細節
AN EGYPTIAN GRANITE FUNERARY STELA OF KHEITUANK
PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.
Executed in sunk relief, with, in the lunette, the Winged disk Behdet, the great god, lord of heaven, flanked by Wadjet and Nekhbet as pendent serpents, two crouching Anubis jackals, and beneath the starry heaven, to the right, the deceased Kheituank before Min, Hathor, and two forms of Horus, and to the left, the deceased before Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Anubis, with 21 lines of hieroglyphic text below provisionally translated as follows:
1. the elder youth, with established character and known qualities, clever in speech, with joyful heart, excelling in intelligence, sweetly beloved, spoken of by everyone,
2. eloquent, with pleasant words, the Osiris Kherituankh, the justified daughter of the judge, prophet of Amon, Primeval one of the Two Lands (Egypt), and prophet of Min of Akhmim, the Osiris Shepmin,
3. the justified, and born housewife Tasherimhotep, yet healthy, who says: "O all scribes, all spririts, conjurers who enter into the temple library, the staff
4. of the temple scriptorium, who read drafts, who encounter the sriptures of the words of Thoth, who are effective in the divine rituals nobles, lords, patricians, commoners,
5. all lay priests, stolist priests, prophets, and gods-fathers of my district, all funerary priests of the Thinite nome, administrators of the god Foremost of the West (Osiris), common spirits,
6. all living ones on earth, everyone who comes from Upper Egypt or Lower Egypt who shall pass by this necropolis, who shall traverse Ro-setau,
7. who shall pass through Hapnebes, when they see this stela beside my tomb, come! May you recite the inscription which is on it,
8. where I have said what happended to me, without listening to the speech of another. I was a woman who was good with her property, I was beautiful, one whom people rejoiced at seeing, who overwhelmed
9. the heart of everyone who looked at me, males as well as females. I was one who spoke good things, who repeated beloved things. Evil never passed from my mouth, never did it make
10. its place in my body. I was the nurse of the newborn, who nurtured everyone with her sustenance, who became pregnant at a good union,
11. who gave birth to jubilation. On the day of rejoicing, I nursed in joy. My father praised my grace more than that of any child of his, for giving to him one as his
12. eldest (grand)son. His heart was carefree for love of me. Never did he note a transgression of mine against him in the "beer room" day or night. He forgot all evil in his heart when he saw
13. me in the course of every day. I used to sit at leisure daily and socialize, while we drank and ate, while our hearts took in the (cooling) north breeze
14. that came to us. I was someone who performed the processions of the gods of her district, the goddesses likewise. I was a master of intoxication, who loved a festive day, one who inducted the neophites (?) in her charge daily,
15. anointed with myrrh, salved with ungent, floral collars at our necks day and night. Every (sort of ) flower we brought, so that we might smell all their fragrances.
16. How sweet was the aroma, within them, like that of Punt. Pleasant was the ...with beautiful clothing(?), libations(?), singing, dancing, following our hearts daily
17. without ceasing, with no frustration of my heart's desire. I was the possessor of an offering table, one rich in offerings, with numerous statues of the gods of her district. I was one who gave property to the person who lacked it,
18. one who gave bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the naked. My fellow citizens prayed for my health because of the greatness of the benefactions
19. that I had done for them. I was an elder youth with but a short lifespan, because of the crocodile's taking me in my young adulthood. O living ones on earth, creatures
20. who are going to die, give me water in abundance. For I was one who loved inebriation. As there lives for you the Lord of Inebriation, King of the Gods, Onnophris, the justified, ruler of the Thinite nome, let there be said the traditional offering formula
21. May you extend your arms with incense, cool water, invocation offering of a thousand of everything to the spirit of a youth, because I was one who spent a few years in accordance with my heart, the years upon earth being 20 years, nine months, and 13 days.ÿ
