Religion in Society: Graeco‐Roman

Orality and Literacy in the Demotic Tales

“…Di Biase-Dyson, Foreigners and Egyptians in the Late Egyptian Stories, 66. context-specific adverbials also occur in the Late Egyptian tales (e.g., ḫr ı� r ḥr trı� n skꜢ, "Now, at the time of plowing," Two Brothers, 2/2), but the numbers are reversed: while in Westcar such specific expressions form the majority, in the Late Egyptian tales they are the distinct minority, occurring only in Two Brothers and Doomed Prince. 96 As a result, the stories of the Ramesside Period are in this respect more formulaic in style.…”

“…Although the Demotic tales introduce a new set of phraseologies, their temporal formulae are clear functional parallels to the Late Egyptian expressions,97 and are presumably in some way descendents of them:98 ı� ı� r nꜢy ḏr=w ḫpr, "While all these things took place"99 tꜢ wnwt n nwe/stm/ḏd r-ı� r X, "The moment of looking/hearing/saying that X did"100 96 Context-specific temporal expressions also occur in Wenamun, but the overall exceptional nature of this text makes these less relevant for the pattern noted here. 97 For the use of temporal expressions in the Demotic tales, see also John Tait, "The Sinews of Demotic Narrative," in Narratives of Egypt and the Ancient Near East: Literary and Linguistic Approaches, ed.…”

“…As a result, it would seem that these versions of Mythus reflect a dialect in which the distinction between g and k has been lost, resulting in the alternate spellings-which, then, should not be viewed as particularly meaningful. 96 For example, where the Leiden version has the conjunctive mtw[=t] (P. Leiden I 384,14/16), P. Tebtunis Tait 8,7 has the habitual r-šꜤ-ı� r=t (which is itself a regional writing contrasting with the r-ḫr found in P. Leiden I 384,14/15). W.J.…”

“…Hammammat Graffiti 31 hand-to-hand combat scene 150-151, 165, 169-177, 191, 218- 62,234 Hebrew Bible 27n36,41n96,85,94,[95][96]142,145,223,254n159,[255][256][323][324] …”

“…On the other, their clear anachronisms, along with the appearance of repeated phrases and type scenes Meroe is the capital, not Napata-the captial switched from Napata to Meroe in 591 BC Hoffmann, Panzer des Inaros, 121. 96 (phenomena discussed in detail in this chapter), are, I would argue, features that place them in Foley's category of "oral-derived" texts: that is, texts like the Odyssey and Beowulf for which there is not enough evidence to suggest that they were "taken directly from oral composition" but nonetheless show oral traditional characteristics. 99 Within the Egyptological literature, of course, scholars have noted a number of more specific similarities between the Inaros tales and the Homeric epics, both in their general focus on the activities of heroic warriors and in the way they describe these deeds.…”