Potiphar's wife

Potiphar, Potifer, Petepre (פּוֹטִיפַר / פּוֹטִיפָר, from Egypt p-di-pr - “belonging to Ra (the sun)”) - her husband, a resident of Heliopolis (Iliopol, Heb. Name - He), courtier of the pharaoh , head of the royal bodyguards ( according to the Midrash - executioners ^[4] ), to whom the Ishmaelites sold Joseph when he was brought to Egypt. Potiphar placed Joseph at the head of his household. The prototype of this character could be Ptahwer - an officer at the court of the pharaoh Amenemkhet III (c. 1842-1797 BC).

Later, after Joseph’s career at the court of the pharaoh soared up, the ruler gave him Asenef - “daughter of Potiphera, priest of Iliopolsky” as his wife ( Gen. 41:45 ). This Potiphar may be the namesake of the first owner of Joseph; Jewish commentators argued whether both of these Potiphars are one character ^[5] .

Bible

• (Gen. 39: 1): Joseph was taken to Egypt, and bought from the hands of the Ishmaelites who brought him there, the Egyptian Potiphar, the courtier of the pharaohs, the head of the bodyguards.
• (39: 4): And Joseph gained favor in his eyes, and served him. And he set it over his house, and all that he had, he put it in his hands.

Jewish legends

According to one Jewish legend ^{[ specify ]} , Potiphar was not the first owner of Joseph in Egypt: at first he was bought by a merchant from Memphis , who, thanks to his luck, got rich terribly in three months.

Midrash “Noach” ^[4] says that when Potiphar saw the young man in the slave market, he suspected that they had abducted him: “This is a very strange slave. I saw white people selling black slaves, but I didn’t have to see black people selling a white man. “Can you guarantee that no one will come and demand him back?” He was presented with a deed of sale with the signatures of Joseph's brothers, and only then did he calm down. He made it his housekeeper when he noticed that everything was arguing in Joseph’s hands, and in general miracles were happening - for example, the wine in the bowl in Joseph’s hands changes depending on the owner’s wishes. Potiphar considered Joseph a wizard, since he was whispering something. Joseph said that he does not conjure, but prays to God. Further, the Midrash says that Zuleha, having laid her eyes on Joseph, turned to astrologers, and they stunned her with the news that she and Joseph would have common descendants.

Another legend ^{[ specify ]} even more detailed: Joseph was not sold by the Ishmaelites, but by seven merchants from Medina , who took him out of the well and resold the Ishmaelites. The Ishmaelites treated him very badly on the way to Egypt, and Joseph kept crying and complaining about fate. Potiphar, according to legend, bought Joseph for 400 silver talents , because he wanted to make him his concubine - for which he was punished by the archangel Gabriel , making him a eunuch . And only after this episode in the legend does Potiphar's wife appear, who is already called Zuleika. Joseph is subjected to ten temptations from her:

1. Zuleika threatens him with death
2. Zuleika orders to whip him
3. Zuleika promises Joseph the position of Potiphar if he fulfills her wishes. At the same time, she praises her husband the chastity of Joseph, as she wants to avert suspicions from him, and assures Joseph that Potiphar does not believe the rumors about their intimate relationship.
4. Zuleika promises Joseph that, together with Potiphar, he will renounce the Egyptian gods and accept the faith of the forefathers of Joseph. He replies to this that his God does not need adulterers
5. Zuleika tells Joseph that she will kill her husband and marry Joseph. He replies that in this case he will give it out.
6. Zuleika sends Joseph treats with a love potion. But on the eve there was a vision, as if some man with food hands him a sword, and he refuses to eat. After a while, she asks him about this treat, and Joseph rebukes her, saying that he can eat anything, because God will protect him. From this Zuleika becomes sick.
7. Then Zuleika began to threaten that she would hang herself, jump into a well, or rush into the abyss. Joseph tells her that “After your death, Astekho, the concubine of your husband, will mistreat your children and make them forget you,” from which Zuleika concludes that he still loves her, because he is concerned about the fate of her children and memory about her after death.
8. Zuleika began to admire his beauty, especially his eyes, to which Joseph answered her: “I imagine how terrible they will be in the grave!”. Then she admires his voice and asks him to sing under the harp, he says that his voice is beautiful only when he sings for God, then she praises his hair, etc.
9. Then she threatens to put him on trial, starve him to death, or throw him in prison. Joseph answered her constantly that God would always help him. She wants to send him to hard labor or to gouge out her eyes, to which Joseph says that "the Lord opens his eyes to the blind."
10. Following her, she again wants to kill her husband, but Joseph holds her back.

When Joseph is in her chambers, she turns the idol facing the wall so that her god does not see them, Joseph replies that his God sees everything, and knowing for what petty deed Adam was expelled from paradise, and remembering his brother Reuben , for depravity deprived of the birthright, he is afraid to be punished for what she offers him.

Then friends come to Zuleika who worry about her health. She orders Joseph to serve with them. Guests are so impressed by its beauty that they cut their fingers. To the mistress’s hypocritical surprise, they say: “How can you watch your fingers when you show such a divinely beautiful man!” When she complains to him of his coldness, her friends advise him to seduce.

Once she hugs him, but he breaks out and does not answer her pleas. She pursues him every day for a whole year, orders him to wear an iron hoop around his neck so that he cannot lower his head and always look her in the face. Finally, during a big holiday when no one was home (according to the Midrach “Noah” - popular festivities in honor of the spill of the Nile), she said she was sick, but when everyone left, she got up and dressed up. When Joseph appeared, she again began to seduce him. For a moment he hesitated, but the face of his mother was drawn before his eyes, then her sister Leah , and finally her father. Jacob seemed to say to him: “The names of your brothers will one day be engraved on the breastplate of the high priest. Do you want your name to stand there? Bear in mind that one who associates with whores drops his honor! ” He stops, and on Zuleika’s rebuke, he says that he saw his father. She says that there is nobody in the house, he replies that "you and your people cannot see it, but I belong to those to whom it is given."

Other traditions say that Joseph did not experience this momentary hesitation, but most of the traditions nevertheless indicate that when he came out of her chambers, he was so lusty that he almost returned. But then God appeared, holding the Foundation Stone ^[6] in his hand and said: “Do not touch it, otherwise I will throw this stone and the world will collapse.” Joseph was frightened, but Zuleika shouted that if he disobeyed her, he would die, and, drawing her hidden sword, she put it to Joseph's throat, repeating the threat. It was then that he escaped from her hands, leaving his cloak in her hands.

When her friends return, they find her in grief and advise her to speak Joseph. Then she takes off all her luxurious seductive outfit, goes to bed and again pretends to be sick. She invites several men and, in their presence, accuses Joseph of attempted rape by presenting his torn cloak as evidence. Men report this to Potipharu. The husbands of her friends confirm her words that he had long been harassing her, as they heard from her husband. Potiphar goes to his wife and she seeks punishment from him (according to legend, he gives it after intimacy). At first he wanted to kill him, but his wife advises him to be imprisoned so as not to lose on his value - she herself hopes that Joseph will become more comfortable in prison.

Potiphar orders to carve Joseph, who prays to God that he would not let him die by false libel. At this moment, the 11-month-old son of Zuleika, who had always been silent until now, spoke for the first time, saying that his mother was lying and tells how everything really happened. After that, he again stops talking. (According to the Midrash “Noah”, this child is the adopted daughter of Potiphar Asenef (Asnat), Joseph's future wife, and her story was not connected with miracles). Surprised Potiphar orders to stop flogging. Joseph appears before the priestly judges. They examine his dress, and since it is torn behind and not in front, they understand that it was torn when he was running away, that is, innocent. But they do not justify, because they must preserve the good name of Zuleika. Potiphar, assured of his innocence, apologizes to him in prison, saying that he is forced to do this so that the good name of his children does not suffer. Joseph should be serving 10 years.

These Jewish legends are significantly different from the Bible story and contradict each other (for example, in the issue of Potiphar's sexual impotence and the presence of his wife with a concubine) ^[5] .

Quran

The 12th Surah is devoted to Joseph ( Yusuf , Yusuf) in the Qur'an . The name of Potiphar or his wife is not mentioned there, but the whole story of Joseph (Yusuf) is told - from his dreams to the episode in which the seductress treats her friends and they injure their hands with knives, and this episode is carried over to the end, following the rape charge, which Zuleika, like in Jewish legends, cannot be made too believable. For example, a wife’s relative who witnessed the incident judged: “If his shirt is torn in front, then she is telling the truth, and if he is behind, then he is telling the truth, and she is lying.” The nobleman saw that Yusuf’s shirt was torn behind and said: “Verily, all this is your female intrigues. Indeed, your machinations are great! Yusuf, forget about it! And you ask for forgiveness for your sin, for you have committed a sin ” ^[7] . He is imprisoned after the guests cut their hands, admiring the beauty of Yusuf and began to ask for closeness with him. Yusuf prayed that Allah would put him in prison, which He performed (put him there for a while), just to keep away from female anger.

Most interpreters of the Qur'an, interpreting the ayah that tells about the prophet Yusuf and Zuleikh, write that Yusuf appeared in the image of his father, Yakub, biting his finger, which saved him from the temptation of Zuleiha.

John Chrysostom , telling the story of the temptation of Joseph, compares his virtue and courage with the feat of three youths in the cave of Babylon :

... this wondrous young man, being held by the clothes of this dishonest and unbridled woman, did not surrender to her, but fled, leaving even the clothes in her hands. And just as the three youths, having received help from above for their virtue, were the winners of the fire, so this one, who used all his efforts and exerted great constancy in the exploits of chastity , received great help from above in order to win the help of the right hand of God this victory and avoid the networks of a slutty wife. ^[eight]

Further, the saint writes that although Joseph was stripped of his clothes, he ran away from a slutty woman, dressed in chastity clothes and “ fled, as if from fire and flame, without suffering any harm and not only not being scorched, but still cleaner and brighter . "

Modern scholars ^[5] write that two worlds collide in this story: the peasant morality of the relatively recently settled nomads and the exquisite culture of Egyptian cities. Unlike the Jewish foremothers, with their main desire to leave offspring, a female character appears in this biblical story, the purpose of which is love, pure enjoyment, and morality and commitment to the husband does not matter.

Recorded in the XII century BC. e. the ancient Egyptian tale " The Tale of Two Brothers " with an identical plot could have influenced the appearance of the biblical legend of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. In the ancient Egyptian work, the name of the unfaithful wife is also not indicated ^[9] .

In the literature

Josephus follows the outline of the Bible, coloring the text with magnificent speeches. He has a fear that Joseph will tell Potifaru about her harassment (Flavius ​​- Petepre ), makes her blame the young man. Potiphar fully believes in his wife.

In Islamic Poetry

Arabic poetry calls her Zuleikha or Zephyra. Many writings have been devoted to the conflict between her and Joseph, in which a happy ending is added to the story, the most famous of which is Yusuf and Zuleyha (1009-1020), written by Firdousi . In the poem, she becomes the wife of Yusuf and leads a righteous lifestyle. In Jami , “Yusuf and Zuleiha” (XV century), on the contrary, she was punished for her attempt at seduction and slander: she was turned into a blind, terrible old woman for seven years. Then she repents, tells the king about her misconduct, and rushes to his feet. They recognize her only after she accepts the true faith and from this her beauty returns to her. In the end, she is Joseph's humble wife.

The monument to Tatar culture is the poem by Mahmud Kasym “Yusuf and Zuleika” written in the 13th century, that is, at the time when the Crimea was part of the Golden Horde, the Uzbek - the works of the same name by Rabguzi and Durbek . The Bulgarian-Tatar poet Kul Gali wrote the poem "Kissa-i Yusuf" in the 1st half of the 13th century.

In total, in the literature of the East, there are about 150 works on this topic. Researchers note that many of the details common to these poems, but not appearing in the Qur'an, most likely originate from the texts of the Persian commentator Qur'an and historian Ibn Jarir al-Tabari (839–923), who wrote in Arabic. At-Tabari is the author of numerous theological works, among which the most famous is his 30-volume commentary on the Qur'an entitled “Jami 'al-bayan fi-t-tafsir al-kur'an” (“Comprehensive explanations for the interpretation of the Koran”) ^{[11 ]} .

European literature

The European Middle Ages has a number of mysteries on this subject, the most famous of them are the performances in Laon (XIII century), as well as “El sueño y venta de José” (XIII — XIV century, Spain). The Italians devoted the same theme to theatrical performances "Representazione di Giuseppe figliuolo di Giacobbe", "Mistére du vieil testament" (late 15th century).

With Dante , Potiphar's wife was condemned to torment in hell - but not as a lustful woman, but for perjury (8th circle).

Pandolfo Collenuccio wrote a drama (1504) on this plot, consisting mainly of prayers. Michael Carvival, “Tragedia Llamada Josefina” (1546) creates a more realistic work. At this time, a number of plays appeared in Latin and German, which were written in educational whole and put the image of Joseph on a pedestal. In total in the XVI century, 25 plays written about Joseph were known. The most famous of them is the drama by J. Greff (1534) and the Latin play Cornelius Crocus (1535), later converted by Tibolt Gart (1540) into a more cheerful piece. Georgius Macropedius (1544) and Philip Nicodemus Frischlin (1590) wrote the Mysteries. In 1540, Jacob Ruf, a Swiss playwright, published a full anti-papal intonation, "A magnificent view of the God-fearing young man Joseph." Spanish authors created things full of enlightenment: Triumfos de José by an unknown author, Josef Salvador de Egipto y triumfos de la inocentia, Jose de la Hoch and Mota, Los trabajos de Jacob Lope de Vega . Протестантским изгнанником из Богемии Кристианом Вайзе (1642—1707) написана комедия «Триумф целомудрия».

В XVII веке история Иосифа продолжает использоваться, но сюжет соблазнения уходит на второй план, и акцентируется его роль государственного деятеля. Всё же её можно найти в «Истории о смиренном Иосифе» (1667) автора «Симплициссимуса» — Гриммельсхаузена . Он выводит в качестве полноценного персонажа жену Иосифа — Асенефу, которая добродетелью одерживает верх над Селихой, женой Потифара. Ей же посвятил целый роман, озаглавленный «Асенефа» (Assenat. Biblischer Roman, 1670) гамбургский писатель Филипп фон Цезен: Иосиф здесь прообраз Христа, а коварная Зефира — воплощение Сатаны. Роман Иоганна Прокопа Майера называется «История светлейших принцесс Асенефы и Зееры» (1697), и отношения этих двух женщин трактуются как дворцовая интрига (что характерно для этого периода, когда писатели переходят от нравоучительных драм к галантным пьесам-интригам).

XVIII век дал такие произведения, как «Иосиф из древнего Илиополя» (1736), приписывавшийся Гёте , эпос Э.Роу «История Иосифа», и «Иосиф и Зулейка» (1753) Якоба Бодмера, где жена Потифара — женщина с тонкой душой, поддавшаяся нашептываниям дьявола, а просветитель Иосиф спасает её от дьявольского соблазна. Гёте в юности (1763) также обращался к истории Иосифа в прозе, в его сочинении ощущается влияние Клопштока . Упоминает он эту историю и в «Западно-восточном диване». Француз Ж. Битобе в своем романе выводит галантного пастуха, который просто любит другую, и поэтому способен на сопротивление, его соотечественник К. Ж. Дора сделал соблазнительницу чрезвычайно привлекательной, и Иосиф в его трактовке чуть было сам его не совратил. В XIX веке опять тема неактуальна, хотя Kipling, in his poem Departmental Ditties about modern times, brought out characters called Potiphar Cubbins and Zuleika Cubbins' .

The 20th century uses the image of a seducer with pleasure: “ The Legend of Joseph ” - a ballet directed by M. M. Fokin ( 1914 ) to music by R. Strauss ( Josephslegende , op. 63, 1912), written by order of S. P. Diaghilev for him troupe Russian ballet Diaghilev . The music of Strauss ballet was used by many choreographers in their own productions. The drama Joseph the Victorious (1919) by Max Hermann-Nayce, the epic of The Horns of Potiphar (1924) by Emil Belzner. Thomas Mann in his novel " Joseph and His Brothers " (1936) analyzes this plot in detail. He gave the heroine the name Mut, her husband is a eunuch.

In music

• Pantomime by Hugo von Hoffmannsthal and G. Earl Kessler "The Legend of Joseph", music by Richard Strauss (1914).
• Andrew Lloyd Webber , musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat ; 1968. The character is named "Mrs. Potiphar" (Mrs Potiphar)
• According to the poem Kul Gali in modern Tatarstan, the ballet The Legend of Yusuf was staged to the music of Leonid Lyubovsky and the libretto of Renat Haris

• The tale of two brothers - an ancient Egyptian tale of the XII century BC. e.
• To the ancient Greek mythological hero Peleus was inflamed with passion by the wife of Tsar Akast, and being rejected by him, she accused him of forcibly harassing her.
• Bellerophon was also the victim of such harassment and slander by Altea / Sfenebey .
• Moses Ugrin , the reverend of the Russian Church , was seduced by a Polish widow and was denounced for refusing to enter into a relationship with her.

• Character on imdb.com