GARDINER, Alan - The Kadesh Inscriptions of Ramesses II

THE
KADESH INSCRIPTIONS

.

OF RAMESSES II

SIR ALAN GARDINER

OXFORD

PRINTED FOR THE GRIFFITH INSTITUTE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

BY VIVIAN RIDLER

CONTENTS

THE ~DESH INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMESSES II

A. THE LITERARY RECORD The so-called 'Poem' Translation

Commentary

Page 1

7 7 14

B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD 1. The so-called 'Report' Translation

Commentary

2. The Legends accompanying the Reliefs Translations and Commentaries

28 28

31 35 35

CONCLUSIONS

1. Authorship and Mode of Composition

2. The Strategic Facts

APPENDIX

Allies of the Hittites and other Geographical Names 57

THE KADESH INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMESSES II

\VHEN Ch. Kuentz published his admirable edition of the Kadesh texts in I9281 it was the hope of all Egyptologists that he would soon follow it up with a definitive translation and commentary. Thirty years having elapsed without these being forthcoming it is but natural that other scholars should have attempted to supply the need, the latest being R. O. Faulkner in the Festschrift for H. junker.> where the two main texts are rendered in extenso as an appendix to a discussion of the strategy of the famous battle. Unfortunately Faulkner's in many ways excellent essay has appeared in a place where it will be inaccessible to any but professed Egyptologists, and having long interested myself in these all-important inscriptions I have thought it would be useful to furnish other readers with versions of my own, accompanying them with philological notes, though these latter will appeal only to my specialist colleagues. It has long been my conviction that every new translation should -aim at improving upon those of its predecessors, an aim which, however, involves toilsome comparisons with what has gone before. I am happy to testify that, in my opinion, Faulkner has in many places achieved results markedly superior to those of earlier English renderings, but often I have found myself differing from him, though I am by no means sure that either he or others will always be ready to accept my preferences. At least I have striven to do justice to both grammar and vocabulary, and have devoted much time to perusing all the more recent English translations. It is remarkable how greatly these differ from one another, if not in substance, at least in the style adopted and the degree of literalness that the translators have allowed themselves. To corroborate this I would ask those interested to compare Faulkner's and my versions with those of Breasted, 3 Blackman," and Wilson." I have thought it would be invidious to indulge in direct criticisms, though tacit ones will be found in many of my notes; and I gratefully acknowledge that I have frequently borrowed from my predecessors renderings which seemed to me specially happy. I must confess that I

I La Bataille de Kadech in Memoires de I'Tnstitut francais d'archeologie orientale, vol. 55, Cairo, 1928.

2 Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archdologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, 16. 93 ff., Wiesbaden, 1958.

3 Ancient Records, iii (1906), §§ 306 if.

4 The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians (1927), pp. 261 ff., translated from A. Erman, Die Literatur der Agypter (1923), pp. 325 if.

S The Texts of the Battle of Kadesh in A]SL 43 (1927), pp. 266 if.

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2

THE I):ADESH INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMESSES II

have not found time to make a complete study of the grammatical forms contained in the texts, so that my results must be regarded as no more than a temporary expedient. I have concentrated my efforts more upon vocabulary and interpretation than upon grammar, and am well aware that I am leaving to others plenty to do. Where the versions differ I have chosen that one which seems most informative and graphic.

Alike on the historical and the philological side the necessary starting-point of any serious study must be Breasted's masterly monograph published in 19031 and supplemented three years later by his more popularly written account in Ancient Records of Egypt, iii, §§ 294-351. It is not too much to say that most later improvements are due to Kuentz's publication of further texts which were not accessible to Breasted. Of real value, had it not been so narrowly anticipated by the fuller French edition, would have been Selim Hassan's Le Poeme dit de Pentaour et le rapport officiel sur la bataille de Qadesh, Cairo, 1929, a careful work which has occasionally served me for the confirmation of Kuentz's readings. Breasted classified the material at his disposal under three heads.> namely, (I) the POEM, a lengthy narrative usually occupying an entire wall in the various temples where it occurs, (2) the RECORD, a shorter account which he thought might be an official report of the campaign, and (3) the RELIEFS, pictures illustrating different incidents of the battle mostly accompanied by short explanatory Iegends.> Kuentz (henceforth to be referred to with the abbreviation Ku.) adheres to the same classification, but substitutes the designation 'Bulletin' for Breasted's 'Record'. Other scholars have followed suit, but a reform is here necessary on several grounds.

(I) Of minor importance is the fact that the long inscription known as the 'Poem' is wrongly so described. There is no justification for thinking that any part of it was written in verse. It is significant that the British Museum papyrus P.Sallier III which, together with the single-page Raife papyrus now preserved in the Louvre, contains an inaccurate copy of nearly the whole of the text, shows none of those red superlinear dots often supposed, though erroneously, to indicate verse-division, and the same is true of a very fragmentary and abominably written duplicate+ discovered long after the appearance of

I The Battle of Kadesh, a Study in the Earliest Known Military Strategy (University of Chicago's Decennial Publications), Chicago, 1903, Referred to as Br. below.

2 Br., pp. 6-7.

3 For the reliefs W. Wreszinski's Atlas sur altdgyptischen Kulturgeschichte, vol. ii, Leipzig, 1935, is invaluable. Abbreviated below as Wr.

4 P.Chester Beatty III, verso, published in Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum, vol. iii, pls. 9, 10, London, 1935.

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THE ~ADESH INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMESSES II 3

Kuentz's great edition. Breasted was fully in agreement with the objection to the designation 'Poem' here raised, for he wrote: I

The entire so-called Poem does not differ in form from the Record and is not essentially different from the accounts of their victories left by other Pharaohs, such as those of lVIerneptah and Ramses III, all of which, like the Poem, show no poetic form, but in style are poetic, florid and highly colored.

Why then the accepted label? This is simply one more example of the regrettable force of custom; a designation once given sticks, and may, as in two of our English versions, actually lead to what is undoubtedly mere prose being presented to the reader as verse. A new label is clearly desirable, and I propose to call the text THE LITERARY RECORD, though for convenience of reference to the standard editions it will be necessary to add 'the so-called Poem' .

(2) Far more serious is the misconception which has arisen in connexion with the 'Report', sometimes called 'The Official Report'. It has not been noticed that this shorter description of the battle, containing much that is not found in the Literary Record, is regularly inserted in close proximity to the scene where the Pharaoh, seated on his throne outside his camp in course of being pitched, receives from his officers the unwelcome news of the false information given him by the Hittite spies.> That episode, not found in the Literary Record, occupies an important place in the 'Report', and below the scene the inevitable bastinadoing of the spies is also depicted. It is true that the date at the beginning of the 'Report' with the account of the arrival at the neighbourhood of Kadesh combine with the description of the outcome of the fight to rob this inscription of the character which in fact motivated its existence; none the less in essence it is clearly no more than one of those legends which served to explain the accompanying reliefs. Certainly it was not the 'Official Report' which the accepted view claims it to be. It had always puzzled me that in several temples a great military event should be described in two separate forms. This might have been comprehensible if, for example, Thebes and Memphis had each possessed a separate version of its own. The facts, however, are quite different. Luxor and the Ramesseum not only have the 'Poem', but they have the 'Report' as well. The same is or was true of Abydos and possibly also at Karnak; only at Abu Simbel is the 'Poem' missing. It is significant that

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2 Evidence of this position: Ramesseum, Wr. ii, pI. 95 and Br., pl. I, whence the frontispiece to this book has been taken; Abu Simbel, Wr. ii, pl, 170 and Br., pl. 6; Abydos, Ku., p. 13, text only, but confirmed by E. Naville, Details releoes, &c., pI. 9. The east pylon at Luxor is an exception, see Ku., p. 69, and the 'Report' is not found at Karnak, no longer at least.

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4 THE ~ADESH INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMESSES II

the 'Poem' regularly occupies a wall well apart from the reliefs, whereas the 'Report' is closely associated with these. The difficulty which had troubled me disappears when we recognize in the so-called 'Official Report' simply the most important item in what must be termed collectively THE PICTORIAL RECORD. The second and third elements in Breasted's classification thus coalesce, and we obtain a bipartite analysis of the Kadesh texts instead of a tripartite one. The consequences of this recognition will be set forth towards the end of this essay. In the meantime, however, I have found it impossible to escape from the accepted nomenclature, and my translations, each accompanied by a commentary of its own, have accordingly continued to fall under the three heads (I) the so-called 'Poem', (2) the so-called 'Report' or 'Bulletin', and (3) the 'Reliefs'. The texts used are those conveniently presented by Kuentz in parallel horizontal lines; these enable the variants of the separate copies to be seen at a glance, and his division into numbered subsections provides an admirably practical means of reference.

It would be a mistake to embark upon our translations without some preliminary account of the historical and geographical setting of the events therein recorded. The story is one of the inevitable clash between two great kingdoms each at the zenith of its power. In the golden days of Tuthmosis III (I490- I436 B.C.) the Khatti or Hittites, although already referred to as Great Khatti in the hieroglyphs, were no more than a distant people living in Asia Minor whose king found it politic to send gifts to the Egyptian Pharaoh. Throughout the greater part of Tuthmosis's reign he had a hard struggle to maintain his hold over Palestine and Syria, but his campaigns, in so far as they were not directed against mere local princes, had as their ultimate objective the kingdom of Mitanni or Nahrin to the north-east beyond the Euphrates. In the following reigns the Egyptian hostility towards these neighbours subsided and gave place to friendly relations occasionally cemented by a diplomatic marriage. The heretic king Akhenaten (I367-I350 B.C.) was too deeply absorbed in his religious reforms to harbour any dreams of foreign expansion. Meanwhile, however, there had emerged to the north-west of Syria a power infinitely stronger than any which Egypt had ever been obliged to face. After a long period of impotence the Hittite kingdom under Suppiluliumas (I375- 1335 B.C.) began to develop its potentialities, subjugating its neighbours one after another until, about 1370 B.C., it finally suppressed and replaced the hitherto so important Mitannian kingdom. In the course of this campaign Suppiluliumas pushed even as far as Damascus, overwhelming the small

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THE ~ADESH INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMESSES II 5

principality of Kadesh en route. That city-state on the left bank of the northward flowing river Orontes owed its great strategic importance to its position near the exit from the high-level valley between the Lebanons called the Bika'. Along this valley every north-bound army had necessarily to pass if it was to avoid the narrow route, intersected by river-mouths, along the Phoenician coast. Already under Tuthmosis III Kadesh had proclaimed its leadership by forming a coalition to check the Egyptian advance. Although defeated at Megiddo and seeing his city captured on more than one later occasion, the Prince of Kadesh never ceased to occupy a position of outstanding importance among the petty rulers of northern Syria until under Muwatallis (1306- 1282B.C.), the grandson of Suppiluliumas, he became no more than one of the allies whom that Hittite king suborned to stem the advance of Ramesses II. After the close of the 'Amarna period Egypt passed into the hands of a vigorous and enterprising military man, but of Haremhab's warlike campaigns nothing is known. His successor Ramesses I, an officer from the north of the Delta, ushered in the Nineteenth Dynasty, but lived to reign only one year. His son Sethos I, who followed, was a mighty warrior; fighting in Palestine with great success he brought that country once more under Egyptian control; the capture of Kadesh is claimed as one of his victories. When he, in turn, was succeeded by his son Ramesses II (1290-1224 B.C.) the Egyptian Empire, or what is commonly deemed to be such, had reached a pinnacle of domination not surpassed at any time either earlier or later. It is important to realize, however, that neither Ramesses nor his Hittite adversary Muwatallis ever established an absolute monarchy. The position of both was roughly identical. It was only by means of their armies that they maintained control over communities which in no literal sense could be described as their subjects. These communities were petty states or townships each with a king or chief of its own, though so far as the Egyptians were concerned garrisons were posted at key-points. We shall see that the forces which Ramesses II took with him to Palestine in his second expedition of Year 5 (285 B.C.) had been recruited from four separate Egyptian cities, the names of whose divinities they bore. From Thebes came the army of Amlin, from Heliopolis that of the sun-god Re< (with preceding definite article Pre<), from Memphis that of Ptah, and from the Delta Residence Pi-Ra <messe, i.e. perhaps Tanis, that of Sutekh. These armies or divisions, with the exception of the Memphite, are mentioned as having served in Palestine already under Sethos I, a separate task being allotted to each. Though all four took part in the Kadesh campaign it is evident that they were

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THE J>_ADESH INSCRIPTIONS OF RAMESSES II

kept strictly apart, each marching behind the other in the order mentioned. Unfortunately we have no information with regard to their commanding officers. In the previous Year 4 Ramesses had led his troops along the coast of Palestine as far north as the Nahr el-Kelb (,Dog-river') a few miles beyond Beyrut, and it was perhaps a remnant from this 'First Expedition of Victory' that we shall read of as coming from the land of Amor still farther north at a critical moment in the fight.

But I must at this point leave my translations to speak for themselves.

Discussion of some further place-names mentioned in the texts will be found in the commentaries on their first occurrence, though what little has been elicited about the Hittite allies has been reserved for ali Appendix. For the topography of the campaign Breasted's monograph is the indispensable authority, and for a concise and admirable account of the Hittite history readers cannot do better than refer to O. Gurney's Penguin book The Hittites, first published in 1952. Another book which will often be quoted for the geography is my Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, 2 vols., Oxford, 1947, abbreviated as Onom.

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A. THE LITERARY RECORD

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The so-called 'Poem', Ku., pp. 2I2-326; abbreviated P = Poeme TRANSLATION

1

Here beginneth THE VICTORY OF THE KING OF UPPER AND LOWER EGYPT USIMA (RE (-SETPENRE (, THE SON OF RE< RA<MESSE-MIAMUN, GIVEN LIFE ETERNALLY, WHICH HE ACHIEVED IN THE LAND OF KHATTI, NAHRIN, IN THE LAND

OF ARZAWA, IN PIDASA, IN THAT OF DARDANY, IN THE LAND OF MASA, IN THE LAND OF r>:ARfPSHA AND LUKA, IN CARCHEMISH, J>:EDY, (THE) LAND OF J>:ADESH, PS IN THE LAND OF UGARIT, MUSHANET. Now His Majesty was a youthful lord, active and without his peer; his arms powerful, his heart stout, his strength like Mont at his moment; goodly of form like Atum, one rejoices at seeing his beauty; great of victory over all foreign countries, one knows not when he will rto begin to fight; a strong wall about his army, their shield on the day of fighting;

a bowman without his like; he is braver than hundreds of thousands combined; going ahead and entering in among multitudes, his heart trusting in his strength; powerful of heart in the hour of close combat; like fire at its time

of consuming; firm of heart like a bull ready upon the battlefield; he cares not PIS for all lands combined; a thousand men are unable to stand firm before him; hundreds of thousands are discomfited at beholding him; inspiring fear; loud

of roarings in the hearts of all lands ; great of majesty and powerful of renown like Sutekh; . . . in the heart of foreigners; like a savage lion in a valley of desert animals; advancing bravely and returning (only) when he has triumphed P20 face to face; not speaking boastfully; effective of counsel and good of plan; one finds (what one needs) through his first reply; saving his army on the day

of fighting; [great protector of] his chariotry; bringing (home) his followers and rescuing his infantry, his heart being like a mountain of copper; the King

of Upper and Lower Egypt Usimaerec-setpcnrec, the Son of Re<, Rasmessemiamiin, given life.

Now His Majesty had made ready his infantry and his chariotry, and the P25 Sherden of His Majesty's capturing whom he had brought back by the victory

of his strong arm; supplied with all their weapons, and the plan of fighting having been given to them. His Majesty journeyed northward, his infantry and his chariotry with him, and he made a good beginning upon the march in Year 5, second month of the Summer season, day 9. His Majesty passed the P30

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8 A. THE LITERARY RECORD

fortress of Tjel, being powerful like Mont in his going forth, all foreign countries trembling before him and their chiefs bringing their gifts, all those who were disaffected being come bowing down through fear of His Majesty's might. His army went along the narrow defiles like one which is upon the

P35 roads of Egypt. Now when days had passed over these things His Majesty was in Rasmesse-miamiln, the town which is in the Valley of the Cedar. And His Majesty proceeded northward. But when His Majesty had reached the hillcountry of Kadesh, then His Majesty went ahead like Mont, the lord of Thebes, and he crossed the ford of the Orontes with the first army of Armin-

P40 gives-victory-to-Usima<re<-setpenre<. His Majesty arrived at the town of Kadesh, and now the wretched Fallen one of Kadesh was come and had collected together all the foreign countries as far as the end of the sea; the entire land of Khatti was come, that of Nahrin likewise, that of Arzawa, Dardany,

P45 that of Keshkesh, those of Masa, those of Pidasa, that of Arwen(?), that of Karkisha, Luka, Kizzuwadna, Carchemish, Ugarit, Kedy, the entire land of Nukhashshe, Mushanet, Kadesh ;he left no foreign country not to bring it of every distant land, their chiefs there with him; every man with his infantry

P50 and their chariotry exceeding many, without limit of the like of them. They covered mountains and valleys and they were like the locust by reason of their multitude. He left no silver in his land, he stripped it of all its possessions and gave them to all the foreign countries in order to bring them with him to fight.

Now the wretched Fallen one of Khatti, together with the many foreign P55 countries which were with him, stood concealed and ready to the north-east of the town of Kadesh, but His Majesty was alone by himself with his followers, the army of Amlin marching after him, the army of Pre< crossing the

P60 ford in the neighbourhood south of the town of Shabtuna at a distance of I iter from where His Majesty was, the army of Ptah being to the south of the town of Aronama, and the army of Sutekh marching along the road, and His Majesty had made the first battle-force out of all the leaders of his army, and

P65 they were upon the shore of the land of Amor. But the wretched Chief of Khatti stood in the midst of the army which was with him and did not come out to fight through fear of His Majesty. But he had sent men and horses exceeding many and multitudinous like the sand, and they were three men on

P70 a chariot and they were equipped with all weapons of warfare. They had been made to stand concealed behind the town of Kadesh, and now they came forth from the south side of Kadesh and broke into (?) the army of Pre( in its midst as they were marching and did not know nor were they prepared to fight.

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TRANSLATION 9

Thereupon the infantry and the chariotry of His Majesty were discomfited before them, but His Majesty stood firm to the north of the town of Kadesh P75 on the western side of the Orontes. Then they came to tell it to His Majesty. Then His Majesty appeared in glory like his father Mont, he assumed the accoutrements of battle, and girded himself with his corslet, he was like Ba cal

in his hour, the great horse which bore His Majesty being Victory-in-Thebes

of the great stable of Usimasrec-setpenrec, beloved of Amlin.

Then His Majesty started forth at a gallop, and entered into the host of the P80 fallen ones of Khatti, being alone by himself and none other with him. So then His Majesty went to look about him and he found 2,500 chariots hemming him in on his outer side, consisting of all the champions of the fallen P8S ones of Khatti with the many foreign countries which were with them from Arzawa, Masa, and Pidasa, they being three men on a chariot acting as a unit, whereas there was no high officer with me, no charioteer, no soldier of the army, no shield-bearer, my infantry and my chariotry scampering away before P90 them, and not one of them stood firm to fight with them. Then said His Majesty: 'What ails thee, my father Amlin? Is it the part of a father to ignore

his son? Have I done any concern without thee? Do I not walk and halt at a P95 word of thine? I have not disobeyed a matter that thou didst command. How (much too) great is he, the great lord of Egypt, to allow foreigners to draw nigh in his path! What careth thy heart, 0 Amlin, for these Asiatics so vile

and ignorant of god? Have I not made for thee very many monuments and filled thy temple with my booty; built for thee my Mansion of Millions of PlOO Years and given thee all my wealth as an endowment? I have presented to thee all lands together to enrich thy offerings, and have caused to be sacrificed

to thee tens of thousands of cattle and all (manner of) sweet-scented herbs.

No good deeds have I put behind my hand not to do them in thy sanctuary;

I have built for thee great pylons, and have erected their flagstaffs myself, PI OS bringing for thee obelisks from Elephantine, even I being the stone-carrier,

and have conducted to thee ships on the Great Green to carry to thee the produce of the foreign countries. What will men say if (even) a little thing befall him who bends himself to thy will? Do good to him who counts upon thee; then will one act for thee with a loving heart.' I called to thee, my father Pl1 0 Amlin, when I was in the midst of multitudes whom I knew not. All foreign countries were combined against me, I being alone by myself, none other with

me, my numerous infantry having abandoned me, not one looking at me of

my chariotry. I kept on shouting to them, but not one of them hearkened to P115

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me as I called. I found Amlin more useful than millions of infantry, than hundreds of thousands of chariotry and than a ten thousand of brothers and children united with one heart. There is no work of many men but Amlin is

P120 more useful than they. I have advanced thus far through the counsels of thy mouth, 0 Amlin, I have not overstepped thy will. Lo, I make prayers at the end of the foreign countries, and my voice circulates in On of Upper Egypt. I found Amlin come when I called him; he gave me his hand and I rejoiced.

P125 He called from behind me as (it were) face to face. 'To the fore! I am with thee. I am thy father. My hand is with thee, I am more useful than hundreds of thousands of men. I am the lord of victory who loves valour.' I found my heart stout and my breast joyful. All that I did came to pass. I was like Mont.

Pl30 I shot on my right and captured with my left. I was in their sight like Sutekh at his moment. I found the 2,500 chariots, in whose midst I was, sprawling

P13S before my horse. Not one of them found his hand to fight, their hearts discomfited in their bodies through fear of me; all their arms were weak, and they were unable to shoot. They found not their hearts to seize their javelins. I caused them to plunge into the water even as crocodiles plunge, fallen upon

P140 their faces one upon the other. I killed among them according as I willed. Not one of them looked behind him, nor was there any other who turned round. Whoever among them fell, he did not raise himself. But the wretched Chief of Khatti stood in the midst of his infantry and his chariotry looking at the

P14S fighting of His Majesty alone by himself, not having with him his infantry nor his chariotry; but he stood turning back, shrinking and afraid. Then he caused many chiefs to come, each one of them with his chariots, and they were equipped with their weapons of warfare, the Chief of Arzawa, him of the (land

P150 of) Masa, the Chief of Arwen(?), him of Luka, him of Dardany, the Chief of Carchemish, the Chief of Karkisha, him of Khaleb, the brothers of him of Khatti, collected in one place; their total was 1000 chariots come straight on

PISS into the fire. I betook myself against them, being like Mont, I caused them to taste my hand in the completion of a moment, slaughtering among them, they being slain in their places, one among them calling to his fellow and saying: 'He is no man who is in our midst, but Sutekh great of strength, Baral in person. Not things done by a man are those which he does, they are those of

P160 one unique who defeats hundreds of thousands, no infantry being with him and no chariotry. Let us come quickly and flee before him, and seek for ourselves life, that we may breathe air. Lo, he who betakes himself to approach him, his hands and all his limbs weaken, one is unable to take up a bow or

P165 similarly javelins, when one beholds him come with stride from afar.'

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TRANSLATION II

His Majesty was after them like a griffin, I killed among them and I did not relax. I lifted up my voice to call to my army, saying: 'Stand ye firm, steady your hearts, my army, that you may behold my victory, I being alone, for P170 Amlin will be my protector, his hand with me. How cowardly are your hearts,

my chariotry, nor is there any worthy of trust among you any longer. Is there

not one among you to whom I did a good deed in my land? Did not I arise as P175 Lord when you were poor, and I caused you to be high officers by my Beneficence every day, placing the son over the possessions of his father, and making

to cease all evil that was in this land? And I released unto you your servants

and gave you others who had been taken from you. Whoever asked petitions PIS0 "I will do it" said I to him every day. Never had a Lord done them for his army, those things which My Majesty did for your sakes. I caused you to dwell in your towns without doing soldier's service. My chariotry likewise,

I dismissed them to their villages saying "I shall find them like today in the PISS hour of joining battle". But behold, you have done a cowardly deed, combined

in one place. Not a man among you has stood to give me his hand when I was fighting. As the soul of my father Amlin endures, would that I were in Egypt

like the father of my fathers who never beheld Syrians, nor did they fight with P190 him at all(?), not one among you having returned to talk in the land of Egypt about his service. What a good deed is that of undertaking many monuments

for Thebes, the city of Amlin! The crime which my infantry and my chariotry have done is greater than can be told. Behold, Amlin has given me his victory, P195 no infantry being with me and no chariotry. He has caused every distant land

to behold my victory through my strong arm, I being alone, no high officer following me, no charioteer, no soldier of the army, no captain. The foreign P200 countries which beheld me will tell of my name as far as distant countries unknown. Whoever escaped from my hand among them, they stood looking back

and seeing what I had done. If I penetrated against millions of them, their feet stood not firm, but they fled. Whoever shot in my direction, their arrows scattered as they reached me.'

Now when Menna my shield-bearer saw that a large number of chariots P205 hemmed me in, thereupon he became dismayed and his heart cowed, great fear being entered into his body. Then said he to His Majesty: 'My good Lord, thou strong Ruler, thou great saviour of Egypt on the day of fighting,

we stand alone in the midst of the battle. Behold, the infantry and chariotry P210 have deserted us, for what reason dost thou remain to rescue them? Let us

get clear and do thou save us, 0 Usima'res-setpenrec.' Then said His Majesty

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P215 to his shield-bearer: 'Stand firm, steady thy heart, my shield-bearer. I will enter in among them like the pounce of a falcon, killing, slaughtering, and casting to the ground. What careth thy heart for these effeminate ones at

P220 millions of whom I take no pleasure?' Thereupon His Majesty started forth quickly and entered at a gallop into the midst of the battle for the sixth time of entering in amongst them. I was after them like Ba (al at the moment of his power, killing among them and I did not relax. Then when my infantry and

P225 my chariotry beheld me that I was like Mont, my arm powerful, and that Amlin my father was with me making for me all the foreign lands into chaff

P230 before me, thereupon they betook themselves one by one to draw nigh to the camp at time of evening, and they found all the foreign countries into which I had entered lying overturned in their blood, even all the goodly warriors of the (land of) Khatti, even children and brothers of their Chief. I caused the field of the land of Khatti to grow light(?), and one did not know of a place to tread by reason of their multitude.

P235 Then my army came to praise me, their faces [turned away] at seeing what I had done, my high officers being come to magnify my strong arm, and my chariotry likewise boasting of my name and saying, 'What a goodly warrior P240 who steadieth the heart! Thou savest thy infantry and thy chariotry. Thou art the son of Amlin, one achieving with his two arms. Thou dost devastate the land of Khatti through thy strong arm. Thou art a goodly warrior without

P245 thy like, a king who fights for his army on the day of fighting. Thou art great of heart, first in the battle-line. Thou takest no heed of any land, they combined in one place. Thou art great of victory in the presence of thy army, in face of the entire land. Not speaking boastfully, protecting Egypt and curbing

P250 the foreign countries. Thou hast broken the back of Khatti for ever.'

Then spoke His Majesty to his infantry, his high officers, and likewise his chariotry: 'What ails you, my high officers, my infantry and my chariotry,

P255 who know not how to fight? Does not a man magnify himself in his city, when he is come and has acted the brave in the presence of his Lord? Good is a name (won) through fighting thenceforward. A man is respected from of old on account of his strong arm. Have I not done good to one of you that you

P260 should abandon me alone in the midst of the battle? How lucky is he amongst you who lived at all, that one of you who breathed the air while I was alone! Did you not know in your hearts that I am your wall of iron? What will men say in conversing when one hears it that you abandoned me alone with none

P265 other, and there came not to me a high officer, a captain, or a soldier to give

TRANSLATION

13

me his hand, while I was fighting? I defeated millions of foreign countries, being alone, being on Victory-in- Thebes and Mut-is-contented my great horses. They it is whom I found to support me when I was alone fighting many foreign countries. I will myself persist in my making them eat food in P270 my presence every day when I am in my palace. They it is whom I found in

the midst of the battle together with the charioteer Menna my shield-bearer,

and with my household butlers who were beside me, the witnesses to me as P27S regards the fighting. Behold, I found them.'

My Majesty desisted from bravery and victory. I had overthrown by my strong arm hundreds of thousands combined.

When earth grew light, I marshalled the ranks in the fight. I was ready to fight like an eager bull. I appeared in glory against them like Mont, being furnished with the accoutrements of bravery and victory. I entered into the P280 ranks fighting like the pounce of a falcon, and She who was upon my head overthrew for me my enemies, and gave her fiery breath in the face of my foes.

I was like Re< when he appears in glory in the early morning, and my rays burned up the bodies of the rebels, one of them calling to his fellow (Prepare P285 yourselves. Guard yourselves. Approach him not. Lo, Sakhme the great is she who is with him. She is together with him upon his horse, and her hand is with him. As for whoever goes to approach him, a breath of fire comes to burn

up his body.'

Thereupon they took their stand afar off and did obeisance with their hands P290 in front of me. Thereupon My Majesty prevailed against them and I killed among them and did not relax, they sprawling before my horses and lying flung down in their blood in one place.

Thereupon the wretched Chief of Khatti sent and did homage to my name P295 like that of Rec, saying (Thou art Sutekh, Ba<al in person. The dread of thee

is a brand in the land of Khatti.' Then he caused to come his envoy bearing P300 a letter in his hand in the great name of My Majesty, sending greetings to

the Majesty of the Residence of Rec-Harakhti The-Strong-Bull-beloved-ofTruth, sovereign who protects his army, mighty on account of his strong arm,

a wall for his soldiers on the day of fighting, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Usimacrer-setpenree, the Son of Re<, lion lord of the strong arm P305 Rarrncsse-miamun, given life eternally. (Thy servant speaks and causes it to

be known that thou art the Son of Re< who came forth from his body. He has given to thee all lands combined in one place. As for the land of Egypt and

the land of Khatti, thine they are, thy servants, they are under thy feet. Pre< P310

- - .. • ., .... -~~--- .-- •.• j...._-.---.j-~


thy noble father has given them to thee. Prevail not over us. Behold, thy might is great, thy strength is heavy upon the land of Khatti. Is it good that thou

P315 killest thy servants, thy face savage towards them, and hast no pity? See, thou didst spend yesterday killing hundreds of thousands. Thou art come today P320 and hast left no heirs. Be not hard in thy dealings, victorious king. Peace is better than fighting. Give us breath!'

Then did My Majesty desist in life and dominion, being like Mont at his moment when his attack has succeeded. Then My Majesty caused to be brought to me all the leaders of my infantry and my chariotry and all my high

P325 officers collected in one place, to cause them to hear the matter concerning which he had written. Then My Majesty caused them to hear these words which the wretched Chief of Khatti had written to me. Thereupon they said with one voice 'Exceeding good is peace, 0 Sovereign our Lord. There is no

P330 blame in reconciliation when thou makest it, for who shall withstand(?) thee on the day of thy wrath?'

Then My Majesty gave command to hearken to his words and I made a move peacefully southwards. His Majesty turned back in peace to Egypt together with his infantry and his chariotry, all life, stability and dominion being with him, and the gods and goddesses serving as talismans for his body

P335 and crushing for him all lands through the fear of him. The strength of His Majesty protected his army, and all the foreign countries gave praise to his goodly face.

Reaching Egypt in peace to Pi-Rasmesse-miamun-Great-of- Victories, and

P340 resting in his palace of life and dominion like Rec who is in his horizon, the gods of this land coming to him worshipping and saying, 'Welcome, our beloved son, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usimacrec-setpenrec, the Son of Rec Rasmesse-miamun' and they gave to him millions of Sed-festivals forever on the throne of Re<, all the lands and all the foreign countries being fallen prostrate beneath his sandals for eternity and everlasting.

F

C 1:

C I 1

e

f

1:

f

" ,

, c

f

a

a

I

r

I

COMMENTARYI

PI. For lut-r m introducing the title of a book, see Wh. iii. 25. 2-6, but it must not be concluded that the 'Poem' was originally intended to be read in a papyrus rather than on a temple wall. On this point see below, pp. 46-47. 53.

P2-6. The foreign countries listed in the title are dealt with in the Appendix, below, pp. 57-59. All translators have ignored the very strange form in which the names are dis-

I Abbreviations for the texts as published by Kuentz : P = Poeme ; B = Bulletin; R = Reliefs.

The letter of the alphabet has been omitted where it seemed superfluous.

<3 e t

COMMEl\;TARY

IS

played; the following remarks take into account, not only the present list, but also those in 43-47, 86, 149-51, and B42-48. When it is said that Ramesses celebrated his victory (e.g.) 'in the land of Arzawa', this does not mean that he came into conflict with that distant country anywhere else than at Kadesh. The absence of m P1 tr n before Nahrin in 2, before Kedy in 5, and before the three names in 86 is explicable only as a caprice on the part of the author. The presence of AA before Dardany in 3, Arzawa in 43, Keshkesh in 44 and various others, must clearly be a shortening of the same phrase. This U might at first be imagined to be no more than the definite article used in an exceptional way, but the occurrence of ~ ~ 9~ 11; Ms in 44 and of 111 Pds immediately following shows that we here have writings of the so-called possessive article, TI&- and n:&in Coptic, which Spiegelberg's admirable article zAS 54, 104 if. proved to be derived from the definite article followed by the genitival n, as demonstrated by the frequent variants ~ and ~ ~ ~ (~,",\. Accordingly we must render 'that of' and 'those of', meaning 'the land of' and 'the people of' respectively. However, the occurrence of m P1 ts n Pi 'Imr 'in the land of (the) Amor' in 64 defies explanation, especially since 'Amor' is found without j» inpl ts n 'Imr RII. Further complications arise in the list of foreign princes or chiefs in 149-51, where the normal model PJ wr (~) n 'Lrtu: 'the Chief of Arzawa' is found also for Arwen( ?), Carchemish, and Karkisha. But in 150 we read pn Drdny with 0 , and this we can only render as 'he of Dardany'. Even stranger is ~U~9~ in 149.;d a similar writing for Luka in 150, which we are forced to interpret as 'he of that of Masa' CLuka') meaning 'the Chief of the land of Masa' (or' Luka').

P8. The phrases m Jtj'at his moment' and m wnwtj'in his hour' which occur similarly P78, 131 are good Egyptian, but make poor English. They refer to the time when some man or some deity is at his best, see the expanded forms 'Bacal at the moment of his power' (222, cf. B87), 'Sakhme at the moment of her raging' (B96).

PIO. Sspj r r/:LJ clearly has the same sense as ssp (~J in Urk. iv. 893. 16--17; cf. too Israel stela 12. For ssp 'begin' see Wb. iv. 533 ff.

PII. Sbty dr m rk mir-f, so again (without !ir) Maspero, Temples Immerges, i. 163. 23. lli rk 'near', 'about' rather than 'around', cf. Wenamiln 2,19 and Wb. ii. 458. 3.-J>.rrw 'shield', not 'shield-bearer', as the determinative shows; for 'shield-bearer' see P89, 273.

P16. Bds, properly 'to become slack', 'tired', is a favourite word in the Kadesh texts, and may be fairly quoted as indicating their common authorship. In 74,207, and B81 it expresses the state of mind and body produced by the onslaught of the enemy; besides the above four examples with a personal subject, it is used of the 'heart' in P135, R42.

P20. For -'- one would have expected the participle tm; so again in 248.

P26. Ramesses had celebrated a victory over the Sherden in the earliest years of his reign, see Onomastica, i, p. 195* and Kimi, x. 63 ff.: the reliefs display them fighting on his side.

P29. The date given for the departure from the Egyptian frontier at Tjel is exactly a

J6


month earlier than that which heads the 'Report' (BI), where Ramesses is described as already having reached the neighbourhood of Kadesh-s- Tjel, the Sile or Selle of classical geographers, 3 km. east of El-Kantara just east of the Suez Canal, see Onom. n, pp. 202* ff.

P30. Sf 'passed', not 'opened', see Ram. Adm. Doc. 49· 15; 52.14; 54- 18.

P35. Racmesse-miamun was a town either recently founded by Ramesses II, or else renamed by him; the 'Valley of the Cedar' in which it was situated, as revealed by Ku.'s new readings, is familiar from the Tale of the Two Brothers (7. 2), its name clearly pointing to the Lebanon.

P36. The 'Report' (B4) uses the same word tst to denote the 'hill-country south of Kadesh' where Ramesses slept during the night before the battle, and Breasted identified this with the Karnuat el-Harmel, a high and very conspicuous mound some 600 feet above the Orontes river.-~ ~~ Kdf 'Kadesh', conclusively identified Br., pp. 13 ff., with Tell Neby Mend, a large mound on the left bank of the Orontes in the angle formed by the river and a brook called El-Mukadiya flowing into it from the west; the mound is situated only a few kilometres south of the southern end of the artificial Lake of Horns: in the reliefs the town is wrongly depicted as an island in the river, see Br., pIs. 3, 6; see further Onom. i, pp. 137* ff.

P37. 8m n hr-f, which we have met already as an epithet of the king (PI3), means 'to go straight forward', and n hr-]: is used as a command 'Forward!' below in 125 and elsewhere; so too the plural n hr-tn, R12; see Wb. iii. 129. 3.

P38. The 'ford (midt) of the Orontes' is described more fully as 'in the neighbourhood south of the town of Shabtuna' below in 59, and its crossing, not mentioned in the 'Report', was of vital importance in order to take the Egyptian army over the river to the plain on the left bank; so important, indeed, was this ford strategically that its crossing is mentioned also on the Karnak stela of Arnenophis II's great campaign, Urk. iv. I3IO-II.-The Orontes, written 'Lrnt in the hieroglyphs, is the important river so called by the Greeks and now named Nahr el-'A.~i; it rises between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon and finally debouches in the Mediterranean near Se1eucia.

P39. For the full name of the first army, called 'first' because it led the way in front of the three other divisions, see again RI.

P 42. 'As far as the end of the sea', not 'from the ends of the sea', though the compound preposition r-SJr is ambiguous, see Erman, Neudg, Gr.2, § 656. It is not clear, however, how this phrase is to be understood, but some of the countries enumerated lay along the south coast of Asia Minor.

P43-47· For the Pi,{ and i' occurring in this list, see above, the note on P2-6.

P 45. See the Appendix for the country of which the name is tentatively read as Arwen. P 48. It is impossible to take tm int-s as a participial adjunct 'which was not brought',

and there can be no doubt that the preposition r has been omitted before the infinitive tin,

th

se

of

a

he

he pa th

'n

10' it fn of to lac th

Ov (v th

Wl

6~ be it tir

of

ak

o· c.

ob

lat dr

p.

COMMENTARY

though absent from all texts except P.Chester Beatty III, vs. 3, 8; for the construction see Wh. i. 256. 4 and additional examples quoted by Caminos on P.Anastasi V. 17.6.

PSI. Smhm properly 'grasshopper', but locusts were surely meant. Note the use here of the definite article to indicate an entire genus; cf. Late-Egyptian Stories, I. 6, 7, mt-f n PI msh m-r-pw PI l.z!IW m-mltt pl iw, where English must render 'he will die from a crocodile or a snake or a dog'.

PS2. Fb literally 'loose', but here clearly 'strip', a meaning not given Wh. i. 578; it is, however, inherent in the causative sjb, see Wh. iv. IIti-I7.

PSS. Major Burne's suggestion (JEA 7. 191) that the 'north-west' of the Raife papyrus here and again in 70 was a mistake for 'north-east' is confirmed, so far as the present passage is concerned, by at least one of the five monumental texts as published by Kuentz, the readings of the other four being lost or uncertain.' The situation imperatively demands 'north-east', and there can be no doubt that this is the correct reading.

PS8-60. Br., pp. 21-22, makes it practically certain that the Egyptian Shabtuna should be located at the modern village of Ribla mentioned several times in the Old Testament. In 60 it is unambiguously asserted that a distance of I iter separated the ford south of Shabtuna from the advanced position reached by Ramesses himself at the time when the division of Pree was crossing the river. That the passage has been so sadly misunderstood is due to the fact that Breasted was not in possession of the Luxor texts which later filled the lacuna conjectured by him to have contained the words 'at the distance of an iter from the [division of Amon]" see Ancient Records, iii, § 310; Kuentz and Selim Hassan agree over the Luxor reading 'from where His Majesty was'; the careless P.Chester Beatty III (vs. 3, 15) appears to have '2 iter', but that text is not to be trusted. The distance from the ford to Kadesh measured on the map (Br., p. 24) is about 7t miles, roughly agreeing with Borchardt's determination of the length of the iter at 10'5 km. or approximately 6l miles, see Eg. Gr.3, § 266, 2. All the factors being somewhat uncertain, all that can be safely concluded is that the division of Pree was so far away from the Pharaoh that it could not possibly be of use to him when he was attacked by the Hittites only a short time later.

P6I. "Irnm 'Aronama', a town mentioned only here, but obviously a little to the south of Shabtuna.

P63-64. For these two sentences see Onom. i, pp. 188*-9*' The land of Amor lay along the sea-coast to the north of Syria. For the ~ before the name see on P2-6.

P68. Much embarrassment arises from the Egyptian use of the word htr, the Coptic 2TO 'horse'. In the present instance, repeated shortly afterwards in 87, hr htr can obviously not mean 'on a horse', since combat on horseback was not practised until much later; the scenes of the battle show that what was meant was three men on each horsedrawn chariot, a peculiarity differentiating the Hittite from the Egyptian representations.

I The reading of Kr as given by Kuentz on p. 230 does not quite agree with what he gives on

p. 28. In L2, however, he and Selim Hassan (pl. 25) are in agreement.

B8~6 D

18


To deal with this difficulty once and for all mention may here be made of some cases where the Pharaoh and his own pair of horses are concerned. The literal translation of B88 would be 'He mounted on Victory-in- Thebes his horse'; so again in RI8 accompanying a scene showing Ramesses riding in his chariot; the Abu Simbel variant to the former passage has l(s)w r ssmtj with the alternative word for 'horse'. These elliptical expressions were natural enough in Egyptian since no one dreamed of the Pharaoh riding on horseback. None the less it is very strange that, as in the two examples just quoted, mention was often made only of one horse of the pair, though in 267 we read 'I was on Victory-in- Thebes and Mut-is-contented, my great horses'. Another synonym for 'chariot' was r-n-htr, for which see the note below on P84. Similarly Homeric Greek used the plural 71T1TO~ for a horse-drawn chariot. On occasion I have not hesitated to translate htr by 'chariot', and the compound tnt-htr, literally 'that of horse', has always been rendered by 'chariotry'.

P7I. For the construction rl;zr·nj + old perfective see Eg. Gr.3, § 482,2; it is frequent only with verbs of motion.

P72. The exact meaning of the very rare transitive verb srf is unknown; it might signify no more than 'overwhelm', but I have preferred to render it as 'break into'; another example in RII (p. 369) and see Wb. iv. 460. I, 2.-No mention is here made of the Hittite army's crossing the river, but this is duly recorded in B78, see the note there.

P76. The episode of the Hittite spies narrated at length in B is omitted here, where it is replaced by the simple 'Then they came to tell it to His Majesty'. It is this unpleasant revelation that was meant by the scene in the reliefs where a number of officers are seen making some announcement to the king seated near his camp (see Br., pls, I, 4, 6 and the frontispiece to this book) and where his chariot is shown ready close at hand.

Pn. This sentence describing Pharaoh's donning of his armour is repeated verbatim in B86.

P79. See above on P68 in connexion with this reference to the king's principal horse.

One would expect to find here rn-f 'was its name' and this actually occurs in the Sallier papyrus.

P80. The stem !Jrp has usually the implication of doing something early or in advance of others, cf. Coptic wwpn. For that reason I render here 'started forth' and so too in !Jrp IS 'started forth quickly' 220; B89.-1fd again in r~ m ifd 'entered at a gallop' 22I; the verb must originally have meant 'to move on all fours', but from Dyn. XVIII signified little more than 'move rapidly'.

P8I. The masculine singular !~I I I or !~~ brw is common in the Kadesh texts with two distinct meanings and is therefore treated in Wb. iii. 325. 20; 326. I under two separate heads; (I) when followed by such a genitival adjunct as here, where the writing !}~ ~ ~I is exceptional, it must be rendered as 'host', 'army', convincing examples being

COMMENTARY

19

'His Majesty killed the entire host of the wretched Fallen one of Khatti', B97; 'His Majesty caused the host of the fallen ones of Khatti to fall on theirfaces', B104; (2) without such an adjunct and meaning 'battle', e.g. 'your abandoning me alone m bnw PJ brw in the midst of the battle', P259; uxbzo n·tn hr PJ brw 'keep you clear of the battle', R9; see too R12, 13, 14. Besides these P28z has a single example of !}. ~! in the well authenticated meaning 'enemies', see Wh. iii. 325. 19.

P83. It is uncertain whether nw n-hs-f means 'look behind him' giving n-h, the literal sense which it undoubtedly has in B26, 51, or whether we should render 'looked about him' or 'around him'. I have preferred the latter sense.

P84. The ambiguity of the word htr, which can serve to denote either a horse as an animal or else the conveyance in which horses played so important a part, was pointed out in the note on P68. Here, in 132, 153 and RI9 the ancient scribe has used the compound expression c-n-htr to emphasize the fact that the Pharaoh was surrounded, not merely by 2,500 horses, but actually by 2,500 chariots or 'pairs of horses'; Wh. i. 158. 11 is right in entering this expression under r 'Portion', 'Stuck'. In the corresponding passage 206, where the charioteer Menna speaks, he contents himself with l;trw for 'chariots', but P.Sallier III. 5. 3 uses the more precise r-n-l;tr.-'On his outer side' seems a rather strange expression, but the Pharaoh was enclosed 'inside' while the enemy was 'outside'.

P85. m may here be understood as 'consisting of', unless it is the idiomatic m 'with' of which Smither collected examples inJEA 25. 166.-P~lrr means literally 'runner', but Wh. i. 541. 14-18 shows that it was a general term for doughty warriors, being found applied even to the king or a god.

P86. The texts of the temples here content themselves with naming only three of the foreign lands, but P.Sallier III. 2. 10 adds seven more.

P87. 'Ir·w sm no literally 'they made unitings', a unique expression.

P88. It seems necessary to render wr here as 'high officer', since 'officer' alone might suggest one of inferior rank; see the note on B52.-This enumeration of men belonging to the army is repeated almost identically in 198-9. So far as the shield-bearer is concerned, what is stated here is flatly contradicted by the presence of Menna, see 205 if.

P90. Mr~l;t is shown to be a verb of motion both by the preceding preposition m and by the determinative .J); for those reasons this otherwise unknown word cannot be equated with the Hebrew word for 'plunder' as suggested Wh. ii. II3. 2; my 'scampering away' is the merest guess.

P93. The construction here is closely similar to that of P.Millingen 2. 7, where my article zAs 45. 75 explained pr-n as the #m·nj form of the verb PJ 'to have done in the past'. The presence in our passage of the variant D}. raises a doubt whether PI n in both places is not after all a demonstrative followed by genitival n; in that case the problem would link up with that discussed on P2-6; the word to be understood after PJ n 'that of' was certainly not confined to the two possibilities 'the land of' and 'the

· ~ ... _ ... - --~ .. ,

20


chief of'; for instance in ~~ <::::7 P.Anastasi I. 17.7 we must render 'the share of every man'. So too here PJ n or pw n may mean 'the habit of' or 'the custom of'.

P94. 'i\' here is the interrogative particle written J_ in Middle Egyptian, see Erman, Neuag. Gr.2 I, § 739; so too in P.Sal!. III. 10. 6 of P314, where the monumental texts have in iw.- The very indeterminate word bnw is here best translated 'concern', 'matter'; in 3 19 the plurallmw·k signifies 'thy dealings', see Wh. iii. 289. 6, 7.

P95. Ts bn, see Erman, op. cit., § 737; in 98 it precedes the sgmj form ; here the following Sim·nj form is doubtless employed because custom is being spoken of, compare n sgm·nj in Middle Egyptian. So too again in 255.

P96. Unless this exclamatory sentence is to be taken as irony, we must render 'How much too great .. .'; for similar cases see on BI6.-Here we have an instance of that 'pronominal anticipation' (to coin a new term) which adds emphasis to an adjectival predicate having the pronoun as subject; other examples in 172, 260, and see Erman, op cit., § 684.

P98-IOO. I prefer to regard all these sentences as continuations of the question introduced by is bn in 98.

Proo, Ms lnr is a definite title, Wh. ii. 135. 22.

PI08. In Bull. lnst. fro 54. 5-6, Sauneron has rightly, or very nearly rightly, explained this sentence and the similar one in 263. 1b is the interrogative word for 'what?' and kr-tso the abbreviation for lo-ts» dd-teo elsewhere used parenthetically. Sauneron's translations are respectively 'Eh quoi? va-t-on dire, s'il arrive malheur a ce1ui qui se plie a ta volonte', and 'Eh quoi? dira-t-on quand on saura que vous m'avez abandonne'. I am inclined to think, however, that kJ·tw here is not parenthetic, but that ib is its direct object as in i!; ks-l n mwt·i 'what shall I say to my mother?' which Erman, op. cit., p. 360, top, cites from the Harris Love-songs, 4, 8. Also in the present passage I prefer to render sp sri as 'even a little thing' rather than 'malheur', though the latter has the support of Wh. iv. 526. 1.

P109. Here 4:D- is undoubtedly the imperative.-1p is translated richtig bewerten in Wb. i. 66. 12; my 'count on' suits the context rather better.

PlIO. The reproachful appeal to Amlin appears to have ended in 109, and one would have expected the recital of events to be resumed in the third person. Instead of this, Ramesses continues to speak in the first person, a course in which he persists, though with lapses in 144-5, 166, 208, 214, 220, and 251, until quite near the end of the text (33 I). It seems clear that the author has, from this point on, fused together narrative and address to Amlin, see 120 as contrasted with 123. I have preferred to render rs-n-i in IIO by the past tense 'I called' rather than by the present perfect 'I have called'.

PI20. Ph-n-l nJY recalls the phrase p~wy nn 'the end of this is .. .' P.Anastasi I. 28. 4; Hier. Ostr. i. 7. 2; Leps., Denkm. iii. 138. o. The sense would thus be 'I have been successful thus far .. .'; see too Wb. i. 534. 16.

PI22. There is a doubt about the exact meaning of p!;rw here; one translator suggested

COMMENTARY

2I

're-echoed', and this might be better than my 'circulated'.-'On of Upper Egypt' is Thebes, not Hermonthis, as shown by Kees in Orientalia, 18. 434 if.

P123. Wh. v. 593. 2-5 overlooks the purely temporal use of gr as 'when', the German als, which is found in six of the Kadesh passages, PI23, 205, 224, BI7, 58,92; the #mj form follows in each case, and always refers to an action prior to that of the preceding main verb. Doubtless it was out of this use that the Coptic tlTepe- was evolved, and it is significant that in all three instances from the 'Poem' the Sallier papyrus has ~ ~ m-dr ; see further Erman, op. cit., § 810 and Urk. vi. 63. 19, 20.

PI24. As equivalent of the English 'gave me his hand' the Egyptian has 'gave to me his hand with me', see 187, 265, and similarly 17I.

PI25. 'He called behind me' must mean 'he called from a distance'.-ijr r hr, variant hr 11 hr has sometimes been thought to be practically synonymous with the interjectional 11 hr-]: immediately following, for which see above on 37. But if rS n-lu-i has the sense that I have given to it, m I;r r hr must be contrasted, and mean that though Amiin spoke from afar, it sounded as though Ramesses and he were face to face; Inscription dedicatoire 99 provides a close parallel, in spite of the fact that the writing there is ~ ~ tjj 3:~ usually signifying 'in close combat'; see on this question Wilson in z ss 68. 56 if.

P132. That wnw·i is the relative form is shown, not merely by the writing, but also by the definite article before the numeral. Ijpr m ghgb in 133 is the old perfective, predicate to the object of gm-n-i.

P134. Gm ... grtjwith the meaning 'be able', see, besides the examples from Medinet Habu in Wh. v. 169.4, that in P.Turin 1882. 2. 5 with my note JEA 42. 14.

PI37. TIt 'seize', 'take up', not 'cast', as is clear from 164.

PI38. The comparison with the plunging (literally 'going down') of crocodiles makes it plain that an only half accidental act was intended; the enemy cast themselves into the water in order to save themselves from the Pharaoh. The same image again in BI05 and RI9.

PI42. The #mtj form here used in all texts is inexplicable.

PI44-6. In view of the almost nauseatingly often repeated words 'being alone by myself' or some near equivalent (see Pgo, 82,112,170,198,264; BI03, 106; RI7, 19,62), it is impossible to believe that they do not here also refer to the Pharaoh. On the other hand, the suffix-pronoun in 146 clearly signifies the Hittite king. This awkward change of person cannot well be remedied in our translation.

PI46. Tnbh, see Admonitions, pp. 67, 103-4. In a similar context below, R+2. PI56. 'Slain in their place(s)', i.e. where they stood. So again RI9. 18.

P159. =-}2;f relative form, but strangely written; masculine gender perhaps on account of Eg. Gr.3, § SIl, 3.-Wr uxty perhaps 'a unique one' rather than 'one alone'.

P16I. My n-n 'let us come', see Wb. ii. 35. 15-17; Erman, op. cit. I, § 362. Wh. ii. 35. 16 gives good examples of the first person plural employment, but this idiomatic form and its Coptic equivalents (Crum, 7) still await explanation.

--. . .

., •• l.lL- ~ 1 __ ~ ._~ - • - - ... ~~~- ..... -,._ ..... ~t':!.'.!" •• ~...A>-; l~

22


PI62. The definite article before rna is strange, the more so since wbJ rn/; occurs elsewhere without it, see Wb. i. 353· 17.

PI65. The sense of m J:tpt unt has been merely guessed.

P166. The griffin with which Ramesses is here compared, as also in BI06, was a fantastic creature of the desert with the body of a lion, with wings, and with the head of a falcon. The name rM, determined with its image, does not occur before the New Kingdom (Wb. i. 225. 6), but already in the pyramid-temple of Sahure" (Dyn. V) the king was so depicted trampling upon his enemies. See further Bonnet, Reallexihon, 262.

P167. These words are repeated without change below, 223, 292.

P168. Literally 'gave my voice'; other examples Wb. ii. 466. 5, where this one is overlooked.

PI7I. The text of KI gives m nbyur! 'is my protector', but LI, L2 use the preposition <:::> which conveys future sense, see Eg. Gr.3, § 122. The latter sense suits the situation better.

P172. For the construction here with the pronoun sui in 'pronominal anticipation', see above on 96.

PI73. Literally 'there is not value of filling the heart with you further'. SlW 'value', see the examples collected in Caminos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies, Index, p. 589; this is the word which survives in Coptic .lln~~ 'worthy' (Crum, 179) and the substantive ~~'r (Crum, 599), see Sethe, zA's 47. I44.-MJ:t-lb, of confidence, Wb. ii. 1I8. II fI.Grw 'any longer', see Wb. v. 179. 5, where the present example should be added, as well as others quoted by Cerny in JEA 3 I. 35, n. ee.

P174. For lw serving to introduce a relative clause after undetermined subject, as in Coptic ~ (SteindorfI, Lehrbuch, § 457), see Erman, op. cit., § 834, where similar examples before the sgmi form are quoted.

P175. Note that English diction would have reversed the order of the clauses: 'Were you not poor when I arose as Lord?'

PI76. The reason for translating wrw as 'high officers' is given below in the note on B52.-M Ks-i literally 'by my Ka'; my rendering 'by my Beneficence' is inadequate to convey the Egyptian; the word Ks here doubtless stresses the king's good pleasure, his power to give or to withhold his favour.

PI78. Ijlr 'abandon', 'release' is here antithetic to nhm in 179; not only did the king relinquish his right to commandeer his subjects' servants, but he added to those servants others who had been forcibly taken from their lords.-Nly-tn blkw has been wrongly understood as 'your dues'; the determinative suffices to show that 'your servants' is the correct rendering.

P180. All translators have realized that lry·l mk wi was the formula by which readiness to perform something requested was expressed; other examples see Faulkner, loco cit.,

p. III, n. 20, and the Belegstellen to Wb. ii. 5· 7.

PI8!. Here we have another case of 'pronominal anticipation', but one for which there

COMMENTARY 23

is a reason different from that given above on 96; it would have been impossible to place so long an object as ns ir·n Hm-l n ib-tn between irt and n msc-]; hence that object is placed in apposition to the preceding ·w. A similar case in Sinuhe R6S, and in our Kadesh texts B3S. 69-70, are worth studying in this connexion; in Coptic similar constructions abound without any apparent reason at all, cf. "q~ooc nc::rI n2_ ~ :\0.

PIS4-. The arrangement of this sentence has been dictated by the same sort of consideration as that of lSI explained above. The words tsy-l nt-htr m mitt irw were too long to be inserted as a dative inside the following statement, where accordingly they are represented by the suffix ·sn. Somewhat similarly below in 201, 203.-Rdi WIt n ... in the sense of 'let someone go', see Wb. i. 247. II; a good example on the recently discovered Kamose stela, 1. 23.

PIS4--5. In dismissing his chariotry to their country homes the Pharaoh said to himself that he would be able to find them again when the need arose.

PI89-90. A difficult passage, the difficulties enhanced by the fact that the readings of KI and L2 in Kuentz's comparative text do not quite agree with those in his pp. 37, 83. N one the less, it is almost certain that mi it itw·i is to be read, as indeed is given by Selim Hassan, pl. 97,. though I doubt whether at any recent date all the signs were as legible as there represented. But who was meant by 'the father of my fathers'? Almost certainly the sun-god Re<, firstly because the duplicate P.Sallier III. 6. 7 substitutes the words g ~ ~ ~ .f>:5.f>, but also because the great Speos Artemidos inscription appears, after restoration of [~Q] in the lacuna, to yield the translation 'Such has been the guiding rule of the father of [my fathers], he coming at his (appointed) times, (namely) Re<', see JEA 32. 48, 1. 41, with the note w on p. 55. That the same expression could be put in the mouths of foreign rulers is seen from the Memphite stela of Amenophis II (Urk. iv. 1309), where we read of the princes of Nahrin and Sangar that they spoke 'in their hearts '~Q':_ ~':_~llm to the father of their fathers to beg peace from His Majesty'. On this view Ramesses will here be expressing the wish that he, like his earliest divine ancestor, had never left Egypt, never seen Syrians, or ever have had to fight with them. It must be admitted, however, that bw ptr·w in the relative clause is very awkward, since we should have expected bw ptrj.-lfpt at the end of 190 must be an adverb, though not found as such elsewhere and the force is very obscure.

P19I. This circumstantial clause must apparently be linked together with the wish of ISS, a paraphrase of the sense being 'Would that I were in Egypt without anyone of you returning there to tell of his military service in the Kadesh campaign', a sorry story if they were to tell the truth!

P192. The thought of the preceding sentences is continued; the king reflects that he would have been better off if he had remained at home raising great monuments to Arniin instead of risking his life on the field of battle abandoned by all his armies.- The interrogative word by 'What?' is here used exclamatorily, a literal translation being 'What is the good deed of (the) undertaking of many monuments', &c. Other examples of the kind,

- • -- ~ •• • •• ~ - : • .ia


besides that in 239 below, are Kamose stela 30,31; Ann. Servo 8.217.14-; Piehl, Inscr. hier. iii. 35. 9; and others are added Wh. iii. 238. 10.

PI94. 'than can be told', literally 'than the saying of if. PI98-(j. Almost identically already above in 88-89.

P200. For this statement referring to the future see JEA 16. 220 and for the dependent pronoun first person singular written like the suffix see Erman, op. cit., § 82, where, however, this substitute for Middle Egyptian wi is wrongly described as itself a suffix pronoun. In 206 both forms are used; wi again in 224.

P208, 214-, 220. For the relapse into the third person see above on PlIO.

PZI I. The writing}:7'1 for the first person plural of the dependent pronoun is unique and possibly a mistake due to the same writing of the same person and number in the old perfectives immediately preceding.

PZI3. Tmi twas equivalent of inti di-ts» is well known, see Erman, op. cit., § 357.

Wrb 'get clear', 'get clean away' again in R9. 6.

PZI6. Htt is presumably a feminine substantive from the infinitive of the verb 'to strike', accordingly meaning literally a 'blow' or a 'stroke'; the same expression in z80, apparently overlooked in Wb. A similar comparison mi rbt nt bik in Urk. iv. 1302, II.

PZI8. Literally 'What pray upon thy heart are these poltroons?' In Urk. vi. II7. 6 the closely related hmty (Wb. iii. 80. 8-II) is translated as [f.:J~ ~~xl>jjf"=i:,t:(~ 'woman

. ,

warnor.

P2I9. The meaning of bw /:zg·n /:zr-i here is uncertain, but since /:zg-~lr as an epithet means 'friendly' or the like (Wh. iii. z07. 16), Ramesses may have been trying to say that he felt no interest, sympathy, or care for these subjects of his, even if they numbered millions.

P221. M ifd, see above on P80.-For PI nty sp 6 as 'the sixth time' see Sethe in

zAs 38.144.

P22Z. The narrative here reverts to the first person. P223. Repeated verbatim from PI67; so too also in 292.

P227. N sp 'at (a) time' appears simply to reinforce the preposition hn«, but no exact parallel is forthcoming; see Wb. iii. 438. 10, II.

P228. Dlu 'chaff', see Caminos, op. cit., p. 65 and Coptic TW2_ (Crum, 453). Here and B93 (broken) simile for something easily blown away. The determinative shown by Kuentz is very strange, while Selim Hassan, pl. 112, B gives us the choice between ~ and '\.

P229. ::R for wr toe 'one by one' as in Coptic, Crum, 4-69; so too gJ1nw gn12w 'generation after generation', Wb. iii. 437. 7 under sp sn.

P234. All translators render /:zg here as 'turn white' or the like, and explain this strange transformation in the colour of the earth as due to the corpses seen lying there in their white clothes. This may possibly be correct, but I cannot help feeling that /:zg means here 'to grow bright' rather than to 'turn white', and that there is a hidden reference to

I

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COMMENTARY 25

the coming dawn. It must be recalled that the returning soldiers had slunk back to camp at time of evening (230), and the sight of the fallen enemy might have given the impression of a premature morning light. It is also perhaps significant that when the army proceeded to 'praise' His Majesty (235) the verb used is dWJ, which properly means 'praise in the morning'.

P235. Here there is a lacuna in all the monumental texts, and one would be inclined to restore 'their faces [being amazed] at what I had done'. But in view of the repetitive habit of the author it seems necessary to fill the lacuna with the word ~ o.} '1 rnw found in 201 in the same context. This is confirmed by ~l ~ in P.Sall. III. 7. 10, though the text there is clearly corrupt.

P239. For this exclamatory sentence introduced by ~Q ~ see above on 192. P242. Compare 'our land is devastated' (Jbw), Ann. Servo 25. 2I2.

P246. Drr usually means 'search for', but as Wh. V. 540. 15 has seen, though without quoting either this passage or B93, the meaning may sometimes be 'take heed of', 'be anxious about'; a decisive example is P.Anastasi IV. 2. 8.

P255-6r. In my opinion the previous translators have all gone seriously astray in the interpretation of this passage, whilst correctly recognizing that in the earlier part the fame that is to be won by brave conduct is somehow in question. If, as argued in the note on 95, the form is bn sgm·nj refers to custom, then 255-6 will be a generalization, and will not recall the behaviour of the army on this particular occasion. That is certainly true also of 257, which demands some special discussion.

P257. For the exclamatory particle J after nfr see the examples from the Pyramid Texts quoted by Weill, Bull. Inst. fro 32. 60 together with my remarks JEA 34. 12, 13. Sp 2 written after m r-r indicates that this adverbial expression was to be read twice with the kind of force seen in English 'on and on'; the temporal sense 'still', German noch, is familiar from negative sentences, see Wh. ii. 395. 5, and my free translation 'thenceforward' seems justified from the parallelism with gr lJ,r-l}Jt in the next sentence; moreover, a somewhat similar case of m-rs occurs in the Berlin leather roll, see Studia Aegyptiaca, i, p. 50.

P258-6r. Serious difficulties arise over the expressions ply·tn blr·t in 259 and ps-tn ssny PJ 11w in 261. The attempt has been made to start new sentences with these words, but to myself it is clear that they must, on the contrary, be taken with what precedes, and that at least in the former case my translation cannot be far wide of the mark. If, as is confirmed by 264, OJr is the infinitive, the words rendered 'your abandoning of me' must be in loose apposition to the foregoing 'Have I not done good to one of you?', but for this I have found no parallel. The writing OJr wi in K I might suggest that here we have a participle 'your abandon-er of me', in which case these words would be in apposition to ux lm-tn 'one of you', but this yields no satisfactory sense. We must content ourselves with admitting that there is here a real grammatical problem that we have at present no means of solving.

,

B 8596

E

26


P260-1. The sw of sbk-zoy sw is clearly in 'pronominal anticipation' (see on 96 for this new term) of the following rnlj. It is, however, difficult to decide whether this rnlj is an infinitive 'life' or a participle 'a living one', and the same doubt arises over ssny in Pl(y)·tn ssny PI [no in 261. My translation has hesitatingly accepted the latter alternative, largely because the adjective sM, when used as predicate 'lucky is ... ', 'fortunate is ... ', regularly has a personal subject, see the examples collected by Caminos, op. cit., p. 459. The force of the particle tr in 260 is very doubtful; my 'at all' is a mere guess.

P263. For the first words here see the note on 108. Once again in the j of #mj'vve have a case of 'pronominal anticipation', see the last note.

P267. See above on 68.

P268. Ssp qrt, literally 'receive the hand' of someone, is here obviously used in the figurative sense of 'assist', 'support'; so too probably P.Lansing 9. 2. This sense presumably originated in the gesture with which one man stood surety for another, see Coptic gJn-'Twp'" (Crum, 425) and the Demotic equivalent Sethe, Burgschaftsurkunden, p. 36, §3I.

P270' Hrm is a notoriously difficult word to translate, see z.ss 50. 56 and Wb. iii. 23 r. 9, Io.-Nly·i dit umm-sn literally 'my causings that they eat'.

P274. The unexpected reference to the king's butlers is comprehensible only when it is realized that in Ramesside times these were the servants most closely attached to the Pharaoh's person, men of the highest rank.

P275. The short sentence 'Behold, I found them' perhaps serves as a sort of excuse for the butlers not having been mentioned earlier.

P276. WZzr 'break off' work, Wb. i. 349. 5, 6; not to be translated 'returned' even though the determinative is .Ji; see below on 321.

P277-84. The second day's fighting is described in flowery language without any detail. The enemy's reaction follows in 285 ff.

P280. The same image above in 216.

P281. 'She who was upon my head' is the uraeus-goddess Edj6, as the determinative shows.

P287. The frightened Hittites prefer to equate the protecting deity with the Memphite lioness Sakhme, though 289 retains the figure of the Uraeus goddess's consuming fire. The same comparison in B96.

P290' Sny-t: m drt-sn, i.e. raising their arms in token of submission as often shown in the reliefs. The original meaning of sn-t r 'smell the earth' was clearly no longer felt.

P300-20. The historical texts of the New Kingdom take pleasure in representing the Asiatic kings as writing to sue for peace. So already under Amenophis II, Urk. iv. 1309. This is reported for the reign of Ramesses II in the well-known passage P.Anastasi II. 2. I ff. = IV. 6. 7 ff. The Marriage stela dealing with the relations of the Hittites and the Pharaoh long after the conclusion of the treaty, claims that 'the great Chief of Khatti sent to conciliate His Majesty year by year, but never would he listen to them', Ann.

COMMENTARY

27

Servo 25. 211. The present long verbatim quotation of the Hittite letter is, however, unique.

P300. Hr rn n 'in the name of', i.e. addressed to, see Horus and Seth, 2, 8.

P30I. The periphrasis for the name of the Pharaoh here used is a peculiarity of Egyptian court diction impossible to render satisfactorily in English; for other examples of stp-st so employed see Wb. iv. 340. 12, 13.

P308. Tizo here is probably not the particle of affirmation Wb. v. 242. I, but rather the similarly written survival of the old independent pronoun of the second person singular lwt, which is found elsewhere as predicate with the meaning 'thine are .. .', see Wb. v. 241. 1 and zAs 50. 117. In that case st is yet another case of 'pronominal anticipation', see above on P96.

P320. Hrt rendered 'peace' in my translation both here and in 328 signifies among other things 'agreement' over a bargain or even 'quietude', see Wb. ii. 497. 21, whereas !:ztp has a more active connotation, carrying with it a hint of 'forgiveness' or the like; hence I translate it by 'reconciliation' in 329.-TJW here replaces the common lJW n rnb 'the breath of life'.

P321. W!:zr 'desisted' from fighting, as above in 276. Not 'started homeward', since this is recorded only later in 332, after the king's consultation with his military staff.

P322. Hdf lzpr is a common phrase, see Wb. ii. 505. 14 and Temples of Armant, 103. 11. P325-6. The monumental texts are unanimous as regards these distressingly repetitive sentences; the Sallier papyrus abbreviates them.

P329. TJY 'reproach', 'blame', Wb. v. 349. I, 2.

P330. TJY here appears to be a writing of try, which is the reading of P.Sallier, but the meaning 'respect' as in 257 does not suit the present context. Wb. v. 231 adds no further examples of try to those quoted by me zAs 42. 26, n. I, where 'withstand' was suggested.-Gunn demonstrated that the construction here used always refers to future time, see his Studies in Egyptian Syntax, ch. 5, and especially p. 56, no. 88. The insertion of m = in before nm 'who?' shows that this interrogative word had become fused as in Coptic lUll., the origin in ln-m being no longer felt.

P33I-2. The texts hesitate between the first and the third person; in the few remaining sentences the third person is employed.

P332. Wb. i. 159.4-6 neither quotes nor offers any explanation of di-n-t r here, but it is clear that 'make a move' is not far from the true meaning.

P333. Hs 'turn back', see Onomastica, i, p. 159*.

P338. For the name of Ramesses II's Delta Residence see JEA 5. 136, and for the vexed question whether it is to be located at Tanis or at Kantir see Onom. ii, pp. 171* ff.

- ... - - --- .. ' -;;..:-

B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD

1. The so-called 'Report' or 'Bulletin', Ku., pp. 327-61; abbreviated B SEE above, p. 3, n. 2, where references are given for the scene to which, as there indicated, this long inscription serves as the explanatory legend. The scene occurs also at Luxor, Wr. ii. 82, though without the 'Report', which occupies a different place in the temple. The king is always shown seated on his throne outside the camp; this not yet ready to receive him. An officer or official accompanied by ten or more others approaches the Pharaoh holding out his hand as a sign that he is bringing information. The king's chariot hard by recalls the fact that it will soon be needed, see below, R 6. 7.

TRANSLATION

Year 5, third month of the Summer season, day 9, under the Majesty of Res-Harakhti The-Strong-bull-beloved-of- Truth, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usima'ret-setpenrec, the Son of Re< Raemesse-miamiin, given life eternally. Now His Majesty was in Djahy in his Second Expedition of Victory. A good awakening in life, prosperity, and health, in the tent of His

BS Majesty in the hill-country south of Kadesh. After this at time of morning His Majesty appeared in glory even as when Rec arises, and he assumed the accoutrements of his father Mont. The Lord proceeded northward and reached the vicinity south of the town of Shabtuna. Then came two Shosu of the Shosu tribes to say to His Majesty: 'Our brothers who are headmen of tribes

BIO with the Fallen one of Khatti have sent us to His Majesty to say that we will be servants of Pharaoh and will separate ourselves from the Chief of Khatti.' Then said His Majesty to them: 'Where are they, your brothers who sent you to say this matter to His Majesty?' And they said to His Majesty: 'They are

B1S where the wretched Chief of Khatti is, for the Fallen one of Khatti is in the land of Khaleb to the north of Tunip, and he feared Pharaoh (too much) to come southward when he heard that Pharaoh had come northward.' But the two Shosu who said these words to His Majesty said them falsely, it being the Fallen one of Khatti who had sent them to spy out where His

B20 Majesty was in order to prevent His Majesty's army from making ready to fight with the Fallen one of Khatti. But the Fallen one of Khatti was come with his infantry and his chariotry, together with the chiefs of every land that

TRANSLATION

29

was in the territory of the land of Khatti, and their infantry and their chariotry, which he had brought with him as allies to fight with the army of His Majesty, B2S he standing equipped and ready behind Kadesh the Old, and His Majesty did not know that they were there. The two Shosu who were in the Presence were questioned(?), and His Majesty proceeded northwards and arrived at the north-west of Kadesh. The camp of His Majesty's army was pitched there, B30 and His Majesty took his seat on a throne of gold to the north of Kadesh on the west side of the Orontes. Then came a scout who was in the suite of His Majesty bringing two scouts belonging to the Fallen one of Kadesh. They were introduced into the Presence. Then said His Majesty to them: 'What are 835 ye?' And they said: 'We (belong to) the Chief of Khatti; he it is who sent us

to spy out where His Majesty is.' And His Majesty said to them: 'Where is

he himself, the Fallen one of Khatti? Behold, I have heard that he is in the land of Khaleb to the north of Tunip.' And they said to His Majesty: 'See, 840 the wretched Chief of Khatti is come together with the many foreign countries who are with him, whom he has brought with him as allies, the land of Dardany, the land of Nahrin, that of Keshkesh, those of Masa, those of Pidasa, the land of Karkisha and Luka, the land of Carchemish, the land of B45 Arzawa, the land of Ugarit, that of Arwen(?), the land of Inesa, Mushanet, Kadesh, Khaleb, and the entire land of Kedy. They are furnished with their infantry and their chariotry carrying their weapons of warfare, and they are B50 more numerous than the sand of the river-banks. See, they stand equipped and ready to fight behind Kadesh the Old.'

Thereupon His Majesty caused high officers to be called into the Presence

to cause them to hear all the words which the two scouts of the Fallen one

of Khatti who were in the Presence had spoken. Then said His Majesty to them: 'See ye the case wherein are the governors of foreign countries! together B55 with the chiefs of the lands of Pharaoh, and they stand and say to Pharaoh every day: "The wretched Chief of Khatti is in the land of Khaleb and fled before His Majesty when he heard that Pharaoh had come"; so they say to His Majesty every day. But see, I have heard in this hour from these two B60 scouts of the Fallen one of Khatti that the wretched Fallen one of Khatti is come with the many foreign countries who are with him, being men and horses as many as the sand, and see, they stand concealed behind Kadesh the Old, and my governors of foreign countries and my chiefs under whose B65 authority are the lands of Pharaoh were unable to tell us that they had come'.

1 Variant 'the garrison-commanders'; see the Commentary.

~- ,.- - - - ~. - - • ~ ". •• <. '--

30 B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD

And the high officers who were in the Presence spoke and answered the Good [God]. 'This is a great crime that the governors of foreign countries and the

B70 chiefs of Pharaoh have committed in not causing to be tracked down for them the Fallen one of Khatti wherever he was, that they might make report of it to Pharaoh every day.' Then command was given to the Vizier to hurry on the army of His Majesty as they marched on the road to the south of the town

B75 of Shabtuna so as to bring them to where His Majesty was. But while His Majesty sat speaking with the high officers, the wretched Fallen one of Khatti was come with his infantry and his chariotry, as well as the many foreign countries who were with him, and they had crossed over the ford which is to the south of Kadesh. Then they entered into the midst of His Majesty's army

B80 as they were marching and did not know. Then the infantry and chariotry of His Majesty were discomfited before them whilst going northward to where His Majesty was. Then the host of the Khatti enemy hemmed in the followers of His Majesty who were by his side. Then His Majesty caught sight of them,

B85 and thereupon he arose quickly and was enraged against them like his father Mont. And he assumed the accoutrements of battle and girded himself with his corslet; he was like Sutekh at the moment of his power. Then he mounted upon 'Victory in Thebes', his horse, and he started forth quickly alone by

B90 himself, His Majesty being powerful, his heart stout, and none could stand before him. All his territory was ablaze with fire, and he burned every foreign country with his hot breath, his eyes savage when he saw them, and his might flared up like fire against them. He took no note of millions of foreigners, he regarded them as chaff. Then His Majesty entered into the host of the

B95 Khatti enemies together with the many countries that were with them, His Majesty being like Sutekh the great of strength and like Sakhme at the moment of her raging, and His Majesty killed the entire host of the wretched Fallen one of Khatti, together with his great chiefs and all his brothers, as

BI00 well as all the chiefs of all the countries who had come with him, their infantry and their chariotry being fallen upon their faces one upon the other, and His Majesty slaughtered and slew them in their places, they sprawling before his horses and His Majesty being alone, none other with him.

Thereupon My Majesty caused the host of the Khatti enemy to plunge

BI05 upon their faces one upon the other, even as crocodiles plunge, into the water of the Orontes. I was after them like a griffin, I defeated all the foreign countries being alone, and my infantry and my chariotry had abandoned me and not one of them stood looking back. As I live and as Rec loves me and my

I

;

i· l

TRANSLATION

31

father Atum praises me, as for every matter which My Majesty has spoken I B110 did it in truth in the presence of my infantry and my chariotry.

COMMENTARY

B3. The ill-defined land of Djahy seems to have included the whole of Palestine as far north as the Lebanon, see Onom. i, p. 145*- The 'First Expedition of Victory' had doubtless been that of Year 4 referred to on p. 6.

B4. The 'awakening ... in the tent of His Majesty' is similarly used to locate the position reached before an important day's happenings in Urk. iv. 652. 13; Sandman, Texts, p. 122; so too Zztp 'going to rest' in the royal tent at the close of such a day, Urk, iv. 1303. 12, said of Amenophis II. The epithet nfr in rs nfr here certainly means 'happy', 'auspicious', not 'quiet'.-For 'the hill-country south of Kadesh' see the note on P36.

B6. The feminine infinitives ort here, it in 8 and 33, nit in 29 (LI) show that much of the narrative of the 'Report' was conducted in the form of substantives 'an appearing', 'a coming', 'a journeying', see Eg. Gr.3, § 306, 2. To reproduce this in translation would be incredibly clumsy; moreover, the presence of this construction cannot as a rule be detected in verbs with a masculine infinitive such as wgJ in 7. However, WJ/:l in 30 is almost certainly an infinitive, as is also gd in R12-14, and so too sts in sts-zo 'introducing of them' in 34.-SsP bkrw, so too 86 and P77.

B7. For Shabtuna see on P58-60.

B8--9. The tribes (mhwt) of the Shosu or nomad Beduins are mentioned also P.Anastasi I. 20. 4; P.Harris 76. 9. Note that their 'headmen' are called ow, not wrw like the 'chiefs' of settled countries or towns; so also P.Harris 77· 5.

B9. The initial m is the equivalent of Middle Egyptian _L, here introducing a participial statement (Eg. Gr.3, § 373, 1) of which the predicate is di izot-n in 10. So too in 19.

BI2-14. My translation follows the much fuller version of the Luxor texts; indeed the king's question and the reply of the Shosu spies are almost necessary to explain why these latter should have proffered the false information about the Hittite king's whereabouts.

B15. Ps-um 'for' giving a reason, see Erman, op. cit.2, § 679. This word is naturally replaced by or in the abbreviated statement of the Ramesseum and Abu Simbel texts.Hrb 'Khaleb' is Aleppo, still a town of great importance whose name is written Halb in Arabic; nearly 200 km. almost due north of Kadesh ; Gauthier, Diet. geogr. iv. 152. Its chief is reported to have been half drowned in the Orontes, but saved by his soldiers, Rao. -Twnp 'Tunip', often mentioned in the Egyptian texts (Gauthier, op. cit. vi. 49; 012om. i, p. 179*), but not actually located.

BI6. The translators rightly supply 'too much' in their rendering of this sentence; for similar elliptical use of the preposition r see dns-f r wnm t '(his stomach) is (too) heavy

32


to eat bread', Ebers, 36.5; and still more strangely ms-tsc-f r rpd! ?lr-( 'he is seen (only for one) to flyaway immediately', Amada stela 5.

B18. Literally 'These two Shosu said these words which they said to His Majesty falsely'; my translation transposes for the sake of clarity.

BI9. Again a participial statement as in 9, but here preceded by iw which gives the sentence circumstantial force; compare the negative instances quoted Erman, op. cit. 2, § 528 at end.

B2I. After 'But the Fallen one of Khatti' the Luxor text inserts the completely tautologous words 'had sent the Shosu to say these words to His Majesty'; my translation omits them.

B23. It is interesting to read this Egyptian admission that all the countries named as allies of the Hittites belonged to Hittite country.

B26. The more recent translators agree to render 'Kadesh the Old' rather than 'Kadesh the Deceitful'; doubtless they are right, but the reason for the epithet remains obscure; again in 64.

B28. This sentence, found only in the Luxor texts, remains obscure on account of the doubtful reading of the verb; if w§d is to be understood, the meaning would be 'were questioned (further)', but the determinative zi suggests rather 'were dismissed'.

B30. Further references to the pitching of the camp, well illustrated in the reliefs, see RI, RII.

B33. Wh. iii. 3 I. 10, II knows no further instances of Ippytw (or l:lJpwty?) than are found here, in 53, R8, 14, 15; they were clearly 'scouts', in the service either of the Pharaoh or of the Hittite king. P.Wilbour 41.13 names an isolated t~ "t~J./I as cultivating a small plot of land; compare the writing ~!Pw in the Abu Simbel texts of

33,34-

B34. The primary meaning of the verb #1 is certainly 'drag', but it is regularly used of the formal introduction of courtiers, officials, and prisoners into the Royal Presence, see Wh. iv. 353. 1-5. So here, where the word has in itself no implication of violence, though violence may well have been used.

B35. Note that Ramesses says 'What (ib) are ye?', not 'Who (nm) are ye?' He would not have been interested in the enemy scouts as persons.

B36. The meaning is certainly 'We belong to the Chief of Khatti', but the preposition n is absent from all texts. Perhaps, however, an idiom and not a mistake.

BS2. The word rendered by me as 'high officers' is presumably to be read wrw, though not accompanied by phonetic signs in any of the places where it occurs in the Kadesh texts (here, 68, 75; P8S, 176,236,251,253,265,324). The situation almost everywhere demands that high-ranking military men should be meant, P88 and 265 being especially convincing. The absence of the definite article in our passage is possibly significant, since Ramesses in his predicament could not have summoned all his high officers. But a much

I Doubtless a denominative verb 'flyaway like a bird'; Wb. i. 9. 12 differently.

t i

s

, t

\ t t

a (

(

r c s

I.

c c

t

I

c

t d

COMMENTARY

33

more important point must be observed: the ideogram 1i which is used always shows the officer as holding a staff of office. This serves to differentiate the word from the other tor which designates the Chief or King of Khatti, as well as the chiefs of the foreign countries which came as his 'allies' (n!Jtt B25, 41, compare Coptic t\~WTt:, Crum, 238) or rather as neighbours paid by him (P52-53); these 'chiefs' have as their ideogram D, a man without staff and with his hands hanging by his side; this distinction, if Kuentz's copies are as correct as they appear to be, is universal, and may fairly be used in order to interpret the passage dealt with in the next note.

B55. It is a mistake to find here three categories of people who should have acquainted the Pharaoh with the whereabouts of the Hittite army. There are only two, since the imyui-r iurct 'garrison-commanders' of the Ramesseum and Abu Simbel texts are offered solely as a substitute for the imyw-r !JJswt 'governors of foreign countries' in the Luxor versions and are not mentioned at all in the parallel passages B65, 69. It would thus seem that the garrison-commanders-if, as I think, that rendering is justified, see Wb. i. 5 I. I r and JEA 3I. 6, n. I-are practically identical with the governors of foreign lands, who were, of course, Egyptians. But who then are the other important persons coupled with them in all three passages? The texts show certain variations which it would be tedious to discuss in detail, but the fullest description, that seen in 66 (compare also 55 in Lp and Ram. r) characterizes them as 'the chiefs (wrw) under whose authority are the lands of Pharaoh', while a shorter description (55 Lr, 2; 69, all texts) contents itself with 'the chiefs of Pharaoh'. It is of importance that in all these cases the determinative of wr is .i} not If}, and consequently, as the note on 52 has shown, indicates foreign chieftains. Thus we have, in this highly interesting part of our inscription, a comprehensive statement as to the way in which was governed that part of Palestine which Ramesses II could still call his own; beside the Egyptians who commanded the fortresses there were such native chiefs of localities as could be counted on for their loyalty.

B70. For the rare verb smty see Wh. iv. 144.5-8 and Carninos, Late-Egyptian Miscellanies, p. 178. The sense 'track down' proposed in my translation cannot be far wide of the mark, but the determinative suggests that the word may imply keeping one's ears open in respect of someone or something; compare the nomen agentis in Wenami1n 1. 14.

B72. For IS 'to hurry on' someone Wh. i. 20. 5 strangely contents itself with referring to Erman's article z ss 48.41; in the same sense as here again in the Kadesh texts R12, 13, 14, IS; in RI2 the Vizier is depicted setting forth in his chariot on this same mission.

B78. 'The ford which is to the south of Kadesh' may have been quite close to the city. Its position is not defined in the text.

B82. I translate m Od as 'whilst going northward' to emphasize that this had been the direction of the Egyptian troops before they were discomfited, not as a result of the discomfiture. In other words, it is surely wrong to render 'fled ... northwards'.

B83. This sentence, in which the verb in/:t 'hem in' is used as in P84, RI1. I, and RI9. 6, suggests that when the Pharaoh was surrounded he had about him no more than

B 8596

F

... , ~ , ~ - . ~ ~ . . . . - -

,

I

34


his personal attendants. In RII. I, however, it is 'the camp' which is surrounded, though this is said in the same passage to have been pitched by the army of Amlin, but left unfinished by them. There seems to be some contradiction here.

B86. Repeated verbatim from P77. B88. See on P68.

B89. See on P8o.

B93. For the unusual sense of drr here see on P246 and for dhr 'chaff' see on P228. B96. The comparison of the king with Sakhme also in P287.

BI04-5. The 'Report' has throughout referred to Ramesses in the third person, but from here to the end the first person is used. This is the exact opposite of the procedure adopted in the 'Poem', see on PlIO, 331-2.-For the plunging into the Orontes like the plunging of crocodiles see on Pr38.

Bro6. For the comparison of the Pharaoh with r/;b a 'griffin' see P166.

Broo-ro. The swearing of an oath to declare that one has spoken the truth goes back to the Middle Kingdom, e.g. Inscriptions of Sinai, ed. Cerny, pl. 17, no. 53; in historical texts of Dyns. XVIII and XIX see Eg. Gr.3, p. 165, n. 1.

B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD (continued)

2. The hieroglyphic legends accompanying the reliefs, Ku., pp. 363-86.

Inscriptions consisting of a mere cartouche or little more are ignored.

A COMPLETE comparative study of the representations cannot here be attempted and indeed the publications available for such a purpose are quite inadequate. It has been thought desirable, however, to add references throughout to Wreszinski's invaluable Atlas, his line-drawings being quoted rather than his photographs, since the latter, excellent though they are, are less easy to work with. Further references will be found in Ku.

Rr. Inside the Egyptian camp near Kadesh, Ramesseum, Wr. ii. 92a; Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170.

The first army of Amiin-gives-victory-to-Usima<re<-setpenrec, given life, in which Pharaoh was. In course of pitching the camp.

For the full name of the army of Amlin see P39; for the pitching of the camp to the north of Kadesh and on the west side of the Orontes and the presence of the king there see B3D-32; the army of Amlin engaged in this work, still incomplete, Rl1; m r-r WJJ; see Wb. i. 394. II; 395· 5.

R2. The recumbent lion near to the royal pavilion within the camp. Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170.

The living lion, follower of His Majesty, 'Slayer of his Enemies'.

The same lion with the same name is seen crouching beside the king's throne, Wr. ii. 164a. But Breasted (p. 44) has shown that the leaping lion often seen at the side of the royal chariot is a mere decoration; see too Wr. ii, Index, s.v. Lowe.

R3. To the right of R2, over some ox-drawn carts. Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170. We(?) bring it into the Presence of Pharaoh.

Possibly 'it' refers to the lion, though not quite close to it.

R6. Over the king's chariot in the scene of Ramesses's receiving tidings from his officers. Luxor, 'tVr. ii. 82.

The goodly god, powerful of strength, great of victories, slaying all foreign countries, making a great slaughter among their chiefs, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usimacres-setpenrec, the Son of Re< Rarmesse-miamun, given life eternally.

,

B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD (cont.)

R7. Over the king's chariot in the scene corresponding to that of R6. Ramesseum, Wr. ii, 95, see too the Frontispiece of this book.

The first great horse of His Majesty Victory-in- Thebes belonging to the great stable of Usimasree-setpenrec, beloved of Amlin.

For this principal horse's name see P79, 267; RI8, 21.

R8. The scene of bastinadoing is always placed under the scene of Pharaoh receiving tidings from his officers. It would doubtless have been inappropriate to inflict this precautionary punishment in the Royal Presence. Abydos, Ku., pI. 22. 2; Luxor, Wr. ii. 82; Ramesseum, Wr. ii. 95; Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170.

The coming of Pharaoh's scout bringing two scouts of the Fallen one of Khatti into the Pharaoh's Presence. They beat them to make them say where the wretched Fallen one of Khatti was.

R9. An official carrying a fan arrives in a chariot, holding out his hand as a sign that he has an order or an exhortation to give. A confused mass of Egyptians and Hittites are in the neighbourhood, which is at no great distance from the camp. Ramesseum, Br., pl. I (from Lepsius); W r. ii. 9za.

The coming of Pharaoh's fan-bearer to [say] to the king's children together with those(?) of Mutnofre. '[Do not?] go out on the west side of the camp and keep clear of the battle.'

One of the children was doubtless the Pra shiwenamef whom we shall encounter in RIO; the others were probably those whose names are given in R67, 70-74,77. Mutnofre may have been an elsewhere unknown wife or concubine. In the following line perhaps restore [+ ~17,1~}.Jl. For urb, literally 'cleanse (oneself)" in the sense 'keep clear', see PZI3.

RIO. A little nearer to the camp another fan-bearer is seen fleeing in his chariot.

Ramesseum, Br., pl. I; Wr. ii. 92a.

The fan-bearer on the right of the king, king's scribe, [great] commander of the army, [first charioteer of] His Majesty, Prathiwenamef.

For this son of Ramesses II, apparently his eldest, see Gauthier, Livre des rois, iii. 80.

RI I. A very large array of Egyptian reinforcements, partly on foot and partly in chariots, is shown approaching the camp in perfect order. The explanatory legend is inscribed in vertical columns between them and the camp. Of the five versions that at Abu Simbel (Wr. ii. 170) is the most complete, containing some explicit statements of fact absent at Luxor (Wr. ii. 82) and found again only in the Ramesseum (Wr. ii. 9za), there too only with considerable lacunae. My translation combines the entire text as presented by Kuentz.

TRANSLATIONS AND COMMENTARIES

37

The coming of the Nesartn of Pharaoh from the land of Amor. They found that the host of the Khatti enemies hemmed in the camp of Pharaoh on its western side, while His Majesty sat alone, his army not with him, the host of the chariots hemming in ... his soldiers, while the army of Amlin in which Pharaoh was had not yet ended the pitching of the camp, and the army of Pre( and the army of Ptah were marching and their ... had not yet arrived from the wood of Robawi. And the N e<arin broke into the host of the wretched Fallen one of Khatti as they were entering into the camp of Pharaoh, and the servants of His Majesty killed them and did not allow one of them to escape, their hearts being confident of the great strength of Pharaoh their goodly Lord, he being behind them like a mountain of copper and like a wall of iron for ever and ever.

There can surely be no doubt that the Nesarln here mentioned are to be equated with the Hebrew C'j¥~, the plural of a common word for 'youth'. In sense, accordingly, these Ne(arin would correspond to the Middle Egyptian gJmw, except perhaps that the term was essentially a Semitic one and had discarded all reference to age. In the Old Testament it was sometimes used of common soldiers, e.g. I Kings xx. IS. P.Anastasi 1. 17. 3-+ speaks of 'those rebels called Nesarin' and the Golenischeff Onomasticon (Onom. i, p. 171*) places the word, there written with )~ as determinative, between the provinces of Takhsy and Nahrin. In Merenptah's great inscription (Mariette, Karnak, 5+.45) we even read of 'veterans (iJyw) of the army who were Ne<arin'. The addition 'of Pharaoh' in our text doubtless means no more than that they were part of the combined Egyptian forces. The definite article pi in front of the word seems to imply that it was regarded as a singular. Eduard Meyer (Geschichte des Altertums, ii-. 1. +62) recognized that these troops which arrived so opportunely from the land of Amor were none other than had been described in P63 as 'the first battle-force consisting of all the leaders of his (Pharaoh's) army', who had been stationed 'upon the shore of the land of Amor', see Onom. i, pp. I88'IO-I89*.-Robawi, written :J ~} ~ in Urk. iv. 1304, 5-7, is there mentioned as a wood (~ ot) near Kadesh where Amenophis II hunted and caught numberless gazelles, hares and other animals.-For the doubtful sense of srJ rendered by me 'break into' see on P72.-From 'did not allow one of them to escape' to the end is found only in the Abu Simbel text.

RI2. Beside a chariot being driven away at a great speed. Luxor, Wr. ii. 85; also Ku., pI. 35 from Champollion.

The coming of the Vizier to hurry on the army of [His Majesty?]. There was said to them: Go ahead, Pharaoh your Lord stands in the battle (quite alone).

B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD (cont.)

In the Luxor text Kuentz restored 'the army of [Ptah]' but the command as written in B72 gives 'the army of His Majesty'.-For brw 'battle' see on P8I.

RI3. An official in a chariot is seen speeding along and meeting Egyptian soldiers as they march in the direction of Kadesh, Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170, top right; Br. pl. 6.

The butler of Pharaoh being come to hurry on the army of Ptah. There was said to them: Go ahead, your Lord stands in the battle quite alone.

Mention was made in P274- of the 'household butlers' who had remained with Ramesses and had not deserted him.- The strange group seen at the end of this legend is doubtless a miswriting of m PJ brw in RI2; so too again in RI4-. Wr zo: written wr sp sn has intensive force' quite alone' and so differs from the zo: sp sn found above in P229; for similar cases see Wb. iii. 437. 6.

Rq. A scout riding bareback is seen approaching the advancing Egyptians. Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170, top right; Br. pl. 6.

The scout of Pharaoh being come to hurry on the army of Ptah. There was said to them: Go ahead, Pharaoh your Lord stands in the battle quite alone.

The hieroglyphs show several mistakes which can be corrected from B 13.

RIS. Legend to the same rider on his way to the point reached in Rr a. Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170, top centre; Br. pI. 6.

The coming of the scout to hurry on the army.

RI 7. Over a great picture of Ramesses in the midst of the battle; he stands in his chariot shooting at his enemies. Luxor, Wr. ii. 83 and 86.

The goodly god smiting the Nine Bows and slaying a million in the completion of a moment. Making non-existent the chiefs of foreign countries, prostrate in their blood, none other with him, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Usimasrec-setpenrec given life, the Son of Ret Rarrnesse-miamun.

Similar scenes in the Ramesseum (RI6, cartouches with the epithet 'beloved of Mont') and at Abu Simbel (RI6, cartouches only).

RI8. Yet another similar scene. Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170, top left.

The goodly god, powerful of strength, great of victories, defeating [all foreign countries], King who slays his enemies [with] his single arm, stout of heart ... , making them sprawl. His Majesty made ... of the ... followers of His Majesty as he sat to the north of Kadesh. Then he arose quickly and mounted upon Victory-in-Thebes his great horse, and he entered in among


39

the Khatti enemies, being like a storm which goes forth from heaven and his might like fire in stubble, and he being powerful like his father Mont.

RI9. Two more scenes of the same kind in the Ramesseum (Wr. ii. 96a).

The goodly god, powerful of strength, great of victories, defeating all foreign countries, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Usimasrec-setpenrec, the Son of Rec Racmesse-miamun. The arising of His Majesty as he sat to the north-west of Kadesh and he entered into the host of the fallen ones of Khatti being alone by himself, none other with him. He found 2,500 chariots in four bodies hemming him in on every side of him, and he slaughtered them made into heaps in front of his horses, and he killed all the chiefs of all the foreign countries, the brothers of the Fallen one of Khatti together with his great officers, his infantry, and his chariotry. He sent them sprawling, fallen upon their faces, and he caused them to plunge one upon the other into the water of the Orontes. His Majesty was after them like a savage lion slaying them in their places, while the Fallen one of Khatti stood (looking) back, his hands (raised) in praise of the goodly god.

For the north-west of Kadesh as the place reached by Ramesses and the place where he took his seat see BZ9-3 1. The reference to his being surrounded by 2,500 chariots is a slight expansion of P84.- The very natural use of bt for a separate 'body' or detachment is not recorded in Wh. iii. 357-8.- That rmo lit. 'backward' applied to the Hittite chief also in R41 is to be understood physically as 'looking backward' is shown by pictures in the Ramesseum (Wr. ii. 96a, bottom right), at Luxor (Wr. ii. 84, bottom left), and at Abu Simbel (Wr. ii. 170, middle); also by 'his face turned back' in R42.

Rzo is a palimpsest legend describing the king in his chariot, too much damaged to be worth translating.

RzI. Legends naming the Pharaoh's great horse Victory-in- Thebes, exactly as in R7 above.

RZ2. Again a very defective palimpsest legend, of interest only because it contains some words addressed to the Pharaoh evidently by a common soldier: 'I am Nakhtamiin, the soldier. . . .'

RZ3-39. Legends naming various Hittites depicted either as slain or drowned in the Orontes. The complete series is found in the Ramesseum, but the names are illegible in Wr.'s photographs (ii. 96-100), and Ku.'s reductions from Lepsius (pIs. 4°-41) must be consulted. A few of the names are found also at Abu Simbel and Abydos. Here they are all given in their consonantal skeletons, no attempt being made to add the vowels which Albright's system would demand.

40 B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD (cant.)

R23. SPIr, brother of the Fallen one of Khatti.

R24- Trgnns, charioteer of the Fallen one of Khatti. R25. Grbts, shield-bearer of the Fallen one of Khatti. R26. Trgtts, troop-captain of those of (?) /f:bsw( ?).

The ~ seen here is probably the nr discussed on P2-6, rather than part of the geographical name, which is in either case unknown.

R27. 'Agm, troop-captain of the Fallen one of Khatti. R28. Kmyt, a head of thr-warriors.

The occupational term here used presents serious difficulties, in spite of the evidence collected in Wb. v. 322. 10-14 and in Edgerton and Wilson, Historical Records, P: 30, n. 52b. In the oldest-known example of thr (Urk. iv. 686. 5) 329 such men are in the service of the Chief of Tunip, so that thr may possibly be a Mitannian word. In the Kadesh texts thousands of them are said to be 'in front of' or 'behind' the Khatti chief, qualified as 'of fighting' (Rf3, 44), and shown armed with spears and javelins. So too with 'thr-warriors of chariots (tprt a foreign word found only here) (in) the camp of the Fallen one of Khatti', E. Naville, Quelques details, pl. 17 = Ku., R.f7. There is also an entry of 'thr-warriors of shield-bearers, followers of the Fallen one of Khatti', R4s. The (J n thr (again in R3S) was presumably a 'leader', 'captain', or 'head' of thr-warriors. In later texts such men are found as cultivators of land in Egypt, see (e.g.) P. Wilbour, Commentary, ii, p. 8r, n. 3. In P.Chester Beatty I, vs. Gr, 8 thr-warriors are mentioned as unable to keep pace with a horse, this in a love-song.

R29. ljrpsr, dispatch-writer of the Fallen one of Khatti. R30' Tydr, chief of suite, of the Fallen one of Khatti. R3I. Pys, charioteer of the Fallen one of Khatti.

R32. Smrts, charioteer of the Fallen one of Khatti.

R33. Rbsnn, troop-captain of Inns.

Inns is the name of an unrecorded province or locality. Can it be identical with the differently written Ins of R37?

R34. Hmtrm, brother of the Fallen one of Khatti. R35. Tdr, a head of thr-warriors.

R36. T .. m, shi[eld-bearer?] of the Fallen one of Khatti. R37. Twls, troop-captain of Ins.

Ins is perhaps the same. place-name as that of R33, though differently spelt. It might also be identical with the place named among the allies, B47.

TRANSLATIONS AND COMMENTARIES R38. Bn~(?), charioteer of him of Khatti.

R39. . .. [of the] wretched [Fallen one] of Khatti.

R40. The chief of Aleppo is being held upside down. Ramesseum, Wr. ii. 96a.

The wretched Chief of Khaleb being emptied (of water) by his soldiers after His Majesty had thrown him into the water.

For the verb lJr see Wb. iii. 364. 5, 6 and the excellent conjecture by Peet, Great Tomb Robberies, p. 161, bottom; the examples are collected by Edgerton and Wilson, Historical

Records, p. 93, n. 44d.

R41. The Khatti chief in his chariot turning his back on the fortress of Kadesh, Luxor, W r. ii. 84, bottom left.

The wretched Chief of Khatti standing (looking) back (in) fear of His

Majesty.

For cnio see on R19.

R4z. Picture similar to that of R4I. Ramesseum, Wr. ii. 96a; Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170. The great wretched Fallen one of Khatti standing in the midst of his

infantry and his chariotry, his face turned back, shrinking, and his heart discomfited. He never came out to fight through fear of His Majesty, when he had seen His Majesty prevailing against those of Khatti together with the chiefs of every foreign land who had come with him, His Majesty overthrowing them in a moment, His Majesty being as a divine falcon. He gave praise to the goodly god saying 'He is like Set the great of strength in his hour, Bacal in person'.

The phrases containing the rare word tnblJ 'shrinking' are closely similar to those of PI46, on which see the note. The subject of di-n-f ira: 'he gave praise' is of course the Chief of Khatti, and the words that he says, absent at Abu Simbel, are almost identical with those of pzg8.

R43. Legend which at Abu Simbel (Wr. ii. 170) apparently describes some Hittites omitted in the relief.

The thr-warriors of fighting of the Fallen one of Khatti ... who are in front of him, 18,000.

A doubtful word dmi follows the lacuna. These Hittites are perhaps supposed to be protecting the retreating Hittite king who follows them in a chariot.

R4{. Legend describing a body of Hittite warriors armed with spears and javelins and accompanying a chariot presumably carrying the Hittite king. Luxor, Wr. ii. 88; Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170.

B 8590

G

... . .- ....... . .. . . -. . - ~..

,

"Jl' ,

42 B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD (cont.)

Another (body) of thr-warriors of fighting who are behind him I9,000. il1'-SJjhere corresponds to r-lut-f in R43. At Abu Simbe1 the chariot is shown between the two companies of Hittites. Here and in R43 Breasted and others have failed to recognize the sign for 10,000.

R4S. Legend accompanying a further company of Hittite warriors. Luxor, Wr. ii. 88. Thr-warriors of shield-bearers, followers of the Fallen one of Khatti.

See on Rz8. These soldiers carry no shields, but in front of them, near the Hittite king's chariot, is a man very conspicuously brandishing one.

R46. Legend perhaps referring to a man accompanying a chariot not actually in use.

Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170.

The thr-warrior of the Fallen one of Khatti.

R47. Legend describing a large body of Hittite soldiers.

Thr-warriors of chariots (in) the camp of the Fallen one of Khatti. Abydos, E. Naville, op. cit., pl. 17. See above, the note on Rz8.

R48. Legend beside Hittite soldiers as in R47. Abydos, op. cit., pl. 16 .

. . . together with the Fallen one of Khatti exceeding many consisting of men and horses.

R49. Inscription inside the fortress occupied by the enemy. Luxor, Wr. ii. 84; Rames-

seum, Wr. ii. 105; Abu Simbel, Wr. ii. 170.

The town of Kadesh.

Variant at Luxor: Kadesh the wretched.

RS 1. Beside Ramesses in his chariot inspecting the cut off hands of the Hittite enemies.

Abu SimbeI, Wr. ii. I70, middle right.

The goodly god who fights for his army, his strong arm has suppressed the Nine Bows; a king brave in battle, there is none who makes a second to him; entering in among multitudes of all foreign countries; sending them sprawling; savage is his face in the mass(?) of the chiefs of Khatti and Nahrin; he prevails over them, they being made into heaps.

RS2. Over the king's horse in the same scene.

The great first horse of His Majesty Mut-is-contented belonging to the great stable of U sima (re<-setpenre<, beloved of Amlin.

This horse is named also in Pz67 together with the more often mentioned Victoryin-Thebes.


43

R53-SS. Three princes advance to pay homage to the king, each of them presenting

Hittite captives. Luxor, Wr. ii. 63.

The king's son of his body, beloved of him, Horhiwenamef. The king's son of his body, beloved of him, Meryrec,

The king's son of his body, beloved of him, Sety.

Sety is mentioned again in R74. All three are known from other sources, Gauthier, Livre des rois, iii. 93. 10; 94. 12; 94- 13.

RS6-S8. Much-damaged triumphal hymns above a long row of Egyptians bringing prisoners. Karnak, Ku., p. 6S and pl. xxxi. I-2.

(a) How ... art thou, the victorious Ruler, ... thou defeatest ... [by] thy victories.

(b) ... like Mont .... Pharaoh, my(?) goodly Lord, First corps of Usimacrexsetpenrec, powerful of arm(?), that which decrees for him victory.

(c) Amlin the god, he(?) decrees the victory for the Ruler ... Pharaoh, the ... thee, undone is the heart of the land of Khatti, its fire(?) reaches heaven. The Ruler has prevailed over it, he devastates it for ever.

[R62]. In front of the row of Egyptians, &c., mentioned above on RS6-S8. Cut off hands are piled up before the Pharaoh. Karnak, Ku., p. 66 and pl. xxxi. 3.

Receiving captives of those brought by the strong arm of His Majesty when he overthrew the enemies of Khatti together with all the chiefs of all the foreign countries who came with them, when His Majesty was alone, no army [with him] after His Majesty had commanded all the leaders of his infantry, saying: Bring ye the captives from my plundering when I was alone, no infantry with me and no chariotry.

This inscription is the longer version of one at Abydos mentioned below under R62.

RS9. Cut off hands are piled up in front of the Pharaoh and listed by a scribe who is followed by one of the king's sons bringing prisoners. Abydos, E. Naville, op. cit., pl. 2I.

Enumeration of those (inhabitants of) foreign countries whom His Majesty slew when he was alone, hand and corpse, horses and chariot, bows, scimitars, and all weapons of warfare.

R6r. Scene similar to the last. Abydos, loco cit.

Receiving the captives brought by His Majesty from the victories of his strong arm in this wretched land of Khatti and this wretched land of N ahrin together with the chiefs of all the foreign lands who came with the Fallen one of Khatti, being living prisoners.

~------- .. - .~.... • ... t, •• ~ _ •• -' - --._ ~ •• -- .... ..- .... ----:"_ • _~ ....... ~ _._ ~...-_._ .... ~ ~ I • ~f' F ~._; ,. _...

44 B. THE PICTORIAL RECORD (cont.)

R62. Scene similar to the last. Abydos, loco cit. 'Presenting captives before His Majesty of those brought, &c.'

The rest is a shortened version of the Karnak legend translated above after RS6-S8.

R63-77. Ramesses, assisted by his sons, presents to Amlin, Mut, and Khons the prisoners taken by him in the Kadesh campaign. Karnak, on the south wall of the Hypostyle Hall, above the so-called 'Poem'; only the lower registers remain; line drawing Ku., pl. xxv.

R63. In front of the king:

[Presenting] ... (those) brought from the northern countries who came to violate [the boundaries] ... His Majesty, whom His Majesty slew. Bringing their inhabitants as living prisoners to fill the ergastulum of his father Amiin.

Behind the king are three rows of prisoners; above the second and third can be read:

R64 .......•. [Car]chemish; Arwen(?); Ar .. (?).

R65. Enumeration of the chiefs of the land of Khatti whom His Majesty brought as living prisoners to the house of his father Amiin: Dardany; Pidasa; Karkisha ; Masa; Luka.

Other prisoners are shown in four separate panels each containing three compartments.

The names of the royal princes leading them forward are given in vertical columns, while the identity of their prisoners is written in horizontal lines over their heads.

PAN E L A, compartment I. The prince:

R66 .... [of His] Majesty, [king's scribe?], overseer of horses.

The name is omitted, perhaps for lack of space. It was probably Pravhiwenamef

Gauthier, op. cit. iii. 83, nO.4-

The description over compartment I is lost. Compartment 2. The prince:

R67. The king's scribe, great commander of the army, king's son [of his body, beloved of him], Rasmesse, deceased.

Gauthier, op. cit. iii. 82, no. 3. Also elsewhere this prince is described as mtr-hru:

Description of the prisoners:

R68. Maryan-warriors of Nahrin the wretched.

The title mryn (Wb. ii. 110. 6) is known from cuneiform inscriptions to have designated the highest class of warriors in the petty states of Palestine and Syria, those who fought from chariots; details and references E. Edel in ZDPV 69. 164.

TRANSLATIONS AND COMMENTARIES 45

Compartment 3. In front of the prince:

R7I. Fan-bearer on the right of the king, ... king's scribe, great com-

mander of the army, king's son, Amenhikhopshef.

Gauthier, op. cit. iii. 80, no. 2.

The description over the prisoners is lost.

PANEL B. The inscriptions of compartment I are lost. Compartment 2. Name of the prince lost; the prisoners:

R69. Maryan-warriors of Keshkesh.

Compartment 3. In front of the prince:

R72. [Presenting those brought after] His Majesty by the king's son Kharemwtse.

M-sJ 'after' found several times later presumably means after the king had made his

presentation. The prince, Gauthier, op. cit. iii. 84, no. 5.

Description over the prisoners lost.

PANEL C, compartments I and 2. All inscriptions lost. Compartment 3. In front of the prince:

R73. [Presenting those brought] after His Majesty by the king's son

Meryamiin.

Gauthier, op. cit. iii. 91, no. 8.


R75. [Maryan-warriors] of Dardany.

PANEL D, compartment I, inscriptions lost.

Compartment 2. In front of the prince, whose name is lost:

R70' Presenting those brought [after His Majesty by the king's son].

Description of the prisoners lost. Compartment 3. In front of the prince:

R74. Presenting those brought after His Majesty by the king's son Sety. Gauthier, op. cit. iii. 92, no. 10.


R76. [Maryan-warriors of Ca]rchemish.

The name of one more prince occurs on an unplaced fragment. R77 .... Geb(?), king's eldest son Merenptah, Gauthier, op. cit. iii. 94, no. 11.

~ __ • • ; - ~ • .; -1. ., _ _ .. " ..... " •.. ' ~.'. ~" _ ....

CONCLUSIONS

1. AUTHORSHIP AND MODE OF COMPOSITION

To prove common authorship for two different compositions treating of the same theme can be no easy matter anywhere or at any time, but must be particularly difficult under a civilization like that of Ancient Egypt where the resources of vocabulary are so limited and where the hand of tradition presses so heavily both upon the expressions used and upon the choice of details to be described. These considerations must be borne in mind in considering the relationship of what I have termed respectively 'The Literary Record' and 'The Pictorial Record'. In both we read that 'His Majesty assumed the accoutrements of battle and girded himself with his corslet' (P77 = B86) and that the Chief of Khatti 'did not come out to fight through fear of His Majesty' (P66 = Raa), but these phrases are so banal and so natural in the situations where they occur that they might well have been employed by two separate and independent writers. Such an epithet as 'a king fighting for his army' (PZ44 = RSI) likewise proves nothing, and least of all can we adduce as evidence the endlessly often repeated statement of the king's isolation (see on PI44-6), especially since the Pharaoh's courage whilst alone and forsaken by his troops was the principal message which both types of record were at pains to convey. Some may attach importance to the occurrence alike in the 'Poem' and in the 'Report' of such words as lnh, bdi, srj, and tnbb,r or as the phrase ljrp JS for 'started forth quickly' (Pzzo = B89), but more significant, in my opinion, is the comparison of the king with a griffin (r!J!J, PI66 = Bro6) in both places, or again the striking image which recalled to the author's mind the plunge of crocodiles into the water (PI38 = BIoS).

Without denying to this verbal testimony some degree of cogency, it seems to me that the common authorship of both the literary narrative and the reliefs with their descriptive legends emerges with practical certainty from some commonsense considerations. It is surely clear that the Pharaoh himself was the inspirer of this elaborate record of his valour which was displayed in so many different temples, and why should he have had resort to two different sets of scribes and sculptors? I cannot help envisaging a command given by

I See the notes on B83, Pr6, P72, and PI46 respectively.

AUTHORSHIP AND MODE OF COMPOSITION

47

the king to the ablest experts of his time to display to his awe-stricken subjects his great military achievement in two mutually complementary forms. The pictorial record will have been entrusted to a designer with outstanding graphic talent, and for the verbal record (with which we have here almost exclusively been concerned) a specially erudite and competent scribe will have been employed. Both will have worked in close collaboration relying, of course, upon the information given by the army officers and others who had been personally present at the great battle.

The aim will have been to give as complete an account as possible of everything concerned with Ramesses's victory as seen with Egyptian eyes and embellished with Egyptian imagination. But how did they set about their work? Here an obvious division of the material will have dictated the course to be pursued. There are some things which lend themselves only to literary expression, while there are other things which clamour loudly for visual representation. The Pharaoh's conversations with his officers, with his god Amlin, with his shield-bearer Menna, and finally his consultation with his generals as to whether the Hittite chief's prayer for a cessation of hostilities should be accepted-all these things could not be shown in pictures, but needed verbal elaboration. The reliefs, on the other hand, were necessary to exhibit the various incidents of the actual fight, the positions of the troops, of the town of Kadesh, of the Egyptian camp, as well as the sufferings of the defeated enemy and so forth. Some overlapping of the Literary Record into the Pictorial was indispensable since, for example, the names of the slaughtered enemies could not otherwise be made known, and without a fairly long verbal explanation the spectators who gazed on the temple walls could have no notion why certain persons were being bastinadoed. At the beginning of this essay it was pointed out that the supposed 'Official Report' was in essence nothing more than an expanded legend recounting in words the incidents depicted in relief in its immediate neighbourhood. This view is corroborated by the fact that the 'Official Report' (so-called) confines itself to the events of the actual day of the battle, when Ramesses was either at or very near to Kadesh. The Literary Record, on the other hand, was at liberty to go back a month to the crossing of the Egyptian frontier, and omits much that is told in the Pictorial Record just because the two were deliberately complementary to one another. In order to prove this point the contents of the two kinds of record shall now be exhibited in tabular form. Thence it will be seen how the two dovetail into one another.

CONCLUSIONS

•

Literary Record

TITLE OF THE BOOK NAMING THE VARIOUS ALLIES OF THE HITTITES, PI-6.

Epithets of Ram., P7-24.

The army being equipped, Ram. fares north, accompanied by a corps of Sherden prisoners, P25-28.

Start yr. 5, m. 10, d. 9; frontier crossed at Tjel, P29-32.

Easy progress on roads of Palestine, P33. Arrival at town of Ramesses in the Lebanon, P34-S'

Journey north, arrival at hill-country of Kadesh, P36.

Ram. goes ahead with army of Amlin and crosses the ford of the Orontes, P37-38.

(The Chief of Khatti and his hired allies, P4I-S3.)

Hittites drawn up ready to fight to northeast of Kadesh, P54-SS.

Ram. alone with suite, the army of Amlin following after him, PS6-S7.

Positions of Egyptian armies: Pre( crossing ford south of Shabtuna, I iter distant behind Ram.; Ptah south of Aronama; Sutekh on march behind, PS8-62.

(A force of picked men on shore of the land of Amor, P63-64.)

Pictorial Record

(The Sherden are depicted near where Ram. took his seat before the battle, Br., pI. 6.)

Ram. waking yr. S, m. II, d. 9 in the hillcountry south of Kadesh, BI-4.

Ram. arms and proceeds north to the south of Shabtuna, BS-7.

Arrival of 2 Shosu pretending to have deserted Chief of Khatti, and giving false news of his whereabouts, B8-I8.

Intention of Chief of Khatti to hoodwink Ramesses, BI9-2I.

Hittites actually ready behind Kadesh unknown to Ram. B22-27.

(Cf. RII.)


Literary Record Ram. arrives at Kadesh, P 40.

Hittite Chief afraid to come forth to fight, but his army ready behind Kadesh, P65-70.

The Hittite army comes forth from south of Kadesh and breaks into the army of Pre< in its middle, P7I-73.

Discomfiture of the Egyptian army, P74. Ram. stands firm to the north of Kadesh on the west side of the Orontes, P7S.

One comes to tell Ram., P76.

B 8596

49

Pictorial Record

Ram. goes north and arrives at north-west of ~adesh, B29.

Camp pitched there, B30; RII (see Reliefs).

Ram. seated outside camp, B31-32 and see Reliefs.

An Egyptian scout brings two Hittite scouts who on being beaten (R8 and Relief) reveal the Hittite Chief's whereabouts (B33-5 I).

Ram. sends for his officers and discloses the information brought by the Hittite scouts, B 52--64.

To Ram.'s reproaches (B6S--67) the officers reply that his officials and subjects in Syria have been criminally remiss, B68-71.

Ram. dispatches his Vizier to hurry on the army still on the march to south of Shabtuna, B72-74, also RI2 with picture.

A butler of Pharaoh sent on a similar mission, R13.

Scouts on horseback doing likewise, RI4-

15·

While Ram. still sits talking with his officers (B7S), the Chief of Khatti crosses the ford south of Kadesh (B7G- 78) and attacks the Eg. army on the march and unaware of it, B7<)-80.

Discomfiture of the Egyptian army, B8 1- 82.

[Illustrated in the scene of which the socalled Report is really the legend. Ram.

H

_ .... ._ . _ .... _._k _ ... ~ _ , - -- - _

Literary Record

CONCLUSIONS

50

Ram. appears in glory like Mont, arms, mounts on his chariot, starts forth quickly, and attacks enemy alone by himself, P76-82.

Looking round, Ram. finds himself surrounded by 2,500 chariots, &c., P83-87·

He is alone, his army having melted away before the enemy, P88-9I.

Ram. calls upon his father Amlin, recalls his own good deeds, and begs for help, P92-I09·

Pictorial Record

is seated on his throne outside the camp. He is approached by officers of whom one is speaking. Ram.'s chariot is seen waiting ready.]

Pharaoh's fan-bearer comes to tell the king's children to keep clear of the fight, R9, 10.

Ram.'s suite surrounded by the Hittite army, B83.

[A great body of troops called the N e(arin are seen coming to the rescue from Amor (cf. P63-64). They find that the Hittites have surrounded the camp whilst Ram. sits alone without his army. The army of Amlin has not yet finished pitching the camp, and the armies of Pre( and Ptah are still on the road and have not yet emerged from the wood of Robawi. The Necarln charge into the Hittites as they are entering the camp and Ram.' s servants kill the enemy. All this only in the Reliefs and the legend appertaining thereto, Rr r.]

Ram. catches sight of the enemy, B84. He rises from his seat (RI8, 19), arms, mounts on his chariot, and starts forth quickly alone by himself, B84-89.

Laudatory epithets, &c., B90-93. Attacks enemy like Sutekh and Sakhme, B94-96.

[See too RI9]


Literary Record

Ram. in first person: 'I called on Amlin, and though alone and deserted by my army, he came to my aid.' Praise of Amlin, PIIQ-27.

'All that I did succeeded. I shot and made captive.' The 2,SOO chariots sent sprawling. None of enemy able to fight. Many flung into Orontes, PI28-4I.

The Hittite Chief marvels at Ram.'s valour, looks behind him, and is afraid. Ram. alone, but his actions that of a god. It would be better to sue for peace, PI43-6S·

Ram. kills like a griffin, but appeals to his army to stand firm and reproaches them for their cowardice, recalling the benefits he has bestowed on them. Further insistence on his own valour, on his being alone, and on the help given by Amlin, PI66-204.

Ram.'s shield-bearer Menna is afraid and urges retirement from the fray, P2°5-13·

The king refuses, goes on slaughtering, and reproaches his army with cowardice, P214-23.

The soldiers creep back one by one in the evening, and see the slain enemy, P224-34·

B 8596

51

Pictorial Record

Ram. kills entire Hittite host, its high officers, and the brothers of the Chief. Many flung into the water, B97-I06. He has been alone, deserted by his army, BI07-8.

[Scenes in the temples display Ram. in his chariot shooting at his enemies who are shown killed or drowned in the Orontes; their names often given. The rather long legends at Abu Simbel (RI8) and in the Ramesseum (RI9) recount details of the battle.]

[Picture of the Hittite king in his chariot looking back and afraid. Verbal account in R42.]

Ram. compares himself to a griffin, and once again insists upon the defeat which he has inflicted upon the enemy in spite of being deserted by his army. BI06-8.

H2

, "~.·\.9.

52

CONCLUSIOl\lS

,

Literary Record

Praise of Ram. by his soldiers, P235-50.' Ram. taunts his army for having forgotten that a lasting reputation is won by valour in the field. He reminds them that he has fought alone and forsaken. Only his charioteer, his horses and his butlers have stayed by his side, Pz 5 1-

75·

Ram. breaks off fighting, but resumes it

the next day, PZ77-84.

The rebels warn one another not to come too close to Ram. to whom they raise their arms in praise, P285-90.

Ram. goes on killing the foes, PZ9I-4. The Hittite Chief sends a letter to Ram. suing for peace, P295-320.

Ram. again breaks off fighting and summons his officers to tell him whether peace shall be granted, P3Z1-6.

The officers agree and Ram. acts accordingly, P327-3 I.

Ram. turns homeward, protected by the gods, P332-7.

Ram. reaches his Residence of Pi-Raemesse and rests in his palace there, welcomed and favoured by his gods, P338-43. END.

Pictorial Record

Ram. swears that he has told the truth, BI09-IO. END.

[Prisoners brought to the Theban triad by Ramesses and his sons, R63-77. (This scene only at Karnak, above the 'Poem', see Ku. pp. 47-3 and pl. xxv.)]

A brief scrutiny of the above tabulation will confirm my contention that neither of the two kinds of record is complete without the other. The scenes of the Pictorial Record, together with the legends or captions attached thereto, fill in many interesting details of the story, the identity of the distinguished

AUTHORSHIP AND MODE OF COMPOSITION 53

Hittites slain or captured, the grotesque misfortune which befell the Chief of Aleppo, the cut-off hands of the fallen, the unfinished business in the camp, and above all the fundamentally important episode of the Hittite spies and the even more vital intervention of the N e<arin troops from the north. The scattered legends, though usefully expanded in the so-called 'Official Record', could not suffice to give a connected account of the whole battle. No suggestion of Ramesses's isolation is visible in the crowded reliefs, and the large depictions of him fighting convey no notion of the desperate crisis which he had to endure. The Literary Record is equally incomplete, but compensates for its incompleteness in another way. The main features of the story are told, it is true, but no hint is given of the reason why Ramesses had pushed forward so rashly in front of the rest of his armies. On the other hand, an illuminating insight is gained into the way that he realized and coped with the danger which he had to face, his confidence that Armin would help him, his wrath with the army which had deserted him; and then too we learn about the thoughts and feelings of the deserters themselves, of his shield-bearer and of the Chief of the Khatti. In a word, the Literary Record deals admirably with the battle on the emotional and conceptual plane, just as the Pictorial Record deals with it on the factual plane. It follows as a corollary that the so-called 'Poem' was intended, from the start, no less than the Reliefs, to be inscribed on a temple wall. We now see that Ramesses or his advisers had, doubtless quite unwittingly, invented an entirely new technique of narration, one that recalls Greek drama or a modern film except that these latter are audible and dynamic, whereas the Egyptian counterpart is silent and static. There is nothing in Egyptian literature really comparable to this narrative of Ramesses II. The verbal legends which accompany Hatshepsowe's pictures of her expedition to Pwene are scanty and jejune beside those which have here been discussed, and the captions, if they may be so called, which are seen in Sethos I's reliefs on the north wall at Karnak, are restricted to naming the fortresses or places reached. I t is true that at Medinet Habu the inscriptions supplementing the battle-scenes are of vast length, but their contents are mainly rhetorical, and it is difficult to extract from them much information of historical importance, or if this assertion should be thought exaggerated, at least we are taught nothing about Ramesses Ill's feelings when faced by his enemies. I maintain therefore, that Ramesses II's account of his Hittite war is a unique phenomenon in Egyptian literature, perhaps indeed in any literature. Not that the composition is a masterpiece. Far from it! The texts are slipshod and

54 CONCLUSIONS

repetitious almost beyond endurance. No skilled Middle Egyptian scribe would have tolerated the constant shiftings from first person to third in referring to the Pharaoh (see on PlIO, 331-2, BI04-S), nor would he have admitted the same words 'I killed among them and did not relax' three times at short intervals in the so-called 'Poem' (Pr67, 223, 292). Also it was surely unnecessary to tell us twice over that each Hittite chariot was manned by three fighters (P68, 87). Many other words or sentences could be quoted as evidence of the author's defective sense of style. Nevertheless, the entire story and the way in which it is told are of the deepest interest.

II. THE STRATEGIC FACTS

Finally, the battle itself. After the corrections discussed on PS5 and P58-60 the situation is perfectly clear. While Ramesses had as yet reached no farther than the south of Shabtuna, two Shosu Beduins carne pretending that they wished to leave the service of the Hittite king and to enter that of the Pharaoh (B7 ff.), In answer to questions they declared that their Hittite master was still more than 100 miles away in the land of Aleppo, having feared to come to grips with the dreaded Egyptian monarch. Trusting this false information Ramesses did not hesitate to cross the ford of the Orontes together with the division of Amlin (P38-4o) and not many hours will have elapsed before he arrived at the north-west of Kadesh, his first division of Amlin following after him (B29, P 57). While these troops were engaged in pitching and putting in order the camp (B30, Rr I), the Pharaoh sat on a golden throne a little way off, accompanied only by a few of his personal retainers (B3 I, P 56). Whatever his motives for pushing ahead so rashly, we find it definitely stated that while he was thus isolated the division of Pre< was still engaged in crossing the ford some 6 or 7 miles away (PS8-60).1 The third division, that of Ptah, had come no farther than to the south of Aronama, an unlocated town doubtless a little way upstream (P6 I) ; the division of Sutekh was on the road far behind (P62). Ramesses had now nothing to do until his pavilion in the camp had been completed and the rest of his armies had arrived. How long he may have waited is not said, but he was now to receive a very unpleasant surprise. Officers corning to where he sat disclosed the fact that the entire Hittite army, so far from being in the neighbourhood of Aleppo, was standing concealed and ready for battle behind Kadesh on the north-east side of the river (PSS,

I This distance can fairly be used to support Borchardt's conclusion that the Egyptian iter had a length of approximately the same amount.

t

THE STRATEGIC FACTS 55

B62-64, and frontispiece). The Shosu-Beduins who had given him the false information a few hours earlier had lied (B I 8) and the real state of affairs was now learned from two captured scouts who, having been well beaten to make them tell the truth (R8), admitted that the Hittite king had sent them to discover the exact position of the Egyptian enemy (B36-37). The Pharaoh had barely time to summon his officers and to complain bitterly of the failure of his intelligence service (B 54-71). In all haste he dispatched his Vizier (B72, RI2) and one of his butlers (RI3) to hurry on the division of Ptah which together with the division of Pre< in front of it had as yet not completely issued from the wood of Robawi some little distance beyond the ford (Rr 1). The Hittites were quickly upon him. Passing to the south of Kadesh (P71) they themselves crossed the river by another ford nearer to the town (B78) and charged into the middle of the division of Pre< whilst it was quite unprepared (P72-73). At this juncture the entire Egyptian army panicked (P74). News of this having reached Ramesses where he still remained to the north of Kadesh on the west of the Orontes (P75-76), he donned his armour, mounted upon his chariot, and plunged into the fray (P77-8I, B84 ff.). According to his own account he was now completely alone (P82). Looking around him, he found himself surrounded by no less than 2,500 Hittite chariots (P84-85, 132, RI9). Deserted by all his soldiers, he claims to have fought his way out of the encircling enemy, all of whom he slew (P130 ff., B97). The rest of the story as told by the Pharaoh to his obsequious courtiers is so preposterous that we may dismiss it with a few critical comments. It is strange to find so perspicacious an historian as Ed. Meyer using the figure of 2,500 Hittite chariots in order to calculate the size of the attacking army (op. cit. 461), the more so since in all other respects his account of the battIe cannot fail to command our assent. We may safely surmise that if Ramesses had been surrounded by more than a very few of the enemy he would never have escaped alive, so that clearly his reiterated claim to have been quite alone and deserted by his army was a vast exaggeration. And how could he have been able, at such a critical moment, to estimate the number of the chariots by which he was surrounded? To Ed. Meyer and Major A. H. Burne' belongs jointly the honour of having pointed out the importance of the part played in the saving of the situation by the timely arrival of the reinforcements from the land of Amor, see above on RI 1 ; probably, as Meyer conjectured, it had been intended from the start that they should advance upon Kadesh along the Eleutheros valley, i.e. from

I JEA 7. 191 if.

~ )

; t .

56

CONCLUSIONS

the north-west. Certain it is, at all events, that the help of these Necarin turned what would otherwise have been a terrible catastrophe for the Egyptians into a limited success.

It can hardly be doubted that in the end the losses of the Hittites were very serious. How many perished of the I8,ooo or I9,oOO warriors with which they are credited in R43. 44 is not said, and even those figures cannot be trusted. It would, however, be carrying scepticism too far to deny the authenticity of the names of the various relatives and officers of the Hittite Chief stated in the temple reliefs to have been either slain or else drowned in the Orontes (see on RZ3-39)' All these misfortunes doubtless befell on the same momentous day. We are given to understand that the issue was decided before nightfall, when Ramesses was gradually joined by many of the soldiers who had deserted him (P2Z9 ff.). No details are given of the fighting on the morrow (Pz77 ff.), and it would be useless to repeat here what the inscriptions have to tell us about the overtures for peace made by the Hittite chief and their acceptance by Pharaoh and his officers. All this, and the brief account of the return to Egypt, may be read in the analysis printed above on p. 52.

The prominence given in these texts to Ramesses II's personal exploit has completely eclipsed the far more important question as to how far the Egyptians were justified in claiming the great battle as a victory for themselves. On this subject cuneiform scholars have had a good deal to say.' My own purpose here having been mainly philological, I must leave it to others to pronounce the final historical verdict.

.~ I See particularly A. Gotze in Orientalistische Litcraturzcitung, 32 (I (29), cols. 832-8.

APPENDIX

THE ALLIES OF THE HITTITES AND OTHER GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

IT has been thought useful to append here some notes on the ethnic and geographical names found in the Kadesh texts, though no research has been devoted to them beyond what is found in my Ancient Egyptian Onomastica (Oxford, 1947) and in Wainwright's admirable article inJEA 25 (1939),148 if. In my translations the spellings adopted are mostly those used in Onom., but have been derived from various sources, as might seem to be most suitable. The order followed is that of the longest enumeration of the allies, that in P 43 if.; after them the remaining geographical names are dealt with in English alphabetic order.

For any non-Egyptological readers who might use this essay, it must be explained that only the consonantal skeletons are obtainable with certainty from the hieroglyphic spellings, and that these have been given in each case. The actual forms seen in the hieroglyphs are of the kind known as group- writing (Eg. Gr.3, § 6o), and some scholars (Albright, Edel) believe that this mode of writing conveyed the vowels with some accuracy, though not always showing those vowels which the hieroglyphs would lead us to expect. For the convenience of scholars, and because the actual hieroglyphs cannot here be printed, the apparent' values of the group-writing are added to the consonantal skeletons.

1. Khatti, Ijt (J.:i-ta), the Hittite country in Asia Minor, with its capital Khattusas at Boghazkoy on the high plateau east of the river Halys, see Onom. i, p. 127*. P27. 43 and passim.

2. Nahrin, Nhrn (Nh-ry-na), originally equivalent to the kingdom of Mitanni east of the Euphrates, but in the time of Ramesses II extending to the west of the river as far as Aleppo or beyond, Onom. i, p. 171*. P2, 43, B43, R51, 68.

3. Arzawa, 'Irpu: (1a-ro-l-w), Baby!. Arzawa, lands to the south-west of Khatti along the Mediterranean coast, Onom. i, p. 129* ff. P2, 43, 86, 149, B46, R64.

4. Dardany, Drdny (D-ro-d-n-y), doubtless the L1ap8avot of Homer's Iliad, presumably located to the west of Asia Minor, Onom. i, p. 129*; Gurney, The Hittites, p. 57· P3, 44, 15°, B43, R65, 75·

5. Keshkesh, Ktkl, Hittite Gasgas, north-east of Khattusas and probably along the Black Sea, Quam. i, p. 124*, Wainwright, loco cit. 150. P44, 86 his, B44, R69.

6. Masa, A-1s (A-1a-sa), Hittite Masa, in south-west Asia Minor, at no great distance from Karkisha (no. 9 below), Wainwright, loco cit. 149; Gi.itze, Kiezusoatna, map at end. P4, 44, 86, 149, B44, R6S.

I By this is meant the values attached to the groups by older generations of Egyptologists.

58

APPENDIX

7. Pidasa, Pds (Py-da-sa), Hittite Pitassa, south-west of Khattusas and north of the Arzawa lands (no. 3 above), Onom. i, p. 128* f.; Wainwright, loco cit. P3,45, 86, B44, R65.

8. Arwen?, 1r(?)-wn, reading doubtful. Gotze, op. cit. 49, mentions a place Aruna in Khatti country, but Ilion, &c., have been suggested, Wainwright, loco cit. IS0. There is a possibility, however, that the initial =-, originally ir, had lost its rand had been reduced to a or e in pronunciation, see JEA 32. 101; in that case we might have to read Awen. P45, 86 bis, 149, R64.

9. Karkisha, ~r~s (~a-ro-~y-sa), Hittite Karkisa, near the west coast of Asia Minor, south of the Maeander, Onom. i, p. 128*; Wainwright, loco cit. 149; Gotze, op. cit., map. P. 4 (coupled with Luka, no. 10),45, 151, B45, R65.

10. Luka, Lk (Ru-ka), Hittite Lukkii, Gk. AVKWL, on the south coast of Asia Minor, Onom. i, p. 127*; Wainwright, loco cit. 149. P4 (coupled with Karkisha, no. 9), 45, 86 fer, 150, B45, R65·

I I. Kizzuwadna, Kdeodn (~a-!!a-wa-dn), Hittite Kizzuwatna, in the south-east corner of Asia Minor near the coast, the later Cilicia, Wainwright, loco cit. 150; Gotze, op. cit., map. P46, 86 bis.

12. Carchemish, Krhms (Ky-ro-k-my-sJ), Hebrew Karkemish, on the Upper Euphrates, a little more than 100 km. north-east of Aleppo, Onom. i, p. 132*. P5, 46,151, B45, R64, 75·

13. Ugarit, Tkrt. (1a-ka-ry-1), Babyl. Ugarit, the modern Ras esh-Shamra, near the sea I I km. north of Ladikiya (Laodicea), Onom. i, p. 15 I *. P6, 46, 86 fer, B46.

14. Kedy, Kd (~d-y), an extensive but ill-defined area in the north of Syria, Onom. i, pp. 134* ft. P5, 46, B48.

IS. Nukhashshe, Nwgs (1nlw-ga-sa, Nu-ges), Babyl. Nubasse, perhaps an area of indeterminate size between Horns and Aleppo, Onom. i, pp. 168* ft. P47.

16. Mushanet, Mtolmt, an unidentified place or district. P6, 47, B47.

17. Kadesh, ~ds (~d-s), the town on the Orontes now known as Tell Neby Mend, see above, pp. 5,16 and Onom. i, pp. 137* ft. As one of the allies, P5, 47,86 ter, B47.

18. Inesa, 'Ins (In-sa), an unknown locality, as one of the allies only B47. But see also below, p. 59.

19. Khaleb, Ijrb (Ijy-ro-ba), Aleppo, Arab. Halb, Gauthier, Diet. geogr. iv, 152, still a great town nearly 200 km. almost due north of Kadesh. In lists of the allies only P86 fer, 151, B48, but see also R40' Elsewhere, B15, 39, 57.

Other topographical names connected with Palestine or Syria.

Amor, Tmr (1a-ma-u-ro), Babyl. Amurru, an important state lying along the Phoeni-

cian coast, with Zimyra as a principal town, Onom. i, pp. 187* ft. P64, RII.

Aronama, 1rnm (1a-ro-na-ma), a town or village south of Shabtuna, P6I. Djahy, l)hy (l)a-hy), a name of Palestine, see the Commentary on B3.

Inesa, 'Ins (1w-ny-sa), unknown place to which an enemy troop-captain named in

APPENDIX

59

R37 belonged. Perhaps not identical with the differently spelt Inenes next following. Another Inesa, again differently spelt, among the allies, see p. 58, no. 18.

Inenes, Tnns (Tn-n-na-sai, a place to which an enemy troop-captain belonged, R33.

See on the foregoing.

Orontes, Trnt (1a-ro-n-t), the river on which the town of Kadesh lay, see above, p. 16.

P38, 75, B32, 105, RI9·

Rasmesse-miamun, a town said to be in the Valley of the Cedar, doubtless in the Lebanon, P35.

Robawi, Rbw (Ro-ba-wi), a wood a short distance to the north of Shabtuna and on the west side of the Orontes. RI I.

Shabtuna, Sbtn (Sa-b-tu-n), a town on the Orontes some 71 miles to the south of Kadesh, identified with the modern Ribla, see Br., p. 21, and the Commentary under PS8-60, B7.

Tunip, Tump (Tu-n-p), Babyl. Tunip, an elsewhere often mentioned town to the south of Khaleb (Aleppo), Onom. i, p. 179*; Gauthier, Diet. geogr. vi. 49. BI5, 39,57·

The Valley of the Cedar, TJ Tnt PJ rS, a designation of some part of the Lebanon where Ramesses II had made or renamed a town bearing his own name. P3 5, with the Commentary thereon.

Egypt and towns therein:

Pi- Ra <messe-miamun-Great-of- Victories, Pr- Rcmsszo-mi-Tmn-t r-nhtso, the Delta Residence of Ramesses II at Tanis or according to some at Kantir, see P338 with the Commentary.

Thebes, WJst, PI92; also in 'lord of Thebes' as epithet of Mont (P37), and in the name of the horse Victory-in- Thebes (P79, 267, R7, 18).

Timuris Ts-mry, a name of Egypt] P333, 338.

Tjel, Tr (Tl-rw), the Sile or Selle of classical geographers, the frontier town near El-Kantara, see P30 with the Commentary on P29.

Finally there is the ethnic name of the Sherden who were serving as soldiers in the Egyptian army. See for them the note on P26.

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