Through the Eras

MusicHARPIST SONGSINTRODUCTION: The earlier examples of the harpists’song stress the good to come in the afterlife. Thesetwo examples of harpists’ songs were carved in theMiddle Kingdom.Song of NeferhotepThis is the song:O Tomb, you were built for festivity,You were founded for happiness!The singer Neferhotep, born of Henu.Song of Tjeniaa for NebankhThe singer Tjeniaa says:How firm you are in your seat of eternity,Your monument of everlastingness!It is filled with offerings of food,It contains every good thing.Your ka is with you,It does not leave you,O Royal Seal-bearer, Great Steward, Nebankh!Yours is the sweet breath of the northwind!So says his singer who keeps his name alive,The honorable singer Tjeniaa, whom he loved,Who sings to his ka every day.SOURCE: “Song of Neferhotep” and “Song of Tjeniaa forNebankh,” in The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Vol. 1 ofAncient Egyptian Literature. Trans. Miriam Lichtheim(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,1973): 194.SYMBOLIC BLINDNESS. Because there is somedoubt about whether so-called blind solo harpists weretruly blind, L. Manniche has suggested that manyharpists were represented with symbolic blindness. Sheobserves that large numbers of musicians representedat the palace in Amarna were wearing blindfolds whenthey played. She describes this condition as temporarylack of sight. One of her strongest arguments concernsthe tomb of Raia, a musician who lived in the RamessidePeriod. When represented in his tomb playing theharp for the god, Raia’s visible eye was depicted as onlya slit. In his other representations, his eye appears tobe normal. Perhaps, Manniche argues, his blindnesswas symbolic, only present when he sat playing for thegod.Blind harpist, detail of relief. Nineteenth Dynasty, New Kingdom.© ERICH LESSING/ART RESOURCE, NY.DOUBTS AND PUZZLES. The tomb of Raia representsa puzzle about the harpist’s blindness. Theharpist is represented with a slit eye while he plays, buta normal eye in other parts of the tomb. If he was trulyblind in life, perhaps Raia’s representations with normaleyes represented a wish for total health in the nextworld. On the other hand, perhaps Raia was not blindat all nor even intended to be represented as blindwhile playing his harp before the god. Perhaps all ofthe so-called blind harpists are only closing their eyeswith emotion while they sing. A look at the so-calledblind harpist reveals both ancient Egyptian doubtsabout the next life and a puzzle about artistic representation.The songs the harpists sing both affirm thatthe next life is a happy one and offer doubts that thereis any other happiness but life on earth. The eyes ofthe harpist, represented in a variety of ways, eithershow the harpist as blind or as an emotion-filled singer,closing his eyes in the grip of his feelings while chantingfor the god.SOURCESMiriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: The Old andMiddle Kingdoms (Berkeley: University of CaliforniaPress, 1973).Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 177