The Ancient Egyptian Origin of a Transcultural Trope, across Classical, Islamic, and Jewish Traditions: The First Attestation of the Crocodile Bird in Egyptian, or Why Herodotus Is Not a Liar (with the First Edition of P. Vienna D 6104)

The article studies the trope of the crocodile bird in its evolution from antiquity to the present day. The story tells of the mutualistic behaviour between the Nile crocodile and an Egyptian bird, typically known as the trochilus . The trope has a complex history: primarily known from classical wri...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Prada, Luigi (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Interlibrary Loan:Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany)
Published: 2023
In: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
Year: 2023, Volume: 150, Issue: 1, Pages: 101-129
Further subjects:B Hebrew literature
B crocodile
B Tradition
B reception of
B Egypt
B textual culture
B Papyrus
B demotic studies
B awareness of
B Visual Culture
B Herodotus
B bird
B Classical literature
B Arabic Literature
Online Access: Presumably Free Access
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Summary:The article studies the trope of the crocodile bird in its evolution from antiquity to the present day. The story tells of the mutualistic behaviour between the Nile crocodile and an Egyptian bird, typically known as the trochilus . The trope has a complex history: primarily known from classical writers, it spread in fact to Jewish and Islamic traditions, too. The story is universally thought to be an invention of Herodotus. But a demotic papyrus, here published for the first time, proves that the trope of the crocodile bird has its true origin in ancient Egyptian culture.
ISSN:2196-713X
Contains:Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/zaes-2021-0024