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The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry
The latest edition of this highly praised anthology of ancient Egyptian literature offers fresh translations of all the texts as well as some twenty-five new entries, including writings from the late literature of the Demotic period at the end of classical Egyptian history.
Praise for the earlier editions:
“An elegant, easily readable, and most serviceable volume.”—K. A. Kitchen, Journal of Near Eastern Studies
“A reliable rendering of the Egyptian text that can be useful to students of Egyptology and provide the layman with delightful reading material.”—Mordechai Gilula, Cultura
Praise for the earlier editions:
“An elegant, easily readable, and most serviceable volume.”—K. A. Kitchen, Journal of Near Eastern Studies
“A reliable rendering of the Egyptian text that can be useful to students of Egyptology and provide the layman with delightful reading material.”—Mordechai Gilula, Cultura
598 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
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884 people want to read
About the author
William Kelly Simpson
27 books3 followersWilliam Kelly Simpson was an American professor of Egyptology, Archaeology, Ancient Egyptian literature, and Afro-Asiatic languages at Yale University. He was one of several co-directors of the University of Pennsylvania Museum Yale University Expedition to Abydos, Egypt, which conducts archaeological excavations of ancient sites.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 22, 2023
Beautiful anthology of ancient Egyptian literature, provided by top translators from the English-speaking region. The texts are arranged by genre (stories, wisdom literature, religious literature, songs and hymns, official epigraphs, autobiographical material), and certainly the most well-known texts are included. All texts are briefly situated, although that could certainly have been more concrete. In that respect, Toby Wilkinson's anthology Writings from Ancient Egypt is much better (although it does not include late Egyptian texts, in demotic script).
Beware, it are very ancient texts, only partially preserved (most of them on papyrus) which means that words, sentences or passages are often missing, and that the different versions of the ancient Egyptian language do not always allow for an unequivocal or expressive translation. This makes some of these texts rather difficult to read. Anyway, I was impressed by the diversity and the depth of some of the lyrics. Another proof that, as children of modernity, we continue to have a derogatory prejudice against older "primitive" cultures.
For a more in-depth review, see the review in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Beware, it are very ancient texts, only partially preserved (most of them on papyrus) which means that words, sentences or passages are often missing, and that the different versions of the ancient Egyptian language do not always allow for an unequivocal or expressive translation. This makes some of these texts rather difficult to read. Anyway, I was impressed by the diversity and the depth of some of the lyrics. Another proof that, as children of modernity, we continue to have a derogatory prejudice against older "primitive" cultures.
For a more in-depth review, see the review in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
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October 21, 2024Very creditable anthology, and - as far as I can judge - also largely excellent translations. Of course, for me as a layman, it is mainly the intelligibility that counts, and that is not an easy aspect. Because Ancient Egypt experienced quite a bit of evolution in its three-thousand-year existence, and some genres (such as hymns) are in themselves rather hermetic.
For me, the most interesting and most eloquent texts have an emphasis on the literary content. It is striking that the earliest literary texts only date from the beginning of the 2nd millennium bce, several centuries later than the Mesopotamian ones. But since they are immediately counted as part of the Golden Period of Ancient Egyptian literature, you can assume that a high-level literary tradition must have existed for much longer. I am thinking, for example, of the ingenious fantasy story The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, the well-known The Tale of Sinuhe, and the books of wisdom, with the The Instruction of Ptah-hotep And the Instruction of Ke'gemni and especially The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Griffith Institute Publications) and Dispute Between a Man and His Ba as highlights. To be honest: this level has not been reached anymore afterwards, and that is also a remarkable difference with Mesopotamia, where gems were still produced in the second half of the 2nd and in the 1st millennium bce.
The only texts that come close are Love Poetry and Songs from the Ancient Egyptians composed in the New Kingdom (1500-1200 bce) and the extensive historical accounts (always with a strong propagandistic slant, of course). Also New Kingdom - Amarna Period: The Great Humn to Aten Iconography of Religion (Iconography of Religions) by the controversial pharaoh Akhenaten should be included. I liked that this anthology also included Demotic texts (from the 1st millennium BCE and also the first centuries AD), where connections with Greek and Hebrew texts can be clearly made.
In general, the Ancient Egyptian texts have their own character, are structurally influenced by the fact that the pharaonic court did have a very strong control over the culture (and therefore gives a somewhat misleading picture), and that influences between other areas and cultures in the Ancient Near East are certainly noticeable. As far as I can estimate, there is still a lot of work to be done, especially in the latter domain, to get a better picture of this mutual interaction.
For me, the most interesting and most eloquent texts have an emphasis on the literary content. It is striking that the earliest literary texts only date from the beginning of the 2nd millennium bce, several centuries later than the Mesopotamian ones. But since they are immediately counted as part of the Golden Period of Ancient Egyptian literature, you can assume that a high-level literary tradition must have existed for much longer. I am thinking, for example, of the ingenious fantasy story The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, the well-known The Tale of Sinuhe, and the books of wisdom, with the The Instruction of Ptah-hotep And the Instruction of Ke'gemni and especially The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Griffith Institute Publications) and Dispute Between a Man and His Ba as highlights. To be honest: this level has not been reached anymore afterwards, and that is also a remarkable difference with Mesopotamia, where gems were still produced in the second half of the 2nd and in the 1st millennium bce.
The only texts that come close are Love Poetry and Songs from the Ancient Egyptians composed in the New Kingdom (1500-1200 bce) and the extensive historical accounts (always with a strong propagandistic slant, of course). Also New Kingdom - Amarna Period: The Great Humn to Aten Iconography of Religion (Iconography of Religions) by the controversial pharaoh Akhenaten should be included. I liked that this anthology also included Demotic texts (from the 1st millennium BCE and also the first centuries AD), where connections with Greek and Hebrew texts can be clearly made.
In general, the Ancient Egyptian texts have their own character, are structurally influenced by the fact that the pharaonic court did have a very strong control over the culture (and therefore gives a somewhat misleading picture), and that influences between other areas and cultures in the Ancient Near East are certainly noticeable. As far as I can estimate, there is still a lot of work to be done, especially in the latter domain, to get a better picture of this mutual interaction.
April 24, 2020
This anthology is a fascinating glimpse into a long dead civilisation that saves Ancient Egypt from the ignorant view that it was a culture solely obsessed with the dead, but it rather shows how this culture was very much a culture of life. The collection contains such tales as the Tale of Sinuhe(Middle Kingdom) and the tale of the two brothers(post-New kingdom collapse, early 11th century). My favourite section was the beginning section about the Old Kingdom, since this era in Egypt's history is often seen through the glimpse of the massive constructions that the kingdom achieved and the only literary source that is commonly remembered from that era is the pyramid texts. The tales written in the Old kingdom in this anthology are mainly based around Khufu and his immediate successors and are very religious in nature as can be expected. But the awesome part is that some of these stories predate the earliest tablets from the Epic of Gilgamesh by about 200 years! Overall, the anthology is a very good insight for anyone keenly interested in Egypt. The penguin writings from ancient Egypt is also very good, but is very centred on the New Kingdom; this anthology is more focused on its predecessors(mainly the Middle Kingdom, though I think that wasn't by design but just be a scarcity of sources in the old kingdom).
June 24, 2023
It's really a tragedy -- you would think that three millennia of Egyptian culture would have produced hundreds of volumes of great poetry, epics, histories, etc. This is certainly the case for Chinese culture, e.g.; there are dozens of world-class writers in every genre going back to roughly 1000 B.C. But for Egyptian writing across all genres, this Yale anthology essentially covers it . . . just a few hundred pages! For whatever reason this was not a culture that valued the written word.
With that said, it's still a tantalizing glimpse into a fascinating culture. The reading material is somewhat dry -- fragmentary bits of Psalm-esque didactic poems, brief accounts of whichever pharaoh won whichever battle against whomever, some funerary/mortuary texts, religious invocations -- but I think worth reading.
With that said, it's still a tantalizing glimpse into a fascinating culture. The reading material is somewhat dry -- fragmentary bits of Psalm-esque didactic poems, brief accounts of whichever pharaoh won whichever battle against whomever, some funerary/mortuary texts, religious invocations -- but I think worth reading.
August 27, 2021
While I cannot say that I enjoyed every reading in this anthology, I enjoyed the book as a whole and find myself coming back to it often, particularly for the maxims and instructions. Typically presented as teaching of a father to a son, the proverbs that they contain reveal a perspective that is often surprisingly relevant today. Also enjoyable is the "Satire on the Trades: The Instruction of Dua-Khety," in which a man tries to sell his son on the profession of scribe by explaining the pains of every other job. I think these entries stand out because they feel the most modern and human. Most of the other entries, while fascinating, tend to be laden with overly formal language or bizarre supernatural events (often both) which I think must be typical of the culture at the time, but it can make reading difficult. I really had to read several pieces a couple of times to appreciate them. That said, I am glad that I took the time to do it because I emerged from the book with a much deeper understanding of ancient Egypt, a civilization that has always fascinated me.
August 22, 2009
This is an adequate survey of translations of material from ancient Egypt and a useful jumping-off point for interested readers. There is not much in the corpus of Egyptian writing remotely approaching the quality of the Greeks or Semitic tribes, or the Babylonians.
The translations are mostly readable though a little awkward. The translators intentionally attempt to preserve something of the grammatical structure of the Egyptian, which strikes me as odd. One does not translate into bad English, and whatever information is conveyed in mimicking Egyptian sentence structures will probably be of interest only to specialists who are unlikely to study this volume.
I'm wavering between three and four stars in part because some genres gets short shrift (hymns, coffin texts, and funeral texts) and some translations are a bit off (like the willfully eclectic rendering of "Dialog between a Man Weary of Life and his Soul"). I'd give it three and a half stars if I could.
More explanatory notes would also be useful.
The translations are mostly readable though a little awkward. The translators intentionally attempt to preserve something of the grammatical structure of the Egyptian, which strikes me as odd. One does not translate into bad English, and whatever information is conveyed in mimicking Egyptian sentence structures will probably be of interest only to specialists who are unlikely to study this volume.
I'm wavering between three and four stars in part because some genres gets short shrift (hymns, coffin texts, and funeral texts) and some translations are a bit off (like the willfully eclectic rendering of "Dialog between a Man Weary of Life and his Soul"). I'd give it three and a half stars if I could.
More explanatory notes would also be useful.
June 16, 2018
It all started because of Daniel Radcliffe and his QI episode, where he talked about the Westcar Papyrus. It didn’t take long to read said papyrus, which then led me to the Story of Sinuhe, and then to save myself from randomly clicking Wikipedia links, I looked around for an anthology and found this book, which I think is a pretty decent anthology of Ancient Egyptian literature. I know nothing about Egyptology (I’ve seen the Brendan Fraser movies so I know that much) so any anthology really would have served as a good introduction. So thank you, Daniel Radcliffe.
February 14, 2008
A pretty good balance, for an anthology of ancient stories. It's a difficult genre to manage, and some of the translations are rather antiquated themselves. But if you're looking for some good stories, it's a good place to look. Lichtheim can be better, but really, if you don't want to read scholarly articles about the texts, then look at both and the truth is probably between them.
October 22, 2017
An excellent anthology that may shed more light on Egyptian Coffin Texts (Ritual Spells), Egyptian Religious Studies. Faulkner never fails when it comes to in-depth understanding of Egyptian Civilization. One may commiserate with the "Man who was tired of living", penetrate the woes of one the twelve great sages of Egypt, read superb love poetry to Hathor, read how Horus won the seat at the Council of the Gods (Ennead), and much more! Between myth and magic, one takes one's lifeblood and makes the myth alive and like the eternal Atum-Lotos and Aten - shine again with great splendor! Astarte, the wife of Seth, and the insatiable sea of wonder awaits!
March 6, 2020
The second book of Egyptian writings I have read. This had some of the same pieces but also some new ones.
My favourites were the love poems, they really humanised the ancient Egyptians and show how much like us they really were. I also enjoyed the report of Wenamon for much the same reasons, the very human dramas of the emissary as he attempted to fulfil her mission.
Honourable mention goes to the Contendings of Horus and Seth for being absolutely bizarre.
My favourites were the love poems, they really humanised the ancient Egyptians and show how much like us they really were. I also enjoyed the report of Wenamon for much the same reasons, the very human dramas of the emissary as he attempted to fulfil her mission.
Honourable mention goes to the Contendings of Horus and Seth for being absolutely bizarre.
August 24, 2009
A pleasant diversity of material from Ancient Egypt, translated into very readable modern English. I'm skimming some of the it, because the book is ginormous, but I'm finding a lot of the selections fascinating.
July 18, 2020
Loved the narratives and am fascinated by the tales within this anthology. The monumental inscriptions and didactic instructions were quite tough to digest though.
Overall, an amazing resource for the general reader interested in exploring one of the oldest literary traditions in the world.
Overall, an amazing resource for the general reader interested in exploring one of the oldest literary traditions in the world.
October 22, 2024
Interesting stories from ancient Egypt and then many pages of advice from a father, usually a Pharoah, to his son which was sometimes similar to Proverbs in the Bible. This seemed standard wisdom literature. What was startling to me were the last advice texts written by scribes to their sons and in order to persuade them to be scribes. They described other work vocations in ancient Egypt, how draining they were, injurious to the body sometimes, and how severe the officials were about their work. They were not slaves but men with specific work, farmers included.
March 21, 2021
Not an easy read but fascinating on several levels. The selections provide a correction to common perceptions of ancient Egypt. Some of the literary productions rival the quality of other ancient civilizations. The connections to biblical works are fascinating
January 11, 2023
I read
The eloquent peasant
Tale of the shipwrecked sailor
Both gas
The eloquent peasant
Tale of the shipwrecked sailor
Both gas
January 31, 2025
Contains some very beautiful songs, as well as numerous wisdom texts that shed much light on the customs of the time.
classic-book-reading-list
November 17, 2025Read The Shipwrecked Sailor, The Tale of Sinuhe, The Eloquent Peasant, Tale of Two Brothers, Story of Wenamun
Read
January 16, 2024c. 2600 BCE The Life of Metjen, from Saqqara
2040-1782 BCE - The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
c. 2570 Diary of merer oldest papyrus https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
1500 BCE https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Mid 14th BCE https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
1250 BCE https://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...
1208 BCE Merneptah stele
C. 1000 bce?? Dispute between a man and his ba
Quarrel of Apepi and seqenenre, capture of Joppa, thutmos III in Asia, battle of Lybia https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
The legend of the Sun's Eye
Demotic 2nd CE
Greek 3rd CE
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... perlego
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Check author https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
2040-1782 BCE - The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
c. 2570 Diary of merer oldest papyrus https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
1500 BCE https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Mid 14th BCE https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
1250 BCE https://www.britishmuseum.org/collect...
1208 BCE Merneptah stele
C. 1000 bce?? Dispute between a man and his ba
Quarrel of Apepi and seqenenre, capture of Joppa, thutmos III in Asia, battle of Lybia https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
The legend of the Sun's Eye
Demotic 2nd CE
Greek 3rd CE
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... perlego
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Check author https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
June 29, 2017
I am obsessed with Kemetic literature; with Ancient African literature in itself but when you get these glimpses of the stories that were told the ancient past truly seems to wash over me and take me back to the place these stories were spoken. Sadly, some parts are no longer with us; some lost or have fallen apart due to aging and weather, but the majority of this astonishing compilation of ancient african literature is in tact and if you love ancient Africa; if you love Kemet ; the spirituality and / or the histories.... you will not be able to put it down...
I know I'll be re-reading this, many times, even though I have many more to complete... Brilliant and highly recommended...
I know I'll be re-reading this, many times, even though I have many more to complete... Brilliant and highly recommended...
October 1, 2015
I read the tale of the eloquent Peasant. It is a mixture of the parable of the widow in the New Testament who won't leave the judge alone and finally gets her remedy, job and his multiplication of rewards after he has suffered, and potentially Cinderella. I like the concepts relating to the administration of justice, the role of the judiciary, and the warnings against the lack of an effective legal system.
August 1, 2012
Awesome for referencing obscure Ancient Egyptian lit. It gives a more complete look at the culture of the time than other things I have referenced.
May 11, 2015
I didn't read all of this but I really enjoyed what I did.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews