The Theology of Hathor of Dendera: Aural and Visual Scribal Techniques in the Per-Wer Sanctuary.

• Author: Darnell, Colleen

The Theology of Hathor of Dendera: Aural and Visual Scribal Techniques in the Per-Wer Sanctuary. By BARBARA A. RICHTER. Brown University Department of Egyptology and Assyriology, Wilbour Studies, vol. 4. Atlanta: LOCKWOOD PRESS, 2016. Pp. xxix + 543, illus. $145. [Distributed by ISD, Bristol, CT]

In the past decade, an increasing number of Egyptological studies have recognized the significance of multisensory perception in the study of ancient experience (Meyer-Dietrich 2011; Meyer-Dietrich 2018; Schellenberg and Krüger 2019). Barbara Richter's examination of the role of "word play" and "sign play" in a single chapel within the Dendera Temple demonstrates the importance of close readings of Ptolemaic texts, whose scribal authors invested meaning into virtually every sign and turn of phrase. The Per-wer sanctuary is a small chamber at the center rear of the temple, and Richter begins by setting the stage with the chief "myth" behind the sanctuary's theology: the wandering goddess.

The goddess Hathor undertook an annual journey from Egypt to Nubia, which was both a geographical itinerary as well as an emotional one. The angry goddess departed from Egypt and needed to be coaxed back, returning at the time of the heliacal rising of Sothis and the rising of the inundation waters. Richter highlights the main elements of the myth and collects relevant sources, laying out her methodology and resulting calculations: a third of the texts in the Per-wer "referenced two or more myth-related factors." In chapter 5, Richter tackles the themes of the other two-thirds of the texts: Hathor as creator and king as intermediary.

Chapter 2, "Word Play in the Per-Wer," establishes the criteria for determining word play and includes a short section on the overall significance of effective speech in ancient Egypt. For each type of word play, Richter provides a clear definition and example from English texts; for example, part of Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" is used to illustrate repetition, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's line about fear for the principle of antanaclasis. Richter also made the wise choice of illustrating the scene for each of the hieroglyphic passages from the Per-wer. Too often texts are divorced from their images, even though the ancient Egyptians obviously perceived a unity of art and writing. In addition to the scholarly weight of Richter's analysis in this chapter, it is also an enjoyable read, embodying the playfulness of her subject...