[Pg i]

The Story of

NEFREKEPTA

FROM A DEMOTIC PAPYRUS

Put into Verse by

GILBERT MURRAY

OXFORD

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
MCMXI

[Pg ii]

Henry Frowde, M.A.
Publisher to the University of Oxford
London, Edinburgh, New York
Toronto and Melbourne

PRINTED IN ENGLAND

Preface
Introduction
Ahure's Story
The Book of Thoth
The Contest for the Book
Ta-Buvuë, and the Return of the Book

[Pg iii]

PREFACE

The original of this tale is in Demotic Egyptian, in prose, on afragmentary papyrus dated 'the first month of winter, in the fifteenthyear' of some king unnamed. Palaeographical evidence suggests some dateabout 100 b.c. My own education has been neglected in the matter ofDemotic, and I know the tale only from the literal translation whichaccompanies the text in Dr. Griffith's Stories of the High Priests ofMemphis. In that form, however, it so fascinated me that I presentlyfound myself, to the neglect of more urgent duties, putting it intoEnglish verse and filling up the gaps in the narrative. I have tried topreserve the style and often the exact words of the original, asrendered by Dr. Griffith, but in other respects temptations have beengreat and I have not resisted them.

The names present some difficulties. In Demotic, if I understand aright,the vowels are not written and the consonants often do not mean what[Pg iv]they seem to mean. The hero's name is spelt, roughly speaking,N('y)-nfr-k'-Pth, the phantom lady's Ty-bwbwe; the priest's is writtenStne, but was probably pronounced, so Dr. Griffith tells me, Sětôn orSětân.

While doing the verses I was constantly reminded of certain Egyptianilluminations by Miss Florence Kingsford, now Mrs. Sydney Cockerell,which I had seen some years ago, and she has been so kind as to providethe book with a frontispiece and tail-piece.

Those who desire further information about Setne will find it in theintroduction to Dr. Griffith's learned and delightful book (ClarendonPress, 1900).

G. M.

[Pg 1]

NEFREKEPTA

[Pg 3]

Introduction