Ancient Egyptian Literature

An Anthology

John L. Foster

• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780292725270
• eBook ISBN: 9780292798137
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: African Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

A beautifully translated collection sampling all the major genres of ancient Egyptian literature. Poetry, stories, hymns, prayers, and wisdom texts found exquisite written expression in ancient Egypt while their literary counterparts were still being recited around hearth fires in ancient Greece and Israel. Yet, because of its very antiquity and the centuries during which the language was forgotten, ancient Egyptian literature is a newly discovered country for modern readers. This anthology offers an extensive sampling of all the major genres of ancient Egyptian literature. It includes all the texts from John Foster's previous book Echoes of Egyptian Voices, along with selections from his Love Songs of the New Kingdom and Hymns, Prayers, and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Lyric Poetry, as well as previously unpublished translations of four longer and two short poems. Foster's translations capture the poetical beauty of the Egyptian language and the spirit that impelled each piece's composition, making these ancient masterworks sing for modern readers. An introduction to ancient Egyptian literature and its translation, as well as brief information about the authorship and date of each selection, completes the volume. "This exceptional sampling of one of the world's most ancient literatures offers more than 40 hymns, stories, prayers, and songs revolving around religion, the Pharaohs, life, death, love, and more..... Highly recommended for all literary collections, this is also of interest to comprehensive collections of Egyptology, Near Eastern history, world literature in translation, and religion." — Library Journal "Older than the Buddha and the Bhagavad Gita, these poems constitute a truly ancient literature, and Foster's rich and textured translations make genuine love poems and exhortations to the gods out of what, to most of us, are just pictures." — Booklist

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Akhenaten’s Hymn to the Sun
• The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor
• “Why, just now, must you question your heart”
• “I love you through the daytimes”
• “My love is one and only”
• “Love, how I’d love to slip down to the pond”
• “Love of you is mixed deep in my vitals”
• “I think I’ll go home and lie very still”
• Songs of the Birdcatcher’s Daughter
• The Instruction for Little Pepi on His Way to School
• Longing for Memphis
• “Oh, I’m bound downstream on the Memphis Ferry”
• Rebuke Addressed to a Dissipated Scribe
• Menna’s Lament
• The Debate between a Man Tired of Life and His Soul
• The Resurrection of King Unis
• Prayer to the King to Rise Up
• Hymn to the King as a Primordial God
• Hymn to the King as a Flash of Lightning
• Prayer of the King as a Star Fading in the Dawn
• The Prophecy of Neferty
• The Testament of Amenemhat
• Two Spells
• The Greatness of the King
• Prayer of King Ramesses II
• For a Portrait of the Queen
• Hymn to Osiris
• Hymn to the Nile
• Hymn to the Rising Sun
• In Praise of Amun
• Lament to Amun
• The Tale of Sinuhe
• From The Leiden Hymns
• The Prayers of Pahery
• From the Tomb of King Intef
• The Harper’s Song for Inherkhawy
• From The Eloquent Peasant
• From The Maxims of Ptahhotep
• The Instruction for Merikarê
• The Wisdom of Amenemopet
• The Immortality of Writers (Epilogue)
• Chronology
• Glossary
• List of Hieroglyphic Passages
• Sources of the Texts
• Bibliography