Comments on: Head North, or rather ḫd North

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:28:44 +0000

Very good points Aayko- it’s a very Western concept to think of north as the top and south as the bottom. Of course the directional flow of the Nile is also why the higher ground in the south is known as Upper Egypt and the lower area where the river flows into the sea is known as Lower Egypt. Thanks for your comments!

By: Aayko

Aayko — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:03:56 +0000

Very nice observation about the determinatives!

Perhaps it is nice to add that, as complement to the
orientation upstream and downstream mentioned above,
the Egyptians saw the source of the Nile as the orientation
point (so not the north as we do). Hence East,
iAbty, literally means “left side”, and West,
imnty, literally means “right side”. Just picture a
man standing with his face to the south, and you will get
the picture. In line with this, the south part of the country
was seen as the ‘beginning’ of the country, as is reflected
in terms like tp-rsi (cp. tp = “at the head
of”) and xnty (cp. xnt= “what is in front”)
for the South.

By: Pier

Pier — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:42:45 +0000

Beautifully logical?

Of course: Egypt was (and is now) a rural country and in Italy we say “saggezza contadina” (rural wisdom), meaning of simple people but pagmatic.

Weren’t ancient Egyptian wise? Yes: I think, for example, to Ptahhotep.