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    ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA

    ANALECTA
    ————— 262 —————

    company of images

    Modelling the Imaginary World


    of Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000-1500 BC)
    Proceedings of the International Conference
    of the EPOCHS Project
    held 18th-20th September 2014 at UCL, London

    edited by

    Gianluca miniaci, marilina betrò and stephen quirke

    PEETERS
    LEUVEN – PARIS – BRISTOL, CT
    2017
    Contents

    Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

    Abbreviations
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

    Susan J. Allen
    Decoration and image on Middle Kingdom pottery: can fish dishes
    be read?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
    Zuzanna Bennett
    Conceptions of demons in the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts   .  . 15
    Kamila Braulińska
    Middle Kingdom dog figurines. General remarks  . . . . . . 35
    Richard Bussmann
    Personal piety: an archaeological response  . . . . . . . . 71
    Sabrina Ceruti
    The hippopotamus goddess carrying a crocodile on her back: an
    iconographical motif distinctive of the late Middle Kingdom .  .  . 93
    Roberto A. Díaz Hernández
    ‘Paddle dolls’ – ritual figurines of fertility
    . . . . . . . . .125
    Gersande Eschenbrenner-Diemer
    From the workshop to the grave: the case of wooden funerary
    models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133
    Wolfram Grajetzki
    A zoo en-miniature: the impact of the central government on the rise
    and fall of animal/zoomorphic amulets’ production during the First
    Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom . . . . . . . . .193
    Renata Landgráfová
    No imagined worlds, no imagined achievements. Veracity state-
    ments in Twelfth Dynasty auto/biographies with military-like topic  213
    Gianluca Miniaci
    Unbroken stories: Middle Kingdom faience figurines in their archae-
    ological context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235
    VI contents

    Ellen Morris
    Middle Kingdom clappers, dancers, birth magic, and the reinvention
    of ritual
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .285
    Rune Nyord
    ‘An image of the owner as he was on earth’. Representation and
    ontology in Middle Kingdom funerary images . . . . . . .337
    Stephen Quirke
    Figuring migrations: severing and joining power lines .  .  .  .  . 361
    Mohamed Gamal Rashed
    The four primeval elements of creation according to the philosophy
    of Hermopolis: a new interpretation of their origin .  .  .  .  .  . 377
    Lisa K. Sabbahy
    The Middle Bronze Age Egyptian griffon: whence and whither? . 395
    Angela M. J. Tooley
    Notes on type 1 truncated figurines: the Ramesseum ladies .  .  . 421
    Marcella Trapani
    A deposit of female figurines from Gebelein (Schiaparelli’s cam-
    paign in 1910)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .457
    Josef Wegner
    Raise yourself up: mortuary imagery in the tomb of Woseribre
    Seneb-Kay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .479
    The Four Primeval Elements of Creation according
    to the philosophy of Hermopolis:
    A new Interpretation of their origin

    Mohamed Gamal Rashed


    Lecturer at Damietta University

    Abstract. This paper presents new interpretations of what may have


    inspired the Hermopolitan theologians to base their early view of crea-
    tion in the CT. It returns the origin of the four elements of the pre-crea-
    tion substance to the bio-physiological aspects of the egg, where the egg
    is a metaphor for the cosmos regarding these aspects. The interpretation
    relies on the CT allusions together with the metaphoric aspects of the
    egg. CT II 4c‒d defines the pre-creation substance in which the creator
    god developed and can be identified with the bio aspects of the egg. The
    identification places the egg as a metaphor for pre-existence, where the
    definite elements in creation were inspired: Its oval shape represents
    endless space, while the other primeval aspects of Nun are inspired by
    its bio aspects under discussion. The interpretation brings the cosmogo-
    nic metaphor of the egg in creation back to the First Intermediate Period,
    even earlier than its well-known attestations in late Egyptian myths.

    The cosmos, its origin and its creation have been illustrated in various Egyptian
    theories of creation. Throughout these theories, several Egyptian concepts, including
    the primeval elements, the Monad, the identity of the creator god, his means of
    creation, the primeval ocean, and the primeval egg have played essential roles in the
    creation. There are numerous Egyptian sources that refer to such concepts and def-
    initions and their significance, but knowledge of their origins and what has inspired
    the theologians is still limited. It has been noted that the Coffin Texts rather than the
    Pyramid Texts dealt widely with the Egyptian concept of the origin of the cosmos.
    The Coffin Texts present valuable and complete documentation of the Egyptian
    concept of the origin of the cosmos.1 The CT spells, in the discussion, are excellent
    examples of the Egyptian concept of the origin of the cosmos and its creation.
    Therefore, this paper sets out a new interpretation of the four primeval elements
    of creation according to the Hermopolitan theory, as an essential part of these
    interesting concepts. In his opinion, the author assumes an association between the
    biological, physical and physiological aspects (henceforth ‘bio aspects’) of the egg

    1
    Bickel, La cosmogonie égyptienne, 1-23, 225 ff; Pfouma, in Anselin (ed.), La Maât dans
    tout ses etats, 107.
    This pdf is a digital offprint of your contribution in
    G. Miniaci, M. Betrò & S. Quirke (eds), Company of Images:
    Modelling the Imaginary World of Middle Kingdom Egypt (2000-
    1500 BC), ISBN 978-90-429-3495-5

    The copyright on this publication belongs to Peeters


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