Dances with kings: movement and dance-related lexemes in the Pyramid Texts

The Pyramid Texts constitute a unique source of epigraphic material, not only for their funerary and religious content, but also for the visual information that these inscriptions can provide. In the framework of a wider research programme regarding the lexicography of the Pyramid Texts, the present paper will discuss a set of terms related to the semantic sphere of “dance-movement”, focusing on the graphic presentation of the pertinent lexemes, i.e., on their visual aspect, and specifically on the particular determinatives qualifying their semantic field. Despite the difficulty of interpreting some rather obscure passages, it is possible to recognise actions that are related to the notion of dance – more or less directly connected to the king – such as arms waving, hands clapping, legs moving. In what contexts do these expressions occur and how are they determined? The goal of this review is to outline what information these signs may convey about the words they occur with from an ancient Egyptian (emic) perspective as well as to set their use against a broader context about the manipulation of anthropomorphic determinatives in the Pyramid Texts.