Oldal 101 [101]
It is worth briefly mentioning the translations of these two words by the above-quoted
authors:
wdpw wb3
Gardiner lisa butler
Faulkner serving-man butler
Lichtheim cook butler
Tobin cupbearer butler
Remarkably, they all used the word ‘butler’ for wb3 uniformly, but as for wdpw, they used
different solutions. Since in most cases wdpws appear in activities related to fluids, cup¬
bearer might be the most appropriate translation, but in more general terms, serving-man
might also be an option. If one observes the word and the occupation together with their
feminine pair wdpy.t, translated as ‘serving-maid’, one might assume that there was a
division of tasks between the two genders, whereas wdpy.t was primarily responsible for
food, wdpw was primarily responsible for drinks, based on the division of depictions in
which women were primarily represented in food-related scenes, while in beverage-related
scenes men were mainly shown. All this, however, is pure speculation, which theory
cannot be supported with facts.
Two historical inscriptions from the New Kingdom mention wb3 and wdpw. In the
inscription of the battle of Ramesses II at Qadesh, one occurrence of the two words can
be observed. An interesting peculiarity of the text is that in four of the five versions of
the text the word wb3 sp}: US$: Ups was used but in the fifth one
wdpw Bee a, appears instead.’ In this passage the ruler rebukes his troops, his
officers and his charioteers for running away and left him alone on the battlefield, and
laments that — apart from his two horses — only his own ‘charioteer’, his ‘shield-bearer’,
and the wb3s/wdpws in his private service stayed with him and witnessed the battle:
Ka, Li, L2, L3 (274) m-dj n3y=j wh3.w n Shnwtj ntj r-gs=j
S (274) m-dj n3y=j wdpw.w m Thnwtj ntj r-gs=j
emendations, some examples — without claiming completeness — for text corruption can be observed
in passages 2,3; 2,6; 4,4; 4,14; 5,4; 6,2; 7,5; 7,9; 9,3; 10,4; 14,1; 15,1; as well as those for miswriting are
attested in passages 2,4; 4,13; 5,25-5,10; 6,11; 8,2; 8,10; 8,11; 11,33 12,7} 13,45 13,115 13,35 14,15 15,13; 16,1. For
a detailed commentary, see Gardiner, 1990’, 19-95.
#7 Kitchen, 1979, 84, §274¬