IO PAKERBETH IO ERBETH IO BOLCHOSETH
In The Seven
Faces of Darkness Don Webb proposes an etymology for these names.
Webb notes the late identification of the bull-god Bata of Saka with Set
(see the discussion of the Papyrus Jumilhac in The Ancient Egyptian
"Tale of Two Brothers": The Oldest Fairy Tale In the World by
Susan Tower Hollis).
The name "Bata" is a transliteration; the bisyllabic name, as
written, contains only consonants. Hollis remarks on a passage cited in
Gardiner's 1905 paper on the "Poem on the King's Chariot" --
As for the beti of your chariot, they are Bata,
Lord of Saka...
Hollis states that no exact translation for beti is known but notes
mrkbt for "chariot" and a parallel expression in Ugaritit,
bt.mrkbt, and similar phrases in other Semitic languages, translated
as "house of the chariot". The Phoenecian and Hebrew "beth"
is, of course, "house". The chariot, a foreign invention, was
introduced into ancient Egypt with the Hyskos invasion. Upon being adopted
by the Egyptians, this division of the Pharaoh's army in New Kingdom times
was known as the Horses of Set.
Descriptions of the Pharaoh as a bull charging enemies are much older, of
course; images and textual inscriptions can be dated to the earliest dynasties.
Webb also notes the paker neter formula, a class of magical operations
"to reach the god" or "to employ the magical powers of the
god", distinct from sms neter, the practice of worship or service
to a god. (See Robert K. Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian
Magical Practice.)
On this basis he suggests that BETH is a transliteration of Bata here used
as a magical name of Set-Typhon. The 'true name' PAKERBETH is thus a formula
"to reach Set" or "to act as Set". Webb further notes
that "Bepon" is substituted for "Typhon" in some of
the Greek spells, possibly in imitation of the phonetic shift from "Seth"
to BETH.
In BOLCHOSETH Webb sees reference to Baal, the Canaanite bull-god identified
with Set. "CHO" is discernably ancient Egyptian for "to strike".
Thus BOLCHOSETH may be interpreted as "Baal who strikes as Set".
This phrase seems altogether plausible given the words that 19th Dynasty
scribes of Ramses II attributed to a defeated Asiatic chieftain writing
the Pharaoh--
You are Seth, Baal in person; the dread of you is a fire
in the land of Khatti
-- as well as the cries attributed to foreign soldiers who confronted the
Pharaoh on the battlefield:
No man is he who is among us, it is Seth great-of-stength,
Baal in person...
(from "The Kadesh Battle Inscriptions of Ramses II" in Miriam
Lichtheim's Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II: The New Kingdom.)
Compiled by Dakhla Sba, Dakhla@aol.com.