The Story of Petese Son of Petetum: And Seventy Other Good and Bad Stories (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications)

A complete edition of the three known versions of the ancient Egyptian narrative The Story of Petese Son of Petetum and Seventy other Good and Bad Stories, copied from the 4th cent. B.C. through the 2nd century A.D. The narrative, written in demotic, employs the literary device of a main story containing a series of brief stories presented to a specific character. In the main story, a prophet commits an act of blasphemy and is punished by the gods. Through magical means, the prophet learns from Osiris that he has only 40 days more to live. On the fifth day, the prophet creates a number of magical beings which he sends out to find 35 'good' and 35 'bad' stories, one pair of stories for each remaining day of his life.