“MY PUTREFACTION IS MYRRH:”THE LEXICOGRAPHY OF DECAY, GILDED COFFINS,AND THE GREEN SKIN OF OSIRIS

David A. Falk

CNRS, UBC, Vancouver

By studying the vocabulary of rot and decay, the opportunity presents itself to engage one of the fundamental beliefs of the Egyptian culture from the aspect of its first principles. The reason why this matters is because some of the 20th century translators that we have today are based upon emendations made because the idioms did not make sense to translators who viewed ancient myth through a 19th century lens. By understanding what the Egyptians thought about decay, we can get insight into what they believed about death and what they expected from the afterlife. And in the same manner, we can perhaps discover a context that can be used to reconcile several interpretive problems that are encountered in the Coffin Texts.

The scene from the second antechamber at Luxor Temple depicts a procession of priests bearing offerings that were to be presented to Amun-Re from King Amenhotep III.1Porter and Moss 1972, 322.Priests with musical instruments lead the procession while other priests carry the offerings in pds chests decorated with uraei. A question rises as to why it was necessary for these priests to bring in the offerings using these chests since the king was also high priest? The other priests would appear to be redundant if it were not for the problem of liminal inertia.2Dowling 2006, 16–17.Objects in profane space remain profane unless they are converted for sacred use.3Eliade 1959, 12.Offerings are placed into sacred boxes that are carried by ritual procession into sacred space.Into the boxes are put profane items; out from the boxes come sacred items now useful for service to the gods. That is the essence of ritual conversion.

However, when the idea of ritual conversion is connected to other aspects of Egyptian ritual, e.g. funerary rituals, it brings to light much of the suppositional nature of Egyptological interpretation. Questions about basic funerary practices have been subject to conjecture, such as why New Kingdom sarcophagi were covered in gold foil. For example, John Taylor in his 2001 article suggested that gold represented the power of the sun, imperishability, and being the flesh of the gods, but Taylor deemed this importance to the Egyptian as the symbolic hope of a future resurrection and suggested that the black color of Osiris was to be associated with fertility.4Taylor 2001, 166.While Taylor’s conjectures are grounded more in coffin typology than texts,5Taylor’s methodology uses color symbolism associated with types of coffins and adds secondary sources primarily for support. He cites only two texts, Book of the Dead Chapters 151 and 182, but only for their illustrations (Taylor 2001, 164).textual work is not immune from the same sort of conjecture. Translators have emended certain idioms in order for them to make sense, e.g., “a good putrefaction” being glossed to “a final putrefaction” in Raymond O. Faulkner’s Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts spell 479.6Faulkner 1977, vol. II, 121 and vol. II, 123, n. 6.In response,this study examines some of these idiomatic expressions using the lexemes of rot and decay as a methodological starting point.

Like other areas of lexicography, the vocabulary of decomposition has received remarkably little attention since the initial publication of the Wörterbuch, despite Alan H. Gardiner’s 1948 review article.7Gardiner 1948, 12–18. Gardiner only reviewed the first two pages of the Wörterbuch but cautioned that “out of the twenty words on the first two pages of Wb., I have found all but three urgently calling for further elucidation” (Gardiner 1948, 17).The results of my study reveal that idiomatic expressions relating to the decomposition of the human body presume a kind of ritual conversion that references three kinds of expected outcomes:(1) preservation of the deceased, (2) restoration of decomposition, and (3)transfiguration of decay.8While this article deals with the lexicography of putrefaction in the Coffin and Pyramid Texts as it relates to the topic of ritual conversion, see Steuer and Saunders 1959 for a discussion of Greek medical terms that are used in association with putrefaction from the perspective of aetiological concerns raised by later Egyptian texts.

On the surface, the Egyptians had a couple of general terms for decomposition.The first is the word rpw,generally accepted to mean “to decay/rot.”9Wb II, 414.Another term that occurs frequently is“be foul/putrefy,” and it appears in a substantival formmeaning “putrefaction.” This second term is often used in phrases that imply advanced decomposition and is often associated with iwtyw,“corruption,” which implies that there is an element of ritual impurity in the process of decay. The use of the two terms together, e.g. in CT 336, reveals that the presence ofwȝȝt makes the individual ritually impure,and ritual impurity prevents the deceased from entering into sacred space or the presence of the gods.10Dieleman 2005, 213.

When a person dies, the cadaver enters into a state of lividity where all the blood settles to the lowest point of gravity. Plasma separates from the red blood cells, and rigor mortis sets in. This is the state of the corpse during the first 36 hours. Candidates for mummification would have had their internal organs removed, been ritually bathed, and packed in natron. Enzymes in the tissues would start a process of autolysis that permits opportunistic organisms, e.g. gut bacteria, to establish themselves, causing the body to bloat, an effect that the Egyptians noticed in the limbs of the corpse.11CT 755 (ECT VI, 384i–k).

Within 48 hours, in a process called “marbling,” the skin turned greenish black.12Cantor 2010, 76.Compare this effect to the coloration of Osiris13CT 665 (ECT VI, 292).or other mummiform deities, which are often green or black. While several authors have addressed the symbolic meaning of black as a skin color in iconography and coffin decoration with most ascribing the meaning to a fertility interpretation,14Brunner-Traut 1977, 125; Barta 1980, 1235; Roehrig 1992, 51; Wilkinson 1994, 108–116; Aufrere 1999, 26–29; Robins 2001, 291–293; Hartwig 2008, 123.the fertility interpretation is particularly problematic because other mummiform deities are portrayed with green or black skin that are not typically associated with fertility,e.g. the mummiform Ptah found in the tomb of Nefertari (QV66).15Corzo and Afshar 1993, 36, fig. 8.We also find green and black as a facial coloration in other depictions of deities, e.g., a mummiform Nephthys is portrayed with green skin in the tomb of Henuttawy(QV73).16Demas and Agnew 2012, 56.On the Stele of Diesenesyt (OIM 18280) dating to the Late Period, a mummiform Imsety, the human-headed son of Horus, is portrayed with green skin following behind Osiris.17Henderson 2009, 97.While many commentators prefer a fertility interpretation connecting the color with the black Egyptian soil or the green of living plants, this interpretation seems to miss the prima facie connotation with that of a putrefying corpse. A potential putrefaction interpretation, which will be supported by texts in the remainder of this article, seems to make more sense than the fertility interpretation since this skin coloration was assigned to some mummiform deities that had few ties to fertility and strong associations with the processes of decay.18This decomposition interpretation could be extended to other gods associated with death and decay,e.g. Anubis; however, because the case could be argued that these animal deities are being displayed with their respective natural coloration, these examples cannot be offered up as evidence.

Additionally, as the deceased continued to decay, the skin acted as a balloon and the decay by bacteria caused the body to swell, fill with foul smelling fluid and gas, and eventually burst.19Cantor 2010, 77.This can make the dead seem as if they were shaking or convulsing, or that pieces of the corpse had been eaten as the release of gases can create holes in the cadaver, effects mentioned in CT 755. As the body decayed further“mold” sets in;sis typically used of bread in the repertoire formula “the bread which will not go moldy, and beer which will not go sour,” but can also refer to the mold upon a corpse either literally20CT 519 (ECT VI, 108g).or as a metaphor.21CT 996 (ECT VII, 212c).

Finally, the body rotted until it released a built up greenish black liquid as “purge fluid,” a product which the Egyptians call rw,which past translators called“efflux.” Small amounts of purge fluid occur during the mummification process,so its appearance would have been common to those who prepared the dead. But occasionally the decay process would continue for years after interment.22Cantor 2010, 79.

Two mummies from TT 317 show signs of post-mummification decomposition,and Head-B, which is a young adult female, possesses decay that is quite pronounced. Nevertheless, what is particularly interesting about this burial is that there is evidence that the flesh of this corpse had been gilded with gold foil.23Morimoto 1985, 2 and fig. 3.

The ancient Egyptian aversion to decomposition as expressed in CT 1011 and CT 101424CT 1011 (ECT VII, 227d); 1014 (ECT VII, 232p–233h).compelled them to preserve the corpses of the deceased. The purpose of this has been suggested to be largely driven by the idea that the body was needed as a place for the soul to return to, and coffins could act as a proxy if the body lacked integrity.25Taylor 2001, 164.This belief eventually gave rise to anthropoid coffins in the Middle Kingdom which were over time increasingly covered with gold foil until the Third Intermediate Period.26Ibid., 166.

As we explore how the lexemes of rot and decay were used, it helps to turn our attention towards PT 532 as a rubric:27PT 532 occurs in the pyramids of Pepi I (Allen 2005, 383), Merenre (ibid., 387), Pepi II (ibid.,392), and Queen Wedjebni (Allen 2013, 285).

Thed barque is released for its lord.

Thed barque is released for its guide.28ȝ here could act as an amphiboly meaning either “one upon the prow” or “protector.” See Jones 1988, 174. It is also an alliterative device tying this phrase to the ȝt-bird in the next couplet.

Isis comes.

Nephthys comes.

One of them from the West.

One of them from the East.

One of them as aȝt-bird.

One of them as a kite.29This couplet is reversed in CT 73.

They have found Osiris.

His brother Seth threw him down in the land of Nedit.

And Osiris said “Go from me.”

And it happened his name became Sokar.30“Sokar” as a name is an amphiboly. It is both the name of the falcon deity of cyclic rebirth as well as sounds like sr which means “to beat.”

As we examine this text, we first notice that it is in couplet form. The first six couplets set a mythological stage that will help us to understand rot and decay in the grand scheme of Egyptian cosmology.

The first couplet mentions thed being released in a shrine shaped like a boat called a barque. The imagery is supposed to invoke a god who represented dominion and stability being personified as a deified symbol going on procession in miniature temples radiating the sovereign power of the king across the entire landscape of the world.

The second couplet mentions Isis and Nephthys, whose roles are to restore the body of Osiris. Already in the first two couplets, the players of the mythological stage are presented where they can interact with the problem of decomposition,while in the third couplet the extremes of the West and East are mentioned to draw out that idea of cyclic eternity.

The fifth and sixth couplets refer to the Osirian myth. The fifth couplet is an allusion to the murder of Osiris and the discovery of his body. Seth as the brother of Osiris is mentioned in context to the burial of Osiris in Nedit. The name Nedit is also significant being an example of alliteration; the verb “to cast down” (ndi)is grammatically fronted to rhyme with the land Nedit (ndt) as a memory aid to remind the listener of the murder of Osiris on the bank of the Nedit canal.31Quirke 2015, 144.

Both Osiris and Seth play a critical dialectic role in the decomposition texts.It is interesting to note that because these are funerary texts as opposed to royal inscriptions, Seth plays nemesis to Osiris, whereas in royal inscriptions Seth is nemesis to Horus. Osiris’ role in the decomposition texts is critical to how these texts function ritually and how one is to view ritual conversion and the ultimate fate of the deceased (apotheosis). In CT 833, the purge fluid that ran from Osiris,his putrescence,wȝt undergoes transformation into “cold water.”32CT 833 (ECT VII, 34i–k). “He was given the water even of his father Osiris, Hear , this your water, your cold water, the purge fluid that comes from the god, the putrefaction of Osiris.”The decay of Osiris from something impure into something desirable is the drama that becomes re-enacted in the ritual conversion of decay in Egyptian myth.

CT 755 explains that the reason a man does not putrefy in the realm of the dead is because of vicarious association with the members of Osiris which are described as inert, i.e., they do not change, immutability is commuted, and decay is arrested. In this coffin text, identification with Osiris is said to prevent the flesh from putrefying, or swelling up (bloating), or shaking (when the corpse explodes from the accumulated gases of decomposition), or make foul fluid (purge fluid).

Seth also plays an important role in the decay of the deceased. He is called the one who “drunk [bodily fluids]” and “Seth… who eats entrails” in PT 691B.33PT 691B, 2127c–2128a (Faulkner 1969, 54).The idea is that upon the murder of his brother, Seth has transformed into a detritivore.34A detritivore is defined as a “(h)eterotroph that feeds on dead material (detritus). The detritus most typically is of plant origin, but may include the dead remains of small animals” (Allaby 2009, 259).Seth is not the initiator of decay but he needs that which is ritually unclean and has a vested interest in promoting decay. Seth is also referred to as the “god who takes souls” and “laps up corruption” in CT 335.35CT 335 (ECT IV, 320b and 321a).The description here is of a dog who is opportunistically eating at the deceased, licking up their purge fluid, and taking bites out of their souls. The image of dogs as detritivore is an especially important symbol in Ancient Near Eastern literature because of their roles as scavengers that disassemble corpses and scatter the bones, an anathema to the integrity of the dead.

Essentially, the text is making a reference to a liminal state, i.e. a state of transition between the profane and sacred, where the dead is vulnerable to attack by the forces of darkness.36Te Velde 1967, 92.This also means that there is a final state at which the dead ultimately arrives, which leads to further consideration of PT 532:

They prevent you from rotting (rpw)

by your name that is Anubis.

They prevent your putrefaction (wȝȝt)

by your name that is the Jackal of Upper Egypt hitting the ground.

They prevent the foul smell of your corpse

by your name that is Horus ofȝti.

They prevent the putrefaction (wȝȝ)

of Horus of the East.

They prevent the putrefaction

of Horus, Lord of the pct people.

They prevent the putrefaction

of Horus of the Underworld.

They prevent the putrefaction

of Horus, Lord of the Two Lands.

PT 532 takes the preceding mythological content and ties it to a litany of seven“they prevent” statements that attribute the actions of the twin goddesses (Isis and Nephthys). However, what is also interesting is that the couplets follow the formula of “they prevent X by your name that is Y.” This formulation invokes by name the power of deity. The thinking of Egyptian magic is that names themselves have power, and to call upon the name of a god is to have some influence with the innate nature of that god in such a way that the name itself was equated with magic.37Ritner 2008, 22 and 26.

Isis and Nephthys, the two goddesses that appear on the prow and stern of the barque, cooperate to prevent the decomposition of Osiris by invoking the names of the other gods (twice through the epithets of Anubis and five times through Horus). Isis and Nephthys play a special role in the ritual journey of the dead.They escorted the dead to the afterlife, from the place of mummification to the tomb. The use of the barque bier ritually converted the body of the dead for the afterlife. Because Isis and Nephthys act as the twins who revivified Osiris after being dismembered by Seth, they are also the goddesses that piece the dead together. CT 932 refers to Isis, lady of all, who collects the purge fluid and gathers putrescence.38CT 932 (ECT VII, 132k).And in CT 168, “The uniting of riverbanks. The hair of Isis is knotted to Nephthys, and the reverse; putrefaction is left boatless, and the streams dry up.”39CT 168 (ECT III, 28a–c).CT 168 is an amphiboly discussing a condition of drought on one level while inverting this condition as a metaphor for the arrest of decay,perhaps this is even in observation of the fact that things decay less when conditions are drier.

This idea that the divine can arrest rot and decay is a first outcome of ritual conversion, e.g. CT 822, “my corpse will not putrefy,”40CT 822 (ECT VII, 23a).and CT 838, “Isis has stopped for herself his flesh and his purge fluid (from falling) to the ground.”41CT 838 (ECT VII, 40j).CT 755 states that the “tears of the god are the putrefaction of the member in me;it will not putrefy and it will not rot, [it] will not become maggoty, it will not become corrupt.”42CT 755 (ECT VI, 385d).This is perhaps the most intuitive form of ritual conversion since the effects are tied to the process of mummification; however, this gives the programmatic agenda of Egyptian religion short-shrift. For the ancient Egyptian the benefits of lacking decay went beyond the nightly visitation. To be without decay meant a reprieve from hard labor in the afterlife per CT 432/433.43“Not to putrefy and not to labor in the necropolis.” CT 432 (ECT V, 280a) and 433 (ECT V, 281a).

The Coffin Texts, however, suggest that the role of the gods extends beyond arrest of decomposition. The source of the power of Isis and Nephthys is said to be Osiris in CT 69: “You will not be wiped out or obliterated, you will have no purge fluid, you will have no putrescence, for it will be missing from you through the totality of Osiris,”44CT 168 (ECT I, 295a–c).who in turn derives his power from Geb, the earth god.45CT 96 (ECT II, 77d).This suggests a second outcome of ritual conversion where the products of rot and decay are restored and where the decay is reversed. CT 850 suggests that Nut serves to “join your bones together, knits your sinews, make your members firm,take away your decay.”46CT 850 (ECT VII, 54t).Here the coffin text demonstrates a second outcome of ritual conversion, where the cosmologic gods, Geb and Nut, empower the restoration of the dead.

In texts of this kind, words relating to the acts of knitting and sewing are common. CT 67 has the words str.k, an idiom which Faulkner admitted not being able to translate.47Faulkner 1973, 64, n. 28. CT 67 (ECT I, 288g).This idiom literally says “he knits your loins from X.”48CT 67 (ECT I, 288g). A similar idiom is used in CT 67 (ECT I, 293i). Also see related idioms in CT 509 (ECT IV, 95), 608 (ECT VI, 221).The X in question can be from living people, from the justified dead, or from the gods. The idea behind this idiom is that the goddesses are restoring the dead from other sources in order to repair the damage caused by decomposition. In essence,the products of decay become transposed and unite with those external sources to repair the body of the dead.49This is vaguely similar to the modern concept of the organ transplant where bad body parts are replaced with good parts, but in this case the parts are being replaced with those of similar or higher beings; such as, that from the gods.The repair of decay also included rejuvenation, CT 895, “By the hand of you the purge fluid which ran from you, your heart will not tire possessing it. Look, look! Be young, be young.”50CT 895 (ECT VII, 105a–c).

The idea of the dead assuming a vicarious role with Osiris is common in the funerary texts.51Hays 2012, 167–168.But where a vicarious association is a proxy act, CT 755 seems to suggest a mystical union or a kind of transfiguration where the body of the deceased shares in or merges with the body of Osiris himself. While vicarious association is evident in these texts, the attributes of the deceased become those of the god because they are made from pieces of the god. To the degree that the deceased is knitted together from pieces of the divine, the deceased becomes godlike. Hence with a text like the Cannibal Hymn where the King consumes the divine, he is in fact assimilating the power of divinity and facilitating his final transformation.52PT 273–274 (Sethe 1908, 409c–410e).

This suggests a third outcome of ritual conversion, which is to become transformed into products used in the drama of the gods. CT 334 has putrefaction transformed into myrrh that Hathor places on her head, “my putrefaction is myrrh,”53CT 334 (ECT IV, 183b).and the stench of decay is transformed into incense which she censes to herself,54CT 334 (ECT IV, 183c).and purge fluid of decomposition is transformed into theknw-oil which Hathor places on her flesh. In this spell, the products of decomposition become ritually transformed into precious things that are ritually pure and fit for service to the gods.

The products of decomposition had “creative potential”55Nyord 2009, 465.and were even seen to provide the raw materials for the creation of gods. In CT 78 purge fluid is used by the god Shu to create the chaos gods.56CT 78 (ECT II, 19e).In PT 510, purge fluid becomes the material used to create god-like entities, “I am purge fluid, I have issued from the creating waters, I am a snake.”57PT 510 (Sethe 1910, 1146a).Conversely, CT 519 takes ritual transformation to its ultimate form, “Oh , raise yourself upon your metal bones and the gold of its limbs that is of a royal god. It will not become moldy. It will not putrefy. It will not perish.”58Contrary to Faulkner’s emendation, I would read the texts as ifw.k [nb]w cw.f pw n nsw. CT 519 (ECT VI, 108c–i).This text parallels the resilience and strength of metals with the abolition of decomposition, but more importantly it shows ritual transformation of the flesh into gold, which is said to be the flesh of the gods.Compare this to the Shipwrecked Sailor where the body of the serpent deity was“overlayed in gold.”59cw.f srw m nbw. Shipwrecked Sailor, 64–65 (Blackman 1972, 43: 8–9).In CT 294, the deceased describes his transformation, “My head and my back are of lapis, my belly is of electrum, my neck of the gold of Iuu.”60CT 294 (ECT IV, 46–47).

Ritual conversion is essential to the understanding of apotheosis in Egyptian eschatology. Ritual conversion of rot and decay into myrrh and precious metals precedes reconstruction into the divine form.61Cf. the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation.This transformation is more than mere resurrection. Purge fluid and stench are replaced byknw-oil and incense.Flesh and bone are replaced by gold and iron. The belief in apotheosis is reflected in funerary practice as anthropoid coffins and even the mummies became gilded in gold foil. This belief was probably the response to the fear that decomposition created a liminal state, where the dead were vulnerable. This funerary practice probably provided a kind of insurance for the dead by accelerating apotheosis in ritual, and gives to us a better explanation for the practice than the conventional color symbolism view.

This understanding helps us to grasp difficult texts like CT 479. Religious language that talks about a “good putrefaction” now makes sense because it is not the expectation of the finality of decay but the expectation of ritual transformation into inviolable deity. It is a linguistic inversion done for religious purpose where the figurative meaning supersedes the literal meaning.62Other religions do this as well, e.g., “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20) is a phrase from the Apostle Paul not pointing to any actual capital punishment but was a literary device used to express figuratively the death of his old way of life.

In conclusion, Egyptian religion concerning the fate of the dead is complex,holding diverse and sometimes inconsistent beliefs in a state of tension. Using the lexemes of decay as found within the Coffin Texts, this study has shown that the portrayal of Osiris with green or black skin was primarily because he was being portrayed as a corpse in an advanced stage of decomposition as was demonstrated by other non-fertility mummiform deities that were also depicted having green or black skin. This study has found that ritual conversion of decomposition resulted in three kinds of perceived outcomes, namely:prevention, restoration, and transfiguration, and provides us a deeper appreciation as to why the ancient Egyptians sought to use gold in their burials as well as a possibly richer understanding of several difficult texts.

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