THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF THE HYMN-CYCLES

Elegiac poetry, in memory of Mani and other religious leaders, is well attested in Parthian, taking the form of an account of the saint’s death or an invocation of him by surviving members of his flock; but funerary hymns, for use at the time of death itself, are barely represented. There is, however, a useful collection in M 4 of the opening lines of such hymns, entitled “Death-Hymns” (zg’myg b’š’h’n). These hymns were presumably intended for the funerals of the Elect, for it is assumed in them that the dead man is perfect in virtue and will ascend to heaven. Two characteristics are common to them all: each is dramatic in form, being in direct speech, and in each the speaker is the soul, which has just left the body and is sometimes joyful, sometimes in distress.

The key to the interpretation of these hymns is given by Ibn an-Nadīm in the Fihrist, in a passage translated by Flügel as follows:

"When death approaches a truthful person, the Primal Man sends a God of Light in the guise of the guiding Sage, and with him three gods; and together with these, the water-vessel original: "Wassergefäss", the garment, the headband, the crown, and the wreath of light. Also, the devil of greed and sensual lust appears to him with other devils. As soon as the truthful one sees them, he calls the Goddess, who has taken the form of the Sage, and the other three gods for help, and they approach him. As soon as the devils perceive them, they flee."

The hymns in M 4 show the virtuous soul either fearful or hailing with joy the approach of the Saviour. In each, the same moment has been chosen: the moment when the soul, freed from the body, awaits its fate after death.

Some of the sections in M 4 are peculiar to that fragment; and one might think these dramatic funerary hymns unusual compositions, had not a similar collection of texts, preserved in their entirety, been found in the Coptic Psalm-Book.