{"id":18254,"date":"2024-02-20T12:16:17","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T17:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/?p=18254"},"modified":"2024-03-26T09:43:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-26T13:43:25","slug":"egyptian-perspectives-isidoros-hymns-in-praise-of-the-goddess-hermouthis-and-legendary-pharaohs-early-first-century-bce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/2024\/02\/egyptian-perspectives-isidoros-hymns-in-praise-of-the-goddess-hermouthis-and-legendary-pharaohs-early-first-century-bce\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian perspectives: Isidoros’ hymns in praise of the goddess Hermouthis and legendary pharaohs (early first century BCE)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ancient authors: <\/em><\/strong>Isidoros from the village of Narmouthis (early first century BCE), \u00c9tienne Bernand, Inscriptions m\u00e9triques de l\u2019\u00c9gypte gr\u00e9co-romaine<\/i> (Paris: Universit\u00e9 de Franche-Comt\u00e9, 1969), 631-652 (nos. 175-176) = SEG<\/em> VIII 548-551 = V.F. Vanderlip, The Four Greek Hymns of Isidoros and the Cult of Isis<\/em> (Toronto: Hakkert, 1972) (link<\/a> to Greek on PHI).<\/p>\n

Comments: <\/em><\/strong>These four hymns (in Greek) were set up by one Isidoros in a temple for the local goddess Hermouthis, or Renenutet, in the village of Narmouthis in the Fayum or Lake district of Egypt. They provide a window into local interactions among immigrants in connection with the festival of the goddess and a launching point into the importance of oral legends about gods and pharoahs as deployed in local ethnic rivalries.<\/p>\n

You can read much more about these inscriptions in chapter four of Harland’s Ethnic Relations in the Ancient Mediterranean: Social Life Under Empire <\/em>(forthcoming).<\/p>\n

\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017<\/p>\n

[Hymn 1: Hermouthis\u2019 achievements and favours to humanity, with reference to Lycians, Syrians, Greeks, Thracians and Egyptians]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh provider of wealth, queen of the gods, lady Hermouthis [i.e. Renenutet],
\nall-powerful Good Fortune (Agathe Tyche<\/em>), with the great name Isis,
\nDeo, highest discoverer of all life,
\nall kinds of actions were your care so that you might give
\n(5) life to humankind and observance of law to everyone.
\nYou also taught customs so that some justice might exist.
\nYou gave skills so that men\u2019s life might be comfortable,
\nand you discovered the blossoms of the fruit.
\nBecause of you, the heaven and the entire earth have been established,
\n(10) as well as the wind gusts and the sun that gives sweet light.
\nBy your power all the channels of the Nile are filled
\nat the harvest season, and its most turbulent water is poured
\non all the earth, so that produce may be unfailing.
\nAll mortals living on the boundless earth,
\n(15) Thracians and Greeks, and all barbarians,
\nexpress your beautiful name, a name most honoured by everyone.
\nBut each declares the name in their own language in their own homeland.
\nThe Syrians call you Astarte, Artemis, Nanaia.
\nThe Lycian peoples (ethn\u0113<\/em>) call you lady Leto.
\n(20) The Thracian men also name you as mother of the gods.
\nBut the Greeks call you Hera of the great throne, Aphrodite,
\nHestia the good, Rheia and Demeter.
\nBut the Egyptians call you \u201cThiouis\u201d because they know that you, being \u201cOne,\u201d are all
\nother goddesses invoked by the peoples (ethn\u0113<\/em>).
\n(25) Mighty one, I will not stop singing about your great power.
\nDeathless saviour with many-names, greatest Isis,
\nwho saves cities and all citizens from war:
\ncitizens, partners, possessed slaves, and children.
\nAs many as are bound fast in prison, in the power of death,
\n(30) All those being disturbed by long, painful sleepless nights;
\nall those wandering in a foreign land;
\nall those sailing on the Great Sea in winter,
\nwhen men are destroyed and their ships capsize \u2013
\nall of them are saved when they have prayed for you to assist.
\n(35) Listen to my prayers, you whose name has great power!
\nProve yourself merciful to me and put an end to every pain.<\/p>\n

Isidoros wrote it.<\/p>\n

[Hymn 2: Hermouthis\u2019 family and her further favours for humanity]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greetings, Good Fortune, with the great name Isis, greatest
\nHermouthis! In you every city has shown great joy.
\nYou are the discoverer of life and produce, which all
\nmortals enjoy because of your favours.
\n(5) All who pray to you to assist their business
\nare rich in piety for all time.
\nAll who experience deadly diseases by fate,
\nif they pray to you, immediately attain life.
\nCertainly the good lower spirit (agathos daim\u014dn<\/em>), strong Sokonopis,
\n(10) lives with you in the same temple. He is the good provider of wealth,
\nfounder of both earth and starry heaven,
\nof all rivers and very fast streams.
\nAnchoes your son, who lives in the highest part of heaven,
\nis the rising sun who shines light.
\n(15) Surely all who want to have children,
\nif they pray to you, receive the blessing of children.
\nPersuading the golden river Nile, you lead it in season
\nover the land of Egypt as a blessing for men.
\nThen all produce blooms and you distribute it to everyone
\n(20) you want to, providing a life of all sorts of good things.
\nWhen they remember your gifts, everyone to whom you have granted wealth
\nand great favours which you give them to possess all their lives
\noffer to you one tenth of these favours,
\ncelebrating each year at the time of your festival.
\n(25) Afterwards you allow everyone, as the year rolls round again,
\nto celebrate in the month of Pachon.
\nJoyful after celebrating your festival, they return home
\nreverently and are filled with the sense of the good living that comes from you.
\nProvide a share of your gifts to me as well, lady Hermouthis,
\n(30) your suppliant, happiness and especially the blessing of children.<\/p>\n

Isidoros wrote it. Listening to my prayers and hymns, the gods
\nhave rewarded me with the favour of contentment.<\/p>\n

[Hymn 3: Hermouthis\u2019 favours for pharoahs and for the peoples of all tribes at the festival]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guardian of the highest gods, lady Hermouthis,
\nIsis, pure, holy, great, with the great name Deo [i.e. Demeter],
\nmost revered giver of good things to everyone,
\nwith great piety you provide favours, wealth,
\n(5) and a life that involves sweetness and finest enjoyment:
\nhappiness, success, and painless understanding.
\nAll those who live the most blessed lives, excellent men,
\nsceptre-bearing kings, and all who are rulers,
\nwhen they are under your sway, rule until old age,
\n(10) leaving behind shining and brilliant wealth in abundance
\nto their sons, grandsons, and men who come after.
\nBut the one whom the heavenly Queen has held most loved of princes
\nrules both Asia and Europe,
\nkeeping the peace. The harvests grow heavy for him
\n(15) with all kinds of good things, bearing excellent fruit,
\nand where there are wars and slaughter
\nof great numbers of men, your strength and divine power
\nannihilates the multitude against him. But to the few with him, it gives courage.
\nListen to me, Good Fortune, when I make a request from you, lady:
\n(20) whether you have journeyed into Libya or to the south wind,
\nor whether you are living in the outermost regions of the north wind always
\nblowing sweetly,
\nor whether you live in the blasts of the east wind where the sun rises,
\nor whether you have gone to Olympos where the Olympian gods live,
\nor whether you are in heaven above, judging with the immortal gods,
\n(25) or whether, after having mounted the chariot of the swift-driving sun,
\nyou are directing the world of men, looking down on the many
\nactions of the impious and gazing down on those of the pious.
\nWhenever you are present here too, you witness an individual person\u2019s excellence,
\ndelighting in the sacrificial animals, libations, and offerings
\n(30) of the people who inhabit the district of Souchos, the Arsinoites,
\npeoples of mixed tribes (pamphyl\u014dn ethn\u014dn<\/em>) who all, yearly, present
\non the twentieth of the month of Pachon and Thoth, bringing to your feast a tenth for you,
\nfor Anchoes, and for Sokonopis, most sacred of gods.
\nHearing my prayers, black-robed Isis, the merciful,
\n(35) and you great gods who share the temple with her,
\nsend the Physician (Paian<\/em>) to me, healer of every pain.
\nIsidoros wrote it.<\/p>\n

[Hymn 4: Praise for the legendary pharaonic founders and gods]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Who built this pure temple for greatest Hermouthis?
\nWhat god remembered the completely holy one among those who are blessed?
\nHe marked it out as high Olympos and innermost shrine.
\nFor Deo the most high, Isis the law-bringer,
\n(5) for Anchoes the son, and the good lower spirit, Soknopis \u2013
\nall immortals \u2013 he created a most just refuge.
\nThey say someone was born a divine master of Egypt.
\nHe appeared as lord over the entire country,
\nrich, pious, and with the greatest power.
\n(10) A famous one who also had excellence equal to that of heaven,
\nbecause the earth and sea listened to him;
\nthe streams of all the beautiful-flowing rivers, too;
\nthe breath of the winds, too, and the sun which shows sweet light
\nand on its rising is visible to all.
\n(15) Groups of winged creatures together listened to him
\nand he commanded all who heard his voice.
\nIt is clear that the birds listened to him,
\nbecause those who have read the sacred writings
\nspeak about this king once sending a message by way of a crow,
\n(20) and she \ufb02ew off with the written message, carrying his message.
\nThis is the case, for he was not a mortal man, nor was he son of mortal master.
\nRather, born from a great and everlasting god \u2013
\neven from Souchos, completely powerful and extremely superior
\ngood lower spirit (agathos daim\u014dn<\/em>) \u2013 this son appeared on earth as master.
\n(25) The maternal grandfather of this one is the distributor of life,
\nAmmon, who is also Zeus of Greece and Asia.
\nFor this reason, everything listened to his voice, including all
\nanimals on earth and groups of winged creatures in the heavens.
\nWhat was the name of this one? What ruler,
\n(30) what king, or who among the immortals, determined it?
\nActually, it is the one who raised him, Sesoosis [Senwosret], who has gone to the western heaven,
\nwho gave him a beautiful name, \u201cBrilliant Sun.\u201d
\nWhen the Egyptians say his name in their language
\nthey call him \u201cPharoah Manres (Porramanres<\/em>), the great undying one\u201d [i.e. Amenemhet III].
\n(35) I have heard from others a marvel that is a paradox:
\nhow he \u201cnavigated on the desert by wheels and sail.\u201d
\nReliably learning these things from men who inquire
\ninto such matters, I myself had arranged for all this to be inscribed,
\ntranslating for Greeks the power of a master who is a god,
\n(40) power that no other mortal has equally possessed.
\nIsidoros wrote it.<\/p>\n

\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017\u2017<\/p>\n

Source of the translation:<\/em><\/strong> Translation by Harland in consultation with Vanderlip 1972 (as above).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ancient authors: Isidoros from the village of Narmouthis (early first century BCE), \u00c9tienne Bernand, Inscriptions m\u00e9triques de l\u2019\u00c9gypte gr\u00e9co-romaine (Paris: Universit\u00e9 de Franche-Comt\u00e9, 1969), 631-652 (nos. 175-176) = SEG VIII 548-551 = V.F. Vanderlip, The Four Greek Hymns of Isidoros and the Cult of Isis (Toronto: Hakkert, 1972) (link to Greek on PHI). Comments: These […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,222,224,90,141,579,192,104,115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-01-non-dominant-barbarian-perspectives","category-b-southern-peoples","category-d-eastern-peoples","category-egyptians","category-greeks","category-isidoros-egyptian","category-lycians","category-syrians-assyrians-aramaians","category-thracians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18254"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19350,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18254\/revisions\/19350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philipharland.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}