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Year: 1985

Sacred: In the Vocabulary of Ancient Egypt

Hoffmeier, James Karl

Other titles: The Term DSR, with special Reference to Dynasties I-XX

Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of ZurichZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-158218MonographPublished Version

Originally published at:Hoffmeier, James Karl (1985). Sacred: In the Vocabulary of Ancient Egypt. Freiburg, Switzerland /Göttingen, Germany: Universitätsverlag / Vandenhoeck Ruprecht.

Digitalisat erstellt durch Florian Lippke, Departement für Biblische Studien, Universität Freiburg Schweiz

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(I am come forth to Djedu that I may see Osiris, I land at the Mansion of the Great Dead One;) I inspire fear of him and create, awe of him among the gods. I belongto the great shrine, (even I) the holy one of • • •

(Faulkner 1973, 231)

In his study of this passage, de Buck (1949, 96) offered

the same translation; "(I) the holy one of Iri- m3tt."

Iri- m3tt is clearly a place name. IV, 83 says "Clear

the road of Iri- m3tt." De Buck (96, N. 5) wonders if

the <2>- is a "misplaced element of a possible orthography

II In 85d the 41>- is not wri tten. De Buck' s

suggestion is probably correct. This is further supported

by BD 78 = CT Spell 312, where this place name is written

as 8-!7 C'-:J (BD 78.34 and 39). The word hm3t means "salt" R A A

( III, 93). This word looks strikingly like sbt hm3t

less the sat, which is Wadi el-Natrun (Wb III, 93). Ap-

parently Iri-hm3tt or hm3tt of the Coffin Textsand BD 78.34

and 39 should not be regarded as an earthly location, but

a celestial one as BD 78.39 says m3tt m pt - "hm3tt in

the sky."

This epithet of the deceased becomes even more signi-

ficant when we see that it is used in conjunction with the

statement "I belong to the great shrine" which immediately

precedes it. The meaning of bm given by Wb III, 280 is

"heilige Stätte, Kultestätte eines Gottes." A shrine was

considered tobe a very sacred spot, therefore it is quite

fitting for the deceased in this situation to say to him-

self: "I belong to the great shrine, (even I) the holy one

of hm3tt • "