| Ubaoner in hieroglyphs | ||||||||||
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Ubaoner (Uba-iner) Wb3-jnr [1] he who splits stone [2] | ||||||||||
Ubaoner is the name of a fictitious ancient Egyptian magician appearing in the second chapter of a story told in the legendary Westcar Papyrus. He is said to have worked wonders during the reign of king (pharaoh) Nebka (3rd dynasty).
Ubaoner appears only in the second story of the Westcar Papyrus – there is no archeological or historical evidence that he existed. Nevertheless, he is an object of great interest for Egyptologists, since his magical trick is connected to later cultural perceptions of the personality of king Nebka. In the story, Ubaoner is described as a high lector priest. [3] [4] [5] [6]
According to the Westcar Papyrus, Ubaoner is betrayed by his own wife several times. She secretly loves a commoner who resides at Memphis and sends him expensive clothes and other material. The commoner comes to visit Ubaoner's wife and says to her: “Isn't there a pavilion at the lake?” [4] The wife says: “See, let's spend some time in there.” [4] She calls for Ubaoner's caretaker and orders him: “Prepare the pavilion with all good things.” [4] And so Ubaoner's wife and the commoner spend their time in the pavilion drinking together, until they were finished. Later that evening the commoner is picked up by his maidservant, who was waiting at the lake. Ubaoner's caretaker was waiting there, too and he says to himself: “I will go to Ubaoner.” [4] Two days later the caretaker tells everything to Ubaoner and makes the comment: “See, it was your wife who spent a day in your pavilion; she was together with that commoner you know. It was adultery what he did, two times, at your lake.” [4] Thereupon, Ubaoner says to the caretaker: “Bring me a pair of [...] [7] made of ebony and dja'am. I will create [...] [7] and send it as a harbinger.” [4] He creates a small figurine of wax in the shape of a crocodile with a length of seven fingers. He bewitches the figurine and gives it to his caretaker with the words: “When he comes to purify himself in the lake, this commoner, then you may throw this crocodile made of wax after him.” [4] The caretaker does as ordered and waits until the next day. The next morning Ubaoner's wife orders the caretaker: “Let the pavilion at the lake be prepared, for I will sit in it.” [4] Thereupon she spends the whole day in the pavilion together with the commoner. Later that evening the commoner leaves the pavilion to take a bath in the lake. The caretaker quickly throws the wax figurine after the stranger and when the idol touches the water it becomes a real, living crocodile 3.70m in length. The animal devours the commoner and disappears in the depths of the lake for seven days. During these seven days Ubaoner is received by pharaoh Nebka for an important audience. After the audience Ubaoner invites Nebka to visit his house with the words: “May thy majesty proceed and see the wonder that has happened in the time of thy majesty [...] [7] a commoner.”. [4] Nebka and Ubaoner walk to the lake where Ubaoner orders the crocodile to come out of the water and to release the commoner. When king Nebka sees that he says: “This crocodile is dangerous!” [4] But Ubaoner bends down and touches the crocodile and immediately it becomes a figurine of wax again. Then Ubaoner gives a report to Nebka about the affairs. Nebka tells the crocodile: “Take away what is yours!” [4] and the animal grabs the commoner and then disappears. The wife of Ubaoner is brought to Nebka, too and the pharaoh sentence her to death. She is brought to a place east of the palace and burnt alive. Her ash is thrown into the Nile. [4] [8] [6]
Adolf Erman and Kurt Heinrich Sethe once considered the stories of Westcar Papyrus as mere folklore. They saw literary figures like Djadjaemankh and the other heroes of the Westcar Papyrus as a pure fiction, created only for entertainment, since there is no archaeological evidence of them. [5] [8]
Modern Egyptologists like Verena Lepper and Miriam Lichtheim deny this view and argue, that Sethe and Erman may have just failed to see the profundity of such novels. They hold that the story of Ubaoner describes a classical case of adultery through the wife and a typical sort of punishment for that during the Old Kingdom (in this case it is the death penalty). Furthermore, it throws a positive light on the personality of king Nebka. The king is depicted as a strict but lawful judge; he punishes mischief and unethical behavior, in this case the betrayal of Ubaoner's wife. Additionally, Lepper and Lichtheim point to multiple similar but somewhat later ancient Egyptian writings in which magicians perform very similar magic tricks. According to the Egyptologists, their stories are obviously inspired by the tale of Ubaoner. And since they show the same manner of speaking and equal picking up of quaint phrases as the Westcar Papyrus does, Lepper and Lichtheim hold that Ubaoner (and the other wise men from the same papyrus) must have been known to Egyptian authors for a long time. [4] [6]
Ammit was an ancient Egyptian goddess with the forequarters of a lion, the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and the head of a crocodile—the three largest "man-eating" animals known to ancient Egyptians. In ancient Egyptian religion, Ammit played an important role during the funerary ritual, the Judgment of the Dead.
Djoser was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the 3rd Dynasty during the Old Kingdom, and was the founder of that epoch. He is also known by his Hellenized names Tosorthros and Sesorthos. He was the son of King Khasekhemwy and Queen Nimaathap, but whether he was also the direct successor to their throne is unclear. Most Ramesside king lists identify a king named Nebka as preceding him, but there are difficulties in connecting that name with contemporary Horus names, so some Egyptologists question the received throne sequence. Djoser is known for his step pyramid, which is the earliest colossal stone building in ancient Egypt.
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Sanakht is the Horus name of an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the Third Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. His chronological position is highly uncertain, and it is also unclear under which Hellenized name the ancient historian Manetho could have listed him. Many Egyptologists connect Sanakht with the Ramesside cartouche name Nebka. However, this remains disputed because no further royal title of that king has ever been found; either in contemporary source or later ones. There are two relief fragments depicting Sanakht originally from the Wadi Maghareh on the Sinai Peninsula.
The Westcar Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian text containing five stories about miracles performed by priests and magicians. In the papyrus text, each of these tales are told at the royal court of king Khufu (Cheops) by his sons. The story in the papyrus usually is rendered in English as, "King Cheops and the Magicians" and "The Tale of King Cheops' Court". In German, into which the text of the Westcar Papyrus was first translated, it is rendered as Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar.
Johann Peter Adolf Erman was a German Egyptologist and lexicographer.
Ka, also (alternatively) Sekhen, was a Predynastic pharaoh of Upper Egypt belonging to Dynasty 0. He probably reigned during the first half of the 32nd century BC. The length of his reign is unknown.
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Nebka is the throne name of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Third Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period, in the 27th century BCE. He is thought to be identical with the Hellenized name Νεχέρωχις recorded by the Egyptian priest Manetho of the much later Ptolemaic period.
Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from ancient Egypt's pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. It represents the oldest corpus of Egyptian literature. Along with Sumerian literature, it is considered the world's earliest literature.
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Heqet, sometimes spelled Heket, is an Egyptian goddess of fertility, identified with Hathor, represented in the form of a frog. To the Egyptians, the frog was an ancient symbol of fertility, related to the annual flooding of the Nile. Heqet was originally the female counterpart of Khnum, or the wife of Khnum by whom she became the mother of Her-ur. It has been proposed that her name is the origin of the name of Hecate, the Greek goddess of witchcraft.
Baufra is the name of an alleged son of the ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) Khufu from the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. He is known from a story in the Papyrus Westcar and from a rock inscription at Wadi Hammamat. He is neither contemporarily nor archaeologically attested, which makes his historical figure disputable to scholars up to this day.
The Third Dynasty of ancient Egypt is the first dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Other dynasties of the Old Kingdom include the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth. The capital during the period of the Old Kingdom was at Memphis.
This page list topics related to ancient Egypt.
Djadjaemankh is the name of a fictitious ancient Egyptian magician appearing in the third chapter of a story told in the legendary Westcar Papyrus. He is said to have worked wonders during the reign of king (pharaoh) Sneferu.
Rededjet is the name of a fictitious ancient Egyptian woman appearing as the heroic character in a story told in the legendary Westcar Papyrus. She is said to have fulfilled a prophecy by giving birth to three future kings that was forecast during the reign of Khufu by a magician named Dedi.
The Unfinished Northern Pyramid of Zawyet El Aryan, also known as Pyramid of Baka and Pyramid of Bikheris is the term archaeologists and Egyptologists use to describe a large shaft part of an unfinished pyramid at Zawyet El Aryan in Egypt. Archaeologists are generally of the opinion that it belongs to the early or the mid-4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom period. The pyramid owner is not known for certain and most Egyptologists, such as Miroslav Verner, think it should be a king known under his hellenized name, Bikheris, perhaps from the Egyptian Baka. In contrast, Wolfgang Helck and other Egyptologists doubt this attribution.
Akhetaa was an ancient Egyptian high official during the mid to late 3rd Dynasty. He is mostly known for his tomb inscriptions, which refer to various seldom used titles as well as to the shadowy king Nebka, in whose cult Akhetaa served.
