The ''Demotic Chronicle'' is an

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian

prophetic In religion, mythology, and fiction, a prophecy is a message that has been communicated to a person (typically called a ''prophet'') by a supernatural entity. Prophecies are a feature of many cultures and belief systems and usually contain divin ...

text. The work is intended to provide a

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

of the 28th, 29th and 30th dynastiesBresciani, op. cit., p. 551 – thus the independence interval between the two Persian dominations. Rather than providing historical events occurred during the reigns of the

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...

s of the aforementioned period, the ''Demotic Chronicle'' judges these rulers on the basis of their behaviour, explaining the length and prosperity of their reigns as an expression of

divine will The will of God or divine will is a concept found in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and a number of other texts and worldviews, according to which God's will is the cause of everything that exists. Thomas Aquinas According to Thomas Aquin ...

. The ''Chronicle'' also emphasizes the misrule of the "Medes" (i.e. the

Achaemenids The Achaemenid dynasty ( ; ; ; ) was a royal house that ruled the Achaemenid Empire, which eventually stretched from Egypt and Thrace in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east. Origins The history of the Achaemenid dy ...

) and of the

Ptolemies The Ptolemaic dynasty (; , ''Ptolemaioi''), also known as the Lagid dynasty (, ''Lagidai''; after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal house which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Ancient Egypt during the Hellenistic period. ...

, and prophesies the coming of a native hero who will ascend to the throne and restore an era of

order and justice Order and Justice (, TT), formerly the Liberal Democratic Party (''Liberalų Demokratų Partija'', LDP) was a right-wing national-conservative political party in Lithuania that self-identified as " left-of-centre", at least on economic matters. It ...

upon Egypt.

Toby Wilkinson Toby Alexander Howard Wilkinson, (born 1969) is an English Egyptologist and academic. After studying Egyptology at the University of Cambridge, he was Lady Wallis Budge Research Fellow in Egyptology at Christ's College, Cambridge (1993 to 199 ...

, ''The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt'', Bloomsbury, London, 2010, p. 481 The anti-Achaemenid themes within the Demotic Chronicle especially focus on

Cambyses II Cambyses II () was the second King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning 530 to 522 BCE. He was the son of and successor to Cyrus the Great (); his mother was Cassandane. His relatively brief reign was marked by his conquests in North Afric ...

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was a List of monarchs of Persia, Persian ruler who served as the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 486 BC until his assassination in 465 BC. He was ...

and

Artaxerxes III Ochus ( ), known by his dynastic name Artaxerxes III ( ; ), was King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire from 359/58 to 338 BC. He was the son and successor of Artaxerxes II and his mother was Stateira. Before ascending the throne Artaxerxes was ...

. The manuscript consists in a papyrus written in

demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...

; hence, its name. It was found during the

Napoleonic campaign in Egypt The French invasion of Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was a military expedition led by Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The campaign aimed to undermine British trade routes, expand French influence, and establish a ...

and now stored at the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

(Pap. 215). The work claims to date back to the time of pharaoh

Teos Teos () or Teo was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia, on a peninsula between Chytrium and Myonnesus. It was founded by Minyans from Orchomenus, Ionians and Boeotians, but the date of its foundation is unknown. Teos was one of the t ...

of the 30th Dynasty, although in fact it is a later work datable to the 3rd century BCE, likely composed under the reign of

Ptolemy III Euergetes Ptolemy III Euergetes (, "Ptolemy the Euergetes, Benefactor"; c. 280 – November/December 222 BC) was the third pharaoh of the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt from 246 to 222 BC. The Ptolemaic Kingdom reached the height of its military and economic ...

.
Despite its cryptic text, analysis of the ''Demotic Chronicle'' have allowed, among other things, to integrate the order of succession of the treated pharaohs with the informations provided by

Manetho Manetho (; ''Manéthōn'', ''gen''.: Μανέθωνος, ''fl''. 290–260 BCE) was an Egyptian priest of the Ptolemaic Kingdom who lived in the early third century BCE, at the very beginning of the Hellenistic period. Little is certain about his ...

's epitomes.

References

Edda Bresciani Edda Bresciani (23 September 1930 – 29 November 2020) was an Italian Egyptologist. Life Bresciani was born in Lucca, and graduated in 1955 from the University of Pisa. She excavated at several places in Egypt and is mainly known for her work a ...

, ''Letteratura e poesia dell'antico Egitto'', Einaudi, Torino, 1969, pp. 551–60.

External links

''The Demotic Chronicle''
(annotated translation) Prophecy 3rd-century BC history books Papyri from ancient Egypt Xerxes I Anti-Iranian sentiment African chronicles History books about Egypt {{papyrus-stub

See also

References

Further reading

External links