Can a god give birth? msj in the Religious Hymns of the Egyptian New Kingdom (c. 1539-1077 BC): readdressing the so-called “androgyny” of the Creator deity
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2177-4218.v11i1p61-103Keywords:
Religious Hymns, New Kingdom, Creator deity, Androgyny, MsjAbstract
The Egyptian creator deity, mainly male, has been understood as an
androgynous entity due, among other factors, to his performance of msjactions,
usually associated to the female scope. The present paper deals with
the different attestations of msj in the religious hymns of the New Kingdom
(c. 1539-1077 BC). It is structured into two main axis: on the one hand, it will
be noted that msj does not always refer to a biological/reproductive act; on the other hand, it will be argued that the Demiurge’s (pro)creative ability does not necessarily place him into the non-binary gender spectrum. Particular attention will be paid to the classifiers’ distribution in the different writings of the word but also to their respective phraseological contexts in selected sources from this corpus. The key goal is to achieve a more nuanced understanding of this term and, consequently, ponder on the pertinence of the label “androgynous” in reference to the creator deity as a whole.
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