In Quest of Meaning: A Study of the Ancient Egyptian Rites of Consecrating the Meret-Chest and Driving the Calves.

• Author: Graefe, Erhart
• Position: Review

By A. EGBERTS. Two volumes. Egyptologische Uitgaven, 8.1-2. Leiden: NEDERLANDS INSTITUUT VOOR HET NABIJE OOSTEN, 1995. Pp. xxxvii + 514; pp. xi + 15 tables + 154 plates. HFI 125 (paper).

I will refrain from describing the structure of Egberts' book and report only on its contents and arguments.

The purpose of the ritual scenes can be deciphered by interpreting the legends that accompany vignettes recovered largely from Graeco-Roman temples. The meret-chests were consecrated through "beating" with a scepter, but texts say too that they were dragged. According to the late sources each chest contained garments of a different color. As early as the Ramesside period the chests were said to contain mummy bandages for Osiris. Especially interesting is the use of two phrases that also occur in the ritual of the driving of the calves: "treading the grave" (hh jz) and the "leading astray" (stnm, tnm) of the enemy. Other passages with no connection to the myth of Osiris inform us that each meret-chest stood for a cardinal point and together they symbolized dominion over Egypt, probably by equating t?? tort, "the chest," with t?? mrj, "Egypt." At the same time the verb st??, "to drag," which is applied to the chest (i.e., Egypt), also means "to lead to," suggesting leading Egypt (to the gods). In one case phr t?? mrj replaces st?? t?? mrj, which suits well the fact that the king went around the chests when dragging them, but now it signifies that the king was traversing Egypt. All this is meant symbolically, as was the consecration of the chests itself. Thus the rite has a mythical as well as a ritual dimension. The consecration/dragging of the chests refers to the mummification of Osiris (by means of the bandages they contain) as well as leading a united Egypt to the gods. Myth and rite are therefore transmitting the same message, because reassembling Osiris's dismembered body is symbolic of the unity of Egypt.

The verb in the title of the ritual, "driving (hwj, lit., 'beating') the calves" is used with a direct object, with only four documents specifying a locality: "in(to) the temple (m hwt-ntr)." In the opinion of Egberts (p. 336) the preposition m means the location ("at"; Egberts uses "in") and not the direction ("from" [sic, his quote]). In this case one would be obliged to say "at the temple" and not - as expected intuitively through an implicit expansion of meaning for the verb - "to beat in a specific direction," that is "to drive" into the...