The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians

The Literature of ancient Egypt is the product of a period of about four thousand years, and it was written in three kinds of writing, which are called hieroglyphic, hieratic, a...

"Pyramid Texts" is the name now commonly given to the long hieroglyphic inscriptions that are cut upon the walls of the chambers and corridors of five pyramids at Sakkārah. The...

The short stories of the wonderful deeds of ancient Egyptian magicians here given are found in the Westcar Papyrus, which is preserved in the Royal Museum in Berlin, where it is...

"Book of the Dead" is the name that is now generally given to the large collection of "Chapters," or compositions, both short and long, which the ancient Egyptians cut upon the...

From what has been said in the preceding chapter it will be clear that only wealthy people could afford to bury copies of the great Book of the Dead with their deceased relative...

If we consider for a moment the vast amount of thought which the Egyptian gave to the problems of the future life, and their deep-seated belief in resurrection and immortality,...

The Egyptians believed that at one time all the great gods and goddesses lived upon earth, and that they ruled Egypt in much the same way as the Pharaohs with whom they were mor...

The historical period of Egyptian history, that is to say, the period during which Egypt was ruled by kings, each one calling himself NESU-BATI, or "King of the South, King of t...

Attention has already been called to the very great importance of the autobiographies of the military and administrative officials of the Pharaohs, and a selection of them must...

The text of this very interesting story is found written in the hieratic character upon papyri which are preserved in Berlin. The narrative describes events which are said to ha...

One of the most interesting tales that have come down to us in Egyptian dress is the tale commonly called the "Tale of the Two Brothers." It is found written in the hieratic cha...

matter to man or woman." Then Bata took up his load on his shoulders, and departed to the fields. And when he arrived at the place where his elder brother was they continued the...

In this chapter are given translations of Hymns that were sung in the temples in honour of the great gods of Egypt between 1600 B.C. and 900 B.C., and of Hymns that were used by...

Side by side with the great mass of literature of a magical and religious character that flourished in Egypt under the Ancient Empire, we find that there existed also a class of...

once addressed to his soul a series of remarks, couched in rhythmical language, in which he made it clear that, so far as he was concerned, death would be preferable to life. He...

The poetry of the Egyptians is wholly unlike that of western nations, but closely resembles the rhythmical compositions of the Hebrews, with their parallelism of members, with w...

I. The BOOK OF THE TWO WAYS.--This is a very ancient funerary work, which is found written in cursive hieroglyphs upon coffins of the eleventh and twelfth dynasties, of which ma...