The Teaching of King Amenemhat I
Transliteration
(6)
r-sA msyt pw xAw xpr
Ssp.n.i wnwt nt nfr-ib
sDr.kwi Hr Hnkyt.i bAg.n.i
SAa.n Haty.i Sms qd.i
ist spXr xaw nD
r-Hr.i ir.kwi mi sA-tA n smt
Section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Translation (here the sound - 205 Kb)
| (6) IT WAS AFTER THE MEAL, NIGHT HAD FALLEN. I took an hour of rest. I lay on my bed, for I had grown weary. My heart began to follow sleep. Suddenly weapons of counsel were turned against me. I was like a snake of the desert |
Commentary to the translation. Detailed points
(6)
Meal
The meal is specifically the evening meal: Egyptian divisions of the day were
in liturgical practice twelvefold 'hours', probably on the pattern of months,
but in other contexts the broader threefold division according to meal-times.
I was like a snake of the desert
At least by the New Kingdom (about 1550-1069 BC), this may have carried the resonance of an incantation
to 'take the form of a snake', included in the funerary literature (Book
of the Dead). Although that incantation is not attested before the New Kingdom,
other funerary compositions first appear in non-funerary manuscripts concerned
with healing. Possibly such an incantation already existed in the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC).
However, here the episode shows the vulnerability of the king, rather than a
superhuman ability to escape into the earth.
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