The Doomed Prince (also the Tale of the Enchanted Prince ) [1] - an ancient Egyptian tale written in the New Egyptian language [1] , is the most complete monument of non-religious ancient Egyptian literature that has survived to our days [2] .
| Doomed prince | |
|---|---|
| Genre | fairy tale |
| Original language | New Egyptian |
| Date of writing | Harris papyrus 500 , 19th dynasty , 13th century BC e. |
| Date of first publication | 1874 year |
Content
- 1 Sources and dates
- 2 Story
- 3 Analysis
- 4 See also
- 5 notes
Sources and Dates
It belongs to the period of the reign of Seti I or Ramses II ( XIX dynasty ), or somewhat later (XIII century BC. E.) [3] . According to the German Egyptologist Wolfgang Helk, the story began in the 18th dynasty , when the war chariots mentioned in history entered Egyptian arms.
It was written by hieratics (4.5 pages [4] ) from right to left on the back of the Harris 500 papyrus and is adjacent to the story “The Capture of Jupe ”. The manuscript found intact was scorched by a fire in an Alexandrian house. The final line on the first, second and third pages has disappeared, as well as the initial line on the second, third and fourth pages. It is believed that the English collector Anthony Harris managed to make a copy of the story before the accident, but its location is unknown [4] .
Now the ending of the story is lost, but there is an assumption of a happy ending to the story of the doomed prince [5] . RI Rubinstein saw the ending predetermined by the prophecy: “The Tsarevich escaped death from a snake and a crocodile, which means that he must inevitably die from a dog - the prediction must be fulfilled” [6] .
It was found and first translated by the English Egyptologist Charles Goodwin in 1874 (" Trasactions of the Society of Biblical Archeology ", " Records of the Past ") [4] . The tale was translated into Russian by Livshits I. G. , Katsnelson I. S. , Korostovtsev M. A. [7] , Chegodaev M. A.
Story
One unnamed pharaoh prays to the gods for his long-awaited son. When he is born, 7 Hathors come and predict the fate of the baby: he is destined to die from a dog, crocodile or snake. Then Pharaoh orders to build a stone house in the desert for his son. Once the prince saw a dog and asked to give him the same. Pharaoh took pity and ordered him to give the puppy to his son. When the prince matured (the age of majority according to Egyptian ideas came at the age of 20) [3] , he asked his father to release him from imprisonment, because he still can’t escape what was intended. They outfitted the prince with weapons, a chariot, gave a servant to serve, and transported him to the east coast.
The prince arrived in Nakharin ( Mitanni ) [6] , where the local ruler promised the only daughter’s hand to that prince of the land of Haru (the Egyptian name for Syria ) [3] , who jumps to the princess’s window in a high tower of 70 cubits (approx. 35 m) [3 ] . The Egyptian prince posed as the son of a soldier of the land of Egypt, who escaped from a formidable stepmother. He met his eyes with the princess in the tower and jumped to a high window (the ancient author hints at love at first sight) [3] . But the ruler of Nakharin refused to give his daughter for the commoner. Then she swore [7] :
“ How eternal is the god Ra-Khorakhti , so if this young man is taken from me, I will not eat, I will not drink, I will die immediately. ”
The ruler of Nakharin gave his daughter in wife to the winner, he gave "a field and a house, as well as cattle and all other good " [7] .
When the prince's wife found out about his unfortunate share, she asked to kill the dog, but the prince refused to kill the four-legged friend. Then the wife decided to monitor her husband in order to prevent unhappiness. One night a snake crawled up to the prince, but drank the wine left by the prince’s wife and fell asleep. The wife noticed the snake and hacked it.
The prince went for a walk to the lake with a dog, who suddenly spoke in a human voice (or bit him). In fear, the prince rushed to the lake, from where the crocodile rushed at him. The crocodile missed and destroyed the water spirit (demon), which tormented him for 3 months. He thanked the crocodile and released the prince [8] .
“And so, when the earth was lit up, and the second day came ...” [6] .
At this point, the story ends.
Analysis
The arrangement of red dots in "The Tale of the Enchanted Prince" indicates the existence of some patterns in the division of text and sentences [1] . For the first time in world literature, a fairy tale raises the issue of free will and predestination [3] . Adolf Ehrman noted that if the local flavor were deleted from the fairy tale, then it could pass for a fairy tale of any country and period [6] .
See also
- sleeping Beauty
- The Little Humpbacked Horse
- Sivka-burka
- Rapunzel
- Oedipus
- The legend of Sinuhe is an ancient Egyptian autobiographical work about the journey of a nobleman in the country of Retenu.
- Shipwreck tale
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Petrovsky N. S. The Problem of Studying Syntagmatics of Ancient Egyptian Speech // Assiriology and Egyptology: article. - L. , 1964 .-- S. 116-127 .
- ↑ Barbara Merz. Red Earth, Black Earth. - Moscow: Centerpolygraph , 2008. - S. 78-80. - 464 p. - ISBN 978-5-9524-3621-3 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 Vinyl Galina. History of world literature. Ancient Middle East. - Mn. : Higher School, 2017 .-- 680 p. - ISBN 5040110650 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Maspero, Gaston. Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt / El-Shamy, Hasan M. .. - Oxford University Press , 2004 .-- 275 p. - ISBN 019517335X .
- ↑ Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature. - Berkeley: University of California Press , 1976. - T. 2. - S. 200-203.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Ancient Egyptian literature / Livshits I. G., Olderogge D. A., Rubinstein R. I. .. - Tales and tales of ancient Egypt. - L .: Nauka , 1979.- S. 167.
- ↑ 1 2 3 Poetry and prose of the Ancient East / I. S. Braginsky. - M .: Fiction , 1973. - S. 67. - 780 p.
- ↑ The Tale of Peteise III: Ancient Egyptian Prose. / Korostovtsev M. A. .. - Fiction, 1978. - 303 p.