Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology

May6] SOCIETYOF BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY. [189a

witnessesof the existence of very ancientsacerdotaloffices. Among
theseofficeswe find the \ (& "^ Suten at Heracleopolis and the
ytfz. ^ j^ ^ Nata at Coptos. * The latteris particularly interesting
becausethe standard of it is jy>. Horus, wearingthe Crown of the
NorthV. It will be remembered thatin republican Athensone of
the Archons was calledQaaiXtvs, and that he had chargeof the
publicworship. RepublicanRome,whenbanishingkings,retained,
if it did not actually institute,the Rex Sacrificulus.
The Suteniuare known from othertexts, and Brugschfwith
greatreasonderives the name from 1„ \v,seten,to slaughter:
\ JlL> suteni 's 'one who slaughters an animal for sacrifice.' It
was a priest of this kind whowas ordered to kill the Bull in the Tale
of the Two Brother, This] ^\^\2,i kl^'
' Sutennu of the King in the Palace ' occupies a very highpositionin
the list of priests mentionedin the Wood Papyrus; and it is surely
a gross mistaketo translate the word by the term ' Butcher.' The
actsof slaughter whichhe performed werenot those of a tradesman,
but of a minister of the gods. Thesamemistakeis made in giving
the sense of ' butcher ' to 5 ^\ ^"7$ , menhu, a term applied
to kings and gods. Thegodis thus invokedas Suten, but certainly
not as butcher, on a statue in the Louvre.

' O thou Cleaver, whodividest the heaven with the two featlurs! \

It is indeed quiteclearthatthe title of a priest was in many

casesone of the epithets or designations of the god he worshipped,

and whose actshe symbolically performed.§

Butthere is very much olderevidence than the priestly lists

of Dendera and Edfu. Thefunereal ritesgo back to the earliest

times, and among the priests who officiate at the ceremony of

* Brugsch, Diet.Gco«r.,pp. 1374, 1377.

+ Did., Suppl.,p. 1 1 58.

I Pierret, Inscriptionsincdites,I, 3-

§ Compare thisview with Brugsch, RiligionundMythologie,p. 65 anil

following.

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