Ancient egyptian legends E-Book

Margaret Alice Murray

• Herausgeber: Edizioni Aurora Boreale
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Ancient Egiptian Legends is not a simple essay on the Egyptian mythology and religion, or on the mysteries and the secrets of a great ancient civilization, like many today can be found in bookstores. It's a real journey of initiation, supported by historical rigor and competence of its author, a historian and archaeologist who devoted all her life in search of the most authentic roots of human civilization on Earth and to the discovery of the most genuine Western Tradition and spirituality.
Margaret Alice Murray was a famous and unforgotten Anglo-Indian egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist. The first woman to be appointed as a lecturer in Archaeology in the United Kingdom, she worked at University College London (UCL) from 1898 to 1935, served as President of the Folklore Society from 1953 to 1955, and published widely over the course of her extraordinary career.
Murray's work in Egyptology and Archaeology was widely acclaimed and earned her the moniker of “The Grand Old Woman of Egyptology”, although after her death many of her contributions to the field were overshadowed by those of Petrie.

Leseprobe

Τεληστήριον

MARGARET ALICE MURRAY

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LEGENDS

Edizioni Aurora Boreale

Title: Ancient Egyptian legends

Author: Margaret Alice Murray

Series: Telestèrion

With introduction of Nicola Bizzi

Editing and illustrations by Nicola Bizzi

ISBN for e-book version: 978-88-98635-44-3

Edizioni Aurora Boreale

© 2018 Edizioni Aurora Boreale

Via del Fiordaliso 14 - 59100 Prato - Italia

[email protected]

To my students, past and present,

I dedicate this book.

Margaret Alice Murray

INTRODUCTION OF THE PUBLISHER

I’m very proud to introduce to the readers of Telestèrion, an Aurora Boreale’s publishing series dedicated to exoteric and initiatic studies, one of the most important and amazing essays of Margaret Alice Murray, Ancient Egiptian Legends.

This book was published for first time in London in January 1913 by John Murray, Albemarle Street W., in the series Wisdom of the Est, andsuccessfully reprinted in March 1920.

Ancient Egiptian Legends is not a simple essay on the Egyptian mythology and religion, or on the mysteries and the secrets of a great ancient civilization, like many today can be found in bookstores. It’s a real journey of initiation, supported by historical rigor and competence of its author, a historian and archaeologist who devoted all her life in search of the most authentic roots of human civilization on Earth and to the discovery of the most genuine Western Tradition and spirituality.

Margaret Alice Murray was a famous and unforgotten Anglo-Indian egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist. The first woman to be appointed as a lecturer in Archaeology in the United Kingdom, she worked at University College London (UCL) from 1898 to 1935, served as President of the Folklore Society from 1953 to 1955, and published widely over the course of her extraordinary career.

Born to a wealthy middle-class English family in Calcutta, British India, on July 13 1863, Murray divided her youth between India, Britain, and Germany, training as both a nurse and a social worker. Moving to London, in 1894 she began studying Egyptology at UCL, developing a friendship with department head Flinders Petrie, who encouraged her early academic publications and appointed her Junior Professor in 1898. In 1902–03 she took part in Petrie’s excavations at Abydos, Egypt, there discovering the Osireion temple and the following season investigated the Saqqara cemetery, both of which established her reputation in Egyptology. Supplementing her UCL wage by giving public classes and lectures at the British Museum and Manchester Museum, it was at the latter in 1908 that she led the unwrapping of Khnum-nakht, one of the mummies recovered from the Tomb of the Two Brothers – the first time that a woman had publicly unwrapped a mummy. Recognising that British Egyptomania reflected the existence of a widespread public interest in Ancient Egypt, Murray wrote several books on Egyptology targeted at a general audience.

Murray also became closely involved in the first-wave feminist movement, joining the Women’s Social and Political Union and devoting much time to improving women’s status at UCL.

Unable to return to Egypt due to the First World War, she focused her research on the witch-cult hypothesis, the theory that the witch trials of Early Modern Christendom were an attempt to extinguish a surviving pre-Christian, pagan religion devoted to a Horned God. Although later academically discredited, the theory gained widespread attention and proved a significant influence on the emerging new religious movement of Wicca.

From 1921 to 1931 Murray undertook excavations of prehistoric sites on Malta and Menorca and developed her interest in folkloristics. Awarded an honorary doctorate in 1927, she was appointed assistant professor in 1928 and retired from UCL in 1935. That year she visited Palestine to aid Petrie’s excavation of Tall al-Ajjul and in 1937 she led a small excavation at Petra in Jordan. Taking on the presidency of the Folklore Society in later life, she lectured at such institutions as the University of Cambridge and City Literary Institute, and continued to publish in an independent capacity until her death.

In May 1957, Murray had championed the archaeologist Thomas Charles Lethbridge’s controversial claims that he had discovered three pre-Christian chalk hill figures on Wandlebury Hill in the Gog Magog Hills, Cambridgeshire. Privately she expressed concern about the reality of the figures. Lethbridge subsequently authored a book championing her witch-cult theory in which he sought the cult’s origins in pre-Christian culture.

In 1960, she donated her collection of papers – including correspondences with a wide range of individuals across the country – to the Folklore Society Archive, where it is now known as “the Murray Collection”.

On researching the history of UCL’s Egyptology department, the historian Rosalind M. Janssen stated that Murray was «remembered with gratitude and immense affection by all her former students. A wise and witty teacher, two generations of Egyptologists have forever been in her debt». Alongside teaching them, Murray was known to socialise with her UCL students outside of class hours.

Jacqueline Simpson noted that the publication of the Murray thesis in the Encyclopædia Britannica made it accessible to «journalists, film-makers popular novelists and thriller writers», who adopted it ”enthusiastically”. Surely it influenced the work of Aldous Huxley and Robert Graves, and it was also an influence on the American horror author Howard Phillips Lovecraft, who cited the Murray’s essay The Witch-Cult in Western Europe in his writings about the fictional cult of Cthulhu.

The author Sylvia Townsend Warner cited Murray’s work on the witch-cult as an influence on her 1926 novel Lolly Willowes, and sent a copy of her book to Murray in appreciation, with the two meeting for lunch shortly after. There was nevertheless some difference in their depictions of the witch-cult; whereas Murray had depicted an organised pre-Christian cult, Warner depicted a vague family tra-dition that was explicitly Satanic. In 1927, Warner lectured on the subject of witchcraft, exhibiting a strong influence from Murray’s work. Analysing the relationship between Murray and Warner, the English literature scholar Mimi Winick characterised both as be-ing «engaged in imagining new possibilities for women in modernity».

The archaeologist Ralph Merrifield, who knew Murray through the Folklore Society, described her as a «diminutive and kindly scholar, who radiated intelligence and strength of character into extreme old age». The historian Hilda Roderick Ellis Davidson, who also knew Murray through the Society, noted that at their meetings «she would sit near the front, a bent and seemingly guileless old lady dozing peacefully, and then in the middle of a discussion would suddenly intervene with a relevant and penetrating comment which showed that she had missed not one word of the argument». Davidson also described her as being «not at all assertive ... [she] never thrust her ideas on anyone. She behaved in fact rather like someone who was a fully convinced member of some unusual religious sect, or perhaps, of the Freemasons, but never on any account got into arguments about it in public».

The later folklorist Juliette Wood noted that many members of the Folklore Society «remember her fondly», adding that Murray had been «especially keen to encourage younger researchers, even those who disagreed with her ideas».

One of Murray’s friends in the Folklore Society, the anthropologist in the field of comparative religion Edwin Oliver James, described her as a «mine of information and a perpetual inspiration ever ready to impart her vast and varied stores of specialised knowledge without reserve, or, be it said, much if any regard for the generally accepted opinions and conclusions of the experts!». And the archaeologist Glyn Daniel observed that Murray remained mentally alert into her old age, commenting that «her vigour and forthrightness and ruthless energy never deserted her».

Murray never married, instead devoting her life to her work, and for this reason, Ronald Hutton drew comparisons between her and two other prominent female British scholars of the period, Jane Harrison and Jessie Weston. Murray’s biographer Kathleen L. Sheppard stated that she was deeply committed to public outreach, particularly when it came to Egyptology, and that as such she «wanted to change the means by which the public obtained knowledge about Egypt’s history: she wished to throw open the doors to the scientific laboratory and invite the public in».

She considered travel to be one of her favourite activities, although due to restraints on her time and finances she was unable to do this regularly; her salary remained small and the revenue from her books was meagre.

Murray’s work in Egyptology and Archaeology was widely acclaimed and earned her the moniker of “The Grand Old Woman of Egyptology”, although after her death many of her contributions to the field were overshadowed by those of Petrie.

To mark her hundredth birthday, on 13 July 1963 a group of friends, former students, and doctors gathered for a party at nearby Ayot St. Lawrence. Two days later, her doctor drove her to UCL for a second birthday party, again attended by many of her friends, colleagues, and former students; it was the last time that she visited the university. She died in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, on 13 November 13 1963.

Margharet Alice Murrey, in her extraordinary and long life, wrote many interesting essays. In particular, I would like to remember the fundamental Guide to the Collection of Egyptian Antiquities (Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh 1903), The Osireion at Abydos (Egyptian Research Account, London 1904), the Elementary Egyptian Grammar (University College Press, London 1905), the Index of Names and Titles of the Old Kingdom (British School of Archaeology in Egypt, London 1908), The Witch-Cult in Western Europe: A Study in Anthropology (Oxford University Press, Oxford 1921), The God of the Witches (Faber & Faber, London 1931), Egyp-tian Temples (Sampson Low, Marston & Co., London 1931),Maltese Folk-Tales (Empire Press, La Valletta 1932), Petra, the Rock City of Edom (Blackie & Son, London 1939), Ancient Egyptian Religious Poetry (John Murray, London 1949), The Divine King of England: A Study in Anthropology (Faber & Faber, London 1954) and The Genesis of Religion (Kegan Paul, London 1963).

Nicola Bizzi

Florence, September 16 2018.

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LEGENDS

Statues of Ramses II in Abu Simbel’s Great Temple

PREFACE

In this book I have retold the legends of the Gods of ancient Egypt, legends, which were current in the «morning of the world,» preserved to the present day engraved on stone and written on papyri. I have told them in my own way, adhering strictly to the story, but arranging the words and phrases according to the English method; retaining, however, as far as possible the expressions and metaphors of the Egyptian. In some cases I have inserted whole sentences in order to make the sense clear; these are in places where the story divides naturally into several parts, as in «The Battles of Horus,» and «The Regions of Night and Thick Darkness»; where each incident, so like the one preceding and the one following, is kept distinct in the mind of the reader by this means. This repetition is quite in accordance with the style of Egyptian literature.

The book is intended entirely for the general public, who are increasingly interested in the religion and civilisation of ancient Egypt, but whose only means of obtaining knowledge of that country is apparently through magazine stories in which a mummy is the principal character. It may be worth noting that in these legends of ancient Egypt mummies are not mentioned, except in the Duat, the home of the dead, where one naturally expects to find them.

Though the book is intended for the unscientific reader, I have made some provision for the more serious student, in the Notes at the end. In these I have given the origin of the legend, the book or books in which that original is published, and the book where the translation into a modern language by one of the great scholars of the day can be found. Other translations there are in plenty, which can be seen in specialist libraries; many of these, however, are of use only to a student of Egyptian literature and language.

I have arranged the sequence of the stories according to my own ideas: first, the legends of various, one might almost say miscellaneous, Gods; then the legends of Osiris and the Deities connected with him; lastly, the legends of Ra. At the very end are Notes on the legends, and a short index of all the Gods mentioned.

Margaret Alice Murray

November ١٩١٢

I

THE PRINCESS AND THE DEMON

It was in the reign of King Rameses, son of the Sun, beloved of Amon, King of the Gods. A mighty warrior was Rameses; in the day of battle like to Mentu, God of war; very valorous was he, like the son of the Sky-Goddess.

Now his Majesty was in Naharaina, where the great river Euphrates rolls down to the sea. And he received the tribute of the Vassal-Princes, for he was the conqueror of the nine Archer-tribes, and none could stand before his face when he came forth equipped with all his weapons of war. The Princes prostrated themselves before him, bowing their foreheads to the ground, breathing the earth which his feet had trodden. Great and splendid was their tribute: gold, and precious stones of all colours, blue lapis lazuli and the green turquoise sacred to Hathor, Goddess of love and joy. And slaves came bearing on their backs sweet-scented woods, perfumed and aromatic, like the trees in the land of the Gods.

The Prince of Bekhten came also, and with him his eldest daughter; and he placed her in front of the slaves, for she was the choicest part of his tribute. Very beautiful was she, fair in her limbs, tall and slender as a palm-tree, and the heart of the King turned to her with delight, and he loved her more than anything on earth. He made her the Great Royal Wife, and he gave her a name by which she should be known in the land of Egypt; Neferu-Ra, “Beauty of Ra”, was she called, for her beauty was like the shining of the Sun. And the name was written in the royal oval, as is the custom of the Kings of Egypt and their Queens.

Then King Rameses returned to Egypt, and with him went the Great Royal Wife, Queen Neferu-Ra. And when they came to the Black Land, the land of Egypt, she performed all the ceremonies of a Queen in the temples of Egypt.

Now it happened that King Rameses was in Thebes the Mighty on the twenty-second of the month Payni. And he went into the temple of Amon, for this was the day of the beautiful festival of the God, when the boats go up and down upon the water with torches and lights, and the Sacred Barque, adorned with gold and painted with glorious colours, is borne aloft, that men may see the figure of Amon-Ra himself within. And Queen Neferu-Ra was with his Majesty, for the Great Royal Wife in Egypt has ever been the worshipper of Amon-Ra, King of the Gods.

There came into the temple courtiers of the King to announce the arrival of a messenger from the Prince of Bekhten. Loaded was he with gifts for Neferu-Ra, Queen of Egypt, daughter of the Prince of Bekhten, and he carried also a message to the King. When he entered the royal presence, he bowed to the earth saying: «Glory to thee, O Sun of the nine Archer-tribes! May we live before thee!».

Then he bowed to the earth again and spoke the message that he had brought from the Prince of Bekhten to Rameses, King of Egypt: «I come to thee, O living King, my Lord, on account of Bent-reshy, the little sister of the Great Royal Wife, Neferu-Ra; for there is a malady in all her limbs. Send therefore a learned man that he may see and heal her».