Der Amun-Re Hymnus des P. Boulaq 17 (P. Kairo CG 58038).

• Author: Quack, Joachim Friedrich
• Position: Book review

Der Amun-Re Hymnus des P. Boulaq 17 (P. Kairo CG 58038). By MARIA MICHELA LUISELLI. Kleine agyptische Texte, vol. 14 Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2004. Pp. xxii + 109, plates. [euro]38.00 (paper).

The long hymn to Amun preserved in papyrus Cairo CG 58038 certainly represents one of the better-known religious texts from ancient Egypt. Surprisingly, however, there has not been a complete hieroglyphic transcription and commentary since E. Grebaut, L'hymne a Amon-Ra des papyrus egyptiens du Musee de Boulaq (Paris, 1874), even though translations have been frequent. The publication reviewed here sets out to close this gap. It gives a short overview of the various manuscripts (pp. xiii-xxii), a transliteration and translation of the different sections with a short commentary on contents and philological questions (pp. 1-38), a synoptic hieroglyphic transcription (pp. 39-99), and a glossary (pp. 100-109), as well as a complete photographic record.

In principle, this should be a most welcome publication, and the topic has been well chosen. Unfortunately, a number of problems seriously detract from the value of the book. From a purely technical standpoint, the photographs are blurred and sometimes indistinct. Moreover, they have been needlessly reduced to about two-thirds of the original size of the papyrus. Printing them at a right angle to the rest of the publication would have allowed reproduction in natural size even within the layout of this book. Even more seriously, the hieroglyphic synopsis is marred by innumerable small blunders. Most of them do not significantly affect the translation, but on the whole, no one should use this publication as a reliable source for orthographic questions. In order to give an idea of the problems, I will give some examples: entire words are missing in part I, verse 18 (G has remnants of rmt). Part II, verse 24: Hall's plates show traces of ib before wi[TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] in G. Verse 29: in G, there are difficult signs at the end of the line. Part IV, verse 6: n.t r' omitted after hrw.

Misreadings and smaller omissions are not infrequent. For instance, part I, verse 11: in the transcription of B, the arm-sign below the m has been omitted. Additionally, the version given is misleading since the formula in sms.w mw.t.frg(.t) "by Shemsu, his mother being Reget" (which is really a separate note forming part of the title and set off by a dividing stroke below the name Shemsu in 1. 7) is inserted as...