Dedi
Encyclopedia
Dedi is the name of a fictitious
ancient Egypt
ian magician appearing in the fourth chapter of a story told in the legendary Westcar Papyrus
. He is said to have worked wonders
during the reign of king (pharaoh
) Khufu
(4th Dynasty
).
evidence that he existed. Nevertheless he is object of great interest for historian
s and Egyptologists, since his magic tricks are connected to later cultural
perceptions of the personality of king Khufu. Dedi is described as a commoner
of extraordinary age, endowed with magical powers and talented in making prophecies
.
brings up the story of Dedi. He stands before his father, king Khufu, and says: “There is only speaking of miracles which happened a long time ago, something known by past generations only. Truth and falsehood cannot be distinguished here. But there is someone under thy majesty´s own lifetime who is not known, someone who is able to make a ignoramus become wise.” Khufu asks: “What's the meaning of this, Djedefhor, my son?” Djedefhor answers: “There's a commoner named Dedi, living in Djed-Sneferu. He's a simple citizen, but 110 years old, eats 500 loaves of bread, a shoulder of beef
and drinks 100 jars of beer
every day. He is capable of resurrecting decapitated
beings. He is also said to be able to make wild lion
s so obedient that the animal would follow him with a cord dragging on the ground. Furthermore, this Dedi has knowledge of the number of Iput in the wenet-sanctuary
of Thoth
.” The pharaoh spent a good deal of time to seek for these chambers, for he planned to build something similar to his horizon. And Khufu orders: “You thyself, Djedefhor, my son, may bring him to me!”
And so Djedefhor arranges his journey during the first month of the schemu-season and travels to Djed-Sneferu. He finds Dedi and invites the old man to the king's palace with the words: “Your condition is equal to someone who lives from aging and to someone who sleeps until dawn, free of illness and wheezing. For ‘aging’ is the time of dying, the time of the preparing the burial and the time of being buried. This is the questioning about the condition of a noble man. I have come to summon you in order of my father, justified, that you may eat from the delicacies my father gives, the food of his followers. And then he may guide you to the ancestors which are in the necropolis now.” Dedi replies: “Welcome, welcome, Djedefhor, son of the king, beloved of his father! May you be praised by your father, Khufu the justified. May he let your place be at the front of all time-honored ones. May thine Ka successfully champion all things against any enemy. May thine Ba know the ways that lead to the gateway of the mummified deceased.” Djedefhor brings Dedi to the harbor and makes a boat prepared for traveling. The old man promises to follow Djedefhor, on the condition that he may bring his books and scholars with him. Djedefhor accepts, and both men travel to Khufu's royal palace.
Djedefhor enters the palace and goes immediately to his father, king Khufu. The prince says: “May thy majesty live, be blessed and being prosperous! I have brought Dedi to you!” Khufu replies: “Go and bring him to me!” Then Khufu takes place in the royal audience-hall. The Pharaoh receives Dedi with the words: “What is it, Dedi, this denying to have seen you ever before?” Dedi answers: “Oh sovereign, my lord! Only the one who is summoned is one who will come. I was summoned, and now see, oh sovereign, my lord, I have come.” The pharaoh continues: “Is it true, this talk-about that you could mend a severed head?” Dedi says: “Yes, oh sovereign, my lord. May you live, be blessed and prosperous. I know how to do that.” Khufu replies: “May a prisoner, who is jailed, be brought to me, so that his execution may be enforced.”. Dedi refuses with the words: “Not to make a human suffer, oh sovereign, my lord! May you live, be blessed and prosperous. You see, it was never allowed to do something like that on the noble flock.” Dedi chooses three animals instead - first a goose
. He decapitates the goose and places her head at the eastern side of the audience hall, the body at the western side. Then Dedi utters a secret spell and the head of the goose stands up, starting to waddle. Then the body of the goose stands up and waddles, too. Both body-parts move into equal directions, then melt together. The resurrected goose now leaves the hall cackling. The same performance is done with a undefined water bird and a bull
. Both animals are brought successfully back to life, too. Now the king says: “It is said that you know the number of Iput inside the wenet-sanctuary of Thoth. Now?” Dedi replies: “May you be praised, oh sovereign, my lord! I don't know their number. But I know where they can be found.” Khufu asks: “Where is it?” Dedi answers: “There is a box of scrolls, made of flint
, which is stored in a room called ‘archive’ at Heliopolis
.” The king orders: “Take that box!” Dedi replies: “May your highness be prosperous and blessed, I'm not the one who can bring it to you.” Khufu asks: “Who may be the one who could bring it to me?” Dedi answers: “The eldest of the three children in the womb of Rededjet
, he will bring it to you.” The king says: “I really wish all these things you say. Who is it, this Rededjet?” Dedi replies: “It's the wife of a wab-priest of the god Ra
, lord of Sachebu. The god has adumbrated, that the eldest of the three shall worship as a high priest of Heliopolis over the whole realm.” The king's mood becomes grim after this. Dedi asks: “What is that heart of thine, oh sovereign, my lord, becoming so sad! Is it because of the children I have adumbrated? First your son, then his son and then one of them.” Khufu replies: “When will this Rededjet give birth?” Dedi says: “It will happen during the first month of the peret-season, on the fifteenth day.″ Khufu becomes indignant: “But it's when the canal-of-two-Mugilidae is cut off!? I would even work with my very own hands to enter them! And then I will visit that temple of Ra, lord of Sachebu.” And Dedi says: “Then I will make the waters at the fordable spots of the canal-of-two-Mugilidae become four cubits in height for you.” Khufu stands up and orders: “Have Dedi assigned to a place within the palace of my son Djedefhor where he shall live from now on. His daily gainings be 1000 loaves of bread, 100 jars of beer, one neat and 100 bundles of field garlic
.” And all things are done as ordered.
and Kurt Heinrich Sethe
once thought the tales of Westcar Papyrus were mere folklore
. Magical tricks that show animals being decapitated and their heads being replaced were performed as recently as a few decades ago, though today they are rarely shown because of aesthetical and ethical misgivings.
Modern Egyptologists like Verena Lepper and Miriam Lichtheim
deny this view and they argue that Sethe and Erman may have just failed to see the profundity of such novels. They point to multiple similar but somewhat later ancient Egyptian writings in which magicians perform very similar magic tricks and make prophecies to a king. According to Lepper and Lichtheim, their stories are obviously inspired by the tale of Dedi. Descriptive examples are the papyri pAthen and The prophecy of Neferti. These novel
s show how popular the theme of prophesying already was during the Old Kingdom - just like in the story of the Westcar Papyrus. And they both talk about subalterns with magical powers similar to those of Dedi's. The Papyrus pBerlin 3023 contains the novel The Eloquent Peasant, in which the following phrase
appears: “See, these are artists who create the existing anew, who even replace a severed head”, which can be interpreted as an allusion to the Westcar Papyrus. pBerlin 3023 contains another reference which strengthens the idea that many ancient Egyptian novels were influenced by Westcar Papyrus: column 232 contains the phrase sleeping until dawn, which appears nearly word-by-word in the Westcar Papyrus. Since pAthen, pBerlin 3023 and The prophecy of Neferti show the same manner of speaking and equal picking up quaint phrases, Lepper and Lichtheim hold that Dedi (and the other wise men from same papyrus) must have been known to Egyptian authors for a long time.
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
ian magician appearing in the fourth chapter of a story told in the legendary Westcar Papyrus
Westcar Papyrus
The Westcar Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian text containing five stories about miracles performed by priests and magicians. Each of these tales are being told at the royal court of the King Cheops by his sons...
. He is said to have worked wonders
Miracle
A miracle often denotes an event attributed to divine intervention. Alternatively, it may be an event attributed to a miracle worker, saint, or religious leader. A miracle is sometimes thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature. Others suggest that a god may work with the laws...
during the reign of king (pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
) Khufu
Khufu
Khufu , also known as Cheops or, in Manetho, Suphis , was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom. He reigned from around 2589 to 2566 BC. Khufu was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty. He is generally accepted as being the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of...
(4th Dynasty
Fourth dynasty of Egypt
The fourth dynasty of ancient Egypt is characterized as a "golden age" of the Old Kingdom. Dynasty IV lasted from ca. 2613 to 2494 BC...
).
Literary person
Dedi appears only in the fourth story of the Westcar Papyrus - there is no archeological or historicalHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
evidence that he existed. Nevertheless he is object of great interest for historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
s and Egyptologists, since his magic tricks are connected to later cultural
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
perceptions of the personality of king Khufu. Dedi is described as a commoner
Commoner
In British law, a commoner is someone who is neither the Sovereign nor a peer. Therefore, any member of the Royal Family who is not a peer, such as Prince Harry of Wales or Anne, Princess Royal, is a commoner, as is any member of a peer's family, including someone who holds only a courtesy title,...
of extraordinary age, endowed with magical powers and talented in making prophecies
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
.
The wonder of Dedi
According to the Westcar Papyrus, prince DjedefhorDjedefhor
Djedefhor or Hordjedef was an ancient Egyptian prince of the 4th dynasty. His name means "Enduring Like Horus".-Biography:Djedefhor was a son of Pharaoh Khufu and half-brother of pharaohs Djedefre and Khafre...
brings up the story of Dedi. He stands before his father, king Khufu, and says: “There is only speaking of miracles which happened a long time ago, something known by past generations only. Truth and falsehood cannot be distinguished here. But there is someone under thy majesty´s own lifetime who is not known, someone who is able to make a ignoramus become wise.” Khufu asks: “What's the meaning of this, Djedefhor, my son?” Djedefhor answers: “There's a commoner named Dedi, living in Djed-Sneferu. He's a simple citizen, but 110 years old, eats 500 loaves of bread, a shoulder of beef
Beef
Beef is the culinary name for meat from bovines, especially domestic cattle. Beef can be harvested from cows, bulls, heifers or steers. It is one of the principal meats used in the cuisine of the Middle East , Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Europe and the United States, and is also important in...
and drinks 100 jars of beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
every day. He is capable of resurrecting decapitated
Decapitation
Decapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
beings. He is also said to be able to make wild lion
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
s so obedient that the animal would follow him with a cord dragging on the ground. Furthermore, this Dedi has knowledge of the number of Iput in the wenet-sanctuary
Sanctuary
A sanctuary is any place of safety. They may be categorized into human and non-human .- Religious sanctuary :A religious sanctuary can be a sacred place , or a consecrated area of a church or temple around its tabernacle or altar.- Sanctuary as a sacred place :#Sanctuary as a sacred place:#:In...
of Thoth
Thoth
Thoth was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat...
.” The pharaoh spent a good deal of time to seek for these chambers, for he planned to build something similar to his horizon. And Khufu orders: “You thyself, Djedefhor, my son, may bring him to me!”
And so Djedefhor arranges his journey during the first month of the schemu-season and travels to Djed-Sneferu. He finds Dedi and invites the old man to the king's palace with the words: “Your condition is equal to someone who lives from aging and to someone who sleeps until dawn, free of illness and wheezing. For ‘aging’ is the time of dying, the time of the preparing the burial and the time of being buried. This is the questioning about the condition of a noble man. I have come to summon you in order of my father, justified, that you may eat from the delicacies my father gives, the food of his followers. And then he may guide you to the ancestors which are in the necropolis now.” Dedi replies: “Welcome, welcome, Djedefhor, son of the king, beloved of his father! May you be praised by your father, Khufu the justified. May he let your place be at the front of all time-honored ones. May thine Ka successfully champion all things against any enemy. May thine Ba know the ways that lead to the gateway of the mummified deceased.” Djedefhor brings Dedi to the harbor and makes a boat prepared for traveling. The old man promises to follow Djedefhor, on the condition that he may bring his books and scholars with him. Djedefhor accepts, and both men travel to Khufu's royal palace.
Djedefhor enters the palace and goes immediately to his father, king Khufu. The prince says: “May thy majesty live, be blessed and being prosperous! I have brought Dedi to you!” Khufu replies: “Go and bring him to me!” Then Khufu takes place in the royal audience-hall. The Pharaoh receives Dedi with the words: “What is it, Dedi, this denying to have seen you ever before?” Dedi answers: “Oh sovereign, my lord! Only the one who is summoned is one who will come. I was summoned, and now see, oh sovereign, my lord, I have come.” The pharaoh continues: “Is it true, this talk-about that you could mend a severed head?” Dedi says: “Yes, oh sovereign, my lord. May you live, be blessed and prosperous. I know how to do that.” Khufu replies: “May a prisoner, who is jailed, be brought to me, so that his execution may be enforced.”. Dedi refuses with the words: “Not to make a human suffer, oh sovereign, my lord! May you live, be blessed and prosperous. You see, it was never allowed to do something like that on the noble flock.” Dedi chooses three animals instead - first a goose
Goose
The word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
. He decapitates the goose and places her head at the eastern side of the audience hall, the body at the western side. Then Dedi utters a secret spell and the head of the goose stands up, starting to waddle. Then the body of the goose stands up and waddles, too. Both body-parts move into equal directions, then melt together. The resurrected goose now leaves the hall cackling. The same performance is done with a undefined water bird and a bull
Bull
Bull usually refers to an uncastrated adult male bovine.Bull may also refer to:-Entertainment:* Bull , an original show on the TNT Network* "Bull" , an episode of television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation...
. Both animals are brought successfully back to life, too. Now the king says: “It is said that you know the number of Iput inside the wenet-sanctuary of Thoth. Now?” Dedi replies: “May you be praised, oh sovereign, my lord! I don't know their number. But I know where they can be found.” Khufu asks: “Where is it?” Dedi answers: “There is a box of scrolls, made of flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
, which is stored in a room called ‘archive’ at Heliopolis
Heliopolis (ancient)
Heliopolis was one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt, the capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian nome that was located five miles east of the Nile to the north of the apex of the Nile Delta...
.” The king orders: “Take that box!” Dedi replies: “May your highness be prosperous and blessed, I'm not the one who can bring it to you.” Khufu asks: “Who may be the one who could bring it to me?” Dedi answers: “The eldest of the three children in the womb of Rededjet
Rededjet
Rededjet is the name of a fictitious ancient Egyptian female hero appearing in the fifth chapter of a story told in the legendary Westcar Papyrus. She is said to have fulfilled a prophecy by giving birth to three future kings during the reign of king Khufu , who received the prophecy from a...
, he will bring it to you.” The king says: “I really wish all these things you say. Who is it, this Rededjet?” Dedi replies: “It's the wife of a wab-priest of the god Ra
Ra
Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...
, lord of Sachebu. The god has adumbrated, that the eldest of the three shall worship as a high priest of Heliopolis over the whole realm.” The king's mood becomes grim after this. Dedi asks: “What is that heart of thine, oh sovereign, my lord, becoming so sad! Is it because of the children I have adumbrated? First your son, then his son and then one of them.” Khufu replies: “When will this Rededjet give birth?” Dedi says: “It will happen during the first month of the peret-season, on the fifteenth day.″ Khufu becomes indignant: “But it's when the canal-of-two-Mugilidae is cut off!? I would even work with my very own hands to enter them! And then I will visit that temple of Ra, lord of Sachebu.” And Dedi says: “Then I will make the waters at the fordable spots of the canal-of-two-Mugilidae become four cubits in height for you.” Khufu stands up and orders: “Have Dedi assigned to a place within the palace of my son Djedefhor where he shall live from now on. His daily gainings be 1000 loaves of bread, 100 jars of beer, one neat and 100 bundles of field garlic
Field garlic
Field garlic is a bulbous perennial that grows wild in dry places in northern Europe, reaching 80cm in height. It reproduces by seed, bulbs and by the production of small bulblets in the flower head . Unlike A. vineale however, it is very rare with Field garlic to find flower-heads containing...
.” And all things are done as ordered.
Modern analysis
Historians and Egyptologists such as Adolf ErmanAdolf Erman
Johann Peter Adolf Erman was a renowned Egyptologist and lexicographer.-Life:Born in Berlin, he was the son of Georg Adolf Erman and grandson of Paul Erman....
and Kurt Heinrich Sethe
Kurt Heinrich Sethe
Kurt Heinrich Sethe was a noted German Egyptologist and philologist from Berlin. He was a student of Adolf Erman...
once thought the tales of Westcar Papyrus were mere folklore
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
. Magical tricks that show animals being decapitated and their heads being replaced were performed as recently as a few decades ago, though today they are rarely shown because of aesthetical and ethical misgivings.
Modern Egyptologists like Verena Lepper and Miriam Lichtheim
Miriam Lichtheim
Miriam Lichtheim was a translator of ancient Egyptian texts whose translations are still widely used.-Biography:In the 1930s she studied under Hans Jakob Polotsky at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem...
deny this view and they argue that Sethe and Erman may have just failed to see the profundity of such novels. They point to multiple similar but somewhat later ancient Egyptian writings in which magicians perform very similar magic tricks and make prophecies to a king. According to Lepper and Lichtheim, their stories are obviously inspired by the tale of Dedi. Descriptive examples are the papyri pAthen and The prophecy of Neferti. These novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s show how popular the theme of prophesying already was during the Old Kingdom - just like in the story of the Westcar Papyrus. And they both talk about subalterns with magical powers similar to those of Dedi's. The Papyrus pBerlin 3023 contains the novel The Eloquent Peasant, in which the following phrase
Phrase
In everyday speech, a phrase may refer to any group of words. In linguistics, a phrase is a group of words which form a constituent and so function as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence. A phrase is lower on the grammatical hierarchy than a clause....
appears: “See, these are artists who create the existing anew, who even replace a severed head”, which can be interpreted as an allusion to the Westcar Papyrus. pBerlin 3023 contains another reference which strengthens the idea that many ancient Egyptian novels were influenced by Westcar Papyrus: column 232 contains the phrase sleeping until dawn, which appears nearly word-by-word in the Westcar Papyrus. Since pAthen, pBerlin 3023 and The prophecy of Neferti show the same manner of speaking and equal picking up quaint phrases, Lepper and Lichtheim hold that Dedi (and the other wise men from same papyrus) must have been known to Egyptian authors for a long time.