Captured sea peoples, Libyans, and Bedouins increasingly became part of the Egyptian military. Ramses III (r. 1198-1166 BC) in his fifth and eleventh years also had to repulse Libyans encroaching on the western Delta. With sea peoples attacking from the north and west, the Egyptian empire was getting harder to maintain. The Hittite empire crumbled, and after Ramses III Egypt had only the mines in Sinai to exploit in Asia for a few more years. Records reveal the trial of a failed harem conspiracy that resulted in some of the judges being punished for carousing with the defendants. Without an empire to exploit and with a large and powerful priesthood to support, shortages and inflation damaged the Egyptian economy. Despite the plea of Ramses II, Ramses III imitated the former in tearing down old buildings to use as material in new ones. Temple records under Ramses III counted 107,000 slaves, and temples owned one-seventh of the cultivable land.
Since Moses led his people out of Egypt in the previous century, an account from the reign of Ramses III of workers striking was not the earliest example; but it certainly was well organized. Necropolis workers, two months behind in their pay, sat down in the back of the Temple of Thutmose III. On the third day of the strike they entered the Temple of Ramses II complaining of hunger, thirst, and lack of clothing, demanding that the Mayor of Thebes write to the Pharaoh and the Vizier so that they might live. The treasury was opened, and the previous month's rations were distributed. Still demanding the current month's pay, they went to the Chief of Police, and after eight more days of striking they received that month's rations. Two weeks later when they were not paid on the first of the month, they walked out again, this time warning they could make accusations. Eleven days later the Mayor of Thebes took it upon himself to distribute grain from the Temple of Ramses II, for which he was accused of a crime. No more is known of this incident, but problems of pay in arrears and worker unrest continued. Fifty years later workers had to go directly to the High Priest of Amen.
Dishonesty and corruption permeated the decadent society that had lost much of its innocence and respect for authority. Roving bands of foreigners, who were now probably unpaid mercenary soldiers, terrorized workers so much that work was stopped a large percentage of the time. During the reign of Ramses XI about 1100 BC one of these revolts was against the High Priest of Amen, Amenhotep. So many desperate criminals took to robbing tombs that the added precious metals in the economy substantially reduced the inflated price of grain. Finally the Commander of the Army, Herihor, seized power both from the king and the high priesthood and ruled Upper Egypt, while merchant princes ruled in the north. Herihor was able to pass the power on to his son by making him Commander of the Army.
The difficulty of Egyptian merchants at this time is reflected in the report of Wenamen, who practically became stranded in Byblos, because he lost his money. He complained that Egypt used to be supplied regularly with the cedars of Lebanon, but the harbor master pointed out that Egypt used to send them gold and silver. Wenamen offered the usual rationale that the tribute is for the god Amen-Re, and according to his report he eventually got his wood because the god took a possession of a local page, stimulating the harbor master to deal with him.
Egypt 1085-323 BC
The 21st Dynasty reigned from Tanis on the eastern Delta and lost control of Nubia. They managed to stop temple robberies enough to rebury the mummies of the ancient kings. When Israel's King David conquered Edom, the infant crown prince, Hadad, was taken by retainers to the Egyptian court, where he was raised and married to a sister-in-law of the pharaoh. When David died about 970 BC, Hadad and his followers went back to try to regain his kingdom. Egyptian king Siamen invaded the Philistines and took the town of Gezer. Siamen then gave Gezer to Solomon along with his daughter in marriage.
About 945 BC a new dynasty was inaugurated by Shoshenk I, who as chief of the Meshwesh was of Libyan heritage. Shoshenk, however, had worked his way to the top of Egyptian society through marriage alliances and as Commander of the Army. He took over the four top positions in Amen's religious hierarchy at Thebes and reunited Upper and Lower Egypt. Military garrisons headed by Libyans quelled local insurrections. Shoshenk renewed trade with Byblos and Nubia, and he gave sanctuary to Jeroboam in his exile from Solomon's Israel. When King Solomon died about 930 BC, Jeroboam returned to challenge Rehoboam, resulting in a division of the Hebrews into two kingdoms. Five years later Shoshenk used a border incident as a reason to launch an attack on both Judah and Israel; his victories, destruction, and the tribute he carried away caused both kingdoms to prepare themselves better for invasions after he left. A generation later Egyptian forces were defeated by King Asa of Judah.
Shoshenk's and his Libyan successors' appointment of their sons as high priests probably led to Theban resentment and the civil war in the reign of Takelot II about 836 BC. For nearly a century until about 730 BC Thebes had its own dynasty of kings, while Libyans ruled on the Delta. When Tefnakhte, a Libyan prince of Sais on the western Delta, tried to gain control over all of Egypt, he was defeated by the Nubian leader of the Kushites, Piye, who was called Piankhi by the Egyptians. Piankhi surrounded Hermopolis, which surrendered after several months of starvation, though Piankhi was more upset that his horses had suffered hunger. Though fortified by Tefnakhte, Memphis was also taken with great slaughter. After another massacre of his garrison at Mesed, Tefnahkte finally swore allegiance to Piankhi, who adopted Egyptian traditions and sold prisoners of war from the north into slavery at Thebes. After Piankhi returned to Kush, Tefnahkte resumed control of the Delta and was succeeded by his son Bocchoris in 720 BC.
Piankhi was succeeded by his brother Shabaka, who burned Bocchoris alive and took control of all of Egypt while also trying to aid the revolts in Palestine and Syria against Assyria; he was succeeded in this effort by Shebitku, a son of Piankhi. In Judah the prophetic voice of Isaiah warned against relying on the Egyptian army, and in 701 BC Assyrian king Sennacherib defeated Shebitku's commander and eventual successor Taharqa and devastated Judah. However, malaria spreading from the Delta killed many of the Assyrian troops before Jerusalem could be taken.
For a while Egypt enjoyed peace and prosperity under the Nubian Taharqa (r. 690-664 BC) until Assyrian king Esarhaddon on his second try defeated Taharqa in 671 BC. Marching back to Egypt two years later, Esarhaddon died; but his son, King Ashurbanipal, defeated Taharqa at Thebes and arrested Delta leaders, who were conspiring with Taharqa, killing some and taking others to Nineveh in chains. There all the princes were executed except Necho (and his son Psamtik), who won over Ashurbanipal and was appointed king of Sais. Guided by a dream, Taharqa's successor Tanutamen tried to claim all of Egypt and killed Necho, but he was defeated in Memphis by Delta princes supporting Assyria. Assyrian troops then plundered the treasures of Thebes.
Psamtik rose from governing the city of Athribis on the Delta for Assyria to become king of Egypt. Using Greek mercenaries and an alliance with King Gyges of Lydia, by 656 BC Psamtik was independent of Assyria and Nubia and mollified the Thebans by accepting pro-Ethiopian religious figures and giving his daughter to the Votaress of Amen; she later succeeded as God's wife of Amen. This Saite dynasty had united Egypt once again. A port for Greek trade was established at Naucratis near Sais, and immigrant Greeks and Phoenicians strengthened the Egyptian navy, while Jews were settling at Elephantine. When Necho succeeded his father Psamtik in 610 BC, he invaded the Philistines punishing Gaza and Askalon, defeated Judah's king Josiah at Megiddo, and reconquered Syria as far as the Euphrates. However, the Egyptian army was routed by the risen Babylonian power under Nebuchadressar in 605 BC at Carchemish. Four more years of fighting followed until Egypt relinquished its Asian empire to Babylon. Necho did order a canal dug from the Nile to the Red Sea.
Psamtik II invaded Nubia with Greek soldiers; but when his successor Apries was defeated by the Greek colony of Cyrene, a civil war broke out. With Cyrenian support Amasis overcame Apries and his Babylonian allies to take the throne of Egypt. Amasis restricted Greek trade to Naucratis, Sais, and Memphis, while he made Cyprus pay tribute and provide a base for his navy.
A year after the death of Amasis, Egypt was conquered by the Persian king Cambyses in 525 BC and became a part of the Persian empire for most of the next two centuries. The first satrap of Egypt, Aryandes, sent troops to help the queen of Cyrene, and for issuing a higher standard of currency than the Persian mint he was executed for disloyalty. Cambyses was unpopular with the priests for reducing their revenues, but Darius rebuilt temples and kept the tax burden in Egypt light, while he set scholars to codifying the entire history of Egyptian law, restored the schools, improved irrigation, and had a canal built to the Red Sea. Nonetheless an obscure prince named Khabbash revolted and occupied Sais and Memphis in the last year of Darius (486 BC), and the unpopular Xerxes reduced Egypt to the status of a conquered province.
The murder of Xerxes in 465 BC stimulated another revolt, and the Libyan Inaros defeated and killed the satrap Achaemenes, the brother of Xerxes, taking control of the Delta. The Persians called for reinforcements, and Inaros got help from the Athenians, who were fighting Persia at Cyprus. The Persian forces fought off the besiegers of Memphis, and in 454 BC the Egyptians and Athenians were defeated. Inaros was betrayed to the Persians and crucified. Resenting the exclusive Jewish religion at Elephantine, priests of Khnum bribed the Persian commander to destroy the Jewish temple in 410 BC.
Egypt revolted from the Persian empire in 404 BC and eight years later tried to help Sparta in its war against Persia, but its large shipment of grain and supplies fell into enemy hands. After Persia and Sparta agreed to the Peace of Antalcidas in 386 BC, Egypt was attacked by Persia. Egypt enlisted an admiral from Cyprus named Euagorus and the Athenian general Chabrias, but they were overcome by 380 BC. Seven years later Egypt only escaped Persian reoccupation by the timely flooding of the Nile. Finally in 343 BC Persia invaded Egypt with more than 200,000 troops, and the Egyptians surrendered. Ten years later, however, Alexander defeated the Persians at Issus; when he entered Egypt, the Persian satrap surrendered to the young Macedonian conqueror, who was proclaimed pharaoh at Memphis and was greeted by the oracle at Siwa as the son of Amen. Alexander laid plans for a coastal city to be named after himself, appointed native governors, organized taxation under Cleomenes of Naucratis, and appointed Ptolemy military commander, who after Alexander's death in 323 BC became king of Egypt.
Hellenistic Era
Early Egyptian Literature
From the first capital at Memphis, which united Upper and Lower Egypt and was called the balance in which the two lands were weighed, comes a brief creation myth probably from the early part of the Old Kingdom. The greatest god at this time was called Ptah, who brought into being the creator god of the totality, Atum, and transmitted divinity to their souls (ka) through the heart by Horus and through speech by Thoth. Thus God is in every person, god, and animal that lives and controls itself by thinking and commanding whatever one wishes. Atum came into being by the semen and fingers of Ptah; the sun and life-giving moisture came from the pronouncements of his mouth.
The sense of sight, hearing, and smelling report to the heart, which completes thoughts and enables the tongue to announce what the heart thinks. The ka-spirits were made, and everything was provided for by speech. Life was given to those who have peace, and death to those with sin. All actions of the body and crafts were made by what the heart thought and the tongue commanded. After Ptah brought all the gods into being and every good thing in the divine order including cities and shrines, he was satisfied. So all the gods and their souls gathered themselves to him and were content with the Lord of the Two Lands.
The oldest known wisdom literature is a collection of advice attributed to the vizier Ptah-hotep, who served King Issi of the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th century BC. He began by saying to his son that in this instructing of the ignorant about wisdom and good speech it will be advantageous for him to listen and disadvantageous to neglect these teachings. Yet he should not let his heart be puffed up by knowledge or be overly confident. Listen to the ignorant as well as the wise, because there is no limit to how much skill may be attained. Good speech is often hidden and may be found even among women working in the mills.
As a leader in commanding he should seek out what is beneficial and avoid wrongdoing, for justice is what is great and enduring. Justice is eternally the same and punishes those who pass beyond its laws. Fraud may gain riches, but the strength of justice lasts and may be considered the inheritance of his father. He advised respect for one greater and acceptance of whatever he may give. Even to stare rudely can be an offense against the soul (ka). Look down, and only laugh when he laughs. In this authoritarian society meekness toward the powerful was recommended. If trusted to carry an errand, be reliable and don't be forgetful. Grasp the truth but don't exceed it. If you knew someone before he became powerful, don't be puffed up but respect him for what he now has. If your son listens and acts well, seek him out for useful actions; but if he goes astray and transgresses, cast him off as no son at all.
When listening to petitions, hear them out even though it might not be granted, for a good hearing soothes the heart. If you want to develop a friendship in a home, beware of approaching the women; for you may be made a fool and attain death through knowing her. Do not be covetous or greedy when things are being divided; or else a calm man becomes contentious. As for a wife, he recommended filling her belly, clothing her back, and prescribed ointment for her body to make her heart glad. In this male-dominated society he considered her "a profitable field for her lord" and warned against contending with her at law or letting her gain control.
Ptah-hotep suggested satisfying your clients with your wealth, for in time of trouble you do not turn to a stranger, indicating perhaps that payoffs were common. If you are a counselor to the lord, look to the good or be silent. If you speak, know how to explain the difficulties. Bow to your superior, for opposition will be painful. Test friends with conversation; but even if he does something you don't like, remember he is still a friend and don't trample on him. If you hear this it will be well, for hearing is a great advantage of the heart, which is life, property, and health. The properly instructed will stand well with officials, and speech will be guided by what has been said. Obedience is obviously strongly valued, and the obedient son is considered a follower of Horus. Ptah-hotep hoped that his son would also find the king satisfied as he had and would live as long as he, which he claimed was one hundred and ten years.
One story from the Middle Kingdom told how the gods almost destroyed humanity, because they had been plotting against the self-created Re. Re called his own eye and his followers to assemble without humans seeing. The gods said he should send his eye to smite them, and the goddess Hathor went and slew people in the desert. Then Re sent for red ochre and barley to make beer as red as human blood. On the day the goddess was to slay humanity on their southern travels, Re declared the beer good and sent it to flood the fields. The goddess came and drank the beer which pleased her heart, and becoming drunk she could not perceive humanity. Finally the god Re welcomed the goddess in peace.
Another story of possible destruction is a dialog between a man considering suicide and his soul (ba), who seems to be urging him on. However, the soul will not stay with him if he kills himself. The man wants to go be judged by Thoth and Re but wants his soul to make it pleasant for him. The soul replies that he is too attached to good things like one possessing treasures. The man says that he can not go away if his soul remains on the earth. If his soul will listen to him and agree, it will be happy in the West (death) like the soul of one buried in a pyramid. He requests his soul to take care of him in death like a mourning heir would.
The soul replies that after burial the man will not go forth into the sun anymore. The soul advises him to forget his cares and enjoy life. Telling a tale of a humble family eaten by crocodiles, the tragedy of the children not getting a chance to live is apparent. Breaking into poetry, the man laments how his name is abhorred, asking who can he speak to when evil abounds everywhere, admitting that death appears before him now as a blessing like becoming healthy after illness and going to a world of real justice and knowledge. Finally the soul suggests that his comrade cast aside sorrow; for if he will reject death, his soul will abide with him. When death comes and his body is united with the earth, the soul will be free after that rest. The soul concludes by suggesting they live together.
The most popular literary piece of the Middle Kingdom was probably "The Story of Sinuhe" which told how a henchman of King Amenemhet I flees after his assassination, crosses the Nile in a barge and makes it to Suez before falling down in thirst. He is rescued by a sheikh and goes to Byblos and Kedemi, where he is taken in by a Palestinian prince. In discussing Egypt he assures the prince that the new king will do well, for he has already subdued the foreign lands while his father was in the palace. Sinuhe marries the prince's eldest daughter and is given the best land with figs, vines, honey, oil, barley, wheat, and cattle. He lives there many years as a military captain and tribal ruler, his children also becoming tribal chiefs. When someone comes to challenge him, perhaps resenting that he is a foreigner, Sinuhe slays him in combat and plunders his goods.
Still loyal and thankful to his divine king, he prays to him that he might return to Egypt. King Sesostris hears of his plea and sends Sinuhe a royal decree authorizing his return so that he can be buried honorably in the land of his birth. Sinuhe sends a reply full of praise, asking to come back and explaining that he had not planned his earlier flight. The king sends a ship to bring Sinuhe back, and ushered into the royal presence, he lays on his belly before his majesty. The Queen does not believe that it is Sinuhe, but the King recognizes him, appoints him chamberlain, and provides him with luxuries and the highest honor for an Egyptian, an excellent tomb. This story filled with elegant metaphors affirmed Egyptian values and patriotism.
A similar story of a shipwrecked sailor was also written during the Middle Kingdom. Having set out for the mines of the sovereign, a large ship carrying a hundred and twenty sailors is destroyed in a storm, and he is cast alone on an island, where he finds figs, vines, leeks, fruit, cucumbers, fish, and fowl. Using two sticks for a fire-drill, he kindles a fire to sacrifice to the gods when he sees a huge serpent fifteen meters long overlaid with gold and having eyebrows of lapis lazuli who asks him why he is there. The sailor explains about the ship going to the mines that perished, and the serpent offers him every good thing there on the island until a ship comes to take him back to the royal residence. In gratitude the sailor offers the serpent precious perfumes, but the latter laughs because as prince of Punt he has myrrh and hekenu in abundance. When the ship comes, the serpent gives him numerous treasures that the Egyptians imported from the incense-producing countries. The sailor takes these back to his sovereign, who thanks him and appoints him a henchman. This story expressed the adventures and rewards of foreign trade with Punt.
Another Middle Kingdom story indicates how difficult it could be for a poor person to obtain justice. A peasant packed his asses with food and goods for trade and, leaving his wife, went south to Heracleopolis. A man named Dehutinekht, who worked for one of the vassals of the high steward Rensi, saw the asses and plotted how he could get them. He told his servant to place a sheet across the narrow path between the river and his barley fields so that the asses could not pass without either treading on the clothes or trampling on the barley. When an ass ate some barley, he beat the peasant with a rod and took his asses and would not even let him complain aloud.
After petitioning Dehutinekht for ten days futilely, the peasant went to Heracleopolis to petition the high steward Rensi, who made an accusation against Dehutinekht before his magistrates; but they assumed the peasant had left this master and decided that he should only replace the salts. So the peasant went to Rensi and pleaded for justice, and the steward went to King Nebkaure telling him that an eloquent peasant had been robbed by his subject. The king ordered food to be given to the peasant and his family secretly, because he wanted to hear the peasant's speeches.
The peasant petitioned the steward again, accusing the magistrates and him of wrongdoing when they should right wrongs. In condemning their negligence the peasant waxed rhetorical and came back a third time to complain some more and then a fourth time and a fifth. On the sixth time he said, "The arbitrator is a spoiler. The peacemaker is a maker of sorrow."8 The peasant petitioned and spoke a seventh, eighth, and ninth time, declaring as he left that he intended to petition Anubis next in the world of the dead. Then the steward had him recalled and had all his previous speeches read aloud to the king, who was pleased more than by anything else in the entire country. The king told the peasant he could make his own judgment, and from the concluding fragments it appears he was given the possessions of Dehutinekht.
The story of the magicians was probably written during the Hyksos period, but it was set back in the Old Kingdom of the pyramid builders Khufu and Khafre. Khufu wants to know about the magicians. Prince Khafre's tale is about Ubaoner's wife, who took her pleasure with one of the king's pages in her garden. So Ubaoner made a crocodile of wax seven fingers long, which in the bath of the page became a great crocodile seven cubits long that seized the page. Later Ubaoner presented the crocodile to the king, and it became wax again. The king in the story told the crocodile to take his prey and ordered the wife burned and thrown in the river.
Prince Baufre's tale is about Khufu's father Snefru, who ordered twenty virgins with beautiful limbs, breasts, and hair to be dressed in net and row a boat on the lake, where he could watch. When one of them lost a pendant in the water, she stopped singing, followed by the others. The king ordered his chief scribe Zazamankh to retrieve it, and he used magic to remove all the water from that side of the lake and found it on a potsherd. Then he put the lake waters back.
Prince Hardedef offered to present a magician, who, though one hundred and ten years old, was still alive and could put a head back on that has been cut off. The king said a prisoner should be executed to test this skill, but Djedi said not on a man. So a goose, a duck, and an ox were brought, and Djedi made them walk without their heads by magic. What the king wanted was the designs of Thoth, and Djedi told him they were in a chamber at Heliopolis; but only the eldest of three children in the belly of Ruddedet conceived by Re would bring them. They are born and blessed by gods and goddesses; but the tale is incomplete, although it is apparently intended to explain how the kings of the Fifth Dynasty survived in Khufu's time.
Book of the Dead
Other than the blessing of the Nile water and their control of it, the Egyptian belief in life after death was perhaps the most important part of their culture and probably helped to stabilize their society for so many centuries. The ideas that developed into the book Egyptologists have called The Book of the Dead go back before the beginning of Egyptian civilization and their first historical king Menes. The pyramid texts of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties were intended to help and guide the king in awakening after death in the next world. In the Middle Kingdom the hieroglyphics were written on the coffins of those who could afford them, and by 1600 BC they were written on rolls of papyrus and could be purchased or written by even more people.
The author is said to be the god Thoth, whom the Greeks identified with Hermes, placing these in the Hermetic or magical writings attributed to thrice-great Hermes. The usual Egyptian name in the Theban period for the book was pert em hru, which has been translated as "coming forth by day" or "coming forth from the day" or "manifested in the light" and was sometimes called "making perfect the blessed dead." I suggest the essence of the meaning might be "awakening in the light."
The book is based on the myth of Osiris, who was assisted in his resurrection by his sister Isis and their son Horus. The king and later any deceased person is identified with Osiris, and the book gives that soul magical incantations to chant after death to be accepted and guided to the blessings of the next world. The doctrine of eternal life is found in the Fifth Dynasty statement that the soul goes to heaven when the body goes to earth, and eternal life is associated with the sun-god Re and is explicitly mentioned in an inscription for Pepi I. In the 84th chapter the deceased is to say, "My soul is divine; my soul is eternal."
The Egyptians had various words to describe the soul and different aspects of consciousness, and it is difficult to know now exactly what they meant. Ba, depicted in hieroglyphics as a bird or a human-headed hawk, is usually translated simply "soul" and meant sublime and noble. It could leave the body at death and revisit the tomb to reanimate the body; it was able to go to heaven and dwell with perfected souls there. Closely associated with the ba was the khu which meant shining or translucent and is usually translated "intelligence." It could also mean spirit, for the khu of the gods lived in heaven, which is where the human khu went after the prayers said for the dead enabled it to do so. More difficult to interpret is the ka, which could mean image, genius, double, character, disposition, or mental attributes. For a long time the term "ghost" might have been used; today we would probably say, "psyche."
The goal for the deceased was to be by the side of God in the most holy place, to become divine and an angel of God, and to be triumphant and have his ka be triumphant. The long and complete papyrus of Ani is from the 15th century BC and represents the royal scribe Ani identifying with Osiris in these post-mortem experiences. In addition to their literary qualities these books contain many drawings in colored ink that are quite artistic depicting the funeral scenes and mythological characters.
The text begins with Osiris Ani praising in a hymn Re as the king and creator of the gods coming forth as a living soul to see to the ka of Osiris, the scribe Ani. He hails the gods of the soul temple who weigh heaven and earth in balance. Witnessing and recording this are Thoth, the messenger of the gods, and Maat, the divine representation of justice. He asks to see Horus with Thoth and Maat guiding his boat to heaven so that his soul may come forth and go wherever it wants. For his ka he asks splendor in heaven, power on earth, and triumph in the next world.
Ani's heart, representing his conscience, is weighed in a balance against a feather, symbolizing justice (Maat). Ani expresses the hope that no sins or lies will speak against him, and Thoth declares that the heart of Osiris has been found true and without evil by trial. Horus then takes Ani to Osiris saying that Thoth has found him true and just, asking for cakes and ale. Ani is speaking to his own ka asking to be favored like Osiris by the beautiful god and lord of the world.
Ani asks that the way be opened to perfected souls in the hall of Osiris so that he may enter with a bold heart and come forth in peace. He aims to avoid the guardian of darkness, who is feared by those who live in crime. A priest dressed in a leopard's skin introduces Ani and his wife to the gods, who have destroyed the fiends of Seth, the rival of Osiris. Through the recitations the deceased may come forth purified after death and escape every fire and foul thing forever.
In giving his heart to Osiris, Ani states that he has gotten mastery over his hands and arms and feet and gained the ability to do whatever his ka wants. He prays that in the next world his soul will enter into his glorified body with hands filled with justice. As the scribe who told of the divine offerings of the gods and oversaw the granary of Abydos, Ani asks to come to the eternal land ordained for him. The title of the 133rd chapter means making perfect the khu (intelligence) in the next world in the presence of the gods. Then his soul is to be transformed, and he prays,
Grant thou that I may pass on my way
with the godlike ones who rise up.
May I be set up upon my resting-place
like unto the Lord of Life;
may I be joined unto Isis, the divine Lady.
May the gods make me strong against him
that would do harm unto me,
and may no one come to see me fall helpless.
May I pass over the paths,
may I come into the furthermost parts of heaven....
I am one of those shining ones who live in rays of light....
I, in very truth I am a shining one and a dweller in light,
who hath been created and who hath come into being
from the body of the god.9
As he rises up he gains mastery to drive back evil, which opposes him, and the gods open to him the holy way. He declares that what his ka abominates has not entered into his body. His soul is god and eternal, the creator of darkness, and he has appointed to it a resting place in the highest heaven. He has done away with his faults. He has come forth to give light in darkness, and lo! it has been made bright.
In the 125th chapter (The chapters are numbered by a different text and therefore are not in sequence in Ani's papyrus.), Ani declares all of the sins he has not committed, including iniquity, violent robbery, murder, theft, fraud, lied, caused pain, fornicated, caused tears, dealt deceitfully, transgressed, acted guilefully, laid waste plowed land, eavesdropped, been angry without just cause, defiled another's wife, polluted himself, caused terror, burned with rage, ignored right and truth, worked grief, acted with insolence, stirred up strife, judged hastily, multiplied words too much, harmed, cursed the king, fouled the water, spoken scornfully, cursed God, stolen, defrauded nor plundered offerings, filched food, sinned against his local god, nor slaughtered with evil intent the god's cattle. This list gives us an idea of the moral values of the time, though a negative confession prepared before death does raise questions of sincerity.
Isis comes to protect him and embrace Osiris Ani, who is triumphant in peace and in right and truth, and Ani declares himself a perfected soul. Finally he concludes with a hymn of praise for Osiris, the God of gods, asking that his ka be able to go into and come forth from the next world.
Though this guidebook to the next life, being based on magic, has many superstitious beliefs such as stating certain words at the gate of each of the various gods in the next world, the hope of a better life after death surely must have motivated most people to strive to be good and conscientious in this life. Realizing perhaps intuitively that eventually they have to atone for whatever sins they may commit, by having a clear conscience they would be able to rise higher to a better existence. This book also shows their belief that they must face death and its judgment themselves and that they will stand or fall by the quality and strength of their own consciousness.
Later Egyptian Literature
Ethical awareness of individual responsibility and justice is expressed in writings from the New Kingdom found at Deir El-Medina. A man, who swore falsely by Ptah, Lord of Maat (Justice, Truth), stated that he was made to see darkness by day and admitted he had been taught a lesson. Another recognized Amen-Re as a god who judges the guilty and does not take bribes, for he speaks to the heart.
The tradition of writing moral instructions was continued in the "Instruction of Any." Any counseled one to guard against fraud and false words and suggested conquering the malice within oneself, because a quarrelsome person finds no rest. He advised staying away from hostile people and making friends with the straight and true, whose actions one has seen, so that by matching justice friendship will be balanced. He warned against speaking rudely to a brawler and advised holding yourself back when attacked. This will prove beneficial when relations become friendly and the aggressor desists. Beware of being ruined by the tongue. Choose the good and say it, while leaving the bad shut up in your belly. A rude answer may bring a beating, but those who speak sweetly will be loved. Rather than attacking your attacker, leave him to the god. Don't talk back to an angry superior, but let him have his way. Speaking sweetly when he speaks sourly is the remedy that calms the heart. Fighting answers carry sticks and can collapse your strength.
Do not vex your heart.
He will return to praise you soon,
when his hour of rage has passed.
If your words please the heart,
the heart tends to accept them;
Choose silence for yourself;
submit to what he does.10
The thirty chapters of "The Instruction of Amenemope" come from the Ramses period and seem to have been acknowledged by Solomon's Proverbs when 22:20 refers to the thirty sayings of admonition and knowledge. The prolog begins by describing them as "the teaching for life, the instructions for well-being,"11 giving rules for relations with elders, conduct toward magistrates, and for answering one who speaks or sends a message so as to direct one on the paths of life to prosper on earth; let one's heart enter its shrine and steer clear of evil. Here again one is warned not to raise an outcry when one is attacked, for the one who does evil is rejected by the shore. Leave him in the hands of the god. Don't quarrel with the hot-mouthed nor "needle him with words" but rather pause, bend before an attacker, and sleep on it before speaking. For Amenemope wealth is not a cure-all and poverty is no shame.
Better is poverty in the hand of the god,
than wealth in the storehouse;
better is bread with a happy heart
than wealth with vexation.
Do not set your heart on wealth;
there is no ignoring Fate and Destiny;
Do not let your heart go straying;
every man comes to his hour.
Do not strain to seek increase;
what you have, let it suffice you.
If riches come to you by theft,
they will not stay the night with you.12
One should not celebrate wealth from theft nor complain of being poor but rather pray to Aten for well-being and health; he will provide the needs of life, and you will be safe from fear. Guard the tongue from harmful speech in order to be loved by others. Do not speak falsely nor sever your heart from your tongue so that all efforts may succeed. God is always perfect, but humans always fail. Human words are one thing, but the actions of the god are another. No one knows the plans of God; so don't weep for tomorrow. One may stay in the arms of God, and silence will overthrow adversaries.
Those learning to write were given texts to copy that extolled the virtues and advantages of being a secretary compared to other occupations, particularly the trials and tribulations of the military. Writing could bring one more immortality than any tomb. Love poems expressed longing for the beloved, often referred to as a brother or sister as a term of endearment. Only sight of the beloved can cure the ailments of the lover.
Several tales of imaginative literature have survived from the New Kingdom. One about a "Doomed Prince" describes how the characters attempt to avoid a fate predicted by the Hathor goddesses that a child would die by means of a crocodile, snake, or dog. The king protected his son's childhood but allowed him to have a greyhound for a pet. The young man asks to be able to go off on his own and wins the hand of a princess in Nahrin. When he tells his wife of his predicted destiny, she wants to kill the greyhound; but he refuses. She tries to protect him, but a crocodile is struggling with a water sprite nearby. One night a snake approaches him, but she kills it, exulting that one of his fates has been overcome. A few days later his dog informs him that he is his fate. So he runs before the dog into the lake, where the crocodile carries him off, saying that though he is his fate; for three months he has been contending with the water sprite and would let him go if the water sprite would fight with him. Ironically the end of the tale is lost, so that we never know whether the prince meets his doomed fate or not. Perhaps this makes the point that we can never know our destiny for sure until it occurs.
The most famous Egyptian tale is of two brothers named after Anubis, the jackal-headed god of the after-life, and Bata, often symbolized as a bull. The older Anubis had a wife and house and allowed his younger brother to live with them. Bata was an excellent worker and served his older brother and his wife well. One day needing seed the older brother sends the younger to town. At home his brother's wife asks him to lay with her, but the younger brother refuses and takes the seed. That evening when the older brother comes home, his wife puts geese fat on her body and pretends she has been assaulted by the younger brother because she refused to lay with him. If the younger brother is allowed to live, she threatens to take her own life.
So the older brother takes his spear to go kill his brother; but a cow warns the herdsman, and he runs away followed by his brother with the spear. Somehow a god places water infested with crocodiles between them. The younger brother shouts that he is going to the Valley of the Pine, calls the wife a slut, and cuts off his phallus; but his brother must come to him when he takes out his heart and puts it on the pine tree. If the pine tree is cut down, he must come searching for the heart. The older brother will know he must do this when a jug of beer ferments in front of him.
Then the younger brother goes to the Valley of the Pine, and the older brother goes home, kills his wife, and mourns his brother. The Nine Gods tell Bata that his brother has killed his wife, and they provide a divine woman as a companion for Bata. However, the seven Goddesses want to execute her with a knife. Bata tells her to stay in the house, because, being a female like her, he could not rescue her. One day the pine tree takes a curl from her hair, and the sea takes it to Egypt, where it is put in the Pharaoh's laundry, its scent affecting all his clothes. His advisors track down the curl and lure the divine woman to the court. She tells the king to cut down the pine tree; when they cut off the flower with Bata's heart, he dies instantly.
The next day Anubis finds ferment in his beer, and his wine turns bad. So he goes to the Valley of the Pine and finds his brother lying dead. After searching for his heart for three years, he wants to return to Egypt. Just as he is about to leave, he sees a pine cone with his brother's heart, which he puts in water. Bata revives and drinks the water with the heart. Bata then changes himself into a great bull, which his brother could use to please the Pharaoh. When Bata reveals himself to his wife as a bull, she asks Pharaoh to let her eat the liver of this bull. However, Pharaoh nevertheless sacrifices the bull. Two drops of its blood grow into great Persea trees. Then Bata speaks to the Lady as the Persea tree, and she demands the trees be cut down for furniture; but she swallows a splinter, making her pregnant. Her son pleases Pharaoh and is appointed Viceroy of Kush and crown prince of Egypt. When the king dies, he becomes Pharaoh for thirty years and is succeeded by his older brother.
This fantastic tale reflects Egyptian belief in the divine that can permeate all of life, which can be redeemed through sacrifice. In accordance with masculine superiority evils seem to be concentrated in the feminine characters even though male sexual exploitation of women and male violence are obviously more common than the reverse. The tale also reflects Egyptian exploitation of cattle and trees and their incense from foreign lands as well as the emasculation of bulls as oxen and perhaps also of priests.
Another story of two brothers is an allegory of truth and falsehood. In this case Truth is blinded because of the lies of his younger brother about a large copper dagger. A woman is attracted to the blind man, who has become doorkeeper of her house; she sleeps with him and has his child, who excels his classmates. Taunted that he has no father, he finds out from his mother that the blind doorkeeper is his father. Discovering who blinded his father, he goes to avenge him. The boy takes a beautiful ox with him, which is appropriated by Falsehood. At a hearing before the Nine Gods the boy claims that his ox is as large as the island, but Falsehood says this is false. Then the boy asks if there is a copper dagger as large as the one he described. Then Falsehood swears that if Truth is found to be alive, he himself should be blinded and assigned to be doorkeeper. When the boy produces his father Truth, Falsehood's oath is fulfilled.
A story of divine rivalry is told of Horus and Seth. With the death of Osiris his office is to go to his son Horus; but Seth, the brother of Osiris, thinks it should go to him. The Nine Gods decide to send to Neith, the Mother of God, to settle this dispute of eighty years, and she says to give the office to Horus; let Seth have Anath and Astarte. The Nine Gods so decide, pleasing Isis, while Seth says he will kill one of them each day. Later Isis enters into disguises and seduces Seth, complaining that a stranger took her cattle from her son when her husband died. Seth asks how can the cattle be given away when the son is alive, and Isis flies off excoriating Seth, who is judged by his own words.
When Horus is given the White Crown, Seth challenges him to transform themselves into hippopotamuses. Isis, fearing Seth has killed Horus, harpoons Horus by mistake and then Seth, but lets her brother go as well. Horus angrily takes his mother's head. Then Seth removes the eyes of Horus, but Hathor heals his eyes with a gazelle's milk. The Nine Gods bring them in again and tell them to stop quarreling. So they celebrate together, and Seth deposits his semen into the hands of Horus. Outraged Isis gets some semen from Horus and puts it on Seth's lettuce; when he eats the lettuce, Seth becomes pregnant. Next Seth claims the kingdom on the grounds that he has performed the work of a man on Horus; but Horus suggests they call forth their semen which reveals his inside Seth. Once again the court decides in favor of Horus.
Seth continues to contend with Horus with boats and harpoons and thinks that he has been vindicated a thousand times. Finally Thoth suggests they send a letter to Osiris, who replies that his son Horus should not be cheated. Horus is crowned in his father's place, and the Nine Gods celebrate in joy. This story affirms the traditional Egyptian religion of Horus as opposed to the less popular Asiatic worship of Seth.
Notes
1. Gardiner, Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs, p. 417.
2. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts tr. R. O. Faulkner, p. 2.
3. Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume 1, p. 17.
4. Hayes, William C., "The Middle Kingdom" in The Cambridge Ancient History 3rd edition, Volume 1 Part 2, p. 480.
5. Van Seters, John, The Hyksos, p. 115-120.
6. Gardiner, Alan, Egypt of the Pharaohs, p. 189.
7. Redford, Donald B., Akhenaten, p. 201.
8. The Ancient Egyptians ed. Erman, Adolf, p. 126.
9. The Egyptian Book of the Dead tr. E. A. Wallis Budge, p. 333.
10. Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume 2, p. 143.
11. Ibid., p. 148.
12. Ibid., p. 152.
Copyright © 1998-2004 by Sanderson Beck
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Contents HISTORY OF ETHICS
Prehistoric Cultures
Sumer, Babylon, and Hittites
Egypt
Israel
Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian Empires
Egypt Under the Ptolemies
Muhammad and Islamic Conquest
Abbasid, Buyid, and Seljuk Empires 750-1095
Islamic Culture 1095-1300
Ottoman and Persian Empires 1300-1730
Ottoman and Persian Empires 1730-1875
Africa to 1500
Africa and Slavery 1500-1800
Africa and Europeans 1800-1875
Summary and Evaluation
Bibliography
Chronological Index
BECK index
