Through the Eras

Literaturethe dialogue. In the Dialogue of a Man with His Ba, forexample, two speakers debate the effectiveness of preparationsfor the afterlife.OTHER TEXTS. Some known texts fall outside ofthis scheme of genres. They include a description of theking performing athletic feats and an account of fishermenperforming their tasks. Both are discourses, but areotherwise not well understood. Neither one seems pessimisticlike the other laments in dialogue form. Thesepositive dialogues might have been an important genrethemselves. In addition, they are difficult to understandbecause they are very fragmentary and preserved in onlyone copy each. Thus it is difficult to predict the eventsdescribed in them, and to classify them.MIXTURES. Some texts preserve a combination ofgenres. Sinuhe, for example, includes narrative, hymns,and a letter. The Eloquent Peasant includes discoursewithin a narrative frame. These mixtures suggest that themodern understanding of ancient genres is incomplete.SOURCESMiriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. I(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of CaliforniaPress, 1973).Richard B. Parkinson, “Types of Literature in the MiddleKingdom,” in Ancient Egyptian Literature: History andForms. Ed. Antonio Loprieno (Leiden, Netherlands: E.J. Brill, 1996): 297–312.THE LITERATURE OF MORAL VALUESFIRST LITERATURE. Egyptian noblemen recordedthe earliest Egyptian literature in tomb inscriptions calledautobiographies. They composed them in the first personand included some details of the author’s own life.The real purpose of these texts is to demonstrate that theauthor lived a moral life. Thus the texts illustrate Egyptianideas of morality. These texts are also the first attemptsat extended narrative. Previous to theseautobiographies, Egyptians wrote only short inscriptions,usually captions to tomb scenes carved in relief describingthe action or identifying the participants. The autobiographiesinclude three topics: protection of the tomb,major events in the tomb owner’s life, and a moral selfportrait.These three areas correspond to ideas of selfesteem,interconnectedness with others, and recognitionthat the world is governed by an ideal of justice calledmaat. Maat is the ideal that each author demonstrateswas the basis for his life. It is the most important conceptin Egyptian thought embodying correct conduct inthe world and in man’s relations with the king and withthe gods.THE IDEA OF THE PERSON. Miriam Lichtheim, theAmerican Egyptologist, traced the development of claimsof self-worth among Egyptian noblemen as recorded intheir tombs. She found a progression from self-esteembased on fulfilling filial responsibilities, to a relianceon the king’s regard as the source for self-worth, andfinally to the development of an objective standardcalled “maat” to measure self-worth. The short statementscarved in Fourth-dynasty mastaba-tombs mostlystate that a son fulfilled his duty to his father and thatthe tomb owner never did anything wrong. For example,Ihy, a nobleman of the early Fourth Dynasty, informsvisitors to his tomb in an inscription, “I made thisfor my father, when he had gone to the West [the landof the dead], upon the good way on which the honoredones go.” Another writer, the King’s Companion Sefetjwawrote in his tomb inscription, “I never did an evilthing against anyone.” Lichtheim argued that such statementsare the first literary works that make the claim foran individual’s moral identity. They record a sense ofself based on filial duty and relationships with other people.By the end of the Fourth Dynasty in the reign ofKing Menkaure (2532–2510 B.C.E.) the prime ministerPtahshepses carved in his tomb short inscriptions thatdescribed his life and its importance in terms of his relationshipwith the reigning king. In captions to separatereliefs, Ptahshepses lists the reasons why he wasimportant. He specifically mentions that he attendedschool with King Menkaure’s children. Ptahshepses describesin the next caption that he reached adulthood inthe reign of the next king, Shepseskaf (2508–2500B.C.E.). Ptahshepses’ marriage to a daughter of an unnamedking follows in the caption to the next adjacentrelief scene. A fourth scene and inscription describePtahshepses’ claim that he worked as an administratorfor King Userkaf (2500–2485 B.C.E.). In the scene correspondingto the period when he worked for NeferirkareKakai (2472–2462 B.C.E.), Ptahshepses mentions thatthe king accorded him a special honor: Ptahshepses couldkiss the king’s foot rather than the ground directly infront of the king’s foot when he greeted the king. Thesestatements demonstrate that Ptahshepses’ self-worth wasbased on the king’s high regard for him. Ptahshepsesworked for a total of seven kings, including Sahure(2485–2472 B.C.E.), Shepseskare (2462–2455 B.C.E.)and Reneferef (c. 2462–2455 B.C.E.), before dying in thereign of Nyuserre (c. 2455–2425 B.C.E.). He thus livedabout sixty years. Another nobleman named Rawer wholived in the time of Neferirkare Kakai, and thus was a126 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)