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 ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA
ANALECTA
————— 241 —————

PROCEEDINGS OF THE
TENTH INTERNATIONAL
CONGRESS OF EGYPTOLOGISTS

University of the Aegean, Rhodes

22-29 May 2008

Volume I

edited by

P. kousoulis and n. lazaridis

Peeters
Leuven – Paris – bristol, CT
2015

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
© 2015, Peeters Publishers & Department of Oriental Studies
Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven/Louvain (Belgium)
All rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form.
ISBN 978-90-429-2550-2
D/2015/0602/76
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: ARCHAEOLOGY
J.R. Anderson and Salah eldin Mohamed Ahmed
Five Years of Excavations at Dangeil, Sudan: A New Amun Temple of
the Late Kushite Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
M.-P. Aubry, W.A. Berggren, C. Dupuis, E. Poorvin, H. Ghaly, D. Ward,
C. King, R. O’Brian Knox, Kh. Ouda and W. Fathy Hassan
TIGA: A Geoarchaeologic Project in the Theban Necropolis, West Bank,
Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
B. Bader
A Late Middle Kingdom Settlement at Tell el-Dab‘a and its Potential . . . 45
G. Bąkowska
Meroitic Pottery from Napata. The Hellenistic Influence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
H. Barnard
The Study of Eastern Desert Ware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
N. Billing and J.M. Rowland
Recently Discovered Blocks in the Central Delta Village of Kom el-Ahmar,
Minuf. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
J. Budka
The Asasif Revisited: New Results from the Austrian Concession . . . . . . 111
J. Budka
Festival Pottery of the New Kingdom: The Case of Elephantine. . . . . . . . 131
N. Castellano
Les nécropoles d’Oxyrhynchos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
R. Czerner
Architecture of the Temple of Tuthmosis III at Deir el-Bahari. Some
Remarks on the Hypostyle Hall: Study on Architectural Elements of the
Roof Structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Z. De Kooning
Preliminary Report on the Ceramological Corpus of the Survey in al-Shaykh
Sa‘id South . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
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C. Fantaoutsaki
New Evidence on the Sanctuary of Isis in the Ancient City of Rhodes. . . 189
J.M. Galán
Excavations at the Courtyard of the Tomb of Djehuty (TT 11) . . . . . . . . . 207
Z. Hawass
The Egyptian Expedition in the Valley of the Kings Excavation Season 2,
2008-2009: Part 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
I. Incordino
Royal Monuments of the Third Dynasty: A Re-examination of the Archae-
ological Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
M. Jones
The Temple Palace of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu: An Archaeological
Approach to its Preservation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
A.A. Krol
“White Walls” of Memphis at Kom Tuman. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
M.J. López-Grande and E. de Gregorio
Pottery Vases from a Deposit with Flower Bouquets Found at Dra Abu
el-Naga. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
M.H. Trindade Lopes and T.R. Pereira
The Palace of Apries (Memphis/Kôm Tumân): Brief Report of the Fifth
Campaign (April 2008). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
S.T. Basilico and S.A. Lupo
Function of Area II in Tell el-Ghaba, North Sinai, through its Pottery Evi-
dence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
M. Müller
Kalksteinpuzzle in Per-Ramses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
M. Mascort
L’Osireion d’Oxyrhynchos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
A. Niwiński
A Mysterious Tomb at Deir el-Bahari. Revelations of the Excavations of
the Polish-Egyptian Cliff Mission above the Temples of Hatshepsut and
Thutmosis III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
M.C. Pérez Die
Ehnasya el Medina (Herakleopolis Magna). Excavations 2004-2007 at the
Necropolis of the First Intermediate Period / Early Middle Kingdom . . . . 393

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E. Pons Mellado
Saite Tomb n° 14 at the Archaeological Site of Oxyrhynchus (el Bahnasa).411
C. Price
East of Djoser: Preliminary Report of the Saqqara Geophysical Survey
Project, 2007 Season. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
R. Schiestl
Locating the Cemeteries of the Residential Elite of the Thirteenth Dynasty
at Dahshur. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
F. Schmitt
La semence des pierres: le dépôt de fondation dans l’Égypte ancienne. . . 443
N. Shirai, W. Wendrich and R. Cappers
An Archaeological Survey in the Northeastern Part of the Fayum. . . . . . . 459
Z.E. Szafrański
King Hatshepsut from the Deir el-Bahari Temple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
P. Verlinden
“Tombs for the Tombless”: A Study of Children and Burial Space in the
Dakhla Oasis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487
G. Vörös
Egyptian Temple Architecture in the Light of the Hungarian Excavations
in Egypt (1907-2007) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
A. Wodzińska
Tell er-Retaba: Ceramic Survey 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
S. Yoshimura and M. Baba
Recent Discoveries of Intact Tombs at Dahshur North: Burial Customs of
the Middle and New Kingdoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545
C.S. Zerefos, S.N. Ambrazeys, H. Badawy and E. Xirotyri-Zerefou
Past and Present Geophysical Threats at the Great City of Alexandria . . . 557
C. Ziegler
Nouvelles découvertes à Saqqara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569

PART II: ROYAL IDEOLOGY AND SOCIETY

S. Agapov
Soziale Strukturen und wirtschaftliche Aktivitäten in Gebelein zur Zeit der
4.-5. Dynastie (nach Angaben der Gebelein-Papyri). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

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S. Allam
A Field for Interdisciplinary Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
S. Caramello
Aramaic-Speaking People in Egypt: Religion and Ethnicity. . . . . . . . . . . . 605
J. Cashman
The Scribal Palette as an Elite Gift in New Kingdom Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . 615
G. Cavillier
From the Mediterranean Sea to the Nile: New Perspectives and Researches
on the Sherden in Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 631
G. Criscenzo-Laycock
The Nome: Naturally Occuring Local Unit, or Artificial Device of the
State? A Case Study of the Fourteenth Upper Egyptian Nome . . . . . . . . . 639
A.J. de Wit
Enemies of the State: Perceptions of “Otherness” and State Formation in
Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 649
H. Diaz Rivas
Widowhood in Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 669
Sh. El-Menshawy
Aspects of the Office of Temple Gardener in Ancient Egypt (Reconsid-
eration of the Recently Published Stela TN. 20.3.25.3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
A. El Shahaway
Les «individus» qui établissent l’ordre cosmique: un aspect de la dévolution
de prérogatives royales dans les tombes thébaines du Nouvel Empire. . . . 693
C.J. Eyre
Economy and Society in Pharaonic Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 707
M. Farouk
A Timeline of the Old Kingdom Officials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 727
M. Gathy
La peinture thébaine sous le règne d’Amenhotep II: étude d’une création
artistique comme reflet du contexte historique et socioculturel de l’époque.741
B. Hayden
Demotic “Marriage Documents” as Evidence for the Perception and Use
of Coinage among Egyptians in the Ptolemaic Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
K.A. Kóthay
Duties and Composition of the Personnel of the Cults at Lahun. . . . . . . . . 763

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M. Lianou
The Foundations of Royal Military Power in Early Ptolemaic Egypt. . . . . 777
G. Menéndez
Foreigners in Deir el-Medina during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties.791
J. Moje
The Demotic Tomb Stelae from Dandara. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 805
M. Minas-Nerpel
Ptolemaic Queens in Egyptian Temple Reliefs: Intercultural Reflections of
Political Authority, or Religious Imperatives?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 809
M. Nuzzolo
Sun Temples and Pyramid Texts: The King’s Progress in the Evolution of
his Cult . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823
M. Orriols-Llonch
Semen Ingestion and Oral Sex in Ancient Egyptian Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
F. Payraudeau
La situation politique de Tanis sous la XXVème dynastie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 849
D. Stefanović
The hkrt-nswt on the Monuments of the Ꜣtw n tt hkꜢ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 861
D. Sweeney
Masculinity, Femininity and the Spirituality of Work at Deir el-Medîna. . 873
K. Szpakowska
Infancy in a Rural Community: A Case Study of Early Childhood at Lahun.885
A. von Lieven
Who was “King” (S)asychis? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 899
A.P. Zingarelli
Comments on the Egyptian Term whyt: Family or Quasi-Village?. . . . . . 909

PART III:  BELIEF SYSTEM AND RITUAL

B. Arquier
Décans nocturnes et décans diurnes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923
J. Assmann
The “Structure” of Ancient Egyptian Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935

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J.A. Belmonte, M. Shaltout and M. Fekri

Astronomy and Landscape in Ancient Egypt. Temple Alignments and Impli-
cations for Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 951
R. Bussmann
Changing Cultural Paradigms: From Tomb to Temple in the Eleventh
Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 971
E. Constas
Une lecture de la façade du tombeau de Petosiris. Les piliers d’ante:
approche sémiologique. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 987
D. Czerwik
The Afterlife Beliefs in the Sixth-Dynasty Private Inscriptions . . . . . . . . . 1003
M. Dolinska
The Bird at the Back of the Atef Crown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1017
K. Lahn Dumke
Some Reflections on the Function of a Particular Triad Constellation in
New Kingdom Religious Iconography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1041
Kh. Elgawady
Die Schranken in den ägyptischen Tempeln der griechisch-römischen Zeit.1053
A. el-Tayeb Sayed
Coffin Texts Spell 823 and the Rites of Passage: The Archaeological
Context of the Coffin of Mentuhotep. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1073
F. Feder
Egyptian Mortuary Liturgies in the Papyri of the Ptolemaic Period. . . . . . 1083
A. Gaber
Some Snake Deities from the Temple of Edfu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093
K. Griffin
Links between the rekhyt and Doorways in Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . 1115
N. Guilhou
La constellation de la tortue: proposition d’identification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1131
S. Tower Hollis
Hathor, Mistress of Byblos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1143
L.J. Kinney
The (w)nwn Funerary Dance in the Old Kingdom and its Relationship to
the Dance of the mww. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1153

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Y. Koenig
The Papyrus of the Seven Utterances of the Goddess Mehet Weret. . . . . . 1167
L. Díaz-Iglesias Llanos
The Role of Osiris in the Mythological Cycle Devised around Heracleopolis
Magna and its Territory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1173
R. Lucarelli
Ancient Egyptian Demons: The Evidence of the Magical and Funerary
Papyri of the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. . . . . . . . . 1187
L. Martzolff
L’adaptation d’un rituel sur les murs d’un temple à la période tardive:
l’exemple du rituel divin journalier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1195
A. Pries
Standard Rituals in Change – Patterns of Tradition from the Pyramid Texts
to Roman Times . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1211
G. Schreiber
Crocodile Gods on a Late Group of Hypocephali. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1225
J.M. Serrano
Nouvelles données concernant le rituel de l’Ouverture de la Bouche: la
tombe de Djehouty (TT 11) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1237
R. Sousa and T. Canhão
Some Notes on Sinuhe’s Flight: The Heart as a God’s Voice . . . . . . . . . . 1247
C. Wade
Sarcophagus Circle: The Goddesses in the Tomb. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259
D.A. Warburton
The New Kingdom Solar Theology in Scandinavia? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1271
A. Wüthrich
Un exemple de l’évolution des concepts funéraires à la Troisième Période
Intermédiaire: le chapitre 166pleyte du Livre des Morts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1281

PART IV: LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND EPIGRAPHY

E.M. Ciampini, F. Contardi and G. Rosati

Hathor Temple Project: The Epigraphic Survey at Philae (2006). . . . . . . . 1293
D. Cilli
Funny Signs, a New Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1307

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M. Dessoles et V. Euverte
Projet Rosette: une assistance informatique pour l’étudiant, l’épigraphiste
et le philologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1317
C. Di Biase-Dyson
Two Characters in Search of an Ending: The Case of Apophis and Seqenenre.1323
B. Egedi
Greek Loanwords and Two Grammatical Features of Pre-Coptic Egyptian. 1333
J. Gee
Textual Criticism and Textual Corruption in Coffin Texts 131-142. . . . . . 1345
T. Gillen
Thematic Analysis and the Third Person Plural Suffix Pronoun in the
Medinet Habu Historical Inscriptions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1351
R. Jasnow
“From Alexandria to Rakotis”. Progress, Prospects and Problems in the
Study of Greco-Egyptian Literary Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1363
F. Kammerzell
Egyptian Verb Classifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1395
R. Landgráfová and H. Navrátilová
Texts from the Period of Crisis. A Database of the First Intermediate
Period and Middle Kingdom Biographical Texts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1417
E.-S. Lincke
The “Determinative” is Prescribed and Yet Chosen. A Systematic View
on Egyptian Classifiers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1425
M.Á. Molinero Polo
L’identification des Textes des Pyramides des tombes de Haroua (TT 37)
et de Pabasa (TT 279). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1435
L.D. Morenz
Kultursemiotik der Alphabetschrift. Ein mentalitätsgeschichtlicher Rekon-
struktionsversuch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1447
K. Muhlestein
Those Who Speak Rebellion: Refining our Understanding of the Words
Used to Describe “Rebellion” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1473
F. Naether
Magic in the Internet: Investigation by Genre in Trismegistos. . . . . . . . . . 1485

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J.R. Pérez-Accino
Who is the Sage Talking about? Neferty and the Egyptian Sense of History.1495
S. Polis and J. Winand
Structuring the Lexicon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1503
J. Winand, S. Polis and S. Rosmorduc
Ramses: An Annotated Corpus of Late Egyptian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1513
V. Ritter
La littérature sapientiale du Nouvel Empire. Un état de la question. . . . . . 1523
A. Roccati
Alien Speech: Some Remarks on the Language of the Kehek. . . . . . . . . . 1531
H. Satzinger
What Happened to the Voiced Consonants of Egyptian?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1537
I. Cordón Solà-Sagalés
Four Daughters of the King from the Second Dynasty: Epigraphic and
Iconographic Analysis of the Stelae of Hepetkhenmet, Satba, Shepsetipet (?)
and Sehefner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1547
J. Stauder-Porchet
Relations between Verbs and Simple Prepositions in Earlier Egyptian . . . 1559
U. Verhoeven
Literarische Graffiti in Grab N13.1 in Assiut/Mittelägypten. . . . . . . . . . . . 1569
K. Vértes
Ten Years’ Epigraphy in Theban Tomb 65. Documentation of the Late
Twentieth Dynasty Wall Paintings in the Tomb of Imiseba. . . . . . . . . . . . 1577

PART V: ART AND VITREOUS MATERIAL

K.E. Bandy
Scenes of Fish and Fishing in Middle Egypt: An Examination of Artistic
Continuity and Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1589
E. Bernhauer
Zyperns Hathorkapitelle aus altägyptischer Sicht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1603
M. Casanova, G. Pierrat-Bonnefois, P. Quenet, V. Danrey and D. Lacambre
Lapis Lazuli in the Tôd Treasure: A New Investigation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1619

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S. Einaudi
Le Livre des Morts dans la cour de la tombe d’Haroua (TT 37): nouvelles
découvertes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1641
L. Evans
Animal Behaviour in Egyptian Art: A Brief Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653
S. Grallert
Integrated Sets of Model Vessels in Late Period Burials from Lower Egypt.
A Preliminary Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1667
M.C. Guidotti
Essai de classification de la céramique d’Antinoopolis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1681
A. Milward Jones
Faience Bowls of the Late New Kingdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1693
T. Kikuchi
The Decoration Program in the Burial Chamber of the Royal Tomb of
Amenophis III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1709
É. Liptay
Panther-Head on the Cloak. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1719
N.C. McCreesh, A.P. Gize and A.R David
Pitch Black: The Black Coated Mummies, Coffins and Cartonnages from
Ancient Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1731
S. Medeksza, R. Czerner and G. Bąkowska
Forms and Decoration of Graeco-Roman Houses from Marina el-Alamein.1739
P.T. Nicholson
Glass and Vitreous Materials at Tell el-Amarna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1759
M. Panagiotaki, M. Tite and Y. Maniatis
Egyptian Blue in Egypt and Beyond: The Aegean and the Near East. . . . 1769
G. Pieke
Principles of Decoration: Concept and Style in the Mastaba of Mereruka
at Saqqara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1791
C. Raedler
Potsherd Scrapers and their Function at the Workshops of the Residence
at Piramesse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1807
J. Revez
Déconstruction intellectuelle et restitution monumentale: le temple d’Amon-
Rê de Karnak comme laboratoire d’idées. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1819

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 table of contents XV

G. Robins
The Flying Pintail Duck. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1833
N. Staring
Contextualizing Old Kingdom Elite Tomb Decoration: Fixed Rules versus
Personal Choice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1839
I. Stünkel
Analysing CT-Scans of a Mummy: The Amulets of Nesmin. . . . . . . . . . . 1849
G.J. Tassie
“I’m Osiris, No I’m Osiris, No I’m Osiris”: Hairstyles and the Afterlife. 1873
A. Woods
Five Significant Features in Old Kingdom Spear-Fishing and Fowling
Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1897
G. Xekalaki
The Royal Children as Signs: Reading New Kingdom Princely Iconography.1911

PART VI: EGYPT AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD

A. Altman
Was Ugarit ever Subordinated to the Eighteenth Dynasty Pharaohs?. . . . . 1925
N.D. Ayers
Egyptian Imitation of Mycenaean Pottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1935
K. Blouin
Mendès et les reines: reconsidération historique des mosaïques navales de
Thmouis (Alexandrie 21739 et 21736). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1951
P.A. Butz
Egyptian Stylistic Influence on Stoichedon and the Hekatompedon Inscrip-
tion at Athens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1961
L. Haguet
Ceci n’est pas l’Égypte: toponymes, monuments et mythes grecs en Égypte
dans la cartographie occidentale entre les XVIe et XVIIIe siècles. . . . . . . . 1975
A. Hassler
Mycenaean Pottery in Egypt Reconsidered: Old Contexts and New Results.1989
I. Hein
Cypriot and Aegean Features in New Kingdom Egypt: Cultural Elements
Interpreted from Archaeological Finds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1999

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 XVI table of contents

F. Höflmayer and A. Zdiarsky

Synchronising Egypt and the Aegean: A Radiocarbon-Based Approach. . 2015
S. Iskander
Merenptah and the Sea Peoples: A New Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2035
N. Lazaridis
A Description of the Project “Wisdom Sayings in Ancient Egyptian and
Greek Literature” and its Significance as a Comparative Study . . . . . . . . 2047
R. Müller-Wollermann
Ägypten in Iran. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2051
J. Phillips
Egyptian Amethyst in Mycenaean Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2057
J.-L. Podvin
Lampes à décor isiaque du littoral égéen d’Asie mineure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2071
T. Pommerening
Milch einer Frau, die einen Knaben geboren hat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2083
O.A. Vasilyeva
“Lost Child” of Isis: Towards the Problem of the Interpretatio Graeca of
the Osirian Myth in Texts of Later Antique and Christian Authors. . . . . . 2097

PART VII: CULTURAL HERITAGE AND MUSEOLOGY

A. Amenta
The Vatican Mummy Project. A Preliminary Report on the Restoration of
the Mummy of Ny-Maat-Re (MV 25011.6.1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2107
G. Andreu
News from the Louvre Museum. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2119
M. Hanna and M. Betrò
Exploring 3D Mapping Applications for the Risk Assessment and Monitoring
of Mural Paintings in Theban Tomb 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2127
J.-L. Bovot
Le catalogue des chaouabtis du Louvre: réflexions sur une publication. . . 2137
V.I. Chrysikopoulos
À l’aube de l’égyptologie hellénique et de la constitution des collections
égyptiennes: des nouvelles découvertes sur Giovanni d’Anastasi et Tassos
Néroutsos. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2147

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 table of contents XVII

E. David
A Louvre Museum Project: The Prosopographical Index of Monuments of
the Egyptian Department and its Publication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2163
C. De Simone
A Memorandum of Understanding between Egypt and Sudan in the Field
of Cultural Heritage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2167
A. Dodson
The Egyptian Coffins in the Collection of Bristol’s City Museum and Art
Gallery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2171
K. Exell
Innovation and Reaction: A Discussion of the Proposed Re-display of the
Egyptian Galleries at the Manchester Museum (UK) in the Context of
Consultative Curatorial Practice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2187
M. Helmy
Hidden Histories Project at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. 2199
M. Trapani
Kha’s Funerary Equipment at the Egyptian Museum in Turin: Resumption
of the Archaeological Study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2217
W. Wendrich, J. Dieleman and E. Waraksa
Ideas Concerning a New Egyptological Knowledge Base: The UCLA
Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2233

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 SEMEN INGESTION AND ORAL SEX IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEXTS

Marc ORRIOLS-LLONCH
(Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Copulation is the most recurrent sexual motif that appears in ancient Egyptian texts1.
In general terms it is referred to explicitly in the sacred texts through a specific verb,
and it is alluded to in an implicit manner in the literary texts by describing the action
without it being designed by a specific verb describing the sexual act. But Egyptian
texts also mention other kinds of sexual activities such as masturbation, semen inges-
tion and oral sex, the latter hardly ever studied and the reason for this paper. As it
happens with copulation, the ingestion of semen is documented explicitly and implic-
itly and in both cases it can be either a casual act or an intentional one. In this study I
will only treat the oral sex performed to a man, since up to the moment, no cases where
the object of the action is a woman have been identified.
The cases in which the semen ingestion is referred to in an implicit manner will be
analysed first. As it is well known, one of the creational methods of the demiurgic god
Atum is through masturbation2. It is already explicitly narrated in the Pyramid Texts:
“Atum is the one who came into being as masturbator in Heliopolis. He put his phallus
in his grasp, made an orgasm with it (and) the two siblings were born: Shu together
with Tefnut”3. In this period Atum was regarded as an androgynous divinity4 in spite

1
See S. SCHREIBER, Lexikograpische Untersuchungen zum sexuellen Wortschatz der Älten Ägypter,
(Köln, 1991) (unpublished Magisterarbeit); S. SCHREIBER, ‘Keusch wie kaum ein anderes Volk? Einige
Anmerkungen zum Sexual-Vokabular der alten Ägypter’, in: D. MENDEL and U. CLAUDI (eds.), Ägypten
im Afro-Orientalischen Kontext. Gedenkschrift Peter Behrens (Köln, 1991), 315-35. For copulation in the
Pyramid Texts see M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH, ‘Divine Copulation in the Pyramid Texts. A Lexical and Cultural
Approach’, in: J.C. GOYON and C. CARDIN (eds.), Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of
Egyptologists. Grenoble, 6-12 September 2004, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 150 (Leuven, 2007), 1421-7.
2
On different creational solar methods see S. BICKEL, La cosmogonie égyptienne avant le Nouvel
Empire, Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 134 (Fribourg, 1994), 71-111.
3
PT 527 Pyr 1248a-1258cPMN; tm pw Ìpr m íwsw ír=f m ˆIwnw wd.n=f Ìnn=f m Ìf¨=f ír=f n∂mmt
ím=f ms(w) ztíí sntíí Sw Ìn¨ Tfnwt.
4
On androgyny in Egyptian divinities see L. TROY, Patterns of Queenship in Ancient Egyptian Myth
and History, Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 14 (Uppsala, 1986),
15-20 and J. ZANDEE, ‘The Birth-Giving Creator-God in Ancient Egypt’, in: A.B. LLOYD (ed.), Studies in
Pharaonic Religion and Society in Honour of J. Gwyn Griffiths, EES Occasional Publications 8 (London,
1992), 169-85. On Atum’s androgyny see M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH, ‘The Hand of God. Atum’s Masturbation
in the Heliopolitan Cosmogony’, in: L.M. DE ARAUJO and J. SALES (eds.), Proceedings of the Second
International Congress for Young Egyptologists. Erotica, Erotism and Sexuality in Ancient Egypt (Lisbon,
2009), 346-54.
840 M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH

of being physically imagined as a man5. His being was man-woman, it was a coinci-
dentia oppositorum where all opposites converged in order to represent totality6. But
as it is common in most androgynous divinities, that state was not perennial and so these
divinities undergo de-androgynization activities which require a partner from the oppo-
site sex in order to fulfil their work7: the creation. This is precisely the case of Atum.
As it has been seen, throughout the Old Kingdom he was able to create on his own, but
from the First Intermediate Period onward the presence of a feminine partner Djeretef,
literally “his hand”, is documented for the first time in some sarcophagus from Asiut8.
From that moment on, and most of all in the Coffin Texts, Atum needs her to create his
offspring. This change was regarded by the Egyptians not only as a doubling of Atum’s
sex but also as a change in the sexual creational procedure of the demiurgic god. This
way, whereas the creational act was regarded as a masculine masturbation in the Pyramid
Texts, from the Coffin Texts onward the demiurgic copulates with his hand using in most
cases the verb nk to express this action9. From that moment on no other term was used
to express the action of copulation in Atum’s demiurgic context, which leads us to
conclude that although to the western way of thinking the action can be the same, the
Egyptians did not regard it in the same way. The divinity copulates with his hand,
which means that the action takes place between two beings, one male and one female.
The consequence to all this is that from the Coffin Texts onward, new protagonists
appear in the solar creational act, going from the former sequence phallus-grasp-
orgasm10 to the new one phallus-hand-orgasm-mouth-spit. This succession appears
perfectly clear in CT 77, CT 80 and in the late Bremner-Rhind papyrus.
In CT 77 it is said: “I am this ba of Shu … which Atum ejected with his hand.
He made an orgasm falling11 the sperm in his mouth. (Then) he spat me as Shu together
with Tefnut, who came forth after me”12. The text indicates clearly that the sperm,
once it has been ejected, is aimed at the mouth of the god13. Special attention must be

5
The determinative in the word íwsw clearly shows an action performed by a man: in P and M,
and in N.
6
Many epithets of the divinity make reference to his totality: tmm (CT [141] II 174e), “the Complete
One”; or tm m Tm (PT 537 Pyr 1298b), “complete as Atum”; etc. Even his own name, Tm, understood
as the “Complete One” or the “Finished One” aims to androgyny.
7
M. ELIADE, Mefistófeles y el androgino (Barcelona, 2001), 108.
8
J. VANDIER, ‘Iousâas et (Hathor)-Nébet-Hétépet’, Revue d’Égyptologie 16 (1964), 60.
9
ORRIOLS-LLONCH, in: Proceedings of the Second International Congress, 347.
10
PT 527 Pyr 1248a-1258c. In the Pyramid Texts the spit is not a part of this sequence but it is a motive
a part.
11
As Zandee states (J. ZANDEE, ‘Sargtexte, Spruch 77 (Coffin Texts II 18)’, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische
Sprache und Altertumskunde 100 [1973], 72) the semen falls down into the mouth. Cf. Wb III 320, 8-10;
Ìr m ‘auf einen Ort niederfallen’.
12
CT [77] II 18a-e; ínk b pw n Sw … st(w).n Tm m ∂rít=f ír=f n∂mmt stp Ìr(.w) m r()=f íss.n=f wí
m Sw Ìn¨ Tfnt prt Ìr-s=í.
13
Some scholars, as S. Bickel, consider that the fluid stp falls down of the mouth and not of the phallus:
‘la chose exquise (var.: de sa bouche) tomba de sa bouche’, BICKEL, La cosmogonie égyptienne, 75. See
 SEMEN INGESTION AND ORAL SEX IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEXTS 841

paid to the determinative (D152) of the word stp, “sperm”14, which symbolises a
mouth from which a liquid is falling out15. Usually the terms referring to semen are
determined by D52 ( ) or D53 ( )16, which leads us to believe that an explanation
for this relation mouth-semen has to be found. In this same spell, in the sarcophagus
B1Bo, the word stp is followed by an indirect genitive with r() indicating that the
semen belongs to the mouth17. From this it can be concluded that the only possible
destination for Atum’s semen is Atum’s own mouth, with the objective of it being
gestated inside her and later be born through a spit.
Also in the Coffin Texts, in CT 80, the same sequence of events is repeated: “I am
this ba of Shu which Atum ejected18. I am bound for my place of eternity. I am the
eternal who gives birth millions of times19. (I am) the repetition of Atum’s spit, which
came out of his mouth (after) he used his hand”20.
Finally, the same sequence of events can be found in different fragments of the
Bremner-Rhind papyrus. This time it says: “I copulated with my fist and I copulated
with my hand. I spat with my own mouth. I spat Shu and expectorated Tefnut21. […]
After I copulated with my fist and my orgasm22 came to me in my hand, falling23 the
semen in my mouth. (Then) I spat Shu (and) expectorated Tefnut”24.
As it has been seen, both the hand and the mouth play an important role in the
conception of Shu and Tefnut, although it is difficult to discern which specific activity
each member performs. In CT 75 Shu narrates his being born from the nose of the
demiurge, denying by doing so other creational methods. This one says: “He did not
give birth (msí) to me with his mouth, he did not conceive (íwr) me with his fist”25,

too J. YOYOTTE, La naissance du monde selon l’Égypte ancienne, Sources orientales 1 (Paris, 1959), 47,
8 and R.O. FAULKNER, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, vol. I (Warminster, 1973), 80.
14
AnLex 78.3936, HL 1, 781.
15
The same occurrence appears in the word mtwt, “semen”, in CT [27] I 79g (MC105), and in
pBremner-Rhind 27’13; 28’1, 28’9, 31’7 and 31’10, at this time with the determinative D26 ( ), indicat-
ing the same action.
16
See for example mtwt (Wb II, 169, 1-8), styt (Wb IV, 348, 2), ¨¨ (Wb I, 166, 18), ¨¨t (HL 1, 129),
mw (Wb II, 52, 12) or mwy (Wb II, 53, 4).
17
CT [77] II 18d, “falling the sperm of his mouth in his mouth”, stp n r()=f Ìr(.w) m r()=f.
18
Variants in B1C, B2L and B1P, “I am who Atum ejected” ínk qm(w) Tm. B1C and B1P in third
person.
19
Another interpretation could be “who bore Hehu-gods”.
20
CT [80] II 31b-f; ínk b pw n Sw qm(w) Tm íw=í r st=í nt ∂t ínk pw nÌÌ ms ÎÌw wÌm.w íss n Tm
pr m r()=f dí=f ∂rít=f.
21
pBremner-Rhind 26’24-27’1; h=í m Ìf¨=í dy.n=í m drt=í Ìr.n=í m r=í ∂s=í íss.n=í m Sw tfn.n=í
n Tfnwt.
22
On the interpretation of íb as orgasm see ORRIOLS-LLONCH, in: Proceedings of the Second International
Congress, 349-350.
23
See footnote 10.
24
This paragraph appears twice in the same text; pBremner-Rhind 28’27 and 29’2; m-Ìt h.n=í / hty.
n=í m Ìf¨=í íí n=í íb=í m drt=í ¨¨ Ìr(.w) m r=í íss.n=í m Sw tf.n=í m Tfnwt.
25
CT [75] I 354c; n ms=f wí m r()=f n íwr=f wí m Ìf¨=f.
842 M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH

from which can be concluded, from the verbs used, that the hand or in this case the
fist is the real agent of the conception, whereas the mouth performs the action of giv-
ing birth. On the other hand, in CT 245 the deceased identifies himself with Shu, and
this one identifies himself with the sperm of the creator: “Look at me, I have come
(and) I have brought adorations (and) purifications for you from the Pure Land, because
I am this semen of yours which you gestated (íwr) in your mouth (and) that you gave
birth to (msí) with your fist (when making) an orgasm26”. Here the functionality of
each part differs from the one seen before, performing the mouth íwr and the hand msí.
Apparently it seems that an overview reading could be contradictory and senseless, but
special attention has to be paid to the narrator of the action. In CT 75 it is Shu who
relates his birth, although in this sense in a negative way, which is why he says he was
conceived by the fist and given birth by the mouth. In the second case the narrator is
also Shu but here what is being related is the creation of the semen, which in prospect
will be he. This way, the semen is given birth to by the phallus through the action of
the fist to be deposited and gestated in the mouth. These two mythems can be codified
into a logical sequence understanding that the phallus, thanks to the fist, gives birth to
the semen, which falls in the mouth and this last one at first takes care of the gestation
and later gives birth to it. As stated by several authors27, the mouth is a simile of the
maternal uterus.
Apart from the most sacred context we find two more examples of semen ingestion,
both of them in “literary”28 texts. The first one is found in the Contendings of Horus
and Seth, when Isis, in order to avenge the sodomization that Seth performs over her
son Horus, decides to insert the semen of Horus in the lettuce that Seth eats. The text
narrates “then Seth came as he did every day and he ate the lettuce that he usually ate.
Then, he became pregnant with the semen of Horus”29. Another very similar case,
although this one a little bit more metaphorical, is found in the tale of the Two Brothers,
when in the second part of the story the king takes Bata’s wife from him. This one,
under the appearance of a bull, gets into the royal quarters and is killed at the king’s
wife request. Two drops of blood from the bull came to rest on both jambs of the royal
door, and two perseas were born from them. Again, the king’s wife makes the trees be
cut down and at this moment it is said: “The royal spouse, the favourite one, was

26
CT [245] III 334h-335a; mk wí íí.k(w)í ín.n=í n=k í(w) w¨b(w) m t w¨b n-ntt ínk ís nw n mtwt=k
íwrt.n=k m r()=k mst.n=k m Ìf¨=k m (írt) n∂mmt.
27
See for example ZANDEE, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 100 (1973), 72 or
BICKEL, La cosmogonie égyptienne, 74.
28
Both texts are mythological tales by what his profanity could be questioned. A good term to define
my conception on this kind of text is the struck one by J. López as ‘mythological folklore’, J. LÓPEZ,
Cuentos y fábulas del Antiguo Egipto (Madrid, 2005), 162.
29
pChester Beatty I, rº 11’10; ¨Ì¨.n SwtÌ Ìr íy m py=f sÌr n r¨ nb íw=f wnm n ¨bw nty sw wnm m-dwn
¨Ì¨.n=f ¨Ì¨ íwr(.w) m t mtwt n Îr; A.H. GARDINER, Late-Egyptian Stories, Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca I
(Bruxelles, 1932), 52-3.
 SEMEN INGESTION AND ORAL SEX IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEXTS 843

observing him. Then a splinter flew (and) fell into the favourite’s mouth. She swallowed
it (and) became pregnant in a short moment”30. As it has been stated, this narration is
not as explicit as the previous one, and it is to be understood, due to the consequence
it has, that the persea splinter which falls into the woman’s mouth is a metaphor for
the semen. The sexual connotation of the fragment can be highlighted by a new set of
words when using the verb pwy “to jump or fly”31, which when determined by the
phallus, it means “to mount or copulate”32. In both cases the semen ingestion appears
indirectly, the first one through its collocation among the lettuce and the second in a
totally casual manner. But both fragments have something in common, the pregnancy
(íwr) after the ingestion.
The second way of referring to the ingestion of semen is using a specific verb to
narrate the action. In this sense, the two verbs which are subject to study are nwÌ and
Ìnp, none of them appearing in the main Egyptology dictionaries in the meaning that
is of interest to us. The first verb we are going to deal with is nwÌ. The fact that this
word only appears in a few passages, makes it difficult to establish its meaning accu-
rately. Main Egyptology dictionaries acknowledge this indirectly either by omitting
the word or by providing either generic or doubtful meanings. Erman and Grapow,
clearly by context and due to the obvious meaning of the determinative, suggest that
the word refers to a sexual activity, which is not well considered, but they do not say
which one it is33. On the other hand, Hannig, in his different dictionaries, translates
the term as “Begatten”34, noting that it is a doubtful translation.
The detailed analysis of chapter 125 from the Book of the Dead may be essential to
draw convincing conclusions about the meaning of nwÌ. In the negative confessions,
the deceased states not having committed a series of actions against the maat in order
to be able to overcome the psychostasia and live in aeterno in the afterlife. In one
of them the deceased denies having committed homosexual acts35, expressing in its

30
pOrbiney 18’3-18’5; ¨Ì¨.<n> ptr sw Ìmt-nsw t spsy wn.ín w¨ n ∂ Ìr pwy íw=f Ìr ¨q m r() n t
spsy wn.[ín] st st Ìr ¨m=<f> íw st Ìr sps íwr m km n ¨t; GARDINER, Late-Egyptian Stories, 28.
31
The verb p is documented in the New Kingdom as py and pwy with the meaning ‘to jump or fly’;
see Wb I, 494, 1-12.
32
Different spellings concern to the same verb py (Wb I, 497, 13-4) with the same sexual meaning:
pwy (Wb I, 506) and py (Wb I, 502). See too SCHREIBER, Lexikograpische Untersuchungen, 23-5 and
SCHREIBER, in: MENDEL and CLAUDI (eds.), Ägypten im Afro-Orientalischen Kontext, 321-2 and 327-8; and
M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH, ‘Léxico e iconografía erótica del antiguo Egipto. El coito a tergo’, in: A Trabajos
de Egiptología 5/2 (Tenerife, 2009), 123-37.
33
“Eine verpönte sexuelle Betätigung”, Wb II, 224, 1. See too A. BARUCQ and F. DAUMAS, Hymnes et
prières de l’Égypte Ancienne, Littératures Anciennes du Proche-Orient 10 (Paris, 1980), 401, bh.
34
HL 1, 399; HL 2, 461; and HL 3, 156.
35
On homosexuality in this passage see H. GOEDICKE, ‘Unrecognized Sportings’, Journal of the American
Research Center in Egypt 6 (1967), 101; R.B. PARKINSON, ‘Homosexual desire and Middle Kingdom
Literature’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 81 (1995), 61-2 and B. SCHUKRAFT, ‘Homosexualität im
Alten Ägypten’, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 36 (2007), 325-6.
844 M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH

longest form: “Oh, the-one-who-has-the-face-behind-himself, the one who comes out

the hole of the tomb! I have not nwÌ36, I have (not) copulated a sodomized”37. Most of
the authors disagree in their translation of this fragment, and they only agree due to the
determinative which is used, in the fact that this fragment refers to some type of sexual
activity. In some cases, as it happens with Ch. Maystre38 or E. Hornung39, this passage is
not even translated. On the other hand, E.A.W. Budge40, J.A. Wilson41 and P. Barguet42
translate “being pervert or depraved“. T.G. Allen43 translates it in a similar way. On their
part, M. Heerma van Voss44 and S. Schreiber45 translate it as “to masturbate”. Among
all possible solutions, none of them seem to be convincing enough. The first of the inter-
pretations, that of the Wörterbuch, seems too biased since it is dangerous to use the
word “perversion” when speaking about a foreign culture. On the other hand, the context
of the passage itself implies that it does not refer to a perversion but to some kind of action
against the maat. In reference to the interpretation of nwÌ as “to copulate”, it is totally
discarded, since in no ancient Egyptian texts the act of copulating is regarded per se as
an execrable act. This way, the option “to masturbate” seems to be the most correct
one, although it must be taken into account that, except for the creation of Atum in the
Pyramid Texts46, there is no passage showing a word referring to this action47.

36
Determinated in Pa, Ta, La, Pd, Ph, Id and Td; and in Cd, perhaps by error of the scribe.
37
BD 125, 27 (Aa); í Ìr=f Ì=f pr m tpÌt ∂t n nwÌ=í <n> nk=í nkk(w); E.A.W. BUDGE, The Book
of the Dead. The Chapters of Coming forth by Day. The Egyptian Texts According to the Theban Recension
in Hieroglyphic edited from Numerous Papyri with a translation, vocabulary, etc, vol. I (London, 1898),
256, and E. NAVILLE, Das Ägyptische Totenbuch der XVIII. bis XX. Dynastie, vol. 1 (Graz, 1971), 134.
On the rest of studied texts see E. NAVILLE, Das Ägyptische Totenbuch der XVIII. bis XX. Dynastie, vol. 2
(Graz, 1971), 302, 27.
38
“N n’a pas…”; C. MAYSTRE, Les Déclarations d’innocence (Livre des Morts, chapitre 125),
Recherches d’Archéologie, de Philologie et d’Histoire 8 (Cairo, 1937), 88.
39
“Ich habe nicht gleichgeschlechtlich verkehrt (?)”; E. HORNUNG, Das Totenbuch der Ägypter (Düs-
seldorf-Zürich, 1998), 238.
40
“I have not committed acts of impurity, neither have I lain with men”; BUDGE, The Book of the Dead,
369-70. On the other hand, Budge in his dictionary interprets the word as “to masturbate”, E.A.W. BUDGE,
An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, vol. I (New York, 1978), 355.
41
“I have not been perverted”; J.A. WILSON, ‘Egyptian Myths, Tales, and Mortuary Texts’, in:
J.B. PRITCHARD (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts relating to the Old Testament (Princeton, 1955), 35.
42
“Je n’ai été ni dépravé ni pédéraste”; P. BARGUET, Le livre des morts des anciens égyptiens. Intro-
duction, traduction, comentaire, Littératures Anciennes du Proche-Orient 1 (Paris, 1967), 161.
43
“I have not <done wrong sexually>, I have not practiced homosexuality”; T.G. ALLEN, The Egyptian
Book of the Dead. Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago, The Univer-
sity of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 82 (Chicago, 1960), 198.
44
“Ik heb niet gemasturbeerd”; M. HEERMA VAN VOSS, ‘Drie egyptische Geboden’, in: M.A. BEEK,
A.A. KAMPMAN, C. NIJLAND and J. RYCKMANS (eds.) Symbolae Biblicae et Mesopotamicae Francisco Mario
Theodoro de Liagre Böhl dedicatae, Studia Francisci Scholten Memoriae Dicata 4 (Leiden, 1973), 186.
45
“N. hat nicht onaniert”; SCHREIBER, in: MENDEL and CLAUDI (eds.), Ägypten im Afro-Orientalischen
Kontext, 320.
46
PT 527 Pyr 1248aPMN.
47
The rest of the documents where it appears it is narrated in an implicit manner. This way the context
is the only thing that makes the action which is being narrated clear as it happens in the Contendings of
Horus and Seth (pChester Beatty I, 11’7-11’8). As it has been seen in Atum’s cosmogony from the Middle
 SEMEN INGESTION AND ORAL SEX IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEXTS 845

On the other hand it is to be considered that as it has been seen, the onanism is a
creational action from the demiurgic god, and thus it is difficult to imagine it was
considered a sinful action. Thus so, special attention is to be paid to the suggestion
made by H. Goedicke48 in order to reach a conclusive solution. When comparing the
different meanings of verbs homophonous to nwÌ, we see that one of them refers to
“drink or be drunk”49; since in this case the term is determined by the phallus, it can
be directly related to oral sex. In his study on homosexuality, R. Parkinson50 seems to
accept Goedicke’s suggestion, although he states that the action would not imply the
relation with another man. However, a note should be made about this opinion. Most
of the Books of the Dead belong to men, and some of them to women, but this is of
no importance to the Egyptian funerary religion, since one and the others are Osiris,
an always masculine archetypal, in the funerary texts. Thus, the performer of the action
in the negative confessions is always the deceased, so it is always a male person.
Fellatio can only be performed on a male, so it would be unnecessary to refer to him
because he is already implicit in the action51. On the other hand, the reading of the two
sentences can be understood as a whole when interpreting that the object of the second
one is shared by the first. This way we would have “N has neither performed a fel-
latio nor copulated a sodomized”. A developed text that would possibly make this
theory sure appears in the document Pd52, where the verb nwÌ is followed by the
participle-object . As only the radicals are written here, so the verb is not
written in its usual form in this context, nkkw, it can be thought that it is either an
active or a passive participle. In the first case, it would refer to a “copulator”, male
because of the determinative, so he would be denying having performed fellatio to a
man who copulates. In the second case what would be denied is having performed
fellatio to a man who is repeatedly copulated (a nkkw53), a sodomized. This second
option is the most probable one in accordance with the rest of the texts alluding this
action.
It is also interesting to analyse a variant of this passage located in other documents.
In La it is said: “I have neither performed a fellatio, nor copulated a sodomized”54.
Once again, the action of nwÌ, this time in a verbal periphrasis of írí + infinitive, is
upon the nkkw. Still another variant can be found in document Pb, where Goedicke

Kingdom on also appears an act that for westerners may seem an onanism act, but for the Egyptians was
a copulation act performed with the hand or the fist.
48
GOEDICKE, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 6 (1967), 101.
49
Wb II, 224, 3-6.
50
PARKINSON, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 81 (1995), 61 n. 35.
51
In the Egyptian language the omission of the direct object is common when it is thought to be under-
stood, see G. LEFEBVRE, Grammaire de l’égyptien classique, Bibliothèque d’étude 12 (Le Caire, 1955), §593.
52
(n) nwÌ=í nk(kw) (n) nk=í nkk(w).
53
In BD 125, 27 (Te) it can also be found a mistake in the participle, being written only nk instead of
nkkw.
54
BD 125, 27 (La); n ír N nwÌ n nk=f n nk(kw).
846 M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH

interprets the term as nwy “water” and translates “I did not produce eja-
culations”, associating this action to a homosexual coitus analis55. This second inter-
pretation is more risky and imaginative, and bearing in mind that in the rest of the texts
the anal coitus is expressed by the verb nk, the most likely solution is the one of res-
tituting Ì, by omission of the scribe, and this way interpreting “I have not performed
a fellatio”56, assuming once again in comparison with the rest of the documentation
that the object of such action is a nkkw. In this way what would be punished is not the
action of performing fellatio, but the fact of performing a sexual act with a person of
the same masculine sex, be it oral (nwÌ) or anal sex (nk).
The same verb nwÌ is documented in a demiurgic context, this time associated with
the creational divinity Ptah. In pBerlin 3048 it is said: “Oh, we give praise to him,
light of day, lion of the night, the one who nwÌ in his beautiful person in his name of
maker of shapes”57. All the scholars interpret this paragraph as a copulation or mas-
turbation of the divinity with himself, which is highly likely since it is one of the
creational methods of the solar divinities to which Ptah could have had access. It is to
be considered, though, that this action, as it is represented here, is not documented in
any other Egyptian text, since as it has been seen, in the Old Kingdom the creational
act is presented as a masturbation performed by an androgynous divinity and after
this period it is considered as copulation between the divinity and his hand. It is so
that, according to the verb nwÌ, the most probable thing is that we are faced with an
auto-fellatio performed by the divinity in order to ingest the semen and in this way
give birth to his offspring58. In this case, exceptionally, one can rely on the iconogra-
phy to prove the truth in this theory59. At least in two documents, pBM EA 10018.260
and the coffin Cairo J.E. 2619861, Geb appears in a contortionist posture introducing

55
GOEDICKE, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 6 (1967), 101.
56
BD 125, 27 (Pa); n ír=í nw(Ì).
57
pBerlin 3048, 8’8; íh rdí.n n=f Ìknw wbn n hrw rw n grÌ nwÌ sw m Ìprw=f nfrw m rn=f Ìpr Ìprw;
W. WOLF, ‘Der Berliner Ptah-Hymnus (P 3048, II-XII)’, Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertums-
kunde 64 (1929), p. 31. The same sentence appears in pLeiden I 350, 187-8, this time referring to the Amon
creational act; see J. ZANDEE, De Hymnen aan Amon van Papyrus Leiden I 350, Oudheidkundige Medede-
lingen uit het Rijksmuseum van Oudheden 28 (Leiden, 1947), pl. XIV.
58
As it has been seen, the semen produced by Atum’s masturbation is aimed at his own mouth.
59
Another graphic document which could be interpreted as a beget through oral ingestion of semen,
this time by metaphorical way, appears in the hierogamies of Hatshepsut and Amenhotep III. At the
moment when the copulation is narrated in the text, the image shows Amon introducing an ankh in the
mouth of his partner, perhaps symbolizing that the semen is potentially a new life. See H. BRUNNER, Die
Geburt des Gottkönigs. Studien zur Überlieferung eines Altägyptischen Mythos, Ägyptologische Abhand-
lungen 10 (Wiesbaden, 1964), pl. 4; and E. NAVILLE, The Temple of Deir el-Bahari II, Egypt Exploration
Fund, Excavation Memoir 14 (London, 1896), pl. 47.
60
R.B. PARKINSON, Cracking Codes. The Rosetta Stone and Decipherment (London, 1999), 169-70.
61
A. NIWINSKI, ‘The Book of the Dead on the Coffins of the 21st Dynasty’, in: B. BACKES, I. MUNRO and
S. STÖHR (eds.), Totenbuch-Forschungen: Gesammelte Beiträge des 2. Internatonalen Totenbuch-Symposiums,
Bonn, 25. bis 29. September 2005, Studien zum altägyptischen Totenbuch 11 (Wiesbaden, 2006), 256, fig. 9.
 SEMEN INGESTION AND ORAL SEX IN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEXTS 847

his gland in his mouth performing an auto-fellatio. It is true that neither the context in
which the image appears nor the divinity are the same as those of the creational texts,
but it is this way verified that the image of auto-oral sex was a part of the Egyptian
imaginary.
The second verb that should be studied is Ìnp, which has not been considered so far
to be alluding to an ingestion of semen. Of special interest to us is a passage from a
hymn to Osiris which dates to the Eighteenth Dynasty and which is located on a stela
currently located in the Musée du Louvre. When narrating the procreation of Horus by
Isis and Osiris it is said: “(It is her) who lifts this one who is slumped, the one with
a fatigued heart; the one who receives ( ) his semen, who conceives an heir, who
breast-feeds the baby alone without the place where (he) is known”62. The action of
receiving the semen can be interpreted as a copulation act, since the result of the action
is the conception of a being63. But the determinative of the verb, (D19), indicates
an action made with the face, which discards the copulation, mostly determined by the
phallus (D52 or D53) among others, and suggests an act of oral sex. Apart from the
semantic value of the determinative, both the lexicography and the etymology can
reveal more about the real meaning of the verb. There is a homophonous word with
the verb we are discussing whose generic meaning is “to inhale”64, either air or light,
in both cases the determinative being D19. In the same line, another homophonous
word meaning “to drink water”65 appears in the late period, which can link this verb
to oral sex as Goedicke66 does with the verb nwÌ. All this seems to indicate that the
verb Ìnp, in this case, implies a semen absorption made by oral means. We have
already seen that for the Egyptians, at least at an imaginary level, it was possible to
conceive by oral means. In fact, as W. Vycichl67 states, the Coptic word çnoov,
whose meaning is that of “to conceive”, would have a direct link with the Egyptian
word Ìnp.
Documentation on semen ingestion and oral sex in Egyptian texts is very scarce.
Nevertheless, some conclusions can be drawn from it. The ingestion of semen has
two very different objectives: the creation or reproduction68, either at a cosmic or

62
Stela of Louvre C286, 16; s†s.t nn nww n wrd íb Ìnpt mw=f írt íw¨ sdt nÌn m w¨¨w n rÌ(w) bw=f
ím=<f>; A. MORET, ‘La légende d’Osiris à l’époque thébaine d’après l’hymne à Osiris du Louvre’, Bul-
letin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 30 (1931), 743, pl. II-III.
63
The Wörterbuch interprets “von Isis, die den Samen des Osiris in sich aufnahm” (Wb III, 291, 1)
without specifying the way of the insertion of the semen.
64
Wb III, 290, 18-21.
65
Wb III, 291, 2.
66
GOEDICKE, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 6 (1967), 101.
67
W. VYCICHL, Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue copte (Leuven, 1983), 321.
68
This does not imply that ancient Egyptians believed in the possibility that women could become
pregnant by ingesting semen. The Egyptians knew perfectly well the direct relation between vaginal sex
and pregnancy. This is also proven by the fact that all the contraception methods were so either by vaginal
way or consisted on protection for the vagina. On the different contraceptive methods, see J. GUITER,
848 M. ORRIOLS-LLONCH

physiological level, and the purely sexual one. The contexts give evidence of the fact
that the semen ingestion was a positive act, or at least not a negative one, because its
finality was procreation. The only example of oral sex considered as a negative act
appears in the negative confessions of the Book of the Dead. But in this case what is
negatively valued is not the action itself but the person upon whom it is performed,
the nkkw (one who is sodomized). In fact, in the passages both from the Book of the
Dead and from the Coffin Texts where the deceased denies having ingested despicable
things, urine and excrements are always alluded to, but never the semen69. In spite of
the scarcity of facts, the existence of two verbs that most likely refer to oral sex indi-
cates that this was probably one of the actions within Egyptian sexuality.

‘Contraception en Égypte ancienne’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale 101 (2001),
221-36.
69
See PT 210 Pyr 127c-128aWTMN, PT 409 Pyr 718a-bT, CT [173] III 47a-59c, CT [174] III 60c-g,
CT [179] III 66b, CT [181] III 75i-l, CT [184] III 80a-c, CT [185] III 84c-I, CT [186] III 85a-h, CT [187]
III 87f-g, CT [188] III 92c-d, CT [189] III 96c-d, CT [190] III 98b-c, CT [191] III 99a, CT [192] III
102a-109b, CT [194] III 112a, CT [195] III 113c-d, CT [197] III 116a and 117b, CT [198] III 120d,
CT [199] III 123c-d, CT [201] III 126f-i, CT [202] III 128c-d, CT [203] III 129h, 132c-d and 136c-d,
CT [204] III 139h-142e, CT [205] III 146a-d, CT [206] III 154b-c, CT [207] III 160c-d, CT [208] III
162a-e, CT [211] III 168a, CT [213] III 171d-l, CT [214] III 173c-g, CT [215] III 175b-c, CT [216] III
190a-d, CT [217] III 194g-i, CT [218] III 196g-i, CT [220] III 201a-202i, CT [339] IV 339d, CT [473] VI
13j-14b, CT [580] VI 195e-j, CT [581] VI 196a-198x, CT [587] VI 208l-n, CT [661] VI 287g-h, CT [662]
VI 288k-l, CT [744] VI 374d-e, CT [771] VI 405k, CT [772] VI 406c, CT [894] VII 104a, CT [910] VII
115i-j, CT [1011] VII 225a-d, CT [1012] VII 228a, CT [1013] VII 229h-232o, CT [1014] VII 232g,
BD 52, BD 53, BD 82, BD 102, BD 124 and BD 189.