Nabra Nelson: Salam Alaikum. Welcome to Kunafa and Shay, a podcast produced for HowlRound Theatre Commons, a free and open platform for theatremakers worldwide. Kunafa and Shay discusses and analyzes up to date and historic Center Japanese and North African, or MENA, and SWANA, or Southwest Asian/North African, theatre from throughout the area.
Marina Johnson: I’m Marina.
Nabra: I’m Nabra.
Marina: We’re your hosts.
Nabra: Our title, Kunafa and Shay, invitations you into the dialogue in the easiest way we all know how: with advanced and scrumptious sweets like kunafa and completely heat tea or, in Arabic, shay.
Marina: Kunafa and Shay is a spot to share experiences, concepts, and generally to have interaction with our variations. In every nation in Arab world, you’ll discover kunafa made otherwise. In that means, we additionally lean into the variety, complexity, and sturdy flavors of MENA and SWANA theatre. We convey our personal views, analysis, and particular visitors so as to begin a dialogue and encourage additional studying and dialogue.
Nabra: In our fourth season, we give attention to classical and historic theatre, together with discussions of conventional theatre kinds and in-depth evaluation of among the oldest and most important classical performs from 1300 BC to the 20th century.
Marina: Seize your tea. The shay is excellent. On this episode, we’ll be speaking in regards to the oldest surviving full play, which, in fact, is from Egypt. It’s known as The Triumph of Horus, and we’ll be telling you all about it and sharing a bit about theatre in historical Egypt extra usually.
Nabra: First, let’s discuss in regards to the play. I learn it with completely no context and really understood loads of it, together with gathering among the subtext from the fundamental information I learn about historical Egyptian tradition and customs. The plot could be very easy. It tells the story of the god Horus defeating a hippopotamus, which I assumed was only a common hippo, which made loads of it appear very foolish, however seems the hippo is definitely the god Seth who killed Horus’s father, Osiris.
So, the play tells the story of Horus slaying the hippo and turning into king, which on this context implies that the god Horus basically merges with the present king to make that king the embodiment of Horus on earth, AKA Pharaoh. With out the background information, it will simply be the story of a man who kills a hippo after which turns into king, however in fact, audiences would all know the context that makes the play extremely symbolic and politically vital. We are going to get into all of that, however let’s offer you a extra full rundown of the happenings within the play first.
Marina: Most of what we’ll be quoting at this time is from The Triumph of Horus: An Historic Egyptian Sacred Drama, which was revealed in 1974, and the contextual info from the translator and editor H. W. Fairman, who’s a professor of Egyptology on the College of Liverpool.
So, here’s a scene-by-scene synopsis of the play. The play begins with a short prologue. As H. W. Fairman summarizes very succinctly, “The prologue has as its essential object reward of the king and the blissful days of the pageant and triumph and the anticipatory declaration of the outcomes of the entire play, the defeat of Seth and the triumph of Horus and the king.”
It’s price noting you all that Set, which was how we’re saying this particular person’s title, is written “Seth,” which does change issues and makes it humorous in case you are studying it otherwise. So, Nabra and I’ve had enjoyable with that on our personal. Anyway, on the finish of the prologue, the reader, who’s similar to the refrain however appears to basically be in control of introducing characters, says, “Right here begins the bringing to move of the triumph of Horus over his enemies when he hastened to slay the foes after the sallying forth to battle.” Within the accompanying reduction, the reader is depicted studying from a papyrus scroll. So, he appears to tackle the position of the first narrator.
Nabra: So again to Fairman: “The 5 scenes of act one embody considerably formally and in a mixture of mime and drama, the traditional harpoon ritual. In every scene, two types of Horus representing Decrease and Higher Egypt every thrust a harpoon into the physique of a hippopotamus, which represents the Seth, the enemy of Horus.” So at this level, I’m pondering, “I assume this might simply be a daily hippo that represents Seth or it could possibly be Seth himself.” I’m nonetheless uncertain. The factor that made me actually suppose he was a daily hippo is when Horus offers loads of measurements referring to the battle for some cause, and he says, “I forged on the cows of the hippopotami in water of eight cubits.” That simply appears to be referring to common hippos in common water.
Regardless, it will’ve been understood to be symbolic of Seth both means. There’s a second after the hippo is defeated when Isis refers back to the hippo “standing with toes on dry land,” which appears to suggest that it’s not actually useless or that the corpse has some sort of mystical property, however then they dismember the corpse and the gods eat it. So, it’s undoubtedly useless ultimately. Nonetheless unclear as as to if that is the god Seth or a standard hippo at this level, however once more, it doesn’t appear to matter that a lot at this level within the play from a contemporary reader’s perspective.
“Scene 4 on this Act is interrupted by a short interlude by which one other historical ritual—the killing of multi-coloured snakes (sabet-snakes, in all probability cobras) in Letopolis—is mimed: in dumb present the snakes are killed, their flesh eaten and their blood swallowed, the entire representing the destruction of the enemy,” additionally from Fairman. This half appears very random within the script however should have been very cool staged. Act I ends with a lot rejoicing once more. From my notes whereas studying it: “They describe the ten harpoons caught within the hippo and are simply actually enthusiastic about the entire thing.”
Marina: I like being aware of your notes, Nabra. One thing to notice is that in every scene, it ends with the refrain going, “Maintain quick, Horus, maintain quick.” This appears to be very comparable on the time to “Lengthy reside the king,” but it surely takes on completely different meanings at completely different occasions. Like when Horus is preventing the hippo, it’s like, “Maintain going,” after which when he’s transporting the hippo, it’s like, “You’re virtually on the end line,” after which on the coronation later, it’s very a lot “Lengthy reside the king.”
Nabra: On to Act II, which is entitled the “Rejoicing Over the Victory.” From Fairman, “In scene one, Isis nonetheless apparently carried away by pleasure, although Seth is already defeated, continues to incite her son’s supporters and recites a really effective poem to the battle gallery of Horus.” This description helps perceive the scene because it was fairly complicated when a bunch of characters known as the younger harpooners present up and Isis retains telling them to “vanquish the foe” and but it’s fairly apparent that the foe was vanquished within the earlier act. I like the thought of Isis simply getting carried away and being like, “Kill him, everybody. Kill him!” That is a kind of moments that just about appear tailored to confuse trendy audiences.
“In scene two, Horus having first mimed on land, the killing of the hippopotamus, embarks on his ceremonial bark, is invested with the insignia of kingship and topped as king of Higher and Decrease Egypt and a double refrain representing the ladies of Higher and Decrease Egypt sing antiphonically a hymn of rejoicing over the victory.”
Marina: Most of this final scene of act two is the coronation, and it’s a very particularly a pharaoh coronation. Up till this level, there was a personality known as the King who performed fairly a minor half and simply commented on the happenings generally like most of the different characters. There have been additionally two Horus characters, Horus Lord of Mesen and Horus the Behdetite, who symbolize Decrease and Higher Egypt respectively. At this coronation, all three of those characters merge into one, the Pharaoh.
Within the caption in regards to the reduction that accompanies this scene, it says, “The King shouldn’t be depicted, neither is any talking half assigned to him. It is because the King is now the dwelling Horus on earth. The triumph of Horus is his coronation.” That’s the distinction between a pharaoh and most kings is that he’s thought of the dwelling embodiment of a god on Earth.
Act III, the ultimate act is entitled the “Celebration of the Victory,” which largely entails dismembering the hippo. Within the first scene, the flesh of the hippo is split amongst completely different gods to eat. “This didn’t merely show that the enemy was defeated and useless. It ensured by consuming the flesh, the absorption of his peculiar powers.”
In Act III, Scene Two labeled “An Interlude,” there’s one other what they name “dumb present” by which Horus thrusts the harpoon into the again of a small mannequin of a hippopotamus. Concurrently, the King who’s going through Horus, harpoons the buttocks of a considerably bigger determine of a sure human captive, and the refrain, Isis, and the King all rejoice. Then, within the last scene, there’s a second dismemberment of Seth. It is because “each ritual involved with kingship, each proper or episode, due to the symbolism of the 2 lands, needed to be carried out twice, first for Decrease Egypt, then for Higher Egypt.”
Within the scene, a mannequin of a hippo made from cake is introduced out and minimize up by the butcher. Because the butcher dismembers the cake hippo, the reader recites from a papyrus, which principally simply states how very annihilated Seth is. He’s like, “Thou shalt not exist and thy soul shall not exist. Thou shalt not exist and thy physique shall not exist,” et cetera.
Nabra: This appears to function a last banishment ritual and likewise appears to function a reenactment of the actual dismemberment of Seth the place the individuals of the town get to be there as an alternative of the gods. It feels just like the individuals’s time to have a good time, and it’s thought that there can be a hippo cake that will be distributed to viewers members throughout this a part of the play. There may be a lot rejoicing, particularly via call-and-response between the reader and the refrain, like “Triumphant over his enemies is Horus the Behdetite, nice god, lord of the sky!” Then that is repeated by the refrain. That is my favourite change, which is between the reader and the refrain, and so that we are going to reenact. Marina goes to be the reader and I’ll be the refrain.
Marina: Oh, my goodness. Okay.
Mayest thou perish. Could thy title perish. Fall upon thy face. Be felled!
Nabra: Felled!
Marina: Be crushed!
Nabra: Crushed!
Marina: Be annihilated!
Nabra: Annihilated!
Marina: Be minimize to items!
Nabra: To items!
Marina: Be minimize up!
Nabra: Lower up!
The tip. That’s not the precise finish of the play, however the play ends with an epilogue by which the reader “formally declares that Horus, sure divinities and locations, and lastly the King himself are triumphant over their enemies.” The reader is insistent how on how very overthrown Horus enemies are and far very lengthy naming of Horus ensues for a few pages, the tip.
So, let’s speak about a few of my impressions whereas studying it. I used to be stunned at how a lot I understood of the plot and even ritual particulars. There’s sufficient in there to know it as a contemporary viewers with little context. It additionally has some resonances with how different historical texts are written, particularly reminding me of the Bible.
As an example, there are lengthy descriptions of who persons are, with what their lineage is and what they’ve executed, and simply loads of titles. One of many many cases of that is without doubt one of the occasions the reader introduces Horus by saying, “Horus Lord of Mesen, preeminent in Pe and Mesen. Nice God, preeminent in Wetjeset-Hor. The Lion preeminent in Khant-labet, who drives Seth into the wilderness. Goodly Warden of the Two Lands and the Riverbanks. Protector who protects Egypt.”
A part of it will be carried out on boats within the water and a part of it on land. So, that’s very cool to think about. It shares a lot of information in regards to the gods Horus, Isis, and Osiris and mentions others, particularly Ra, the solar God.
Marina: It must be famous nevertheless that most of the lengthy titles within the script that we learn weren’t within the authentic carvings. They had been added by the translators or interpreters from different reliefs about these figures, since it’s thought that these titles would possible be included to introduce the characters within the efficiency of the play, however that there was not sufficient area on the temple wall to repeat them within the play textual content. There’s loads that went into translating the textual content from the wall of the temple on which it was carved to a contemporary script format in English, together with drawing from different texts and sources and making knowledgeable assumptions about sure particulars.
So, we selected to take the script largely as is and belief that what we learn was as shut as Egyptologists may get us to expertise of the play because it was carried out in that point.
Nabra: One other archaic-feeling factor of this play is that they provide very unusual specifics like the quantity of cubits within the water that he speared and the size of his weapons. Horus says, “I’ve forged on the decrease Egyptian bull in water of twenty cubits, a harpoon blade of 4 cubits, a rope of six cubits,” et cetera. Total, there may be loads of tell-don’t-show, which gave the impression to be the meta for classical performs for fairly some time, however there would’ve been components that had been mimed on prime of those descriptions, particularly the harpoonings and the dismemberments. Then there are the dumb reveals that are very cool with a lot of motion. There would’ve additionally been music at occasions all through the manufacturing and probably even to underscore climactic moments.
It’s fairly enjoyable to learn and quick in comparison with many up to date performs. The descriptions of the battle with the hippo are action-packed, and there’s loads of epic language. From my notes: “The demon simply says epic shit and Isis is clearly a boss bitch,” which brings me to a fast tangent in regards to the demon as a result of he’s such a enjoyable character, however I do not know why he’s there. This character simply says hardcore stuff about how vicious he’s in battle and what he’ll do to his enemies. He appears to be the bodyguard of Horus describing himself because the “first demon of thy crew,” however Horus doesn’t appear to want a bodyguard. The demon declares titles for himself, and they’re fairly amusing, particularly since they’re written as one lengthy hyphenated phrase.
My favourite are: “I’m his-speech-is-fire,” “I’m he-loves-solitude,” “I’m death-in-his-face-loud-screamer.” Epic. I can think about this play being extremely entertaining to audiences on the time and likewise religiously academic. It virtually looks like literature in the best way it’s written, additionally because the overwhelming majority of individuals had been illiterate on the time. It’s additionally very constructive and celebratory. So, it will be an actual temper booster for people. A part of it will be carried out on boats within the water and a part of it on land. So, that’s very cool to think about. It shares a lot of information in regards to the gods Horus, Isis, and Osiris and mentions others, particularly Ra, the solar God, who can be the great-great-great-grandfather of Horus. It additionally depicts how pharaohs are the dwelling embodiment of the royal god Horus
Mythology and the nice annual rituals and festivals of kingship offered monks with supreme instruments of their political nationalistic propaganda.
Marina: Superb. So, earlier than we get to the subsequent part, Nabra, I do need to point out one thing that I feel since you’re Egyptian that you’ve got been… not glossing over essentially, however that possibly shouldn’t be apparent to all people as a result of it was not apparent to me. Once I went to Egypt, Nabra and her household had been going to be there. I used to be like, “Sure, I’m going to go and hang around earlier than, after which I’ll go see Nabra’s household.” However after I was there, individuals would speak about Higher Egypt and Decrease Egypt. I’m so used to fascinated by higher being on a map like North, however Higher Egypt really refers back to the Southern components of Egypt as a result of it’s the place the Nile is flowing. Nabra, are you able to simply say extra about that? As a result of “the 2 lands” is frequently referenced on this play.
Nabra: Sure, that’s as a result of the Nile flows North. Higher Egypt is nearer to the supply. So, loads of occasions these had been two kingdoms, after which many pharaohs would unify the 2 kingdoms and develop into each the kings, the pharaohs of Higher and Decrease Egypt. So, on this play, they’re speaking about one of many pharaohs who was the king of each Higher and Decrease Egypt. They’re very pleased with that and therefore why they need to do issues for each the rituals for each Higher and Decrease Egypt and do them twice.
Marina: That is sensible, and I like that the ritual that we ended with is just like the cake ritual that looks like I want to be from the place that will get the cake ritual.
Nabra: Sure, we must always have our personal hippo cake ritual to have a good time one among these seasons. Will you make me a hippo cake?
Marina: I’d make you hippo basbousa utilizing your grandma’s recipe.
Nabra: Hippo kunafa.
Marina: Yeah, I really feel like that will be very laborious to form the cheese, however okay, again to The Triumph of Horus. So, slightly bit in regards to the historical past of the play. The Triumph of Horus is Fantasy C within the 5 texts of Edfu, which is the parable of Horus. So, these texts are all carved into the Temple of Edfu in hieroglyphs, and every scene of The Triumph of Horus has a corresponding reduction depicting the occasions. It ought to undoubtedly be famous that every of the position of every of the scenes was calculated and vital, however the lack of wall area within the temple means that the model of the play depicted on the partitions could also be abridged from what would’ve sometimes been carried out on the time.
The play was carried out on the temple to a public viewers as a part of the annual Pageant of Victory, which commemorated the wars between Horus and Seth and the coronation of a king of a unified Egypt and was celebrated on the new yr. The actors would’ve been members of the temple priesthood. This carving is regarded as accomplished in roughly 110 BC throughout the reign of Ptolemy IX, however it’s sure that the play was not composed at the moment. It’s simply not clear precisely when the play would’ve first appeared, however there may be robust proof to recommend that it was compiled on the newest within the late New Kingdom or round 1300 to 1200 BCE.
Nabra: There may be significance, nevertheless, to its efficiency throughout the Ptolemaic interval or when the Greeks dominated over Egypt and when the present carving was created. Symbolically Seth was seen as a god of evil and symbolic of overseas lands, particularly enemies of Egypt, and Horus because the royal god was extremely symbolic of Egypt itself. So, performing this throughout the Ptolemaic reign would definitely be understood by native Egyptians as nationalist political propaganda, and the Ptolemaic rulers wouldn’t perceive the symbolism or actually the play as a complete since they didn’t perceive the Egyptian language excluding Queen Cleopatra VI—sure, that Cleopatra—who was principally a genius and knew a bunch of languages, together with Egyptian.
Bear in mind she was ethnically Greek, not Egyptian. So, most Greeks, most Ptolemaic rulers didn’t know the Egyptian language. She is absolutely the exception. For the highly effective Egyptian monks, “Inwardly, very lots of them should have resented overseas domination. There’s plentiful proof that the native temples had been in actuality facilities of nationalism, and that one of many essential duties of the priesthood was to protect and to fan the spirit of nationwide pleasure of nationalism till the day got here when as soon as extra the true Horus would sit on the throne. Mythology and the nice annual rituals and festivals of kingship offered monks with supreme instruments of their political nationalistic propaganda. Each Egyptian knew that in actuality, Ptolemy was a foreigner, an enemy.” So the play would have been a political act that was totally understood by the Egyptian viewers. That was a reasonably epic quote, truthfully, from Fairman, in my view. What’s additional superior is that there would have been very intentional viewers participation that engaged the Egyptians on this political protest basically. The decision-and-response and the consuming of the hippo cake, they had been all huge center fingers to the colonizing rulers.
Marina: We imagined that the viewers would’ve been extremely invested on the whole as a result of this play was staged as a part of what was basically the massive New Yr’s Pageant. So, there can be all varieties of pageant actions occurring for 5 days. When the play got here round, individuals had been pumped. “All knew the story, all understood its significance, all had been intensely excited and developed. Therefore, the better viewers of townsfolk didn’t merely watch and hear. They didn’t merely be a part of and complement the refrain. They had been utterly uninhibited and spontaneous.”
Everybody would’ve been drunk and feasting. They might be cheering on Horus and cursing Seth. Can I am going to extra performs with that vibe? So to stage this play at this time, “It’s important that some try must be made to create the sensation that the viewers and actors are one, that every one are actors and individuals, that every one are deeply concerned for less than on this means can one thing of the ambiance of the unique play be recaptured.”
Nabra: As a practitioner of Theatre of the Oppressed and a playwright who’s actually intentional about viewers interplay and breaking the fourth wall and a director whose focus is neighborhood engagement, this entire idea actually resonates with me. Curiously, the language of the play was Center Egyptian, which might have been archaic to audiences of the time, apart from the elite priest actors, in fact. It might’ve been much more overseas to them than Center English is to us. For comparability, take for instance, the primary two line of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales in as greatest as I can approximate, the unique Center English. “Whan that Aprill along with his shoures soote, the droghte of March hath perced to the roote.”
We are able to perceive the gist, however most of the phrases and pronunciations are too removed from trendy English to know, however this may not be an issue for audiences because the story was so acquainted to them. At present, The Triumph of Horus is critical as a result of it’s a full play and since it’s an instance of theatre being developed past liturgical or purely ritual drama, which is what we see for many different examples of historical Egyptian drama.
Marina: I’m nonetheless impressed that she managed to work Center English into this podcast at this time.
Nabra: That’s the extent of my Center English. I don’t even know why I do know these first two ones, however I strive.
Marina: That was lovely. Yeah, no, thanks. I imply, I don’t even actually have a context for what Egyptian appears like, not to mention Center Egyptian. So, it’s simply useful to have the ability to suppose in our personal methods about this.
Nabra: Apparently, the pronunciations in The Mummy films are fairly correct. They actually consulted with an Egyptologist, enjoyable reality.
Marina: What? That’s a wild reality. I’ve not but seen The Mummy films, as a result of by the point that I might’ve seen them, I understood sufficient about orientalism to not need to.
Nabra: However they’re so enjoyable although. They’re so enjoyable.
Marina: From an Egyptian. You heard it right here first.
Nabra: They’re so dangerous, however they’re so enjoyable.
Marina: Superb. I’ll examine them out solely to listen to the Center Egyptian in them, or simply common Egyptian.
Nabra: I don’t know what second in Egyptian dialectical historical past it’s, but it surely’s apparently fairly good.
All I am saying is Horus and Osiris is the Christmas Carol of historical Egypt, and I feel that is a reasonably good parallel. I stand by it
Marina: So whereas we’ve targeted on one explicit play up so far, we now need to zoom out and offer you an concept of historical Egyptian theatre extra broadly. Theatre in historical Egypt was very completely different from what theatre appears to be like like at this time. To start with, there may be nothing that an archeologist would establish as a theatre venue present in historical Egypt. There are accounts of Egyptian ceremonial theatre, particularly having to do with Osiris, recounted by classical authors. Herodotus, a Greek historian from the fifth century BCE, described a ceremony he noticed thusly:
When the solar is getting low, just a few solely of the monks continues occupied in regards to the picture of the God, whereas the better quantity armed with wood golf equipment take their station on the portal of the temple. Reverse to them is drawn up a physique of males in quantity above a thousand armed just like the others with golf equipment. Consisting of individuals engaged within the efficiency of their vows, the picture of the god, which is stored in a small wood shrine coated with plates of gold, is conveyed from the temple right into a second sacred constructing the day earlier than the pageant begins. The few monks nonetheless in attendance upon the picture place it along with the shrine containing it on a four-wheeled automotive and start to tug it alongside. The others stationed on the gateway of the temple oppose its admission. Then the votaries come ahead to espouse the quarrel of the God and set upon the opponents who’re positive to supply resistance. A pointy struggle with golf equipment ensues by which heads are generally damaged on each side.
Apparently, nobody would die on this ritualistic theatrical struggle, though the “heads generally damaged on each side” does give me pause, but it surely’s fascinating to listen to a firsthand account of an instance of ceremonial theatre in historical Egypt.
Nabra: As with that instance, there’s a lot debate about what in historical Egypt was theatre versus ceremony versus ritual and when and if these distinctions are helpful. From Fairman, “It has additionally been claimed that there should have been drama in historical Egypt as a result of so many rituals, festivals, and even the each day temple ritual itself integrated so many dramatic parts. However there may be nowhere any trace that these each day providers had been themselves conceived, deliberate, or acted as dramas. They had been dramatizations of the episodes of each day life, however on no account had been they performs.” In fact, this brings up the query extra usually, what’s theatre or drama or a play? We received’t get too far into that right here, however I feel you may definitely take these ceremonies to be drama in some kind.
Fairman, in an try to explain probably the most historical Egyptian dramatic texts found known as the [Dramatic] Ramesseum Papyrus, which is extra arguably not a play than The Triumph of Horus is, says, “It might probably be higher and cautiously outlined as a politico-mythological compilation, incorporating sure dramatic parts which can maybe have been derived from a drama now misplaced, or maybe merely using dialogue to bolster the principle argument.” If that isn’t essentially the most academia-inspired definition you have got ever heard, I don’t know what’s. I’m positive it’s correct. It simply sounds ridiculous.
Marina: Nabra takes on the academy in a single sentence.
So, how do we all know what’s a play in hieroglyphs? Nicely, there may be merely some conjecture. Within the Memphite theology, AKA the Shabaka Stone from the 700 BCE, arrows under names are thought to point dialogue between characters. So, as an illustration, there’s an arrow above the title Geb pointing to the fitting and an arrow above the title Horus pointing to the left, indicating that Geb mentioned to Horus. This can be a small tangent, however the Shabaka Stone can be political propaganda “in favor of Ptah of Memphis in opposition to the rising energy and affect of Ra and the priesthood of Heliopolis.” So that offers you an concept of what political dramas had been like again within the day.
Nabra: In some instances, we all know it’s a play as a result of vertical strains and columns break up the textual content. Within the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus from the Center Kingdom, the entire textual content is written in 138 vertical columns, and there are thirty-one vignettes under the textual content. The Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus, which we maintain mentioning, is a ritual play for the jubilee of Senusret I. This textual content additionally mentions Osiris and Horus. That story is the preferred of historical Egyptian myths and was advised again and again. I used to be making an attempt to consider an equivalency at this time. Since I used to be writing the primary draft of this episode on Christmas Eve and I had simply been studying Christopher Durang’s play Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge, the primary instance that got here to thoughts was A Christmas Carol.
Marina: What a sentence, Nabra. Actually placing disparate issues in dialog right here.
Nabra: All I’m saying is Horus and Osiris is the Christmas Carol of historical Egypt, and I feel that’s a reasonably good parallel. I stand by it.
Marina: I like that.
So, different historical Egyptian texts that could possibly be thought of as dramas are the Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth, which is a ritual drama with seventy-five scenes accompanied by reduction vignettes.
Nabra: The Unas Ritual, part of the pyramid texts discovered within the pyramid of King Unas of the Fifth Dynasty at Saqqara. This can be a single ritual which might be described as a ritual drama carried out within the pyramid at evening with solely six officiants. It principally depicts the burial of the king after which his soul ascending to the sky.
Marina: The Abydos ardour play was written on the Ikhernofret Stela, which is a stone carving written by the priest with the identical title and was one other ritual play, however this time depicting the slaying of Osiris by Seth and Osiris’s resurrection. It’s from the nineteenth century BCE. and would’ve been staged on the Nice Temple of Abydos throughout the annual pageant related to Osiris, which marked the time to plant new crops. I’ve to say, this play is taught at Stanford in one of many world theatre historical past courses because the oldest play that exists.
Nabra: In Étienne Drioton’s ebook, Le Théâtre dans l’Ancienne Egypte, he claims a collection of different texts are fragments of dramas. He additionally made his personal standards for figuring out dramatic works, saying, “The putting of the title of a speaker on the head of a speech, the presence of stage instructions within the midst of dialogue, the final nature of the textual content, grammar, dialogue, and on the whole, a non-narrative model.” It appears affordable to me and fairly effectively according to up to date drama, however in fact this standards is closely argued by students, and there are examples of exceptions in fact.
Marina: I imply, I personally like to consider efficiency capaciously. So, I feel that we are able to actually consider all of these items in numerous kinds. However once more, neither Nabra or I are Egyptologists, so we’re actually additionally counting on completely different sources right here for ourselves. So, listed here are among the names of fragments of common dramatic texts that had been discovered, and there are some very clearly common characters that you simply’ll discover right here.
The Misfortunes of a Messenger of Horus, The Defeat of Apopis, Isis and The Seven Scorpions—Horus is bitten by a scorpion, which there are two of these—The Return of Seth, The Flight between Tut and Apopis, earlier variations of The Triumph of Horus, Horus Burning within the Desert, A Nightmare of Horus. So, all of these are doable dramas are ultimately non secular. This resonates with a lot historical Greek theatre the place gods had been current ultimately in these dramas as effectively.
Nabra: The character of historical Egyptian theatre definitely expands and questions trendy ideas of what theatre is. There’s clearly a lot debate on this planet of Egyptology as to what’s or shouldn’t be a play. Even The Triumph of Horus is debated. Though Fairman outlines a really sturdy argument as to why it’s a play. He says, “First, in lots of locations, the names of actors are positioned earlier than the phrases they’ve to talk. Second, the entire textual content is a collection of speeches and songs with none narrative. Third, the presence of indubitable stage instructions, which in grammatical kind and in content material differ from the remainder of the textual content.” He even refers to competing hypotheses in regards to the play as “good and ingenious examples of psychological gymnastics.” So, I feel we are able to all simply go forward and take into account The Triumph of Horus as theatre, though that isn’t the purpose of this podcast episode.
It’s been produced greater than as soon as. You’ll be able to search for manufacturing pictures and details about the few trendy productions, however a contemporary manufacturing won’t ever seize the ritualistic features, the non secular significance, or the essential political undertones that the play had in its time. It’s an enchanting play that also entertains and educates at this time, and I like to recommend you give it a learn or at the least look into the reliefs which can be integrated into the script now that you’ve got an concept of the plot and context of the piece.
I’m proud that Egyptians, who pioneered virtually all the pieces to be sincere, had been additionally pioneers of the theatre kind, utilizing it for leisure, for neighborhood engagement, and for subversive political commentary.
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Nabra Nelson and Marina: Yalla, bye!
