The problem of the taxon 'myth' as a typology of religion in ancient Egypt : phenomenology revisited

• Main Author: Brown, Diana
• Published: University of Edinburgh 2008
• Subjects: 930
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.642108

To hear the voice of the ancient Egyptians through their texts and iconography, the research method employed in the thesis demanded rigorous scrutiny of the secondary literature of religion, phenomenology and Egyptian literature, history, culture, kingship, ‘religion’ and ‘myths’. Egyptian primary texts, iconography and archaeology provided crucial source material for comparison as did contemporary critiques from scholars in the fields of religion, phenomenology and Egyptology. The aim of the thesis is comprehension of Egyptian texts ‘as if’, that is, from the insider’s perspective. Scrutiny of the literature of classical pioneers of phenomenology established that the common element of similarity which classifies religious data into universal typologies of religion, was the ‘essence’ of religion. The latter, identified as the ‘essence’ of Christianity, was another layer superimposed on the so-called ‘religion’ of ancient Egypt. To extricate the meaning intended by the ancient Egyptian texts and iconography, a new hermeneutic of ‘myth’ is proposed. A Case Study draws together the salient points of the research into a new approach that applies a phenomenological method. Translations and interpretations of different types of Egyptian texts are compared and tested. When ancient Egyptian culture is ‘experienced’ through the lens of phenomenology, Egyptian kingship is seen as the symbolic link between the gods and the Egyptian people, a fact demonstrated throughout this thesis and tested in the Case Study which finalises the argument.