Egyptian religious poetry

GLOSSARY

Tue transliteration of Egyptian names has always been a difficulty, for the Egyptian alphabet contains no vowels and has letters for sounds which do not occur in European languages. A group of consonants, such as Nfrhtp, may be correct, but is impossible to pronounce, therefore conventionally a short ¢ is inserted to divide the syllables, thus Neferhetep. Early Egyptologists boldly transliterated some of the letters as vowels or followed the Greek transcriptions, and so produced Thoth and Amasis instead of the Egyptian Zehuti and Yohmes. Modern Egyptologists in trying to arrive at the correct pronunciation have produced terrible combinations like Djedj, or have adopted the Greek forms of many of the names.

As there is no standard transliteration available for the general reader, I have compromised on using forms which are easily pronounced. The vowels are usually long, with the exception of the a in Amon (Greek, Ammon) and the short e which only divides syllables ; the kh is a guttural. Where the spelling of a name differs from the Egyptian I have put the other version in brackets. I have divided the names into their syllables and, where required, haye put the meanings.

Aah-mes (Gr. Amasis). “* Child of the Moon-god.” First king of the xviiith dynasty. He drove the Hyksos out of Egypt. Abd-fish. A mythological fish, seen at sunrise in the waters of the celestial Nile in front of the Boat of the Morning. Abydos (Eg. Abdu). The city of Osiris, where the early Pharaohs were either actually buried or where their cenotaphs were erected. 13