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Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms
Chronologically arranged translations of ancient Egyptian writings shed light upon the development of diverse literary forms. Bibliogs.
245 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 1975
19 people are currently reading
737 people want to read
About the author
Miriam Lichtheim
18 books18 followersMiriam Lichtheim was an Israeli translator of ancient Egyptian texts whose translations are still widely used.
In 1973 she published the first volume of the Ancient Egyptian Literature (abbr. AEL), annotated translations of Old and Middle Kingdom texts. In 1976 the second volume of AEL containing New Kingdom texts appeared, followed in 1980 by the third dealing with the first millennium BCE literature.
In 1973 she published the first volume of the Ancient Egyptian Literature (abbr. AEL), annotated translations of Old and Middle Kingdom texts. In 1976 the second volume of AEL containing New Kingdom texts appeared, followed in 1980 by the third dealing with the first millennium BCE literature.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 19, 2013
While still useful, Miriam Lichtheim's three volume work suffers from the dogmas, biases and ideologies of Miriam Lichtheim .
The sad fact is that Lichtheim was educated and drenched in perhaps the grossest form of arrogant German Eurocentrism.
Lichtheim seemed to cling to the old Hegelian worldview, which placed black African peoples outside of human history. For Lichtheim all signs of civilizations found in ancient Africa "proper" was the result of either Asian, Semitic or even European "invaders" or immigrants "filtering in" from the "East". For Lichtheim, Hegel was right. Civilization and humanity originated in Asia. Asia was the Mother of All.
In his Introduction to the 2006 Edition of Volume 1, Loprieno writes that Lichtheim placed "...Egypt within a literary tradition shared with the world of Western Asia...."
We hasten to add that this failed attempt by Lichtheim to force ancient black African(ancient Egyptian) literature into the "Western Asia" "literary tradition" is indeed an intellectual fraud.
Especially since we know that "ancient Egyptian"(ancient Negro African) literature is the oldest writings on earth!
Lichtheim's translations and commentaries reflect her dogmas and her ideologies.
Today we know that dogma is false. Civilization and humanity originated in Africa.
Ancient Egyptian art depicts numerous examples of the king dancing in religious ceremonies.
The ancient Negro Africans (ancient Egyptians) used dance in much the same way dance is still used almost everywhere in Black Africa today.
On page 27 Vol 1., Lichtheim translates the well-known part of Harkhuf's mission to Yam. King Neferkare is anxious to have the dwarf at court who knows how to dance the dance of the Gods. There is another text where the king says he wishes to dance before the Deities.
This seems to indicate profound religious and cultural connections between "ancient Egypt" and the heart of Africa. Especially since we know that the king had many priestly duties and that he was a God /priest on earth with a celestial mandate.
In most African cultures today a God or Goddess has certain specific dances. Especially trained priest and priestess demonstrate and teach the dances of the different deities.
For example, the Yoruba Gods(Orisa) Shango and Obatala have special dances and music. So does the Goddess Oshun and Yemoja.
Lichtheim's translation and commentary ignores the undeniable Black African religious and cultural realities reflected in those passages. Here we have the virtual triumph of ideology, racial chauvinism and dogma over scholarship.
In her translation of the Mereneptah Stela (p.75 Volume 2 Lichtheim writes: "Seth turned his back upon their chief"(the Libyans). In her notes on this passage (p78) she writes:"The god Seth was viewed as the protector of the foreign peoples to the east and west of Egypt....". There is a lot of information packed into that short sentence. Set was the God of foreigners: Europeans and Semites!
Remember Seth was usually associated with evil, disorder and instability by the ancient Egyptians.
The God of both the Egyptians and the Nubians was Horus.
If Lichtheim's aim was to educate and spread knowledge to her least sophisticated readers we wonder why she said nothing about the texts from the tombs of Seti 1st or Merenptah or even Ramses 3rd (Book of Gates) where it is clearly written that both the ancient Egyptians and the Nubian-Sudanese(nehasu) were to have the God Horus
protect their souls in Tuat. While both the Europeans (tamaho) and the Semites(amou) were to have their souls beaten or hammered by the Lion head Goddess Sekhmet.
The Gods and Goddesses of ancient Egypt almost always originated in Nubia. And if I am not mistaken, the priestess at the most sacred temple of Amen(Amon, Amun) at Thebes had to be a Nehasi or Nubian woman!
Here again we see that the ancient Egyptians never confused themselves with Semites, Asians and certainly not with Europeans.
No amount of scholarly jargon or erudite rhetoric can change the facts! Not one of the Classical European writers, Greek or Roman, said that the "ancient Egyptians" were Semites, Asians or Europeans!
Anyone who can read the text in the original or even a good translation can begin to understand that "ancient Egypt" was as African as Nubia or Yam or Wa wat or Punt or Kush.. Remember that the mythologies and religious thinking of the Egyptians and the Nubians form one long continuum over time and space.
While the Egyptians and the Nubians often fought each other they never forgot their common origins in the heart of Africa.
Again the ancient Negro African peoples we call "ancient Egyptians" tell us who they were. We know that the ancient Egyptians did not eat with the Hebrews-it was considered a great sin. Gen. 43:32.
Herodotus tells us that neither an Egyptian woman nor man would kiss a Greek on the mouth.
If a Greek touched a knife the Egyptian would consider the knife "unclean" and would never use it again. Incidentally we find this same way of thinking among many traditional east African cultures.
Throughout her 3 volumes Lichtheim does everything possible to obscure deny or ignore the Black Negro African reality of "ancient Egypt" and its cultural and ethnic origins.
In volume III, page 3, Ms. Lichtheim continues to sing the same old song. The "egyptianized kings" of Nubia restored the royal power of a single dynasty over most of the country'. No Ms. Lichtheim! Perhaps they were not "egyptianized kings"- perhaps they were kinsmen attempting to revitalize the culture of Kmt( Egypt) from its ancient sources.
It is well known that Egyptian culture was always revitalized from Nubia. They were the same peoples.
To the dismay of Ms. Lichtheim, her "ancient Egypt" and her "Nubia" were part of the same Nile Valley cultural complex-the same black African cultural universe.
Until the very end Miriam Lichtheim remained locked in her eurocentric intellectual prison.
The three volumes must be read with caution and an appreciation of the strong cultural, ethnic and racial biases of the late Ms. Lichtheim-biases that color her interpretations and translations of the text.
The sad fact is that Lichtheim was educated and drenched in perhaps the grossest form of arrogant German Eurocentrism.
Lichtheim seemed to cling to the old Hegelian worldview, which placed black African peoples outside of human history. For Lichtheim all signs of civilizations found in ancient Africa "proper" was the result of either Asian, Semitic or even European "invaders" or immigrants "filtering in" from the "East". For Lichtheim, Hegel was right. Civilization and humanity originated in Asia. Asia was the Mother of All.
In his Introduction to the 2006 Edition of Volume 1, Loprieno writes that Lichtheim placed "...Egypt within a literary tradition shared with the world of Western Asia...."
We hasten to add that this failed attempt by Lichtheim to force ancient black African(ancient Egyptian) literature into the "Western Asia" "literary tradition" is indeed an intellectual fraud.
Especially since we know that "ancient Egyptian"(ancient Negro African) literature is the oldest writings on earth!
Lichtheim's translations and commentaries reflect her dogmas and her ideologies.
Today we know that dogma is false. Civilization and humanity originated in Africa.
Ancient Egyptian art depicts numerous examples of the king dancing in religious ceremonies.
The ancient Negro Africans (ancient Egyptians) used dance in much the same way dance is still used almost everywhere in Black Africa today.
On page 27 Vol 1., Lichtheim translates the well-known part of Harkhuf's mission to Yam. King Neferkare is anxious to have the dwarf at court who knows how to dance the dance of the Gods. There is another text where the king says he wishes to dance before the Deities.
This seems to indicate profound religious and cultural connections between "ancient Egypt" and the heart of Africa. Especially since we know that the king had many priestly duties and that he was a God /priest on earth with a celestial mandate.
In most African cultures today a God or Goddess has certain specific dances. Especially trained priest and priestess demonstrate and teach the dances of the different deities.
For example, the Yoruba Gods(Orisa) Shango and Obatala have special dances and music. So does the Goddess Oshun and Yemoja.
Lichtheim's translation and commentary ignores the undeniable Black African religious and cultural realities reflected in those passages. Here we have the virtual triumph of ideology, racial chauvinism and dogma over scholarship.
In her translation of the Mereneptah Stela (p.75 Volume 2 Lichtheim writes: "Seth turned his back upon their chief"(the Libyans). In her notes on this passage (p78) she writes:"The god Seth was viewed as the protector of the foreign peoples to the east and west of Egypt....". There is a lot of information packed into that short sentence. Set was the God of foreigners: Europeans and Semites!
Remember Seth was usually associated with evil, disorder and instability by the ancient Egyptians.
The God of both the Egyptians and the Nubians was Horus.
If Lichtheim's aim was to educate and spread knowledge to her least sophisticated readers we wonder why she said nothing about the texts from the tombs of Seti 1st or Merenptah or even Ramses 3rd (Book of Gates) where it is clearly written that both the ancient Egyptians and the Nubian-Sudanese(nehasu) were to have the God Horus
protect their souls in Tuat. While both the Europeans (tamaho) and the Semites(amou) were to have their souls beaten or hammered by the Lion head Goddess Sekhmet.
The Gods and Goddesses of ancient Egypt almost always originated in Nubia. And if I am not mistaken, the priestess at the most sacred temple of Amen(Amon, Amun) at Thebes had to be a Nehasi or Nubian woman!
Here again we see that the ancient Egyptians never confused themselves with Semites, Asians and certainly not with Europeans.
No amount of scholarly jargon or erudite rhetoric can change the facts! Not one of the Classical European writers, Greek or Roman, said that the "ancient Egyptians" were Semites, Asians or Europeans!
Anyone who can read the text in the original or even a good translation can begin to understand that "ancient Egypt" was as African as Nubia or Yam or Wa wat or Punt or Kush.. Remember that the mythologies and religious thinking of the Egyptians and the Nubians form one long continuum over time and space.
While the Egyptians and the Nubians often fought each other they never forgot their common origins in the heart of Africa.
Again the ancient Negro African peoples we call "ancient Egyptians" tell us who they were. We know that the ancient Egyptians did not eat with the Hebrews-it was considered a great sin. Gen. 43:32.
Herodotus tells us that neither an Egyptian woman nor man would kiss a Greek on the mouth.
If a Greek touched a knife the Egyptian would consider the knife "unclean" and would never use it again. Incidentally we find this same way of thinking among many traditional east African cultures.
Throughout her 3 volumes Lichtheim does everything possible to obscure deny or ignore the Black Negro African reality of "ancient Egypt" and its cultural and ethnic origins.
In volume III, page 3, Ms. Lichtheim continues to sing the same old song. The "egyptianized kings" of Nubia restored the royal power of a single dynasty over most of the country'. No Ms. Lichtheim! Perhaps they were not "egyptianized kings"- perhaps they were kinsmen attempting to revitalize the culture of Kmt( Egypt) from its ancient sources.
It is well known that Egyptian culture was always revitalized from Nubia. They were the same peoples.
To the dismay of Ms. Lichtheim, her "ancient Egypt" and her "Nubia" were part of the same Nile Valley cultural complex-the same black African cultural universe.
Until the very end Miriam Lichtheim remained locked in her eurocentric intellectual prison.
The three volumes must be read with caution and an appreciation of the strong cultural, ethnic and racial biases of the late Ms. Lichtheim-biases that color her interpretations and translations of the text.
April 20, 2026
This is a compilation of all three previously-published volumes of Ancient Egyptian Literature as translated and edited by Miriam Lichtheim. It's presented in a single paperback omnibus with a very elegant cover design and semi-gloss finish, which my dog started destroying as soon as I walked out of the room.
I had looked forward to reading this for several years (years! indeed, I had decided, quite illogically, to read all of the ancient Greek literature I was going to read first before diving further backwards in time to the Egyptians), and no sooner had I unwrapped the book and left it on the coffee table for five minutes, than I came back and found it between my dog's paws and jaws. Curse you, Champ!
(No just kidding, you're a wonderful puppy in every other way Champ and if ancient Egyptian curses are real I would never use one of them on you.)
I do have to give the book credit: it fought back. My dog has attacked several other books, including Metropolis (he has a thing for ancient history--all that dust and patina, I suppose). But Ancient Egyptian Literature was the first book to fight back. Turns out the cover is quite sharp if you start peeling back the outer layer. It made his gums bleed a bit, and in fact I got a touch of dog blood on the pages.
Anyways. The book was still perfectly readable, although that didn't stop me from going into a depressive slump for a week because of its loss of innocence. Why does it always have to be the books with wonderful covers that I pay $20-30 for a brand new copy of? I'm normally such a skinflint, buying cheap secondhand copies at used book stores and even (gasp) reading books from The Library. But once in a great while, I treat myself by spending a whole Andrew Jackson on a book, and this is what I get? Maybe I should pay in Hamiltons instead; fewer indigenous blood curses?
So anyhow, about the actual book. First, an overview of what’s in it.
If you're looking for the authoritative source on ancient Egyptian literature, then this is the book for you. Miriam (we're on a first-name basis, I feel it) took all of the translations of different Egyptian written works by different translators and pulled from them to compile a book meant to cover the corpus of what would be considered "literature."
It's actually quite important to define "literature" to understand what this book is, and she discusses this in the forward to understand her methodology. The most strict definition of literature, she says, is works which have no functional/pragmatic use. This is rather a narrow definition, though, and A) it would be a very foreign way of thinking to the ancients, and B) it would leave us with precious little to include in the volume. There are basically only a couple of proper narrative stories which don't have instructional or pragmatic uses.
So for the purpose of this text, she broadens her definition to include things with poetic value, for example. The genres of literature she included are:
- Monumental inscriptions (including biographies, royal inscriptions, decrees, and historical narratives on stelae or tomb walls)
- Hymns and prayers (especially to Osiris and Anubis, the gods you wanted to help you make it to the afterlife)
- Story-like prose narratives (i.e. The Story of Sinuhe, Shipwrecked Sailor, The Eloquent Peasant, The Two Brothers, Horus and Seth, The Doomed Prince)
- Didactic literature (mostly a father instructing his son, but also "how to be a scribe" texts)
- Lamentations (over personal or national misfortune)
- Theological treatises (only one of these)
- Love poems
The First Monumental Inscription
It starts at about 2100 BC. I remember opening the book, not sure what to expect, knowing this was going to be really ancient stuff from a totally foreign viewpoint. I knew it would have weird religious stuff to filter through and all of that, and I was ready to do the hard work of trying to see through all the layers of obscurity between now and then, to understand what the ancients thought and did. With all this in mind, I opened the book and read the first, oldest monumental inscription we have from the Old Kingdom, by one princess Ni-Sedjer-Kai.
(1) An offering which the king gives and Anubis, lord of the necropolis, first of the god’s hall: May she be buried in the western necropolis in great old age. May she travel on the good ways on which a revered one travels well.
(2) May offerings be given her on
the New Year’s feast,
the Thoth feast,
the First-of-the-Year feast,
the wag-feast,
the Sokar feast,
the Great Flame feast,
the Brazier feast,
the Procession-of-Min feast,
the monthly sadj-feast,
the Beginning-of-the-Month feast,
the Beginning-of-the-Half-Month feast,
every feast, every day, to the royal daughter, the royal ornament, Ni-sedjer-kai.
Believe it or not, a tear came to my eye. I remember thinking: wow. This is one of the oldest things we have written down. This woman was worried about death, and wanted to be remembered. How universal; relatable.
And perhaps she was a beautiful princess: described as "a royal ornament." How poetic.
She was a real woman, a human, just like me, facing that same great thing we all have to face at some point in life. And she recorded these words on this stone. Well, she probably dictated it to a mason, really.
But still. These were her words, her hope for the afterlife, her prayer when facing the end of her life. And here I am reading it, 4,000 years later. Four thousand years. That's just incredible. And we are all tied together, the beginning and the end, one human race. I hear you, Ni-Sedjer-Kai. I hope you made it. May you travel on the good ways on which a revered one travels well.
As you read through the Old Kingdom, a lot of it is monumental inscriptions like Ni-Sedjer-Kai's. The first part is usually canned, a formulaic appeal to Anubis, and then a formulaic list of your virtues. It's boasting, but it's a little interesting in that it reveals what the Egyptian's cultural values were.
And then halfway through the period, the invention of the autobiography comes along, and things get more interesting. You get a glimpse into the different professions in Egypt and what achievements were worth mentioning from their cultural worldview. These texts are self-aggrandizing, but some of the better ones have moments that are actually pretty good poetry.
Funerary Texts
Then there’s funerary texts. These are essentially religious spells. They were originally carved on the walls of royal burial chambers and later written on the coffins of private citizens. These texts were intended to bargain with the death gods to get into the afterlife: basically same purpose as the monumental inscriptions, but more like encapsulated poetic formulas rather than having any autobiographical content. The ones used by pharaohs are better quality poetry, the ones used by commoners are increasingly frenetic and delusionally grandiose.
Didactic Literature
Then there’s didactic literature: instructions or wisdom texts. These are usually written as a father speaking to a son. They provide practical advice on how to behave in professional settings, how to speak effectively, and how to maintain social order (when spoken from a king to his heir). The goal was to teach the next generation the proper way to live according to the Egyptian concept of Maat, which means truth, balance, and justice. In one of them, the pharaoh is hella paranoid about how anyone, ANYONE could backstab you, which is darkly humorous since he was assassinated by one of his own. It may be one of those things that wasn’t actually written by him though; there’s a lot of things written by people later where they attribute it to someone famous in the past. In ancient times people seemed to do that a lot.
Songs and Hymns
Songs and hymns are poetic pieces written to praise a deity, a king, or a natural force like the Nile River. They were often performed during religious festivals or official ceremonies. These texts use formal, repetitive language to honor the power and benefits provided by the subject of the hymn.
Prose Tales
Prose tales are fictional or semi-fictional stories. Finally! Unlike the formal inscriptions, these were written primarily for entertainment and to explore human experiences and emotions.
One of them is about a shipwrecked sailor provided for by a giant magical serpent. Another is about a man having a dispute with his ba (his soul); it’s incomprehensible; too many missing pieces in the surviving text and too obscure language.
Another story, The Eloquent Peasant, is about a peasant who gets taken advantage of by a noble who steals all his stuff, and so he appeals to the judge with eloquent speeches. It’s beautiful poetry that really reminded me of Hebrew Psalms and Proverbs. This was by far my favorite; it has a lot of insights into daily practical life. These Egyptians really love their bread and beer. Some things transcend all time in space.
And one final story is about a man who, during a time of upheaval when the pharaoh dies, he flees to a foreign land. When he is about to die the pharaoh sends for him and brings him back home so he can be buried there with proper funerary rites so he can go to the land of the dead.
An issue you have to come to terms with for ancient literature is lacunae. Lacunae are missing gaps in the text that have been eroded/damaged by time and we simply don’t know what was written there. There’s quite a few lacunae in the Old and Middle Kingdom texts of interest especially. This point was not lost on Champ. He ravaged the Old Kingdom the most, the Middle Kingdom halfway, and the New Kingdom not at all. This dog has a taste for irony!
With that said, I found it a fairly rewarding read. It helps that Miriam doesn’t include all the texts that she could; if she would have included all the funerary texts we have from the Middle Kingdom it would have been overwhelming in its repetitiveness and volume and been extremely boring. Instead she just picked a handful, a selection that represents the breadth of the genre with some of the more interesting or famous cases (for instance there’s a famous cannibalistic text where a pharaoh says he’s going to eat these gods; this stands alone as the only text with that theme).
If you want to know what ancient Egyptians were into, this book is it.
I had looked forward to reading this for several years (years! indeed, I had decided, quite illogically, to read all of the ancient Greek literature I was going to read first before diving further backwards in time to the Egyptians), and no sooner had I unwrapped the book and left it on the coffee table for five minutes, than I came back and found it between my dog's paws and jaws. Curse you, Champ!
(No just kidding, you're a wonderful puppy in every other way Champ and if ancient Egyptian curses are real I would never use one of them on you.)
I do have to give the book credit: it fought back. My dog has attacked several other books, including Metropolis (he has a thing for ancient history--all that dust and patina, I suppose). But Ancient Egyptian Literature was the first book to fight back. Turns out the cover is quite sharp if you start peeling back the outer layer. It made his gums bleed a bit, and in fact I got a touch of dog blood on the pages.
Anyways. The book was still perfectly readable, although that didn't stop me from going into a depressive slump for a week because of its loss of innocence. Why does it always have to be the books with wonderful covers that I pay $20-30 for a brand new copy of? I'm normally such a skinflint, buying cheap secondhand copies at used book stores and even (gasp) reading books from The Library. But once in a great while, I treat myself by spending a whole Andrew Jackson on a book, and this is what I get? Maybe I should pay in Hamiltons instead; fewer indigenous blood curses?
So anyhow, about the actual book. First, an overview of what’s in it.
If you're looking for the authoritative source on ancient Egyptian literature, then this is the book for you. Miriam (we're on a first-name basis, I feel it) took all of the translations of different Egyptian written works by different translators and pulled from them to compile a book meant to cover the corpus of what would be considered "literature."
It's actually quite important to define "literature" to understand what this book is, and she discusses this in the forward to understand her methodology. The most strict definition of literature, she says, is works which have no functional/pragmatic use. This is rather a narrow definition, though, and A) it would be a very foreign way of thinking to the ancients, and B) it would leave us with precious little to include in the volume. There are basically only a couple of proper narrative stories which don't have instructional or pragmatic uses.
So for the purpose of this text, she broadens her definition to include things with poetic value, for example. The genres of literature she included are:
- Monumental inscriptions (including biographies, royal inscriptions, decrees, and historical narratives on stelae or tomb walls)
- Hymns and prayers (especially to Osiris and Anubis, the gods you wanted to help you make it to the afterlife)
- Story-like prose narratives (i.e. The Story of Sinuhe, Shipwrecked Sailor, The Eloquent Peasant, The Two Brothers, Horus and Seth, The Doomed Prince)
- Didactic literature (mostly a father instructing his son, but also "how to be a scribe" texts)
- Lamentations (over personal or national misfortune)
- Theological treatises (only one of these)
- Love poems
The First Monumental Inscription
It starts at about 2100 BC. I remember opening the book, not sure what to expect, knowing this was going to be really ancient stuff from a totally foreign viewpoint. I knew it would have weird religious stuff to filter through and all of that, and I was ready to do the hard work of trying to see through all the layers of obscurity between now and then, to understand what the ancients thought and did. With all this in mind, I opened the book and read the first, oldest monumental inscription we have from the Old Kingdom, by one princess Ni-Sedjer-Kai.
(1) An offering which the king gives and Anubis, lord of the necropolis, first of the god’s hall: May she be buried in the western necropolis in great old age. May she travel on the good ways on which a revered one travels well.
(2) May offerings be given her on
the New Year’s feast,
the Thoth feast,
the First-of-the-Year feast,
the wag-feast,
the Sokar feast,
the Great Flame feast,
the Brazier feast,
the Procession-of-Min feast,
the monthly sadj-feast,
the Beginning-of-the-Month feast,
the Beginning-of-the-Half-Month feast,
every feast, every day, to the royal daughter, the royal ornament, Ni-sedjer-kai.
Believe it or not, a tear came to my eye. I remember thinking: wow. This is one of the oldest things we have written down. This woman was worried about death, and wanted to be remembered. How universal; relatable.
And perhaps she was a beautiful princess: described as "a royal ornament." How poetic.
She was a real woman, a human, just like me, facing that same great thing we all have to face at some point in life. And she recorded these words on this stone. Well, she probably dictated it to a mason, really.
But still. These were her words, her hope for the afterlife, her prayer when facing the end of her life. And here I am reading it, 4,000 years later. Four thousand years. That's just incredible. And we are all tied together, the beginning and the end, one human race. I hear you, Ni-Sedjer-Kai. I hope you made it. May you travel on the good ways on which a revered one travels well.
As you read through the Old Kingdom, a lot of it is monumental inscriptions like Ni-Sedjer-Kai's. The first part is usually canned, a formulaic appeal to Anubis, and then a formulaic list of your virtues. It's boasting, but it's a little interesting in that it reveals what the Egyptian's cultural values were.
And then halfway through the period, the invention of the autobiography comes along, and things get more interesting. You get a glimpse into the different professions in Egypt and what achievements were worth mentioning from their cultural worldview. These texts are self-aggrandizing, but some of the better ones have moments that are actually pretty good poetry.
Funerary Texts
Then there’s funerary texts. These are essentially religious spells. They were originally carved on the walls of royal burial chambers and later written on the coffins of private citizens. These texts were intended to bargain with the death gods to get into the afterlife: basically same purpose as the monumental inscriptions, but more like encapsulated poetic formulas rather than having any autobiographical content. The ones used by pharaohs are better quality poetry, the ones used by commoners are increasingly frenetic and delusionally grandiose.
Didactic Literature
Then there’s didactic literature: instructions or wisdom texts. These are usually written as a father speaking to a son. They provide practical advice on how to behave in professional settings, how to speak effectively, and how to maintain social order (when spoken from a king to his heir). The goal was to teach the next generation the proper way to live according to the Egyptian concept of Maat, which means truth, balance, and justice. In one of them, the pharaoh is hella paranoid about how anyone, ANYONE could backstab you, which is darkly humorous since he was assassinated by one of his own. It may be one of those things that wasn’t actually written by him though; there’s a lot of things written by people later where they attribute it to someone famous in the past. In ancient times people seemed to do that a lot.
Songs and Hymns
Songs and hymns are poetic pieces written to praise a deity, a king, or a natural force like the Nile River. They were often performed during religious festivals or official ceremonies. These texts use formal, repetitive language to honor the power and benefits provided by the subject of the hymn.
Prose Tales
Prose tales are fictional or semi-fictional stories. Finally! Unlike the formal inscriptions, these were written primarily for entertainment and to explore human experiences and emotions.
One of them is about a shipwrecked sailor provided for by a giant magical serpent. Another is about a man having a dispute with his ba (his soul); it’s incomprehensible; too many missing pieces in the surviving text and too obscure language.
Another story, The Eloquent Peasant, is about a peasant who gets taken advantage of by a noble who steals all his stuff, and so he appeals to the judge with eloquent speeches. It’s beautiful poetry that really reminded me of Hebrew Psalms and Proverbs. This was by far my favorite; it has a lot of insights into daily practical life. These Egyptians really love their bread and beer. Some things transcend all time in space.
And one final story is about a man who, during a time of upheaval when the pharaoh dies, he flees to a foreign land. When he is about to die the pharaoh sends for him and brings him back home so he can be buried there with proper funerary rites so he can go to the land of the dead.
An issue you have to come to terms with for ancient literature is lacunae. Lacunae are missing gaps in the text that have been eroded/damaged by time and we simply don’t know what was written there. There’s quite a few lacunae in the Old and Middle Kingdom texts of interest especially. This point was not lost on Champ. He ravaged the Old Kingdom the most, the Middle Kingdom halfway, and the New Kingdom not at all. This dog has a taste for irony!
With that said, I found it a fairly rewarding read. It helps that Miriam doesn’t include all the texts that she could; if she would have included all the funerary texts we have from the Middle Kingdom it would have been overwhelming in its repetitiveness and volume and been extremely boring. Instead she just picked a handful, a selection that represents the breadth of the genre with some of the more interesting or famous cases (for instance there’s a famous cannibalistic text where a pharaoh says he’s going to eat these gods; this stands alone as the only text with that theme).
If you want to know what ancient Egyptians were into, this book is it.
February 13, 2018
Well, this was an incredible book, not only by it was related to ancient Egypt, moreover, I could learn wonderful things related to mortuary transcriptions, the way they governed, and so on.
I consider this book is a good way to know more about this wonderful culture.
I consider this book is a good way to know more about this wonderful culture.
April 19, 2018
Originally published in 1973 but updated and revised for a 2006 edition, this book brings together a selection of key texts from the Old and Middle Kingdoms of ancient Egypt, and the First Intermediate Period also. The book is divided not just by era – showing us the changes in literature over time – but also by type, for example Pyramid Texts, religious poetry, instructional wisdom texts, and so on. The book is well-referenced, and the author provides notes where there is any doubt or multiple possible translations, but largely she lets the words of the ancient Egyptians speak for themselves. This is perfect for the reader wanting to dive in to the ancient Egyptian mindset. I’m aware that some people find these texts clunky and dull – and this is to some extent to be expected in the case of standard official inscriptions; try reading legalese today and you will find the same formulaic drudgery from one piece of paperwork to another. But beyond the stock phrases, there are wonderful glimpses of genuine feeling; a father for his deceased daughter, a worshipper praising the power and beauty of the sky goddess Nut, etc.
9 out of 10
9 out of 10
July 14, 2019
I feel like I’m echoing the critical aspect of some other reviews here in saying that the stunning writing presented in this book is largely infected with the translator’s own racist explanation of how mdw ntr developed in Egypt.
Honestly It’s almost ancient alien levels of discredit: Lichtheim is constantly citing European and Asian influence as the catalyst for the “belle lettres” when clearly Ancient Egyptian society is a civilization with a distinct literature developed within Africa. How hard is that to accept? Of course it wasn’t in a vacuum but you know what I mean.
The writing from this period itself is so interesting and the English translation is incredibly useful so it is unfortunate that it is comparatively analyzed with reference to the development of European categories of genre and modern interpretations of literary art. Shame.
Honestly It’s almost ancient alien levels of discredit: Lichtheim is constantly citing European and Asian influence as the catalyst for the “belle lettres” when clearly Ancient Egyptian society is a civilization with a distinct literature developed within Africa. How hard is that to accept? Of course it wasn’t in a vacuum but you know what I mean.
The writing from this period itself is so interesting and the English translation is incredibly useful so it is unfortunate that it is comparatively analyzed with reference to the development of European categories of genre and modern interpretations of literary art. Shame.
December 4, 2017
This is an interesting book if you ever had an interest in drilling down into Ancient Egyptian culture, but for other readers --- not so much. It does show how many Egyptians perceived the after life by showing their writings about themselves ---- long lists of their life's accomplishments and efforts to justify themselves before their deities for their good deeds in this life. The tales are interesting, but do stand in contrast with Biblical literature ---- seemingly with no moral to them and fawningly complimentary to the Pharaoh, much in contrast with how the Bible treats the kings of Judah and Israel, candidly discussing their deficiencies as well as their good points if they had any.
March 29, 2007
The best literature is from the Middle Kingdom, so if you read any of her volumes, read this one. I love some of these stories, and the most fascinating bit is the parallel to a lot of stories from the Bible, or language/phrases still used in Arabic today. Shows the continuity with the ancient/pagan world still evident in the major monotheistic religions of today.
April 9, 2025
Perhaps Ms Lichtheim's book would have been different had she known about the Diary of Merer. Discovered in 2013, by an American University expedition, it was scraps of papyrus found in one of the manmade caves carved out of stone from the desert floor, specifically designed to stash small ships at an intermediate location between Giza and the Sina where stone was collected from across the Red Sea for the Pyramids. Written in hieratic, a more common and useful system of writing than hieroglyphs, by a scribe for a ship's captain working directly for the elites of King Kufu during the 25th Century BC it was used to keep track of the dates, travel locations and such of Merer and his 40 plus crew.
That 4th Dynasty bit of papyrus predated another set of papyrus discovered at Abusir in 1893, a few miles south of Giza and written mid-5th Dynasty consisting of registers of supplies for several royal funerary complexes for a lesser known kings and a queen . Both the Merer Diary and Abusir papyrus are but scraps of information but from them things can be deduced.
Ms Lichtheim died in 2004, and the Diary of Merer was discovered n 2013 as mentioned. Had she knew about that she may have connected it with the Abusir papyrus. From the Abusir Text is mentioned.
"that on Month 4 of flood day 6 the supervisor of the library Kakaiankh signed for top foreleg and had been there just the day prior on flood day 5 to pick up another indecipherable choice cut of meat!"
Scandalous right! … What? … No?… actually yes. These are the only two instances of papyrus being found prior to papyrus becoming common in the 20th Century BC, yet their use in either instance looks pretty common. This may of led her to selecting other utterances from Unas's Pyrmaid texts rather than the ones chosen for her theme. Best, would she had changed the theme altogether. Since Unas was at the forefront of recorded history and in a position to shape narratives, let's see what Unas had to say about papyrus!
Utterance 271
388: To say the words:
"Unas is he who has caused the land to be under water [Nile flood], after he came out of the
Lake.
It is Unas who has plucked up the papyrus.
Unas is he who has satisfied (Htp) the Two Lands.
Unas is he who has united the Two Lands.
Unas is he who will unite himself with his mother [kamutef deity], the Great Wild Cow (smA.t
wr.t).
-based on translations by Faulkner, Piankoff and Speleer.
As many translations as there are of the Pyramid Text you're going to find "Unas plucked up (or pulled out) the papyrus." in all of them. Strange line to be in the Pyramid Text and yet to not have drawn much comment from Egyptologists , but now with the discovery of these ships logs written on papyrus in hieratic script and news of some meat eating librarian was also known to exist during the mid 5th Dynasty thanks to the same, it's fair to say that papyrus and the hieratic script were both common during the time of the Great Pyramid. Yet there is at least a 500 year separation from these and when this system of writing became common again in the 20th Century BC. Egyptologists often lament that papyrus did not begin to come into common use until so late into the record. They knew from latter writings there were a lot of social problems stemming from an absurd division of labor and mentions of revolts during the Old Kingdom that contributed to it's ultimate collapse, but they claim not to have a clear picture b/c no papyrus! Maybe Utterance 271 can be taken more serious now?
Maybe it's time to look at Utterance 251? which also didn't fit Ms Litchthem's theme so was thus omitted in her book yet it's where we find this -
…(He) whom Unas finds on his way, he will eat him piecemeal.
The hnt-pelican announces (sr), the ennead(psD.t)-pelican comes out.
The Great One rises. The enneads speak: completely dammed-off shall be the land.
279: The two ridges of the mountain (on both sides of the Nile valley) shall be united.
The two banks of the river will be joined.
The roads will be hidden from the passers-by.
The steps (rwd.w) will be annihilated for those who go up.
Make tight the rope (of the boat), sail the road of heaven!
Strike the ball on the meadow of Hapi (Apis)!
Alexandre Piankoff in 1968 wrote it off as "a prophecy of disturbance in the world order". Since then, I've found no other commentary on that strange statement by Unas, by Piankoff. Yet isn't it interesting that that Piankoff's comment can be related to "The Book of the Heavenly Cow" also known as "The Destruction of Mankind" for which the ancient theme is the maintenance of world order and that begins to make its appearance most prominently during the 19th Dynasty, though it keeps cropping up in some of the stories Ms Lichtheim brings us. The genre is large however so I'll keep searching, but before I leave the Pyramid Text all together there are other tell tale signs that begin to manifest once one takes seriously the thought that Unas and his acolytes in Helipolis flooded the Nile.
There's mention of "the Dam Scepter" for one, mentioned clearly at least once, other uses are bit obscure depending on the translator and scepters are mentioned. Then there's Unas's out and out hostility shown for rebels, the cannibal hymn also comes to mind, which is easily argued deals with more than just eating the gods as we are told (it's them but people too). The mention of so many deities that control Nile, from Hapi to Khnum, and even Sekhemt. Where we find this mentioned in Faulkner's translation and Mercer does it too without the pun Faulkner et al, left in parentheses.
Utterance 262:
To say the words:
"Unas is a great one.
Unas came out between the thighs of the Divine Ennead.
Unas was conceived by Sekhmet;
It is Shesemtet [loincloth ornament] who gave birth to Unas
(as) to a star with sharp (spd) front (hA.t), with wide stride, which brings provender for the
road of Re every day.
Unas has come to his throne which is over (tp.t) the Two Goddessess (who protect Upper and
Lower Egypt), and Unas appears (xaj) as a star."
Ms Lichtheim will get to Sekhmet briefly as the goddess Hathor in her second anthology covering the New Kingdom in a short mythological tale called "The Destruction of Man Kind", more commonly known as "The Book of the Heavenly Cow" were in the Sun God Re is angered by rebellious man and goes to the Ennead (strip the myth out and it's actually the priests at Heliopolis) for advice and they tell him to send down his Eye (Eye of Ra) as Hathor to destroy man and she complies, taking on her Sekhmet form as a raging lioness and begins to ravage and slay mankind till Re shocked to see how effective she is finally relents and orders a special beer made to get her drunk so that she stops. There's much more to myth and it is attested to on the tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I, and at least three of the Rameses tombs. Both Piankoff in 1955 but the Hornung in 1982 version provide good English translations though others existed earlier.
Anyways, will try to wind this up. Getting too long. Through Lichthem's anthology one might deduce that it was the entire 6th Dynasty, 187 years after Unas and likely much longer, that had a hand in severely putting down revolts on the Nile and that the Devine Right of Kings to kill all their subjects in revolt had long been an established practice likely even before the Great Pyramid and that Unas actually saw it as his duty to flood the Nile and destroy all the papyrus and it all gets codified in myth starting with the 18th Dynasty.
Here is how close Ms Litchem was to figuring it all out according to one writer.
"The Royal Instruction of Khety to Merikare a text from the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2198 - 1938 BCE), the central motif of the destruction of rebellious mankind is alluded to in the Hymn to Re (cf. italics), suggestive of a common mythological frame. If Lichtheim is correct, the Book of the Heavenly Cow was a classic of Egyptian literature."
As you read through Ms Litchem's many stories in her Anthology collection you will notice that some of the stories like "The Instruction Addressed to King Merikare", "The Elegant Peasant" and others to include Utterance 486 from Pepi's tomb, would collaborate with the above theory and that is my lament, that it has not been done to date as far as I'm aware though I’m currently reading Toby Wilkinson's History on Ancient Egypt and he's certainly pushing 90% of the theme.
That 4th Dynasty bit of papyrus predated another set of papyrus discovered at Abusir in 1893, a few miles south of Giza and written mid-5th Dynasty consisting of registers of supplies for several royal funerary complexes for a lesser known kings and a queen . Both the Merer Diary and Abusir papyrus are but scraps of information but from them things can be deduced.
Ms Lichtheim died in 2004, and the Diary of Merer was discovered n 2013 as mentioned. Had she knew about that she may have connected it with the Abusir papyrus. From the Abusir Text is mentioned.
"that on Month 4 of flood day 6 the supervisor of the library Kakaiankh signed for top foreleg and had been there just the day prior on flood day 5 to pick up another indecipherable choice cut of meat!"
Scandalous right! … What? … No?… actually yes. These are the only two instances of papyrus being found prior to papyrus becoming common in the 20th Century BC, yet their use in either instance looks pretty common. This may of led her to selecting other utterances from Unas's Pyrmaid texts rather than the ones chosen for her theme. Best, would she had changed the theme altogether. Since Unas was at the forefront of recorded history and in a position to shape narratives, let's see what Unas had to say about papyrus!
Utterance 271
388: To say the words:
"Unas is he who has caused the land to be under water [Nile flood], after he came out of the
Lake.
It is Unas who has plucked up the papyrus.
Unas is he who has satisfied (Htp) the Two Lands.
Unas is he who has united the Two Lands.
Unas is he who will unite himself with his mother [kamutef deity], the Great Wild Cow (smA.t
wr.t).
-based on translations by Faulkner, Piankoff and Speleer.
As many translations as there are of the Pyramid Text you're going to find "Unas plucked up (or pulled out) the papyrus." in all of them. Strange line to be in the Pyramid Text and yet to not have drawn much comment from Egyptologists , but now with the discovery of these ships logs written on papyrus in hieratic script and news of some meat eating librarian was also known to exist during the mid 5th Dynasty thanks to the same, it's fair to say that papyrus and the hieratic script were both common during the time of the Great Pyramid. Yet there is at least a 500 year separation from these and when this system of writing became common again in the 20th Century BC. Egyptologists often lament that papyrus did not begin to come into common use until so late into the record. They knew from latter writings there were a lot of social problems stemming from an absurd division of labor and mentions of revolts during the Old Kingdom that contributed to it's ultimate collapse, but they claim not to have a clear picture b/c no papyrus! Maybe Utterance 271 can be taken more serious now?
Maybe it's time to look at Utterance 251? which also didn't fit Ms Litchthem's theme so was thus omitted in her book yet it's where we find this -
…(He) whom Unas finds on his way, he will eat him piecemeal.
The hnt-pelican announces (sr), the ennead(psD.t)-pelican comes out.
The Great One rises. The enneads speak: completely dammed-off shall be the land.
279: The two ridges of the mountain (on both sides of the Nile valley) shall be united.
The two banks of the river will be joined.
The roads will be hidden from the passers-by.
The steps (rwd.w) will be annihilated for those who go up.
Make tight the rope (of the boat), sail the road of heaven!
Strike the ball on the meadow of Hapi (Apis)!
Alexandre Piankoff in 1968 wrote it off as "a prophecy of disturbance in the world order". Since then, I've found no other commentary on that strange statement by Unas, by Piankoff. Yet isn't it interesting that that Piankoff's comment can be related to "The Book of the Heavenly Cow" also known as "The Destruction of Mankind" for which the ancient theme is the maintenance of world order and that begins to make its appearance most prominently during the 19th Dynasty, though it keeps cropping up in some of the stories Ms Lichtheim brings us. The genre is large however so I'll keep searching, but before I leave the Pyramid Text all together there are other tell tale signs that begin to manifest once one takes seriously the thought that Unas and his acolytes in Helipolis flooded the Nile.
There's mention of "the Dam Scepter" for one, mentioned clearly at least once, other uses are bit obscure depending on the translator and scepters are mentioned. Then there's Unas's out and out hostility shown for rebels, the cannibal hymn also comes to mind, which is easily argued deals with more than just eating the gods as we are told (it's them but people too). The mention of so many deities that control Nile, from Hapi to Khnum, and even Sekhemt. Where we find this mentioned in Faulkner's translation and Mercer does it too without the pun Faulkner et al, left in parentheses.
Utterance 262:
To say the words:
"Unas is a great one.
Unas came out between the thighs of the Divine Ennead.
Unas was conceived by Sekhmet;
It is Shesemtet [loincloth ornament] who gave birth to Unas
(as) to a star with sharp (spd) front (hA.t), with wide stride, which brings provender for the
road of Re every day.
Unas has come to his throne which is over (tp.t) the Two Goddessess (who protect Upper and
Lower Egypt), and Unas appears (xaj) as a star."
Ms Lichtheim will get to Sekhmet briefly as the goddess Hathor in her second anthology covering the New Kingdom in a short mythological tale called "The Destruction of Man Kind", more commonly known as "The Book of the Heavenly Cow" were in the Sun God Re is angered by rebellious man and goes to the Ennead (strip the myth out and it's actually the priests at Heliopolis) for advice and they tell him to send down his Eye (Eye of Ra) as Hathor to destroy man and she complies, taking on her Sekhmet form as a raging lioness and begins to ravage and slay mankind till Re shocked to see how effective she is finally relents and orders a special beer made to get her drunk so that she stops. There's much more to myth and it is attested to on the tombs of Tutankhamun, Seti I, and at least three of the Rameses tombs. Both Piankoff in 1955 but the Hornung in 1982 version provide good English translations though others existed earlier.
Anyways, will try to wind this up. Getting too long. Through Lichthem's anthology one might deduce that it was the entire 6th Dynasty, 187 years after Unas and likely much longer, that had a hand in severely putting down revolts on the Nile and that the Devine Right of Kings to kill all their subjects in revolt had long been an established practice likely even before the Great Pyramid and that Unas actually saw it as his duty to flood the Nile and destroy all the papyrus and it all gets codified in myth starting with the 18th Dynasty.
Here is how close Ms Litchem was to figuring it all out according to one writer.
"The Royal Instruction of Khety to Merikare a text from the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2198 - 1938 BCE), the central motif of the destruction of rebellious mankind is alluded to in the Hymn to Re (cf. italics), suggestive of a common mythological frame. If Lichtheim is correct, the Book of the Heavenly Cow was a classic of Egyptian literature."
As you read through Ms Litchem's many stories in her Anthology collection you will notice that some of the stories like "The Instruction Addressed to King Merikare", "The Elegant Peasant" and others to include Utterance 486 from Pepi's tomb, would collaborate with the above theory and that is my lament, that it has not been done to date as far as I'm aware though I’m currently reading Toby Wilkinson's History on Ancient Egypt and he's certainly pushing 90% of the theme.
November 13, 2024
Como advertencia antes de comenzar la reseña en cuanto al presunto racismo/anti-africanismo de la autora ignoro la discusión así que recomiendo las otras reseñas de Goodreads en inglés que tratan el tema.
Entiendo que este primer tomo a muchos de los que han reseñado se les haya hecho aburrido, pero a mi no, aunque es verdad que me suele gustar la poesía en versos breves, como sentencias con lo que l0 he disfrutado, y se puede modular la velocidad de lectura con lo que no tiene que hacerse repetitivo si no quieres. Los cuentos están entretenidos, los más famosos son los mejores, haciendo mención al relato moral del Campesino elocuente con la moraleja de "no hagas a los demás lo que no quieres para ti" y los cuentos como el de Sinuhe y el Marinero náufrago.
En cuanto a los comentarios más allá del tema del racismo los he visto poco relevantes, para lo que podían ser, sobretodo para los que estamos familiarizándonos por primera vez con la literatura egipcia.
Entiendo que este primer tomo a muchos de los que han reseñado se les haya hecho aburrido, pero a mi no, aunque es verdad que me suele gustar la poesía en versos breves, como sentencias con lo que l0 he disfrutado, y se puede modular la velocidad de lectura con lo que no tiene que hacerse repetitivo si no quieres. Los cuentos están entretenidos, los más famosos son los mejores, haciendo mención al relato moral del Campesino elocuente con la moraleja de "no hagas a los demás lo que no quieres para ti" y los cuentos como el de Sinuhe y el Marinero náufrago.
En cuanto a los comentarios más allá del tema del racismo los he visto poco relevantes, para lo que podían ser, sobretodo para los que estamos familiarizándonos por primera vez con la literatura egipcia.
March 9, 2023
I wouldn’t bother reading much of Lichtheim’s commentary, which is greatly outdated, but these stories are so valuable for humanizing and characterizing the ancient Egyptian dorks who commissioned these literary works. Everything from fairy tales to political satire. ~Delightful~. This isn’t something I read cover to cover, I poked around. I’ll keep coming back to these stories when they’re referenced in other works, or for whenever else I’m looking for a good time.
September 23, 2021
This book has a ton of interesting readings from Egypt, and I appreciate the introductory context provided.
August 2, 2024
Содержит только переводы, почти нет комментариев. Но переводы качественные (точнее, чем у Аллена).
July 26, 2019
This is a great book. Effective writing skills. Just love it
December 7, 2017
Beautiful and mind opening. Such power, such wisdom, so long ago.
September 23, 2014
This collection of Ancient Egyptian writings sheds some light on a fascinating and mysterious culture. Like The Epic of Gilgamesh, these writings show us that even through an amazing separation of distance and time there are fundamental aspects of humanity that link us all. Unlike Gilgamesh, Egyptian literature takes a tentative step away from the deeds of perfect heroes and towards the exposition of the life of ordinary mortals. Among the themes explored are justice, redemption, and mortality. In addition to these lofty subjects, there is practical advice for everything from being a good dinner guest to winning an argument (hint: don't engage). Taken as a whole, this collection is well worth a taste.
Hidden among the bland tomb inscriptions and funerary spells, there are some literary jewels. The "Instruction of Ptahotep" and "Testament of a Heracleopolitan King" are full of good advice for even modern readers. Resounding concepts, such as the existence of free-will, the inherent equality of all men, and the reciprocal response to every action, are discussed. "Ptahotep" and "A Dispute between a Man and his Ba" include touching and thoughtful reflections on life and death. "The Shipwrecked Sailor", a charming and mysterious tale of a castaway who discovers an enchanted island, is a fun precursor to the fantasy literature of later generations. "The Eloquent Peasant" is a thorough exposition of the nature of justice. It is notable for including an early version of the "Golden Rule": the "Do Unto Others..." of biblical fame. The apex of the collection is the "Story of Sinuhe", which includes a more subtle and complex narrative than the others. Unlike earlier "autobiographies", it is not simply a listing of accomplishments. Unlike the “propaganda literature”, its protagonist is not an omnipotent god but an everyman who shows fear and exercises bad judgment in fleeing his kingdom. His search for atonement makes him relatable. Sinuhe’s accomplishments are not just ideals to be in awe of but are precedents to emulate. We all feel fear and make mistakes. If we strive intelligently and diligently, perhaps we, like Sinuhe, can find forgiveness and, ultimately, peace. "Sinuhe" is a fitting conclusion to an anthology that lays out what was a solid foundation for world literature.
Hidden among the bland tomb inscriptions and funerary spells, there are some literary jewels. The "Instruction of Ptahotep" and "Testament of a Heracleopolitan King" are full of good advice for even modern readers. Resounding concepts, such as the existence of free-will, the inherent equality of all men, and the reciprocal response to every action, are discussed. "Ptahotep" and "A Dispute between a Man and his Ba" include touching and thoughtful reflections on life and death. "The Shipwrecked Sailor", a charming and mysterious tale of a castaway who discovers an enchanted island, is a fun precursor to the fantasy literature of later generations. "The Eloquent Peasant" is a thorough exposition of the nature of justice. It is notable for including an early version of the "Golden Rule": the "Do Unto Others..." of biblical fame. The apex of the collection is the "Story of Sinuhe", which includes a more subtle and complex narrative than the others. Unlike earlier "autobiographies", it is not simply a listing of accomplishments. Unlike the “propaganda literature”, its protagonist is not an omnipotent god but an everyman who shows fear and exercises bad judgment in fleeing his kingdom. His search for atonement makes him relatable. Sinuhe’s accomplishments are not just ideals to be in awe of but are precedents to emulate. We all feel fear and make mistakes. If we strive intelligently and diligently, perhaps we, like Sinuhe, can find forgiveness and, ultimately, peace. "Sinuhe" is a fitting conclusion to an anthology that lays out what was a solid foundation for world literature.
Read
August 3, 2011The translations and notes are great. Unfortunately, Egyptian literature is, with very few exceptions, desperately dull. I would only recommend it to those who are interested in the language itself. There are a few prose tales at the end of the book that might appeal to a wider audience, but even those will seem dull and repetitive to those who are not used to ancient southwest Asian literature.
August 14, 2009
This three-set series was glued to me for a good portion of my undergraduate career.
March 4, 2011
I enjoyed this look into the literature of the fascinating ancient Egyptian culture. It reminds me of how much we are all alike, no matter the time frame or the place.
May 28, 2012
Great!!
November 6, 2013
Desperately boring but useful for the study of Egyptian history.
July 23, 2015
this was pretty historically interesting but it turns out that tomb inscriptions are pretty boring to read
March 6, 2016
TO REREAD IN 2016
February 21, 2016
A textbook, therefore not written for your entertainment. It IS, however, educational.
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