[JNES 68 no. 4 (2009)] ç 2009 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0022–2968–2009/6804–0004$10.00. 283 THE NAMES “NANEFERKAPTAH,” “IHWERET,” AND “TABUBUE” IN THE “FIRST TALE OF SETNE KHAEMWAS”* STEVE VINSON, Indiana University—Bloomington It has often been observed that personal names in ancient Egyptian fiction can convey or suggest important information about the characters who bear them—their iden- tities, their roles, and even their destinies. 1 Of course, the creation or use of such significant names (sometimes referred to as “charactonyms”) is not unique to Egyptian belles lettres, but is rather an obvious and common technique that has been adopted by many authors working in many literatures. 2 In Egypt, however, the name (rn) of an individual was con- ceived of as an integral part of the personality, closely connected to both social identity and to survival in the next world; 3 similarly, the name(s) and epithets of a king or divinity expressed crucial aspects of such an entity’s fundamental nature and cosmic significance. 4 Thus, in an Egyptian story—as also in poems, hymns, and ritual texts, which frequently contain puns on, or glosses to, names 5 —the exploitation of the name for literary effect had the potential to create and reveal meaning in an especially powerful way. * I would like to thank Karl-Theodor Zauzich, Kim Ryholt, Mark Depauw, Edmund Meltzer, Jacquelyn Jay, Sara Goldbrunner, and Lothar Goldbrunner for read- ing all or parts of this article and offering a number of helpful comments. This article is adapted from my essay “Through a Woman’s Eyes and in a Woman’s Voice: Ihweret as Focalizor in the First Tale of Setne Khaemwas,” in P. McKechnie and P. Guillaume, eds., Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his World, Memosyne Supplements 300 (Leiden and Boston, 2008), pp. 303– 51. I would like to express my gratitude to Paul McKechnie for permission to reproduce and further develop part of my contribution to that volume here. 1 E.g., A. Loprieno, “Defining Egyptian Literature,” in Loprieno, ed., Ancient Egyptian Literature: History and Forms, Probleme der Ägyptologie 10 (Leiden and New York, 1996), p. 44; R. Parkinson, Poetry and Cul- ture in Middle Kingdom Egypt: A Dark Side to Perfec- tion, Athlone Publications in Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies (New York and London, 2002), pp. 154, 163–65, 187, 194, 197–98, 200, 202, 256. 2 See S. Rimmon-Kenan, Narrative Fiction: Con- temporary Poetics (London and New York, 1989), pp. 68–69. 3 See, e.g., J. Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt, trans. D. Lorton (Ithaca, NY, 2006), often, but esp. pp. 41–42, 111–12. 4 The importance of a divine name is exceptionally clear in the New Kingdom historiola “Isis and the Secret Name of Reº,” in which Isis contrives to have a poisonous snake bite Reº so as to force him to reveal his secret name; see in P Turin 1993 vs. 6.11–9.5 = J. F. Borghouts, Ancient Egyptian Magical Texts, Re- ligious Texts Translation Series, Nisaba 9 (Leiden, 1978), pp. 51–55 (Text 84). 5 A particularly striking example is the use of the imperative “Come!” as a name for “Death” in Egyptian “Harper’s Songs” that appear in some New Kingdom tombs; see Assmann, Death and Salvation, 119 ff. This plays on the alliteration (and probably also the asso- nance, certainly present in the Coptic forms of the words) of the Egyptian imperative “come” (hiero- glyphic/hieratic m¡, Demotic ¡m, Coptic amoU) and the noun for “death” (hieroglyphic/hieratic/Demotic mwt, Coptic moU). Naming puns like this can also appear in narrative fiction, e.g., in the Middle Kingdom tales of P Westcar 10.9 ff., in which Isis puns on the names of each of the three future kings of the Fifth Dynasty, as she assists their mother in their births. See W. K. Simpson, “King Cheops and the Magicians,” in Simpson, ed., The Literature of Ancient Egypt, An An- thology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies and Poetry, 3d ed. (New Haven and London, 2003) (Simpson, ed., Literature 3 ), p. 22, with n. 19; M. Licht- heim, ed. and trans., Ancient Egyptian Literature, A Book of Readings, Vol. 1: The Old and Middle King- doms (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1973) (Lichtheim, AEL 1), p. 220. Etiological and naming puns are ubiquitous in the New Kingdom “Myth of the