173 Received 8 June 2017; accepted 26 September 2017. © 2018 Moravian Museum, Anthropos Institute, Brno. All rights reserved. DOI: https://doi.org/10.26720/anthro.17.09.26.1  LVI/3  pp. 173–184  2018 FILIP COPPENS Heh(u) ("Infinity") A PERSONIFICATION OF AN ASPECT OF THE NILE INUNDATION IN THE TEMPLES OF DENDARA AND EDFU ABSTRACT: The article takes a closer look at a specific feature of the Nile, and more in particular an aspect of its life bringing inundation known to the ancient Egyptians priests as Hehu ("infinity"). This facet of the inundation occurs over a dozen times among the gifts brought by offering bearers in hydrological processions on the soubassement in the Horus temple of Edfu, the Hathor temple of Dendara and the small Isis temple of Dendara between the reigns of Ptolemaios IV Philopator (221–204 BC) and Emperor Nero (54–68 AD). The study of the inscriptions accompanying this specific personification of the Nile inundation indicates the existence of patterns in the distribution of these texts not only within a single temple (e.g. from one chapel to the next), but also between temples over time and space. Many of the inscriptions also show the use of stylistic literary devices, such as alliteration or paronomasia. KEY WORDS: Nile inundation – Hydrological procession – Dendara – Edfu – Ptolemaic and Roman era The river Nile played a crucial role in bringing Eugen Strouhal for the very first time to the lands of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. The construction of the High Dam at Aswan, as decided upon by the Arab Republic of Egypt in the second half of the 1950s, would as a result permanently flood the Nile valley from Aswan to the area between the second and third cataract (creating the present day Lake Nasser) and in the process submerge hundreds of archaeological sites. At the request of both the Egyptian and Sudanese governments, UNESCO launched in response an international rescue campaign with the aim to save monuments by for instance transferring temples to higher ground as well as by extensively documenting numerous sites via surveys and excavations. The Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology of the Charles ANTHROPOLOGIE