The Festival Songs of

Isis Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...

and

Nephthys Nephthys or Nebet-Het in ancient Egyptian () was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis ...

are a work of

ancient Egyptian literature Ancient Egyptian literature was written with the Egyptian language from ancient Egypt's History of ancient Egypt, pharaonic period until the end of Egypt (Roman province), Roman domination. It represents the oldest Text corpus, corpus of Lite ...

whose author is unknown. Probably not older than the

Twenty-sixth Dynasty The Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXVI, alternatively 26th Dynasty or Dynasty 26) was the last native dynasty of ancient Egypt before the Persian conquest in 525 BC (although other brief periods of rule by Egyptians followed). T ...

, the songs form part of the funeral

hieratic Hieratic (; ) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE ...

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can a ...

of Nesi Ámsu (No. 10158 in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

). The title is “The Verses of the Festival of the two Zerti,” and the papyrus tells us it was to be sung by two virgins in the temple of

Osiris Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...

on the occasion of the annual festival held for five days in the fourth month of the sowing season. The verses concern the killing of Osiris by

Set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

, and the later reconstruction of Osiris' body by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys.Dictionary of Egyptian Archaeology - M. Brodick and A.A. Morton

Variant readings and related texts

There is evidence in the text that other copies existed, and that it was old enough to allow of variant readings having crept in. With the “

Litanies Litany, in Christian worship and some forms of Jewish worship, is a form of prayer used in services and processions, and consisting of a number of petitions. The word comes through Latin ''wikt:litania, litania'' from Ancient Greek wikt:λιτα ...

of Seker,” which follows, consisting of four columns, it occupies twenty-one of the thirty-three columns of the whole papyrus. The second composition which was evidently intended to be sung after the Festival Verses, consists of three parts: I. A Litany to the Sun-God; II. A Recitation by Isis; III. A Litany to the Hathors. During the sixteen repetitions of it which were required, it was to have an accompaniment of tambourines. A hieratic papyrus of Berlin contains a work very similar to the “Festival Songs”. It has been translated by M. de Horrack, and is entitled “''Les Lamentations d'Isis et Nephthys.''”

References

External links

The Songs of Isis and Nephthys
translated by R.O. Faulkner Ancient Egypt {{AncientEgypt-stub 1st-millennium BC literature Isis Ancient Egyptian texts Works of unknown authorship Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt Osiris Nephthys