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Band 17

Cover: Enlargment of a Demotic ostracon froni Narmuthis containing Greek words (see also p. 277ff.).

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 Claiming the Stars

Egyptian Priests Facing the Sky*

Jacco Dieleman

What on earth did they think they were doing?

•07
%IL77j a’.Sc
Of course I know that of all the many ostraca that have
been unearthed in Egypt none was ever designed to be ., d—;/L
read and understood by a modern researcher. I know
that, but I hope my modern audience will nevertheless
forgive me my seemingly desperate opening line it is
\
—

there for good reason. It has all to do with an ostracon u6 ) dli

that was found as one of many from a priestly scribal ø L.O -5

school or its adjacent archive. The ostracon must once
have gone through the hands of an apprentice priest Lb 1’s, ?-
who was under scribal training to serve eventually among 6 -
1,)”w
the priesthood of the goddess Renenutet in Medinet
Madi, better known as Narmuthis, in the second centu
/1 p1’
*a-’
— ,
Y ,
II
ry CE.’ The ostracon is divided into three more or less
separate sections of which only the second is of interest
for the present purpose. A coherent textual interpreta
5
-rc jk$i’ D’
‘
tion of the complete ostracon is elusive, but the second
section seems to hint at, or even to promise, that there is
-r
money to be made as an astrologer.2 ‘./“i

In case you are one who foretells fate (l1otpoó-

‘yog) regarding the dominant heavenly body
(povoicpd’twp) of a man, you will make ten
obols minus the costs that were made at your
expense and those that are at your expense to
day also and those that you will acquire with
them as well. [0MM 1156 12—15]’
The question of whether this is a promotional statement
for the students or an innocent arithmetical exercise re
flecting regular economic transactions of the day in the
temple of Renenutet, is not the issue. My concern is the
occurrence of two Greek words in this text otherwise
written in Demotic. Why are the two essential terms
that provide the hermeneutical key not in the native
language and script of the priests of Renenutet? The eas
iest answer to this question is to assume that the Egyp
tian language did not provide any suitable terminology
regarding astrology and thus required additional loan
words. However, one must keep in mind that the inser
tion of foreign linguistic constituents into a given lan
guage is neither straightforward nor free of social impli
cations. Linguistic borrowing is certainly not merely a
This article is a slightly revised version of a contribution to a
conference on Prayer, Magic, and the Stars in Antiquity at the
University of Washington, Seattle. The proceedings will be pub
lished in due course. I thank profs. J. F. Borghouts, Mineke
Schipper and H. S. Versnel for commenting on earlier drafts of
this article and Jan den Hartog for correcting my English and
for his insightful remarks as an “outsider”. All errors and flaws in
the argumentation are of course my responsibilitsc
The ostraca from Narmuthis are published in: Bresciani et al.,
Ostraka demotici da Narmuti (nrs 1—33), and Gallo, Ostraca
Narmouthis (nrs 34—99).
2 This ostracon, 0MM 1156, is or. 27 in Bresciani et al., Ostraka
demotici da Narmuti. See for a re-edition: Hoffmann, Agypten,
45f. and pl. 9.
3 Hoffmann, Agypten, 46 takes povoKptitwp to be a designation
of a profession, “Herrscher uber die Zeit”, that is, astrologer,
whereas it is a highly specialized technical term denoting the star
whose effluxes rule events on earth at a particular moment.
Ptolemy uses the term when explaining some technical proce
dures involved with astrology (Tetrabiblos 209).

J. Dieleman, Claiming the Stars, Egyptian Priests Facing the Sky, AR 17, 2003, 277—289 277
reflection of a decline in proficiency of the Egyptian lan
guage. The occurrence of these narrowly defined Greek
cultural content words in an Egyptian environment rais
es questions about the form and direction of the cross-
cultural encounter between Egyptian and Hellenistic
culture in the Greco-Roman period. If the Egyptian
priests did indeed make use of foreign astrological jar
gon in their midst, what were their reasons for doing so
and what did they do with it after having incorporated
it in their native language? That is what this article is
about. The search for an answer to this question will
bring us to many different regions; but let us start at the
beginning.
Clement of Alexandria, a Christian apologetic writer of
the 2nd century CE, provides a vivid portrait of an Egyp
tian procession in honour of the god Osiris as he may
have seen it during his lifetime in Alexandria. He de
scribes the priests walking in the -procession, specifies
their functions and enumerates the books that contain
their sacred knowledge. At the front of the procession a
singer recites hymns in honour of Osiris.
Behind the singer comes the hour-priest (thpo
aicóitoç) who is holding his insignia, the hour-
measure (thpo6ytov) and the astronomical palm
leaf (qovi &atpo2o’y{aç), in his hand. He
must always have in his mouth the astrological
books of Hermes, being four in number, of
which the first is about the arrangement of the
fixed stars, the second about the movements of
the sun and the moon and the five planets, the
third about the encounters and illuminations of
the sun and the moon, and the last about the
rising of the stars.
4 list of occurences in Demotic documents can be found in Vitt
The hour-priest is followed by the sacred scribe, who is
an expert on hieroglyphs, carrying a book and a scribal
palette. The stolist, knowledgeable in markings on ani
mals and prescriptions for rituals, is followed by the
prophet, the chief of the temple who is well versed in the
hieratic writings and knows all rules and regulations per
taining to temple life, its personnel and its rituals. The
priestly train is finally closed by priests carrying offer
ings for the ensuing ritual.
In the above citation, Clement describes a priest
who holds the office of thpoaicdiuoç and who is, accord
ing to the four astrological books of Hermes, in charge
of observing the movements of different celestial bodies.
Because of this reference to the stars and planets one is
tempted to identify a poaic6itoç as a priest whose duty
it was to cast horoscopes, predicting a person’s fate by
determining the relative position of the stars and planets
at the moment of birth in short, an astrologer. How
—
ever, this title and its synonym, thpodyoç should be
identified with the Egyptian titles im.y wnw. t, literally
meaning “he who is within the hour”, known from the
278
New Kingdom (1550—1070 BCE), and wnw.t mean
ing “he from the hour”, already known from the Middle
Kingdom (2040—1640 BCE). 5 Such priests appear to
have had two tasks in the pharaonic period. First, it was
their duty to observe a proper division of day and night
into twelve hour periods in order to be able to perform
the temple rituals at their specific and prescribed mo
ment. During the night, the succession of the hours was
established by observing the succession of the decanal
6 Two priests sitting face to face on a temple roof,
stars.
along a north-south axis, determined the hours using a
wooden stick and some sort of rod provided with a sus
pending plumb line. The former instrument can be
identified with Clement’s, qovt tpo2to’y{ct; “astro
nomical palm leaf”, which was called b’ n imy-wnw.tin
Egyptian, “the palm leaf of the hourpriest”.8 The latter
instrument was known as mrb. t and is certainly identical
to the thpo?6ytov in the above citation.
9
The second task of hour-priests was to determine,
for each day of the year, whether it would bring good or
ill fortune to businesses or persons. This art, known as
hemerology, was not based on astrological assumptions
4 Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis, 6,4,35f. See for a discussion
of this passage from an Egyptological perspective Derchain, in:
CdE26, 1951.
5 See for a useful discussion of these two terms Gardiner, Ancient
Egyptian Onomastica, 61 *f An overview of hieroglyphic writ
ings can be found in Daoud, in: JEA 79, 1993. Note the addi
tion of the eye-determinative from the 18’ dynasty onwards. A
mann, Papyrus Rylands 9, 323f.
6 The term “decanal star” designates those stars or clusters of stars
that mark by their rising the succession of hours during the
night. Every ten days (a week or decade according to the Egyp
tian calendar), a different combination of twelve successive stars
defines the twelve hours of the night. The order of succession of
these twelve stars changes throughout the year as a result of the
earth’s rotation on its axis and its revolution around the sun.
7 A chart accompanying a star clock in the tomb of pharao Ram
ses VII gives specific details for the procedure. See: Parker, in:
Hodson (ed.), Place of Astronomy, 58.
8 Spiegelberg, in: ZAS 53, 1917.
9 In the Ptolemaic period the word wnw.t”hour” could be written
with a hieroglyphic sign representing such an instrument. Logi
cally, the word mrhthas got the same determinative. In a Ptole
maic temple scene depicting a foundation ritual for a new tem
ple, the word mrb.t refers to two wooden sticks held by the
pharaoh and the goddess Seshat. These wooden sticks may be
identified with the astronomical palm leaf as the accompanying
text speaks about observing the stars. See: Sloley, in: JE.A 17,
1931, 170. A pair of these instruments has been preserved:
Berlin Mus. mv. 14084 & 14085. Originally it formed part of
the burial equipment of “the hour-priest Hor son of Horudja”, a
member of the royal family. According to Borchardt the pieces
can be attributed to the 26 ,h
dynasty on the basis of a queen’s
name: Borchardt, in: ZAS 37, 1899.
J. Dieleman, Claiming the Stars
but on pure mythological arguments.’° The Egyptian
hour-priests were only interested in the stars as far as
they could help them with the general measurement of
time for calendrical and ritual purposes. As for predict
ing the future, the Egyptian mind preferred taking re
course to mythic precedents instead of the regular move
ments of the stars. Therefore, Egyptian mythology does
not contain any references to the underlying ideas of as
trology. This may then also help explain why mathemat
ical astronomy had only been developed in rudimentary
form during the pharaonic period.
1 to be regarded as the originator of astrology, the follow
Despite the absence of astrology in pharaonic Egypt,
Egypt was generally seen as the cradle of astronomy and
2 It is
astrology in the time of Clement of Alexandria:
clear today that the origin of astronomy and astrology is
to be found in Mesopotamia, where a long tradition ex
isted of writing down the position of celestial bodies and
of collecting data on celestial phenomena such as eclipses.
Eventually, these carefully established lists led to the
ability to predict the movements of the stars and planets
and the idea that occurrences in the sky had a direct ef
3 In spite of these facts the Chal
fect on earthly events.’
daeans, the name under which the astronomer priests of
Babylonia were known in Graeco-Roman usage, were
not seen as the sole originators of the art of astrology in
the Roman period: they had to share this honour with
the Egyptian priesthood.’ In light of the above, the at
tribution of the invention of astrology to the Egyptians
certainly poses a paradox.
This mistaken attribution can only be explained
within the context of the encounter of Greeks with
Egyptian culture. This encounter, starting with Herod
otus, is characterised by a feeling of respectful admira
tion. The Greeks credited Egypt with the notion of wis
dom resulting from its supposed overwhelming antiquity.
This positive image of Egyptian culture is particularly
apparent in the areas of religion and the constitution of
the state. Herodotus describes the Egyptian pantheon as
the original, pure model for the Greek one, while Plato
and Isocrates see the Egyptian constitution and legal
5 In the Hel
code as an example of a just political order.’
lenistic period, these ideas became a fixed representation
and even took on a constitutive role. The combination
of “antiquity” and “origin of true religion” eventually led
to the idea that Egypt was the cradle of hidden knowl
edge and divine revelations. Thanks to this Greek repre
sentation, Egypt not only came to be known as the
source of powerful magic but also as the birthplace of as
trology. Many Greek authors of the Hellenistic period
who wrote about the principles of astrology based their
arguments on books revealed by the supreme god Her
6 or written by the famous Egyptian as
mes Trismegistos’
trologers Nechepso and Petosiris, who were both sup
posed to have lived in the early Hellenistic period.’ The
names of these authors are certainly to be interpreted as
AH 17, 2003
pseudepigraphy, a common and widespread phenome
non in Antiquity and even earlier periods. Their names
and books form part of a Hellenistic discourse on the
origin and legitimacy of divine knowledge and have to
be analysed as such. They are the result of a lively dia
logue between Egyptian and Greek culture in the Hel
lenistic era.
If the representation of Egypt as the land of power
ful magic and divine knowledge is not be taken at face
value and the Egyptian priesthood is, consequently, not
ing question remains to be asked: to what extent and in
what way was the Egyptian priesthood prepared to in
corporate into its own tradition the new discipline of as
trology, a discipline which became of major importance
during the Hellenistic and Roman period? Horoscopes
can be found in Egypt from the Roman period onwards,
proving that the art of casting horoscopes did indeed ex
9 The earliest horoscope found to
ist in Roman Egypt.’
10 Herodotus 2,83 refers to the Egyptian practice of determining a
person’s fate at the moment of birth and is sometimes taken as a
proof for the existence of astrology already in this early period.
However, this is not an instance of astrology but of hemerology,
see Lloyd, Herodotus Book II, 343f. See for an example of a cal
endar of good and bad days: Leitz, Tagewahlerei.
11 Neugebauer, in: Neugebauer, Astronomy and History 40 and
57f.
12 See for a useful overview: Bohieke, in: SAK 23, 1996, esp.
11—19.
13 Koch-Westenholz, Mesopotamian Astrology.
14 See Fowden, Egyptian Hermes, 135: “But to the Greek and Ro
man mind Babylon and Egypt stood jointly for the wisdom of
the East, so naturally they were compared, and questions of pri
ority or possible mutual influence much discussed, especially in
the fields of astronomy and astrology” (italics Fowden).
15 Assmann, Weisheit und Mvsterium, 31f. and 44—51. See also
Vasunia, Gift of the Nile, whose reliance on post-colonial theo
rizing provides intruiging although too often anachronistic
readings of the Greek texts.
16 Hermes Trismegistos is the Hellenistic rendering of the Egyptian
god Thoth, the thrice great”, the god of wisdom and sacred
writing in the Egyptian pantheon. See Fowden, Egyptian Her
mes, 22—3 1.
17 Their names are indeed Egyptian. Petosiris, which means “The
one whom Osiris has given”, is frequently attested from the Late
Period onwards; see Ranke, Personennamen, vol. 3/1, 123,1.
The etymology for Nechepso is unclear: maybe Nb-k’.w N(y)
“Necho the King”: Krauss, LA.
18 Gundel/Gundel, Astrologumena, 9—40; see for Nechepso and
Petosiris 27—36. See also Neugebauer/Parker, Egyptian Astro
nomical Texts 111 3, 216, who refute the idea that Petosiris, the
owner of the famous tomb in Hermopolis, would be identical
with Petosins the astrologer.
19 See for the chronological distribution of astronomical and astro
logical papyri from Roman Egypt: Jones, in: Barnes (ed.), The
Sciences in Greco-Roman Society.
279
date is from 37 BCE and is written in Demotic, a cur
sive script for writing the vernacular which, interesting
ly enough, was almost exclusively used by the native
priesthood during this late period.” Horoscopes written
in Greek are known from 9 BCE onwards and abound
in the first two centuries of the Common Era.
’ Astrolo
2 treatments are rather straightforward and look like first
gy had apparently also become a thriving discipline in
Egypt by that time at least thriving enough to inspire
— tions and ritual actions, thus forming part of the priest
a priest in Narmuthis to write a scribble on financial
22
gain.
It is now time to direct attention to Harkhebi’s biogra
phy, because it illustrates to what extent the Egyptian
priesthood was engaged in the art of astrology in the
Prolemaic period.
23 The biography is inscribed on the
back pillar and left side of a statue which was found at
Tell el-Fara’in, the ancient Buto, in 1906.24 The statue,
which can be dated to the second half of the second cen
tury BCE,
25 represents a standing figure with its hands
alongside its body, dressed in a indy.t cloak and, thus,
conforming to the traditional way of rendering an Egyp
tian male. The text is written in so-called later Classical
Egyptian, an in those days obsolete yet canonical dialect
of the Egyptian language,’
6 and structured in a highly
sophisticated, maybe even poetical, form. According to
the text, which constitutes a summary of his profession
al abilities, Harkhebi was a priest who combined the dis
ciplines of astronomy and medicine in one person. The
honorific enumeration of his abilities is introduced by
the following programmatic lines:
Open of heart towards the sacred writings
Who observes everything observable in heaven
and upon earth
The competence of Harkhebi is apparently based on the
two pillars of, on the one hand, traditional knowledge
preserved in the sacred books of the temple and, on the
other, the observation of natural phenomena. In his case
these natural phenomena appear to be stars (in heaven)
and snakes (upon the earth).
The classification of poisonous snakes and treat
ment of their bites was traditionally assigned to the
priestly office of hrp Srq.t, usually translated as “Leader
of Serket”, a title which is indeed held by Harkhebi.
27 A
handbook for such a priest is preserved on a papyrus
from the Ptolemaic period in which the same constitu
tive elements of observation and revealed knowledge can
be discerned.
2 It is divided into two sections: a section
on the classification and description of snakes, followed
by a second section on the medical treatment of snake
bites with the help of drugs and, in some cases, incanta
tions. The catalogue reveals a profound knowledge of
different subspecies based on careful observation of a
snake’s anatomy, colour, size and behaviour accompa
280
nied by a description of the symptoms of its bite. The
medical section, on the other hand, is presented as a
copy of an ancient manuscript that was found during
the reign of pharaoh Nefer-ka-Re, presumably Pepi II of
the sixth dynasty (2246—2152 BCE).29 Several of the
aid. Others, however, must be accompanied by incanta
ly tradition of sacred knowledge.
It can be deduced from the section on astronomy,
which is more elaborate and is placed prominently be
fore the section on snake charming, that Harkhebi also
served as a traditional hour-priest, although this title
does not actually appear in the text. The following vers
es refer to the practice of determining the succession of
hours during the night, discussed earlier.
He who divides the hours into the two periods
(day and night) without a mistake during
the night
20 Only seven Demotic horoscopes have been published at the mo
ment: Neugebauer. in: JAOS 63, 1943; Neugebauer!Parker, in:
JE.A 54, 1968; Parker, in: Thissen/Zauzich (eds), Grammata de
motika (0MM 1060 and 1154 derive probably from the same
temple school as 0MM 1156, the ostracon mentioned in the
introduction).
21 Neugebauer/Hoesen, Greek Horoscopes.
22 See for a useful overview of Egyptian sources pertaining to as
trology: von Lieven, in: AoF 26, 1999, 99—1 05. Her use of the
term “demotische Literatur” as an exclusive and unifying histor
ical category is rather ill-chosen, since it conflicts with historical
reality and obscures the social dynamics between the native lan
guages and scripts of the Greco-Roman period with which the
present article is concerned.
23 The biography of Khenry son of Pensobek is of equal impor
tance as that of Harkhebi, because it hints likewise to astrology
as a professional discipline among the native priesthood. The in
scription is however badly preserved and the accuracy of the
publication is doubtful, see: Daressv, in: ASAE 18, 1919, 27f
and, for English translation, Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science,
vol. 2, 489f.
24 The statue is known under the number Cairo JE 38545. Unfor
tunately no photo has been published; Kamal, in: ASAE 7,
1906, 239f.; Daressy, in: ASAE 16, 1916; Neugebauer/Parker,
Egyptian Astronomical Texts III 3, 214—216 (with important
contributions of H. de Meulenaere); Derchain, in: CdE 64,
1989.
25 The heliacal rising of Venus in the first decan of Pisces, as allud
ed to in the text, points at the first days of March 154, 146, 138,
or 130 BCE: Derchain, in: CdE 64, 1989.
26 Later Classical Egyptian is nothing more than standard Middle
Egyptian and used for those (mainly religious) texts which are
written from the New Kingdom until the Roman period, when
Middle Egyptian was no longer a spoken language.
27 Sauneron, Traité égyprien d’ophiologie, 198—206; von Kaenel,
Les prêtres-ouab de Sekhmet; Quack, in: SEL 15, 1998, 80f.
28 See Sauneron, Traité égyptien d’ophiologie.
29 Sauneron, Traité égyptien d’ophiologie, 60f.
J. Dieleman, Claiming the Stars
 [...1 concerning everything that is brought on
the first day of every month
In line with his priestly office Harkhebi was also knowl
edgeable in the course of the star Sirius, called Sothis by
the Egyptians. He boasts of being able to predict its he
liacal rising, which was an important moment for Egypt
for two reasons. First, every year in July-August the
reappearance of Sirius at early dawn, after a period of in
visibility, was anxiously awaited by the Egyptians, as its
rising was believed to have a direct effect on the fertility
of the land. Because the rising of Sirius coincided with
the beginning of the rising of the Nile, the Egyptians
had established a causal relationship between these two
phenomena. Second, the reappearance of Sirius announced
the beginning of a new year and a new cycle of religious
festivals.
Besides these traditional elements, Harkhebi reveals
a new attitude towards the stars by calling the planets
“the gods who foretell the future” 30 At the same time, he
boasts of knowing everything Sirius predicts and of an
nouncing all the sun disk’s omina, implying that he was
able to foretell the future with the help of celestial bod
ies. These utterances certainly lend the inscription an
astrological flavour, although the modern distinction
between astronomy and astrology was presumably non
existent in Harkhebi’s days. Unfortunately, the inscrip
tion is not explicit on the underlying assumptions of
these predictions any more than it is on the question of
in whose interest he observed the movements in the sky.
Priestly secrecy is apparently, and for a modern scholar
unfortunately, a constituent of Harkhebi’s identity as
hour-priest:
He who does not disclose (anything) at all con
cerning his report after judgement,
Whose mouth is closed concerning all he has
seen;
He who does not give a bow because of that (?),
Who opens his speech (only) to the lord of the
two lands;
Hellenistic astrology presupposes a geocentric vision of
the cosmos and the existence of seven concentric plane
tary spheres around the earth, a vision incompatible
with the traditional Egyptian subdivision between heav
en, world and underworld. It is therefore very unlikely
that the description of the planets as “the gods who fore
tell the future” points to the assumptions of Hellenistic
astrology. Harkhebi was certainly not in charge of cast
ing personal horoscopes, a practice whose existence can
only be proved for the Roman period in Egypt. Howev
er that may be, HarlcJ-iebi is the earliest known represen
tative from Egypt to make reference to the movements
of the stars for predicting the future.
AH 17, 2003
A divinatory text on eclipses and lunar omina, which
is preserved in a Demotic manuscript from the late sec
ond century CE, may give some insight into Harkhebi’s
functioning. The manuscript, which is actually a copy
of two separate treatises, constitutes a handbook for pre
dicting future events concerning the king or country, by
determining the month of the year and the section of
the sky in which the omina occur. This type of judicial
astrology is well known from Mesopotamia, where it
was practiced from the seventh century BCE onwards.32
The fact that the concept of the manuscript was bor
rowed from Mesopotamia is clearly indicated by equat
ing Egyptian names of the months to Babylonian ones
(transcribed into Demotic) and by the occurrence of
four northern countries, which parallels Mesopotamian
omen literature. The mention in text A of what could be
pharaoh Darius I could establish the date of the intro
30 Moreover, the
duction of judicial astrology into Egypt.
biography of Udjahoresne, chief physician of Darius I
(52 1—486 BCE), relates that one day he was sent back to
Egypt to reorganise the institution of the pr- ‘nb, “the
34 These institutions were a kind of scrip
house of life”.
toria where texts were copied and composed by priests
in order to protect the temple, country and king.
35 It is
not impossible that Udjahoresne’s reorganisation led to
the introduction of such texts into the circles of the
Egyptian priesthood. Therefore, it could very well be
that Harkhebi’s utterances must be seen in the light of
judicial astrology.
The new discipline of astrology was practiced by a
person holding traditional bureaucratic titles and who
was a member of the priesthood, as hour-priest and brp
Srq.t. Harkhebi’s honorific titles of hereditary prince,
count and sole companion, suggest that he was a high-
standing figure in a society which, at least nominally,
carried on the pharaonic tradition which was thousands
of years old. This new art, whatever its underlying as
sumptions, was therefore certainly not a marginal disci
30 The new element is the planets’ ability to foretell future events
and not so much the fact that they are considered gods, which
has always been a characteristic of Egyptian astronomy. See, for
example, their names: Horus-the-bull (Saturn), Horus-rhe-mys
tery (Jupiter), Horus-the-red (Mars), The-morning-god (Venus),
Sobek (Mercury; not identical with the crocodile god Sobek);
see Neugebauer/Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts III 3, 175f.
31 Parker, Eclipse and Lunar-Omina.
32 I borrow the term “judicial astrology” from Neagebauer, in:
Neugebauer, Astronomy and History, 55-58.
33 Parker, Eclipse and Lunar-Omina, 21, note to line 10.
34 See for a translation of this text Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian
Literature, vol. 3, 36—41.
35 Gardiner, in: JEA 24, 1938.
281
pline but was taken up by a priestly and scholarly elite.
As is clear from the inscription and the brp Srq. t hand
book, the practitioners of astrology founded their knowl
edge on sacred writings and expanded it by careful ob
servation of the surrounding world. In this way, the
fields of medicine and astronomy-astrology could easily
be integrated into one person.
In the Roman period, judicial as well as horoscopic as
trology were well established among the native priest
hood, as is attested by the Demoric horoscopes and as
trological handbooks or tables.
36 Most of these texts are
laid out according to the signs of the zodiac, which must
have been introduced into Egypt during the late Ptole
maic period. The famous zodiacal ceilings in the temples
of Dendara, Edfu and Esna prove the willingness of the
Egyptian priests to incorporate new elements, which en
tail a rather modified vision of the cosmos, even into
their highly traditional temples. A ritual for casting a
horoscope shows in what way such elements could be
incorporated.
The ritual PDM XIV 93—1 14,38 which is contained
in the large Demoric Magical Papyrus of London and
39 stands out among Egyptian rituals of the Late
Leiden,
Period for two reasons. First, it is the only known exam
ple for casting a horoscope. Second, the prescriptions for
the ritual procedures are written in Demotic, whereas
rhe prayer is in Greek. Although the facsimile edition
may still suggest that the Greek part was written sepa
rately from the surrounding Demoric text, by a different
scribe for example, a photo of the original reveals that
the Greek parr is incorporated with the surrounding
Demotic parts to such an extent that both were proba
36 See for an overview: Bohieke, in SAK 23, 1996, 20—34. The os
rraca of Medinet Madi (Narmurhis) are of course clear testi
monies to the fact that the priestly community was involved
with astrology.
37 If late Egyptian remples are viewed as conscious atrempts ar con
srructing Egyptian identity and community, such incorporarions
might have far-reaching consequences with regard to the concept
of cultural assimilation. See for Egyptian identity expressed in late
Egyptian temples Assmann, Das kulturelle Gedachtnis, 177—195
(chapter 4.2 called “Der Spatzeittempel als ‘Kanon”). Iris howev
er noteworthy that the signs of the zodiac executed on the ceilings
are never really incorporated into the temple’s textual program
unlike other more traditional native astronomical images, see
von Lieven, Der Himmel Ober Esna, 10; 148—152 and 154—158.
38 GMPT, 200f
39 P London-Leiden IV, 1—22: Griffith/Thompson, The Demotie
Magical Papyrus. See for philological commentary vol. 3/1, 39—43.
40 See for photo Hess, Gnostische Papyrus.
41 Brashear, in: ANRW 1118.5, 1995, 3402—3404. Although the
main part of the corpus is constituted by magical handbooks,
282
bly written by the same scribe at the same rime.
45 Bilin
gualism is characteristic of the whole corpus of texts
from which this ritual is taken. The collection, better
known as the “Theban Magical Library”, consists of sev
eral magical handbooks and alchemical treatises written
in Demotic, Greek and Old-Coptic.
’ These languages
4
are not reserved for a specific text each, but can appear
alongside each other in the same manuscript, ritual or
even line. Likewise, the contents of the magical hand
books are a mixture of different cultural and ethnic
strands: mainly Egyptian, Greek and Semitic. As it is
very likely that the difficult Demoric script was only
used by the native priesthood during the Roman period,
the Greek texts contained in the corpus must have been
used by these same priests.
The Demotic prescription describes in detail a ritu
al for making a god appear to ask him to send favourable
stars related to a specific question. The procedures of the
ritual are fairly simple to follow. A bench of olivewood is
covered with a linen cloth and four bricks are placed, on
top of each other, in front of the bench. A little ball of
goose fat, pounded with myrrh and qs- ‘nb stone, 42 is
burnt in a clay censer. Next, the Greek spell has to be re
cited after which the magician lies down. While he is
sleeping, the god appears wearing a linen cloth on his
back and sandals on his feet.
43 The practitioner will then
get an answer to all his questions. If the practitioner al
so puts a small wooden tablet with an astrological table
on the bricks, together with a rolled-up papyrus sheet
containing a description of a specific problem, the god
will also send favourable stars relating to the question.
P London-Leiden contains numerous rituals for div
ination using similar pharaonic ritual techniques such as
the collection also contains two alchemical texts and a literary
tale. For that reason the title is not well chosen. For the moment
I prefer the title “The Thebes Cache” with Fowden, Egyptian
Hermes, 168—176.
42 See for a discussion of this mineral: Harris, Ancient Egyptian
Minerals, 168—170.
43 This is the dress of an Egyptian priest. Merkelbach and Totti see
the text as a manual for incubation rituals that actually took
place in temples of Asclepius-Imuthes and interpret this pas
sage as an overt reference to forgery on the part of the Egyptian
priests. The magical recipes are however characterised by a ten
dency to miniaturize ritual, which means that the ingredients
and requisites are in most eases substantially smaller than those
of regular temple rituals, although they resemble them in form
and content. It is thus questionable whether this ritual really
took place in a controlled temple environment; the texts seem
to hint rather at shrines in a house or in the open. Merkel
bach/Totti, Abrasax, 77—82. See for “miniaturization of ritual”
Smith, in: Meyer/Mirecki (eds), Ancient Magic and Ritual
Power, 24ff
J. Dieleman, Claiming the Stars
the placing of bricks, the burning of offerings and incu
’ The astrological component, however, is spe
4
bation.
cific to this ritual. As astrology was never developed as a
discipline in the pharaonic period, but was only intro
duced in the Hellenistic period, this aspect calls for an
analysis of the dynamics of tradition and change. The
combination of Egyptian and Greek also begs for an ex
planation within this dichotomv It is therefore interest
ing to look more closely at the use of Greek in this ritu
al text.
The prayer stands out within the layout of the col
umn because it interrupts the neat sequence of Demot
ic lines. It opens with a standard phrase, ioüjicd
e ‘uóv, “I call upon you who to enumerate several
, tively. It seems odd that an Egyptian scribe who com
powerful epithets and names for conjuring the gods.
This is a form frequently seen in the corpus of the The-
ban Magical Library and the Greek Magical Papyri in
general. The prayer also contains a few voces magicae
and thus resembles in a number of details other invoca
tions from the Greek Magical Papyri. Although it ap
pears in a Demoric magical manuscript, the prayer does
not mention any Egyptian deities by their traditional
name. The prayer is addressed to the sun god Helios,
who is identified as BARZAN, BOUBARZAN, NARZAZOIJ
ZAN, BARZABOUZATH, asking him to send his archangel
ZEBOURTHAUNEN. It seems that no pharaonic names
and epithets can be recognised in these magical names,
unlike most other rituals and prayers which are con
tained in the Demotic Magical Papyrus of London and
Leiden.
The Egyptian part itself also shows some peculiari
ties. The Demotic prescription contains two Greek gloss
es above the line. In the first line, the Demotic word tks
“seat, throne, ship” is glossed with tpcuteov from tpc2-
mec, “table, bench”. In the sixth line the Egyptian word
sriw.t, written in hieratic script, meaning “goose”, is
glossed with XvcL[’y]plou from yv &yptoç “wild goose”.
In the Demotic Magical Papyrus it is not unusual for
Egyptian words to be glossed but such a procedure is
normally restricted to passages within prayers. Divine
names are most often glossed with Greek or Old-Coptic
letters to ensure correct pronunciation as Demotic script
44 The Egyptian term for such an oracular consultation is pls-ntr.
literally meaning “reaching the god”, and is attested from the
New Kingdom onwards. Several of the divination rituals in
P. London-Leiden are considered ph-ntr according to their title.
The same term is also used in the ritual under discussion in lines
2f.: “When you wish to make a ‘god’s arrival’ with it truthfully
without falshood”. Its title however is w’ st-ms”t t_hr ir=sp ntr
ly-m-htp, “A casting for inspection which the great god linhotep
makes”. The term s.t-mtt which only occurs in this text and
whose interpretation as “casting for inspection” is tentative,
AH 17, 2003
is conservative and does not render the vowels. Less of
ten, a specific verb is glossed to indicate which vowel is
to be pronounced. In the present case, the glosses are in
that part of the text, which is not to be pronounced, and
they are a translation, not a phonetic transcription in
Greek letters.’
5
The first thing to notice is the fact that the Greek
glosses are provided with case endings: tpct.itcev and
xnvcxiy]ptou, accusative and genitive respectively. Dc
motic has no cases but assigns functions by strict word
order. The case endings correspond with the use of the
Demotic words in the text as the grammatical function
of ties and sriw.t is direct object and possessive respec
posed a text in Demotic would take pains to insert
Greek glosses with case endings above common Egyp
tian words. Thus, it is tempting to think that it hap
pened the other way around: an Egyptian scribe used a
ritual text in Greek as “Vorlage” and preserved two orig
inal Greek words as glosses above the Demotic words to
limit the semantic field of the Demotic words. For ex
ample, ties means “seat, throne or ship” but by adding
the Greek gloss it is clear that a simple bench is meant;
sriw.tis a general word for goose, whereas xnvx[71p1ou
defines the goose more specifically as wild. Not satisfied
with his imprecise translations, he added the original
Greek words to indicate that the lexically general form
was not just the result of his translation. While adding
these Greek glosses, however, he left the original case
endings, although these no longer had any meaning.
The hypothesis that an original text in Greek was
used as a source of this ritual text is supported by the fol
lowing observation: in lines 21 and 22 the tablet for
reading the hours is called jt{vcx, a Greek word mean
ing “board or writing tablet”, but also used more specif
ically as a technical term for an astrological table.
’ In
4
this case, the word is not written as a Greek gloss, but
alphabetically using Demotic letters. The Demotic wood
determinative makes clear that a wooden tablet is meant.
The Egyptian translator probably could not find a suit
able Egyptian equivalent for this word. This should not
be surprising since pharaonic tradition did not know
shows that the author of the prescription considered the ritual to
be something different than aph-ntr. See for a discussion of ph
ntr: Ritner, Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice,
214—220; see for si-mit: GMPT, 200, fn. 59.
45 Griffith and Thompson have also drawn attention to this when
discussing whether the manuscript is a translation out of the
Greek. Griffith/Thompson, The Demotic Magical Papyrus,
1 if.
46 LSJ, 1405b; Preisigke, Wörterbuch der griechischen Papyrus
urkunden, 305f.
283
horoscopes and had therefore never developed any ap
propriate terminology on the matter.
47 The translator
solved the problem by writing idva alphabetically with
Demotic letters and by adding, in Demotic, “for reading
the hours” as an explanation of what is meant exactly.
Not just a wooden tablet, but an astrological table.
In summary, I argue that the Demotic text of the
ritual has been composed with the help of an original
text in Greek. Remnants of this Greek text are the two
glosses with case endings, the words ‘upcLitcccv and
ivcz[’y]pto, and the Greek word it{vc written in De
motic letters. The most important part of the ritual, the
invocation, whose effectiveness is entirely dependent
upon correct pronunciation, is left in Greek. A transla
tion into another language would certainly have stripped
the prayer of its ritual power. This explanation makes
the combination of Greek and Demotic functional and
reveals, at the same time, a complex textuality: the ritu
al contains too many traditional Egyptian ritual tech
niques to presume that the original text derives simply
from a Greek cultural background. In fact, it is very like
ly that the Greek text was composed by an Egyptian
priest.
Although it is a not an uncommon philological
practice to concentrate on a lost original textual source
instead of the extant text itself, it is more interesting to
focus on the consequences for the textual dynamics of
the extant text. The Demotic Magical Papyrus is an
elaborate manuscript with 99 instructions dealing with
rituals for divination, binding spells and curing ven
omous stings, all written in Demotic.
48 Most of these
texts reflect Egyptian mythology and cosmology in mat
ters of theme, magical procedure and logic.
4 Although
the Demotic magical texts are more aggressive and less
apotropaic in nature than pharaonic magical texts, they
47 In Classical Egyptian two terms for a writing tablet are attested:
‘wry is a golden or silver leaf, attested in the New Kingdom (Wb
I, 173, 11); ‘n is a wooden or metal tablet, attested from the
Middle Kingdom onwards (Wb I, 187, 13f.). These words are
no longer used in Demotic or Coptic. The Demotic-Greek us
traca from Medinet Madi take similarly recourse to the tran
scribed Greek term (0. Narmuti 56/4; 60/2; 82/4; 85/1; 90/4).
In all instances but 82/4 reference is made to an ordinary wood
en writing tablet. The form of 82/4 is provided with a star-de
terminative to indicate that an astrological table is meant. The
word could also be used in Demotic to refer to a (metal) dish
like Coptic 1NX (B) rnuetE (F) riiuas (S): iern, Coptic
Etymological Dictionary, 25 and Vycichl, Dictionnaire étymo
logique, 30. Two Demotic attestations in documentary texts can
be found in Clarysse, in: Vleeming (ed.), Demotic Lexicogra
phy, 27: O.dem. Leiden 336 1. 11 has (t”)pyng?.t and O.dem.
BM 30258 1. 2 pyng[’.tJ. Note that the first is feminine unlike
it{vtsE and pyn ‘ks in P. London-Leiden that are both masculine.
The second clearly means “(wooden) dish” since it figures in a
list of house utensils.
284
clearly do form part of the same tradition.
° The present
5
ritual is therefore an anomaly within the manuscript: it
is a ritual for a horoscope, it does not refer to pharaonic
mythology and cosmology and it contains a Greek prayer
as well as Greek glosses.
For this reason it is important to note that the De
motic title ascribes the ritual to “the great god Imhotep”.
Imhotep is a historic figure who, according to Egyptian
tradition, served as vizier to pharaoh Zoser of the third
dynasty and who built this pharaoh’s step pyramid: an
unlikely candidate for a composer of a Greek hymn. ’
5
This is a clear instance of pseudepigraphy, just like
Nechepso and Petosiris. In the Late Period, Imhotep was
eventually deified because of his apparent wisdom and
became particularly popular as a god of medecine, to be
identified by the Greeks with the Greek god Asklepius.
52
By ascribing the ritual to Imhotep it is consciously in
scribed into an Egyptian tradition. This reveals a rather
complex movement of cultural transpositions. Although
some elements point to a former text in Greek, and
while the astrological element has to be a Hellenistic in
fluence, the basic structure of the divinatory ritual is
pharaonic in nature.
This discursive journey along a wide range of Egyptian
texts was prompted by a moment of confusion caused
by the occurrence of two Greek words in an otherwise
Egyptian text, the ostracon from Narmuthis. The occur
rence of the Greek words is surprising because they are
not transcribed into Demotic characters but left in Greek
script, thus displaying overtly a tension not only be
tween scripts and reading direction but also, on a deep
er level, between two ways of perceiving the workings of
nature. The latter observation establishes itself only when
one realizes that astrology is foreign to traditional phar
48 In two other recipes a short Greek incantation is inserted in the
manuscript: P. London-Leiden X’vc 25—28 and XXIII, 9—20. To
gether with the prayer under study they were collected by Prei
sendanz out of context as PGM XIV 1—26: PGM, 131—133.
49 Not without reason the corpus of Demotic magical texts is often
treated as not forming part of native magical tradition, see
Borghouts, in: Textes et Langages de l’Egypte Pharaonique, vol.
3/3, 16f.
50 Ritner, Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice; Ritoer,
in: ANRW 1118.5, 1995.
51 See for a relevant discussion of all sources pertaining to Im
hotep: Wildung, Imhotep und Amenhotep.
52 There was however a difference between the two. For example,
in PGM VII, 628—642 “Asclepius [worshipped] in Memphis” is
addressed as “MEN0PHRI (he from Memphis)” and the ma
gician asks for “the true Asclepius, not some deceitful daimon
instead of the god” (my italics). Moreover, Asclepius is con
nected with the Pole Star in the ritual. The Egyptian Asclepius,
Imhorep, is clearly meant. See also von Lieven, AoF 26, 1999,
105.
J. Dieleman, Claiming the Stars
aonic ideas about the stars. It is only from the Late Peri
od onwards that judicial astrology becomes established
among the native priesthood, while horoscopes are un
known even before the Roman period. It is thus under
standable to find in Egyptian texts a foreign technical
idiom that articulates ideas and procedures that had
been developed earlier outside Egypt. The Egyptian lan
guage was simply in need of these technical terms since
it had never developed any appropriate terminology to
express astrological concepts. The Narmuthis ostracon
shows that foreign terms could be incorporated while re
taining their foreign outward appearance, whereas the
scribe of the magical spell decided to translate, tran
scribe and describe the foreign terms. Foreignness how
ever is not an element of the discourse on Egyptian as
trology. On the contrary, the Egyptian priesthood is
portrayed as the inventor and expert on the subject in
Greco-Roman scientific and literary sources. The lack of
references to foreign influences in Harkhebi’s biography
and his dual role as traditional snake charmer and close
observer of the stars shows that the new discipline was
readily incorporated by the native priesthood as a dis
tinct branch of learning. The magical spell makes a sim
ilar “incorporating move” by ascribing the ritual to Im
hotep, the Egyptian god of medicine and science in
The Biography of Harkheby
Hereditary prince, count and sole companion;
54
Open of heart towards the sacred writings,
‘Who observes everything observable in heaven
and on earth;
Clear-eyed in observing the stars, among which
there is no erring,
‘Who announces rising and setting at their times,
together with the gods who foretell the fu
55
ture,
He purified himself for them in their days in
which Akh (decan) rose heliacally beside
Benu (Venus)
And he satisfied the land with his utterances;
He who observes the culmination of every star
in the sky,
Who knows the heliacal risings of every [star
(?)1 in a good year;
AH 17, 2003
general from the Late Period onwards. The fact that this
same elaborate handbook contains several rituals for
curing venomous animal bites, besides the ritual for
casting a horoscope, again makes clear that the fields of
medicine, magic and astrology were intimately linked,
falling within the competence of the Egyptian priest
hood. The apprentice priests in the temple of Renenutet
were thus getting acquainted with a, by that time well
established, discourse on their profession that accredited
the Egyptian priesthood with the notion of wisdom and
access to the divine and, consequently, with authority
on the art of astrology. This discourse, which partly de
veloped out of a Hellenistic representation, had thus ac
quired constitutive effect within the Egyptian priest
hood, a priesthood which contributed consciously and
eagerly to develop and propagate that representation,
presumably not least for financial gain. So, what did
they think they were doing? They thought they could
claim the stars on earth. And they sure thought they
were good at it.
53 PDM XIV, 554—562; 563—574; 585—593; 594—620.
He who foretells the heliacal rising of Sothis at
the beginning of the year,
He observes her (Sothis) on the day of her first
festival,
Knowledgeable in her course at the times of
designating therein,
Knowing everything she does, all she has fore
told is in his charge;
He who knows the northing and southing of
the sun disk,
56 and appointing for
Announcing all its omina
them a mqment,
54 The metrical analysis is based on the work of GOnther Burkard.
See for an overview with relevant literature: Burkard, in: Lo
prieno (ed), Ancient Egyptian Literature,
55 These are the planets. It is a common Egyptian practice to con
sider the planets as gods.
56 See for bi.w meaning “celestial omen”: Graefe, Untersuchun
gen zur Wortfamilie bit, 221 who refers to the Gebel Barkel
Stele of Thutmosis III, UrIc. IV, 1238,5ff.
285
 He declares when they have occured, coming at
their times;
He who divides the hours into two periods (day
and night) without a mistake in the night,
[...] concerning everything that is brought on
the first day of every month.
Knowledgeable in everything which is seen in
the sky, for which he has waited,
Skilled with respect to their conjunction and
regular movement (?),
He who does not disclose (anything) at all con
cerning his report after judgement,
Whose mouth is closed concerning all he has
seen;
He who does not give a bow because of that
(?),
Who opens his speech (only) to the lord of the
two lands;
He who appeases the children that belong to
(the goddess) Serket,
Who knows the holes of snakes in their places;
He who tears out their snakes,
Sealing the mouth of those that are in them
(holes);
Their snakes [...]
Who purifies his impurity;
59
PDM XIV 93—114
(PGMXIVa 1—11)
A casting for inspection which the great god Imhotep
makes: Its preparation: You bring a stool of olive wood
having four legs upon which no man on earth has ever
sat, and you put it near you, it being clean. When you
wish to make a “god’s arrival” with it truthfully and
without falsehood, here is its manner. You should put
the stool in a clean niche in the midst of the place, it be
ing near your head; you should cover it with a cloth
from its top to its bottom; you should put four bricks
under the table before it, one above another, there being
a censer of clay before it [sc. the table], you should put
charcoal of olive wood on it; you should add wild goose
fat pounded with myrrh and qs- ‘nb stone; you should
make them into balls; you should put one on the bra
zier; you should leave the remainder near you; you
286
Look, he travels
° (and’) his road is safe,
6
Leader of those who are in ? of [...]
while they rejoice because of his spells;
One who does what his god wishes,
The brp-Srq.t Harkheby,
’ son of the blessed
6
one byWadjet
62 [misstress of Buto. ..j
57 Daressy’s hieroglyphic transcription reads srn or s’gs with ques
tion mark, Daressy, in: ASAE 16, 1916, 2. Neugebauer and
Parker propose to emend to gsgs “ordering” (Wb V, 207), de
Meulenaere reads ‘srn < ‘hrn “to extinguish” (Wb I, 224), Neu
gebauer/Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts III 3, 215. Both
suggestions are not compatible with the determinative of man
with hand on mouth and remain therefore doubtful.
58 The meaning of trn rdi.t ks hr=s eludes me. von Kaenel, Les
prêtres-ouab de Sekhmet, 202 translates “on ne peut lui faire op
position lorsqu’il commence un discours” refering to ks<rn>
(Why, 141).
59 See for trwas “impurity” Wb V, 317, 10.
60 SeeWb I, 120, 10.
61 Harkheby, Hr-Hby, derives from a longer form [jr-rn- b-bi.
meaning “Horus in Chemnis” which is attested from the New
Kingdom until the Roman Period, see: Ranke, Personennamen,
vol. 1, 247,15. Chemnis, an island in a lake in the vicinity of the
temple of Buto, was believed to be the place where Isis had giv
en birth to her son Horus hidden by the marshes from the angry
Seth.
62 Wadjet has always been the traditional goddess of Buto during
pharaonic history. Buto is called in Egyptian Pr-Wd.t, “The
house ofWadjet”.
should recite this spell in Greek to it (formula); you
should lie down without speaking to anyone on earth;
and you should go to sleep. You see the god, he being in
the likeness of a priest wearing clothes of byssus on his
back and wearing sandals on his feet.
“I call upon you [sing.] who are seated in im
penetrable darkness and are in the midst of the
great gods, you who set; take with you the solar
rays, and send up the light-bringing goddess
NEBOUTOSOUALETH; [you are the] great
god, BARZAN, BOUBARZAN, NARZAZOU
ZAN, BARZABOUZATH, sun, Send up to me
this night your archangel, ZEBOURTHAU
NEN. Respond with truth, truly, not falsely,
unambiguously concerning such-and-such a mat
ter, because I conjure you by him who is seated
in the fiery cloak on the serpentine head of the
Agathos Daimon, the almighty; four-faced, high
est daimon, dark and conjuring, PHOX. Do
J. Dieleman, Claiming the Stars
 not ignore me, but send up quickly tonight [in
accordance with thel command of the god”
He speaks with you truthfully with his mouth opposite
your mouth concerning anything which you wish. When
he has finished, he will go away again. You place a tablet
for reading the hours upon the bricks, and you place the
stars upon it, and you write your business on a new roll
of papyrus, and you place it on the tablet. It sends your
stars to you whether they are favorable for your business.
Tr. Janet H. Johnson and W. C. Grece in: GMPT, 200f.

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AH 17, 2003 287

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 Erratum
was printed
Due to a communication failure an old version of the translation of Harkhebi’s biographical account
in the Basel Egyptology Prize 1 Volume, pp. 285-86. The correct translation is what follows.

Biographical Account of Harkhebi, astronomer and snake charmer

Hereditary prince, count and sole companion;

t

Open of heart toward the sacred writings,

Who observes everything observable in heaven and on earth;

Clear-eyed in observing the stars, among which there is no erring,

Who announces rising and setting at their times, together with the gods who foretell the
,
2
future
He purified himself for them in their days in which Akh (decan) rose heliacally beside
Benu (Venus),
So that he satisfied the land with his utterances;

He who observes the culmination of every star in the sky,

Who knows the heliacal risings of [...] ... all their manifestations in a whole year;

He who foretells the heliacal rising of Sothis at the first day of the year,
So that he observes her (Sothis) on the day of her first festival,
Having calculated her course according to the periods to which she is appointed,
Observing everything she does daily, so that all she has foretold is in his charge;

He who knows the northing and southing of the sun disk,

3 and appointing for them (their) moment of occurrence,
Announcing all its omina
So that he declares when they have occurred, having come at their moment;

He who divides the hours into two periods (day and night) without a mistake in the night

The metrical analysis, which is merely presented as a suggestion, is based on Gunther Burkard,
“Metrilc, Prosodie und formaler Aufbau agyptischer literarischer Texte”, in: Antonio Loprieno
(ed.), Ancient Egyptian Literature. History and Forms (Leiden, New York, Cologne: Brill, 1996)
447-63.
2
These are the planets. It is a common Egyptian practice to consider the planets as gods.
 • ..[.. .1 concerning everything that is brought on the first day of every month;
Knowledgeable in everything that is seen in the sky, because he has waited for it,
Skilled with respect to their conjunction and their phases
,
4

He who does not disclose (anything) at all concerning his report after judgment,
Whose mouth is closed concerning all he has seen;
He who does not give a bow because of that (?),
Who opens his speech (only) to the lord of the two lands;

He who appeases the children that belong to (the goddess) Serqet,

Who knows the holes of retreat of snakes in which they shoot (like stars)
;
6

He who seals the mouth of those that are in them (holes),

Who binds their poison in (human) bodies;

He who protects the royal house having purified it from its impurity,
Who guards its navigations and protects its road;

Leader of those who are in [service?] for a mission .?. protecting the house,
Who speaks of fortunate omens so that they rejoice in his utterances;

One who does what his god wishes,

The Kherep-Serqet Harkheby
7 8 the excellent one,
, son of the blessed one by Wadjet
That favor may happen because of her.

See for bii. w meaning ‘celestial omen’ Erhard Graefe, Untersuchungen zur Wortfamiie biA
(Cologne 1971) 221 who refers to the Gebel Barkel Stele of Thutmosis III, Urk. IV, 1238,5 ff.
“Daressy’s hieroglyphic transcription reads m or gs with question mark: Daressy, “La Statue d’un
Astronome,” 2. Neugebauer and Parker propose to emend to gsgs ‘ordering’ (WB V, 207), while de
Meulenaere reads rfm <rhm ‘to extinguish’ (WB I, 224): Neugebauer and Parker, Egyptian
Astronomical Texts III, 215. See for the translation “(moon) phases” Derchain, “Harkhébis, le
Psylle-Astrologue,” 79. The determinative of man with hand on mouth remains nonetheless
incompatible with these suggestions.
The meaning of tm rdj.j ks hrs eludes me.
6
In translating sfd with “shoot (like a star)” I follow Derchain, “Harkhébis, le Psylle-Astrologue,”
81, note 24: the fugitive movements of snakes are compared with shooting stars.
Harkheby, Hr-Hby, derives from a longer form Hr-rn-?h-bi. t meaning ‘Horus in Chemnis’ which is
attested from the New Kingdom until the Roman Period; cf. Ranke, Die agyptischen Personezmamen
I, 247, 15. Chemnis, an island in a lake in the vicinity of the temple of Buto, was believed to be the
place where Isis had given birth to her son Horns hidden by the marshes from the angry Seth.
Wadjet has always been the traditional goddess of Buto during pharaonic history. Buto, the place
where the statue was found, is called in Egyptian Pr-W;d.t,’The house of Wadjet’.