Der Amunhymnus des Papyrus Leiden I 344, Verso.

• Author: Allen, James P.
• Position: 3 vols.

This impressive three-volume study marks the culmination of the Leiden Museum's commendable efforts, over more than a century and a half, to publish all of their Egyptian literary papyri. Sadly too, it is also the final published work of the great Egyptologist Jan Zandee, who died the year before its appearance.

The text of the hymn here published has long lain neglected in the shadow of two other Leiden literary texts: the recto of the same papyrus, which contains the "Admonitions of Ipuwer," first published by Gardiner in 1909 and now translated in every collection of Egyptian literature;(1) and Leiden's best-known religious papyrus, also published by Gardiner and Zandee, the Amun hymn of Leiden I 350 recto, which includes a sophisticated description of Amun's transcendence and immanence and the famous line, "All gods are three: Amun, Re, and Ptah."(2) The neglect of I 344 verso is due in part to its physical state. This side of the papyrus was glued in the last century to papier vegetal, and this fixative has inevitably resulted in the loss of some of the original text, although a hieratic facsimile published earlier offers some help in the reading and restoration of sections now damaged or lost.(3)

Despite its fragmentary state, however, the text fully deserves the detailed attention Zandee has devoted to it. The hymn as a whole has the character of an original work rather than a collation from different sources (pp. 5-6). It is apparently divided into twenty-four sections of roughly equal length, which Zandee calls "strophes." Most of these are marked by red ink used for the first few words.(4) After a general introduction (pp. 3-12), Zandee's translation and commentary follow this division of the text. A consecutive translation is provided at the end (pp. 1085-97), followed by a glossary of Egyptian words in the papyrus, and thirty-eight plates of transcription (pl. 112), parallels (pl. 13-19), and photographs (pl. 20-38).

Apart from its publication of the text, most of the value of this study lies in the extensive commentary the author has provided for each strophe. In place of a purely philological approach, Zandee has used the text as a starting point for a detailed exposition of its textual and theological background. Drawing on his unparalleled knowledge of the genre, his commentaries cover the full range of Egyptian religious thought, from the Pyramid Texts to the most obscure temple texts of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. These make this three-volume work a virtual encyclopedia of Egyptian theology and a basic source for any future study. It is tragic that the wealth of Zandee's exposition will be available only to the most determined researcher, since no subject index has been provided. Given the value of Zandee's contribution in this work, one can only hope that some future scholar will be motivated to compile and publish such an index.

Besides Zandee's commentary, the text of the hymn is well worth studying in itself. The manuscript was written in Dynasty XIX, roughly contemporary with Papyrus Leiden I 350(5) and, like the latter, reflects the theological speculation revolving around the god Amun that flourished in the reign of Ramesses II. Zandee has identified "quotations" from the hymn in texts of the late Eighteenth Dynasty, in particular from the tomb of Kheruef in Thebes and the reign of Horemhab. These parallels date the original composition most probably to the spurt of "solar" theology, studied by Assmann, that preceded the Amarna period.(6) The text is thus an important forerunner both of Amarna theology and of the more advanced Amun theology preserved in the texts of I 350.

The hymn prefigures Akhenaton's "Hymn to the Aton" in its discussion of the god's presence in the phenomena of nature - for example, in its description of Amun as the Inundation (my translation):

Who made his way of giving life to the Two Lands in his immanent evolution of the Inundation, who secreted his manner in the sky, but renews himself at his season. This means that the seasons are sealed under his fingers. When he passes, he gives to those he has chosen: he gives to the high and he gives to the lowly. When those (waters) that Nun and Nut have give things, they are divided into two parts, for the beduin as well as for Egypt. (strophe 17, VIII 6-9)

Although the hymn's level of theological speculation is generally less sophisticated than that of Papyrus Leiden I 350, like the latter it contains a well-thought-out exposition of Amun's nature, in much the same order, from pre-existent creator to immanent source of all life. As such, it forms a revealing counterpart to its better known contemporary - for example, in the following passage (my translation):

Our temples are your likeness, your shadow is in every god. Their identities are set, and the things of people as well: all evolutions of you. For you have given their effectiveness, you have given their impressiveness, and you occupy all their totality, since you are the one-who dedicates things, and they have things through your power. (strophe 20, X 9-XI 1)

This also recalls the words of the famous "Memphite Theology" (whose original may date to the same period), describing Ptah as the sum of "all...