stp-sA means palace, but with house det., which is here lacking. So
it is likely (see Faulkner) that stp-sA means "protect, do escort duty".
wA.t can be figuratively "way, side". So "making the royal way" -
in combination with the above: announcing the king entering, cf.
'make way for the Lord!' (Or seeing the many possibilities of
iri perhaps "perform/attend/conduct the royal way" which could
be some vague general assisting/supporting duties when the court
is in session??)
aHa.w means likely "stations, positions, attendances, services" (with
the striding man instead of the legs in Faulkner)? Which makes
the title even more vague as the previous one if it means "performing
services". If it means "appoint positions" he would have real
power, but I guess this is unlikely? With all the above, it seems
more he was a ceremonial busybody: overseer of whether everyone
was there and at he right spot when the court was in session,
announcing the entry of the king, and taking care nobody came
too close to the throne.
Andre Renouf, 24/3/98; Re: AEL Weni L7/8 - questions]
I performed my duties in such a manner as to win His Majesty's
approbation
Sni.ti ix.t m ipA.t-n.i-sw.t ir Hm.t-n.i-sw.t wr.t-Ht.s m s-StA
When proceedings were instituted in the royal harem, in secret
against the Great Royal Wife Iametes .....
The implication is that there was some sort of harem conspiracy
and that a charge was brought against the senior queen.
[Aayko Eyma, 9/4/98; AEL AW: AEL Weni L10 - ?]
Lichtheim has in line with Don: "When there was a secret charge in the royal harem against Queen
Weret-yamtes, his majesty made me..." so pulling the wr.t with the name, not the title. And transcribing the sekhem part
differently, of course.
Gardiner gives he whole phrase in line with Andre: "when there was litigation in private in the king's harem against
the Queen, His Majesty caused me..." so no name there.
[Ed. note: there was a lot of discussion over the phrase Hm.t-n.i-sw.t wr.t-Ht.s, focussing on the name of the queen and the identity of the hieroglyph
transcribed as Ht.s, iAm.t=s (M1), or sxm.t=s (S42) by various authors. The typeset hieroglyphic copy by Kurt
Sethe gives it as sxm. The hand copy of the stone by Patrizia Piacentini shows that
this sign is poorly preserved and it could be any of the above.
Geoff's comments below indicate that while the sign itself is
very likely to be Ht.s,the exact meaning may not be so critical (see below).]
[G.Graham, 10/4/98; Re: AEL AW: AEL Weni L10 - ?]
In Egyptian various objects' names come from some verb with a feminine
ending added to it. Am "grip" > Ams "grip-it" meaning "scepter" mkj "protect" > mks "protect-it" meaning "protective case for a deed to property"
Similarly there are various scepters and objects ending in s. Most people read this queens name as wr.t-Hts "great of her Hetes scepter" or wr.t-jAm.t=s "Great of her Yamtes scepter". It is also thought that this might
just be a title and that the actual name of the queen may have
been expurgated because of her crimes.
I have worked from a photograph of the original stone. The sign
is like the lotus-bud scepter of a queen. This is probably to
be read as Hts actually. I would call her wr.t-Hts "Werethetes"
Therefore, or if this is only a title, then she is "one great
of her lotus-bud-scepter".
[Rymaszewska Grazyna]
rDi Hm=f hAi=i ir sDm wa.ki
His majesty caused that I went down to overhear (the queen ?)
only myself,
[MDS, comments]
rDi, (3rd weak vb.): indicative sDm=f, and OE past tense form. Replaced in ME by the sDm.n=f.
Nominal subject (Hm=f)
hAi, (3rd weak verb): Prospective verb form used as object of initial
verb.
ir sDm, preposition + infinitive, 'in order to listen'.
wa.ki, stative construction, 'alone'.
"His majesty caused me to go down, alone, to hear (the case)."
ni zp pAw mrw.t.w(=i) sDm s-StA n.i ipA.t-n.i-sw.t Dr bAH
[S.Rosmorduc, 15/4/98; AEL Weni L11/12]
... with the warden of Nekhen,
while my charge was that of overseer of the palace's personnel.
The idea is that he got important missions while holding a relatively
low title.
[MDS, 1/6/98; AEL Weni L12]
ni zp pAw mrw.t.w(=i) sDm s-StA n.i ipA.t-n.i-sw.t Dr bAH
The tense is relative past since the negative construction is
of the form n sDm=f (Gunn's Rule).This sentence is verbal, pAw being the conjugated verb form. I take the subject as mrw.t.w(=i), "my equal/one like me". "Never (ni zp) before (Dr bAH, lit. 'since the beginning') did one like me hear the secrets of the royal harim."
ni zp ('never, at no time')
pAw (verb: "to have done in the past"). Used often as an auxilliarly
verb before the infinitive (see Hoch, section 172)
sDm (verb: 'to hear'. In this case, the infinitive)
wpi.w-ir rDi.t wi Hm=f [13] sDm(=i) n iqr(=i) Hr ib n.i Hm=f
ir sr=f nb ir saH=f nb ir bAk=f nb
xsf.n Hm=f ix.t n.i aAm.w Hr.i.w-Sa
[MDS, 1/6/98; AEL Weni L12]
"... but his majesty caused me to listen."
rDi.t looks like the infinitive, but it would be odd to have an infinitive
with both subject and object, particularly with the object being
a dependent pronoun. Is this really the infinitive??
Is sDm a prospective verb form (sDm.w=f)? It seems odd to me that both verbs refer to speaker via pronouns.
"... because I was more excellent in the heart of his majesty than
any of his officials, more than any of his dignitaries, more than
any of his servants."
"His majesty made an army of many tens of thousands,
from all of Upper Egypt, south to Yebu, north to Medenit,
from Lower Egypt, to "Two-sides-of-the-House" (the Delta)"
[MDS, 7/6/98; Re: AEL Weni L14-L16]
The meaning is plain, regardless of what school of grammar you
follow. A verbal sentence, past tense. Weni is narrating a story
(of his life).
a) The initial verb form [iri.n]is bare, and appears to be the simple sDm.n=f. It could be a 'second tense' form: this never shows gemination
in the sDm.n=f and begins sentences without particles. In the latter case it
would give emphasis to an adverbial comment (the where, how, why,
when of the situation), but I can't see anything adverbial (eg.
beginnng with a preposition), so I will stick with the sDm.n=f.
b) Subject is nominal (Hm=f), 'his majesty'
c) Predicate is verbal: "made (/marshalled, prepared) and army of ... etc"
from the Wawat-Nubians, from the Kaau-Nubians,from Tjemeh-land.
His majesty sent me at the head of this army
[MDS, 7/6/98; Re: AEL Weni L14-L16]
hAb wi Hm=f Xr.i-HAt mSa pn
The verb form I take as the indicative sDm=f, a commonly used past tense form in old egyptian. Loprieno states
that the sDm.n=f is a present perfect form (or originally with that connotation),
and the indicative sDm=f as a real preterite.
a) Subject is nominal (Hm=f), 'his majesty'
b) Direct object is pronominal (wi), 'me'.
c) Verbal predicate ("sent me at the head of this army"), which includes a prepositional phrase (prep. + noun phrase)
acting as an adverbial modifier.
Can anyone comment on the alternation between sDm.n=f and indicative sDm=f ???
[Don Feruggia, 9/6/98; Re: AEL Weni L14-L16] [responding to the
final question by MDS]
The sDm.n-f form in this passage doesn't start an independent utterance: it
is merely heaped on the one before it (and to try to analyze the
exact relationship between the two is more of a psychological
than a literary endeavor). sDm.n-f is often used in this way: it was apparently not a very emphatic
form, good for continuing a thought (maybe it's even a weakened
form of sDm.in-f? just a thought). Loprieno notes this use of sDm.n-f on page 187: "This pattern is common in past contexts, where
the bare sDm.n-f sets forth the rhythm of narration."
The phrases following this, listing the locations that sent troops,
bring the utterance to a logical dead-end so a new utterance is
started with the indicative sDm-f (hAb wi Hm-f Xr.i-HAt mSa pn). Note that the army (mSa pn) has to be explicitly mentioned to pick up the thread of the
narrative, which had been lost.
New utterances in Weni are often started with the indicative sDm-f, the stative, or a topicalized subject. These must have been
somewhat emphatic forms in speech.