Rededjet
Rededjet in hieroglyphs | ||||||||
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Rededjet[1] rwḏdt |
Rededjet (also read as Ruddedet
Literary person
Rededjet appears only in the fifth story of the Westcar Papyrus; no
The wonder of Rededjet
According to the Westcar Papyrus, Rededjet has a strong labor, and birth is difficult because she has to deliver
Some weeks later, Rededjet asks her maidservant: “Is our house prepared with all good things?”[2] The maidservant answers: “It is prepared with every good thing, except some jars of beer. They were not brought yet.”[2] Rededjet inquires: “Why is this not so, that the jars with beer were brought?”[2] And the maidservant says: “There is nothing you could produce it with, except the barley of those musicians, the barley that is stored and sealed away.”[2] Rededjet orders: “Go and take some, Ra-User will replace it when he comes home.”[2] And the maidservant opens the storeroom and all of a sudden she hears music, celebrations, and cheering from afar - its festive mood typical for a royal enthroning feast. The maid is baffled and tells everything to Rededjet. Rededjet enters the room too and also hears the festive noises. Now nosy she puts her ears on every box and jar, until she finds that the noises are coming from the jars of the musicians. Recognising the situation, Rededjet tells everything to Ra-User and they both spend the rest of the day celebrating.
One day Rededjet is bickering with the maidservant, who is punished with beating. Infuriated, the maidservant says: “Is it because of that? Is it really because of the three kings you gave birth to? I will go to file charges with the king of Lower- and Upper Egypt, Khufu, justified!”[2] The maidservant leaves the house and goes to her elder brother. He is sitting beside his mother, binding flax and yarn. When he sees his sister, he says: “Where do ye go to, lil' sister?”[2] And the maidservant tells him what she is up to. The brother says: “Shall it truly be done to come to me just to make me sup with betrayal?”[2] He becomes angry and beats her, too. The maidservant now goes away to get some water and a crocodile snatches her. The brother goes to Rededjet to tell her what happened. Rededjet sits on the threshold, crying. The brother says: “What are you crying about, mistress?”[2] Rededjet answers: “It's about this little girl that grew up in this house. Look, she went to go to file charges [...][8] to the king.”[2] And the brother replies: “See, she came to me to tell [...][8] that I would go with her, but I beat her and sent her away. When she went off for some water a crocodile snatched her.”[2][4][9]
Modern analysis
Historians and Egyptologists such as
Modern Egyptologists such as
Archaeological basis
In 2009, archaeological discoveries in Abusir, the royal necropolis of the Fifth Dynasty, have established that Neferirkare was in fact Sahure's son (who was Userkaf's son). Egyptologists now believe that the story of Rededjet is based on a conflation of two historical royal women named Khentkaus. The first one, Khentkaus I, lived during the Fourth Dynasty and may have given birth to two kings, while the second one, Khentkaus II, was the mother of two Fifth Dynasty kings, Neferefre and Nyuserre Ini. The supposition is that when Nyuserre Ini was on the throne, he revived the cult of the Khentkaus I, as the similarities between both women provided him with a genealogical link relating him to his Fourth Dynasty forebears.
Egyptologist John Nolan believes that the mirroring position of the character in the story and association with the two royal women was emphasised so that Nyuserre Ini could legitimise his rule after the troubled times surrounding Neferefre's death. It could identify him with a third king inserted into what should become a legendary tale of prophecy, although that did not correlate with the historical records of each woman.
References
- ^ Westcar-Papyrus, column 9, twenty-second row
- ^ ISBN 3-447-05651-7, page 48 – 52, 103 & 308 – 310.
- ^ ISBN 3-447-05651-7, page 121 – 123, 146 – 148 & 298 – 302.
- ^ ISBN 0-520-02899-6, page 215 – 220.
- ISBN 3-447-05651-7, page 228.
- ISBN 3-447-05651-7, page 228.
- ISBN 3-447-05651-7, page 229.
- ^ ISBN 3-447-05651-7, page 51.
- ^ a b Adolf Erman: Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar I. Einleitung und Commentar. In: Mitteilungen aus den Orientalischen Sammlungen. Heft V, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Berlin 1890. page 12 – 14.
- ^ Udo Bartsch: Unterhaltungskunst A-Z (Taschenbuch der Künste). Henschel, Leipzig 1977 (2. Ausgabe), page 85.
- ISBN 80-7308-116-4, p. 192-98