Book/Printed Material The Curse of Artemisia -- Fragment.
About this Item
Title
- The Curse of Artemisia -- Fragment.
Summary
- This ancient curse is one of the earliest surviving Greek documents on papyrus from Egypt. Dating from the late 4th century BC, it comes from the community of Ionian Greeks that was established at that time in Memphis, Lower Egypt. Greek culture came to dominate in Memphis, especially after 332 BC, when Alexander the Great was crowned pharaoh in the temple of the god Ptah. In the document, Artemisia, about whom almost nothing is known, appeals to the Greco-Egyptian god Oserapis to punish the father of her daughter for depriving the child of funeral rites and denying burial. Oserapis was identified with the mummified bull Apis, considered a manifestation of Ptah, and with the Egyptian god Osiris. For her vengeance, Artemisia demands that the man -- whose name is not mentioned in the text -- be deprived of similar funeral rites for his parents and himself. Her drastic words are a striking example for the great importance of funeral rites in Greek as well as in Egyptian tradition. The papyrus document belongs to the Papyrus Collection of the Austrian National Library, which was assembled in the 19th century by Archduke Rainer. In 1899 he gave it to Emperor Franz Joseph I, who made the collection part of the Hofbibliothek (Imperial Library) in Vienna. One of the largest such collections in the world, the Papyrus Collection (Collection Erzherzog Rainier) was inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2001.
Created / Published
- [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [350 B.C. to 300 B.C.]
Headings
- - Egypt--Giza--Mit Rahina
- - 350 B.C. to 301 B.C
- - Blessing and cursing
- - Funeral rites and ceremonies
- - Gods, Egyptian
- - Gods, Greek
- - Memory of the World
- - Memphis (Extinct city)
Notes
- - Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
- - "P. Vindob. inventory number G 1"--Note extracted from World Digital Library.
- - Original resource extent: Papyrus fragment : 35.5 x 8.5 centimeters.
- - Original resource at: Austrian National Library.
- - Content in Ancient Greek (to 1453).
- - Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.
Medium
- 1 online resource.
Source Collection
- Papyrus Collection (Collection Erzherzog Rainer)
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 2021667677
Online Format
- compressed data
- image