Final Class Project: History 270 "The Victory of Horus" A Sacred Drama of Ancient Egypt

As a collective project in lieu of a final examination, students will stage under--their own direction--a production of the Egyptian sacred drama, "The Victory of Horus." They will divide themselves into a number of study group/production teams to discuss the drama and to adapt and mount the play in a public place on campus, for which they will be graded.

NOTE: On 20 April 2000, the students of History 270 of the College of Charleston, under the instruction of Prof. Peter Piccione, publicly staged their adaptation of the "Victory of Horus" in the central courtyard of the College of Charleston before Randolph Hall. The local newspaper and television station covered the event. The production was photographed and professionally videotaped for educational purposes. Copies of the videotape are available for public distribution. (Click here for information on ordering a copy.)

Still images from that production are presented here as a streaming slide show. This slide presentation requires RealPlayer^® to view it. Open the link above to access the slide show or to download a free copy of RealPlayer, if it is not already installed on your computer.

• "The Victory of Horus": Scenes and Descriptions from the Sacred Drama of Egypt. Detailed analyses of the action in the play scene by scene, as recorded on the walls of the Temple of Horus at Edfu, and as reconstructed by Egyptologist H. Walter Fairman.

• "The Victory of Horus": Selected References and Further Studies. A selected bibliography of the play and of the general topic of drama in ancient Egypt.

• Project Description: "The Victory of Horus" (also called "The Conflict of Horus and Seth"). Handout given to students on the first day of the term describing the final project and the breakdown and responsibilities of the various project teams, and the mechanism for grading the project.

• Project Team Assignments (PDF-format). A listing of the different project-teams and the names of students assigned to each team. This file requires Adobe Acrobat Reader^® to download and open it. Acrobat Reader is freely available on the College of Charleston's Web page, "Software Depot" (click to open).

  ---