evolution of the Seth deity determinative's use and meaning, and suggests that the distinctly political tinge it began to develop during the First Intermediate Period may have caused its fall into obsolescence in the Middle Kingdom. It may also account for the use of the Seth animal determinative in the writings of words describing chaos and turmoil, the number of which rises considerably in the Middle Kingdom. It is therefore argued that the distinction between the deity and animal forms of the Seth sign is both semantic and temporal. A list of words that may take a Sethian determinative is presented in an appendix.
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