King Neferkare and General Sasenet

The story of Neferkare and Sasenet (sometimes the applicant of Memphis ) is an only fragmentary surviving work of ancient Egyptian literature. The story deals with a homosexual relationship of the pharaoh Neferkare ( Pepi II ) and his General Sasenet.

Tradition

The story has been handed down only three textual witnesses: One wooden panel from the 18th or 19th Dynasty (now in the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, OIC 13 539 ), a Ostracon the 20th Dynasty from Deir el- Medina (O DeM 1214 ) and from a papyrus of the 25th dynasty ( Papyrus Chassinat I = Papyrus Louvre e 25351, now in the Louvre, Paris). All three contain only part of the whole story.

The actual time of origin of the story can not be determined with absolute certainty. It is sometimes classified in the research into the New Kingdom, but also in part already in the Middle Kingdom.

Content

The beginning of the story is just getting very patchy. There is talk of a prince who to General Sasenet knows about the love of the King. Then the action moves to Sasenet itself This walking through the necropolis of Memphis, when suddenly the ghost of the deceased pharaoh Teti II appears. Of the details of the encounter nothing is received, there are some scraps of text in which Sasenet apparently seeks several senior officials.

Is considerably better preserved, the central part, in which appears an anonymous plaintiff. He comes to the royal court to advance Neferkare a lawsuit, but will not be heard by the. Instead Neferkare can drown out the plaintiff with loud music and singing, until it finally goes back disappointed. Subsequently, it is ridiculed by the courtiers. This action is repeated several times, whereupon the plaintiff to his friend Tjeti, son of Henet, applies.

Tjeti are rumors have taken place over the king and he now decides to shadow them. He notes that Neferkare the night alone leaves the palace. Tjeti secretly follows him and noticed such a way that the king goes to the house of his general Sasenet and remains there for four hours. Once this time has elapsed ( " After the King had done to him [ie the General] what he wanted " ), he went back to the palace and also Tjeti went back home. All the action repeats itself every night, then the text breaks off. The end of the story is not obtained.

Interpretation

As quite difficult the assessment of the homosexual relationship of the king Neferkare proves his General Sasenet. The subject was in the older literature either bypassed or interpreted into an immoral act of the king in the relationship. This is rejected in more recent works, as in the story itself at any point in a score is made.

Not entirely clear is the exact assignment of the story in a particular genre. So set about Georges Posener, the main focus on the figure of Tjeti and moves the narrative therefore in the vicinity of the modern detective story. Jacobus van Dijk, however, comes to a different conclusion. Starting point for his consideration is the classification described in the story of the night in three sets of four hours. According to van Dijk is the story is a parody of religious texts, notably the unification of the two gods Re and Osiris during the middle four hours of the night. Neferkare thus assumes the role of Re and the Sasenet of Osiris.