Potiphar. Potiphar, also known as Aziz in Islam, is figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. He is the captain of Pharaoh's guard who is said to have purchased Joseph as a slave and, impressed by his intelligence, makes him the master of his household. Unfortunately, Potiphar's wife, who was known for her infidelities, took a liking to Joseph, and attempted to seduce him. When Joseph refused her advances, and ran off, she retaliated by falsely accusing him of trying to rape her, and Potiphar had Joseph imprisoned. According to G.J. Wenham, execution was normal in rape cases, and so the story implies that Potiphar had doubts about his wife's account. What happened to Potiphar after that is unclear; some sources identify him as Potipherah, an Egyptian priest whose daughter, Asenath, marries Joseph. The false accusation by Potiphar's wife plays an important role in Joseph's narrative, because had he not been imprisoned, he would not have met the fellow prisoner who introduced him to Pharaoh. The medieval Sefer HaYashar, a commentary on the Torah, gives Potiphar's wife's name as Zuleikha, as do many Islamic traditions-thus the Persian poem called Yusuf and Zulaikha from Jami's Haft Awrang. Because of the Egyptian location of the story, it is not impossible to detect in the biblical account a more recent echo of the very old Egyptian fable of the two brothers Bata and Anpu. The story became a very common subject in Western art during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, usually depicting the moment when Joseph tears himself away from the bed containing a more-or-less naked figure of Potiphar's wife. Persian miniatures often illustrate Yusuf and Zulaikha in Jami's Haft Awrang. It is difficult to tie Potiphar or Joseph accurately to a particular pharaoh or time period. According to the Jewish calendar, Joseph was purchased in the year 2216, which is 1544 BC, at the end of the Second Intermediate Period or very beginning of the New Kingdom. The Torah in which the story appears, was the earliest written of the three: c. 600 BC during the Babylonian Exile. According to the documentary hypothesis, the story of Potiphar and his wife is credited to the Yahwist source, and stands in the same place that the stories of the butler and the baker and Pharaoh's dreams stand in the Elohist text. The Book of Abraham, included in the Pearl of Great Price, one of the standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and by churches of the Latter Day Saint movement, refers to a Potiphar`s Hill in Egypt. In art the subject is one of the most commonly shown in the Power of Women topos. There is a Persian poem called Yusuf and Zulaikha in Jami's Haft Awrang. In The Divine Comedy, Dante sees the shade of Potiphar's wife in the eighth circle of Hell. She does not speak, but Dante is told by another spirit that, along with other perjurers, she is condemned to suffer a burning fever for all eternity. In the John Sayles film Matewan, Will Oldham plays a young minister boy who preaches the story of Potiphar to his small town. In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Potiphar is a tycoon of ancient Egypt who made his wealth through buying shares in pyramids. His wife is a seductive man-eater. Both feature in the song Potiphar. In John Keats' poem, On Fame, Keats calls Fame Sister-in-law to jealous Potiphar. In the animated film Joseph: King of Dreams, prior to having him jailed for allegedly assaulting his wife, Potiphar takes notice of Joseph's intelligence and makes him a chief slave in his household. He orders Joseph to be executed for the attempted rape of his wife, but when she asks him to stop, Potiphar realizes Joseph was telling the truth of his innocence and instead has him jailed to save face, though he shows great disgust at his wife. Potiphar later brings Joseph to Pharaoh, who is plagued by inexplicable dreams, and expresses deep regret for having Joseph put in prison. He tells Pharaoh that he trusts Joseph with life. In Joseph and his Brothers, Thomas Mann suggests that Potiphar's wife is sexually frustrated partly because Potiphar is a eunuch. Joseph and Potiphar's Wife in Art.
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