AN OBSERVATION ON THE HARPER’S SONG OF THE PAPYRUS HARRIS 500 (BM10060)

(THE ANTEF SONG), LINES 6.4-5

Ivan A. Ladynin
(Lomonosov Moscow State University/Russian State University for the Humanities)

Before coming down to the essence of the present paper, it is necessary to make it very
clear that it deals not with the entire complex of the Harper’s Songs carefully collected by
Miriam Lichtheim and some other scholars1 but specifically with its version preserved on the
Papyrus Harris 500, now No 10060 of the British Museum, or the Antef Song2. This papyrus,
most part of it occupied by a collection of love songs, is dated to the post-Amarna period; and
the only other fragmentary copy of the Antef Song was found in the tomb of Paatenemheb at
Saqqara dating back to the time of Akhenaten3. The Antef Song has been translated and thus
included in anthologies of Egyptian literature many times; quite a lot of publications deal with
this text4; but nevertheless its real importance has been underrated by the scholars. For instance,
no final judgement has been made as to the date of this text, which can be attributed, according
to the mention of the King Antef in it, either to the First or to the Second Intermediate Period.
However, had a student of the text turned to its concept and perceived it historically, the choice
between these options would be evident and this is exactly the point where we start.
As it is well known, the name “Antef” appears in the title of the text we study: “The song,
which is in the house of Antef true of voice, which is before the harper” (6.2-3: Hsy nty m Ht
In.tw.f mAa xrw nty m-bAH pA Hsy m bnt); the cartouche around the name indicates that it is a royal
name. Actually, the name “Antef” belonged to a number of rulers, 7 of them in their totality,
belonging to Dynasties XI (I to III), XIII (IV) and XVII (V to VII)5. One has to ask, if the reign
of one of those rulers is the real date of the text or it was ascribed to this time ex post facto. The
last possibility cannot be excluded without arguments; but it seems quite impossible for the
reigns of the kings of the Second Intermediate Period. Very little is known about the history of
Antefs, who held the royal power at that time; but what is known shows that their reigns were by
no means remarkable. If a New Kingdom drafter of the text would have liked to ascribe it to an
epoch of the past, he would have certainly chosen a time marked with some sort of glory; and in
such a case only the time of Antefs I to III starting the Theban Dynasty XI in the First
Intermediate Period can be thought of6.
1
M. Lichtheim, «The Songs of the Harpers», JNES 4 (1945), p. 178-212; E.F. Wente, «Egyptian “Make Merry”
Songs Reconsidered», JNES 21 (1962), p. 118-128.
2
The hieroglyphic transcription is to be found at: M.V. Fox, The Song of Songs and the Ancient Egyptian Love
Songs, Madison (Wisc.) 1985, p.378-380; the transcription, translation and commentary by the same author:
M.V. Fox, «A Study of Antef», Orientalia 46 (1977), p. 393-423.
3
M. Lichtheim, op. cit., p. 192.
4
See for the bibliography: W.K. Simpson et al., eds., The Literature of Ancient Egypt, New Haven 20033, p. 558-
560; a translation by Vincent A. Tobin that is quoted below: idem, p. 332-333.
5
J. von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (Münchener ägyptologische Studien 49), B.–
München 1999, p. 76-77, 94-95, 124-125, 128-129.
6
See for the variety of the views: H. Goedicke, «The Date of the “Antef-Song”», in: J. Assmann, E. Feucht,
R.Grieshammer, eds., Fragen an die altägyptische Literatur: Studien zum Gedenken an Eberhard Otto,
 2

The same conclusion can be derived from the contents and the concept of the text. The
Antef Song starts with asserting that the existence of the tombs of the noblemen and even rulers
is not perennial; then it comes down to saying that the knowledge of the posthumous being
cannot be verified, as no one has ever returned from beyond so as to tell to the humans in the
mundane about his existence in the hereafter. For this reason the drafter of the text gives to its
addressee a strong advice to appreciate his earthly existence as much as it is possible. The
interpretations of this final portion of the text vary in some details; for instance, it was discussed
quite at length, if the advice to “follow one’s heart”, which has its parallels in other texts, first of
all in the Teaching of Ptahhotep, was a sort of hedonistic impetus or a more moderate model of
just the rational behaviour7. However, no Egyptologist would deny that the major moral goal of
the text is really the advice to treasure the mundane and not to repose great hopes on the
hereafter.
A scrutiny of this text would be quite useless without comparing it to the models of the
posthumous fate which the Ancient Egyptians had in their mind. The studies of the Russian
Egyptologist Andrey Bolshakov of the State Hermitage in St.Petersburg showed that the model
of it for the noblemen of the Old Kingdom and, with some reservations, of the Middle Kingdom
was constructing so-called “worlds of Doubles” in their tombs. The means of it were the creation
of portrait statue of the deceased, which preserved his Double (kA) after his death, and the
decoration of the tomb walls with reliefs, which reproduced the welfare he possessed in his
lifetime (to be exact, the Doubles of this welfare). These means of granting the individual with
afterlife was added by actual feeding him with posthumous offerings. The greatest advantage of
this model of afterlife was almost total independence of the deceased in his “world of the
Doubles” from other forces of the mundane or the netherworld, be it the gods or the king. The
only necessary condition for this model to work was the wealth of the deceased’ descendants,
which would allow them to keep his tomb in order and to provide for the offerings8. Taking into
account that the cult of the dead ancestors in Egypt, unlike China for instance, was not a
religious imperative, any serious economic crisis caused the representatives of the elite to re-
channel the whole of their incomes to the consumption, and brought their family tombs into
oblivion. Still more seriously, it was impossible in the event of such crisis to build new tombs
provided with all decoration, which created for its owner “the world of the Doubles”: making
fine statues and reliefs was expensive enough. According to the argumentation by Bolshakov,
this has been exactly the case since the middle of Dynasty VI in Egypt: from this time on there

Wiesbaden 1977, p. 185-196 (Goedicke’s own view places the composition of the text in the time of Dynasty
XVIII, which does not decide the problem of Antef’s identity). See now about the founders of Dynasty XI: A.E.
Demidchik, Nameless Pyramid: The Political Concept of the Ancient Egyptian Heracleopolitan Monarchy,
St.Petersburg 2005, p. 33 (= . . я я : я
. С ., 2005. C. 33).
7
D. Lorton, «The Expression Sms-ib», JARCE 7 (1968), p. 41-54; idem, «A Note on the Expression Sms-ib»,
JARCE 8 (1969-1970), p. 55-57.
8
A. Bolshakov, Man and His Double in Egyptian Ideology of the Old Kingdom (Ägypten und Altes Testament 37),
Wiesbaden 1996; A.O. Bolshakov, The Man and his Double: The Artistic Representation and the Mentality in
the Old Kingdom Egypt, St.Petersburg 2001 (= . .Ч :И
С . С ., 2001).
 3

were few individuals in Egypt wealthy enough to order well-decorated tombs9; respectively, the
earlier necropolises must have fell in negligence for the lack of resources as well. The situation
became even harder after the fall of the Old Kingdom in the late 23rd century B.C. From this time
on the individuals founded their hopes for the afterlife mostly on the benevolence of gods, and
this brought to the rapid development of the ideas of the netherworld “for everyone” connected
with Osiris.
Before coming down directly to the analysis of the text of the Antef Song some more
remarks must be made on its concept and parallels in the other texts. These parallels are quite
well-known: they are to be found in the Dialogue of a Man with his Ba (P. Berlin 3024) and the
Teaching to Merikare (P. Erm. 1116A; etc). The Dialogue with Ba preserved on a papyrus of the
middle of Dynasty XII10 (and, probably, dating to the same time) gives a rather neat parallel to
the idea of the Antef Song that the longevity of the tombs and their cult is far from being
secured: the Ba says to the Man quite explicitly that those who built tombs for themselves did it
in vain, because their offering-tables are empty for the lack of resources with those who live on
earth. This is an excellent illustration to the theory of Bolshakov (who, unfortunately, made a
rather limited use of narratives for grounding his theory); and the idea might be still more
emphasized in this text, as the Ba might speak hear not just about any deceased but also about
kings in their pyramids (ll. 61-64). As for the Teaching to Merikare, its parallels to the Antef
Song are even more important, because this text dates back to the earlier, late Herakleopolitan
time11 and thus must stand closer to the emergence of those ideas. The drafter of the text
describes quite obviously the procedure of the posthumous trial of the deceased by Osiris (ll. 53-
56) and adds to that: “It is the fool, who neglects it” (wHA pw ir Ts st; translation by V.A. Tobin:
“A fool is he, who does what offends them” = the judges of the netherworld). This line of the
Teaching to Merikare is likely to be compared with the words of the same text: “Enrich the altars
and revere god; do not say: ‘It is the weakness of heart’” (l. 111-112: sxwD wADHw tr nTr m Dd Xs
pw ib). Both passages quoted show that at the time of Merikare and his predecessor there was
some number of Egyptians, capable of far-fetching existential reflection and obviously belonging
to the elite (as there is some danger that a king’s son might share their views), who were quite
skeptical about the models of behaviour dictated by religion. Making a summary of what is
known about those skeptics from all the texts in our view, it is possible to state they did not
hesitate neither about the existence of gods, nor about the possibility of the afterlife. Their
reasons not to hesitate those spheres was the experience of earlier generations; but it was their
contemporary experience of ‘the time of disease’ (P. Erm. 1116A, 143: rk n mn[t]; cf. the

9
A.O. Bolshakov, «Artistic Representation and Text: Two Languages of the Ancient Egyptian Culture», Journal
of Ancient History 4/247 (2003), p. 13. (= . . И : я
// И. 2003. № 4. С. 13).
10
R.B. Parkinson, «Teachings, Discourses and Tales from the Middle Kingdom», in: S. Quirke, ed., Middle
Kingdom Studies, New Malden 1991, p. 113.
11
Here we accept the view of the best Russian student of the text Arkady Demidchik: op. cit., p. 73-81; for a
different dating by the time of Dynasty XII, the authorship of the Heracleopolitan king being thus fictitious, see
e.g.: J.F. Quack, Studien zur Lehre für Merikare (Göttinger Orientsforschung IV 23), Wiesbaden 1992.
 4

Prophesies of Neferty, l. 38, 5412) that made them question the wisdom of giving offerings to
gods: the troubles of the First Intermediate Period proved that those offerings could be met with
no remuneration. Similarly, an experience of any epoch, reinforced in ‘the time of the diseased’
by the doubts about the beneficence of gods, made people doubt the advantages of the afterlife: it
is the Antef Song, which says explicitly that nobody came from beyond to tell if the existence
there is good or bad. In a longer run, these doubts border the question, if the god is responsible
for the evil in the mundane: the fragments of the Admonitions of Ipuver (P.Leid. I.344. 12.14)
and Utterance 1130 of the Coffin Texts show that the standard answer to those question was
negative13; however, the very fact that this question was raised indicate the reflection about the
alternative positive answer to it. One cannot but mention that the historical conditions for this
reflection were exactly the unprecedented troubles of the First Intermediate Period, which seem
not to be repeated later on in the history of Egypt (these troubles were caused in the first place by
the catastrophic climatic changes, which brought to lowering of the Nile inundation and the
decrease of harvests). Later on the texts showing the reflection of this epoch were copied but no
new compositions concentrated on the same problems seem to be added to them. Thus, there
seems to be every reason to believe, that the Antef Song was not just ascribed to the First
Intermediate Period but really created in this time.
Coming down specifically to the analysis of the Antef Song, we would like to concentrate
on the meaning of its first stanza (6.4-6). Its standard translation by Vincent A. Tobin included in
the last edition of the well-known anthology by William K. Simpson reads as follows:

The gods who existed before me rest (now) in their tombs;

And the blessed nobles also are buried in their tombs.
But as for the builders of tombs,
Their places are no more,
What has become of them?

12
A.E. Demidchik, op.cit., p. 45.
13
G. Fecht, Der Vorwurf an Gott in den “Mahnworten des Ipu-wer” (Pap. Leiden I 344 recto, 11,11-13,8; 15,13-
17,3): Zur geistlichen Krise der ersten Zwischenzeit und ihrer Bewältigung (Abhandlungen der Heidelberger
Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse. Jahrgang 1972. 1. Abteilung), Heidelberg
1972.
 5

(6.4) nTrw xprw Xr-HAt Htpw m mrw.sn saHw

(6.5) Axw m mitt qrsw m mrwt.sn qd Hwt nn wn swt.sn ptri
(6.6) irw im.sn

The very first necessary comment to this passage is that “the gods who existed before…”
are surely the great kings of the past buried in pyramids. However, taking into account the
concept of the text we have discussed, this passage, at least in the translation quoted, seems a
paradox. The major aim of the text was to show that all cares the human being was able to
undertake are vain; however, the statement that the pyramids of the kings and the tombs of the
nobles are intact shows just the opposite: the possibility to build a burial that will stand forever.
Furthermore, shall we come down to the details of Tobin’s translation, we are to question his
understanding of the verb qd as the substantive participle ‘builders’. First, the hieroglyphic of the
texts seems to give no grounds to it due to the lack of the determinative A1 expected in a
substantive participle of the kind as well as to the lack of the plural determinative Z2. Second,
such translation of this verb-form leads to another paradox: in this context the builders of the
tombs are certainly not the ordinary workers of the necropolises but the officials in charge of
these building activities, who could have had their own tombs as well (otherwise the phrase
“Their places are no more” would make no sense at all). However, one can hardly find a motive
to distinguish these necropolis’ officials from the other nobles previously denoted more
generally as saHw: they were people of rank as well, and no reason can be though of for their
tombs to be in worse condition than the tombs of their fellows. Other translators of the text
normally understand the verb qd not as substantive but as an ordinary narrative or participle
verb-form (e.g., Miriam Lichtheim: “The gods that were aforetime / Rest in their pyramids; /
Nobles and glorified likewise are buried in their pyramids. / They that built houses, / Their
places are no more; / What has been done with them?”14). Such translation makes of the form qd
a verbal predicate or an attribute of the “gods” and “nobles” in the preceding passage, which is
by no means better, if not worse, than the version by Tobin. The very meaning of qd(w) in it is
much vaguer: it is not a special denotation of the necropolises’ workers or their superiors but a
synonym to the subjects of the preceding phrase, which is superfluous and contradictory to the
start of the phrase. As for this, a great number of the Old Kingdom tombs have been discovered
by archaeologists in a condition, which is far enough from total destruction; and this is even truer
about the royal pyramids. Certainly, one does not argue that most of these burials were robbed
still in ancient times; the desecration of burials at the start of the First Intermediate Period is
actually attested in the Admonitions of Ipuver (4.4; 7.4). But the passage of the Antef Song we
discuss opens with the statement that the kings and the nobles do remain in their tombs; thus, it
does not imply that these tombs were erased or even robbed and the identity of qd(w) whose
tombs had another fate remains unexplained.
14
M. Lichtheim, op.cit., p. 192. See, similarly but with more explicit interpretation of Hwt, according to M.F. Fox:
“The gods who came into being long ago rest in their sepulchres. Revivified nobles as well are buried in their
sepulchers. Those who built tombs – they have no (burial) places! Look what has become of them!” («A Study
of Antef», p. 404).
 6

It seems that all the interpreters of the passage were hypnotized by the presumption that
the noun Hwt (“houses”) is an equivalent to “pyramids” and “tombs” before it and the word irw is
a passive verbal form connected in some way with those nouns. However, such presumption is
far enough from being an established truth. The word Ht denotes originally some strictly
bordered entity similar to a house with a domain of land attached to it (Wb. III. 1-2); its meaning
“temple” in an isolated position (id. 2) or in a word-combination Ht-nTr (id. 4) is a derivative
from its original meaning. At the same time, Russian Egyptologist Yuriy Perepyolkin collected a
good deal of examples for the word Ht to be a part of the names of funerary estates granted to the
Old Kingdom nobles: the purpose of these estates was to provide for the posthumous offerings in
the tombs of their owners and for the wages of the priests performing the ritual15. As for the
word irw, the Berlin Dictionary signals its meaning “things that has to be done”, i.e. the ritual
(Wb. I. 113. 8: ‘das zu Tuende = Ceremonien’); and in this meaning the word can easily be
applied to the offering rites performed in the tomb. One should mind that both the hieroglyphic
writing on the word in the Papyrus Harris 500 and its position of a nominal subject after the
interrogative ptri being its nominal predicate fit this meaning of the word perfectly well. Shall
we bring together these two corrected meanings of the words in the text, we come to the
following translation of the passage we discuss:

The gods who came into existence before and are granted pleasure in their pyramids,
The nobles who became AHw and are buried in their tombs,
Who were building (or: for whom were built - ?) the estates, - there is no their (estates’) places,
Where is (lit. “What is”) the ritual thereof?

It seems that this interpretation of the words Hwt and irw in the passage of the Antef Song
eliminates all the contradictions that one would find there otherwise. The drafter of the text states
that the pyramids of the kings and the tombs of the nobles (probably in the neighbourhood of
these pyramids) stand intact, and perhaps even their owners still remain inside them. However,
these burials lost their attached funerary estates during the shortcomings at the end of the Old
Kingdom and the start of the First Intermediate Period; for this reason there are neither priests
who would perform the offering rites in these tombs, nor the resources for the offerings (the
rhetorical question “What is the ritual thereof?” applies certainly to this very situation). Shall we
accept this interpretation of the passage, we find in the Antef Song a more detailed gradation of
what awaits the humans in the hereafter. First the drafter describes the situation, in which the
tomb of a king or a man is intact but void of resources for performing rites and keeping it in
order; thus, it does not perform its function of preserving “the world of Doubles” for its owner
(6.4-6). Second, he comes to even worse destiny of the humans renowned in their lifetime,
whose tomb is ruined or totally forgotten; the example of Imhotep and Hordedef is brought to
that effect (6.6-8). Third, he speaks about the fate of those who, probably, have no tomb at all for

15
Yu.Ya. Perepyolkin, The Old Kingdom Noblemen’s Manors, Moscow 1988, p. 135 (= . .
Х я . М., 1988. C. 135).
 7

the lack of resources but expect an afterlife in the realm of Osiris; in this case he assures them
that their expectations are by no means certain, for the exact nature of the netherworld cannot be
verified from the mundane (6.8-9). It can hardly be proved for certain; but it might as well be
that the text of the Antef Song appeared in the tomb of the age of Amarna was actualized at that
time by the fact that the possibility of the afterlife secured by gods was undermined by the
religious innovations of Akhenaten16.
Making the meanings of the words Hwt and irw more precise is by no means the only
observation that can be made on the passage of the Antef Song we discussed, to say nothing of
the whole of this text. However, it seems to suffice for the present publication, as an observation
that eliminates serious inconsistencies in the existing translations of this piece.

16
M.V. Fox, «A Study of Antef», p. 402-403.