Chris Tedder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I don't know, but the 'seven-horned' (sfxt-abw)-
> is an epithet of Seshat (Faulkner 2002 (1962):
> 225)
>
> "In NK times Seshat was parallelled by the goddess
> Sefkhet-Abwy whose characteristics and attributes
> seem to be virtually identical to her own. It is
> unlikely, therefore, that she is really anything
> but a form of Seshat." (R.H. Wilkinson 2003:
> 166)

Possibly Sefkhet-Abwy is an epithet of Seshat which later became a deity on its own? Wainwright argued back in 1940 that Seshat's symbol (7 pointed image surmounted by a curved inverted fork like image) were to be described as 7 feathers surmounted by the symbol for "month" (Wainwright 1940: 31). As he stated, in reference to the imagery of Seshat from the time of Sahure onwards:

"The pair of feathers has assumed a new shape, and one which is more usual for those of the sky-gods. At the same time another and notable change is introduced into them, for they are made part of the month-sign, as the outline of the latter is not continued below them. Sahure is copied by Neweserre, thus they open the way to Pepi II's further variation. Fig. 3 retains the new shape of the pair of feathers, but does not make them part of the month-sign. It has also lost the spirals on the stem and any suggestion of veining in the 'petals ', and the 'petals ' themselves have become ' spear-shaped ' instead of being like laurel leaves. After all there is some tendency towards the 'spear' shape in the petals of the archaic flower. Neweserre merely shows a vague generalized laurel-leaf shape, which is more or less regularly reproduced during succeeding ages. In the Sixth Dynasty Pepi II keeps up and even emphasizes Sahure's 'spear' shape of the 'petals', and the general effect of the month-sign and pair of feathers. He introduces one variation, however, which is important in the history of the degradation. Like Sahure and Neweserre he no longer merely sets the feathers on top of the month-sign, but makes them part of it. He, however, goes a step farther than his predecessors, and brings the division between them right through the month-sign, cutting the whole in two. He thus prepares the way for the division of this sign into two separate horns with the meaningless uprights at their butt ends. This division had already taken place in the early Twelfth Dynasty, if the somewhat sketchy drawing in Leps., Denkm. II, Pl. 119, a, is to be trusted. This became the standard shape of the symbol for the rest of Egyptian civilization, and gave rise to that version of Seshat's surname Sefkhet-'abw(i), which can be read 'She who has laid aside the (two) horns'.

Seshat's position kept pace with the history of her dress and the degradation of her symbol. In the beginning she had been a great goddess with a full worship carried on by her priest and other officials, and celebrated with festivals, and had been a goddess with whose name people formed their own...During historic days it is only very rarely that she receives offerings from the king; her role had become entirely one of attendance upon him. Her priests belonged to Memphis, the ancient capital of united Egypt,and she was 'Before the House of the Books of the Royal Offspring'. She records the royal name at birth, and writes it on the sacred tree; she records the royal titulary at the coronation; she grants the king sea-festivals, and her symbol was set up at Neweserre's sed-festival, and again at Osorkon's, on which latter occasion she was herself present; she keeps count of the booty brought back by the Pharaoh from foreign lands. But her chief mission was to mark the king's life-period on the palm-stick. To cut notches, or to make marks, on a stick is the earliest of all forms of keeping a count or tally, and of itself would suggest an origin in the time before writing proper had been invented. Hence came her title 'The Original One' which is not uncommon. 'The Original One who originated writing at the beginning', and the statement that she 'notches, or carves (/xty/) the years of the life-period'. /xty/ is a word the Graeco-Roman texts not uncommonly use of her action. Thus, like her /Hry wDb/* she was primarily a tally-keeper; an early form of an account-keeper, rather than an actual scribe or clerk. So much was this her mission that it was said of her that she 'reckoneth all things on earth'. She never seems to have been connected with wisdom and learning like Thoth, though naturally she is closely associated with her more erudite colleague, and became 'Mistress of the House of Books','Lady of Writings in the House of Life'. As has just been said, by far the most important of her activities was to grant the king sed-festivals and to mark his life-period on the primitive palm-stick. While other gods may present the king with the tally-(palm-)sticks of sed festivals, she, alone or with Thoth, marks them for him. Sometimes the chief god of the temple instructs her to mark the sed-festivals. Her other mission from the earliest to the latest times was to help the king to measure out the ground-plan of buildings. Hence came her title 'Lady of Builders', which she already bears in the Pyramid Texts, § 616, though the actual work of building she left to other gods, such as Khnum and Ptah. So even here her business was once again with reckoning and measurement.

We hear little enough of Nephthys's activities outside the Pyramid Texts and in Graeco-Roman times, but that little is very similar to what we know of her variant Seshat. Though throughout historic times Nephthys had no significance for Egyptian religion apart from her absorption into the Osiris-cycle, such mention as is made of her shows her to have been peculiarly concerned with the kingship. This is so in some Pyramid Texts, and once in Ptolemaic times Nephthys-Seshat 'inscribes thy kingship for all eternity'. In another Ptolemaic Text Nephthys is called 'She who reckons the life-period, Lady of Years, Lady of Fate'.

All through the Old Kingdom, and indeed until the Nineteenth Dynasty, Seshat's symbol invariably had seven petals, leaves, rays, or whatever the objects may have been. Even after then the old seven is much more usual than the five to which the number is sometimes reduced. Seshat is therefore very definitely related to the number seven. By the time of Tuthmosis III a new name had been evolved for her, /sfxt-abwi/, as it is sometimes written, /sfxt-abw/ with three horns.' It is, however, quite often written /sfx-abw/, and /sfx-abwi/ without the feminine /t/. Thus there was a good deal of doubt as to what the name really was. When spelt with two horns no doubt it had reference to the pair of inverted horns which the month-sign and feathers of her symbol had become long before. But to what did the plural (three) horns refer? It must have been to the many 'petals' of the flower of her symbol. These were seven in number, which would give the clue to one of the meanings of the /sfx/ or /sfxt/. It should be noted that until Ptolemaic times-and sometimes even then-the word /sfx/ is written without a determinative of any sort, just as is the word for 'seven'. The name in this case would mean 'The Seven-Lady of Horns' referring to the 'petals'. But the word /sfx/, 'to put off, to lay aside' can also be written without a determinative, so that when written with only two horns the name could read 'She who has laid aside the Two Horns' referring to the inverted horns. Thus the new name formed a pun referring to both parts of the symbol...The knowledge that Seshat-Sefekh-abw(i)'s name represented 'seven' filtered through to Horapollo, who records that it was written with seven letters and two fingers. This Schafer has well shown to be intended for the seven strokes and two horns of the name /sfx-abwi/.

<...>

To this the following remarks may be added. It has been seen that Seshat was a form of Nephthys, who was an ancient sky-goddess. Nephthys was also mother of the Deathgod Anubis, and wife of Seth the storm-god. Further, it will also be seen, p. 36 below, that Seshat was served by a priest of Anubis and Seth. Hence, while considering Seshat's monthsign, it may not be out of place to recall that in Pyr. § 1453,1467, Seth is said to have found a way by which 'he escaped his months of death', as well as his day, half months, and year of death. He, therefore, at one time must have been liable to death. In connexion with Seshat's relationship to him, to the king, and to his life-period, and with the fact that she represented Fate (p. 35), it should be noted that in these Pyramid Texts the king himself had been liable to the same death as Seth. But like Seth he escaped. (Wainwright 1940: 31-34)

It's interesting that Seshat seems to have something of a cloudy history as to her function, and the confusion can be traced back to the vague meanings of her symbols (on this, see also Parlebas 1981). There have been several different interpretations of Seshat's function which are antithetical to the usual notion that Seshat is a goddess associated with writing. Yoyotte (1977) associated Seshat with make-up, not writing, while Parlebas (1976) distinguished her function as "one who counts things" rather than a goddess associated with scribes and writing, a function with which Wainwright, supra, appears to be in agreement.

* (From Wainwright's notes, p. 32, n. 15) "A /Hry wDb/ appears elsewhere at the 'counting of the cattle, goats, and sheep', von Bissing and Kees, Re-Heiligtum III, p. 6 and Untersuchungen z. d. Reliefs aus d. Re-Heiligtum d. Rathures (Abh. München 32/I), 20, 21. In the royal household the /Hry wDb/ was concerned with the food supplies, catered for the wants of the guests, and apportioned the king's largess whether to gods or men, Gardiner in JEA 24, 88. Once again the /Hry wDb/ was a counter and measurer."

Reference:

Parlebas, J. 1981. Écriture idéographique, écriture cursive et iconographie dans l'Égypte pharaonique. In Méthodologie iconographique. Actes du colloque de Strasbourg 1979, Strasbourg, 1981: 107-113.

___________. 1976. L'origine d'une particularité tardive de l'iconographie de la déesse Seshat. CdE 51/101: 13-16.

Wainwright, G. A. 1940. Seshat and the pharaoh. JEA 26: 30-40.

Yoyotte, J. 1977. Seshat maquilleuse. RdE 29: 227-228.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom