The following are translations of the passages containing references to dreams prior to the Late Period, with the exception of the Dream Book of P. Chester Beatty III which is included in Chapter 4. The texts are listed roughly in chronological order (the dates for many of the texts cannot be determined with certainty). The main publication, dating, and provenance (when known) are given for each text.
Rubrics are indicated by CAPS. Verse points are indicated by •.1
P. Nag ed-Deir 3737 (ll. 1-6)
Simpson, W.K. ‘The letter to the dead from the tomb of Meru (N 3737) at Nag’ ed-Deir’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 52 (1966), 39–50. Dynasty 9/Nag’ ed-Deir
A servant speaks before his lord – his son, Heni, speaks:
‘Pay close attention!
It is useful to pay attention to the one who provides for you, on account of these
things which your servant Seni does: for causing me, your servant to see him in a dream in the one Sole City with you.
Indeed, it is his own character that drives him away. Indeed, that which happened
against him, did not happen by the hand of me, (5) your servant. (Nor) was it an end of all that would happen. Indeed, it is not I who first caused wounds against him. Others acted before I, your servant, (did). Please, may his lord be protective, and do not allow him to do harm. May he be guarded in order that he may be done with looking at me, your servant, forever.’
Letter on a Stela (ll. 1-4)
Wente, E.F. ‘A misplaced letter to the dead’, Orientalia Lovaniensia Periodica, Löwen 6/7 (1975/6), 595–600.
First Intermediate Period
A saying by Merirtifi to Nebetotef:
‘How are you?
Has she, the West, been taking care of you according to your desire?
See, I am your beloved upon earth;
Fight on my behalf and guard my name!
I did not muddle a spell before you,
while I was perpetuating your name upon earth.
Expel the pain of my body! Please be beneficial to me in my presence,
while I see you fighting on my behalf in a dream.
I will lay down gifts before you
...when the sun rises I will set up offerings for you.’
Execration Texts (P 1–11)
Sethe, K. Die Ächtung feindlicher Fürsten, Völker und Dinge auf altägyp- tischen Tongefassscherben des Mittleren Reiches, Abhandlung der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1926, Berlin, AAkademie der Wissenschaften, 1926; Vila, A. ‘Un dépot de textes d’envoûtement au moyen empire’, Journal des Savants 1963 (July–Sept), 135–60; Posener, G. ‘Les textes d’envoûtement de Mirgissa’, Syria 43 (1966), 277–87. Middle Kingdom
all bad speech, all bad projects,
all bad conjurations, all bad plots,
all bad conspiring,all bad fighting,
all bad disturbances, all bad plans,
all bad things,
all bad dreams in all bad sleep.
The Eloquent Peasant (4th Petition) B1 231–56
Parkinson, R.B. (ed.) The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, Oxford, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1991.
Middle Kingdom
No, there is no time of sleeping until dawn.
Destroyed is going out at night, and walking in the day,
allowing a man to stand up and attend to his good matters of the truth.
See there is no profit for one-who-says (235) it to you,
gentleness passed by you; how lamentable is the poor man, whom you destroyed.
Lo, you are a swamp hunter who pleases his heart, set on doing that which he desires,
who throws down the hippopotami, who harpoons the wild bulls, who spears
fish, who traps birds.
There is no one quick of speech, who is free from hasty talk. (240)
There is no one who is light of his heart, who is heavy of thought.
May you be patient, you may know truth! Defeat your choice in order that one
who draws near silently may be happy.
There is no one who acts brusquely, who practises excellence.
There is no one who is quick-hearted whose arm is brought.
Let the eyes observe, that the heart may be well.
Do not (245) be arrogant as a result of your power, lest misfortune befall you.
Pass over a case, and it will be two.
It is the eater who tastes, the one who is addressed answers.
It is the sleeper who sees the dream.
As for the judge who should be published; he is a model for the (evil) doer.
Dummy, (250) see, you are hit! Ignoramus, look you are addressed!
Baler-out-of-water; look, you are entered! Helmsman, do not divert your ship!
Life-giver, do not allow death!
One who causes destruction, do not allow one to be destroyed! Shade, do not act as sunlight!
Shelter, (255) do not let crocodiles seize! Do not make one into one who is dry!
The fourth time in appealing to you; shall I spend all day concerning it?
The Teaching of Ptahhotep (Maxim 18, ll. 277–97)
Zába, Z. Les Maximes de Ptahhotep, Prague, Nakladatelství Ceskoslovenské
Akademi Véd, 1956.
Middle Kingdom
If you desire to make endure friendship within a house which you enter as a lord,
or as a brother, or as a friend (280) or any place in which you enter –
Beware of approaching the women!
The place where it is done is not good; the one who reveals it is not clever.
A thousand men are turned away from what is good for them – (285) one is fooled
by a body of faience, but then she transforms into cornelian.
A split second, the likeness of a dream, and death is reached on account of
knowing her.
The Teaching of Ptahhotep (Maxim 23, ll. 350–61)
Zába, Z. Les Maximes de Ptahhotep, Prague, Nakladatelství Ceskoslovenské
Akademi Véd, 1956.
Middle Kingdom
Do not allow the repeating of gossip that you didn’t hear (first-hand)!
It is the going forth of the hot-tempered to repeat a matter that was seen, and not heard.
You should not repeat gossip about something you did not hear direct!
Set it aside, do not tell it at all!
(355) Look, before you is one by whom excellence is known.
(When) a theft is commanded and it is done, it transforms against the thief, into
something that is hateful according to the law.
Look, gossip is like the occurrence of a dream – it is its own destruction (360) and
the face should be covered on account of it.
The Tale of Sinuhe (P. Berlin 3022, 223–36)
Koch, R. Die Erzählung des Sinuhe, Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca 17, Brussels, Fondation égyptologique Reine Elisabeth, 1990.
Middle Kingdom
Lo, this flight which your humble servant did, without planning it.
It was not in my heart; I didn’t think about it.
I don’t know what separated me from my place.
It was like the unfolding of a dream;
like a man from the Delta seeing himself in Elephantine
a man from the marshlands in Nubia.
I was not afraid; no one hastened after me,
I didn’t hear a reproach,
My name was not heard in the mouth of a bailiff.
Yet my body jumped, my feet hastened, my heart led me;
the god who determined this flight pulling me.
P. Ramesseum XVI
Gardiner, A.H. The Ramesseum Papyri, Oxford, The Griffith Institute,
1955.
Second Intermediate Period/Ramesseum
Both this text and the following are extremely fragmentary. I have included only the legible portions which mention dreams.
(pl. LVI, page 18, ll. 4–6)
...
brighten [............... ] him
see[.............. ] all dreams
small [ ...........]
(pl. LVII, page 21, l. 1)
all bad dreams which are seen in the night.
Amenhotep II (Memphis Stela 20–2)
Urk IV 1306.11–1307.2.
Dynasty 18/Memphis
His Majesty rested, and the majesty of the god Amun, lord of the Thrones of the Two lands, came before His Majesty in a dream in order to give valour to his son, Aa-Kheperu-Ra, his father Amun being the protection of his body, guarding the ruler.
Thutmosis IV Sphinx Stela (ll. 8–13)
Zivie, C.M. ‘Giza au deuxième Millénaire’, Bibliothèque d’Etude 70
(1976).
Dynasty 18 – Thutmosis IV/ Giza
One of these days it happened that Prince Thutmosis was strolling at the time of midday. He relaxed in the shadow of this Great God. Sleep and slumber overcame him at the moment the sun was at zenith. He found the Majesty of this venerable god speaking from his very own mouth like a father speaks to his son, and saying:
‘Look at me, gaze upon me, my son Thutmosis. I am your father HoremAkhet- Khepri-Ra-Atum. I shall give to you my kingship [upon my land at the head of the living]. You shall carry its white crown and its red crown upon the seat of Geb, the heir. The land in its length and breadth shall belong to you, and that which the eye of the Lord of All illuminates.2 Provisions will be yours from within the Two Lands, and great gifts from all the foreign lands, and a lifetime of time great in years. My face belongs to you, my heart belongs to you, and you belong to me.3 [Behold, my condition is like one who is in suffering and all my limbs are ruined.] The sand of the desert, upon which I used to be, faces me; and it is in order to cause that you do what is in my heart that I have waited, for I know that you are my son, and my saviour. Arrive! Behold I am together with you! I am [your guide].’
[He completed this speech. Then this Prince stared for] he heard this [speech(?) of the Lord of All (?)]. He understood the words of this god and he placed silence in [his] heart.
P. Med. London 40 (13,8–14)
Grapow, H. Die medizinischen Texte in hieroglyphischer Umschreibungautog- raphiert, vol. V, Grundriss der Medizin der Alten Ägypter, Berlin, 1958, pp. 482–3; Leitz, C. Magical and Medical Papyri of the New Kingdom, Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum 7, London, British Museum Press, 1999.
Dynasty 18
THIS SPELL IS TO BE RECITED over a fine thread, the plumage of black doves, hair of a dun-coloured donkey; [turned(?)] to the left, made into [four(?)] knots, smeared with the liver of a pig. It is given to a woman for her rectum, to drive out every (kind of) bleeding, every malevolent influence, growth of the egg, and to prevent the seeing of dreams.
This spell is to be recited according to the number of knots.
Opening of the Mouth Ritual (Scenes 9–10)
Otto, E. Das ägyptische Mundöffnungsritual, 2 vols, Ägyptologische Abhan- dlungen 3, Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 1960.
Dynasty 18 on/various locations
The variations are inconsistent. The version below is based primarily on TT 100, the eighteenth-dynasty tomb of Rekhmire in Sheikh Abd el-Gurnah, with missing portions reconstructed based on the nineteenth-dynasty tomb of Seti I.
Scene 9
The seclusion of the Gold-house; the sleeping by the Sem-priest.
|Sleep
The Sem-priest sits in front of him. Recitation: ‘He has broken me!’
|Sleep
The Jmy-js stands behind him. Recitation: ‘He jolted me!’
|Dream
The Jmy-js says 4 times. Recitation by the Jmy-js 4 times: ‘My father, my
father!’
Awakening the sleeper, the Sem-priest. Finding the 3 Jmy-ḫnts.
Scene 10
The Sem-priest is before the 3 Jmj-ḫnts. Recitation by the Sem-priest:
‘I have seen my father in all his forms’.
The 3 Jmy-ḫnts, Recitation before the Sem-priest:
Recitation: ‘Your father should not distance himself from you!’
|Falcons
The Sem-priest, Recitation before the 3 Jmy-hnts
Recitation: ‘The spinner has trapped him’.
|Spider
The 3 Jmj-hnts, Recitation before the Sem-priest: Recitation: ‘I have seen my father in all his forms!’
|Form of praying mantis
I have prevented his perishing!
|Bees.
without his being disturbed by it.
|Shadow
Book of the Dead Spell 65 (P. Nu 15, 1–9)
Lapp, G. The Papyrus of Nu (BM EA 10477), Catalogue of Books of the Dead in the British Museum 1, British Museum Press, 1997.
Dynasty 18/Thebes
SPELL OF GOING FORTH IN THE DAY AND OVERPOWERING THE ENEMY
Said by the Steward and Overseer of the Harem Nu:
Ra sits in his Mansion of Millions
The Ennead are assembled for him
with Ones-whose-Faces-are-Secret who are in the House of Khepri
who eat abundance, who drink the nectar
which the upper sky brings at dawn and vice versa.
Do not let me be taken as loot for Osiris,
for I have never been in the confederacy of Seth.
O One-who-Sits-on-his-Coils in front of the One-Powerful-of-Soul
Allow me to sit on the seat of Ra and to take my body before Geb.
May you cause that Osiris comes out triumphantly against Seth, the dreams of
Seth and the dreams of the crocodile.
One-whose-Face-is-Secret who is foremost [ ] the King of Lower Egypt,
who clothes the gods in the 6th Day Festival,
the one who weaves forever, and binds for eternity. I have seen Ibka who was placed into fetters.
But indeed he who was placed under guard has been released;
Ibka is released.
I have been reborn and gone forth in the shape of a living akh whom the people
on the earth worship.
The ‘Entertainment Song’ of Neferhotep II (TT 50) (ll. 1–6)
Hari, R. La tombe thébaine du père divin Neferhotep (TT 50), Collection Epigraphica Geneva, Editions de Belles-Lettres, 1985. Dynasty 18 – Horemheb/Theban Necropolis
The harpist of the Divine Father of Amun, Neferhotep the Justified:
All the capable nobles, the Ennead of the Lady of Life:4
Listen you to the performing of songs for the Divine Father in paying honour to
his potent ba of a dignified noble
now he is as a god who lives until forever,
extolled in the West,
(that) they may become as memories for posterity, for all who pass by here.
I have listened to these songs which are in tombs of long ago
(and) that which they relate in extolling the earthly while belittling the necropolis.
Why is the like done against the land of Eternity and uprightness which is without terror?
Its abomination is tumult.
There is no one who prepares (5) himself against his fellow; this land is without its opponent.
All our kindred are resting within it since the time of the primeval beginning.
Those who will come into being – by millions and millions – will come to it.
There is no lingering in Beloved Egypt.
There is no one who does not reach it.
As for a lifetime done on earth, it is a moment of a dream.
It is said: ‘Welcome safe and sound’ to the one who reaches the West.
The ‘Entertainment Song’ of Djehutimes (TT 32) (ll. 8–16)
Kákosy, L. and Fábián, Z.I. ‘Harper’s song in the Tomb of Djehutimes
(TT 32)’, Studien zur Altägyptische Kultur 22 (1995), 211–27. Dynasty 19 – Ramesses II/Theban Necropolis
All the capable nobles, the Ennead of the Lords of Life,
may they hear the performing of [songs] (for) the Chief Steward, Djehutimes of
Thebes
in paying honour (10) [...]
[...] forever,
extolled in the West, (that) they may become as memories [...]
[... ] these songs which are in tombs of long ago which they [.] in extolling [.]
[...W]hy is the like done against the land of Eternity? [.up]right, which is not [.]
[...] There is no one who prepares himself against his fellow, this land is without [its] opponent.
[...] his kindred [...] since the time of the primeval beginning.
Those who will come into being – millions and millions – will come (15) [.] to it.
There is no [.Beloved Eg]ypt
There is no one who does not arrive (there).
As for a lifetime done on earth, [it is] a moment [of a drea]m.
[One] says [’Wel]come safe and sound’ to the one who reaches the West.
Papyrus Fragments of Sourere TT 48
Posener, G. ‘Les richesses inconnues de la littérature égyptienne’, Revue d’Égyptologie 6 (1951), 27–49, pl. 1.
Dynasty 19/Sheikh Abd el-Gurnah
Although the text is extremely mutilated, it is included here as a possible reference to dreams.
Fragment A
...his Majestyl.p.h . Then they reached to.....
.her/she in her time of coming...
.within her.
...he [loved(?)] her more than any woman who...
(5)...no!5 Then...
...(?) WOKE UP...6
. „ his Majestyl.p.h. ...
...(?) She was...
.she.as a wild lion.
(10)...trap(?)7 her...
... (finding?) her in every place...
...(?) in...
Posener’s Interpretation
Posener suggests that the text can be reconstructed as follows.8 One can imagine the first lines of fragment A recounting how a king surprises a young beauty in his sleep, and is smitten with her, while the following lines describe how she escapes him and how he searches for her. What are certain are the mentions of ḥm=f, ‘his Majesty’, which occur four or five times on the fragments, and the feminine pronoun ‘she’ or ‘her’. Posener compares these frequent attestations with those appearing in the story of P. Berlin 3020 + P. Vienna 36 which is called ‘The King and Goddess’, and wonders how far one should relate the two. He proposes the following restorations:
A9 [jw jry=s ḫpr.]w=s m m⫖j.w-ḥ[s⫖.t] [She transformed herself] into a [wil]d lion, which she does while she jw jry=s hpr.w=s m w’ šrj [nfr.t] She trans- formed herself into a beautiful young woman based on P. Vienna 36 v. 13.
Posener surmises that the same restitution, if it is correct, would remind one of the cycle of legends concerning the Lioness Goddess and the Eye of Ra, where one sees the daughter of the sun god take the form of a Lon- donlioness. The mention of chief of hunters (D and G?), [g]m st m s.t nb.t (A) ...finding her in every place... and maybe also the abode of [his?] father (?D) may allow for this comparison.
O. Turin 9587
Posener, G. ‘Ostraca inédits du musée de Turin’, Revue d’Égyptologie 8
(1951), 185–6, pl. 14B.
New Kingdom/Deir el-Medina
... dream9 ...
.. I............................ in order to find
.........for life ..............the people.
•She...to me...
...dream,
•(while) I went forth to our place far away.
•I(?).................I(?)
(x+5)...me in a dream.
•She said to me:
•’What, then what is it that we did to.?’
....the(?) .........doing upon breaking(?).
•(while) he (overturned??) the blood against the earth,
•I
•I was weeping very very much,
• while the entire necropolis was.
..........
P. Deir el-Medina 6
Černý , J. Papyrus Hieratiques de Deir el-Médineh, Vol. I, Paris, L’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1978, p. 19, pls. 22, 22a; KRI VI 266–7. Dynasty 19 – Ramesses II/Deir el-Medina
recto
To wit: I am calling upon Ptah of [...], who dwells in Shchetit,10 the sun of the day, to give you life, health, a long lifetime, and a ripe old age, while you are with me (as) a brother forever, and (I am) an older orphan with you everyday. [And further ... pay heed to... ] my dispatch from yesterday, saying: ‘Send 1 hin-measure [of oil to your] dinner [compani]on’, (5) for see, she has come, and you should not [let her ... ] If you don’t have, you shouldn’t give your clothes, [but you should send] that which I wrote to you about.
When my letter reaches you, you should send the oil about which I wrote to you. See to it carefully! Make the people wait while you [...] run away to the village.
verso
Now look, I’ve gotten hold of her. I didn’t let her see that I had written to you that she was here. Actually, it is because of a dream that she has come in order to stand in the presence of Nefertari. Look after her and do not do the things that you used to do regularly. It is I who usually writes to you, but you don’t write (5) to me!
May your health be good!
Biography of Ipuy – Stele Wien Inv. 8390 (ll. 1–19)
Satzinger, H. ‘Zwei Wiener Objekte mit bemerkenswerten Inschriften’, 249–54 in Mélanges Gamal Eddin Mokhtar, edited by P. Posener-Kriéger, Cairo, Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire, 1985.
New Kingdom
A hymn for Hathor, who lives in Thebes.
Kiss the earth for [.] in all her forms.
May I pray to her, for the greatness of her name, for the strength of her striking power.
Love of her is in the hearts of the people.
Her beauty is with the gods.
The Ennead shall come to her bowing down for the greatness of her eminence.
It was on the day that I saw (her) beauty –
my heart was spending the day in celebration thereof–
that I saw the Lady of the Two Lands in a dream
and she placed joy in my heart.
Then I was revitalized with her food,
without that one would say ‘Would that I had, would that we had!’
He [.]
[.] festival(?)
that which gives teaching to [.]
[...] pure food(?) by the servant in the Place of Truth
Jpwy, the Justified, said:
[.] solve the problem.
The wonders of Hathor should be related [which she] did [to the] ones who don’t know it, and the ones who do know it.
A generation should tell a generation how beautiful [...] [...] her face to the sky.
One is bathed and inebriated by the sight of her.
Her father Amun shall listen to her and all her petitions,
peace[.] [.wh]en he rises, carrying her beauty.
He made lapis-lazuli for her hair and gold for her limbs.
The Two Banks of Horus were made for her that the god [mother(?)] may prepare[...]
[...] the land to its limits, because love of her is so great her brow shall bind with the beauty of his beloved face [.]
Biography of Djehutiemhab – TT 194 (ll. 1–16)
Assmann, J. ‘Eine Traumoffenbarung der Göttin Hathor’, Revue d’Égyptologie 30 (1978), 22–50; KRI VII 153; ÄHG 172.
Dynasty 19 – Ramesses II/Thebes
A hymn of the Golden One, Eye of Ra, who kisses the earth for her ka.
A prayer to her beautiful face, applauding her every day, [by Osi]ris, the overseer of the fields of the temple of Amun, Djehuti[emhab, the justified.]
[He said:
‘I have come] before you, Lady of the Two Lands, Hathor, Great of Love. Behold [I.] (5) for your beautiful face, and I kissed the earth for your ka.
I am a real priest of yours and I am upon the waters of your command.
I don’t cast aside the speech of your mouth; I don’t ignore your teachings.
I am upon the path of that which you yourself have given, upon the road that you have made.
How happy is the moment for the one who knows you; every one who sees you is praised.
How joyful it is, when the one who enters your shadow rests by your side! (10) You are the one who predicted my tomb chapel at the beginning, as it was first decided.
That which you said, has happened; your plan [is carried out] and a place [is made] for my mummy-body.
You will give me old age, and my rest, while I [am] healthy and satisfied with life,
my eye able to see, and all my limbs complete.
You are one who has spoken to me yourself, with your own mouth –
‘I am the beautiful Hely,
my shape being that of Mut.
I have come in order to instruct you:
See your place – take hold of it’,
without travelling north, without travelling south.’
while I was in a dream,11
while the earth was in silence, in the deep of the night.12
At dawn, my heart was delighted, I was rejoicing and I gave myself over to the West in order to do as she said.
For you are a goddess who does what she says, a noble lady to whom one owes obedience.
I have not neglected your speech;
I have not transgressed your plans.
I perform only according to that which you said. (15)
Place your face in order to let me bow down to it.
Reward (with) your goodness that I may perceive your form within my tomb13 in order that I may recount your power in order to make young men know (of it).14
Merneptah, Libyan War, Karnak, 28-30
KR IV 5; ll. 10–15 19th Dynasty/Karnak
...Merneptah is fighting the Libyans...
Then his Majesty saw in a dream, as if it were an image of Ptah standing before the Pharaohl.p.h
He was as tall as [...]
He said to him:
‘Grab hold here!’ while he was giving to him the Khepesh sword
‘And drive away the heart-sickness within you.’
Then Pharaohl.p.h ’ said to him:
Indeed [...]
O. Colin Campbell 4 (O. Glasgow D.1925.69 recto, ll. 8–11)
McDowell, A.G. Hieratic Ostraca in the Hunterian Museum Glasgow (The Colin Campbell Ostraca), Oxford, Griffith Institute, 1993, 7–9; HO 39.1. Early 20th Dynasty? Deir el-Medina.
ANOTHER raising of pleasure.
I have left yesterday; today is in the hands of Amun.
I have been found healthy – my condition endures.15
I will make for myself a happy landing until the blackness16 of my lifetime.
I SHALL GIVE to him up to my limits; he is my final mooring.
Oh, the verdure17 of burial; there’s nothing like it!
The protector among the people is ruined; his situation is rotten.
I shall give to Amun, for I have found goodness.
If I call to him, ‘My Lord!’ he is willing to reply.
There is not a moment when my call is not heard! (5)
– – – –
Do not, my lord, my god, wait for this!
Set justice over corruption as an inundation.
(and) the upright citizen is in joy; the adversary is fallen.
Another shall prepare himself18 as wrongness has formed over right.
The situation of the people who are among us is fragile,
One, no one harms; another, no one befriends.
May you banish(?) deprivation; give in to joy,
and likewise a perfect lifetime, without a care!
– – – –
How short is a lifetime! It is upon your two [...]19 .
Place, indeed, our destiny within Thebes,
That which we see in the dream is that which is on earth.20
(10) The one who endures21 is reaching his final mooring; do not let us be far from you!22
– – – –
I was thirsty; (now) I am drunk.
Invocation to Isis (P. Chester Beatty III r. 10.10–10.19; British Museum 10683)
Gardiner, A.H. Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, Third Series, Chester Beatty Gift, 2 vols., London, British Museum, 1935, pls. 5–12a.
Ramesside/Deir el-Medina
Words spoken by a man, who wakes up on his place:
(Dreamer):
’Come to me! Come to me <my> mother Isis!
Behold, I see something far away from me, as something that touches me’
(Isis):
‘Here I am, <my> son Horus.
Do not divulge that which you saw (in order that) your numbness may be completed, your dreams retire, and fire go forth against that which frightens you.
Behold, I have come that may see you, that I may drive out your bad things, that I may extirpate all the deep-rooted ailments.’
(Dreamer):
‘Hail, o you good dream, which is seen <in> the night (15) and in the day.
Drive out all the deep-rooted filth and bad things which Seth, son of Nut, created.
As Ra is vindicated against his enemies, I am vindicated against my enemies.’
This spell is to be spoken by a man who wakes up on his place, after he has first been given pesen bread and fresh herbs, (which have been) marinated in beer and myrrh.
The man’s face should be rubbed with them; all the bad dreams that he has seen should be driven out.
O. Gardiner 363
Ritner, R.K. ‘O. Gardiner 363: A spell against night terrors’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 27 (1990), 25–41.
HO 109, 1.
Ramesside Period/Deir el-Medina?
(Oh) male adversary [female adversary ...] be far [from ...] dead male, dead female, without coming.
He will not go forth face forwards, limbs as [sound] limbs, (since) his heart is for
the evening-meal23 for the One in the Moment of Striking.
NN born of NN has [extracted] your hearts, (oh) dead ones.
[He has] seized your hearts, (oh) dead males and dead females.
He has offered them to the Striker [for] his sustenance of his limbs.
You all, you will not live!
You limbs are [his(?)] offering cakes.
You will not escape from the 4 Ladies from the fortress of Horus who is in Shenit.
TO BE SAID over The 4 Uraei MADE OF PURE CLAY AND FIRE IN THEIR MOUTHS.
ONE IS PLACED ON [EACH] CORNER [OF EACH ROOM(?)] IN WHICH THERE IS A MAN OR A WOMAN [...] SLEEPING WITH A MAN [OR WOMAN(?)]
P. Leiden I 348 v. 2
Borghouts, J.F. The Magical Texts of P. Leiden 1348, Oudheidkundige Mededelingen uit het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden 51, Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1971.
Dynasty 19/Thebes
BOOK OF DRIVING OUT TERRORSwhich come in order to descend
upon a man in the night:
Place <your> head behind, when you raise your face,24
together with your ba, your shapes, your corpses,25 your magic, together with your shapes, your forms.
Oh male akhs, female akhs, male dead, female dead, male adversaries, female
adversaries in the sky and in the earth:
You shall contemplate and look!26
It is the Lord of All,27 and it is Those who are,
it is Atum, it is Wadjet: the Lady of Dread in the great bark,28 it is the Child, it is the Lord of Truth
it is the Lord of Truth, it is the figure of Atum on the upper road,29 (5) it is the consuming flame30 by Sia, Lord of the Heavens.
The earth is on fire, the sky is on fire, the people and gods are on fire.
(While) You say you are hidden against it (but) ‘it is come’ as is its name in truth.
Beware of the fame which comes forth from the Two Horizons!
Words to be said over this image which is in writing, made upon a choice piece of linen,
to be placed (on) the throat of a man until he is seen to be quiet.31
Oracular Ostrakon #40
Černý , J. ‘Troisième série de questions adressées aux oracles’, Bulletin ede l’institut français d’archéologie orientale 72 (1972), 49–69.
New Kingdom/Deir el-Medina
As for the dreams which he may see,
will they be good ones?
Notes
1 Dots indicating separations of verses are found in literary texts.
2 In Egyptian, while a human or animal eye is ’jrj.t’ the divine eye is ’⫖ḫ.t, which also means ‘light’, ‘shining’, or ‘illumination’. A more poetic translation might be ‘the land, in its length, its breath, will belong to you, as well as that which is illuminated by the luminous eye of the Lord of All’.
3 Bryan’s interpretation of the relationship between this phrase jw=k n=j and the preceding is followed here instead of that of Zivie who links it to the following phrase (Bryan 1991, 146, 217 n. 22; Zivie 1976, 142 (qq)).
4 This phrase can also refer to the ‘Necropolis’ (Lichtheim 1945, 197).
5 The word bj(⫖).t can also mean character or quality (Wb I 441).
6 The use of the phrase nhs pw jrj.n, ‘N woke up’, may indicate that the preceding took place while the agent was sleeping. Further, this phrase was emphasized by the use of rubrics.
7 Perhaps this is the Semitic ga=pa ‘to perforate, skewer(?)’, ‘to cut off(?)’, ‘to strip off (bark); pluck birds(?)’, (Hoch 1994, 348, §551) or it may be ‘shoulder’ (Wb V 164).
8 Posener 1951a, 47–8.
9 It is difficult to determine whether qd here and in the line below means ‘slumber’, ‘dream’, ‘form’, or ‘build’.
10 This refers to the sanctuary of Sokar.
11 Alternatives are ‘while I was sleeping’, ‘while I was dreaming’, though the latter would be the only instance of the use of qd as a verbal form that I am aware of.
12 Assmann 1978, 32(v), compares this terminology to that found in the Great Hymn of Amarna (ÄHG Nr. 136, 21) and other hymns concerning the state of the world before creation, which is paralleled by the state before the rising of the
sun (i.e. ÄHG Nr. 32, 16).
13 Assmann 1978, 33(y) explains that this may have a double meaning, in that the author is talking about actual engraving so that her face may be carried in his tomb. An alternate translation of this phrase might be ‘that I may perceive what is done within my tomb’.
14 Literally ‘absorb’ m.
15 The word mn can also mean ‘so-and-so’. An alternative translation is then, ‘I have been found healthy – the condition of a so-and-so.’ This word reappears in line 10 (McDowell 1993, 8(c) ).
16 Although km is usually ‘completion’ (meaning death) in this context, I prefer to see this as a deliberate pun. The presence of the hair determinative here, usually used when km means the colour black, may be a reference to the end of life as the descending of blackness, the loss of light and sun. This is contrasted with the w⫖ḏ, the green vitality of burial in line 3, signalling rebirth, and growth.
17 I interpret w⫖ḏ to refer to the lush vitality of green regrowth, as noted by McDowell 1993, 8, and Fox 1977, 407.1.
18 This seems to be the opposite of what is stated in Neferhotep II (ll. 4–5) nn wn ḥrj sw r snw=f, ‘no one prepares himself against his fellow’ (Hari 1985, 12–13, pl. IV) and Djehutimes TT 32 (l. 13) (Kákosy and Fábián, 1995, fig. 3). An alternative is the translation by McDowell 1993, 8, implying that if someone other than Amun prepares it (the world?), then chaos will set in.
19 Apparently ‘Gardiner stated explicitly not ‘hands’. Perhaps he was able to discern traces which would have ruled this reading out’ (McDowell 1993, 9). This could also perhaps read ‘shoulders’, or ‘eyes’?
20 Thomas Ritter (personal communication) suggests ‘Indeed, give that our fate be within Thebes, and that which we see as the dream, be that which is on earth’. Or ‘What is on earth is that which we see in a dream’ perhaps paralleling the use of dream as a simile in Neferhotep II and Djehutimes. Or ‘that which we see as the dream, is what is on earth’. McDowell 1993, 7 suggests ‘Make, indeed, our fate within Thebes. It is the dream on earth that we see.’ She discusses this phrase further in footnote p: ‘Assmann suggests (p. 611) “Etwas, was wir im Traum sahen, ist das Diesseits”, and refers to a similar expression in TT 50 of Neferhotep II (Hari 1985, 12–13, pl. IV): “As for the time one spends on earth, it is like this time of a dream.” In good Late Egyptian, this reading would require a p⫖ before both m⫖⫖ and nty. Gardiner linked this phrase to the preceding, and read “Make our destiny within Thebes, which we see in a dream which is (?) upon earth.” ’
Posener 1977, 391 suggests ‘Fais que notre destin s’accomplisse dans Thèbes que nous voyons en rêve...ne permets pas que nous soyons loin de toi.’
21 An alternative translation is ‘The so-and-so is reaching his final mooring.’
22 Final mooring refers to dying. This may refer to the wish to die in Thebes, the abode of Amun, in whose presence the author of this song hopes to be.
23 This may refer to the act of eating and absorbing power, as is the case in Pyr. 404(c) ‘Their little ones are for his evening meal.’
24 Borghouts’ understanding of this as an imperative is supported by O. Gardiner 363, where it is said that the demon will not go forth face forwards.
25 Regarding h⫖.w, Borghouts 1978, 179 n. 439 explains that the ‘translation "corpse" is not very suitable’, and substitutes ‘corpse-like apparitions’ (Borghouts 1978, 33). Perhaps this word was chosen here to refer specifically to the fleshy body that is subject to putrefaction.
26 Winand 1986 notes that m⫖⫖ is used from the time of Akhenaten to the end of the New Kingdom when the subject is humble (i.e. before god and king). Both Winand and Depuydt (1988) agree that the use of the term dgj is positive for will, in other words it implies the active act of ‘looking at’ something, rather than just passively ‘seeing’. Therefore the demons here are forced to look at the gods, and the very sight of them should drive the demons away.
27 The Lord of All is Osiris.
28 Perhaps this is emphasizing the role of Wadjet here as the Cobra or the Uraeus, who caused dread to those who would attack the sleeper.
29 Literally ‘of the sky’.
30 See Borghouts 1978, 182–4 n. 449 for an extensive commentary on the consuming flame.
31 Alternatively, the r, ‘until’, could be read as the negative n, and Borghouts 1978, 186 n. 458 suggests that in this case the sentence would read ‘he will not be seen (by the demons) anymore’. He submits that it would be more likely that one would want the patient to stop seeing the demon, but the Letter to the Dead, Nag ed-Deir 3737, reveals that there was also a concern that the antagonist (in this case a dead man) be prevented from watching the dreamer.