Pražské Egyptologické Studie (Jun 2016)
Hadí encyklopedie egyptského kouzelníka: z textů v pohřební komoře kněze lufay v Abúsíru // A Snake Encyclopaedia of an Egyptian Magician: glimpses into the texts of the burial chamber of lufaa at Abusir
Abstract
The burial chamber decoration of the shaft tomb oflufaa atAbusir (dated to the turn ofthe 261hf271h Dynasties) is exceptional with regards to both its extent and the featured topics. All walls of the chamber a s well as the outer and inner sarcophagi are covered by excerpts from the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book of the Dead and other ritual or liturgical texts. Some of the spells and their illustrations ha ve not been identified yet, others are exceptional or rare (e.g. the image ofthe Uroboros, or the god Tutu). The western wall and a part ofthe northem wall ofthe burial chamber contain a number of representations of snakes and snake- like creatures as well as texts pertaining to them. According to the texts, these snakes represent divine or demonic beings of the deepest levels of the underworld, and of the beginning of time. In this paper, we present the western wall of the burial chamber of the tomb of Iufaa with six identified serpentine beings and Tutu and Mehen on the opposite, eastem wall with an interpretation of this unique textual corpus which connects underworld phenomena with the terrestrial cult and emphasizes the aspect of secret knowledge.
