Das Lob der Schopfitng: Die Entwicklung agyptischer Sonnen-und SchOpfutigshymnen nach dem Neuen Reich.

Cruz-Uribe, Eugene

Das Lob der SchopfUng: Die Entwicklung agyptischer Sonnen- und Schapfungshymnen nach dem Neuen Reich. By CARSTEN KNIGGE. Orbis Biblicus et Ori-entalis, vol. 219. Fribourg: ACADEMIC PRESS, 2006. Pp. xii + 365. FS 98.

This volume is the revision of the author's dissertation at the University of Basel (2004-2005). The book is divided into three chapters. The first outlines the theoretical background to creation hymns and the notion of creation in texts in Egypt and the role of sun hymns up through the New Kingdom, touching upon potential relationships between them and the biblical psalms. A representative grouping of texts is called for to achieve an understanding of the discourse taking place within the cultic arena of the time. Principally the author argues for the use of temple inscriptions and similar representations from funerary contexts to provide the necessary elucidation of these developing concepts.

The second chapter examines the hymnic discourse and background of the hymns, and asks how during the Middle Kingdom (MK) and New Kingdom (NK) the Egyptians achieved their multiple-aspect creator god (mainly the sun god), who represented the originator of creation and the one who caused creation to embody itself in the creator god as a manifestation of the continuing nature of creation (known in earlier terminology as the cyclic nature of creation). The author notes that Assmann has discussed the MK and NK material in numerous studies and then presents material dating from the early Libyan period, the later Libyan period, the "Late period" (Dynasties 25-26), and the Persian period. This chapter is the strength of this book as it provides a systematic analysis of many Third Intermediate Period and later texts that have not been brought into the discourse in earlier works.

The third and final chapter gives the conclusions that the Egyptians maintained a cultural continuity despite the historic changes that took place during these later time periods. There was a universal solar theology that the Egyptians maintained, itself deriving from earlier patterns. It was the priests of the later periods who melded their contemporary viewpoints into this universal theology. In a sense the hymns / temple texts derive from the royal hymns of the MK, especially those of Sesostris I and III.

In most cases I find Knigge's analysis of the individual texts to be informative and exhaustive. For example, her treatment of the hymns from Flibis temple in Kharga Oasis (pp. 258ff.) provided this reviewer with a reasoned insight into the later New Kingdom revision of those hymns. I prefer it to the contemporary assessment done by D. Klotz (Adoration of the Ram: Five Hymns to Amun-Re from Hibis Temple, 2006). For myself, I would interpret the texts as having been composed during the Saite period and later "renewed" by Darius I. This allows one not to have to conjure up some explanation for the role of the far distant Persian emperor in local religious discourses (p. 256). in a sense these particular hymns provide a significant basis for understanding how the Egyptian priests adapted a NK Theban theological concept in multiple examples in later periods (as noted by the author).

In a similar frame I would remove discussion of the Memphite Theology from the Dynasty 25 material following Krauss' suggestion that it belongs to the discourse related to the Ptolemaic period (cited p. 217 n. 657). Thus issues related to thought (framed in the sense of the "Herz" of Ptah) may be developed using other documents and shown to continue into the Ptolemaic reframing of the creation episodes.

Finally, in the last portion of the third chapter the author raises several issues as they continued in the discourse during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Since the discussion of numerous Ptolemaic and Roman creation stories is well outside the scope of this volume, this section actually distracts from an otherwise very competent volume, one which those interested in the vagaries of Late Period religious texts will find useful in many ways.

EUGENE CRUZ-URIBE

INDIANA UNVERSITY EAST