Mesehti's Sarchophogus - an obscure god and translation trouble?

[Miltiades The Merchant]

I was skimming through a PDF of Budge's Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary Vol. I and came across a listing of a god (or class of god?) I can't find anything about. This is how it is in Budge's book:

The reference leads to Gaston Maspero's Recueil de Travaux Relatifs à la Philologie et à l'archéologie Egyptiennes et Assyriennes volume 26 and the relevant section:

From what I gather A, B, and C are three different sarcophagi that the inscriptions are found on. They are apparently written in vertical columns, which Maspero notes as causing confusion.


I'm struggling to make much sense of the rest of the line. Does anyone know if these particular artefacts (28118 (Mesethi's sarcophagus), 28976 (unnamed sarcophagus), and 28083 (Sepi's sarcophagus) at the Cairo Museum) have been deciphered, or where I would look to find the translations?
It seems a bit unusual that Budge's dictionary lists several gods that never turn up in the usual places online, even on lists of "all the Egyptian gods", although I was likely looking in the wrong places.


*just for posterity I'll leave the Gardner sign list and the unicode here:
O40 G1 A28 A1 G17 D58 w24:x1 E20 A40
 𓊍 𓄿 𓀠 𓀀 𓅓 𓃀 𓏌𓏏 𓃩 𓀭

[Ian61]

I was skimming through a PDF of Budge's Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary Vol. I and came across a listing of a god (or class of god?) I can't find anything about. This is how it is in Budge's book:


*just for posterity I'll leave the Gardner sign list and the unicode here:
O40 G1 A28 A1 G17 D58 w24:x1 E20 A40
 𓊍 𓄿 𓀠 𓀀 𓅓 𓃀 𓏌𓏏 𓃩 𓀭

I won't be much use here but if he's a 'god of evil' perhaps best left alone  

I was interested in the typeability so looked up the 'Gardiner list', that looks to have been an epic undertaking even if the Wikipedia article worries about lack of cross references. I have some familiarity with Unicode from scientific symbols rather than hieroglyphs. Looking at the Wikipedia page (and hence a 19 page document listing the current Unicode hieroglyphs) I make that over a thousand variations on the theme! - makes a few standard symbols for equations pale into insignificance, presumably you don't  memorise them as such?

I will be interested to see if anyone can come in with any real knowledge to help you.

[Erpingham]

There is a monograph on Mesehti's coffin here (in French).  The place to find the translations seems to be De Buck's seven volume Coffin Texts, but only some volumes are available on line.

[Miltiades The Merchant]

I was skimming through a PDF of Budge's Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary Vol. I and came across a listing of a god (or class of god?) I can't find anything about. This is how it is in Budge's book:


*just for posterity I'll leave the Gardner sign list and the unicode here:
O40 G1 A28 A1 G17 D58 w24:x1 E20 A40
 𓊍 𓄿 𓀠 𓀀 𓅓 𓃀 𓏌𓏏 𓃩 𓀭

I won't be much use here but if he's a 'god of evil' perhaps best left alone  

I was interested in the typeability so looked up the 'Gardiner list', that looks to have been an epic undertaking even if the Wikipedia article worries about lack of cross references. I have some familiarity with Unicode from scientific symbols rather than hieroglyphs. Looking at the Wikipedia page (and hence a 19 page document listing the current Unicode hieroglyphs) I make that over a thousand variations on the theme! - makes a few standard symbols for equations pale into insignificance, presumably you don't  memorise them as such?

I will be interested to see if anyone can come in with any real knowledge to help you.

What makes it even more imposing is the Gardner List on Wikipedia is far shorter than the one in Budge's Dictionary, perhaps down to repetition, which means some of the referencing must be done manually through the documents. I did find a vocabulary book that included all the then known determinatives that had been used. As you say, it's truly monumental work and just dipping my toe in has earned these researchers my respect.

There is a monograph on Mesehti's coffin here (in French).  The place to find the translations seems to be De Buck's seven volume Coffin Texts, but only some volumes are available on line.

Many thanks! French I can work with, to a degree.

[Erpingham]

I asked my resident Kemetic expert (the wife) and she noted that Budge tends to translate with a modern Western eye.  The determinate symbol of the Set Animal sitting at the end should be more an association with chaos than evil as we see it. Not that that gets you much further.

[Duncan Head]

I asked my resident Kemetic expert (the wife) and she noted that Budge tends to translate with a modern Western eye.  The determinate symbol of the Set Animal sitting at the end should be more an association with chaos than evil as we see it.

Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, or plain old Moorcockian Chaos, I wonder?

[Erpingham]

I asked my resident Kemetic expert (the wife) and she noted that Budge tends to translate with a modern Western eye.  The determinate symbol of the Set Animal sitting at the end should be more an association with chaos than evil as we see it.

Chaotic Good, Chaotic Neutral, or plain old Moorcockian Chaos, I wonder?

She says "Moorcockian chaos" (she was a Moorcock fan in her younger days).