Egyptian lit.

EgyptProfessor Ms. Sharon De Los Reyes Submitted to:

Rodylyn V. Velasquez Submitted by:

Afro-Asian Literature

History of Egypt• Cairo the capital og Egypt• The ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for more than 300 yrs, longer than any

other c ivilization in human history. Although we are talking about a period that begun more than 5000 yrs ago, we know a great deal about ancient Egypt.• Egyptians believed that there was a life after death and that a dead person’s

body should be preserved and buried in a tomb with everything he would need in the life after death. • Egyptians were ruled by kings, and queens, who were believed to be Gods.

Many of them built temples to commemorate the important events of their reigns.

Religion

• Both terms refer to systems of concepts that are of high importance to a certain community, making statements concerning the supernatural or sacred.

• Generally, mythology is considered one component or aspect of religion. Religion is the broader term: besides mythological aspects, it includes aspects of ritual, morality, theology, and mystical experience. A given mythology is almost always associated with a certain religion such as Greek mythology with Ancient Greek religion.

• Disconnected from its religious system, a myth may lose its immediate relevance to the community and evolve—away from sacred importance—into a legend or folktale.

The River Nile

• Ancient Egypt depended on the waters of the River Nile, which flows through harsh and arid desert. Only the land on the banks of the Nile could be cultivated to support life. The rest of Egypt was, and is, desert. Every year rain further south in Africa and melting snow in the highlands of Ethiopia caused the Nile in Egypt to flood. When the floods went down, the rich soil which the water had brought down from the mountainsides was left on the fields and caused them to be extremely fertile. The Nile gave the civilization of Egypt its life.

WRITING • First people to develop a system

of writing. They believed it was important to write down what was happening. Egyptian-writing•Using hieroglyphs, a mixture of

pictures and ‘glyphs’ or symbols.

Ancient Egypt• The history of ancient Egypt lasted until the country became a Roman province in the 1st

century B.C. • Egypt was ruled before then by thirty dynasties, or families, of kings and queens, often

called the pharaohs. This is known as Egypt’s dynastic period. • The civilization of Ancient Egypt lasted for more than 3000 years, longer than any other

civilization known to us. From 3500 B.C. (more than 5500 years ago) there were two kingdoms in Egypt:• Lower Egypt in the north was the richer kingdom. The lands closer to the

Mediterranean Sea were richer and more fertile. Lower Egypt could trade with the lands of the Mediterranean. The wood to build ships was brought from Lebanon from a very early time.• Upper Egypt in the south had only a very narrow strip of land which could be cultivated.

The rest of the land was dry desert. Upper Egypt, however, was closer to the land of Nubia. The kings of Egypt sometimes traded and sometimes made war on Nubia. Nubia was a source of rare wild animals, of gold, of animal skins, and of slaves.

Early Dynastic period c. 3100 to c.2680 B.C.The two kingdoms, of Upper and Lower Egypt, were united under King Narmer. This is really the first king whose name we definitely know, so he and his successors are referred to as the First Dynasty (dynasty means a family who hold power). From that time on the pharaohs are shown in paintings wearing a double crown, white for Lower Egypt and red for Upper Egypt.

Old Kingdom, from c. 2680 to c. 2180 (3rd to 6th Dynasties) This period is best known for the building of great pyramids, including the huge pyramid of Giza which is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (do you know what the other six are?) You can read more about the pyramids in Egyptian Architecture.

First Intermediate period, from c.2180 to c. 2055 (7th to 11th dynasties). • This was a time when several different kings ruled different parts of Egypt. At the end of

this period Mentuhotep II, a king of the 11th dynasty, regained control over the whole of Egypt.

• coffin text.

Middle Kingdom. 2055 – 1650 B.C. (12th – 14 dynasties). • This was a golden age.The country was ruled by a number of strong

kings who controlled not only all of Egypt but much of Nubia (the modern Sudan). The Faiyum, a large fertile area around a lake which is fed from the Nile, was developed as a centre of agriculture. The building of the great Temple at Karnak was begun.

• Cleopatra well known pharoah • Song about meditation• Time of Moses

Second Intermediate Period c. 1650 – 1550 15th & 16th dynasties.• This was a period when the Hyksos, a tribe from outside Egypt (we do not know

their origin) conquered much of Lower Egypt.

New Kingdom c. 1550 – 1069 B.C. (17th to 20th dynasties) • The Hyksos were driven out and the pharaoh regained power over Lower and

Upper Egypt. During this period Egypt developed a very powerful civil service of royal officials.

Late Period c. 1000 – 32 AD (21st to 30th dynasties). • Egypt again was divided into two kingdoms. From around 700 B.C. Egypt was

frequently invaded, by the Nubians, who formed a new dynasty, by the Assyrians, by the Persians, by the Greeks under Alexander the Great’s general Ptolemy (the Ptolemaic dynasty) and finally by the Romans.

Heirarchy of Egyptian Culture and Society

Egyptian Methology

God and GodessesAtum - First GodChildren of Atum: Shu (god of air), Tefnut (goddess of moisture)Shu + Tefnut = Ged (god of the earth), Nut (god of sky)Ged + Nut = Osiris (king under world), Sis (god of magic), Seth (god of evil and storm) and Neplis (god of air, mourning and death)Osiris + Sis = Horus (King of the Asian Egyptian and killed Seth to get the crown of his father. )

Egyptian mythology

• The collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. • The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of

ancient Egyptian religion. Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. •These sources rarely contain a complete account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments.

TYPES OF EGYPTIAN LITERATURE

• inscriptions on tombs, stele, obelisks, and temples; myths, stories, and legends; religious writings; philosophical works; autobiographies; biographies; histories; poetry; hymns; personal essays; letters and court records.• Egyptian literature traces its beginnings to ancient Egypt and is

some of the earliest known literature. Indeed, the Egyptians were the first culture to develop literature as we know it today, that is, the book.

Egyptian Poetry and Songs of Love

My Brother Torments My Heart

My beloved torments my heart with his voice,He makes sickness take hold of me;He is neighbor to my mother's house.And I cannot go to him!Mother is right in charging him thus:"Give up seeing her!"It pains my heart to think of him,I am possessed by love of him.Truly, he is a foolish one,

But I resemble him;He knows not my wish to embrace him,Or he would write to my mother.Beloved, I am promised to youBy the golden of women!Come to me that I see your beauty,Father, mother will rejoice!My people will hail you all together,They will hail you, O my beloved!

Sister Without Peer

My one, my soul without peer,Most beautiful of all!Rising like the morning starAt the start of a happy year.Shining bright, fair of skin,Lovely the look of her eyes,Sweet the speech of her lips,She has not a word too much.Upright neck, shining breast,Hair true lapis lazuli;Arms surpassing gold,

Fingers like lotus buds.Heavy thighs, narrow waist,Her legs parade her beauty;With graceful step she treads the ground,Captures my heart by her movements.She causes all men's necksTo turn about to see her;Joy has he whom she embraces,He is like the first of men!When she steps outside she seems like that the Sun!

• Come, my Soul, swim to me!• The water is deep in my love• Which carries me to you.• • We are in the midst of the stream,• I clasp the flowers to my breast• Which is naked and drips with water.• But the moon makes them bloom like the lotus.• • I give you my flowers• because they are beautiful,• And you are holding my hand• In the middle of the water.• After J.M.Kellner Under the protection of Hathor

• O, my god, my lotus ...• The north wind is blowing ...• It is pleasant to go down to the

river• My heart longs to enter it• To bathe with you.• I let you see my beauty• in a SHIRT of finest royal linen,• moist with balsam.• My hair is plaited with reeds

• I enter the water to be with you• And leave it to join you• With a red fish.• It is beautiful on my fingers• I lay it down before you• Contemplating your beauty.• O my hero, my lover!• Come and look at me!

Love songs from Ramesside Egypt

• Among ancient Egypt manuscripts, love songs survive from only one time and place: the Ramesside Period community of elite craftsmen working on the tomb of the king (Deir el-Medina, 13th-12th centuries BC). The contents of the songs have been taken to indicate an even more elite setting, the palace and court of the king: the centres of power of Ramesside Egypt were all in the north, at Per-Ramses, Memphis and the palace of the court women at Gurob. These may be the places where the songs were composed and sung originally. Although no manuscripts survive from the palace sites themselves, the songs seem to echo the figures of singing women on late Eighteenth Dynasty and Nineteenth Dynasty cosmetic equipment and vessels produced for the highest level of society.

The Tale of Sinuhe

• The Story of Sinuhe is considered one of the finest works of Ancient Egyptian literature. • Narrative set in the aftermath of the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, founder of the 12th

dynasty of Egypt, in the early 20th century BC.• only shortly albeit the earliest extant manuscript is from the reign of Amenemhat III, c.

1800 BC. • Anonymous author has been described as the "Egyptian Shakespeare" whose ideas have

parallels in biblical texts. "Sinuhe" is considered to be a work written in verse and it may also have been performed. • Great popularity of the work is witnessed by the numerous surviving fragments.

Reference• https://nova.rambler.ru/search?

_openstat=ZF9pbnZsdDg4Ozs7&adult=none&lang=en&query=new%20kingdom%20in%20egypt

• https://images.rambler.ru/search?query=egypt%20gods%20and%20goddesses• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Egypt• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Dynasty_of_Egypt• https://nova.rambler.ru/search?

_openstat=ZF9pbnZsdDg4Ozs7&adult=none&lang=en&query=mummification

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mythology• https://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Literature/• https://www.perankhgroup.com/Ancient%20Egyptian%20Love%20poetry.htm