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HINCKLEY SEDERHOLM, V. Papyrus British Museum 10808 and Its Cultural and Religious Setting. (Probleme der gyptologie, 24). Brill Academic Publishers, LeidenBoston, 2006. (24,5 cm, XVIII, 244). ISBN 978-90-0414349-4. ISSN 0169-9601. / 124,-; $ 167.00. Val Hinckley Sederholm presents a new reading of a unique magical text that was composed in late classical Egyptian (neo-Middle Egyptian; lgyptien de tradition; the liturgical language of ancient Egypt), but written down in the Old Coptic or Proto-Coptic script. In other words, the text is a rendering of an Egyptian spell into Greek uncials, supplemented with a few Demotic signs, in order to enable the ritual actor to pronounce it correctly. It is preserved in a second-century papyrus that was found at Oxyrhynchus during the excavations between 1896 and 1907 (Papyrus British Museum EA 10808). It was previously examined by W.E. Crum (1941), A. Volten (1953), J. Osing (1976) and J. Dieleman (2004 not seen by Hinckley Sederholm). Osings critical edition was the first to include a full translation and an extensive grammatical analysis of the spell, which was a major step forward for understanding it, but in a review Ariel Shisha-Halevy (1980) highly criticised the adopted methodology. Shisha-Halevy not only expressed his doubts about the reliability of the readings, since they were adduced by the application of phonological theory, but he was also sceptical about Osings panchronic approach, as if the Egyptian language had never changed. In his view, the result was an improbably intricate, often fantastic text. Sederholm, however, convincingly demonstrates that Osings methodology is valid and that an improved reading, based on a new infrared photograph, presents a coherent and deeply surprising text that contributes to the illumination of Egyptian thought in the Graeco-Roman period (p. xi). Although the spell dates to a period when Egypt was increasingly influenced by Hellenism, and although the Egyptian priesthood needed to use the Greek script in order to ensure its correct pronunciation, the content of the spell is purely Egyptian and traditional (pp. xiii, xvii). Sederholm demonstrates this important conclusion by drawing many parallels from the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, the Book of the Dead and Netherworld Books, and thereby confirms the coherence and reliability of his readings. The purpose of the spell was the healing of an innocent human being who had fallen a victim to divine wrath, represented by the Enemy of Osiris, and the punishment of the

force that caused the victims sickness, by massacring four deities of fate and wrath (pp. xii, 189-203). The text consists of three sections, or spells, each of which begins with an invocation of the Enemy by a different name, starting with the solar ram. In fact, the entire ritual process is linked with the cycle of the sun, and reflects the interaction between the solar god Re and the netherworldly Osiris. It turns out that the expression Enemy of is used as a device to distance and protect Osiris from the dangerous aureola of the Solar Ram, but ironically, the Ram is also a manifestation of Osiris (pp. 48). (A reference to J.F. Quack in RdE 40 (1989, pp. 197-198) about this phenomenon in Egyptian religious texts is missed by Sederholm.) The language of irony and the blurring of the identities of these deities are meant to make the spell efficacious (p. 216). In a nutshell, this is the complex philosophy underlying the magical text. In the preface of his book, Sederholm briefly discusses various subjects, some of which I already mentioned: the cultural and religious setting of the spell, its purpose, ShishaHalevys critique on Osings edition and the challenge it creates for Sederholm, and matters of script and transcription (pp. xi-xvii). No attention is paid to the physical appearance of the papyrus, which bears traces of a second column,1) or to its provenance, probably because this has already been done by previous editors, but on p. xiv Sederholm suddenly refers to it as the Old Coptic papyrus from Oxyrhynchus. It also struck me that the author does not distinguish the papyrus, the physical bearer, from the content, the text, when he states that Papyrus British Museum EA 10808 is a ProtoCoptic magical text. The book consists of two sections. The first part presents the text (chapters 1-5), whereas the second part focuses on major aspects of the spell (chapters 6-9). The new photograph of the inscribed side of the papyrus, printed in blackand-white, is placed in between, after p. 142. It seems to show a bifolio, the left leaf of which is almost completely preserved, whereas most of the right leaf is lost. Judging from the dimensions given below the photograph, a complete leaf must have measured ca. 30 cm in height and ca. 12 cm in width. In Chapter 1 Sederholm provides the transcriptions of the text by Crum, Osing and himself line by line and in Latin characters, which facilitates the comparison of their readings. His own transcription is carefully done: if a reading is unsure, he uses (double) strikethroughs. Comments are delegated to the footnotes. Unlike the previous editors, Sederholm does not present a facsimile or a printed Old Coptic transcription of the text. For a printed text the author would have had to combine Coptic and Egyptian transliteration fonts and to add Demotic ligatures by hand. Instead, he chose to convert all transcriptions into Latin script and to include a list of special symbols for the h/x-like sounds and the jinkim (stroke) above the n. As a coptologist, however, I would have appreciated an overview of the letters and their rendering in Latin characters, for the transcription is sometimes difficult to check. Just a minor comment: in l. 1. Sederholm accidentally typed +nnouenafr, but he meant +nouenafr (as it is on p. 28).

1 ) The second column is examined by J. Dieleman, Ein sptgyptisches magisches Handbuch. Eine neue PDM oder PGM?, Res severa verum gaudia (Fs. Zauzich), Leuven: Peeters 2004, 121-128.

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Chapter 2 includes Osings Egyptian transliteration and translation, supplemented with comments by Crum and Volten (pp. 18-27). Sederholm underlined the phrases that influenced his own transcription and translation. The text is divided into three spells. In Chapter 3 Sederholm repeats his transcription but this time in combination with his Egyptian transliteration and English translation (p. 28-46). He discusses the text phrase by phrase and sometimes adds notes on the reading of words. The numbering of the lines is not indicated in a uniform manner: it is placed between brackets or inserted in the transcription. Likewise, the author marks the beginning of the second spell only (p. 35). In Chapter 4 Sederholm aims to test his translation as a piece of Egyptian evidence by comparing it with the latest egyptological models and assumptions (p. 47-93). While taking Jan Assmanns Tod und Jenseits in Alten gypten as a standard, the author provides a running commentary on his phrase-by-phrase transliteration and translation, and convincingly argues that his reading reflects a consistent, traditional Egyptian view on the afterlife. Interestingly, he even proposes a fitting vignette for the spell: a depiction of the Son of the Ewe, a decan star, in the Temple of Esna. The beginnings of the three spells are clearly indicated, but the heading Spell Three is placed incorrectly, just after the invocation (p. 75). The chapter concludes with a useful summary of the three spells, which demonstrates that the magical act takes place from twilight till sunrise (pp. 83-90), and a running translation of the text (pp. 90-93). This time, the author does not indicate the beginnings of the spells, which is a pity, for a clear division would help the reader with comparing the structure and contents of the spells. The annotated commentary in Chapter 5 examines words and phrases in Sederholms transliteration that require further clarification (pp. 94-142). Four themes that are central to the spells are discussed elaborately in chapters 6-9 of the second part of the book (on p. 144 they are introduced as chapters 1-4). Chapter 6, entitled The Ram, concentrates on the identification of the sr with a ram or ewe, and on the ram as a solar or astral symbol. Sometimes the ram-headed sun (sr) is misrepresented as a giraffe. Chapter 7 is an essay on the Enemy of Osiris that deals with four aspects: the clash between the active solar ram (Re) and the passive Osiris, the harm or healing ascribed to stars, the use of taboo language in order to reduce the magical force of a verb of malice, and a unique representation of Seth, Osiris natural enemy, as a ram. The antagonistic tie between Re as the solar ram (sr) and Osiris (wsir) is not without irony, considering the homophony of their Egyptian designations, which suggests identity blurring and blending (p. 171-174). Chapter 8 examines the slaughtering of the Four of Fates Red Tally, a ritual act that is meant to annihilate the inimical forces that control fate, by consulting various Egyptian texts on the afterlife. In the end, it turns out that the enemy is believed to fall by his own hand. The last chapter aims to establish the exact meaning of rn m3c, the true name, as distinct from the good name, the great name (or full name) and the small name. The book concludes with a list of the works cited and indices: of author and subject, of comparison of words, and of the passages selected from Egyptian texts.

Sederholm did not write a conclusion or a synthesis, which is a missed opportunity for bringing loose ends together. Indeed, he made great efforts in order to explain the theological views at the heart of the text and to demonstrate that it is in accord with traditional Egyptian thought, but what about the practical context of the spell? How does the structure of the spells support the dynamism of the magical act? Is it possible to describe what happened during the performance of this spell or similar ones? Eventually, the purpose of this dramatic spell was to heal someone who apparently suffered from a serious and mysterious illness that could not be controlled with conventional remedies. What more can be said about the practical context of the papyrus? It was excavated in Oxyrhynchus, under circumstances that are still unclear to me, but it supposedly originates from an Egyptian temple library. The papyrus not only bears the magical text edited by Sederholm, but also traces of a second text on the right hand side, in the second column. According to Jacco Dieleman, this other text is likely to have been a prescription for a ritual aimed at sending someone bad dreams, and P. BM 10808 was probably part of a magical handbook.2) If so, it must be added to the list of magical books from Roman Egypt, which are known from Demotic or Old Coptic papyri. The Demotic examples include: P. Leiden J 348 vo., P. Magical (P. London-Leiden), P. BM 10588 and P. Louvre E 3229.3) They date to the end of the third century, whereas P. BM 10808 is dated to the second century on the basis of the palaeography. If these datings are correct, P. BM 10808 is the oldest known example of such a magical collection from Roman Egypt. Dieleman also made the interesting observation that the Demotic P. Magical includes references to a doctor in Oxyrhynchus, and wondered if this city was known in Roman times for its magic. In general, Sederholm has succeeded in making an extraordinary text more accessible. He convincingly demonstrates that Osings method is valid after all, even if his readings could be improved, and that the magical text is purely Egyptian and traditional in its content. In addition, he clarifies the religious concepts underlying the text and signals instances of irony, word play and taboo language. While focussing on the wording of the text and on its cultural and religious setting, however, the author does not (or hardly) pay attention to the physical appearance of the papyrus, its provenance or its practical setting. Moreover, his presentation of the text could be improved at some points, for instance, by clearly indicating the beginnings of the three spells throughout, in the transcription, transliteration and translation. A conclusion or synthesis of the results would have been most welcome. Despite these points of critique Sederholms book deserves attentive study. LIAS, Middle Eastern Studies Leiden University November 2012 * * * Renate DEKKER

2 ) Dieleman, Ein sptgyptisches magisches Handbuch, 121, 127-128 (see footnote 1). 3 ) For an overview of Old Coptic texts and comparative material, see H. Satzinger, Old Coptic, in: A.S. Atiya (ed.), The Coptic Encyclopedia, vol. 8, New York 1991, 169-175.