【简译】女神伊希斯的礼物：古埃及女性的地位

2022-08-19 09:29 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

A story on a papyrus dating from the 2nd century CE relates that the goddess Isis, bestowing gifts on humanity, gave as much power and honor to women as she did to men. This tale reflects the high-status women enjoyed in ancient Egypt.

人们在公元2世纪的一张纸莎草纸上发现了一个故事，这个故事讲述了女神伊希斯在向人类赠送礼物时，给予女性的权力和荣誉与男性一样多。这个故事反映了女性在古埃及享有很高的地位。

Although they never had the same rights as males, an Egyptian woman could own property in her own name and hold professions that gave her economic freedom from male relatives (women could practice medicine, handle money and make real estate transactions). A wife was entitled to one third of any property that she owned jointly with her husband and, on her death, could will her property to anyone she wished, male or female. Egyptian women were equal in the court system and could act as witnesses, plaintiffs or defendants (as we would understand those terms today). Women were accountable for crimes they committed and would have to stand trial the same as any man.

虽然她们从未拥有与男性相同的权利，但古埃及女性可以以自己的名义拥有财产，并从事一些职业，使其在经济上不受男性亲属的影响（妇女可以行医，处理金钱和进行房地产交易）。妻子有权获得她与丈夫共同拥有的任何财产的三分之一，并且在她死后，可以将她的财产遗赠给她希望的任何人，无论男女。埃及女性在法院系统中是平等的，可以作为证人、原告或被告（正如我们今天所理解的这些术语）。女性要对她们所犯的罪行负责，并且要和男性一样接受审判。

Married women were known by the title `Mistress of the House' and most women's time was spent caring for the home and children. Her responsibilities would include child rearing (unless she was wealthy enough to be able to afford a slave for the purpose) house cleaning, sewing, mending and making clothes, providing meals for the household and managing the accounts. Even so, there is ample evidence of women tending to chores outside of the home such as the care of livestock, the supervision of workers in the fields (even doing field work herself) the maintenance of tools, buying and selling slaves and real estate and taking part in the commerce of the market place (all of these rights and responsibilities, to this extent, the women of Sumeria and Greece never had).

已婚女性被称为 "女主人"，大多数妇女的时间都用于照顾家庭和孩子。她的责任包括养育孩子（除非她足够富有，能够为此买下一个奴隶）、打扫房间、缝纫、修补和制作衣服、为家庭提供膳食和管理账户。即便如此，也有大量证据表明，妇女在家庭以外处理杂务，如照顾牲畜，监督田间工人（甚至自己做田间工作），维护工具，买卖奴隶和房地产，参与市场商业活动（这些权利和责任，在苏美尔和古希腊的妇女身上从未拥有）。

The Egyptian Wisdom Texts admonish husbands to treat their wives well since the balance between the male and the female resulted in harmony (known as ma'at) which was valued by the gods and, especially, the great goddess Ma'at, she of the white feather of Truth. Marriage was considered a pact between a husband and wife for a lifelong commitment of equal partnership and companionship which could only be broken by death (which was the will of the gods, not of the individual marriage partners) although divorce was common in practice.

埃及智慧书告诫丈夫要善待他们的妻子，因为只有男女之间平衡导致才会有和谐家庭（被称为ma'at），这受到了众神的重视，尤其是伟大的Ma'at女神，她拥有白色的真理之羽。婚姻被认为是丈夫和妻子之间的契约，是平等的伙伴关系和伴侣关系的终身承诺，只有死亡才能打破这种关系（这是众神的意愿，而不是个别婚姻伙伴的意愿），尽管离婚在实践中很常见。

Women were legally protected against abuse from their husbands and, in the documents from a 12th Dynasty lawsuit, a man had to “swear that he would henceforth refrain from beating his wife, on pain of one hundred blows with a cane and the loss of everything he had acquired together with her” (Nardo, 35).

妇女在法律上受到保护，不受丈夫的虐待，在第12王朝的诉讼文件中，男人必须 "发誓从此不再打他的妻子，否则就用藤条打一百下，并失去他与妻子共同获得的一切"（Nardo，35）。

Women, too, were responsible for the happiness of the home, both in life and after death. Women's prestige was high enough that misfortune falling upon a widower was first attributed to some 'sin' he had hidden from his wife which she, now all-knowing in the Field of Reeds, was punishing him for. In a letter from a widower to his dead wife, found in a tomb from the New Kingdom, the man pleads with the spirit of his wife to leave him alone as he is innocent of any wrong-doing:

What wicked thing have I done to thee that I should have come to this evil pass? What have I done to thee? But what thou hast done to me is to have laid hands on me although I had nothing wicked to thee. From the time I lived with thee as thy husband down to today, what have I done to thee that I need hide? When thou didst sicken of the illness which thou hadst, I caused a master-physician to be fetched…I spent eight months without eating and drinking like a man. I wept exceedingly together with my household in front of my street-quarter. I gave linen clothes to wrap thee and left no benefit undone that had to be performed for thee. And now, behold, I have spent three years alone without entering into a house, though it is not right that one like me should have to do it. This have I done for thy sake. But, behold, thou dost not know good from bad. (Nardo, 32)

妇女也要对家庭的幸福负责，无论是在生前还是死后。妇女的威望很高，以至于落在鳏夫身上的不幸首先被归咎于他对妻子隐瞒的一些 "罪过"，而妻子现在在芦苇地（古埃及人认为，人死后会去的地方）里无所不知，正在惩罚他。在新王国的一座坟墓中，考古学家发现了一封鳏夫写给亡妻的信中，该男子恳求妻子的灵魂放过他，因为他没有任何过错：

我对你做了什么坏事，以至于我走到这一步？我对你做了什么呢？你对我所做的，就是在我对你无恶不作的情况下对我下手。从我与你同居为夫，直到今日，我对你有什么事需要隐瞒呢？你患病的时候，我叫人去请大夫来......我花了八个月时间，不吃不喝，像人一样。我和我的家人在我的街坊前大哭一场。我用亚麻布衣服包着你，没有不为你做的事。现在，我独自过了三年，没有进屋，虽然像我这样的人不应该这样做。这是我为你的缘故。但你看，你不知道好坏。 (Nardo, 32)

Judgement, in these cases, would be made by a priest who would try to discern whether the spirit of the deceased wife was the cause of the man's misfortune or if there was some other cause. Interestingly, the ill-fortune a woman might suffer after the death of her husband was first attributed to the possibility she had neglected some important aspect of the funerary rites, then to a possible wrong she had committed against a god but, rarely, to any sin against her husband.

这些情况下，将由牧师做出判断，他将试图辨别亡妻的精神是否是男人的不幸的原因，或者是否有其他原因。有趣的是，一个女人在丈夫死后可能遭受的不幸，首先被归咎于她可能忽视了丧葬仪式的某些重要方面，然后是她可能对神灵犯下的错误，但很少是对丈夫犯下的任何罪行。

Tombs depict women at various occupations such as singers, musicians, dancers, servants, beer brewers, bakers, professional mourners, priestess and as dutiful wives, daughters and mothers. Women were always shown as youthful with an emphasis on the female form. In tomb paintings a man's wife, sisters and mother appear to be the same age because depictions of old age in a woman (past child-bearing years) was considered disrespectful to the individual who, after all, would be young and beautiful again after shedding the body and entering the afterlife of the Field of Reeds.

墓葬描绘了女性从事的各种职业，如歌手、音乐家、舞者、仆人、啤酒酿造者、面包师、专业送葬者、女祭司以及孝顺的妻子、女儿和母亲。女性总是以年轻的形象出现，人们总是强调女性的形态。在墓葬画中，男人的妻子、姐妹和母亲看起来都是同龄人，因为描写女人的老年（已过生育年龄）被认为是对个人的不尊重，毕竟，在脱离身体，进入芦苇地的来世后，女人会再次变得年轻美丽。

Women in ancient Egypt placed great value on personal appearance, hygiene and grooming. Egyptian women (and men) bathed a number of times a day in a soda-mix with water (the Egyptians had no knowledge of soap). Henna was used to dye the hair, nails and even the body. Unlike other cultures of the time (Greece, for example) women could cut their hair short if they liked and many women shaved their heads and wore wigs. Tomb paintings depict the deceased in the latest fashions in wigs, clothing, and makeup. Cosmetics were not considered a luxury but a necessity for daily life and many examples of makeup, perfume and toiletry items are found in tombs.

古埃及女性非常重视个人外表、卫生和修饰。埃及妇女（和男子）每天用苏打水混合沐浴若干次（埃及人没有肥皂的知识）。指甲花被用来给头发、指甲甚至是身体染色。与当时的其他文化不同（例如希腊），妇女可以根据自己的喜好剪短头发，许多妇女剃光头并戴上假发。墓葬绘画描绘了死者的假发、服装和化妆等最新时尚。化妆品不是奢侈品，而是日常生活中的必需品，在墓葬中，考古学家发现了许多化妆、香水和盥洗用品的遗迹。

Although women in all levels of Egypian society continued to depend largely on the males of the family for sustenance and status, Egyptian women enjoyed greater freedoms and responsibilities than women anywhere else in the known world at that time. The cosmopolitan and cultured manner of Egyptian women is often emphasized in tomb paintings and reliefs and it is worth noting that the famous pharaoh Cleopatra, though Greek, adopted Egyptian ways and was noted for her refinement and charm.

尽管埃及社会各阶层的妇女在很大程度上仍然依赖家庭中的男性来维持生计和地位，但埃及妇女比当时已知世界上其他地方的妇女享有更大的自由与责任。墓葬绘画和浮雕中经常强调埃及妇女的开阔眼光与有教养，值得注意的是，著名的法老克利奥帕特拉虽然是希腊人，但却采用了埃及人的生活方式，并以其精致和魅力而闻名。

Women continued to be highly respected in Egypt and have equal rights with men until the coming of Christianity (which also brought a marked decline in personal hygiene since it was thought that Jesus Christ would return at any moment and so personal appearance was irrelevant and, further, attention to the body was considered vanity) which preached the inferiority of females to males and held up the example of Eve from the biblical Book of Genesis as the duplicitous standard by which all women should be judged. When Islam was brought to Egypt by the conquering Muslim forces, women enjoyed even less freedoms than they had under Christianity and the gifts of the goddess Isis, bestowed equally on men and women, were forgotten.

女性在古埃及受到高度尊重，并享有与男子平等的权利，直到基督教的到来（这也带来了个人卫生的明显下降的问题，因为人们认为耶稣基督随时都会回来，所以个人外表无关紧要，此外，对身体的关注被认为是虚荣），基督教宣扬女尊男卑，并将圣经《创世纪》中夏娃的例子作为评判所有妇女的双重标准。当伊斯兰教被征服的穆斯林军队带到埃及时，妇女享有的自由甚至比她们在基督教统治下的自由还要少，而伊希斯女神赋予男女平等也被遗忘。