Saturday, May 21, 2016
Statue of Hathor at Berlin Museum
6:44pm


Images from Lepsius. In addition to the Old Kingdom, he called the Middle Kingdom "Altes Reich".

It's too bad I can't make out the details on the cartouche. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't find a modern photo of this piece. Thus I fear it may have succumbed during World War II. "The second World War had dire consequences for the collection. The 'Neues Museum' was much damaged and many objects were burned." (Source: http://www.egyptian-museum-berlin.com/c01.php)

Sunday, May 22, 2016
Intef II Wahankh Offering to Ra and Hathor
1:33pm

I tried another avenue to find a photo of the statue I'd seen yesterday in Lepsius' drawings. I used the German words for "Egyptian Museum Berlin", thinking there might be a old book written before World War II that would show it. No such luck.

I tried "Hathor" in the next search-within-the-book to one of the search results. A book by Jan Assmann had referenced this museum. He shared a hymn to Ra and Hathor, and gave more info at the bottom. I learned his translation was from a stela at the New York museum, Accession #13.182.3 and that M. Lichtheim had referenced it in a book she wrote in 1973 called _Ancient Egyptian Literature_.

I was able to track down the exact pages in her book!


Wahankh Intef offers beer and milk to the god Ra and to the goddess Hathor.
Traced from a detail in a Museum photo

I found it amusing to place the two translations side by side:



The Hymn to Ra


The Hymn to Hathor

Oh you lords of the western sky,
Oh you gods of the western sky,
Oh you who rule the shores of the western sky,
Who rejoice at Hathor's coming,
Who love to see her beauty rise!
I let her know, I say at her side
That I rejoice in seeing her!

My hands do "come to me, come to me,"
My body says, my lips repeat:
Holy music for Hathor, music a million times,
Because you love music,
Million times music to your ka wherever you are,
I am he who makes the singer waken music for Hathor,
Every day at any hour she wishes.

May your heart be at peace with music,
May you proceed in goodly peace,
May you rejoice in life and gladness...

From _Ancient Egyptian Literature: The Old and Middle Kingdoms_,
by Miriam Lichtheim, pages 94-96

I tried to compare the translation to the full size photo of this stela. At first I was confused, because I didn't see the familiar "falcon in a square" hieroglyph that means "Hathor". It turns out the scribe used an unusual version of the phonetic way to write this goddess' name:


My skills at reading these glyphs are only partial. It does seem the scribe may have made a mistake. In referring to both Ra and Hathor in the offering line that is directly in front of Intef, the scribe gave the "goddess" glyph a beard.


Oops!

I did clearly make out one line of the stela:

Horus Wahankh, honoured by Osiris, Son of Re, Intef, born of Nefru.


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