1,99 €
Mehr erfahren.
- Herausgeber: Booksell-Verlag
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
In "The Literature of Ancient Egypt," E. A. Wallis Budge presents a comprehensive exploration of the rich tapestry of ancient Egyptian texts, ranging from religious hymns to wisdom literature. This scholarly work is meticulously organized, offering both translations and contextual analyses of key inscriptions and narratives, showcasing the linguistic sophistication and literary merit of the Egyptians. Budge's classic prose not only captures the essence of these ancient works but also situates them within the cultural and historical milieu of ancient Egypt, highlighting their enduring significance. The interplay of mythology, morality, and daily life is expertly woven throughout the text, providing readers with a profound insight into the spiritual and sociopolitical landscape of one of history's most enigmatic civilizations. E. A. Wallis Budge, a renowned Egyptologist and curator at the British Museum, dedicated his life to the study of ancient Egypt, which uniquely positions him to elucidate the complexities of its literature. His extensive travels, fieldwork, and proficiency in translating hieroglyphics, alongside his deep appreciation for cultural preservation, fueled his desire to bring ancient Egyptian texts to a wider audience. Budge's scholarship is enriched by his firsthand experiences and interactions with Egyptian artifacts, allowing him to delve into the minds of the ancients with both accuracy and reverence. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in ancient cultures, literature, or the evolution of written expression. Scholars and casual readers alike will find Budge's analyses illuminating, as he bridges the past with present literary concerns, inviting us to reflect on the timeless themes that resonate through our own narratives. Whether you're a seasoned historian or a novice to the subject, Budge's work promises to deepen your understanding of not just ancient Egypt, but the shared human experience reflected through literature. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023
Ähnliche
The Literature of Ancient Egypt
Table of Contents
Introduction
Across a gulf of millennia, The Literature of Ancient Egypt by E. A. Wallis Budge invites readers to hear the living voices of a civilization, tracing how prayers, counsels, stories, and inscriptions wrestle with time, power, duty, and the search for meaning amid a world built to endure yet lived by mortal hearts; through selections drawn from temple walls, tomb papyri, and scribal instruction, the book stages a meeting between permanence and fragility, placing texts fashioned for divine ritual and royal display beside reflections shaped by everyday concerns, and asking what it takes for words to outlast sand, silence, and the erosions of history.
This volume is a scholarly collection of translations, a cross-section of ancient Egyptian writings presented for general readers and students of antiquity. Compiled and translated by E. A. Wallis Budge, it belongs to the early twentieth century, with first publication in the 1910s, when Egyptology was establishing its foundational corpora. The book’s subject is not a single narrative but a literary landscape, gathering religious, didactic, and narrative compositions from pharaonic Egypt. Its publication context reflects a period of intense archaeological discovery and philological effort, when the aim was to render inscriptions and manuscripts accessible beyond specialist circles while preserving a sense of their original dignity.
The premise is straightforward yet ambitious: to let ancient Egyptian texts speak in extended passages, supported by concise introductions and explanatory notes. Readers encounter a translation voice that is formal and measured, shaped by the conventions of its time, and attentive to the gravity of sacred and ceremonial language. The result is a reading experience that feels at once archival and immersive, offering a curated window onto antiquity. Rather than dramatize or novelize, the book invites contemplation, encouraging readers to move slowly through prayers, instructions, and tales, and to register the tonal shifts between devotion, counsel, wit, and sober memorial.
Key themes surface with striking consistency across selections: the passage from life to death and the aspiration for remembrance; the responsibilities of office and the ethics of conduct; reverence for divine order and the anxieties provoked by disorder; the triumphs of kingship and the endurance of the household. Wisdom and piety sit alongside curiosity and playfulness, revealing a culture that recognized both cosmic scope and intimate detail. By juxtaposing such materials, the book underscores how literary craft served many purposes—consolation, instruction, celebration, and record-keeping—while constantly returning to questions of justice, legacy, and the proper balance between humility and ambition.
Budge’s method is notably synthetic: he groups texts by type and function, offers succinct context where provenance or historical framing is known, and lets the translations carry the narrative weight. The editorial stance favors clarity and continuity, enabling non-specialists to follow shifts in voice without elaborate technical apparatus. Attention to formula, refrain, and ceremonial cadence conveys how these works once circulated through ritual, education, and administration. Even where exact dates or authorship remain uncertain, the presentation foregrounds the lived settings of the texts—temple precincts, workshops, officials’ residences, and classrooms—so that literary forms appear as practical instruments as well as markers of intellectual and spiritual aspiration.
For contemporary readers, the book’s value lies in how it broadens the idea of literature itself, situating lyric devotion, moral reflection, and bureaucratic exactitude on a shared continuum of expression. It invites reflection on translation as an act of stewardship, raising questions about what can and cannot be carried across languages and centuries. It also highlights the diversity within a single civilization’s written heritage, offering perspectives on justice, leadership, mortality, and community that resonate beyond their original milieu. Engaging with these materials can deepen historical empathy and sharpen awareness of how cultural memory is constructed, preserved, and renewed through the written word.
Approached today, The Literature of Ancient Egypt offers both a gateway and a vantage point: a gateway into a rich corpus that rewards further exploration, and a vantage point on the early twentieth-century effort to assemble, order, and share the texts of a distant past. Readers can expect a serious, reflective tone, deliberate pacing, and an emphasis on the intrinsic power of primary sources. As scholarship continues to evolve, this collection remains a useful introduction to the terrain, encouraging careful reading and thoughtful comparison. Above all, it affirms that the voices of ancient Egypt endure, inviting dialogue with the present through disciplined attention and humane curiosity.
Synopsis (Selection)
E. A. Wallis Budge’s The Literature of Ancient Egypt presents a broad anthology of Egyptian writings from the Old Kingdom through the later periods. The book organizes translated selections by type and era, offering religious compositions, royal inscriptions, tales, wisdom texts, hymns, and lyrical poetry. Budge introduces each group with concise context to situate the texts historically and culturally. His purpose is to make primary sources accessible, showing how beliefs, governance, and daily life are expressed in writing. The volume emphasizes continuity and development across millennia, drawing on inscriptions, papyri, stelae, and tomb texts to trace Egypt’s literary and intellectual traditions.
The opening chapters outline the foundations of Egyptian literacy and record-keeping. Budge explains scripts and materials—hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic; papyrus, stone, and ostraca—and notes the circumstances of preservation and discovery. He sketches major historical periods and the institutional contexts that produced texts, especially temples and the state administration. Brief remarks on language, translation choices, and the role of scribes frame the selections that follow. This introduction sets expectations for the thematic arrangement, guiding readers from funerary and theological writings to secular narratives, moral treatises, and official inscriptions that together constitute Egypt’s literary corpus.
The survey begins with religious and funerary literature, starting from the earliest mortuary formulas. Selections from the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts show prayers, spells, and cosmic imagery intended to secure the deceased’s transformation. Budge includes passages from the Book of the Dead, highlighting key chapters that describe judgment, the weighing of the heart, and addresses to deities. These compositions illuminate concepts of the soul, the geography of the afterlife, and the centrality of Osiris. Notes on ritual performance and the placement of texts in tombs and on objects demonstrate how writing functioned practically within funerary cults.
Didactic and wisdom writings appear next, presenting ethical instruction and administrative advice. Texts such as the Instructions of Ptahhotep, Kagemni, and Merikare set out ideals of measured speech, self-control, justice, and effective leadership. Later compositions, including the Instructions of Amenemhat and Amenemope, show continuity in values and their application in court and household. Budge highlights maxims, exemplary anecdotes, and guidance for scribal training. Together these pieces portray a moral order grounded in ma’at, where social harmony and personal discipline align. Their concise, memorable style indicates their use in education and practical governance.
Narrative literature follows, with celebrated tales that combine entertainment, moral reflection, and political themes. Budge summarizes and translates stories such as the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor, the Story of Sinuhe, episodes from the Westcar Papyrus, and the Story of the Two Brothers. These narratives explore exile and return, cleverness and fate, and the interplay of human action and divine will. Later stories with magical elements extend the tradition into new settings. By presenting these pieces in order, the book shows the development of plot, characterization, and motif across periods, while preserving the distinctive voice of Egyptian storytelling.
Hymns and poetry demonstrate the lyrical and devotional range of the tradition. Budge includes hymns to major deities and cosmic forces—praises to Ra, Amun, and Osiris, the Hymn to the Nile, and compositions associated with Aten worship—illustrating theological emphases and royal piety. Secular lyrics, such as love songs and harpers’ songs, present personal expression, reflections on mortality, and celebration of beauty. The selections show how hymnody reinforced state ideology and ritual, while secular poetry conveyed private sentiment. Attention to structure, repeated epithets, and musical phrasing reveals the performative contexts in temple, court, and household.
Royal and historical inscriptions provide a documentary record of state action and memory. Budge presents annalistic passages, victory stelae, building dedications, and expedition narratives, including accounts of campaigns, foreign relations, and temple endowments. Representative texts include the Poem describing the Battle of Kadesh and inscriptions relating to notable rulers and events. These documents display the language of kingship, divine sanction, and the ordering of time through monumental record. By juxtaposing narrative and formulaic elements, the book shows how history, theology, and propaganda converge in the official voice and how such texts anchored chronology.
Magical, medical-religious, and administrative writings broaden the picture of everyday concerns and safeguarding practices. Budge includes protective spells, charms against bites and fevers, and cippi inscriptions invoking divine healing. Calendars of lucky and unlucky days and domestic rites illustrate practical ritual. Letters, contracts, petitions, and court records give evidence of property transfers, disputes, and bureaucratic procedure. Admonitory and prophetic texts, such as social laments and reflections on disorder, add perspectives on crisis and renewal within the ideology of ma’at. These materials clarify how writing mediated risk, regulated society, and preserved precedent.
The volume concludes by underscoring the coherence of Egyptian literature across genres and centuries. Budge’s arrangement enables readers to see recurring concerns—afterlife, justice, kingship, piety, and personal conduct—expressed in varied forms. Brief editorial notes and cross-references link texts to historical settings and religious practices, facilitating comparison and study. The book’s central message is the durability of a literary culture that integrated ritual, administration, and artful speech. By presenting authoritative translations of key compositions in sequence, it offers a structured pathway into Egyptian thought and shows how writing sustained cultural memory over time.
Historical Context
E. A. Wallis Budge’s The Literature of Ancient Egypt is set across the cultural and historical landscape of the Nile Valley from the earliest dynastic formations (c. 3100 BCE) to the Ptolemaic and Roman eras. Its texts emerge from Memphis, Heliopolis, Thebes, Amarna, Saqqara, Abydos, and later Alexandria—centers where religion, kingship, and scribal institutions converged. The linguistic strata—Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian, and Demotic—are preserved on stone, papyrus, ostraca, and wood. The work is anchored in the ritual and administrative lifeworld of temples, palaces, and village communities, where Ma’at (cosmic order) framed law and ethics. Budge presents this world as a continuum of statecraft, piety, diplomacy, and everyday petitions, recorded by professional scribes.
State formation under Narmer (c. 3100 BCE) and the consolidation of kingship in the Old Kingdom (Third–Sixth Dynasties, c. 2686–2181 BCE) produced the monumental horizon of Djoser’s Step Pyramid at Saqqara and the Fourth Dynasty pyramids at Giza. Ideology centered on the divine king, solar theology at Heliopolis, and a centralized bureaucracy at Memphis. The earliest funerary corpus—the Pyramid Texts—was inscribed in Unas’s pyramid (c. 2353–2323 BCE), encoding royal afterlife doctrines. Budge’s volume links this political order to literature by translating early sapiential traditions and hymns, including the Maxims of Ptahhotep (attributed to a Fifth Dynasty vizier, preserved in Middle Kingdom copies), which articulate elite ethics within a stratified court society.
The First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BCE) fractured royal authority between Herakleopolitan and Theban houses, producing social instability reflected in laments like the Admonitions of Ipuwer. Reunification came under Mentuhotep II from Thebes (c. 2055 BCE), inaugurating the Middle Kingdom. The Twelfth Dynasty, founded by Amenemhat I (1991 BCE) at Itjtawy near el-Lisht, consolidated power through legal reforms, irrigation, and fortifications at Semna and Uronarti under Senusret III (1878–1839 BCE). This era’s scribal classicism generated the Tale of Sinuhe (c. 1875 BCE), the Instruction for King Merikare, the Eloquent Peasant, and the Prophecy of Neferty. Budge foregrounds these texts because they fuse policy, royal ideology, and social justice, revealing how reunification reshaped ethical and administrative discourse.
The Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650–1550 BCE) saw Hyksos rule from Avaris in the Delta until Ahmose I (c. 1550 BCE) expelled them and founded the New Kingdom. Egyptian imperial expansion followed: Thutmose III’s campaign at Megiddo (1457 BCE) and sustained control over Canaan and Nubia; Amenhotep III’s diplomatic zenith; then Akhenaten’s religious revolution (1353–1336 BCE) at Akhetaten (Amarna), elevating the Aten and recasting royal piety, captured in hymns. Restoration under Tutankhamun and Horemheb preceded Ramesses II’s clash with the Hittites at Kadesh (1274 BCE) and the 1259 BCE peace treaty. Late Ramesside turbulence included the first recorded labor strike at Deir el-Medina (Year 29 of Ramesses III, c. 1155 BCE) and tomb-robbery trials. Budge represents these upheavals through hymns, victory poems, petitions, and legal papyri.
Mortuary religion evolved from the Pyramid Texts to the Coffin Texts (c. 2055–1650 BCE) and the New Kingdom Book of the Dead (c. 1550–50 BCE). Spell 125’s “Negative Confession” and the Weighing of the Heart—before Osiris, with Anubis and Thoth officiating under the standard of Ma’at—codified ethical accountability. The British Museum’s Papyrus of Ani (c. 1275 BCE), acquired in 1888 and published by Budge in 1895, became a touchstone for this tradition. Budge’s anthology relies on such funerary corpora to demonstrate how theology, law, and social norms converged: the deceased’s moral record is a civic ledger, and the spells’ formulae encode bureaucratic metaphors drawn from courts, tax registers, and temple archives.
Foreign domination shaped later literature. Kushite kings of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Piye, Taharqa, c. 747–656 BCE) asserted Theban piety before Assyrian invasions (Esarhaddon 671 BCE; Ashurbanipal’s sack of Thebes, 663 BCE). The Saite Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664–525 BCE) revived archaism until Achaemenid conquest by Cambyses II (525 BCE). After brief independence (404–343 BCE), Artaxerxes III reconquered Egypt (343 BCE). Alexander the Great entered Egypt in 332 BCE; Ptolemy I founded the Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BCE) with Alexandria as a cosmopolitan center. Cleopatra VII’s defeat at Actium (31 BCE) and annexation (30 BCE) ended pharaonic rule. Budge includes Demotic narratives (e.g., Setna cycles) and temple hymns that register legal petitions, priestly politics, and Greek–Egyptian religious synthesis.
Modern events enabled the book’s creation. The Rosetta Stone (found 1799; deciphered by Champollion, 1822) unlocked hieroglyphs; Prussian, French, and British expeditions followed (Lepsius, 1842–45). The Service des Antiquités, founded by Mariette in 1858, regulated excavations; partage and Law 14 of 1912 governed division of finds. Britain occupied Egypt in 1882 and declared a protectorate in 1914. Budge, Keeper at the British Museum (1883–1934), led acquisitions (notably the Ani papyrus) during collecting missions of 1886–1902. His translations appeared amid scholarly rivalry with the Berlin school (Erman, Sethe). First published in 1914 in London, the book mirrors imperial museum competition and the early philological consolidation of Egyptology, shaping selection, terminology, and public access.
By curating laments, petitions, and royal instructions alongside funerary ethics, the book renders a social and political critique embedded in pharaonic sources. The Eloquent Peasant’s insistence on Ma’at exposes bureaucratic corruption and class asymmetry; the Admonitions of Ipuwer voices famine, civil disorder, and the fragility of rule; Deir el-Medina documents protest and wage arrears; tomb-robbery trials record systemic breakdown. Royal teachings project ideals of just kingship against recurrent abuses. Published amid imperial control of Egypt’s heritage, Budge’s accessible translations also implicitly contest scholarly exclusivity, amplifying indigenous ethical discourse that scrutinizes power, redistribution, and legal redress in both ancient and contemporaneous administrative orders.
The Literature of Ancient Egypt
Literature of Ancient Egypt
Preface
This little book is intended to serve as an elementary introduction to the study of Egyptian Literature. Its object is to present a short series of specimens of Egyptian compositions, which represent all the great periods of literary activity in Egypt under the Pharaohs, to all who are interested in the study of the mental development of ancient nations. It is not addressed to the Egyptological specialist, to whom, as a matter of course, its contents are well known, and therefore its pages are not loaded with elaborate notes and copious references. It represents, I believe, the first attempt made to place before the public a summary of the principal contents of Egyptian Literature in a handy and popular form.
The specimens of native Egyptian Literature printed herein are taken from tombs, papyri, stelæ, and other monuments, and, with few exceptions, each specimen is complete in itself. Translations of most of the texts have appeared in learned works written by Egyptologists in English, French, German, and Italian, but some appear in English for the first time. In every case I have collated my own translations with the texts, and, thanks to the accurate editions of texts which have appeared in recent years, it has been found possible to make many hitherto difficult passages clear. The translations are as literal as the difference between the Egyptian and English idioms will permit, but it has been necessary to insert particles and often to invert the order of the words in the original works in order to produce a connected meaning in English. The result of this has been in many cases to break up the short abrupt sentences in which the Egyptian author delighted, and which he used frequently with dramatic effect. Extraordinarily concise phrases have been paraphrased, but the meanings given to several unknown words often represent guess-work.
In selecting the texts for translation in this book an attempt has been made to include compositions that are not only the best of their kind, but that also illustrate the most important branches of Egyptian Literature. Among these religious, mythological, and moral works bulk largely, and in many respects these represent the peculiar bias of the mind of the ancient Egyptian better than compositions of a purely historical character. No man was more alive to his own material interests, but no man has ever valued the things of this world less in comparison with the salvation of his soul and the preservation of his physical body. The immediate result of this was a perpetual demand on his part for information concerning the Other World, and for guidance during his life in this world. The priests attempted to satisfy his craving for information by composing the Books of the Dead and the other funerary works with which we are acquainted, and the popularity of these works seems to show that they succeeded. From the earliest times the Egyptians regarded a life of moral excellence upon earth as a necessary introduction to the life which he hoped to live with the blessed in heaven. And even in pyramid times he conceived the idea of the existence of a God Who judged rightly, and Who set "right in the place of wrong." This fact accounts for the reverence in which he held the Precepts of Ptah-hetep, Kaqemna, Herutataf, Amenemhāt I, Ani, Tuauf, Amen-hetep, and other sages. To him, as to all Africans, the Other World was a very real thing, and death and the Last Judgment were common subjects of his daily thoughts. The great antiquity of this characteristic of the Egyptian is proved by a passage in a Book of Precepts, which was written by a king of the ninth or tenth dynasty for his son, who reigned under the name of Merikarā. The royal writer in it reminds his son that the Chiefs [of Osiris] who judge sinners perform their duty with merciless justice on the Day of Judgment. It is useless to assume that length of years will be accepted by them as a plea of justification. With them the lifetime of a man is only regarded as a moment. After death these Chiefs must be faced, and the only things that they will consider will be his works. Life in the Other World is for ever, and only the reckless fool forgets this fact. The man who has led a life free from lies and deceit shall live after death like a god.
E.A. WALLIS BUDGE.
British Museum,
April 17, 1914.
Chapter I Thoth, The Author of Egyptian Literature. Writing Materials, Etc.
The Literature of ancient Egypt is the product of a period of about four thousand years, and it was written in three kinds of writing, which are called hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic. In the first of these the characters were pictures of objects, in the second the forms of the characters were made as simple as possible so that they might be written quickly, and in the third many of them lost their picture form altogether and became mere symbols. Egyptian writing was believed to have been invented by the god Tehuti, or Thoth, and as this god was thought to be a form of the mind and intellect and wisdom of the God who created the heavens and the earth, the picture characters, or hieroglyphs as they are called, were held to be holy, or divine, or sacred. Certain religious texts were thought to possess special virtue when written in hieroglyphs, and the chapters and sections of books that were considered to have been composed by Thoth himself were believed to possess very great power, and to be of the utmost benefit to the dead when they were written out for them in hieroglyphs, and buried with them in their coffins. Thoth also invented the science of numbers, and as he fixed the courses of the sun, moon, and stars, and ordered the seasons, he was thought to be the first astronomer. He was the lord of wisdom, and the possessor of all knowledge, both heavenly and earthly, divine and human; and he was the author of every attempt made by man to draw, paint, and carve. As the lord and maker of books, and as the skilled scribe, he was the clerk of the gods, and kept the registers wherein the deeds of men were written down. The deep knowledge of Thoth enabled him to find out the truth at all times, and this ability caused the Egyptians to assign to him the position of Chief Judge of the dead. A very ancient legend states that Thoth acted in this capacity in the great trial that took place in heaven when Osiris was accused of certain crimes by his twin-brother Set, the god of evil. Thoth examined the evidence, and proved to the gods that the charges made by Set were untrue, and that Osiris had spoken the truth and that Set was a liar. For this reason every Egyptian prayed that Thoth might act for him as he did for Osiris, and that on the day of the Great Judgment Thoth might preside over the weighing of his heart in the Balance. All the important religious works in all periods were believed to have been composed either by himself, or by holy scribes who were inspired by him. They were believed to be sources of the deepest wisdom, the like of which existed in no other books in the world. And it is probably to these books that Egypt owed her fame for learning and wisdom, which spread throughout all the civilised world. The "Books of Thoth," which late popular tradition in Egypt declared to be as many as 36,525 in number, were revered by both natives and foreigners in a way which it is difficult for us in these days to realise. The scribes who studied and copied these books were also specially honoured, for it was believed that the spirit of Thoth, the twice-great and thrice-great god, dwelt in them. The profession of the scribe was considered to be most honourable, and its rewards were great, for no rank and no dignity were too high for the educated scribe. Thoth appears in the papyri and on the monuments as an ibis-headed man, and his companion is usually a dog-headed ape called "Asten." In the Hall of the Great Judgment he is seen holding in one hand a reed with which he is writing on a palette the result of the weighing of the heart of the dead man in the Balance. The gods accepted the report of Thoth without question, and rewarded the good soul and punished the bad according to his statement.
Thoth, the Scribe of the Gods.
From the beginning to the end of the history of Egypt the position of Thoth as the "righteous judge," and framer of the laws by which heaven and earth, and men and gods were governed, remained unchanged.
The substances used by the Egyptians for writing upon were very numerous, but the commonest were stone of various kinds, wood, skin, and papyrus. The earliest writings were probably traced upon these substances with some fluid, coloured black or red, which served as ink. When the Egyptians became acquainted with the use of the metals they began to cut their writings in stone. The text of one of the oldest chapters of the Book of the Dead (LXIV) is said in the Rubric to the chapter to have been "found" cut upon a block of "alabaster of the south" during the reign of Menkaurā, a king of the fourth dynasty, about 3700 B.C. As time went on and men wanted to write long texts or inscriptions, they made great use of wood as a writing material, partly on account of the labour and expense of cutting in stone. In the British Museum many wooden coffins may be seen with their insides covered with religious texts, which were written with ink as on paper. Sheepskin, or goatskin, was used as a writing material, but its use was never general; ancient Egyptian documents written on skin or, as we should say, on parchment, are very few. At a very early period the Egyptians learned how to make a sort of paper, which is now universally known by the name of "papyrus." When they made this discovery cannot be said, but the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the early dynasties contain the picture of a roll of papyrus, and the antiquity of the use of papyrus must therefore be very great. Among the oldest dated examples of inscribed papyrus may be noted some accounts which were written in the reign of King Assa (fourth dynasty, 3400 B.C.), and which were found at Sakkārah, about 20 miles to the south of Cairo.
Papyrus was made from the papyrus plant that grew and flourished in the swamps and marshes of Lower Egypt, and in the shallow pools that were formed by the annual Nile flood. It no longer grows in Egypt, but it is found in the swamps of the Egyptian Sūdān, where it grows sometimes to a height of 25 feet. The roots and the stem, which is often thicker than a man's arm, are used as fuel, and the head, which is large and rounded, is in some districts boiled and eaten as a vegetable. The Egyptian variety of the papyrus plant was smaller than that found in the Sūdān, and the Egyptians made their paper from it by cutting the inner part of the stem into thin strips, the width of which depended upon the thickness of the stem; the length of these varied, of course, with the length of the stem.
Thoth and Amen-Rā Succouring Isis in the Papyrus Swamps.
To make a sheet of papyrus several of these strips were laid side by side lengthwise, and several others were laid over them crosswise. Thus each sheet of papyrus contained two layers, which were joined together by means of glue and water or gum. Pliny, a Roman writer, states (Bohn's edition, vol. iii. p. 189) that Nile water, which, when in a muddy state, has the peculiar qualities of glue, was used in fastening the two layers of strips together, but traces of gum have actually been found on papyri. The sheets were next pressed and then dried in the sun, and when rubbed with a hard polisher in order to remove roughnesses, were ready for use.1 By adding sheet to sheet, rolls of papyrus of almost any length could be made. The longest roll in the British Museum is 133 feet long by 16½ inches high (Harris Papyrus, No. 1), and the second in length is a copy of the Book of the Dead, which is 123 feet long and 18½ inches high; the latter contains 2666 lines of writing arranged in 172 columns. The rolls on which ordinary compositions were written were much shorter and not so high, for they are rarely more than 20 feet long, and are only from 8 to 10 inches in height.
The scribe mixed on his palette the paints which he used. This palette usually consisted of a piece of alabaster, wood, ivory, or slate, from 8 to 16 inches in length and from 2 to 3½ inches in width; all four corners were square. At one end of the palette a number of oval or circular hollows were sunk to hold ink or paint. Down the middle was cut a groove, square at one end and sloping at the other, in which the writing reeds were placed. These were kept in position by a piece of wood glued across the middle of the palette, or by a sliding cover, which also served to protect the reeds from injury. On the sides of this groove are often found inscriptions that give the name of the owner of the palette, and that contain prayers to the gods for funerary offerings, or invocations to Thoth, the inventor of the art of writing. The black ink used by the scribes was made of lamp-black or of finely-powdered charcoal mixed with water, to which a very small quantity of gum was probably added. Red and yellow paint were made from mineral earths or ochres, blue paint was made from lapis-lazuli powder, green paint from sulphate of copper, and white paint from lime-white. Sometimes the ink was placed in small wide-mouthed pots made of Egyptian porcelain or alabaster. The scribe rubbed down his colours on a stone slab with a small stone muller. The writing reed, which served as a pen, was from 8 to 10 inches long, and from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch in diameter; the end used in writing was bruised and not cut. In late times a very much thicker reed was used, and then the end was cut like a quill or steel pen. Writing reeds of this kind were carried in boxes of wood and metal specially made for the purpose. Many specimens of all kinds of Egyptian writing materials are to be seen in the Egyptian Rooms of the British Museum.
Wooden Palette of Rāmeri, an official of Thothmes IV. 1470 B.C. Wooden Palette of Aāhmes I, King of Egypt 1600 B.C.
As papyrus was expensive the pupils in the schools attached to the great temples of Egypt wrote their exercises and copies of standard literary compositions on slices of white limestone of fine texture, or upon boards, in the shape of modern slates used in schools, whitened with lime. The "copies" from which they worked were written by the teacher on limestone slabs of somewhat larger size. Copies of the texts that masons cut upon the walls of temples and other monuments were also written on slabs of this kind, and when figures of kings or gods were to be sculptured on the walls their proportions were indicated by perpendicular and horizontal lines drawn to scale. Portions of broken earthen-ware pots were also used for practising writing upon, and in the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods lists of goods, and business letters, and the receipts given by the tax-gatherers, were written upon potsherds. In still later times, when skin or parchment was as expensive as papyrus, the Copts, or Egyptian Christians, used slices of limestone and potsherds for drafts of portions of the Scriptures and letters in much the same way as did their ancestors.
A roll of papyrus when not in use was kept in shape by a string or piece of papyrus cord, which was tied in a bow; sometimes, especially in the case of legal documents, a clay seal bearing the owner's name was stamped on the cord. Valuable rolls were kept in wooden cases or "book boxes," which were deposited in a chamber or "house" set apart for the purpose, which was commonly called the "house of books," i.e. the library. Having now described the principal writing materials used by the ancient Egyptians, we may pass on to consider briefly the various classes of Egyptian Literature that have come down to us.
1 In some parts of Mesopotamia where scribes at the present day use rough paper made in Russia, each sheet before being written upon is laid upon a board and polished by means of a glass bottle.
Chapter II The Pyramid Texts
"Pyramid Texts" is the name now commonly given to the long hieroglyphic inscriptions that are cut upon the walls of the chambers and corridors of five pyramids at Sakkārah. The oldest of them was built for Unas, a king of the fifth dynasty, and the four others were built for Teta, Pepi I, Merenrā, and Pepi II, kings of the sixth dynasty. According to the calculation of Dr. Brugsch, they were all built between 3300 and 3150 B.C., but more recent theories assign them to a period about 700 years later. These Texts represent the oldest religious literature known to us, for they contain beliefs, dogmas, and ideas that must be thousands of years older than the period of the sixth dynasty when the bulk of them was drafted for the use of the masons who cut them inside the pyramids. It is probable that certain sections of them were composed by the priests for the benefit of the dead in very primitive times in Egypt, when the art of writing was unknown, and that they were repeated each time a king died. They were first learned by heart by the funerary priests, and then handed on from mouth to mouth, generation after generation, and at length after the Egyptians had learned to write, and there was danger of their being forgotten, they were committed to writing. And just as these certain sections were absorbed into the great body of Pyramid Texts of the sixth dynasty, so portions of the Texts of the sixth dynasty were incorporated into the great Theban Book of the Dead, and they appear in papyri that were written more than 2000 years later. The Pyramid Texts supply us with much information concerning the religious beliefs of the primitive Egyptians[1q], and also with many isolated facts of history that are to be found nowhere else, but of the meaning of a very large number of passages we must always remain ignorant, because they describe states of civilisation, and conditions of life and climate, of which no modern person can form any true conception. Besides this the meanings of many words are unknown, the spelling is strange and often inexplicable, the construction of the sentence is frequently unlike anything known in later texts, and the ideas that they express are wholly foreign to the minds of students of to-day, who are in every way aliens to the primitive Egyptian African whose beliefs these words represent. The pyramids at Sakkārah in which the Pyramid Texts are found were discovered by the Frenchman, Mariette, in 1880. Paper casts of the inscriptions, which are deeply cut in the walls and painted green, were made for Professor Maspero, the Director of the Service of Antiquities in Egypt, and from these he printed an edition in hieroglyphic type of all five texts, and added a French translation of the greater part of them. Professor Maspero correctly recognised the true character of these old-world documents, and his translation displayed an unrivalled insight into the true meaning of many sections of them. The discovery and study of other texts and the labours of recent workers have cleared up passages that offered difficulties to him, but his work will remain for a very long time the base of all investigations.
The Pyramid Texts, and the older texts quoted or embodied in them, were written, like every religious funerary work in Egypt, for the benefit of the king, that is to say, to effect his glorious resurrection and to secure for him happiness in the Other World, and life everlasting. They were intended to make him become a king in the Other World as he had been a king upon earth; in other words, he was to reign over the gods, and to have control of all the powers of heaven, and to have the power to command the spirits and souls of the righteous, as his ancestors the kings of Egypt had ruled their bodies when they lived on earth. The Egyptians found that their king, who was an incarnation of the "Great God," died like other men, and they feared that, even if they succeeded in effecting his resurrection by means of the Pyramid Texts, he might die a second time in the Other World. They spared no effort and left no means untried to make him not only a "living soul" in the Tuat, or Other World, but to keep him alive there. The object of every prayer, every spell, every hymn, and every incantation contained in these Texts, was to preserve the king's life. This might be done in many ways. In the first place it was necessary to provide a daily supply of offerings, which were offered up in the funerary temple that was attached to every pyramid. The carefully selected and duly appointed priest offered these one by one, and as he presented each to the spirit of the king he uttered a formula that was believed to convert the material food into a substance possessing a spiritual character and fit to form the food of the ka, or "double," or "vital power," of the dead king. The offerings assisted in renewing his life, and any failure to perform this service was counted a sin against the dead king's spirit. It was also necessary to perform another set of ceremonies, the object of which was to "open the mouth" of the dead king, i.e. to restore to him the power to breathe, think, speak, taste, smell, and walk. At the performance of these ceremonies it was all-important to present articles of food, wearing apparel, scents and unguents, and, in short, every object that the king was likely to require in the Other World. The spirits of all these objects passed into the Other World ready for use by the spirit of the king. It follows as a matter of course that the king in the Other World needed a retinue, and a bodyguard, and a host of servants, just as he needed slaves upon earth. In primitive times a large number of slaves, both male and female, were slain when a king died, and their bodies were buried in his tomb, whilst their spirits passed into the Other World to serve the spirit of the king, just as their bodies had served his body upon earth. As the king had enemies in this world, so it was thought he would have enemies in the Other World, and men feared that he would be attacked or molested by evilly-disposed gods and spirits, and by deadly animals and serpents, and other noxious reptiles. To ward off the attacks of these from his tomb, and his mummified body, and his spirit, the priest composed spells of various kinds, and the utterance of such, in a proper manner, was believed to render him immune from the attacks of foes of all kinds. Very often such spells took the form of prayers. Many of the spells were exceedingly ancient, even in the Pyramid Period; they were, in fact, so old that they were unintelligible to the scribes of the day. They date from the time when the Egyptians believed more in magic than religion; it is possible that when they were composed, religion, in our sense of the word, was still undeveloped among the Egyptians.
When the Pyramid Texts were written men believed that the welfare of souls and spirits in the Other World could be secured by the prayers of the living. Hence we find in them numerous prayers for the dead, and hymns addressed to the gods on their behalf, and extracts from many kinds of ancient religious books. When these were recited, and offerings made both to the gods and to the dead, it was confidently believed that the souls of the dead received special consideration and help from the gods, and from all the good spirits who formed their train. These prayers are very important from many points of view, but specially so from the fact that they prove that the Egyptians who lived under the sixth dynasty attached more importance to them than to magical spells and incantations. In other words, the Egyptians had begun to reject their belief in the efficacy of magic, and to develop a belief of a more spiritual character. There were many reasons for this development, but the most important was the extraordinary growth of the influence of the religion of Osiris, which had before the close of the period of the sixth dynasty spread all over Egypt. This religion promised to all who followed it, high or low, rich or poor, a life in the world beyond the grave, after a resurrection that was made certain to them through the sufferings, death, and resurrection of Osiris, who was the incarnation of the great primeval god who created the heavens and the earth. A few extracts illustrating the general contents of the Pyramid Texts may now be given.
I. Mention has already been made of the "opening of the mouth" of the dead king: under the earliest dynasties this ceremony was performed on a statue of the king. Water was sprinkled before it, and incense was burnt, and the statue was anointed with seven kinds of unguents, and its eyes smeared with eye paint. After the statue had been washed and dressed a meal of sepulchral offerings was set before it. The essential ceremony consisted in applying to the lips of the statue a curiously shaped instrument called the Pesh Kef, with which the bandages that covered the mouth of the dead king in his tomb were supposed to be cut and the mouth set free to open. In later times the Liturgy of Opening the Mouth was greatly enlarged and was called the Book of Opening the Mouth. The ceremonies were performed by the Kher-heb priest, the son of the deceased, and the priests and ministrants called Sameref, Sem, Smer, Am-as, Am-khent, and the assistants called Mesentiu. First of all incense was burnt, and the priest said, "Thou art pure," four times. Water was then sprinkled over the statue and the priest said, "Thou art pure. Thou art pure. Thy purifications are the purifications of Horus,1 and the purifications of Horus are thy purifications." This formula was repeated three times, once with the name of Set,2 once with the name of Thoth,3 and once with the name of Sep. The priest then said, "Thou hast received thy head, and thy bones have been brought unto thee before Keb."4 During the performance of the next five ceremonies, in which incense of various kinds was offered, the priest said: "Thou art pure (four times). That which is in the two eyes of Horus hath been presented unto thee with the two vases of Thoth, and they purify thee so that there may not exist in thee the power of destruction that belongeth unto thee. Thou art pure. Thou art pure. Pure is the seman incense that openeth thy mouth. Taste the taste thereof in the divine dwelling. Seman incense is the emission of Horus; it stablisheth the heart of Horus-Set, it purifieth the gods who are in the following of Horus. Thou art censed with natron. Thou art established among the gods thy brethren. Thy mouth is like that of a sucking calf on the day of its birth. Thou art censed. Thou art censed. Thou art pure. Thou art pure. Thou art established among thy brethren the gods. Thy head is censed. Thy mouth is censed. Thy bones are purified. [Decay] that is inherent in thee shall not touch thee. I have given thee the Eye of Horus,5 and thy face is filled therewith. Thou art shrouded in incense (say twice)."6
The next ceremony, the ninth, represented the re-birth of the king, who was personified by a priest. The priest, wrapped in the skin of a bull, lay on a small bed and feigned death. When the chief priest had said, "O my father," four times, the priest representing the king came forth from the bull's skin, and sat up; this act symbolized the resurrection of the king in the form of a spirit-body (sāhu). The chief priest then asserted that the king was alive, and that he should never be removed, and that he was similar in every way to Horus. The priest personifying the king then put on a special garment, and taking a staff or sceptre in his hand, said, "I love my father and his transformation. I have made my father, I have made a statue of him, a large statue. Horus loveth those who love him." He then pressed the lips of the statue, and said, "I have come to embrace thee. I am thy son. I am Horus. I have pressed for thee thy mouth.... I am thy beloved son." The words then said by the chief priest, "I have delivered this mine eye from his mouth, I have cut off his leg," mean that the king was delivered from the jaws of death, and that a grievous wound had been inflicted on the god of death, i.e. Set.
Whilst these ceremonies were being performed the animals brought to be sacrificed were slain. Chief of these were two bulls, gazelle, geese, &c., and their slaughter typified the conquest and death of the enemies of the dead king. The heart and a fore-leg of each bull were presented to the statue of the king, and the priest said: "Hail, Osiris! I have come to embrace thee. I am Horus. I have pressed for thee thy mouth. I am thy beloved Son. I have opened thy mouth. Thy mouth hath been made firm. I have made thy mouth and thy teeth to be in their proper places. Hail, Osiris!8 I have opened thy mouth with the Eye of Horus." Then taking two instruments made of metal the priest went through the motion of cutting open the mouth and eyes of the statue, and said: "I have opened thy mouth. I have opened thy two eyes. I have opened thy mouth with the instrument of Anpu.9 I have opened thy mouth with the Meskha instrument wherewith the mouth of the gods was opened. Horus openeth the mouth and eyes of the Osiris. Horus openeth the mouth of the Osiris even as he opened the mouth of his father. As he opened the mouth of the god Osiris so shall he open the mouth of my father with the iron that cometh forth from Set, with the Meskha instrument of iron wherewith he opened the mouth of the gods shall the mouth of the Osiris be opened. And the Osiris shall walk and shall talk, and his body shall be with the Great Company of the Gods who dwell in the Great House of the Aged One (i.e. the Sun-god) who dwelleth in Anu.10 And he shall take possession of the Urrt Crown therein before Horus, the Lord of mankind. Hail, Osiris! Horus hath opened thy mouth and thine eyes with the instruments Sebur and An, wherewith the mouths of the gods of the South were opened.... All the gods bring words of power. They recite them for thee. They make thee to live by them. Thou becomest the possessor of twofold strength. Thou makest the passes that give thee the fluid of life, and their life fluid is about thee. Thou art protected, and thou shalt not die. Thou shalt change thy form [at pleasure] among the Doubles11 of the gods. Thou shalt rise up as a king of the South. Thou shalt rise up as a king of the North. Thou art endowed with strength like all the gods and their Doubles. Shu12 hath equipped thee. He hath exalted thee to the height of heaven. He hath made thee to be a wonder. He hath endowed thee with strength."
The ceremonies that followed concerned the dressing of the statue of the king and his food. Various kinds of bandlets and a collar were presented, and the gift of each endowed the king in the Other World with special qualities. The words recited by the priest as he offered these and other gifts were highly symbolic, and were believed to possess great power, for they brought the Double of the king back to this earth to live in the statue, and each time they were repeated they renewed the life of the king in the Other World.
II. The Liturgy of Funerary Offerings was another all-important work. The oldest form of it, which is found in the Pyramid Texts, proves that even under the earliest dynasties the belief in the efficacy of sacrifices and offerings was an essential of the Egyptian religion. The opening ceremonies had for their object the purification of the deceased by means of sprinkling with water in which salt, natron, and other cleansing substances had been dissolved, and burning of incense. Then followed the presentation of about one hundred and fifty offerings of food of all kinds, fruit, flowers, vegetables, various kinds of wine, seven kinds of precious ointments, wearing apparel of the kind suitable for a king, &c. As each object was presented to the spirit of the king, which was present in his statue in the Tuat Chamber of the tomb, the priest recited a form of words, which had the effect of transmuting the substance of the object into something which, when used or absorbed by the king's spirit, renewed the king's life and maintained his existence in the Other World. Every object was called the "Eye of Horus," in allusion to its life-giving qualities. The following extracts illustrate the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings:
32. This libation is for thee, Osiris, this libation is for thee, Unas.13 (Here offer cold water of the North.) It cometh forth before thy son, cometh forth before Horus. I have come, I have brought unto thee the Eye of Horus, that thy heart may be refreshed thereby. I have brought it and have set it under thy sandals, and I present unto thee that which flowed forth from thee. There shall be no stoppage to thy heart whilst it is with thee, and the offerings that appear at the command14 shall appear at thy word of command. (Recite four times.)
37. Thou hast taken possession of the two Eyes of Horus, the White and the Black, and when they are in thy face they illumine it. (Here offer two jugs of wine, one white, one black.)
38. Day hath made an offering unto thee in the sky. The South and the North have given offerings unto thee. Night hath made an offering unto thee. The South and the North have made an offering unto thee. An offering is brought unto thee, look upon it; an offering, hear it. There is an offering before thee, there is an offering behind thee, there is an offering with thee. (Here offer a cake for the journey.)
41. Osiris Unas, the white teeth of Horus are presented unto thee so that they may fill thy mouth. (Here offer five bunches of onions.)
47. O Rā, the worship that is paid to thee, the worship of every kind, shall be paid [also] to Unas. Everything that is offered to thy body shall be offered to the Double of Unas also, and everything that is offered to his body shall be thine. (Here offer the table of holy offerings.)
61. O ye oils, ye oils, which are on the forehead of Horus, set ye yourselves on the forehead of Unas, and make him to smell sweet through you. (Here offer oil of cedar of the finest quality.)
62. Make ye him to be a spirit-soul (khu) through possession of you, and grant ye him to have the mastery over his body, let his eyes be opened, and let all the spirit-souls see him, and let them hear his name. Behold, Osiris Unas, the Eye of Horus hath been brought unto thee, for it hath been seized for thee that it may be before thee. (Here offer the finest Thehenu oil.)
III. As specimens of the hymns in the Pyramid Texts may be quoted the following: the first is a hymn to Nut, the Sky-goddess, and the second is a hymn to Rā, the Sun-god.
[O] Nut, thou hast extended thyself over thy son the Osiris Pepi, Thou hast snatched him out of the hand of Set; join him to thyself, Nut. Thou comest, snatch thy son; behold, thou comest, form this great one [like] unto thyself. [O] Nut, cast thyself upon thy son the Osiris Pepi. [O] Nut, cast thyself upon thy son the Osiris Pepi. Form thou him, O Great Fashioner; this great one is among thy children. Form thou him, O Great Fashioner; this great one is among thy children. Keb [was to] Nut. Thou didst become a spirit. Thou wast a mighty goddess in the womb of thy mother Tefnut when thou wast not born. Form thou Pepi with life and well-being; he shall not die. Strong was thy heart, Thou didst leap in the womb of thy mother in thy name of "Nut." [O] perfect daughter, mighty one in thy mother, who art crowned like a king of the North, Make this Pepi a spirit-soul in thee, let him not die. [O] Great Lady, who didst come into being in the sky, who art mighty. Who dost make happy, and dost fill every place (or being), with thy beauty, The whole earth is under thee, thou hast taken possession of it. Thou hast encompassed the earth, everything is in thy two hands, Grant thou that this Pepi may be in thee like an imperishable star. Thou hast associated with Keb in thy name of "Pet" (i.e. Sky). Thou hast united the earth in every place. [O] mistress over the earth, thou art above thy father Shu, thou hast the mastery over him. He hath loved thee so much that he setteth himself under thee in everything. Thou hast taken possession of every god for thyself with his boat (?). Thou hast made them shine like lamps, Assuredly they shall not cease from thee like the stars. Let not this Pepi depart from thee in thy name of "Hert" (ll. 61-64).
The Hymn to the Sun-god is as follows:
Hail to thee, Tem! Hail to thee, Kheprer, who created himself. Thou art the High, in this thy name of "Height." Thou camest into being in this thy name of "Kheprer." Hail to thee, Eye of Horus,15 which he furnisheth with his hands completely. He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the West; He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the East; He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the South; He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those of the North; He permitteth not thee to be obedient to those who are in the earth; [For] thou art obedient to Horus. He it is who hath furnished thee, he it is who hath builded thee, he it is who hath made thee to be dwelt in. Thou doest for him whatsoever he saith unto thee, in every place whither he goeth. Thou liftest up to him the water-fowl that are in thee. Thou liftest up to him the water-fowl that are about to be in thee. Thou liftest up to him every tree that is in thee. Thou liftest up to him every tree that is about to be in thee. Thou liftest up to him the cakes and ale that are in thee. Thou liftest up to him the cakes and ale that are about to be in thee. Thou liftest up to him the gifts that are in thee. Thou liftest up to him the gifts that are about to be in thee. Thou liftest up to him everything that is in thee. Thou liftest up to him everything that is about to be in thee. Thou takest them to him in every place wherein it pleaseth him to be. The doors upon thee stand fast [shut] like the god Anmutef,16 They open not to those who are in the West; They open not to those who are in the East; They open not to those who are in the North; They open not to those who are in the South; They open not to those who are in the middle of the earth; But they open to Horus.
He it was who made them, he it was who made them stand [firm], he it was who delivered them from every evil attack which the god Set made upon them. He it was who made thee to be a settled country in this thy name of "Kerkut." He it was who passed bowing after thee in thy name of "Nut." He it was who delivered thee from every evil attack which Set made upon thee (Pepi II, ll. 767-774.)
IV. The following passages describe the power of the king in heaven, and his felicity there:
"The sky hath withdrawn the life of the star Septet (Sothis, the Dog-star); behold Unas a living being, the son of Septet. The Eighteen Gods have purified him in Meskha (the Great Bear), [he is] an imperishable star. The house of Unas perisheth not in the sky, the throne of Unas perisheth not on the earth. Men make supplication [there], the gods fly [thither]. Septet hath made Unas fly to heaven to be with his brethren the gods. Nut,17
