Myth and Magic: Towards an

understanding of ritual efficacy in

ancient Egypt
Rune Nyord, Christs College,
Cambridge

The problem of ritual efficacy

ritual is our (post enlightenment) term, and it
reflects our problem how to classify a certain
set of apparently nonrational acts. Or perhaps I
should say apparently ineffective acts, for (...)
the popular understanding of ritual is not so
much that it is nonrational but rather that it is
ineffective
(Sax et al. 2010: 4, emphasis in original)

Dominant Egyptological models of

ritual efficacy
Heka (Ritner and others)
Sacramental interpretation/sakramentale
Ausdeutung (Assmann)

Ritner on HkA
Emic magic:
If magic is to be retained as a category in the study of Egyptian thought, it is
because the Egyptians themselves gave a name to a practice which they not
others identified with the Western concept of magic: [hik] (Ritner 1993:
14)
Etic magic
For the purpose of this study, any activity which seeks to obtain its goal by
methods outside the simple laws of cause and effect will be considered
magical in the Western sense. To what extent this working definition of
magic conforms to the Egyptian understanding of HkA will, it is hoped , become
clearer in the course of the investigation. (Ritner 1993: 69)
Empirical(?) magic:
However magic may be defined, in Egypt the practice was in itself quite legal
(Ritner 1993: 13)

Ritner on HkA
Pharaonic

Greek

HkA

Coptic

Latin

magia
Modern English

magic

Ritner on HkA
As the pre-eminent force through which the creator
engendered and sustained the ordered cosmos, it was
necessarily the dynamic energy which Egyptian
religious ritual sought to channel that it might effect its
identical goal, the preservation of the creators universe
(Ritner 1993: 247)
The use of HkA could hardly be construed in Egyptian
terms as activity outside the law of natural causality
since HkA is itself the ultimate source of causality, the
generative force of nature (Ritner 1993: 249)

Problems with the HkA-approach

- HkA can only be treated as an emic concept, and
must thus be studied according to its ancient
usage which does not corroborate the
theological importance of the concept as
underlying every ritual
- Modern definitions are perhaps less problematic
than Ritner indicates (as long as they are
distinguished as etic and used accordingly), but
are of no use for exploring Egyptian conceptions
of efficacy.

Assmann on sacramental interpretation

The uttering of this divine speech projects the
action being carried out in this world into the
divine realm. ()The relationship is effected
through words, explicitly in the descriptive
comment on a scene (a cultic act is performed,
this means: an occurrence in the divine realm),
and implicitly in the recitation as words of the
god to be spoken while performing the cultic act
(Assmann 2001: 89f)

Problems with Assmanns approach

- By presupposing the primacy of ritual,
Assmanns view entails a mythological
interpretation of an otherwise disenchanted
world whereas by all appearances the
Egyptians experienced it the other way around
- This makes it inherently unlikely that
Assmanns interpretation will correspond to
that of the Egyptians (whatever advantages it
may have as an etic framework)

What should an interpretation of ritual

efficacy in ancient Egypt do?
- Cover the full range of Egyptian rituals (no
need to impose modern distinctions such as
religion vs. magic)
- Conform to general features of the Egyptian
worldview, preferably building on explicit,
emic articulation

Dramatic Ramesseum Papyrus, 6667:

The process of lifting the offering table by the wtpriests: It is the Children of Horus catching his eye for
him.
Horus the followers of Seth.
Recitation: My eye has been lifted up to [my] face
Eye of Horus Lifting to his face Lifting the
offering table Ibis nome
(Sethe 1928: pl. 17)

xpr n fAt xAjt jn wtjw

msw r pw jH=sn n=f jrt=f

General pattern
xpr n [RITUAL]
[MYTH] pw

The [MYTH] is the xpr of the [RITUAL]

Pattern found in a number of other

texts
Pyramid Texts Spell 477 (6th Dyn)
as you, Seth, said In fact, he attacked (jk) me that is the coming
into being of his name (xpr rn=f pw) Bent-(to)-the-Ground (jkw-tA)
Myth of the Heavenly Cow (18th Dyn)
The Majesty of this god said Stay far (Hr) from them! Lift me up!
Look at me! That is her coming into being (xpr=s pw) as the sky (Hrt)
pSalt 825 (Ptolemaic)
Then Horus wept, water fell from his eye on the ground, and it grew.
That is the coming into being of dry myrrh (xpr antjw Sw pw)

Coffin Texts spell 154 (Knowing the Lords of

Heliopolis), II, 274c-281c:
It is Re when he contended with (Ra pw Hr mdt Hna) the
serpent Who-is-in-his-flame concerning the division of
Heliopolis. His mouth was injured, and that is the xpr of
the reduction (xpr xbt pw) in the monthly festival.
The serpent Who-is-in-his-flame said, I will take my
harpoon (mabA) and I will inherit this city, and that is
the xpr of the (division into) 30 (mabA).
Re said, I will erect my flagpoles (snwt) against him,
and I will drive him off, and that is the xpr of the snwtfestival

From a hymn to the god Osiris:

Hail to you, Osiris, Foremost of the
Westerners, Son of Nut
(...)
for whose sake the Sun rises to see his
beauty (nfrw) on earth,
and he sets likewise to behold you in the
becomings (xprw) of the Underworld.

On earth

In the Underworld

Beauty (nfrw)

Becomings (xprw)

Stela of Wepwawet-Hotep, British

Museum, EA 1367

A basic deployment of a mythological

precedent
Protective spells for mother and child (Papyrus
Berlin 3027), spell G
Another one
I conceived in Weryt, I give birth to you in Netjeru.
I purified myself while you were in the Lake of the
Kings of Lower Egypt. My property is for me and
for you. My property is in [...]. Recitation for not
letting Meskhenet give a child over to bad things.
Good.

Consequences
How does this approach change our
understanding of the workings of Egyptian
rituals?

Funerary texts as (ordinary) ritual

texts?
Pyramid Texts, spell 278
Awake, awake, my father Osiris! I am your son
who loves you: I am your son Horus who loves
you. Look, I have come bringing you that which
he (sc. Seth) had acquired from you

General hypotheses
Mythological references in ritual can be
understood as a technical language for
conceptualising (and manipulating) the worlds
coming into being
There is no need to treat funerary texts as a
special case where mythological references
should be understood as a literal description of
the afterlife

Myth and Magic: Towards an

understanding of ritual efficacy in
ancient Egypt
Rune Nyord, Christs College,
Cambridge