Rededjet

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Rededjet in hieroglyphs
D21
D46		 T12Y1R11D46
X1		 B1

Rededjet[1]
rwḏdt

Rededjet (also read as Ruddedet

magician named Dedi
.

Literary person

Rededjet appears only in the fifth story of the Westcar Papyrus; no

Fifth Dynasty and two royal women.[3][4]

The wonder of Rededjet

According to the Westcar Papyrus, Rededjet has a strong labor, and birth is difficult because she has to deliver

conjure a downpour, as a reason to turn back to Ra-User's house. They say to Ra-User: “Please store the barley in a sealed storeroom for us until we come back from making music in the north.”[2]
And the jars with barley are locked in a storeroom.

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

Kurt Heinrich Sethe once thought the tales of the Westcar Papyrus were mere folklore, despite their knowledge of the historical correctness about the beginning of the fifth dynasty by describing the succession of the kings Userkaf, Sahure, and Neferirkare. They also thought the novel of the Westcar Papyrus to be unfinished.[9][10]

Modern Egyptologists such as

Fifth Dynasty had been siblings, therefore seems incorrect.[11] Since in the Westcar Papyrus Rededjet was concerned with the role of a future king's mother, the parallels between the biographies of the two ladies aroused special attention. The role of the maidservant is evaluated as being a key figure for a modern phrasing of indoctrinations about morality and betrayal. The maidservant wants to betray her mistress and is punished by destiny. Destiny is depicted here as a crocodile who snatches the traitor. The objective of the tale is to ensure the beginning of a new dynasty and by making the only danger disappear, the author of the Westcar Papyrus artfully creates some kind of happy ending. Lepper sees a strong clue in the way the story is finalized that the novel of the Westcar Papyrus ends here. The episode in which the crocodile snatches a traitor, is repeated several times, just as a refrain, which is a typical writing element used in ancient Egyptian documents to close a chapter or text.[3][4]

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

  1. ^ Westcar-Papyrus, column 9, twenty-second row
  2. ^
    ISBN 3-447-05651-7
    , page 48 – 52, 103 & 308 – 310.
  3. ^
    ISBN 3-447-05651-7
    , page 121 – 123, 146 – 148 & 298 – 302.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-520-02899-6
    , page 215 – 220.
  5. ISBN 3-447-05651-7
    , page 228.
  6. ISBN 3-447-05651-7
    , page 228.
  7. ISBN 3-447-05651-7
    , page 229.
  8. ^
    ISBN 3-447-05651-7
    , page 51.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ Udo Bartsch: Unterhaltungskunst A-Z (Taschenbuch der Künste). Henschel, Leipzig 1977 (2. Ausgabe), page 85.
  11. ISBN 80-7308-116-4
    , p. 192-98

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rededjet&oldid=1191491723"