ИСТИНА

One of the major Egyptian hieroglyphic sources dating to the start of the Macedonian time in Egypt (specifically, probably, to the time of Alexander) is the autobiographical inscription of the priest and dignitary from Herakleopolis Sematawitefnakhte (the so-called Stela of Naples; Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale Inv. 1035). This person was a contemporary probably of the last Egyptian king Nectanebo II (359-343 B.C.), of the Second Persian Domination in Egypt (343-332 B.C.) and of the early Macedonian time (it is impossible to define exactly how much of it Sematawitefnakhte saw, though he certainly lived under the Argeadai, quite reluctant to accept them as legitimate Pharaohs). The evidence of the Stela to be discussed in the present communication applies to the time of the Second Persian Domination and reads as follows (lines 8-9): “You (the Herakleopolitan god Kherishef) distinguished me before multitude, as you gave (lit. ‘made’) your back towards Egypt; you placed the love of me in the heart of the Ruler of Asia (the Persian Great King), [and] his friend prayed for me god. He made to me the rank of the Overseer of the wab-priests of Sokhmet instead (lit. ‘on the place’) of the brother of my mother Overseer of the wab-priests of Sokhmet of the South and the North [of Egypt] Nakhtkheneb. You protected me in the battle of khau-nebu (the Greeks and Macedonians) after you repulsed Asia; they killed multitude near me, [while] no arm raised against me (lit. ‘an arm did not raise against me’)”. The passage quoted does not specify that the developments it describes took place outside Egypt; but this is perfectly clear from the subsequent story about the return of Sematawitefnakhte to Egypt through “foreign lands” and by the sea (“the Great Greenery”); hence his words about being in favour of the Great King and his courtiers are to be understood as the evidence of his stay at the actual Persian court, in Iran. As the Egyptian priests of Sokhmet, the goddess of the pernicious force of epidemic diseases, were according to their qualification physicians (Fr. von Känel 1984, 239), it was certainly their skill that defined the prominent position of Sematawitefnakhte, as a superior of their corporation, at the Persian court (Burkard, SAK 21, 1994, 39-40; incidentally, the description of his survival in “in the battle of khau-nebu” might allude to the Macedonian occupation of Persis in 330 B.C. which met resistance and was carried out with great cruelty). However, an intriguing detail is that the transfer of the authority from the uncle of Sematawitefnakhte to him took place during their stay abroad and according to the will of the Great King, as if this corporation, of which they were the heads, was together with them at Persia. It has once been suggested that the phrase of the text “…as you gave your back towards Egypt…” referring to the god Kherishef might allude to the abduction of cult objects from Egypt by the Persians after the invasion of Artaxerxes III in 343 B.C. (Clère, RdÉ 6, 1951, 152, n. 5; cf. Diod. XVI. 51.2). It seems that the situation of that time known from Classical sources, gives a wider context for interpreting this evidence: according to Suidas’ (s.v. ), a number of Egyptians was deported under Artaxerxes III. The appearance of the totality (or, to say the least, of a considerable portion) of the priests of Sokhmet in Iran can be plausibly explained by their deportation, which must have been somewhat similar in its aims to the abduction of cult objects: while the latter was aimed at depriving the oppressed country of the means of contact to its deities and, respectively, of their help, the former must have left Egypt without mediators able to mollify the goddess Sokhmet and the force of epidemics it personified (let alone, without the qualified medical care). At the same time the studied passage shows a rather unique case of the Egyptian religious corporation retaining its structure even when transplanted on the alien ground.