Isis the Pharaoh

Authors

Stephen O. Smoot
John Gee
Kerry Muhlestein
John S. Thompson

Keywords

Book of Abraham, Facsimile 3, Isis, Pharaoh, gods

Abstract

The explanation given for Facsimile 3 identifies figure 2 as “King Pharaoh, whose name is given in the characters above his head.” One potential way to identify this figure by Egyptological methods would be to read “the characters [hieroglyphs] above his head.” Unfortunately, the original illustration or vignette from the papyrus is not extant, and so we are forced to decipher the glyphs as they are reproduced in Facsimile 3 by their engraver Reuben Hedlock. While Hedlock appears to have done a fairly commendable job accurately reproducing the facsimiles (at least based on a comparison of Facsimile 1 with the extant original papyrus), he also made some noticeable mistakes. So the first issue at hand in resolving the question of the identity of this figure would be to determine how legible these glyphs actually are.

Recommended Citation

Smoot, Stephen O.; Gee, John; Muhlestein, Kerry; and Thompson, John S. (2022) "Isis the Pharaoh," BYU Studies Quarterly: Vol. 61: Iss. 4, Article 50.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/byusq/vol61/iss4/50