Collection(s) : Nouvelles études orientales
Paru le 15/07/2014 | Broché 305 pages
Public motivé
In Interpreting Ancient Egyptian Narratives, Martin Pehal applies structural analysis to four New Kingdom narrative compositions. The study explains the strong configurational character of ancient Egyptian (mythological) thought which has the ability to connect various ontological levels of human experience with the surrounding world into complex synchronic structures. These symbolical systems are shown to be mediating between the various cultural paradoxes which were inherent to ancient Egyptian society. Axial role in this process is attributed to the institution of positional kingship represented by the pharaoh. Its transformative function is also put into relation to the special status of female characters who are shown to play the part of the "powerful powerless ones" further personifying the aspects of the mediating function of myth. Gradually, the study outlines a genuinely Egyptian "structural net" of basic mythemes and explains in what way it was possible for such a system to change and incorporate foreign mythological motifs especially from the Near East.
Martin Pehal (MA in Egyptology and Religious Studies at the Charles University in Prague, 2008) is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Philosophy and Religious Studies (Charles University in Prague). He specializes in ancient Egyptian religion, theory of ritual and myth. The topic of his dissertation is the structural position of the divine eye in ancient Egyptian religious texts.
