Rededjet (also readed as Ruddedet
[) is the name of a fictitious ancient Egyptian woman appearing as the ]heroic Heroic may mean:
*characteristic of a hero
*typical of heroic poetry or of heroic verse
*belonging to the Greek Heroic Age
*Heroic (esports), a Danish esports organization
*Heroic (horse)
Heroic (1921–1939) was an Australian Thoroughbred ra ...
character in a story told in the legendary Westcar Papyrus. She is said to have fulfilled a prophecy
In religion, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divine will or law, or prete ...
by giving birth to three future king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
s that was forecast during the reign of Khufu ( Fourth Dynasty) by a magic
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
ian named Dedi.
Literary person
Rededjet appears only in the fifth story of the Westcar Papyrus; no archeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
or historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
evidence of her existence has been discovered. Nevertheless, she is object of great interest for historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
s and Egyptologists, since her story gives information about the line of succession at the very beginning of the Fifth Dynasty and two royal women.[
]
The wonder of Rededjet
According to the Westcar Papyrus, Rededjet has a strong labor, and birth is difficult because she has to deliver triplets
A multiple birth is the culmination of one multiple pregnancy, wherein the mother gives birth to two or more babies. A term most applicable to vertebrate species, multiple births occur in most kinds of mammals, with varying frequencies. Such bir ...
. The god Ra, Lord of Sachebu, says to the deities Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
, Nephthys
Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian ( grc-gre, Νέφθυς) was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired wi ...
, Meskhenet
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Meskhenet, (also spelt Mesenet, Meskhent, and Meshkent) was the goddess of childbirth, and the creator of each child's Ka, a part of their soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of birth. She was worship ...
, Heqet, and Khnum: “May you all go to Rededjet and release her from her trinity of children which are still in her womb and which will exercise their splendid office in the whole realm one day. So they can build temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
s for you, take care of your offering tables, let your drink plates thrive and multiply your god's sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...
s.”[ And so the goddesses turn to Rededjet's house after they had transformed themselves into music-making dancers. Khnum turns into a porter. When they reach Rededjet's house they meet her husband, Ra-User, outside at the threshold, wearing his skirt upside-down and whining. The goddesses show him their ]menit
In ancient Egyptian religion, a menat ( egy, mnj.t, ar, منات) was a type of artefact closely associated with the goddess Hathor.
Operation
The menat was held in the hand by its counterpoise and used as a rattle by Hathor's priestesses. I ...
s and sistrum
A sistrum (plural: sistra or Latin sistra; from the Greek ''seistron'' of the same meaning; literally "that which is being shaken", from ''seiein'', "to shake") is a musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient ...
s. Thereupon Ra-User says: “See, there is a woman here who is suffering badly, for her birth is problematic.”[ The goddesses say: “May thou cause that we can see her. See, we know how to relieve.”][ Ra-User replies: “Feeds!”][ The deities step in and go immediately to Rededjet, who is lying upstairs. They seal the room and then Isis stands before Rededjet, to catch the babies, Nephthys takes position behind, whilst Heqet accelerates the birth. Now Isis says: “May you, the one who is User-Re-ef, be not too strong in her womb.”][ And the baby comes out quickly, a healthy child of one cubit in size. His bones are solid, his equipment of limbs being like gold. His headdress is made of real ]lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...
. After cutting the umbilical cord, purifying the baby and placing it in a brick-made bed, covered with soft sheets, Khnum makes the body strong. Meskhenet steps by and says: “This is a king who will exercise the rulership over the whole country!”[ After this, Isis stands again before Rededjet and says: “May you, whose name is ]Sahure
Sahure (also Sahura, meaning "He who is close to Re") was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the second ruler of the Fifth Dynasty (c. 2465 – c. 2325 BC). He reigned for about 13 years in the early 25th century BC during the Old Kingdom Period. ...
, stop kicking in her womb.”[ And this baby, too, comes out quickly. It has the same extraordinary appearance as the baby before. And again Meskhenet blesses the child with the words: “This is a king who will exercise the rulership over the whole country!”][ A third and last time Isis stands before Rededjet and says: “May you, whose name is Keku, stop being blind in her womb.”][ And the third baby is blessed by Meskhenet, too. Now the deities leave the room, meet Ra-User and say: “Oh joy! Three children were born to you!”][ Ra-User replies: “My ladies! What could I do for you? Give this ]barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...
to your porter, may you accept it as a gratuity, for making some beer
Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...
.”[ Khnum shoulders the jars of barley and the deities start turning home. On their way, Isis admonishes her companions with the words: “Haven't we come here for a good reason? What would that reason be, if we perform no ]miracle
A miracle is an event that is inexplicable by natural or scientific lawsOne dictionary define"Miracle"as: "A surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divin ...
to these children! There were nothing we could tell to their father who made us come.″[ The deities create three lordly crowns for the children and hide them in the jars of barley. Then they ]conjure
Conjure may be:
* a verb with a range of common meanings; see its Wiktionary entry and Conjuration (disambiguation)
* a noun used regionally in the United States for Hoodoo
* the name of a 2000 poetry collection by Michael Donaghy
See also
*
* ...
a downpour, as a reason to turn back to Ra-User's house. They say to Ra-User: “Please store the barley in a sealed storeroom for us until we come back from making music in the north.”[ And the jars with barley are locked in a storeroom.
Some weeks later, Rededjet asks her maidservant: “Is our house prepared with all good things?”][ The maidservant answers: “It is prepared with every good thing, except some jars of beer. They were not brought yet.”][ Rededjet inquires: “Why is this not so, that the jars with beer were brought?”][ And the maidservant says: “There is nothing you could produce it with, except the barley of those musicians, the barley that is stored and sealed away.”][ Rededjet orders: “Go and take some, Ra-User will replace it when he comes home.”][ And the maidservant opens the storeroom and all of a sudden she hears music, celebrations, and cheering from afar - its festive mood typical for a royal enthroning feast. The maid is baffled and tells everything to Rededjet. Rededjet enters the room too and also hears the festive noises. Now nosy she puts her ears on every box and jar, until she finds that the noises are coming from the jars of the musicians. Recognising the situation, Rededjet tells everything to Ra-User and they both spend the rest of the day celebrating.
One day Rededjet is bickering with the maidservant, who is punished with beating. Infuriated, the maidservant says: “Is it because of that? Is it really because of the three kings you gave birth to? I will go to file charges with the king of Lower- and ]Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
, Khufu, justified!”[ The maidservant leaves the house and goes to her elder brother. He is sitting beside his mother, binding ]flax
Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...
and yarn
Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufact ...
. When he sees his sister, he says: “Where do ye go to, lil' sister?”[ And the maidservant tells him what she is up to. The brother says: “Shall it truly be done to come to me just to make me sup with betrayal?”][ He becomes angry and beats her, too. The maidservant now goes away to get some water and a ]crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
snatches her. The brother goes to Rededjet to tell her what happened. Rededjet sits on the threshold, crying. The brother says: “What are you crying about, mistress?”[ Rededjet answers: “It's about this little girl that grew up in this house. Look, she went to go to file charges ..ref name=VML>The text is lost at this spot because of damage to the papyrus; see: Verena M. Lepper: ''Untersuchungen zu pWestcar. Eine philologische und literaturwissenschaftliche (Neu-)Analyse''. In: ''Ägyptologische Abhandlungen'', Band 70. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, , page 51.] to the king.”[ And the brother replies: “See, she came to me to tell ..ref name=VML/> that I would go with her, but I beat her and sent her away. When she went off for some water a crocodile snatched her.”][Verena M. Lepper: ''Untersuchungen zu pWestcar. Eine philologische und literaturwissenschaftliche (Neu-)Analyse''. In: ''Ägyptologische Abhandlungen'', Band 70. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, , page 48 – 52, 103 & 308 – 310.][Miriam Lichtheim: ''Ancient Egyptian literature: a book of readings. The Old and Middle Kingdoms'', Band 1. University of California Press 2000, , page 215 – 220.][Adolf Erman: ''Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar I. Einleitung und Commentar''. In: ''Mitteilungen aus den Orientalischen Sammlungen''. Heft V, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 1890. page 12 – 14.]
Modern analysis
Historians and Egyptologists such as Adolf Erman and Kurt Heinrich Sethe
Kurt Heinrich Sethe (30 September 1869 – 6 July 1934) was a noted German Egyptologist and philologist from Berlin. He was a student of Adolf Erman. Sethe collected numerous texts from Egypt during his visits there and edited the '' Urkunden ...
once thought the tales of the Westcar Papyrus were mere folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
, despite their knowledge of the historical correctness about the beginning of the fifth dynasty by describing the succession of the kings Userkaf, Sahure, and Neferirkare. They also thought the novel of the ''Westcar Papyrus'' to be unfinished.[
Modern Egyptologists such as ]Verena Lepper
Verena of Zurzach, mostly just called ''Saint Verena'' (c. 260 – c. 320) is an early Christian consecrated virgin and hermit. She is especially venerated in Switzerland, where her cult is attested in Bad Zurzach, the reported place of he ...
and Miriam Lichtheim deny this view and they argue that Sethe and Erman may have just failed to see the profundity of the novel. They both evaluate the story as some kind of narrated moral
A moral (from Latin ''morālis'') is a message that is conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader, or viewer to determine for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. A ...
that deals with the theme of justice and what happens to traitors. Lepper points out, that the story of Rededjet might have been inspired by the historical figure of Khentkaus I
Khentkaus I, also referred to as Khentkawes, was a royal woman who lived in ancient Egypt during both the Fourth Dynasty and the Fifth Dynasty. She may have been a daughter of king Menkaure, the wife of both king Shepseskaf and king Userkaf (the ...
, who lived and may have ruled at the end of the Fourth dynasty.[ Khentkaus I is demonstrably entitled as “mother of two kings” and for a long time it has been thought that she may have borne Userkaf and Sahure. New evidence shows that at least Sahure had a different mother (]Neferhetepes
Neferhetepes (''nefer-hetep-es''; '' nfr-ḥtp- s,'' "Her Peace/Grace Is Beautiful") was an ancient Egyptian princess of the 4th Dynasty; a daughter of Pharaoh Djedefre who ruled between his father Khufu and his brother Khafre. Her mother was He ...
), the implication of the Westcar Papyrus that the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty had been siblings, therefore seems incorrect.[Tarek El Awady: ''The royal family of Sahure. New evidence'', in: M. Barta; F. Coppens, J. Krjci (Hrsg.): ''Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2005'', Prague 2006 , p. 192-98] Since in the Westcar Papyrus Rededjet was concerned with the role of a future king's mother, the parallels between the biographies of the two ladies aroused special attention. The role of the maidservant is evaluated as being a key figure for a modern phrasing of indoctrinations about morality and betrayal. The maidservant wants to betray her mistress and is punished by destiny. Destiny is depicted here as a crocodile who snatches the traitor. The objective of the tale is to ensure the beginning of a new dynasty and by making the only danger disappear, the author of the Westcar Papyrus artfully creates some kind of happy ending. Lepper sees a strong clue in the way the story is finalized that the novel of the Westcar Papyrus ends here. The episode in which the crocodile snatches a traitor, is repeated several times, just as a refrain
A refrain (from Vulgar Latin ''refringere'', "to repeat", and later from Old French ''refraindre'') is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in poetry — the "chorus" of a song. Poetic fixed forms that feature refrains include the vi ...
, which is a typical writing element used in ancient Egyptian documents to close a chapter or text.[Verena M. Lepper: ''Untersuchungen zu pWestcar. Eine philologische und literaturwissenschaftliche (Neu-)Analyse''. ''Ägyptologische Abhandlungen'', Band 70. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2008, , page 121 – 123, 146 – 148 & 298 – 302.][
]
Archaeological basis
In 2009, archaeological discoveries in Abusir, the royal necropolis of the Fifth Dynasty, have established that Neferirkare was in fact Sahure's son (who was Userkaf's son). Egyptologists now believe that the story of Rededjet is based on a conflation of two historical royal women named Khentkaus. The first one, Khentkaus I
Khentkaus I, also referred to as Khentkawes, was a royal woman who lived in ancient Egypt during both the Fourth Dynasty and the Fifth Dynasty. She may have been a daughter of king Menkaure, the wife of both king Shepseskaf and king Userkaf (the ...
, lived during the Fourth Dynasty and may have given birth to two kings, while the second one, Khentkaus II
Khentkaus II ( 2475 BC – 2445 BC) was a royal woman who lived in Ancient Egypt. She was a wife of Egyptian king Neferirkare Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty. She was the mother of two kings, Neferefre and Nyuserre Ini.Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton, The ...
, was the mother of two Fifth Dynasty kings, Neferefre and Nyuserre Ini
Nyuserre Ini (also Niuserre Ini or Neuserre Ini; in Greek known as Rathurês, ''Ῥαθούρης'') was an Ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the sixth ruler of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. He is credited with a reign of 24 to 35 ye ...
. The supposition is that when Nyuserre Ini was on the throne, he revived the cult of the Khentkaus I, as the similarities between both women provided him with a genealogical link relating him to his Fourth Dynasty forebears.
Egyptologist John Nolan believes that the mirroring position of the character in the story and association with the two royal women was emphasised so that Nyuserre Ini could legimitise his rule after the troubled times surrounding Neferefre's death. It could identify him with a third king inserted into what should become a legendary tale of prophecy, although that did not correlate with the historical records of each woman.
References
External links
Transcription and translating of Papyrus Westcar (Berlin Papyrus 3033) into English by the transcription of A. M. Blackman (1988)
(PDF-File)
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