Pete Vanderzwet Wrote:
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> From the "Harper's Song"
Do you know what era this is from? Who is the author?
The song which is in the tomb-chapel of King-Intef, justified, in front of the singer with the harp
Do you know the location of Intef's tomb?
The gods who were before rest in their tombs,
Blessed nobles too are buried in their tombs.
"The gods", in this case, would refer to kings, not supernatural beings.
(Yet) those who built tombs,
Their places are gone,
What has become of them?
Pyramids are tombs, are they not?, and they still exist, so what is the author writing about?
I have heard the words of Imhotep and Hardedef,
Whose sayings are recited in whole.
What of their places?
Their walls have crumbled,
Their places are gone,
As though they had never been!
Who was Hardedef?
Where are the words of Imhotep written?
The author does not specify what type of places these were - pyramids, mastabas, shaft-tombs.
Myslieviec and others who are searching for Imhotep's tomb believe he is buried below ground in a shaft-tomb.
> I find the above passage odd for two reasons.
> Firstly, the mentioning of Imhotep's tomb being
> destroyed and being as though it never existed.
How would the author know Imhotep's tomb was destroyed? Does he know of its location? The poem indicates that Imhotep did indeed exist and did indeed have a tomb. While there may not be any above-ground remains, such as walls, this doesn't mean Imhotep's mummy is not out there somewhere (at Saqqara, west or north of the Step Pyramid complex).
> Secondly, and I find this most odd, is the
> author's insistence that you can't take anything
> with you to the afterlife. As all of you know,
> this is quite contradictory to Egyptian practices
> and other literature on the subject.
Good pick-up. Again, when was this poem written?
> Comments?
Imhotep was 3rd dynasty. There was an Imhotep revival cult in the Saite period.
To the Greeks, Imhotep was the god Aesculapius. He was placed in the sky as the constellation Ophiuchus, the Serpent-Holder.
There is a mosaic picture of Imhotep from the Roman Period in Asia Minor.
> Khurt, Amelie. The Ancient Near East, Vol 1. London: Routledge, 2003.
Imhotep's name was written on the northern wall of Sekhemkhet's enclosure. Could this be an indication that Imhotep ruled after Djoser, taking the name Sekhemkhet? Sekhemkhet's pyramid is incomplete. It is the only (?) square mastaba. It could also be regarded as a severely truncated but steep pyramid.
