EGYPTIAN LITERATURE

...sciously This completes the word "consciously" from the previous page., and to which we do not give too much honor if we speak of it as their literature.

But while the works preserved from the visual arts original: "plastic art," referring to sculpture and three-dimensional art of the Egyptians are so numerous that we have now gained an understanding of them that is unlikely to change much, our position regarding their literature is unfortunately very different; for of this we possess comparatively little. And how could it be otherwise, considering that the survival of a literary work depends upon the slim chance of a fragile sheet of papyrus lasting for three or four thousand years! Consequently, out of what was once undoubtedly a vast collection of writings, only isolated fragments have been made known to us. Every new discovery adds some new feature to the picture we have formed of Egyptian literature. On the whole, this picture is now fairly accurate, for it possesses an internal logic. Each of the large chronological divisions into which it falls displays a distinct, consistent character, and this character harmonizes with what we otherwise know about the period in question.

As far back as we can trace it, the Egyptian language shows signs of being carefully cultivated. It is rich in metaphors and figures of speech—a "refined language" original: "cultured language" which "composes and thinks" for the writer. At least one of the ancient books of proverbs¹ may even have been composed during the Old Kingdom, in the time of the Fifth Dynasty (around original: "circa" 2700 B.C. or earlier), which we know as an age in which the visual arts were at a particularly high level. But the full development of the literature appears to have been reached only in the "dark period" that separates the Old from the Middle Kingdom,² and in the famous Twelfth Dynasty (1995–1790 B.C.).

¹ See what is said regarding the Proverbs of Ptahhotep on page 54, below.

² Three of the most important books of the older literature—the Instruction for King Merikare, the Instruction of Duauf, and the Complaints of the Peasant—were likely written under the kings who then ruled from Herakleopolis over Middle Egypt and the Delta. We know very little of them, and therefore usually assume that they played an insignificant role in the development of the Egyptian people. Yet it may well be possible that it was at their court that literature blossomed. This is also suggested by Blackman, who draws attention to the remarkably high level of art from that period as displayed in the tombs of Meir (see Discovery, vol. 3, pp. 35 ff.; Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 11, pp. 213 f.; Luxor and its Temples, p. 42).