The cosmic side of Otherness: Nun, borders, and the Bas of the four cardinal points
The Book of Nut and four cryptographic texts devoted to the Bas of the four cardinal points, included in the Book of the Day and the Book of the Night, offer some hints, though laconic, on the way ancient Egyptians imagined the regions immediately beyond the cosmos. These hints to a geography of the...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Morcelliana
[2018]
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| In: |
Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
Year: 2018, Volume: 84, Issue: 1, Pages: 50-64 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Nutbuch
/ Egypt (Antiquity)
/ The Other
/ Cosmology
/ Religious geography
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| Further subjects: | B
Otherness
B Bas of the Cardinal Points B Nun B Nuns B Book of Nut B Ba dei punti cardinali B Cosmologia B Cardinal points B Other (Philosophy) B Libro di Nut B Cosmology B Alterità B Cryptography |
| Summary: | The Book of Nut and four cryptographic texts devoted to the Bas of the four cardinal points, included in the Book of the Day and the Book of the Night, offer some hints, though laconic, on the way ancient Egyptians imagined the regions immediately beyond the cosmos. These hints to a geography of the Unknown can be viewed as a part of ancient Egyptian speculation and attitude toward the Other, if we consider the Unknown as the highest point of Otherness. The aim of this paper is to look from a cosmological perspective at the way ancient Egyptians conceptualized Otherness. In the monumental versions of the Book of Nut preserved in the Osireion at Abydos and in the tomb of Ramses IV, and in its hieratic versions on some papyri dating to the II century ad, a deteriorated text describes the region beyond the sky. Through the help of the demotic commentaries to the composition and the analysis of other parts of the text, the monadic view of two non-communicating spheres (ordered cosmos vs. Nun) reveals to be schematic: ancient Egyptians figured the cosmos and the Nun as realities which, although separate, could intersect in a few given points, situated in a kind of "free zone" around the cosmos. Its description is further enriched and populated by the cryptographic digressions on the Bas of the four cardinal points. As in the Book of Nut, here again the idea of a necessary communication and interaction between the cosmos and the Abyss, existent and non-existent, is stated, and the apparent contradiction resolved through the intermediary and liminal figure of the four groups of Bas. (English) |
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| ISSN: | 2611-8742 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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