Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?

The aim of this paper is to find out possible roots of the legend about a prophecy made by a talking lamb in the Egyptian historical tradition. The stories told by Manetho, Chaeremon, and Lysimachus about predictions given to one of the Egyptian kings of the past (that became a source of ancient nar...

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Main Author: K.V. Kuzmin
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Kazan Federal University 2016-12-01
Series:Ученые записки Казанского университета: Серия Гуманитарные науки
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Online Access:https://kpfu.ru/portal/docs/F151779501/158_6_gum_1.pdf
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author K.V. Kuzmin
author_facet K.V. Kuzmin
author_sort K.V. Kuzmin
collection DOAJ
description The aim of this paper is to find out possible roots of the legend about a prophecy made by a talking lamb in the Egyptian historical tradition. The stories told by Manetho, Chaeremon, and Lysimachus about predictions given to one of the Egyptian kings of the past (that became a source of ancient narratives on the Exodus) have been analyzed. It can be said with a high degree of probability that Amenhotep, a son of Hapu, played the original role of a prophet in this tradition. He was often named by his title Hry-tp. Chaeremon calls him Phritobautes, a clear misinterpretation of the title mentioned. This title had some variations in the demotic language, including such forms as Hr-ib (tp) and Hry-tb. Thus, it was phonetically similar to the word that was a possible source of the demotic word “lamb” (Hyb): the unattested form of Hry-Aba or Hry-Dba, the latter one was used during the Old Kingdom period and could have migrated back to the colloquial language during the rule of the XXVI dynasty when the archaism was spreading. Furthermore, a strange promise to become an uraeus (the king’s serpent) made by the Lamb in “The Oracle of the Lamb” should be mentioned. Considering that uraeus was sometimes called Hry.(t)-tp, it has been suggested that that there’s a trace of the tradition of Amenhotep, a son of Hapu, in this passage. The provided arguments have proved indirectly that the Lamb’s tradition dates back to the epoch of the XXVI dynasty, which was previously substantiated by the recent research.
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series Ученые записки Казанского университета: Серия Гуманитарные науки
spelling doaj-art-c82942c08d8e4e2c912bbbdb84af347c2025-01-02T18:42:03ZengKazan Federal UniversityУченые записки Казанского университета: Серия Гуманитарные науки2541-77382500-21712016-12-01158614311439Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?K.V. Kuzmin0Moscow State University, Moscow, 119991 RussiaThe aim of this paper is to find out possible roots of the legend about a prophecy made by a talking lamb in the Egyptian historical tradition. The stories told by Manetho, Chaeremon, and Lysimachus about predictions given to one of the Egyptian kings of the past (that became a source of ancient narratives on the Exodus) have been analyzed. It can be said with a high degree of probability that Amenhotep, a son of Hapu, played the original role of a prophet in this tradition. He was often named by his title Hry-tp. Chaeremon calls him Phritobautes, a clear misinterpretation of the title mentioned. This title had some variations in the demotic language, including such forms as Hr-ib (tp) and Hry-tb. Thus, it was phonetically similar to the word that was a possible source of the demotic word “lamb” (Hyb): the unattested form of Hry-Aba or Hry-Dba, the latter one was used during the Old Kingdom period and could have migrated back to the colloquial language during the rule of the XXVI dynasty when the archaism was spreading. Furthermore, a strange promise to become an uraeus (the king’s serpent) made by the Lamb in “The Oracle of the Lamb” should be mentioned. Considering that uraeus was sometimes called Hry.(t)-tp, it has been suggested that that there’s a trace of the tradition of Amenhotep, a son of Hapu, in this passage. The provided arguments have proved indirectly that the Lamb’s tradition dates back to the epoch of the XXVI dynasty, which was previously substantiated by the recent research.https://kpfu.ru/portal/docs/F151779501/158_6_gum_1.pdfthe oracle of the lambmanethoancient narratives on exodushry-tpamenhotepson of hapuhybhry-dbauraeusarchaism (xxvi dynasty)demotic language
spellingShingle K.V. Kuzmin
Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?
Ученые записки Казанского университета: Серия Гуманитарные науки
the oracle of the lamb
manetho
ancient narratives on exodus
hry-tp
amenhotep
son of hapu
hyb
hry-dba
uraeus
archaism (xxvi dynasty)
demotic language
title Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?
title_full Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?
title_fullStr Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?
title_full_unstemmed Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?
title_short Talking Lamb or Deified Sage?
title_sort talking lamb or deified sage
topic the oracle of the lamb
manetho
ancient narratives on exodus
hry-tp
amenhotep
son of hapu
hyb
hry-dba
uraeus
archaism (xxvi dynasty)
demotic language
url https://kpfu.ru/portal/docs/F151779501/158_6_gum_1.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT kvkuzmin talkinglambordeifiedsage