Through the Eras

LiteratureSOURCE: R. B. Parkinson, Voices from Ancient Egypt: An Anthologyof Middle Kingdom Writings (Norman: University of OklahomaPress, 1991): 49–52.TEACHING. The genre called seboyet in Egyptian isbest translated with the word “teaching.” Many Egyptologistsformerly called these documents “WisdomTexts,” creating an artificial parallel with the books ofthe Hebrew Bible that are classified in this way includingJob, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes.Egyptian teachings deal with the nature of the ideal life.Of the three broad genres that Egyptologists have identified,the teaching is the most coherent. It has an Egyptianname, assuring modern scholars that the Egyptiansalso recognized this form as a genre. The texts labeled asteachings also have a common form, theme, and style.Egyptologists divide the teachings into two subgroups:royal and private. For example, the advice given in TheTeachings of Amenemhet or The Teachings for Merykaredescribe a king’s ideal life whereas the advice found inThe Teachings of a Man for his Son centers on the life ofa private person. Both types consist of descriptions ofthe proper response for very specific situations. For example,in many private teachings, the author includesthe proper way to behave when a nobleman speaks orthe right way to behave at the dinner table. Kings receiveadvice on specific matters of state or in handlingunderlings.DISCOURSE. A second kind of wisdom is the discourse.A discourse includes meditations known inEgyptian as medjet (“pronouncement”) or tjesu (“utterance”).These discourses are often laments such as theComplaints of Khakheperre-sonb or the Prophecy of Neferty.In both texts the speaker contrasts an ideal pastwith the degraded present. In Neferty—the one completeexample with an ending—there is also a future restorationof the ideal past attributed to King Amenemhet I.Another group of texts that considers similar content isArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 125