Funerary stela of "follower [of the king ?]" Megegi and his wife Henit

Htp-Di-nswt Wsjr nb Dd.w xnt.j-jmn.tjw nb AbD.w m s.wt-f nb(.t) pr.t-xrw xA t' Hnq.t xA jH.w Apd.w xA zS mnx.t xA (j)x.t nb(.t) nfr(.t) wab(.t)
n jmAx.w Sms.w mggj Dd

jw jr.n(i) aHa.w m rnp.wt m rk Hr.w (nx.t)-nb-tp-nfr Hr=s{j}aq(=i)* jb=f ra nb m mrr.t nb.t kA=f
jnk mr=f nfr.t msD=f Dw.t jrr hrw r-Xr.t=f
ni xb.n(=i) tr xnt hrw
ni HD.n(i) wn.wt nfr.t
jr.n(=i) rnp.wt tp-tA
pH.(=i) wA.wt Xr.t-nTr
jr.n(=i) qrs.t nb.t jrr.wt n jmAx.w
jnk zbi hrw=f Sms wn.wt=f m Xr.t-hrw n.t ra nb



Offering which the king gives (and) Osiris, Lord of Busiris, Foremost-of-the-Westerners, Lord of Abydos in all his places, invocation offering, 1000 (of) bread and beer, 1000 (of) cattle and fowl, 1000 (of) alabster(-vessels) and cloth, 1000 (of) everything good and pure for the venerated, the Attendant, Megegi, who says:

I spent the duration of years in the reign of the Horus (Nakht)nebtepnefer (Intef III) causing that I am trusted* (literally enter his heart) daily with everything that his ka desires.
I am one who loves the good and hates the evil, who spends a day according to its matter.
I do not diminish time from day.
I do not damage a good hour.
Just as I spent years upon earth, so did I reach the roads of the necropolis, having made every burial equipment which is done for the venerated.
I am hte one who conducts his day, (but) who follows his hour in the course of every day.

Above the female figure: Hm.t=f mr.t Hn.jt, His beloved wife, Henit
Before the male figure: jmAx.w jmn-m-HA.t, The venerated Amenemhat

comments:

* The exact translation of this phrase is difficult. Landgrafova & Dils suggest to render this verb as sjbA following Morenz as the causative of jba, dance. Though plausible, this would be the sole occurence of this verb, especially with this classifier and with reference to the heart. The phrase aq jb=f is far more common in Middle Kingdom phraseology found in autobiographies.

Niv Allon 2017

Purchased from Mohammed Mohassib in Luxor, 1914.

Winlock, Herbert E. 1915. "The Theban Necropolis in the Middle Kingdom." In American Journal of Semitic Languages, Vol. 32, No. 1 (October), p. 17.

Winlock, Herbert E. 1947. Rise and Fall of the Middle Kingdom in Thebes. New York: Macmillan Co., pl. 2.

Hayes, William C. 1953. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 152.

Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L.B. Moss 1964. Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings: The Theban Necropolis. Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries, vol. I part 2a. Oxford, 596.