Through the Eras

DanceA PRINCE SENDS THE KHENER TO AFUNERALINTRODUCTION: The cycle of stories that Egyptologists referto as the Pedubastis Stories contains a localprince’s response to the call for participants in a funeralfor a deceased king. This prince instructs hisson to send the khener of the town, the musiciansand dancers, to help with the funeral.My son, Pemu, go and see to … the troops ofthe eastern country, have them prepared with theirgirdles and myrrh, with the temple officials, mastersof ceremony and dancers, who frequent the embalmingrooms. Let them sail by boat to Per Osiris,let them convey the deceased body of Osiris, theKing Jenharrou to the anointing room, have him embalmedand buried and arrange a beautiful, grandfuneral for him such as is being prepared for Hapiand Merwer, the king of the gods.SOURCE: Irena Lexová, Ancient Egyptian Dances (Mineola,N.Y.: Dover Publications, 2000): 67–68.STORY OF A KHENERINTRODUCTION: The majority of music and dance bureaus,known as “kheners,” were attached to temples,tombs, towns, or the homes of wealthyindividuals. The Papyrus Westcar contains a story inwhich a group of goddesses—Isis, Nephthys,Meskhenet, and Heket—and the god Khnum disguisedthemselves as a traveling khener and actedas midwives and servant to the birth of triplets whowould later become kings. The fact that deities sawnothing shameful in disguising themselves asdancers suggests that dancers in ancient Egypt enjoyedhigh status.On one of those days Ruddedet felt the pangsand her labor was difficult. Then said the majesty ofRe, lord of Sakhbu, to Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet,Heket, and Khnum: “Please go, deliver Ruddedet ofthe three children who are in her womb, who willassume this beneficent office in this whole land.They will build your temples. They will supply youraltars. They will furnish your libations. They will makeyour offerings abundant!”These gods set out, having changed their appearanceto dancing girls [i.e., a khener], withKhnum as their porter. When they reached thehouse of Rawoser, they found him standing with hisloincloth upside down. They held out to him theirnecklaces and sistra [ceremonial rattles]. He said tothem: “My ladies, look, it is the woman who is inpain; her labor is difficult.” They said; “Let us seeher. We understand childbirth.” He said to them:“Come in!” They went in to Ruddedet. They lockedthe room behind themselves and her.SOURCE: “The Birth of the Royal Children,” in The Oldand Middle Kingdoms. Vol. 1 of Ancient Egyptian Literature.Trans. Miriam Lichtheim (Berkeley and Los Angeles:University of California Press, 1973): 220.DANCING DWARFS. Egyptian artists often representeda dwarf dancing alongside the female troupe ofdancers in funerals and in cult scenes in temples. TheEgyptians distinguished among different physiologicalconditions that led to dwarfism. These conditions includeachondroplasia, a pathological condition, and pygmies,who exhibit a natural adaptation to theirenvironment. Egyptians had different words to distinguishbetween different kinds of dwarfs. Yet, both kindsof dwarfs became associated with the sun god, Re, andwith the god Bes, associated with music and childbirth.Thus dwarfs were important in dance.PYGMIES. Traders brought an African pygmy todance in Egypt in the reign of Djedkare Isesy(2415–2371 B.C.E.). Pygmies were apparently highlyprized dancers in the royal courts, as evidenced by an inscriptioncarved on the tomb of the nobleman Harkhufnear Aswan, who had delivered a pygmy to King Pepi II(2288–2194 B.C.E.). The carving is a royal decree expressingboth gratitude and excitement that Harkhuf haddelivered a dancing pygmy who could perform the“dances of the god.” The inscription described thepygmy’s origin as the “Land of the Horizon-Dwellers,”suggesting that he had come from the farthest reaches ofthe earth. The god whose dance the pygmy could performwas probably the sun god, Re. The Pyramid Texts,carved in the pyramid of King Pepi I (2338–2298 B.C.E.)mentions these divine dances where the king himself imitateda pygmy for the benefit of the god.DWARFS IN THE HEBY-DANCE. Two dwarfs wholived in widely separated periods danced the heby-dance.Khnumhotep, who lived in the Sixth Dynasty (2350–2170 B.C.E.), and Pawenhatef, who lived in the ThirtiethDynasty (381–343 B.C.E.), are both spoken of inArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 71