Water, protection and destiny: an interpretation of the wr.t-demon

The wr.t is an entity that recurs several times in the corpus of the Oracular Amuletic Decrees and until now has eluded every attempt of identification. The first translator of the OAD, Edwards, conceived them as ʻelves, mischievous demons who lay in wait for the unwaryʼ. This explanation rests on the fact that in the majority of cases the Decrees describe the wr.t as a creature belonging to the natural landscape, particularly streams and stretches of water. However, the OAD also contains wr.t of the sky, the Underworld, and even of persons. Given that an interpretation as generic spirits of the natural world is unsatisfactory, my research aims to shed light on the nature of these mysterious entities. First, I will extend the analysis to other sources mentioning the wr.t: ostraca and stela from Deir el-Medina (where wr.t appears to be an entity belonging to a person) and demotic texts (where wr.t has become an entirely evil entity, equated in the horoscopes to the Greek ʻhouse of the bad luckʼ and opposed to the benevolent SpSy). Secondly, through comparison with the Sps.wt, I will analyse the wr.t as a protective hippopotamus-deity, related to the destiny of the person and to the flow of time. The connection with the Goddess of the Eye and the astronomical conceptions of the Third Intermediate Period will offer elements to understand the negative evolution of these entities in the OAD. Finally, I will address the problem of the aquatic nature of the wr.t.