IF by narrative art we mean the rendering of specific events, whether mythological, legendary, historical, or fictional, involving recognizable personages, then surprisingly few works fulfilling these conditions can be found in the vast corpus of Egyptian representational art.1 Mythological cycles do not occur. One particular episode, the begetting of Horus by the dead Osiris, is rendered in the Osiris temple of Seti I at Abydos because of its importance in the funerary cult rather than its climactic place in the myth.2 The same motive occurs in funerary representations made for private individuals.' It is significant and typical of the general orientation of Egyptian culture that a coherent written narrative of the Osiris and Isis myth is given, not by any known native sources, but by Plutarch.' There do exist in Egypt mythological representations such as that in the funerary chamber of the cenotaph of Seti I at Abydos. It shows the sky goddess Nut supported by her consort Shu, air, while from her mouth is born the sun god Re. This is equivalent to a diagram of the structure of the universe.5 It demonstrates an ever present condition. A comparison with a Greek rendering of a somewhat analogous theme, for example the scene of Herakles supporting the earth shown on a black-figured lekythos,6 brings out with striking clarity the completely non-narrative nature of the Egyptian mythological relief. In the majority of Egyptian tombs most of the representations record the normal and repeated activit es of daily life, as has been clearly pointed out by H. A. Groenewegen-Frankfort. These processes may involve some consecutive actions, but they are not stories concerning individuals. Rather the tomb owner quiescently observes the different phases of agricultu e and crafts or receives his dues. Himself rarely active, when the tomb owner does hunt or spear ish it is not a specific occasion, but a standardized activity typifying a nobleman, which is repeated n t mb after tomb.' Similarly, in temples here a e endlessly repeated rituals and heraldic diagrams of the victories and exploits characteristic by definition for the king. Despite t e rarity of true narrative representations in Egypt, the origins of such scenes can be traced back to the last predynastic period, Gerzean. For exa ple, in addition to vase or wall paintings and an ivory carving showing files of undifferentiated men,8 there exists a slate palette enlarged so as to provide a surface for the relief of a hunt. The repre entation receives a certain narrative specificity from the tandards carried by the long files of hunters and from the two emblems apparently iden ifying the locality where the hunt occurred.9