PETITIONING OSIRIS : the old coptic schmidt papyrus and curse of artemisia in context among the... letters to gods from egypt

__Petitioning Osiris__ re-edits, re-analyses, and re-contextualises the "Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus" and "Curse of Artemisia" – written petitions to different manifestations of Osiris – among the Letters to Gods in Demotic, Greek, and Old Coptic from Egypt. The textual traditions of the Letters to Gods, to the Dead, and Oracle Questions which evidence that ritual tradition of petitioning deities are contextualised among contemporary textual traditions, such as Letters and Petitions to Human Recipients, and Documents of Self-Dedication, and compared to later ritual traditions such as proactive and reactive curses without and with judicial features (so-called Prayers for Justice) in Greek and Coptic from Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. As with all other Letters to Gods, the Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus and Curse of Artemisia evidence not only the struggles and aspirations of their petitioners, but also the way in which they conceptualised that they could bring about desired outcomes in their lived experience by engaging divine agency through a reciprocal relationship of human-divine interaction. Petitioning Osiris therefore provides a starting point and springboard for readers interested in these, or comparable, textual and ritual traditions from the Ancient World. Petitioning Osiris re-edits, re-analyses, and re-contextualises the "Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus" and "Curse of Artemisia" -- written petitions to different manifestations of Osiris - among the Letters to Gods in Demotic, Greek, and Old Coptic from Egypt. The textual traditions of the Letters to Gods, to the Dead, and Oracle Questions which evidence that ritual tradition of petitioning deities are contextualised among contemporary textual traditions, such as Letters and Petitions to Human Recipients, and Documents of Self-Dedication, and compared to later ritual traditions such as proactive and reactive curses without and with judicial features (so-called Prayers for Justice) in Greek and Coptic from Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean. As with all other Letters to Gods, the Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus and Curse of Artemisia evidence not only the struggles and aspirations of their petitioners, but also the way in which they conceptualised that they could bring about desired outcomes in their lived experience by engaging divine agency through a reciprocal relationship of human-divine interaction. Petitioning Osiris therefore provides a starting point and springboard for readers interested in these, or comparable, textual and ritual traditions from the Ancient World.-- Provided by publisher Acknowledgements 7 Preface 9 Contents 13 List of figures 19 Part 1 21 1 Approaching the Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus and the Curse of Artemisia 21 2 Petitioning the Divine in Egypt 37 Part 2 243 3 The Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus (OCSP) 243 4 Contextualising the Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus 333 5 Reading the Old Coptic Schmidt Papyrus 399 Part 3 477 6 The Curse of Artemisia (CA) 477 7 Contextualising the Curse of Artemisia 501 8 Reading the Curse of Artemisia 585 Part 4 641 9 Petitioning Osiris 641 Appendices 667 Tables 667 Bibliography 675 Indices 697 The Journal of Egyptian Language and Archaeology is the oldest professional journal in Egyptology. Since 1863 it has published articles on language, literature, history, law, religion, science, magic, the economy, everyday experience, and the material culture of ancient Egypt as well as the history of Egyptology. The Supplementary Volumes present monographs and anthologies on the same broad spectrum of issues covered by the journal