Nanay and Her Lover: An Aramaic Sacred Marriage Text from Egypt
2017; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 76; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1086/690602
ISSN1545-6978
Autores Tópico(s)Biblical Studies and Interpretation
ResumoPrevious articleNext article FreeNanay and Her Lover: An Aramaic Sacred Marriage Text from EgyptTawny L. HolmTawny L. HolmPennsylvania State University* Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreNote: This article includes Coptic text that your browser may not display correctly without an appropriate font. The Antinoou font is a free Unicode that can be downloaded from http://www.evertype.com/fonts/coptic/ and should allow your browser to display the text.Introduction1The topos of “sacred marriage” became a productive literary trope in the ancient Near East, whose symbolism and purpose has been subject to much modern discussion.2 Whether or not there was ever an actual ritual in which human proxies played the roles of deities, there are several ancient Near Eastern texts that describe some sort of union between either a god with a goddess (theogamy), or of a goddess with a human king (hierogamy).3 One thinks first of all of the “sacred marriage” texts from early and late Mesopotamia in Sumerian and Akkadian, but a limited number of compositions in this genre or related genres (e.g., love poems that play on the divine-human sexual metaphor) are also found elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature. There has been some discussion of the evidence for sacred marriage in New Kingdom sources from Egypt,4 and within some writings from Syria-Palestine. Two of the most relevant compositions from Ugarit include the ritual text RS 24.291 (KTU3 1.132), which gives brief instructions for the preparation of the goddess Pidray’s bed using the king’s bedcovers (but few other particulars),5 and the work commonly called “The Birth of the Goodly Gods” (RS 2.002=KTU3 1.23), whose precise genre is unclear.6 With regard to Emar, one ritual text concerning the installation of a priestess (Emar 369) uses a few terms that are reminiscent of sacred marriage texts elsewhere—for instance, the preparation of a bed and bedclothes—although there is nothing particularly sexual in the ritual.7 One could also mention various love poems in Northwest Semitic texts, such as the Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible, that may not concern “sacred marriage” per se, but which are often read with the metaphor of divine love as their backdrop.8The sacred marriage text in col. xvii of P. Amherst 63 is an important addition to the discussion, in that it is in a Northwest Semitic language (Aramaic), but the product of a culturally-diverse Aramaic-speaking community in Egypt, whose members seem to have come from elsewhere at some point in the past. The papyrus demonstrates their connections to regions as far away as southern Mesopotamia or even the Zagros region, and to Syria-Palestine. The twelve-foot long papyrus with twenty-three columns was purchased in Egypt in the 1890s by Lord Amherst of Hackney, and is now owned mostly by the Morgan Library in New York, with fragments of columns iv, v, and xxiii in the possession of the University of Michigan (P. Amh. 43b). It was first identified as written in Aramaic, but in Demotic script, by Raymond Bowman in 1944, but it took nearly another forty years before certain sections were edited in the 1980s.9 With regard to P. Amh. 63 as a whole, R. Steiner produced a provisional translation with a short introduction in 1997 for The Context of Scripture (COS), edited by W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, Jr., but this lacks a scholarly apparatus of any sort (notes, commentary, or transcription). About half of the columns of P. Amh. 63 have been edited in some way; the others have only appeared to the public in Steiner’s translation.The papyrus has no archaeological context, as it was purchased along with nineteen other papyri all said to have been found in a jar near Thebes.10 The other documents are in Demotic and Greek, and are the personal records and accounts of a family of choachytes (libation priests) dating to 150–112 bc.11 In contrast, Amherst 63 contains only literary compositions, and its paleography would seem to place it at an earlier date than the other documents in the jar.12 Furthermore, the place of origin or composition for P. Amh. 63 is not mentioned on the papyrus. Steiner and some others suggest it may well have come from Aswan, but the place of origin can only be ascertained from the contents and not so much the script.13 However, an indication in favor of the Aswan hypothesis is that the Demotic word for “Elephantine” (yb), used once on the papyrus as a multi-consonantal sign, is spelled with an aleph (as ybȝ), an unusual spelling apparently found only in a few Demotic texts from Aswan.14The first seventeen columns are cultic in nature, and contain a collection of poems, hymns, blessings, and prayers, representing a unique amalgam of religious motifs, deities, and literary traditions from Mesopotamia and Syria-Palestine, and perhaps also from Egypt to a far lesser extent.15 There are hymns to Mesopotamian and Syrian-Aramean deities, and at least three psalms to Yahu (the local form of the biblical Yahweh).16 The papyrus also contains compositions of typically Mesopotamian genres, such as laments and the “sacred marriage” text in col. xvii, which concludes the liturgical portion of the papyrus. The final six columns contain a narrative about the historical seventh-century rivalry between the two royal brothers in Mesopotamia, Assurbanipal of Assyria and Shamash-shum-ukin of Babylon (cf. Diodorus ii.27).The deities who appear on the papyrus are of great variety as well, with the most prominent being a divine pair called Mar (mār, “Lord”) and Marah (mār(ʾ)ā, “Lady”).17 While Marah is expressly an epithet for Nanay or Nanaya,18 the identification of Mar in the papyrus is more difficult. It is possible that “Mar” is a theonym by analogy with deities from the Roman and Parthian periods who are called Marnā or Māran, “our Lord,” such as Marnas of Gaza described by Porphyry, or Māran of Hatra, who belongs to a divine triad with his spouse Mārtan “our Lady,” and a son Barmārēn “Son of our Lord.”19 Another possibility is that it is an abbreviated form of a theonym, such as Mār-bīti.20 However, it is more likely to be simply the epithet “Lord,” and the question then is whether or not this epithet had taken on the status of a name for predominantly one deity, just as bʿl (also meaning “Lord”) had become an alternate name for the stormgod Hadad.21 In cols. ix–x of P. Amh. 63, the term is an epithet clearly used for the Aramean god Bethel, but also for Nabû, Yahu, Baʿalšamayn, and possibly other gods elsewhere, so a case could thus be made for any of them as the chief god on the papyrus.22 One must even admit the possibility that the confusion over the identity of “Mar” is due to the composite nature of the papyrus itself.The sacred marriage text in col. xvii is the last composition in the cultic section of the papyrus, and key to understanding its liturgical arch. It has not been published before, although a translation of it is available and some comments on its contents are found elsewhere.23The Sacred Marriage Text in Column xviiColumn xvii of P. Amh. 63 contains nineteen well-preserved lines with only a few small lacunae, mostly in the first two lines (see Figure 1 and Appendixes 1–4). This study is based on the author’s personal collation in the Morgan Library in New York City, as well as photos from the Morgan and the earliest photos from the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.Figure 1. Col. xvii. The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. Amh. Egy. Pap. 63.5. Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) in 1912.View Large ImageDownload PowerPointIn what follows, I have included both a transcription of the Demotic and a rendering of that into Aramaic. An underline is used to designate Demotic multi-consonantal signs that are actually used multi-consonantally in the papyrus.24 However, Demotic multi-consonantal signs that are only used for a single Semitic segment are rendered by one consonant, and when more than one multi-consonantal sign stands for the same segment or set of segments, subscript numerals will be used. So, for instance, Demotic rȝ (mouth) as r2 while Demotic iri is designated r3, since both of these are only used consonantally (for /r/).I also assume that most of the ubiquitous alephs represent a vowel sound,25 but behave as a consonant with certainty only at the beginning of a word.26 However, it is clear that these alephs were used somewhat capriciously, in that some words have no alephs at all. There are other peculiarities to the Demotic writing system and its interface with Aramaic, most notably that the Demotic system does not distinguish between voiced, voiceless, and emphatic consonants like /d/, /ṭ/, and /t/; or between /g/, /k/, or /q/; and it frequently does not distinguish between /l/ and /r/ (when r1 is used). It does distinguish /ġ/ and /ʿ/, and /ḥ/ and /ḫ/, however. Furthermore, Demotic determinatives are rendered as superscript characters, with the exception of the ubiquitous man-with-hand-to-mouth sign, which is rendered as a dot (•) here. It is used (not always consistently) as a word-divider on this papyrus.27 See Appendixes 1–4. Finally, note that ^ on either side of a letter indicates that it was written above the line by the scribe.Demotic Transliteration1 […]⌜t5⌝ʾ• ʿrt• br…[..]⌜t⌝ky• bʾnn2ʾ[b]trty• ʿyny• qʾ⌜y⌝ [ʾsʾ]•2 s[ʾ]⌜k⌝y• ty• nš s[yʿ]⌜ʾ⌝t• šʾm•r2⌜r2⌝ [y]ʾn• kšt• bʾmr mrk[ʾ]•3 mn⌜ʾn⌝ʾ ʾ3 ḫrmʾ• mnʾn[ʾ ʿ]mʾ mrrkʾ• ʾ2ʾ[n]⌜mn2⌝ [y]hw3t ʾty• ʾ2ḫy• mn šʾmry⌜n⌝ʾ•4 m2my⌜t•⌝ pkʿt• ʾ2tm ⌜m⌝sk• ʾ2ḫty• myʾr3w2šʾrrm⌜ʾ•⌝ ḫ2ʾr rkʾ• ḫrmʾ• ʾ2ʾnḥʾnʾ n•5 ʾ2r2ḫʾk• kʾb• ⌜ḥ⌝mtm sʾ• bʾkʾ⌜t⌝pk• yrt• n2tʿʾ• ʿm kr• nysʾ•6 ʿr p2ptw3rk• ysʾmp y⌜k⌝ʾnt wmn qr• mʿy⌜wn⌝ ywn• yknt• w2mn qr• mnnʾ• mnt3 šʾpr•7 nnʾ• ʾty• ʾ2ynt⌜y⌝• mntʾt• sʾw2ry ⌜ʾ2ḥʾ⌝tw2 nḫry bsmʾ• rʾmt2ʾ2w2rʾky•8 ʾrtn tynsy• mn2rw2t3ʾ ⌜ʾr⌝ yqrqy• sʾbrkʾ⌜n•⌝ ʾr yqr• bkʾnʾnky• šʾr• qʾmr•9 nny2 ʾry qrb• spʾ2wtky• mrn bʾmt⌜k⌝ʾn• n2šrdet brmšʾ• r2mšt• ʿymk•10 ʾp2 ḫrmʾ• bḥr ʾ2tʾ• yr2m⌜š⌝ʾk• kr• bʾ⌜ʾ2⌝tʾrn m⌜ʾ⌝ ḥr yty• mn2ʾ t•11 y⌜r2ʾ⌝mšk• nb⌜ry⌝ bʾqbr• t3sb⌜b⌝• ʿny⌜y⌝r2mšʾk• kr• knry ⌜mn⌝ qb⌜r⌝•12 r3ḥmtty ḫ2ʾrʾk• tr⌜t⌝ʾ• bʾbytʾn• b⌜p2•⌝ymʾ• ⌜š⌝ʾkr• t2mrn yšʾkʾ⌜k⌝•13 ⌜w⌝ʾsr• ʾ2ʾn• w4ḫr• bʾ⌜n⌝• nḫr2y• tʿrb• ʾ2ʾt nḫr• sʾtr•mʾ•bsmp14 ymʾk• ybʾ^r^k• ʿr r2⌜b⌝ytʾ• ḥrb⌜y⌝trd ʿr rr3kmn• ʾr• bšmwhy•15 yʾbr2q• mr mn ršʾw mr b2r3qʾ• ^q^ʾ⌜t⌝m• bytrd t3ʿt• t2ʾ2ʾ ʿrm•16 | ʾ2ʾḫʾ•t2 mrt b2r3yk ʾnt• hw2y• ʾr2ḫ2 mrʾtn• b2r3yk ʾnt• hw2⌜y⌝•17 hʾt• b2r3k• kty2y ʾr• b2r3yk ʾnty• ⌜b⌝ʿšmynd bʾnʾn• ʾ2tmmʾ•18 ʾr•p2 r3q rt• ʾ2bʾn⌜y⌝• kryt• npʾrn• ⌜b⌝ny ʿr yt• rʾ• ḥmbʾnʾn•19 ʾrk• rbʾ• ḥʾyr⌜•⌝ rʾ• m2m⌜y⌝skn• b⌜ʾr•⌝⌜ʾ2 ⌝tm mk• spAramaic “Normalization”1 […]⌜t⌝ ʿrt br…[..]⌜t⌝ky bnn[ b]trty ʿyny g⌜y⌝ [s]2 s⌜k⌝ (h) (ʾ)t(h) ʾnš s[yʿ]t šmr{⌜r⌝}[y]n gšt bmr(y) mlk[ʾ]3 mn⌜ʾn⌝ ʾ 28 ġlmʾ mnʾn [ʿ]m (m)mllk ʾ[n(h)] ⌜mn⌝-[y]hwd ʾt(h) ʾḫy mn-šmry⌜n⌝4 m{m}y⌜t⌝ (y) pkʿt ʾdm ⌜m⌝sq ʾḫty myrwšl{l}m ġl-lk ġlmʾ ʾnḥn n-5 ʾrḫk qb⌜ḥ⌝mtm s(y) bk⌜t⌝pk yld nṭʿ ʿm(k) kl nys6 ʿl p{p}twrk ysm ʾ⌜g⌝nt(ʾ) wmn kl mʿy⌜n⌝ yyn ʾgnt(ʾ) wmn kl mn mnt špr7 nnʾ ʾty ʾynt⌜y⌝ mṭt śwry(ʾ) ⌜ʾḥ⌝tw nḫry bsmʾ lmd{ʾ}wrky8 ʾl(h?)tn tnsy mlwt(h)⌜ʾl⌝ yqrky ysbl(w?)k⌜n⌝ ʾl-yqr(ʾ) bgnnky šʾr kmr9 nny ʾly qrb(y) sp{ʾ}wtky mrn bmt⌜q⌝n nšr(y) brmšʾ rmšt ʿymk10 ʾp ġlmʾ bḥr(ʾ) ʾt(h) yrm⌜š⌝k(y) ql bʾtrn mḥl(y) y(ʾ)ty mn-d(y)11 y⌜r⌝mš(w)k(y) nb⌜ly⌝(ʾ) bqbl(ʾ) dsb⌜b⌝ ʿny⌜y⌝rmšk(y) ql knry(ʾ) ⌜mn⌝-qb⌜l⌝ (ʾ)12 rḥmty ġl(y)-(l)k(y) dl⌜t⌝ʾ bbytn b⌜p⌝ym(h) ⌜š⌝gl dmrn yšq⌜k⌝(y)13 ⌜w⌝ʾzl ʾn(h) wġl(l) b⌜n⌝{n}ḫry tʿrb ʾt(y) nġl str mbsm14 ymk yblk(y) ʿl rbydʾ ḥr(m)-b⌜y⌝t(ʾ)l ʿl r{r}qmn ʾl bšmwhy15 ybrk mr mn-ršʾ mr brk(h) q⌜d⌝m byt(ʾ)l dʿd-dy-ʿlm16 | ʾḫt(y) mrh bryk(h) ʾnt(y) hwy ʾrḫ mrʾtn bryk(h) ʾnt(y) hw⌜y⌝17 hd brk(h) kdy ʾl bryk ʾnt(h) bʿ(l)-šmyn bn(y)-n(y) ʾdmʾ18 ʾlp(y) (ʾ)rq l(y)ṭ(h) ʾbn⌜y⌝ qryt np(y)ln ⌜b⌝ny ʿl-yd lḥmbnn19 ʾrq rb(h) ḥyl lm{m}⌜y⌝skn b⌜r-ʾ⌝dm mk spTranslation1 ⌜I ⌝ … , I awoke/was agitated/went up in … your/my … in/between …[with] my own two eyes a tr⌜oo⌝ [p] 2 [I] was wa⌜tch⌝ing;people were coming;a b[an]d of Samar[i]ans sought out my lord [the] king.3 “Where are y from, young man (OR: From where, O young man),from where are the [peo]ple of your speech?”“I come ⌜from⌝ [J]udah,my brother from Samar⌜ia⌝ 4 has been brought, and now, a man ⌜is br⌝inging up my sister from Jerusalem.”“Enter, young man—we 5 will host you.Pick up a kab of ⌜wh⌝eat on your sho⌜ul⌝der.We will fee your people, every refugee. (OR: Let us know your people, every refugee.)6 On your table one will place bowls, and from every fountain wine;bowls, and from every vessel an excellent portion.”7 (Lover:) Nanā, y⌜o⌝u are ⌜my⌝ wife.A bed of reeds/rushes they [have l]aid down, wafts of perfume for your abode.8 (Chorus:) Our goddess, may you be carried, escorted to your precious one;may you be brought unto the precious one.In your bridal chamber sings a priest.9 (Lover:) Nanay, offer your lips to me.(Goddess:) Our lord, in a prepared ⌜pla⌝ce we will dwell;in the evening, I stay late with you.10 (Chorus:) The chosen young man is also coming; music will serenade you.Into our sanctuary, he will [c]ome adorned, while 11 harps serenade you.In the darkness that surro[unds]—a song;the music of the lyres will serenade you from the darkness.12 (Lover:) My beloved, enter the doo⌜r⌝ into our house.(Chorus:) With his⌜mo⌝uth,⌜co⌝nsort of our lord, let him kiss⌜you⌝.13 (Lover or goddess:)⌜As⌝ I go and enter, in my nostrils it is sweet.Come, let us enter a perfumed hideaway.14 (Chorus:) Ḥer(em)-Bethel will lower, will bear you onto the bedspread;El, onto embroidered sheets.In his heavens, 15 may Mar from Rash bless, Mar, a blessing, before Bethel everlasting.16 (Lover:) “My sister, Marah, blessed be you; Cow, our Lady, blessed be you.”17 (Goddess:) “Had, a blessing worthy of El; blessed are you, Baʿal of Heaven/Baʿalšamayn.”Rebuild, man, 18 Ellipi a cursed land;rebuil⌜d⌝ a city of ruins, (OR: the stone⌜s⌝ of the city are ruins)⌜reb⌝uild beside the Ḥambanites 19 a great land,a rampart for the c⌜om⌝moner,so⌜n⌝ of a lowly man. End.CommentaryLine 1[…]⌜t5⌝ʾ• ʿrt• br…= […]⌜t⌝ ʿrt br…The first visible sign in this line seems to be t5, and so possibly the end of a Perfect 1cs verb (e.g., [kʾm]⌜t5⌝ʾ• = [qm]⌜t⌝ “⌜I⌝ [arose]”?). The first complete word of this line is read here as the verb ʿrt, “I awoke/was agitated,” or ʿlt, “I went up” (spelled defectively). It is possible but not likely that this is ʿl-br[…], that is, ʿl with a Demotic walking-legs determinative (the usual combination for indicating Aramaic ʿl, “upon,” in this papyrus), awkwardly followed by a second determinative (the hand-to-mouth sign), before a word beginning br-. Also possible but, because of the word division, less desirable, is the reading ʿlt• br[… ]= ʿl-dbr[…], “concerning …” The reading ʿrt would be Peal Perfect 1cs ʿy/wr, “to awake,” or “to be disturbed”; cf. BA *ʿyr, “to wake up” (HALOT 1946); QA Ith. “to wake up” (DQA 176); JPA ʿwr, Aph. “to awaken” (DJPA 400); etc. Cf. BH ʿwr, “to awake” (HALOT 802–803); Ug. G/N-Stem ʿr, “to become agitated,” or “to wake up” (DULAT 175); Ar. ʿāra, ʿayyara (Lane 2207ff., cf. ġāra, “be jealous”); Akk. êru, “to be awake” (CAD E 326). The reading ʿlt instead of ʿrt is possible instead, although verbal forms of the root ʿly in Aramaic are rare before Syriac or other late dialects. But see Teima Stela 27: 3, hʿly “he exalted” (Haph. Perfect 3ms ʿly).29[b]trty• ʿyny• qʾ⌜y⌝[ʾsʾ]• = [b]trty ʿyny g⌜y⌝ [s]The reading of [b]trty ʿyny, “[with] my own two eyes,” seems certain. The restoration of qʾ⌜y⌝[ʾsʾ]• (Aramaic g⌜y⌝ [s] , “army, troop”) seems plausible in this context. Although this word appears elsewhere in Aramaic only in late dialects (e.g., JPA gyys, “ army, band of troops” [DJPA 127]; JBA gyysʾ, “ band of marauders or robbers” [DJBA 279]; Syriac gysʾ, “army, troop,” etc. [LS2 230]; cf. Arabic jayš, “army”), it appears again on this papyrus in xxi 17 as Demotic q⌜ys⌝[•].Line 2s[ʾ]⌜k⌝y• ty• nš = s⌜k⌝ (h) (ʾ)t(h) ʾnšThe end of the ⌜k⌝ in s[ʾ]⌜k⌝y• is clearly visible upon close examination and in the Morgan photos (it is obscured in the Oriental Institute photos). Demotic s[ʾ]⌜k⌝y• is either to be considered together with the ty• that follows it as one word, resulting in Aramaic skyt{y}, “I watched” (Peal Perf. 1cs of sky), or as a single word sk(h). It seems preferable to take both s[ʾ]⌜k⌝y• and ty• as separate words—Aramaic s⌜k⌝ (h) and (ʾ)t(h)—since this would give nš (Aramaic ʾnš, “person, people”) its own verb: (ʾ)t(h) ʾnš, “People were coming.” Both sk(h) and (ʾ)t(h) are Peal ms act. participles, although the subject of the sk(h) must be assumed to be “I” based on context (note the preceding ʿyny, “my eyes” in l. 1). Note also that the final -ē(h) in both skh and ʾth is represented in the script with Demotic y (cf. ʾty• = ʾt[h] in l. 3).The beginning aleph in Aramaic ʾth is not represented in the Demotic; for another example of an elided aleph in this position, see the words (ʾ)b, “father” (x 17), and (ʾ)bhy “fathers of ” (xix 8). The Aramaic verb sky appears otherwise in late Aramaic dialects (JBA Pael sky, “to wait” [DJBA 809]; JPA Peal sky, “to look, expect,” Pael “to wait, hope” [DJPA 377]; Syriac Pael sky, “to wait for” [LS2 1008; J. Payne-Smith 2623]; cf. skwy, “watchman” in some late dialects); but note the Peal mp act. participle skyʾ, “the watchmen,” in the “Tale of Two Brothers” in cols. xviii–xiii of this papyrus (xx 9, 10; xxii 1 [bis]); Steiner-Moshavi 1261. Demotic nš on this papyrus seems to be a fixed spelling for Aramaic ʾnš, although its components can be written in different orders.30s[yʿ]⌜ʾ⌝t• šʾm•r2⌜r2⌝[y]ʾn• = s[yʿ]t šmr{⌜r⌝}[y]nAramaic syʿh, “crowd, group, band” appears in JBA, JPA, Sam, and Syriac; DJBA 807; DJPA 376; Tal Sam 584; LS2 1006. The Demotic spellingšʾm•r2⌜r2⌝[y]ʾn• seems to indicate the gentilic or toponym familiar from Egyptian Aramaic papyri, šmryn. Cf. Akk. samerīna (Neo- and Late-Babylonian šamaraʾin), Elamite *samerinā (RGTC 7/1: 209–11); BH šōmĕrôn and Hebrew Kuntillat ʿAjrud šmrn; HALOT 1586–88.kšt• bʾmr mrk[ʾ]• = gšt bmr(y) mlk[ʾ]Aramaic gšt must be either Peal or Pael Perf. 3fs of gšš (Peal: “to explore, spy out,” or “feel, touch”, etc.; Pael: “to grope,” or “to seek, spy” DJBA 306; DJPA 137); cf. BH gšš (Piel “to grope” HALOT 206). The verb appears in the Story of Aḥiqar (TAD C1.1: 139) as either Haph. “to spy out” DNSWI: 237; or as Peal, “to spy out,” with interrogative he-. The word for “lord” (mr/mrʾ) on this papyrus can be spelled variously when it is not the title “Mar” for the main deity of the papyrus, which employs the fixed spelling mr. (For a discussion of the divine epithet, “Mar/ lord,” see above.) The Demotic spelling behind the term mār(ī) “(my) lord,” like the divine epithet mār, does not represent the aleph that would be there at the end in a historical spelling of the word mrʾ, “lord” (cf. l. 12 below, t2mrn = dmrn “of our lord,” with no aleph).31 Since mr(ʾ) on the papyrus does not ever end in Demotic -y except to occasionally indicate a 1cs suffix, there is no clear evidence of the final /ʾ/>/y/ shift (mrʾ>mry) apparent in Egyptian Aramaic (cf. TAD A3.10:2 mryh, “his/its lord”).32 In OA, the form is usually mrʾ, even before suffixes (but see the Assur ostracon l. 6: lm⌜r⌝y, “to my lord”).Line 3mn⌜ʾn⌝ʾ ʾ3 ḫrmʾ• = mn⌜ʾn⌝ ʾ ġlmʾ OR mn⌜ʾn⌝y(h) ġlmʾThe interrogative mnʾn “whence?” or “from where?” (mn “from” + ʾn “where”) is found in QA as mnʾn or mnʾyn (DQA 143); as mnn in JPA (DJPA 318); and as mnʾ in JBA (DJBA 685). The interpretation mnʾn is preferred to mn, “who?”, because the word is spelled twice in this line with an intervening aleph between Demotic mn and n. If mn, “who?”, were meant, the n complement after mn would typically have been immediately after mn. Moreover, in the first part of this line there is no room or trace for any Demotic t in the phrase to indicate Aramaic ʾt or ʾnt, “you,” pace Steiner’s translation in COS 1: “Who/From where are y⌜ou⌝, lad? Who/From where is your …?”33 This may simply be scribal error, and the phrase should be emended to mn⌜ʾn⌝ ʾ ġlmʾ, “Where are y from, young man?” Another option is that the Demotic ʾ3 sign (the prosthetic aleph that looks exactly like the sign for Demotic iw “to be”) represents the Aramaic vocative interjection, y(h), “O,” instead (DNSWI 430; cf. DA y in Deir ʿAllā ii 10, and OfA yh). In the latter case, this would result in a parallelism with the next phrase, but with ellipsis of subject in the first clause. Taken together the parallel clauses would read: mn⌜ʾn⌝ʾ ʾ3 ḫrmʾ• mnʾn[ʾ ʿ]mʾmrrkʾ• = mn⌜ʾn ⌝ y(h) ġlmʾ mnʾn [ʿ]m (m)mllk: “From where, O young man, from where are the [peo]ple of your speech?”Note that the Demotic script is able to distinguish Aramaic /ġ/ from /ʿ/ in ġlm, “boy” (cf. ʿlym in OA, BA, QA, etc.; ʿlm in Palmyrene but plural ʿlymyn, see PAT 396; frequently ʿwlm in JBA, see DJBA 847).mnʾn[ʾ ʿ]mʾ mrrkʾ• = mnʾn [ʿ]m (m)mllkThe Demotic m in [ʿ]m, “[peo]ple,” is probably doing double duty for the first m of mmllk, because the aleph following it indicates that the scribe heard a vowel, yet ʿm is in the construct form and so the aleph cannot indicate definite article. However, if the aleph is instead meaningless here (which is sometimes the case on this papyrus), the word after [ʿ]m could be mllk. Both mmll and mll mean “speech,” but the former is far more common than the latter. Aramaic mll is only otherwise attested in the Targums, Mandaic, or other later dialects; see DJPA 311; DJBA 682; Drower-Macuch 243.ʾ2ʾ[n]⌜mn2⌝[y]hw3t ʾty• = ʾ[n(h)]⌜mn⌝-[y]hwd ʾt(h)Demotic ʾty• represents the Peal act. ms Participle ʾt(h); the final -y in the Demotic indicates final -ē(h). The response by the young man to the king involves three participles (ʾt[h], my⌜t⌝ [y], and ⌜m⌝sq), the first two indicating the historic present best translated by the past tense, while the third, which is preceded by pkʿt, “and now,” must indicate action in progress.Lines 3–4ʾ2ḫy• mn šʾmry⌜n⌝ʾ• m2my⌜t•⌝ = ʾḫy mn-šmry⌜n⌝m{m}y⌜t⌝ (y)The Demotic spelling of the first word in line 4: m2my⌜t•⌝, must indicate the Hephal ms participle myt(y) of the verb ʾty. The double m in the beginning is an example of the “resumptions” common to the scribe on this papyrus (i.e., the scribe would write a consonant with one Demotic sign, then again with another sign, sometimes but not always to clarify ambiguity). The final vowel of myt(y) is not represented by either a Demotic y or aleph, which is not unusual on this papyrus.pkʿt• ʾ2tm⌜m⌝sk• ʾ2ḫty• myʾr3w2šʾrrm⌜ʾ•⌝ = pkʿt ʾdm⌜m⌝sq ʾḫty myrwšl{l}mAramaic pkʿt poses no problem; this is the conjunction p, “and,” followed by kʿt, “now” (cf. kʿnt; HALOT 1901).34 The noun ʾdm, “man, human,” may seem odd here since it is a common lexeme in the Ugaritic and Canaanite subgroups of Northwest Semitic, but it is not an Aramaic word. Outside of this papyrus, it seems not to appear elsewhere in Aramaic until well into the Common Era (mostly in JPA), and it often refers to “Adam” rather than “humankind” generally; cf. Syriac and Samaritan (J. Payne-Smith 3; Tal Sam 8). However, it occurs frequently in P. Amh. 63, and even three times in this very column (ll. 4, 17, and 19); see Steiner-Moshavi 1252. The verb msq here is the Haph./Aph. ms abs. ptc. of slq; Steiner-Moshavi 1261. The assimilation of the /n/ of Aramaic mn (“from”) in myrwšlm is rare in Aramaic before JBA;35 but note in BA: miṭṭûrāʾ, “from the mountain,” in Daniel 2:45; miṣṣad, “from the side of, concerning,” in Daniel 6:5; etc.ḫ2ʾr rkʾ• ḫrmʾ• ʾ2ʾnḥʾnʾ n• = ġl-lk ġlmʾ ʾnḥn n-ġl-lk is the Peal Imper. ms of ġll, “to enter” (cf. ʿll in Aramaic script), followed by the lamed of the ethical dative + 2ms pron. suff. The final word of this line is probably not ʾnḥn{n} with a superfluous n, but the 1cs independent pronoun ʾnḥn followed by the beginning of nʾrḫk, a word completed in the next line.Line 5n• / ʾ2r2ḫʾk• = nʾrḫkTaking the last n of line 4 as the beginning of this line’s first word, we read nʾrḫk, a Haph./Aph. imperfect 1cs of the root ʾrḫ with a 2ms pron. suffix, having the meaning “we will host you,” or “we will take you in.” The verb ʾrḫ appears in the Peal (“to travel”), Pael (“to depart” or “to visit, lodge with”), and Hithpael (“to dwell as a visitor”) in late Aramaic dialects; DJBA 166; LS2 97; Jastrow 118; cf. Akkadian arāḫu A, “to hasten, hurry, come quickly, promptly” (CAD A/2: 221–22); and BH ʾāraḥ, “to be on the road” (HALOT 86). Cf. the common Semitic word for “road” or “path”: Proto-Semitic *urḫ- (DRS 32); Samʾalian ʾrḥ (KAI 215:18); OA, OfA ʾrḥ (DNSWI 106); Syriac ʾūrḥā (LS2 21–22); Akk. urḫu/arḫu A (CAD U-W 218–19; AHw 63); and BH ʾōraḥ (HALOT 86–87); cf. OSArb ʾrḫ, “military expedition.”36kʾb• ⌜ḥ⌝mtm sʾ• bʾkʾ⌜t⌝pk• yrt• = qb⌜ḥ⌝mṭm s(y) bk⌜t⌝pk yldThe word for wheat here, ḥmṭm, is the equivalent of ḥnṭn, the plural of ḥṭh/ḥnṭh, “wheat” Steiner-Moshavi 1256; DRS 892. Both the singular ḥṭh/ ḥnṭh and the plural ḥnṭn/ḥṭn have the same collective meaning.37 Here, the unusual plural ending / -m/ must have prompted regressive assimilation of the /n/ in ḥnṭh. With regard to Demotic bʾgʾ⌜t⌝pk•, Steiner is probably right to translate “lift on your sho⌜ul⌝der.”38 However, the sign after ⌜t⌝ may be either Demotic ʾ or p (they often look similar), so it may also be possible to read bʾkʾ⌜t⌝ʾk• rendering Aramaic bk⌜d⌝k, “in your ja⌜r⌝,” rather than “on your sho⌜ul⌝der.” The verb sy here is the Peal Imper. ms of nsy, “to lift, carry.” Forms of the verb nsy are always spelled with Demotic s on this papyrus, and never with š.n2tʿʾ• ʿm kr• nysʾ• = nṭʿ ʿm(k) kl nysSteiner leaves this half of line 5 untranslated.39 The reading here is tentative, because the Aramaic options for interpreting the Demotic are multiple. Among them, those that do the least violence to the word division as marked by the hand-to-mouth determinative are two: first, to take the first word as Aramaic ndʿ, “let us know” (Peal Impf. 1cp of ydʿ); or second, to assume that the scribe skipped writing the final Demotic m for Aramaic nṭʿ (Pael Imperfect 1cp of ṭʿm, “to feed”), perhaps occasioned by homoeoteleuton (cf. nṭʿm and the next word, ʿm, “people”). The second option, restoring nṭʿ , “we will fee ,” may make better sense in this context. (One could also speculate that the scribe did not skip an m but doubled the ʿayin instead: nṭʿ{ʿ}m kl nys, “we will feed every refugee,” although this ignores the word divider.) The object phrase after the verb could also be read in various ways; preferred here is ʿm(k) kl nys, “your people, every nys” (with Demotic k doing double duty). Aramaic nys could be the noun for “island, colony,” a Greek loanword (νῆσος) that is otherwise only known in later dialects of Aramaic (DJPA 350; DJBA 752; DCPA 264); but the option preferred here is that it is the Peal ms pass. ptc. from nws, “to flee” (cf. BH Qal nws; contra Syriac, where the Peal means “to tremble”), and would mean “refugee, immigrant.” (An emendation of the text to plural nys ’, “[all of] the refugee ,” could also be considered.) Verbs in the Aphel stem of nws, meaning “to remove,” are frequently found in OA warnings on funerary monuments, e.g., KAI 202B:20, KAI 225:6, KAI 226:8, 9 and the Bukân stela 1.40 The Aphel participle mns, “refugee, fugitive,” appears in OfA (Hermopolis 2:3 = TAD A2.2: 3).Line 6ʿr p2ptw3rk• ysʾmp = ʿl p{p}twrk ysmThe word for ptwrk, “your table,” is spelled with a resumptive p1 after p2. Demotic ysʾmP is taken here as the Aramaic verb ysm, the Peal Impf. 3ms impersonal of sym, “to place” (cf. śym in OA, OfA, BA, etc.)41 It could also be a Peal Passive form, “to be placed,” or even 3mp instead of 3ms, since the Demotic does not always reflect a final -w in verbal forms on this papyrus. If it is an active form, whether singular or plural, the sense is impersonal.y⌜k⌝ʾnt wmn qr• = ʾ⌜g⌝nt(ʾ) wmn klDemotic y⌜k⌝ʾnt wmn qr• appears twice in this same line, but with a word-divider between yknt and w2mn qr the second time. Steiner in COS translates the entirety of line 6 as: “On your table will be placed lap⌜is la⌝zuli – from every dovelet grain, lapis lazuli; and from every mina a vessel of beauty.”42 While Demotic y⌜k⌝ʾnt may well render an Aramaic word for “lapis lazuli,” such as yqnt (ʾiqnātā), with Demotic y indicating a short vowel (cf. Akk. uqnû, iqnû, qunû; CAD U-W 195ff.; or Ug. iqnu; DULAT 90), one wonders if something edible or potable, or else a container, would be more likely. Here we take the first word as ʾgnt(ʾ), “bowls, basins.” The noun ʾgn “basin, bowl,” is common in Aramaic and several other Semitic languages, where the first vowel is variously /a/ or /i/; cf. Hebrew, Phoenician ʾgn (HALOT 11; DNWSI 9–10); Ug. agn (DULAT 26);43 Akk. agannu, fp agannātu (CAD A/1 142–43; AHw 41); Arabic ʾijjāna (Lane 26); Egyptian *ʾaguna, *ʾaganna, “large vessel” (a loanword from Semitic44). In the Aramaic cuneiform incantation from Warka, it is written in cuneiform as ag-gan-nu (ll. 5, 9)45 and in the Amarna letters as a-ku-nu (EA 14 iii, 36; EA 148:12, in the latter as a-kuni, gen.). The form here in this text must be feminine; cf. Syriac and JPA ʾgnh (LS 2 8; Jastrow 13), and the Akk. plural agannātu. (However, one must note that ix 6 has an ms form, ʾgn; Steiner-Moshavi 1252).Demotic wmn qr• may alternatively be read as mqr(yʾ), “pitchers,” or the like; cf. Ug. mqrt, “container, pot” (DULAT 561); Akk. maqartu (CAD M/1 240). However, the reading wmn kl is preferred here, since mqrt in Semitic is feminine (but masculine in Egyptian *maqūrû).46 It is also true that this scribe likes to use Demotic q when spelling Aramaic kl, “all.”mʿy⌜wn⌝ ywn• = mʿy⌜n⌝ yynSteiner seems to read the Demotic sequence mʿy⌜wn⌝ ywn• as two words that he translates as “dovelet” and “grain.”47 The same phrase (represented by Demotic mʾʿʾ•ywn yʾwn) appears again in xvi 10, also in the
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