Love, Egyptian Style

Chapter 34
Love, Egyptian Style
Excerpt from
Historical Deception: The Untold Story of Ancient Egypt
by Moustafa Gadalla
The expressions and poses of married couples in Egyptian artwork,
show deep feelings of love, affection and warmth. A number
of poems express a notable element of romantic love. These external
signs of warmth and love, particularly among married couples,
are unique in the art of the ancient world.
Egyptian love poetry left us some outstanding outpourings of
emotions, by both young lovers and married people.
As explained in the previous chapter, the words for brother, sister,
husband, and wife, are derivatives of sni, which means “to embrace”.
For this reason, we should avoid jumping to conclusions
about actual relationships.
The following is a bouquet of some love poems:
• ‘Let her come to the lotus pond,
My beautiful loved one,
In her transparent shift
Of fine linen.
Let her bathe herself near me
Among the flowers,
So that I may behold her
As her limbs emerge from the Water.’
My brother, it is pleasant to go to the pool
In order to bathe me in thy presence,

258 Historical Deception: The Untold Story of Ancient Egypt
That I may let thee see my beauty in my tunic of finest linen
When it is wet...
I go down into the water.
And come forth again with a red fish
Which lies beautiful on my fingers.
Come and look at me....
One alone, a mistress without equal,
more beautiful than mortal man
... her excellence shines bright,
her skin gleams,
her eyes are beautiful when she gazes,
sweet her lips when she speaks.
... She steals my heart in her embrace.
She turns the head of every man, captivating him at sight.
My beloved has come, my heart exults,
My arms spread out to embrace her;
My heart bounds in its place,
Like the red fish in its pond.
O night, be mine forever,
Now that my queen has come!
• How pleasant is mine hour! Might an hour only become for me
eternity, when I sleep with thee. Thou didst lift up mine
heart...when it was night.
Seamu flowers are in it! One is made great in their presence. I
am thy first sister.
I am unto thee like a garden, which I have planted with flowers
and all manner of sweet-smelling herbs.
Shedeh is it, my hearing of thy voice, and I live because I hear it.
• With Graceful step she treads the ground,

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Captures my heart by her movements.
She causes all men’s necks
To turn about to see her;
• Seven days from yesterday I have not seen my beloved,
And sickness has crept over me,
And I have become heavy in my limbs
And am unmindful of mine own body.
If the master-physicians come to me,
My heart has no comfort of their remedies,
And the magicians, no resource is in them,
My malady is not diagnosed.
Better for me is my beloved than any remedies,
More important is she for me than the entire compendium of
medicine.
My salutation is when she enters from without.
When I see her, then am I well;
Opens she her eye, my limbs are young again;
Speaks she, and I am strong;
And when I embrace her, she banishes evil,
And it passes from me for seven days.
• There are saamu-flowers in it before which we are glorified.
I am your foremost sister.
I am yours as is the acre of land which I made to flourish with
flowers and all manner of sweet-scented herbs.
Pleasant is the channel in it which you dug with your own hand
for our refreshment in the north wind,
a beautiful place for walking hand in hand.
My body is satisfied and my heart rejoicing at our going together.
Hearing your voice is pomegranate wine:
I live when I hear it.
If ever I see you it is better for me than eating and drinking.

260 Historical Deception: The Untold Story of Ancient Egypt
• The love of the sister is upon yonder side
A stretch of water is between us,
And a crocodile waits on the sandbank.
But when I go down into the water
I tread upon the flood;
My heart is courageous upon the waters
And the water is like land to my feet.
• I shall lie down inside and feign sickness.
My neighbors shall come in to see me
and my girl will come and put the physicians to shame
For she knows my illness.
• Her love it is that makes me strong;
Yes, it makes water spell for me...
I see my sister coming and my heart rejoices.
My arms are opened wide to embrace her
And my heart rejoices upon its place....
When the mistress comes to me
If I embrace her and her arms are opened
It is for me as if I were the one that is from Punt...
• A passage from a poem written by a widower, to his dead wife,
illustrates the kind of passions felt by spouses for each other.
You became my wife when I was young, and I was with you.
I was appointed to all manner of offices, and I was with
you. I did not forsake you or cause your heart any sorrow...
Behold, when I commanded the footsoldiers of Pharaoh,
together with his chariot force, I did cause you to come
that they might fall down before you, and they brought all
manner of good things to present to you. When you were
ill with the sickness which afflicted you, I went to the Chief
Physician and he made you your medicine, he did everything
that you said he should do. When I had to accompany
Pharaoh on his journey to the south, my thoughts were
with you, and I spent those eight months without caring
to eat or drink. When I returned to Men-Nefer, I besought
the Pharaoh and betook myself to you, and I greatly
mourned for you with the people of my house.