sţi ddwn: The Scent as mark of Divinity and Otherness
The Egyptian interpretation of the world passes through a universe not only of knowledge and skills, but also of physical sensations. In this perspective, the empiric experience can be integrated into that cultural baggage that the Egyptian can reinterpret in different ways and contexts. Part of thi...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Morcelliana
[2018]
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| In: |
Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
Year: 2018, Volume: 84, Issue: 1, Pages: 119-130 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Egypt (Antiquity)
/ World
/ Perception
/ Sense of smell
/ Divinity
/ The Other
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| Further subjects: | B
Otherness
B incenso B odore B Incense B Exoticism B Cultural History B Foreign God B dio straniero B Dedwen B Other (Philosophy) B Egyptians B Scent B Alterità |
| Summary: | The Egyptian interpretation of the world passes through a universe not only of knowledge and skills, but also of physical sensations. In this perspective, the empiric experience can be integrated into that cultural baggage that the Egyptian can reinterpret in different ways and contexts. Part of this experiential database are: images, sounds, tastes and smells, the five senses being the main road to gather informations from the earthly world, but also from the divine. Scents and smells are one of the ways in which humans can feel the presence of the gods - together with particular sounds or colours and an increasing perception of fear or confusion - maybe also because they were especially sought after for their value and their exoticism, having origin in distant and legendary lands. A good example of this idea is provided by Ddwn, a god already mentioned in the Old Kingdom corpus of the Pyramid Texts as a Hwn SmAw di.f snTr; he is a good-looking youngster who provides the incense for the dead king and, therefore, is linked to the Lower Nubia and the southern-oriental desert, whence spices came from. Indeed, the search for exotic products and essences in distant and unknown lands was widespread in Egypt since the iv dynasty - and even more from the VI - and it was functional to the cultural construction of the external world and of the otherness. This otherness envelops the figure of Ddwn by means of the incense, foreign scent which comes to assume ritual connotations in a funerary context - as that of the Pyramid Text is - and symbolic meaning in association with the divine. (English) |
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| ISSN: | 2611-8742 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Studi e materiali di storia delle religioni
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