Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 1

Top Highlights

“The basic aim of the autobiography — the self-portrait in words — was the same as that of the self-portrait in sculpture and relief: to sum up the characteristic features of the individual person in terms of his positive worth and in the face of eternity. His person should live forever, in the transfigured form of the resurrected dead, and his name should last forever in the memory of people.” (Page 4)

“Similarly, the ever lenghthening lists of an official’s ranks and rifles were infused with life when the imagination began to flesh them out with narration, and the Autobiography was born.” (Page 3)

“A stone pyramid was built for me in the midst of the pyramids. The masons who build tombs constructed it. A master draughtsman designed in it. A master sculptor carved in it. The overseers of construction in the necropolis busied themselves with it. All the equipment that is placed in (305) a tomb-shaft was supplied. Mortuary priests were given me. A funerary domain was made for me. It had fields and a garden in the right place, as is done for a Companion of the first rank. My statue was overlaid with gold, its skirt with electrum.” (Page 233)

“I acquired ten herds of goats, with herdsmen for each herd. I acquired two herds of cattle, one herd of asses. I acquired all kinds of small cattle. I made a 50-cubit boat, another (7) of 30 cubits. I gave Upper Egyptian barley to Iuni, to Hefat, after Imyotru had been supplied.” (Page 89)

“In the large body of inscriptions known as Pyramid Texts, theological speculations, mythological allusions, and the formulae that served in the performance of a complex ritual were blended into incantations of great verbal force. Their central purpose was to achieve the resurrection of the dead king and his ascent to the sky. While trusting in the magical potency of words, the authors of these incantations often achieved the heightened intensity of formulation which is poetry.” (Pages 7–8)