***<\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m in a reminiscing vein, so I thought that I might tell about\u00a0another early experience\u00a0with Hugh Nibley.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I started off at BYU as a mathematics major. \u00a0But I soon realized that, while I admired mathematicians and mathematics, this wasn\u2019t my particular strength and it wasn\u2019t where I thought I should be. \u00a0I had come to BYU fairly young, so I took a second year there before my mission. \u00a0And I chose, that year, to take Greek (and Latin and Hebrew and, with Hugh Nibley, Middle Egyptian). \u00a0I had already come under Nibley\u2019s influence, you see, and a dormitory neighbor had blazed the path by taking Greek during our freshman year. \u00a0That inspired me. \u00a0But it was a mad, mad, mad semester. \u00a0Too much, really.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure, by the way, that my parents were absolutely delighted\u00a0when they heard that I had dropped mathematics and decided to focus on Greek and philosophy. \u00a0Very marketable fields, upon which a solid and lucrative career can be based. \u00a0But they said nothing, and were supportive.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, the course in Egyptian was tough. \u00a0We used the third edition of Sir Alan Gardiner\u2019s Oxford Egyptian Grammar<\/em>. \u00a0And, I somehow later learned, we took it at twice the pace that the corresponding course at Harvard was then taking\u00a0it.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The class began with maybe twenty students. \u00a0Perhaps twenty-five. \u00a0(The Nibley mystique was in full force at the time.) \u00a0By the third meeting, it was down to five or six. \u00a0We were the group who stuck with it through to the final.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And what a final it was! \u00a0After working through Gardiner and growing used to the kinds of sample sentences that he provided, we came to the final exam and were confronted with several pages simply photocopied from the Egyptian Book of the Dead.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Half of the class\u00a0got up after a few minutes, turned their largely-blank final exam booklets in, and walked out. \u00a0Three of us, I think, stayed to the bitter end, for the whole three hours allotted to the test. \u00a0It didn\u2019t do much good, I\u2019m afraid. \u00a0I could have stared at the sheets for years and still have been largely baffled by them.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I left the room eventually, absolutely certain\u00a0that I had failed. \u00a0Mercifully, though, Professor Nibley gave me a good grade. \u00a0I think it was for endurance, more than for any demonstrated competence.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 First, an article in the Deseret News about the new Lee Groberg\/Mark Goodman film: \u00a0 \u201cOld Joseph Smith PBS documentary remade into new docudrama depicting \u2018American Prophet\u2019s\u2019 polarizing life\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 I\u2019m in a reminiscing vein, so I thought that I might tell about\u00a0another early experience\u00a0with Hugh Nibley. \u00a0 I started off […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" First, an article in the Deseret News about the new Lee Groberg\/Mark Goodman film: "Old Joseph Smith PBS documentary remade into new\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" First, an article in the Deseret News about the new Lee Groberg\/Mark Goodman film: "Old Joseph Smith PBS documentary remade into new\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-26T16:24:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/09\/Hugh_Nibley.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html\",\"name\":\"Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-26T16:24:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-26T16:24:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\" First, an article in the Deseret News about the new Lee Groberg\/Mark Goodman film: \\\"Old Joseph Smith PBS documentary remade into new\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley","description":" First, an article in the Deseret News about the new Lee Groberg\/Mark Goodman film: \"Old Joseph Smith PBS documentary remade into new","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley","og_description":" First, an article in the Deseret News about the new Lee Groberg\/Mark Goodman film: \"Old Joseph Smith PBS documentary remade into new","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2017-09-26T16:24:06+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/09\/Hugh_Nibley.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html","name":"Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-09-26T16:24:06+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-26T16:24:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":" First, an article in the Deseret News about the new Lee Groberg\/Mark Goodman film: \"Old Joseph Smith PBS documentary remade into new","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2017\/09\/studying-egyptian-hieroglyphs-hugh-nibley.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Studying Egyptian hieroglyphs with Hugh Nibley"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44382\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Professor](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/09\/Hugh_Nibley.jpg\")
<\/a>