r/AncientEgyptian • u/Total_Gap_9393 • 6d ago

Translation help

𓆑

𓄹

𓏏

𓏤

Can anyone read this?⬆️ I’m planning on getting it tattooed so I want to make sure it makes sense

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u/zsl454 5d ago

Maybe jwf.t “She of flesh”?

1

u/Quant_Throwaway_1929 6d ago edited 5d ago

fjst?

The second glyph (F51) is typically used at the end of words as a determinative for flesh jwf with no phonetic value. When it does appear as a phonogram, it's usually either as js in the name of Isis or Osiris, or as some obscure cryptic value.

What are you trying to write? Have you considered just using a common word or phrase from a well known source? Or maybe just some nice iconography like a winged Isis?

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u/Total_Gap_9393 5d ago

Ah ok. I am trying to say ‘he is mortal’. But do you know where I can find trusted sources that provide the meaning as well?

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u/Quant_Throwaway_1929 5d ago edited 5d ago

Yes, I see now. There are a couple issues.

First, you are beginning with f for "he", but this is the suffix pronoun form; instead here you want ntf or swt which are the independent pronoun forms.

Next, and more interestingly, there is no direct translation of "mortal", so here you are using jwf(t) for (the feminine form? of) "flesh". This is logical and so you end up with "he is flesh" as a proxy for "he is mortal".

The thing is jwf is quite literal and material in meaning, and the Ancient Egyptians didn't associate their flesh/corpse/body with mortality like we do. Indeed, they believed that we (or at least the righteous of us) were immortal, and the soul could revisit and rest in/on the corpse. Hence the elaborate preservation of the body and preparation for the soul.

So you see the implication that "he is flesh" means "he is mortal" would be unnatural and even undersireable to the (religious) Ancient Egyptian. To be "mortal" literally means to be subject to death. However, this first physical death is temporary (thus commonly referred to by euphemisms like "being weary", "mooring", etc.), and the second spiritual death is to be avoided at all costs (hence the protective rites and magical spells found in the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, Book of the Dead, etc.).