Intellectual Production by Egyptian Elites at Hibis Temple: From Menkheperre Thutmose to Darius
Abstract
This presentation will offer a few occurrences of the transmission of literary texts and motifs from the Achaemenid-period Temple of Amun at Hibis in the el-Kharga Oasis, identify their developments within the lengthy tradition of Egyptian literature, and situate their place within the broader structures and institutions of the Achaemenid Empire. The longue-durée durability of Ancient Egyptian literary traditions has often been commented upon in Egyptology, and the transmission of Egyptian literature, particularly of mortuary texts, is a well-known occurrence. Paratextual and textual transmission across space and time has been well-noted by Egyptological scholars. However, the manipulation of texts attests to the ability of Egyptian priests to reinvent these texts and create new meanings within new contexts. In particular, the presentation will outline the long-term trajectory of specific textual transmission and the literary interjection of Egyptian temple priests at the Temple of Amun at Hibis upon these texts, allowing themes and meaning to develop across space, time, and textual genres. This thematic movement will highlight the roles of Egyptian priests, the agents of intellectual production, as both carriers of regional knowledge and producers of imperial presence within their local spaces.
Citation
Chen, Hong Yu. "Intellectual Production by Egyptian Elites at Hibis Temple: From Menkheperre Thutmose to Darius," Achaemenid Workshop 3 (February 22, 2025).
About the Speaker
Hong Yu Chen
University of California, Los Angeles
Hong Yu Chen is a sixth-year PhD student in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA, specializing in Iranian Studies and Egyptology. Hong spent his early years in a village in Fujian Province in southern China before immigrating to the United States. He received his BA in History and Near Eastern Studies from The Johns Hopkins University in 2019 and his MA in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA in 2023. He specializes in the language, religion, and cultural developments of Egypt under Achaemenid imperial rule. He is a student of both Egyptian and Iranian languages, ranging from the Old Egyptian of the pyramids to the Avestan and Pahlavi of the Zoroastrian texts from the Middle Ages. Using these languages and a better understanding of both cultures' religions, he hopes to reconstruct a more nuanced and complex narrative of empire, religion, and cross-cultural communication in the first millennium BCE.