GM 244 (2015) 67

Magical Healing Waters: Reexamining the Requirements of the Udjat Eye

Luca Miatello

Abstract: The pictographic relation between the hieratic notation of the six fractions of
the corn measure and the hieroglyphs of the parts of the wDAt-eye is doubtful. Also, there
is scant evidence of hieroglyphs of these fractions, especially before the New Kingdom.
On these bases, Ritter cast doubts on the existence of the “Horus-eye fractions” and on
Möller’s theory that the injured eye was magically healed by restoring its 64th part. As
shown by Pommerening, the filling of the eye was made by a series of quantities adding
up to 1 DA, but there is also a more complex and partly unexplained series, attested as
early as the 18th Dynasty and inscribed on a relief from the Roman period. This paper
indicates that its origin and meaning can be traced back to a spell of the Coffin Texts.

Relatively recently, the historian of mathematics James Ritter cast doubts on the
existence of the “Horus-eye fractions” ( , , , , , ), and on the theory
that the myth of the healing of the wDAt-eye was expressed mathematically.1
In fact, as indicated already by Otto Neugebauer,2 the 4th Dynasty hieratic signs
of the fractions of HqAt from the Gebelein papyri ( 1 2 , 1
4,
1
8,
1
16 ,
1 1
32 , 64 ) have little pictographic similarity with the parts of the wDAt-eye, in
particular the signs for 116 , 1 32 , and 1 64 .3 On the other hand, there is scant
evidence of hieroglyphic writings of fractions of HqAt in the Old Kingdom,
excepting 1 2 ( , , ).4
The 12th Dynasty Kahun papyri show a relative modification of the hieratic to
1 1 1 1 1 1
the signs 2 , 4, 8, 16 , 32 , 64 , which are found in this form
5
also in the Rhind mathematical papyrus. The evolution, in comparison with the
Old Kingdom, concerns the signs for 116 , 1 32 , 1 64 , but the pictographic similarity

1
J. Ritter, “Closing the Eye of Horus: The Rise and Fall of ‘Horus-eye Fractions’”, in J.
M. Steele and A. M. Imhausen (ed), Under one Sky: Astronomy and Mathematics in the
Ancient Near East (AOAT 297; Münster, 2002), 297–323.
2
O. Neugebauer, “Über den Scheffel und seine Teile”, ZÄS 65 (1930), 42–8.
3
Hieratic signs for 1 2 , 1 4 , and 116 , expressing daily rations of food, appear also on an
account papyrus recently found at Wadi el-jarf: see P. Tallet, “Des papyrus du temps de
Chéops au Ouadi el-Jarf (golfe de Suez)”, BSFE 188 (2014), 44 fig. 18.
4
Hieroglyphic and hieratic signs in the Old Kingdom: T. Pommerening, Die
altägyptischen Hohlmaße (BSAK 10; Hamburg, 2005), 102 Tab. 5.1.1.
5
Hieroglyphic and hieratic signs in the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate
Period: Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 122 Tab. 5.2.1.
68 GM 244 (2015)

to the hieroglyphs for the parts of the eye is at best doubtful. Also few hieroglyphs
of the capacity measure HqAt are attested in this period. In the 12th Dynasty temple
1 1 6
of Ptah, the hieroglyphs 2 , and 64 , are found together with hieratic signs.
The hieroglyph for 1 64 is here DA, with hieratic counterpart , and not the part
of the eye .7
In the New Kingdom, though, there is evidence of hieroglyphic notations of all
fractions of the corn measure as parts of the wDAt-eye.

The fractions of jpt as parts of the eye in the New Kingdom

As shown by Tanja Pommerening, the parallel between the fractions of the corn
measure jpt (“oipe”), equivalent to the quadruple HqAt, and the hieroglyphs
representing the parts of the wDAt-eye, was fully established at least as early as the
1
19th Dynasty.8 In the temple of Ramses II at Abydos, the sign 2 appears
reversed, in comparison with earlier specimens.9 All signs now correspond to the
parts of the eye, including, in Senmut’s offering list, the one for 1 64 .10 The
correspondence of all six signs is found in the temple of Ramses III at Medinet
Habu:
1 1 1 1 1 1 11
2, 4, 8, 16 , 32 , 64 .
Therefore, even though the hieratic signs probably did not originate from an
identification with the parts of the eye, the parallel was certainly being made in
the New Kingdom. Also, as we will see, the HqAt measure was probably the
reference for the magical filling of the eye, in the Coffin Texts. From the New
Kingdom on, the eye is identified with the jpt, which substitutes for the HqAt as the
main capacity measure. In the Instruction of Amenemope, hieratic papyrus BM
EA10474 (26th Dynasty, from Thebes), chapter 17, the jpt measure is called wDAt
and the eye of Ra:12

6
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 122 Tab. 5.2.1, 131.
7
On the Middle Kingdom measure DA: Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße,
133–34. In the New Kingdom, the DA is equal to 1 64 jpt.
8
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 140. Hieroglyphic and hieratic signs in
the New Kingdom: Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 141 Tab. 5.3.1.
9
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 141 Tab. 5.3.1, 149.
10
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 148.
11
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 141 Tab. 5.3.1, 149–50.
12
Cf. W. K. Simpson, “The Instruction of Amenemope”, in W. K. Simpson (ed), The
Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae,
Autobiographies, and Poetry (3rd ed.: New Haven, 2003), 236–7; M. Lichtheim, Ancient
Egyptian Literature. Volume II: The New Kingdom (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London,
1976), 157.
GM 244 (2015) 69

[18.15] zAw tw r aSgAj wDA.t “Beware of tampering with the wDAt measure”
[18.16] r saDA nAy=s r.w “to falsify its fractions”. (…)
[18.21] m-jri jri n=k jp.t n TAi 2.t “Make not for yourself a measure of twice its
size,”
[18.22] jjri.w=k jri n pA mt(r) “For then you are headed for the abyss.”
[18.23] jr jp.t jr.t ra “The jpt-measure is the eye of Ra.”

The identification of the eye with the jpt is attested also in the Roman period.
In the Manual of priestly knowledge from Tebtunis (A.D. 1–199), hieratic papyrus
Carlsberg 182 + PSI Inv. I 77, fragment B, l. 25–29, appears this sentence:13
“The wDAt, which is intact, has been brought to 320 r.w-parts, corresponding to 40
hnw”.
The wDAt-eye of 40 hnw (“hin”) is clearly the jpt, with r defined here as 1320 jpt.14
In the model proposed by Georg Möller and Alan Gardiner, 15 the Horus-eye
63
fractions, which add up to 64 , represent the injured eye of the god, which would
have been magically healed by Thoth by making it whole with the quantity 1 64 .
This is frequently taken for granted in Egyptology, even if Möller and Gardiner
did not provide any evidence that the eye was filled with this quantity.
Certainly already in the Middle Kingdom the Egyptians knew that the six
fractions of HqAt are completed to one by 1 64 HqAt. A Problem of the Cairo
Wooden Tablets shows the transformation of 1 3 HqAt into fractions of HqAt and
r.w, with r defined as 1320 HqAt.16 The last two lines of the exercise show that a
whole HqAt is equal to the sum of the solution, 1 4 116 1 64 HqAt 1 2 3 r, and its
double, 1 2 18 1 32 HqAt 3 1 3 r. This demonstrates that the scribe knew that the HqAt
is equal to the sum of its six fractions and 5 r.w (= 1 64 HqAt). The term DA(.t)
“remainder”, which in the Middle Kingdom expresses a quantity of 1 64 HqAt,
probably originated from the consideration that this fraction completes to one the
sum of the six fractions of HqAt.
That this mathematical concept of completion was used in a religious and
magical context, though, is far from obvious. Evidence that has been frequently

13
J. Osing, The Carlsberg Papyri 2: Hieratische Papyri aus Tebtunis I (Copenhagen,
1998), 225.
14
Cf. T. Pommerening, “Healing Measures: dja and Oipe in Ancient Egyptian Pharmacy
and Medicine”, in J. Cockitt and R. David (eds), Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient
Egypt: Proceedings of the Conferences Held in Cairo (2007) and Manchester (2008)
(BAR IS 2141; Oxford, 2010), 135.
15
G. Möller, “Die Zeichen für die Bruchteile des Hohlmaßes und das Uzatauge”, ZÄS 48
(1911), 99–101; EgGr, 197.
16
See H. Vymazalová, “The Wooden Tablets from Cairo: The Use of the Grain Unit HqAt
in Ancient Egypt”, ArOr 70 (2002), 30–1.
70 GM 244 (2015)

cited for the healing of the injured eye of Horus, by the completion to one of its
mathematical parts, is the wall scene in the Greco-Roman temple of Kom Ombo
(fig. 1), in which, on the right of the famous set of medical instruments, capacity
measures appear. This relief was engraved in Roman times, A.D. 138–218.17

The cup with capacity measures and toponyms in Kom Ombo

In the scene KO 950 in Kom Ombo, the king offers the two wDAt-eyes, medical
instruments and healing water in a large cup to the god Haroeris (Hrw-wr), seated
on a throne, with the goddess Senetneferet standing behind him (fig. 1).18 Small
representations of Isis and Osiris(?), each seated on an offering table, face the
wDAt-eye with a falcon, also set on an offering table.19 The epithets of Haroeris in
Kom Ombo include “head of the physicians”,20 and “healer of the two wDAt-
eyes”.21 A tapering cup, set above a basin on a stand, contains the healing waters
for the two eyes. The cup is subdivided into a series of horizontal segments, each
inscribed with a capacity measure followed by a toponym. Between the cup and
the basin, a short line of text recites:

mw nDm pri m Xnw.t j<w> swab jr(.t) ra jr(.t) Hrw

“The sweet water coming forth from the interior: the eye of Ra and the eye of
Horus are cleansed”.22

17
The more precise dating to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161–180), in B. Porter
and R. L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts,
Reliefs and Paintings VI. Upper Egypt: Chief Temples (Oxford, 1939), 180 (no. 228), is
uncertain, as the name of the king does not appear on the relief.
18
See D. Kurth, “Die Ritualszene mit den medizineschen Instrumenten im Tempel von
Kom Ombo (Nr. 950)”, in M. Schade-Busch (ed), Wege öffnen: Festschrift für Rolf
Gundlach zum 65. Geburtstag (ÄAT 35; Wiesbaden, 1996), 149–164, Taf. 8–11; F.
Coppens and H. Vymazalová, “Medicine, Mathematics and Magic Unite in a Scene from
the Temple of Kom Ombo (KO 950)”, Anthropologie 48/2–3 (2010), 9–13.
19
Under the horizontal part of the wDAt, on the left of the falcon, there is a triangle. This
element appears in the Late Period and is found frequently in the Greco-Roman period. It
is similar to the hieroglyphs and , set horizontally, possibly meaning spd(.t) “Sothis”
(the star of Isis). In the amulets London BM EA22838 and Pelizaeus-Museum
Hildesheim 4543, respectively, a cow and a bull are depicted in place of the falcon.
20
A. Gutbub, Textes fondamentaux de la théologie de Kom Ombo (BdE 47/1; Cairo,
1973), 118–9.
21
Gutbub, Textes fondamentaux, 94–5, 118–20.
22
The term jt can be interpreted as a defective jw (cf. Kurth, in M. Schade-Busch (ed),
Wege öffnen, 153 n. 33), in a passive jw sDm=f (EgGr §462).
GM 244 (2015) 71

Fig. 1. Wall scene KO 950 in the temple of Kom Ombo. Drawing by the author.
72 GM 244 (2015)

The royal offering is therefore part of the ritual of magical healing and
purification of the injured eyes, performed, in particular, for the s(js)-n.t “sixth-
day feast”.23

The magical ritual of purification and filling of the eye(s)

Several texts associate the “sixth-day feast”, which was held annually on a day
that did not correspond to the sixth day of the month in the Greco-Roman period,
with the ritual of the filling of the wDAt with its requirements. Hermann Junker
suggested that the feast celebrated the six parts of the wDAt-eye.24
Papyrus Louvre N 3073, 18th Dynasty, from Thebes, Book of the Dead ch. 80,
col. 6–7, recites:25
mH.n=j jr.t m jw.tj=s n jy.t sjs-n.t
“I have filled the eye with what was missing, as the sixth-day feast had not (yet)
come”.
In Edfou II, 26, 12–13:
sjs-n(.t) pw wn Xnw m tA qAa jb n ra m fAj hrw nfr n jwst-as mH wDA.t m dbH.w=s.
“This is the sixth-day feast, opening the interior on earth, when the heart of Ra is
exalted in lifting up; the happy day of Iusas filling the wDA.t-eye with its
requirements”.26
Presumably, the feast celebrated the summer solstice, or the annual birth of the
sun at its highest power, in conjunction with the beginning of the Nile flood and
the heliacal rising of Sothis.27 Originally, the solar implications of the feast
prevailed. In the Greco-Roman period, though, the power of the sun and the full

23
Transliterated also snwt (Wb 4, 153.4–6). The translation “Day of the sixth” is
proposed in W. Barta, “Zur Bedeutung des snwt-Festes”, ZÄS 95 (1969), 73–80. For the
use of the element n.t in the feast of the sixth and fifteenth day: Wb 2, 198.1–2.
24
H. Junker, “Die sechs Teile des Horusauges und der «sechste Tag»”, ZÄS 48 (1911),
101–6.
25
Book of the Dead of Pa, hieroglyphic: see Totenbuchprojekt Bonn, TM 134306, photo
no. 10.
26
Cf. Barta, ZÄS 95, 75 (no. 15). According to P. Wilson, in A Ptolemaic Lexikon: a
Lexicographical Study of the Texts in the Temple of Edfu (OLA 78; Leuven, 1997), 857,
wn Xnw is a term for the summer solstice. In Edfou VII, 79, 3–4, it is used in an image of
the primeval birth of the sun: prj m nww wn Xnw Ssr m jtn=f (...) “Coming forth from the
primeval waters, opening the interior, lighting up with his sun disk (…)”. On the reading
“to brighten”, as metaphor of the light revealing what is obscure on earth: Wb 1, 313.9;
Wilson, Ptolemaic Lexikon, 231.
27
Barta, ZÄS 95, 76–80; Wilson, Ptolemaic Lexikon, 857–8.
GM 244 (2015) 73

moon were both worshipped, the latter as the union of Osiris with the left eye. 28 In
the temple of Khons in Karnak is the inscription:29
dwA jaH jn bA.w sjs-n(.t) dbn jAH Ab.t m smd.t
“Worship the moon by the power of the sixth-day feast, the circle of the moon, the
left eye in the fifteenth-day feast”.
The purification and filling of the two wDAt-eyes, symbolic of the fullness of
the solar and lunar power, occurred already in the New Kingdom. In the Ritual of
Amenhotep I, papyrus Chester Beatty IX (BM EA10689), rt. 14, 11–12,30 a
complex offering involves the presentation of two cups with water to Amun:
dbH(.t)-Htp hrw n sis-n.t Hnk dSr.tj n mw 2 jmn mn n=k mw jmj jr.t=kj dSr.tj (...)
“Daily needs of the sixth-day feast. Presentation of 2 red cups with water. Amun,
take to yourself the water which is in your two eyes and the two red vessels (…)”.
The column behind the kneeling king in the scene at Kom Ombo reads:

[... mH(=j)] wDA.tj=k m pri jm zn rdj(=j) zn r s.t zn bAq.tw apr.tw m r.w zn DfA.w m
antj.w zn 10 A Swi Hr=k m jr.tj=k sA ra nb [...].
“[… (I) fill] your two wDAt-eyes with what proceeds from them, and (I) put them
in their place, hale and equipped with their parts, supplied with their myrrh. The
10(th) (part) will not be empty on you in your two eyes, son of Ra, lord […]”.

Dieter Kurth considers a peculiar writing of , as n of negation: “<Never> your

face will be without your two eyes, O son of Ra, lord [...]”.31 This translation is
doubtful, also considering that the eye in the myth is injured, and not completely
missing. In my reading, is as usual the numeral “10”, to be intended here as
ordinal number, and A is the negative particle.32 As we will see, the examination of
the quantities of water in the cup accounts for the presence of this numeral.

28
Cf. Barta, ZÄS 95, 75–6 (nos. 16, 17). In Edfu, the feast, probably in consideration of
its significance as a symbol of renewal and rebirth, marked the beginning of the
construction works in the temple, with the stretching of the cord ceremony: see Wilson,
Ptolemaic Lexikon, 857.
29
Urk. VIII.1, 44, h; DZA 29.037.130.
30
See A. Gardiner, Hieratic Papyri in the British Museum (London, 1935), I, 97–8; II, pl.
56; DZA 29.037.110.
31
Kurth, in M. Schade-Busch (ed), Wege öffnen, 152, n. 23.
32
An example of negative particle A in the Ptolemaic period: A nk=k n D.t xft.jw n ra
“Forever you will not copulate, enemy of Ra”, P. of Iufanch, Torino 1791, BD ch. 39, col.
8: R. Lepsius, Das Todtenbuch der Ägypter nach dem hieroglyphischen Papyrus in Turin
(Leipzig, 1842; reprint: Osnabrück, 1969), Tab. 18; Totenbuchprojekt Bonn, TM 57201,
photo no. 7.
74 GM 244 (2015)

The cup for the purification and filling of the eyes in Kom Ombo

Transcription of the text within the cup in Kom Ombo is shown in fig. 2, followed
by transliteration and translation.33 The toponyms that accompany each quantity
of water follow the course of the Nile, with Elephantine corresponding to the
smallest value.

Fig. 2. The cup in Kom Ombo, with transcription. Drawing by the author.

[hnw pr-bA-ttj.t] [1 hnw Mendes]

DA.t pr-Hapj.t 1 DA Per-Hapi
1 1
2 hnw sAw.t 2 hnw Sais
1 1
2 DA.t pr-bnw Ddw.t 2 DA House of the Phoenix (in) Busiris
1 sic
3 jwnw.t < 1 4 > Heliopolis
1 1
8 mn-nfr.t 8 Memphis
1 1
16 Hw.t-nsw.t 16 Herakleopolis
1 1
32 xmnw.t 32 Hermopolis
1 1
64 nw.t 64 Thebes
1 1
128 Abw.t 128 Elephantine

33
For a detailed analysis of this text: Kurth, in M. Schade-Busch (ed), Wege öffnen, 153–
5.
GM 244 (2015) 75

Clearly, the purification of the two wDAt-eyes is destined also for Egypt. In the
Greco-Roman period, both wDAt and tA.wj are designations for Egypt.34
The quantities of water inscribed in the cup are the following:

1 1
[1 hnw], 1 DA, 2 hnw, 2 DA, < 1 4 >, 1
8 , 1
16 , 1
32 ,
35 1
64 ,
36 1
128 .

After 1 2 DA, there is a series of fractions in progressive halving, whose unit

measure of capacity is left implicit. Several scholars have interpreted these
numbers as Horus-eye fractions, i.e., as fractions of HqAt or jpt.37 What we have
here, however, is substantially different. As Pommerening indicated, these
fractions, written in the abstract system of numbers, are expressed in DA,
corresponding to 1 64 jpt.38 Fractions of DA have been misinterpreted in translations
of medical papyri as fractions of HqAt, r.w, hnw.39 The hieratic notation of
fractions of DA, from the medical papyrus Brooklyn 47.218.4, is as follows:40
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2, 4, 8, 16 , 32 , 64 , 128 .
The presence of quantities of hnw together with quantities of DA in the series of
values in Kom Ombo, though, is obscure. The series of seven quantities of DA adds
up to about 1 DA, which is the measure that completes to one the six fractions of
jpt,41 but why are quantities of hnw, and the quantity 1 DA, added to the series?
Kurth suggested conditionally that originally the cup depicted in Kom Ombo had
fourteen subdivisions, which would comply with the symbolism of the filling of
the eye as representation of the full moon at half month.42 As we will see, the
subdivisions were presumably eleven, as evidenced by two actual cups.
34
Wb 1, 402; Wb 5, 217 (e.g., in a hymn to Haroeris in Ombos: DZA 30.867.720).
35
here reads “8”. See also “8” in xmn.jw “ogdoad”. This late variant of the numeral
presumably derives from the hieratic sign for , which is similar to the hieroglyph : cf. G.
Möller, Hieratische Paläographie, vol. 3, Leipzig (Reprint: Osnabrück, 1965) 1912, 62
no. 659. The total of 32 is given by the multiplication of 8 by 4.
36
On the reading “60”, see A. Grimm, “ = 60. Ein Beleg für das Zahlwort ‘Sechzig’
aus der Ptolemäisch-römischen Epochen”, GM 71 (1984), 27–35.
37
E.g.: Kurth, in M. Schade-Busch (ed), Wege öffnen, 158; Coppens and Vymazalová,
Anthropologie 48/2–3, 11–2.
38
Pommerening, in J. Cockitt and R. David (eds), Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient
Egypt, 132–7.
39
For example, with reference to P. Ebers 153: Pommerening, in J. Cockitt and R. David
(eds), Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt, 133, fig. 5.
40
Cf. S. Sauneron, Un traité égyptien d'ophiologie: papyrus du Brooklin Museum n.
47.218.48 et .85 (Cairo, 1989), 196. Sauneron interprets these quantities incorrectly as
fractions of HqAt.
41
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 254; Pommerening, in J. Cockitt and R.
David (eds), Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient Egypt, 135.
42
Kurth, in M. Schade-Busch (ed), Wege öffnen, 161–2.
76 GM 244 (2015)

Actual conical cups with eleven subdivisions

Two graduated conical cups in metal, in Paris at the Louvre and in the Cairo
Egyptian Museum (fig. 3), show a subdivision into eleven segments, with exactly
the same quantities as the cup depicted in Kom Ombo.

Fig. 3. Graduated cups: Louvre E 2511-N 891 (right); Cairo JE 28493 (left).
Drawing by the author.

- Conical cup Paris Louvre E 2511-N 891, in bronze, from Thebes(?) (fig. 3,
right).43
The cup, inscribed with the name DHwtj-ms “Tuthmosis”, is dated to the 18th
Dynasty. Its external surface is subdivided into eleven graduated segments. There
is no inscription identifying the volumes for each segment, which, however, were
estimated already by Daressy:44
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
1 2 hnw, 1 hnw, 1 DA, 2 hnw, 2 DA, 4 DA, 8 DA, 16 DA, 32 DA, 64 DA, 128
DA.

43
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 354–5.
44
G. Daressy, “Deux vases gradués du Musée de Ghizeh”, BIE (sér. 3) 8 (1897), 223–6;
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 355.
GM 244 (2015) 77

The total capacity of the cup, calculated as the sum of the volumes in each
segment, is cm³ 2,054, i.e., about 1 10 jpt, or 4 hnw.45

- Conical cup Cairo JE 28493 (CG 3577), in silver (fig. 3, left).46

The cup, acquired in Alexandria, is dated broadly from the Third Intermediate
Period to Greco-Roman times. Its external surface, subdivided into eleven
graduated segments, shows the following inscriptions:
1 1 1 1 1
– , hnw, DA, 1 2 hnw, 1 2 DA, [4] , [8] , [ 116 ], [32] , [64] , [128] .
Estimated volumes:47
1 1 2 hnw, 1 hnw, 1 DA, 1 2 hnw, 1 2 DA, 1 4 DA, 18 DA, 116 DA, 1 32 DA, 1 64 DA, 1128
DA.
The total capacity of the cup, calculated as the sum of the volumes in each
segment, is cm³ 2,142, i.e., about 1 10 jpt, or 4 hnw.

It is noteworthy that the sides of the tapering cup in Cairo are slightly curved, as
in the Greek variant dbH.w “requirements”, “components” (of the wDAt-eye).
The term dbH is also used for a measuring vessel.48 In the Hearst Papyrus, from
the 18th Dynasty, Horus measures his eye with a dbH-vessel.49 Eight cylindrical
dbH.w-vessels appear in the offering list from the temple of Amun in Karnak
(Tuthmosis III), “for the god’s ritual” (n jx.t-nTr).50

Like these two actual conical cups, the cup depicted in Kom Ombo presumably
had, originally, an eleventh section (fig. 4), with the inscription of the quantity
1 1 2 hnw. The complete series of values of the cup in Kom Ombo is as follows:

<1 1 2 hnw>, [1 hnw], 1 DA, 1

2 hnw, 1
2 DA, < 1 4 >, 1
8 , 1
16 , 1
32 ,
1
64 ,
1
128 .

1
As pointed out, the total capacity of this type of cup is about 10 jpt, or 4 hnw.

45
The jpt in the New Kingdom was about 20,000 cm³: cf. Pommerening, Die
altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 156–7, Tab. 5.3.3.a /b. See also the cylindrical granite vessel
Cairo JE 36925 (18th Dynasty), with estimated volume 20,033: Pommerening, Die
altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 363–4.
46
A. Lucas and A. Rowe, “Ancient Egyptian Measures of Capacity”, ASAE 40 (1940),
73–6, 83–92; Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 350–2.
47
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 351 Tab. M01.
48
Wb 5, 441.10–11; Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 62–5.
49
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 65.
50
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 64.
78 GM 244 (2015)

It can be also calculated by transforming the values into fractions of jpt,

considering that the DA is 1 64 jpt, and the hnw is 1 40 jpt:51

1 1 1 1 1 1 1
40 80 + 40 + 64 + 80 + ( 1 64 ) = 20 + 40 + 1
32 ≈ 1
10 .

Before discussing this result, I will now consider another important type of
graduated conical cup.

Fig. 4. Reconstruction of the original height of the cup in Kom Ombo.

Photo by the author.

51
The values can be also transformed into r.w, with the jpt equivalent to 320 r.w, for a
total of 34 r.w. The final quantity of 1128 DA is 2 1 2 r.w, which results in a sum slightly
exceeding 110 jpt.
GM 244 (2015) 79

The purification and filling of the eye by means of seven quantities

The conical cup Cairo JE 28187 (CG 3576), in bronze, shows seven graduations
(fig. 5). It was acquired in Alexandria and is dated to the Greco-Roman period.52

Fig. 5. Graduated cup Cairo JE 28187. Drawing by the author.

Each of its seven sections is inscribed with a fraction of DA:

1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 DA, 4 , 8 , 16 , 32 , 64 , 128 .
The estimation of the volumes confirms the values of the inscriptions:53
1 1 1 1 1 1 1
2 DA, 4 DA, 8 DA, 16 DA, 32 DA, 64 DA, 128 DA.
63
This cup has a total capacity of 64 DA + 1128 DA, i.e., about 1 DA, or 1 64 jpt.

In the “Cairo calendar”, hieratic papyrus Cairo JE 86637, rto XXVIII, 5–7
(22nd decade), from the New Kingdom, there is the following sentence:54
1 1
jw psD.t m jAw.t jr.t tw[j n.t Hrw wr] m s.t=s.t sjp.tj [m] dbH.w=s nb DA 2 DA 4
1 1 1 1 1
8 16 [ 32 , 64 , 128 ] jm=s m jp.t=s.t n nb.t=s

52
Daressy, BIE (sér. 3) 8, 149–52; Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 352–3.
53
Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße, 353 Tab. M02.
54
Cf. C. Leitz, Tagewählerei. Das Buch HAt nHH ph.wy Dt und verwandte Texte (ÄA 55;
Wiesbaden, 1994), I, 308–9, II, Taf. 28; Pommerening, Die altägyptischen Hohlmaße,
251.
80 GM 244 (2015)

“The Ennead is in adoration, when this eye [of Haroeris] is on its place, being
revised [with] all its components of DA:55 1 2 DA, 1 4 , 18 , 116 , [ 1 32 , 1 64 , 1128 ] are
in it, in their count of its whole”.56

Clearly, this is the same sequence of fractional quantities in descending order of

magnitude as the one inscribed on the conical cup Cairo JE 28187. Their sum
approximates 1 DA, i.e., 1 64 jpt, which is the quantity that restores the eye to a
whole jpt. The restored (“revised”) eye is composed of fractions of jpt and DA,
whose overall sum is 1 jpt: 1 2 (jpt + DA) + 1 4 (jpt + DA) + 18 (jpt + DA) + 116 (jpt
+ DA) + 1 32 (jpt + DA) + 1 64 (jpt + DA) + 1128 DA.
If the filling of the eye by means of a series of seven quantities whose sum
approximates 1 DA complies with the model of completion of the six parts of the
63
eye adding up to 64 , more difficult is the explanation of the meaning of the
series with measures of hnw and DA, in the cup depicted in the temple of Kom
Ombo and in the two actual cups with eleven subdivisions.

Explaining the series of eleven quantities that fills the eye

Spell 155 of the Coffin Texts, entitled “Knowing the bA.w of the last crescent
invisibility”, provides a plausible explanation of the quantity of water composed
of eleven elements, which, as we have seen, adds up to the tenth part of the eye: 57

[II 294–95] jnk nTr jr.j sjA m a.t Xr.t dbH.w

“I am the god in charge of the knowledge (of the eye), in the room containing the
dbH.w-vessels”.58
[II 294–96] jw=j rx.kw jAT.t m jr.t tb(j) jp r.w=s
“I know what is missing in the eye of Tebi when its parts are counted,”
[II 296] wAS anDw r wSA.w wx.w
“and when the dawn is stronger than the darkness of the nights”.

55
Pommerening (in J. Cockitt and R. David (eds), Pharmacy and Medicine in Ancient
Egypt, 134) considers 1 DA the first value of the series. I would suggest that the term DA is
linked here to dbH.w by indirect genitive: it is written after 1 2 too, which indicates that
the series begins with 1 2 .
56
Leitz (in Tagewählerei, I, 309), translates “sind in him bei all seinen Zählungen”.
57
Transcription: A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts: II, Texts of Spells 76–163
(Chicago, 1938), 294–8. For a detailed analysis of this spell: G. Priskin, “Coffin Texts
Spell 155 on the Moon”, BEJ 1 (2013), 25–63.
58
The determinative of dbH.w is occasionally , as in the word meaning “vessel”; in
some coffins, it is or , possibly with the meaning of “covering requirements”, as the
vessels were used in the ritual to cover the eye with water.
GM 244 (2015) 81

[II 296–98] 1 5 n gs t(w)t n jp r.w=s m jmj.t mH.t r Xqs.t

“ 1 5 of half the entire,59 to count its parts between the complete eye and the
injured one”.
[II 298] wn n=j bA.w psDn.tjw jnk mH s(j)
“Open to me, bA.w of the last crescent invisibility, for I complete it (…)”.

The filling of the eye is made here by “ 1 5 of half the entire”, that is, by the 10th
part of the entire eye. This is the difference between the complete eye and the
injured one. The terms mH.t “complete eye”, and Xqs.t “injured
eye”, are written with the determinative of the corn measure, therefore, assuming
that this measure is the HqAt, the part that completes the eye is 110 HqAt, or 1 hnw.60
The term psDn.tyw (psD.tyw in the Old Kingdom), translated “last crescent
invisibility” by Depudyt,61 is based on the root psD “nine”, and probably derives
from the observation that on the last day of the month the moon passes from an
invisibility of nine parts out of ten to the complete invisibility.
Later, when the wDAt-eye is paralleled to the jpt, the filling of the eye is made
by the quantity 110 jpt, which, as we have seen, is the total capacity of the two
graduated cups with eleven subdivisions, and the cup depicted in the temple of
Kom Ombo. In the latter case, as previously anticipated, the equivalence of the
series of eleven quantities of water to the 10th part of the eye, can explain the
presence of the hieroglyph in the leftmost column of text: “The 10(th) (part) will
not be empty on you in your two eyes, son of Re, lord […]”.
There is also a symbolism linked to Horus in the number 10: Horus and the
ennead make 10 gods.62
On a fragment of one of the two papyri from Tanis (BM EA10672,1), from the
Roman period, a series of fractions, of which only two damaged elements remain,
is written beside the wDAt-eye (fig. 6).63 These two fractions are probably 1 64 and
1
128 (DA). On another fragment belonging to the same section of the papyrus, on

59
The fraction is written either or .
60
The complete eye is here first subdivided into two parts, then one half into five parts (=
5 hnw). A subdivision of the eye into two parts is found in P. Chester Beatty IX, rto 10, 6:
“O Amun, take to yourself the two fleshy parts of the eye of Horus”. See Gardiner,
Hieratic Papyri, I, 93; II, pl. 54.
61
L. Depuydt, Civil Calendar and Lunar Calendar in Ancient Egypt (OLA 77; Leuven,
1997), 73.
62
Cf. Wilson, Ptolemaic Lexikon, 481.
63
This section of the papyrus contains a list of feasts: F. Griffith and W. M. F. Petrie,
Two Hieroglyphic Papyri from Tanis (London, 1889), 21, pl. 9. The papyrus contains also
lists of toponyms, animals, deities, etc. Khufu is mentioned twice.
82 GM 244 (2015)

1
the right of the other eye, there is the reference to a total quantity of 1 hnw, or 10
HqAt:

jri mw hnw
“making a water of 1 hnw”.

The wDAt-eye, which is apparently identified here with the HqAt as in the Middle
Kingdom, is filled with its 10th part.64 The hieroglyph is written on the left corner
of the eye.

Fig. 6. Fragments of the papyrus BM EA10672,1. Facsimile by Petrie.

Conclusions

There is evidence of two concurrent mathematical formulations of the healing

quantities that fill and restore the wDAt-eye: a series of seven fractions of the
capacity measure DA, in descending order of magnitude, adding up to a total
1
quantity of about 1 DA, or 64 jpt, as shown in a Greco-Roman graduated cup in
Cairo and in a New Kingdom papyrus; a series of eleven quantities of hnw and DA,
1
adding up to a total capacity of about 10 jpt, as shown in two graduated cups –
one from the 18th Dynasty, the other from the late/Greco-Roman period – and in a
cup depicted on a wall scene from the Roman period in Kom Ombo. The scene in

64
A possible reconstruction of the series adding up to 1 hnw is the following:
< 4 hnw, 18 hnw, 1 2 DA, 1 4 , 18 , 116 , 1 32 ,> [ 1 64 , 1128 ].
1
GM 244 (2015) 83

Kom Ombo shows the latter series in a ritual offering of magical healing water to
Haroeris, in order to purify the two wDAt-eyes and Egypt. The filling of the eye by
means of its 10th part is mentioned in spell 155 of the Coffin Texts, and with the
advent in the New Kingdom of the jpt as the main measure of grain, to which the
wDAt-eye was paralleled, a complex series of quantities of hnw and DA, adding up
to 110 jpt, i.e., the 10th part of the eye, was envisaged. The two mathematical
formulations of the magical healing water that fills and restores the eye(s) – one
postulating a quantity of 1 64 , the other a quantity of 110 – apparently coexisted
from the New Kingdom to the Roman period. In both cases, the mathematical
model is more complex than the one proposed by Möller and Gardiner. A
hieroglyphic papyrus of the Roman period from Tanis seems even to indicate the
use of a third series of quantities, adding up to the “hin”, i.e., the 10th part of the
HqAt/eye, as in the Middle Kingdom. The use of various mathematical models for
the same problem of magical healing of the eye is in compliance with the
Egyptian view of a universe ordered by gods with unlimited magical powers, in
which various laws coexisted, even in conflict with one another. As spell 155 of
the Coffin Text indicates, probably the idea of the eye missing of its 10th part
preceded the one of the eye missing of its 64th part, considering also that the
identification of the six parts of the eye with the six fractions of the corn measure
is not attested earlier than the 19th Dynasty.