9 Becoming Wind? Considerations on Transformation and Identification in Marginal Coffin Text Spells
In: Variability in the Earlier Egyptian Mortuary TextsSearch for other papers by Anne Landborg in
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Abstract
This study explores a small number of transformation spells in the Coffin Texts that are unusual in not containing a living being in the rubric. Most transformation spells include entities in the rubric such as gods or animals that the deceased could also be directly identified with in the spell main text: ḫprw m ḥwt-ḥr “Becoming Hathor,” i҆nk ḥwt-ḥr “I am Hathor.” The deceased, or a living person if the spells were used in this life, could thus assume the identity or take the role of a being that possesses or is associated with properties or characteristics that were desirable to and sought after by the deceased. Accordingly, identification e.g. as a scribe of a god gave access to that god’s cult, and a bird provided the ability to fly. However, the group of spells studied here carries rubrics such as ḫprw m ṯꜣw (CT 223, 288, 988). Wind or breath are both connected to Shu, and the spell contains historiolae related to him, but the rubric does not say “Becoming Shu,” and there is no identification with the god in the spell, nor is there an identification with wind. The spells of this group vary from other transformation spells in that they do not identify the deceased with a being that is associated with e.g. some desirable property. Rather, they assign properties to the deceased “directly” and without intermediaries. The study will demonstrate that even where there is no being in the rubric to “become” or identify with the underlying intent is the same, but the process varies. These spells can also aid us in understanding transformation spells in general by focusing on what the rubrics truly represent.