Job Xl 18 and the "Bones of Seth"

Abstract

previously overlooked detail: in the of the animal, which are described in Job xl 18 as being like iron bars (kimtil bargdl). This metaphorical expression is of course intended as a reference to the beast's powerful bodily construction but not exclusively. The verse seems to contain a play on the mythical appellation of iron as bones of for which we have two Egyptian attestations: one in the Pyramid Texts (§ 14a, Utterance 21) 2), and another one in Manetho (Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 62 = 376b). It is interesting to note that G. A. Wainwright, without mentioning Job xl 18, connects the bones of Seth with hippopotamus bones. In an article on Iron in the distinguished Egyptologist refers to Qaw el-Kebir 3) in central Egypt, where archeologists found a centre of devotion to Seth. During his excavations, Flinders Petrie uncovered great quantities of gigantic which had been collected in piles. They were mineralized, heavy, and black, and presented a metallic lustre and appearance. The vast majority were those of hippopotami, and one complete skull of a hippopotamus was found among them. They were considered sacred, for some of them, wrapped in linen, were found scattered in the tombs at Kaw. A stele was also found, addressed to Seth, and showing a hippopotamus in a papyrus swamp. There can be no doubt that these were not only sacred to Seth, but were also considered to be some sort of iron, or possibly meteorite. It must have been a belief of this sort that provided Plutarch with his otherwise extraordinary expression 'bones of Typhon 4). It is of course far from being sure that mineralized hippopotamus