ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CULTURE
Circumcision from Sakkara The study of ancient Egyptian culture — whether it be art, music, dance, theater, literature or whatever — is based mostly on identifying scenes associated with each of these art forms from monuments, temples and tombs and translating and interpreting the inscriptions and texts found with them. Some information has been gleaned from artifacts found in burials.
One of the biggest problems with ancient Egyptian culture — particularly the art that is found in temples and tombs that have been excavated — is that it is so idealized and propagandized it is often difficult to derive meaningful information from it. This was a problem with a lot of ancient art. Artists tended to present the world as the commissioner of the art wanted it depicted rather than as it really was. Some of the most interesting Egyptians art is depicts scenes from everyday life such as people hunting and fishing and baking bread and purifying water.
In his book “The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt” Toby Wilkinson deftly illuminates the pageantry and cultural sophistication of pharaohnic Egypt and highlights the fact that “the Egyptians were adept at recording things as they wished them to be seen, not as they actually were,” and that tomb decoration was “designed, above all, to reinforce the established social order,” for instance, showing a tomb’s owner dominating every scene, towering in size over his family and workers.” [Source: Michiko Kakutani, New York Times March 28, 2011]
Herodotus devoted nearly all of Book 2 of “Histories” to describing the achievements and the curiosities of the Egyptians. Over time the Greeks and Romans wiped out Egyptian culture. Later archaeologists and historians pieced together portraits of ancient Egypt’s kings, including Narmer, the first ruler of a united Egypt (whose reign began around 2950 B.C.) ; the warrior king Thutmose III, who secured Egypt’s control over the Transjordan; the eccentric Akhenaten who declared himself a co-regent with the sun; and Ramesses II, who ruled for an astonishing 67 years and would be immortalized in Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias.”
Categories with related articles in this website: Ancient Egyptian History (32 articles) factsanddetails.com; Ancient Egyptian Religion (24 articles) factsanddetails.com; Ancient Egyptian Life and Culture (36 articles) factsanddetails.com; Ancient Egyptian Government, Infrastructure and Economics (24 articles) factsanddetails.com
Websites on Ancient Egypt: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Discovering Egypt discoveringegypt.com; BBC History: Egyptians bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians ; Ancient History Encyclopedia on Egypt ancient.eu/egypt; Digital Egypt for Universities. Scholarly treatment with broad coverage and cross references (internal and external). Artifacts used extensively to illustrate topics. ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt ; British Museum: Ancient Egypt ancientegypt.co.uk; Egypt’s Golden Empire pbs.org/empires/egypt; Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org ; Oriental Institute Ancient Egypt (Egypt and Sudan) Projects ; Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre in Paris louvre.fr/en/departments/egyptian-antiquities; KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt kmtjournal.com; Ancient Egypt Magazine ancientegyptmagazine.co.uk; Egypt Exploration Society ees.ac.uk ; Amarna Project amarnaproject.com; Egyptian Study Society, Denver egyptianstudysociety.com; The Ancient Egypt Site ancient-egypt.org; Abzu: Guide to Resources for the Study of the Ancient Near East etana.org; Egyptology Resources fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
Ancient Egyptian Literature
pyramid text Egyptian literature doesn’t get much attention, especially compared to its art and architecture. Most of what has been written in the ancient Egyptian language consists of spells, incantations, lists, medical and scientific texts and descriptions of the netherworld. The ancient Egyptians produced fables, heroic tales, love poems and descriptions of battles but nothing that has stood the test of time like the Greek myths or Homer’s epics.
A representative passage from the “Pyramid Texts” goes: “The King is the Bull of the sky, Who conquers at will, Who lives on the being of every God, Who eats their entrails.”
The “ Ebers Papyrus” (1550 B.C.) is said to be the oldest book in existence. The Ani Papyrus (1200 B.C.) was 78 feet long. Texts like “The Story of Sinuhe,” “The Eloquent Peasant,” “The Report of Wenamun , “The Tale of Woe,” and The Teaching of Ankhsheshonq” are interesting stories in their own right but also offer invaluable insights into ancient Egyptian society and the daily life or ordinary Egyptians.
Hieroglyphic Texts
Most documents and important information was written in papyrus texts. The hieroglyphics found on tomb walls and works of art tended to be formulaic and offered little information that wasn’t already known.
Three important papyrus texts have survived to this day are: “The Pyramid Texts” , “Book of the Dead” and the “ Coffin Text”. They consisted mostly spells intended to bring about salvation and comfort the dead in the next world.
Vanessa Thorpe wrote in The Observer, “The script of a papyrus is read from one side across to the other, depending on which way round the depicted animal heads are facing. The spells and incantations appear alongside the images they evoke and they commonly deal with the sort of problems faced in life, such as the warding off of an illness. They are usually rather straightforward: prose rather than poetry. "Get back, you snake!" reads one for protection against poisonous serpents. For the ancient Egyptians, the act of simply writing something down formally, or painting it, was a way of making it true. As a result, there are no images or passages in The Book of the Dead that describe anything unpleasant happening. Setting it down would have made it part of the plan. There was, however, always a heavy emphasis on dropping the names of relevant gods at key points along the journey.[Source: Vanessa Thorpe, The Observer, October 24, 2010]
A hymn to the god Amen with a prayer for the queen, written in around 1300 B.C., goes: "Prize from the Chief Wife of the King, his beloved...Nefertiti, living, healthy, and youthful forever and ever."
Recitation and Speech Acts in Ancient Egypt
Erika Meyer-Dietrich of the University of Uppsala in Sweden wrote: “Ancient Egyptian texts have been found with instructions on how they should be performed. Recitation, speech acts, and declamation are related to the action of speaking out loud in religious- ritual and juridical contexts, as well as for entertainment. Recitations are used in contexts that demand a correct wording or the power of words as utterance. Speech acts are performative or operative texts, which have an effect by being spoken out loud and result in a change of the persons or objects that are addressed by the text. Declamations are a performance of literary compositions to an audience. The basis on which texts can be considered as part of a recitation, speech act, or declamation are not only in-text terms but also indications of their performance- context, their localization in an accessible place, and their performance by an authorized person. [Source: Erika Meyer-Dietrich, University of Uppsala, Sweden, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“Egyptian wisdom literature (such as the Instruction of Ptahhotep on Papyrus Prisse 5, 4 - 7) and narratives (the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, for example) clearly establish the relationship between speaker and listener. The pronounced word is the heard one. It is through listening that knowledge is gained. Sinuhe is motivated to stay where he hears the Egyptian language. The importance of listening corresponds to the emphasis on language as a bond that connects speaker and hearer. The relationship involves people across gender borders and ontological borders. In addresses to the living, the deceased requests that the offering formula be read aloud. With the sound of their voice, visitors who read the formula give rise to the actual existence of that, which they are evoking for the benefit of the deceased. The relationship works on an ethical level. It integrates people into society.
“The Egyptian idea, which regards the word that leaves the speaker’s mouth as a creative act , conveys the belief that the spoken word is powerful. The word of the creator is communicated to the multitude (as we see in Coffin Texts I 325a, Book of the Dead 38: 2, and Stela Turin 1791). The asymmetry of the few who recite and the many who hear the recitation is emphasized in the Middle Kingdom (for example, in Stela Cairo CG 20017) and the Second Intermediate Period (see the inscription in Tomb el-Kab). “Raising the voice” (rdj xrw) announces someone’s arrival (such as we see in the Harper’s Song in Theban Tomb 178). This cultural attitude concerning the potential and the spread of the language justifies a perspective on texts as communicative acts that are orally performed.”
Recitation in Ancient Egypt
Erika Meyer-Dietrich of the University of Uppsala in Sweden wrote: “The concept of the spoken word as the perceived one is in line with the evaluation of pronunciation that is obvious in the rich use of recitation markers in the texts. A distinction between the pronounced word as such and declamation understood as skilled and professional recitation is unattainable. The Egyptian obsession with the written word can be observed in the scribes’ playful attitude in puns and alternative spellings. In the available source material, this is not matched by an apparent obsession with the way words have to be performed in the texts. The most valuable source for instructions on how to recite religious texts has survived in the Ptolemaic and Roman Book of the Temple (Quack 2002). According to this book, the children of high-ranking priests were trained in musical performance of hymns, appropriation of traditional texts (reciting by heart), and explanation of problems (comments). A “book of recitation after” is listed among the scriptures. The education of scribes who worked as magicians, teachers (jmj-r sbAw) in the House of Life, chironomists, music teachers (jmj-r Hsw), and religious specialists such as lecture priests or stolists (Hm-nTr) andthe Great of the Pure Ones (aA wabw), who recited the daily temple ritual, shows the importance of recitation in ritual. [Source: Erika Meyer-Dietrich, University of Uppsala, Sweden, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“The scarce evidence of terms employed for techniques of recitation gives rise to a lexicographical problem regarding the audible dimension of words. 4dAdA (“to tremble (with the voice)”), suggested as tremolo, wSA (“to start singing”), and tjA (“to scream”) are mentioned in the Book of the Temple. Singing without instruments may indicate a rhythmic performance of lyrics, hymns, prayers, and laments as a kind of Sprechgesang. Njs (“to call”) is treated as reading aloud). 9sw (“to call”) and Snj nt-a (“to recite the ritual”) is, used for the recitation of spells.
“The weight that is put on the perception of words is not sufficient to classify texts as read in reality. This even applies to texts with recitational instructions or markers that clearly characterize them as recitation and to texts that are iconographically represented as spoken. Written markers that designate the text as words to be uttered are: Dd mdw (“to say words”), r-Dd (“in order to say”), and TAz (“spell”). Uninterrupted speech is indicated by Ddj (“to carry on without pausing”). Markers indicating that words have to be repeated in the same or in a reversed order are: zp 2 (“once again,” literally “twice”), Dd mdw 4 (“to be recited four times”), and TAz-pXr (“vice versa”). In tombs of private individuals, iconography provides an imagined speaker- situation for uttered words. Texts are accompanied by a representation of the speaker with a gesture of recitation. In tombs from the 5th - 11th Dynasty, the lecture priest holds the unrolled papyrus scroll. Sometimes the tomb owner is represented as the speaker. He is depicted as a man with one arm lifted up in invocation like the determinative A 26 in Gardiner’s sign list. The hand held to the mouth is a gesture of a call. When the speaker is introduced in the form of a picture or the first person pronoun, it is possible to understand the text recited in an appropriate context as ritual activity.
“Within their cultural context, the interaction on a symbolic level renders the pronunciation of words and their perception in no respect less real. A consequence of the imagined performance of texts that are located in inaccessible places is that the performance is congruous with the text. Performance is an activity that defines itself by being acted out. Imagined speech acts lack the discrepancy between text as prescript and recitation as acting. Therefore, a prerequisite for texts that can be suggested as part of a recitation is the possible discrepancy between text and performance constituted by the accessibility for the actor and the visibility of the text. To include recitation by heart reduces the condition for performance to accessible spaces. The locations can be exclusive, e.g., temples for the daily cult, tomb chapels, and the embalming hall, or public, e.g., procession routes on the occasion of religious festivals. In order to transfigure offerings, speech acts were performed in the temple and the necropolis. The recommendation in the Calendar for Good and Bad Days to “hurry and spend the day in a festive mood with spells” calls for recitations on the occasion of festivals. Biographies, Harper’s Songs, and funerary papyri mention in this context the recitation for the ba of a god as being advantageous. It is reasonable to assume that location and time for magical spells differed from the performance in public spaces. To cure a seriously ill individual, the spells must have been recited at any time and in any place, including private homes.”
Performative Speech Acts in Ancient Egypt
Erika Meyer-Dietrich of the University of Uppsala wrote: “Texts that were recited on a regular basis have survived, inscribed in temple walls and as papyrus documents. The most important papyri are the Ramesseum Dramatic Papyrus from the Middle Kingdom, the libraries that were attached to the temples from the Late Period, and magical papyri, the latest of them written in Greek. Ritual texts are multifunctional. In papyri for ritual use, different types of text can be combined: instructions, comments, narrative passages, and performative expressions. In view of the dimension of time, performative texts can be categorized as prescriptive, operative, and interpretative texts. Only the operative parts of ritual texts function as speech acts, that is, the words have the power to do things the very moment they are uttered. To be operative, words have to address somebody and do what they do because of their connotations that attach certain values to them. Prayers, hymns, and aretalogies addressing a god use a salutation, the second personal pronoun, names, titles, and epithets. [Source: Erika Meyer-Dietrich, University of Uppsala, Sweden, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“Words as deeds act simultaneously on two levels. They work on the level of operative texts as performed and on the level of speech acts as activity in its own right, which is the change of the social or ontological status of the addressed persons and objects. Both activities are dialectically related. Expected results of acting by speech influence how speech acts are performed. A possible criterion to distinguish operative texts from non-operative texts is that ritual as activity constitutes itself as different and in contrast to other activities. Roeder puts forward the criterion of semantic power to create a ritual environment that is believed to exist. According to Egyptian terms, three different operative text-types can be discerned: 1) the sAx (“to transfigure”), which indicates the effect of speech acts to transform the addressee into a person who can act, or a profane object into a religious one by recitation; 2) protective and therapeutic spells to save from harm or cure the addressee and curse the enemy; and 3) sHtp (“to satisfy”), which are hymns to appease the addressee.
“A religious-ritual or juridical setting is a plausible scenario for speech acts. In the Coffin Texts, the perception of words confirms a successful illocutionary act. Statements like “my words have been heard” legitimate the deceased. The reference to words that were heard in trial or before the tribunal of the gods shows that, like the religious-ritual, also a juridical context is supposed to render a quotation functional and authentic as a speech act. Non-religious recitations may have been uttered in the court of law, which took place in “the gate of justice.” As religious or juridical activity, recitation has to be performed by specialists who embody the required practical knowledge and who are endowed with the power to do what they are doing. A condition for operative speech in regard to the situation is a cultural convention that agrees on the criteria for persons who are authorized to recite words in a certain context. The power to act is referred to and thereby reproduced in the speech act itself as the performer’s self- representation in the daily temple ritual. The power is institutionalized. It sanctions priests to take on the role of a divine being on the occasion of festivals, to recite formulae in the ritual of embalming and for the funeral, and to read liturgies for a deceased individual during lunar feasts and other calendrical festivals. It permits scribes and magicians to pronounce spells that affect the cause of life or cure somebody.
“The ritual knowledge required in terms of competence and performance classifies recitation both as ritual practice and as performing art. It demands a state of purity, preparation for the act itself, speaker competence, and ritual mastery. The state of purity is described in the Book of the Dead and on stelae: “One has to recite the spell clean and pure, not having approached women and not having eaten small cattle or fish” The special preparation for the speech act is the purification of the mouth and, according to one source, also the ears; they were purified with salt or with incense. Speaker competence includes “ritualization,” which means the use of language as speech act in a ritual.”
Ritualization in Ancient Egypt
Erika Meyer-Dietrich of the University of Uppsala wrote: “Ritualization forms texts to distinguish them from daily spoken language. This can be done by using an archaic type of language for religious texts. It explains the appearance of Late Middle Egyptian, also called égyptien de tradition, that coexisted with later Egyptian for more than a millennium. Ritualization is the structuring of recited texts in a rhythmic manner by employing the language’s natural rhythm, caesuras, alternating speakers, choral passages, and refrains. Moreover, speaker competence includes the knowledge of the ritual language, intimacy with the use of language, the range of meaning attached to words in a ritual, and their possible connotations. The speaker embodies a practical knowledge of how to perform the ritual. Recitation as ritual practice is the capability to put forward expected values that are attached to words. This is accomplished by positioning them first in the text, accompanying them with gestures for recitation, singing them, or reading them in an appropriate manner according to situation, purpose, and intended effect. [Source: Erika Meyer-Dietrich, University of Uppsala, Sweden, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“A connotational device of positioning, called “honorific anticipation,” is testified in writing. Signs and names referring to the divine or royal sphere precede the rest of the sentence independent of their actual syntactic position to express a cultural attitude vis-à-vis the person it represents. The question arises whether such a cultural attitude is exclusively graphic or can be assumed for oral performance. Ritual practice is using words in a way that highlights or minimizes certain inherent aspects by means of stress, tone, pitch, lengthening, pauses, and rhythm. While the investigation of such audible resources must remain hypothetical, the researcher should keep them in mind. Connecting ritually performed speech acts with other activities in the ritualization process synchronizes them with the ritual environment. Therefore, correct timing is essential for the act itself to work in the intended manner.
“Ritual mastery is the ability “to take and remake schemes from the shared culture that can strategically nuance, privilege or transform”. This allows ritual specialists to pronounce texts unmodified or to give them subtle nuances. The relationship between historical developments in ritual discourse and performance causes minor changes, e.g., of personal pronouns in texts. These changes may support their actual performance. Developments in the spoken language and changes in cultural conceptions influence ritual recitation. One example is the change in the use of ritual language that appeared during the reign of Thutmose III.”
Declamation of Literature
Erika Meyer-Dietrich of the University of Uppsala wrote: “Except for ritual speech acts, literature is the type of texts that were probably recited in ancient Egypt. The sources comprise tales, travel narratives, dialogs, teachings, and poetry. Isolated calls and speaker labels that are included in a wider concept of narratology are not part of a recitation. No archaeological finds testify to reading in public or private circles. However, several circumstances promote the assumption that literary texts were performed orally. They are comprehensively investigated in Parkinson’s treatment of Middle Kingdom literature as social practice. The word Sdj (“to recite”) is used for ritual texts, spells, letters, and biographies, implying a declamatory method of delivery. The style of literary compositions reflects a performative oral setting. However, it is not clear whether these characteristics of text composition testify to the performance of texts or otherwise. Written in order to be heard, the author may invent a fictive audience for the text. [Source: Erika Meyer-Dietrich, University of Uppsala, Sweden, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 2010, escholarship.org ]
“The criteria of visibility and accessibility for recited texts also apply to literature. Within their fictional framework, literary compositions are enacted communication. In contrast to ritual texts, declamation of literature is not operative as performative speech in the sense that the words uttered do things. Their performance is limited to the level of words that are delivered in a declamatory manner. The second level of speech acts as activity in its own right is not relevant to literature. Literary performance also differs in its time dimension. In contrast to future-oriented speech acts, the performance of literature is retrospective. Narratives tell something that has taken place. In teachings, things that have yet to happen are presented as consequences.
“In the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030–1640 B.C.), structuring points mark the rhythm of speech. In the New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.), paragraph markers, units of thought—also called parallelismus membrorum or thought couplets, which is the use of language in its natural rhythm in the sense of structuring a narrative —metrics, and devices for a poetic style indicate the rhythm of speech. The performer combines the customary use of language with a sensitivity of reading that is discernible in how he follows the plotline. The performance of literature in an elite context is attainable in the prologue to the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant. Evidence for told folklore is scarce. Educated scribes were the storytellers. Other professions that are trained in rhythmic performance of texts, e.g., singers, chironomists, and priests, cannot be excluded as possible performers of literary compositions. Among the holdings of the temple library of Tebtunis were teachings and narratives. In the Myth of the Sun’s Eye, the god Thoth in his shape as a baboon tells stories to appease and to entertain Tefnut. It has been suggested that the lines written with red ink and the remark xrw.f m-mjtt (“his voice likewise”) instruct the storyteller to use the same intonation every time the baboon is speaking.
“The narrator tells literary works as entertainment or moral instruction. For that purpose, the language, colloquial or elevated, functions as rhetoric resource for the storyteller or lecturer. A rhetorical element that is discernible in literature is dialectical positions. The partners in the fictive dialogs are named. The author introduces a following recitation by “he says.” Often he also mentions the listener in a dialog with “he said to me.” In the Middle Kingdom, examples of speech that are not introduced by such a remark are rare. The introductory remark “NN says” appears seventy times in Papyrus Westcar. The story takes place in a scenario that the listener recognizes.
“An introductory remark, for example, sDd.j (“I shall tell you”), introduces the narrative passages in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor and anchors the story in the moment when it is told. The quoted passages raise the empathy of the listeners. The choice of citations or sayings increases familiarity. Enclitic particles and exclamatory devices address an audience. Devices that raise the listener’s empathy in performance are the style of literary compositions, refined language, and means of articulation, e.g., emphatic constructions and topicalization.”
Hymn to the Nile (c. 2100 B.C.)
The “Hymn to the Nile” (c. 2100 B.C.) reads: “Hail to thee, O Nile! Who manifests thyself over this land, and comes to give life to Egypt! Mysterious is thy issuing forth from the darkness, on this day whereon it is celebrated! Watering the orchards created by Re, to cause all the cattle to live, you give the earth to drink, inexhaustible one! Path that descends from the sky, loving the bread of Seb and the first-fruits of Nepera, You cause the workshops of Ptah to prosper! [Source: Oliver J. Thatcher, ed., “The Library of Original Sources” (Milwaukee: University Research Extension Co., 1907), Vol. I: The Ancient World, pp. 79-83, Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt, Fordham University]
“Lord of the fish, during the inundation, no bird alights on the crops. You create the grain, you bring forth the barley, assuring perpetuity to the temples. If you cease your toil and your work, then all that exists is in anguish. If the gods suffer in heaven, then the faces of men waste away. Then He torments the flocks of Egypt, and great and small are in agony. But all is changed for mankind when He comes; He is endowed with the qualities of Nun. If He shines, the earth is joyous, every stomach is full of rejoicing, every spine is happy, every jaw-bone crushes (its food).
“He brings the offerings, as chief of provisioning; He is the creator of all good things, as master of energy, full of sweetness in his choice. If offerings are made it is thanks to Him. He brings forth the herbage for the flocks, and sees that each god receives his sacrifices. All that depends on Him is a precious incense. He spreads himself over Egypt, filling the granaries, renewing the marts, watching over the goods of the unhappy. He is prosperous to the height of all desires, without fatiguing Himself therefor. He brings again his lordly bark; He is not sculptured in stone, in the statutes crowned with the uraeus serpent, He cannot be contemplated. No servitors has He, no bearers of offerings! He is not enticed by incantations! None knows the place where He dwells, none discovers his retreat by the power of a written spell.
“No dwelling (is there) which may contain you! None penetrates within your heart! Your young men, your children applaud you and render unto you royal homage. Stable are your decrees for Egypt before your servants of the North! He stanches the water from all eyes and watches over the increase of his good things. Where misery existed, joy manifests itself; all beasts rejoice. The children of Sobek, the sons of Neith, the cycle of the gods which dwells in him, are prosperous. No more reservoirs for watering the fields! He makes mankind valiant, enriching some, bestowing his love on others. None commands at the same time as himself. He creates the offerings without the aid of Neith, making mankind for himself with multiform care.
“He shines when He issues forth from the darkness, to cause his flocks to prosper. It is his force that gives existence to all things; nothing remains hidden for him. Let men clothe themselves to fill his gardens. He watches over his works, producing the inundation during the night. The associate of Ptah . . . He causes all his servants to exist, all writings and divine words, and that which He needs in the North. It is with the words that He penetrates into his dwelling; He issues forth at his pleasure through the magic spells. Your unkindness brings destruction to the fish; it is then that prayer is made for the (annual) water of the season; Southern Egypt is seen in the same state as the North. Each one is with his instruments of labor. None remains behind his companions. None clothes himself with garments, The children of the noble put aside their ornaments.
“He night remains silent, but al1 is changed by the inundation; it is a healing-balm for all mankind. Establisher of justice! Mankind desires you, supplicating you to answer their prayers; You answer them by the inundation! Men offer the first-fruits of corn; all the gods adore you! The birds descend not on the soil. It is believed that with your hand of gold you make bricks of silver! But we are not nourished on lapis-lazuli; wheat alone gives vigor. A festal song is raised for you on the harp, with the accompaniment of the hand. Your young men and your children acclaim you and prepare their (long) exercises. You are the august ornament of the earth, letting your bark advance before men, lifting up the heart of women in labor, and loving the multitude of the flocks. When you shine in the royal city, the rich man is sated with good things, the poor man even disdains the lotus; all that is produced is of the choicest; all the plants exist for your children. If you have refused (to grant) nourishment, the dwelling is silent, devoid of all that is good, the country falls exhausted.
“O inundation of the Nile, offerings are made unto you, men are immolated to you, great festivals are instituted for you. Birds are sacrificed to you, gazelles are taken for you in the mountain, pure flames are prepared for you. Sacrifice is metle to every god as it is made to the Nile. The Nile has made its retreats in Southern Egypt, its name is not known beyond the Tuau. The god manifests not his forms, He baffles all conception. Men exalt him like the cycle of the gods, they dread him who creates the heat, even him who has made his son the universal master in order to give prosperity to Egypt. Come (and) prosper! Come (and) prosper! O Nile, come (and) prosper! O you who make men to live through his flocks and his flocks through his orchards! Come (and) prosper, come, O Nile, come (and) prosper!”
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons, The Louvre, The British Museum, The Egyptian Museum in Cairo
Text Sources: UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, escholarship.org ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Egypt sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Tour Egypt, Minnesota State University, Mankato, ethanholman.com; Mark Millmore, discoveringegypt.com discoveringegypt.com; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Discover magazine, Times of London, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, BBC, Encyclopædia Britannica, Time, Newsweek, Wikipedia, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “History of Warfare” by John Keegan (Vintage Books); “History of Art” by H.W. Janson Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.), Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2018