In Interpreting Ancient Egyptian Narratives, Martin Pehal applies

structural analysis to four New Kingdom narrative compositions. The

study explains the strong configurational character of ancient Egyptian

(mythological) thought which has the ability to connect various

ontological levels of human experience with the surrounding world

into complex synchronic structures. These symbolical systems are

shown to be mediating between the various cultural paradoxes which

were inherent to ancient Egyptian society. Axial role in this process

is attributed to the institution of positional kingship represented by

the pharaoh. Its transformative function is also put into relation to the

special status of female characters who are shown to play the part of

the "powerful powerless ones" further personifying the aspects of the

mediating function of myth. Gradually, the study outlines a genuinely

Egyptian "structural net" of basic mythemes and explains in what way

it was possible for such a system to change and incorporate foreign

mythological motifs especially from the Near East.