oriental wisdom || the sages of ancient egypt in the light of recent scholarship

The Sages of Ancient Egypt in the Light of Recent ScholarshipAuthor(s): R. J. WilliamsSource: Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 101, No. 1, Oriental Wisdom (Jan. -Mar., 1981), pp. 1-19Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/602161 .

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THE SAGES OF ANCIENT EGYPT IN THE LIGHT OF

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

R. J. WILLIAMS

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

ALL THOSE WHO HAVE DEVOTED THEMSELVES TO THE

STUDY of what are commonly known as "Wisdom"- texts will be aware of the inherent difficulty of this branch of literature for various reasons: textual, lexical and especially interpretative. In the case of Egyptian works, however, textual problems are unusually numerous, since most witnesses to the text are late schoolboy copies. Great strides have been made during the last two decades or so in our understanding and appreciation of this growing body of texts. Taking the year 1960 as our starting-point,' we shall survey recent studies under the following heads:

I. Nature and scope of wisdom-literature. II. Additional manuscripts and new texts.

III. New translations and interpretations. IV. Textual criticism. V. Literary criticism.

VI. Form criticism. VII. Redaction criticism.

VIII. Date and Authorship. IX. Popularity and influence. X. Religious ideas.

XI. Future tasks.

I. NATURE AND SCOPE OF WISDOM-LITERATURE.

It has frequently been pointed out that the term "Wisdom" employed to designate this class of literature is not native to Egypt but has been adopted from biblical studies. Under the rubric of "Wisdom" biblical scholars are accustomed to include not only didactic texts like Proverbs and Sirach, but also what are sometimes referred to as "speculative" works, i.e., Job and Ecclesiastes.

Egyptologists have also followed this practice so that, in addition to works of instruction, for which the Egyptians themselves employed the term sbDyt, "teaching," they tend to include texts which may be classified as laments or complaints as well as those designed for the purpose of political propaganda. It will be conve-

nient to list here the compositions which were known to us by 1960, beginning with the instructions:

Old Kingdom: Teaching of Hardjedef (Posener, 1952),2 Teaching for Kagemni (Gardiner, 1946), Teach- ing of Ptahhotpe (Zaba, 1956).

First Intermediate Period: Teaching for Merikarj (Volten, 1945: 3-103).

Middle Kingdom: Teaching of Amenemhet I (Volten, 1945: 104-28; Posener, 1956: 61-86), Satire on the Trades (Brunner, 1944), Loyalist Teaching (Kuentz, 1932; Posener, 1956: 117-23), Teaching of a Man for His Son (Kuentz, 1931; Posener, 1956: 124-7).

New Kingdom: Teaching of Any (Suys, 1935; Volten, 1937), Teaching of Amenemope (Lange, 1925), Teach- ing of Amennakhte (Posener, 1955), to which perhaps belongs in part the text contained in Pap. Chester Beatty IV, recto (Gardiner, 1935: Vol. 1, 37-44, Vol. 2, Pls. 18-22).

Demotic Period: Teaching of Onkhsheshonqy (Glan- ville, 1955), Pap. Insinger (Lexa, 1926; Volten, 1940), Pap. Louvre 2414 (Volten, 1955).

The works of a speculative nature are: First Intermediate Period: Admonitions of Ipuwer

(Gardiner, 1909), Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Vogelsang/Gardiner, 1908; Gardiner, 1923), Harper's Song(s) (Lichtheim, 1945), Dispute of a Man with His BAI (Faulkner, 1956).

Middle Kingdom: Prophecies of Neferty (Gardiner, 1914; Posener, 1956: 21-60, 145-57), Lament of Khakheperresonbe (Gardiner, 1909: 95-110, Pls. 17- 8), Discourses of Sisobk (Barns, 1956: 1-10, Pls. 1-6).

It should be remarked too that "Wisdom" in this broader sense is not confined merely to these texts, but is an attitude of mind and life which finds expression in tomb biographies from the later Old Kingdom right down to the Hellenistic period (Schmid, 1966: 44-6). Hence it is not surprising to find wisdom-type texts among the more conventional tomb inscriptions of Petosiris, high priest of Thoth at Hermopolis in the late fourth century B.C. (Lefebvre, 1923/4).

I



2 Journal of the American Oriental Society 101.1 (1981)

II. ADDITIONAL MANUSCRIPTS AND NEW TEXTS.

During the past score of years substantial additions to the published corpus of papyri, ostraca and wooden writing boards on which wisdom-texts were copied in whole or in part have added to the number of known works and have also provided a wealth of duplicates of previously published compositions. We shall begin with the new witnesses to works already familiar, following the order given above.

Hardjedef, hitherto pieced together from only eight ostraca, can now claim five more ostraca (O.Aeg. 14 [Goedicke, 1963/4: PI. 14]; O.IFAO 1229-30 [Posener, 1972: PI. 57]; O.IFAO 1396 [Posener, 1977/8: PI. 13]; O.IFAO 1604 [Posener, 1977/8: PI. 51]) and a writing board (Posener, 1966: 62-5, PI. 1).

For Ptahhotpe three ostraca have turned up (O.IFAO 1232-4 [Posener, 1972: PI. 58]), the only ones to have been discovered so far! The tattered fragments of a papyrus with the beginning of Ptahhotpe now in Turin still await publication (Roccati, 1975: 245, # 5).

In the case of Amenemhet, one of the four known papyri, Pap. Millingen, disappeared many years ago. Fortunately, an early set of facsimiles has been discovered (Lopez, 1963). A tiny scrap of papyrus in Berlin was identified as part of a new duplicate (Pap. Berlin 23045 [Burkard, 1977: 7-8 and PI.]), while another fragment of papyrus in New York is still unpublished as is the leather roll in the Louvre. A surprising increment of 132 ostraca has also been added to the total (0. Aeg. 19 [Goedicke, 1963/4: PI. 19]; 0.IFAO 1267-1395 [Posener, 1977/8: Pls. 1-13]; O.N. 57048, 57066 [Lopez, 1978: Pls. 31a, 31, 41a, 41]).

The popular Satire on Trades has provided a further 151 ostraca (O.IFAO 1442-1590 [Posener, 1977/ 8: Pls. 28-44]; O.N. 57023, 57082 [Lopez, 1978: Pls. 13a, 13, 49a, 49]) to increase its total to 247!

Loyalist has increased its total of ostraca by twenty- two (O.IFAO 1413-34 [Posener, 1977/8: Pls. 18-22]).

To the previously published opening section of Man for Son belong four new ostraca (O.IFAO 1266 + O.Cairo 25218 [Posener, 1972: PI. 74]; O.P.Berlin 14374 [Blumenthal, 1974]; O.Giza [Osing, 1977]; O.N. 57063 [Lopez, 1978: Pls. 36a, 36]). G. Posener's shrewd suspicion that what he had earlier published as the fragmentary conclusion of a "sagesse inconnue" (Pose- ner, 1950), as well as the text published by K. Kitchen and called by him "The Counsels of Discretion" (Kitchen, 1970), both belong to this same work has been brilliantly confirmed (Posener, 1979). Kitchen's

edition was reconstructed from seven ostraca (O. Michaelides 16 [Goedicke/Wente, 1962: PI. 38]; O.IFAO 1397-1402 [Posener, 1977/8: PI. 14]) to which three other previously published ostraca (O.IFAO 1096-8 [Posener, 1938 PI. 51]; O.IFAO 1209 [Posener, 1952: PI. 45]) must now be added, since it is clear that they form part of this important composition.

The existence of still other duplicates of this work is known. An almost illegible leather scroll in the British Museum (BM 10258) has never been fully published. The same is true of two papyri (Pap. Louvre 3171 and the fragmentary Pap. Amherst XV) which have long been known, as well as bits of a third papyrus in Turin (Roccati, 1975: 245, # 7). So far, only thirty-one ostraca have been published out of about eighty known to exist.

The long and eagerly awaited publication of the new papyrus of Any in Cairo has at last appeared thanks to G. Posener (Cern', 1978: 1-4, Pls. 1-8). We now antici- pate the imminent publication of a sheet from another papyrus of the same work discovered in 1975 at the tomb of Horemheb at Saqqarah (Cern', 1978: 4). Three more ostraca are now available in copies (O.IFAO 1257-9 [Posener, 1972: PI. 67]), while three others are still to appear.

One new ostracon is available for the text of Amennakhte (O.IFAO 1596 [Posener, 1977/8: PI. 47]), while one or two have been identified and await publication.

Amenemope, long known only from one papyrus in the British Museum, has had a dramatic increase in copies: part of a papyrus-roll now in Stockholm (Pap. Stockholm MM 18416 [Peterson, 1966]), four wooden tablets in Turin, Paris and Moscow (Turin Cat. 6237, Louvre E. 17173, Moscow I 16 324 ro. [Posener, 1966: 46-62, Pls. 1-2]; Turin Suppl. 4661 [Posener, 1973b]), and one ostracon which is the only one known so far (O.Cairo 1840 [Peterson, 1974]).

Insinger has been represented since 1940 by four papyri in Copenhagen in addition to Pap. Insinger. Further fragments of three of these papyri have since been recovered, twelve belonging to Pap. Carlsberg III and IV in Florence (Botti/Volten, 1960), and in Berlin two from Pap. Carlsberg II along with two fragments of yet another papyrus (Pap. Berlin P 23726, 23728, 23824, 23825 [Zauzich, 1975]). A most welcome addition consists ofstwo large papyrus fragments in the University Museum of Philadelphia which have been identified by K. Zauzich as belonging to the lost beginning of Pap. Insinger. Their publication will be eagerly awaited.



WILLIAMS: The Sages of Ancient Egypt in the Light of Recent Scholarship 3

For Neferty two more ostraca have been made accessible (O.IFAO 1261 [Posener, 1972: PI. 68], O.IFAO 1407 [Posener, 1977/8: PI. 16]), while four others still remain unpublished.

The number of Harper's Songs has now grown to twenty-four, three new ones being published by E. Wente (Wente, 1962) and five still remaining unpublished (Assmann, 1977: 58-9).

The new compositions which have appeared are all of the instruction variety. From the Middle Kingdom comes a wooden writing tablet now in Oxford which preserves a portion from an unknown work (Barns, 1968). Of New Kingdom date is an ostracon (O.Petrie 11 [Cerny'/Gardiner, 1957: Pls. 1, la; Gardiner, 1957]) bearing part of an unidentified didactic text with which may perhaps be associated some other known ostraca (O.IFAO 1090 [Posener, 1938: PI. 49]; O.Turin 6391 [Posener, 1951: 184-5, PI. 14A], also published as O.N. 57089 [Lopez, 1978: PI. 38]; O.BM 5631, verso [Cern'/ Gardiner, 1957: PI. 88]). Two further scraps of gnomic texts in Late Egyptian bear testimony to how many works still await identification (O.IFAO 1250 [Posener, 1972: PI. 62]; O.Berlin P 14371 [Hintze, 1954]). From the Late Period comes a long and very fragmentary manuscript of a work composed between 650 and 350 B.C. (Pap. Brooklyn 47.218.135). G. Posener has promised an edition of this collection of maxims and precepts (Posener/ Garnot, 1963).

The extent of sapiential literature in the demotic script is becoming increasingly apparent as new texts continue to make their appearance. On a damaged papyrus one column of maxims is partially preserved (Pap. Michaelidis [Bresciani, 1963: 1-4, PI. 1]). Two more short excerpts from unknown works on papyrus are in the Louvre (Pap. Louvre 2377, verso, and Pap. Louvre 2380 [Williams, 1976: 264-70]). An ostracon inscribed with a few lines from a similar text has, since its publication, been found to be located in the British Museum (O.BM 50627 [Williams, 1976: 270-1]).3 Yet another fragment of papyrus from Tebtunis should perhaps be dated to the third century A.D. (Pap. Tebt. Tait 15 [Tait, 1977: 53-6, PI. 4]). If so, this is the latest copy of any demotic wisdom-text known.

Among the demotic texts awaiting study or publication are a fragment of papyrus in Cairo (Pap. Cairo 30672 [Spiegelberg, 1908: 103]) and a papyrus in Berlin (Pap. Berlin P 15658) which formed part of a collection of precepts. A long wisdom-book, also in Berlin, is being prepared for publication by U. Kaplony- Heckel. A considerable number of papyrus fragments of a long text in Vienna has been assigned to

E. Reymond. Finally, there is a papyrus fragment in Michigan.

Some tomb inscriptions of the earlier periods have also been put forward as candidates for inclusion in this type of literature. The latter half of the stela of Mentuhotpe in University College, London, has been claimed as an "instruction" (Goedicke, 1962). W. Schenkel objected to this interpretation and rendered the section as an integral part of the autobiographical text (Schenkel, 1964). The Old Kingdom official Metjetjy similarly included a didactic section in the "appeal to passers-by" of his tomb biography (Kaplony, 1968), and Nebneteru, a priest of Amun in the mid- ninth century B.C., likewise incorporated moral maxims into his autobiography (Kees, 1938; 1963). However, all these examples serve to illustrate the close relationship which exists between the wisdom and the biographical texts to which we alluded earlier. As a matter of fact, Amenemhet could as readily be deemed an autobiography as an instruction, and the first half of the Loyalist was actually reproduced as a part of the biographical stela of SehtepibrE.

III. NEW TRANSLATIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS.

The advances made in grammatical and lexical studies of the Egyptian language, together with the new textual materials which have come to light, have led to a number of new renderings of the compositions in whole or in part. Fresh translations have appeared in recent anthologies of Egyptian literature.4

Some scholars have produced critical editions of certain works with textual variants. W. Helck has been most productive in this area, having published, in a convenient form for students, critical texts and annotated translations of Amenemhet (Helck, 1969), Neferty (Helck, 1970b), Satire on Trades (Helck, 1970a) and Merikarj (Helck, 1977). H. Goedicke and K. Kitchen have each accorded similar treatment to Man for Son (Goedicke, 1967; Kitchen, 1969). Loyalist has been edited and translated in an exemplary fashion by G. Posener (Posener, 1976). Even when no variants have been available, new annotated renderings have been made, such as those of Ipuwer (Faulkner, 1964; 1965) and Khakheperresonbe (Kadish, 1973). Mention should also be made of some useful discussions of problematic passages in Ipuwer (Schott, 1974), Meri- kare (Donadoni, 1968; Muller, 1967), Neferty (Barta, 1971; Derchain, 1972; Westendorf, 1973), Satire on Trades (Seibert, 1967), Amenemhet (Lopez, 1973b), Amenemope (Posener, 1963; Couroyer, 1968; Posener,




1968; Anthes, 1970; Posener, 1973a) and Dispute (Griffiths, 1967; Guilmot, 1968/72).

Some works of the speculative type have received a more detailed study of their contents which has led to fruitful new interpretations. Peasant was shown by S. Herrmann to have as its main purpose not love of eloquence, as the frame-story would suggest, but a demand for social justice (Herrmann, 1957a: 79-93; 1957b). Shortly thereafter, G. Lanczkowski published a monograph discussing the degree to which this composition resembled biblical prophetic literature (Lanczkowski, 1960). Herrmann also examined the subject of the comparison of Hebrew and Egyptian "prophecy" (Herrmann, 1963). Despite some similar- ities, he recognized even more profound differences between them, not the least of which was the lack of any sense of divine inspiration. More recently, a brief discussion of Neferty by L. F6ti has stressed the basic differences to be observed between instruction, lamen- tation and prophecy (F6ti, 1976).

Ipuwer had been understood by earlier scholars to be an attack by Ipuwer on a ruler, probably Pepi II. J. Spiegel reinterpreted this as an attack by a member of the ruling class at the end of the Old Kingdom on a supposed usurper who gained power after the revolu- tion which toppled the Old Kingdom (Spiegel, 1950). This reconstruction failed to gain general support, but is still confidently maintained in an article Spiegel contributed to the most recent encyclopedia (Spiegel, 1975). A fresh and stimulating approach was made by E. Otto in a published lecture (Otto, 1951). He argued that the composition was not a denunciation of a human ruler, but a reproach directed at the creator- god Atum for the lamentable state of the land. Otto was the first to see the relevance of the contemporary literature of the First Intermediate Period for an understanding of the work. He suggested that the replies of the deity were to be found in Spells 80, 184 and 1130 of the Coffin Texts and in the closing section of Merikari. Some years later he discussed in greater detail what he saw as the central problem of the work: human accountability for sin (Otto, 1966).

The Dispute has also been the subject of much lively discussion. S. Herrmann offered a fresh interpretation of the work based on the novel views of the bai contained in certain Heracleopolitan spells of the Coffin Texts (Herrmann, 1957a: 62-79). According to him, the author sought to reconcile the traditional beliefs concerning the afterlife and the customary preparations and provisions for it with these new ideas about the bai. In a brief article by the present writer,

the work was seen as "a vehement attack on the futility of costly and elaborate preparations for the preservation of the body after death" (Williams, 1962: 56).

E. Brunner-Traut subsequently returned to the earliest view of the Dispute as autobiographical (Brunner- Traut, 1967), referring to an episode in the man's life when his sacrifices and prayers were spurned. This led to his humiliation and the danger of imminent death as his bai threatened to abandon him. For her, the problem is that of the loyalty of the bai. An important book by W. Barta followed in which he stressed the fact that by the end of the Old Kingdom the belief was current that the bai was the possession of every individual, whether commoner or royalty (Barta, 1969). He saw the author responding to two problems: (1) the author's disillusionment with life in times of social and political disorder and (2) his scepticism concerning the need for elaborate funerary preparations, since the bai, unlike the body, required no rites for survival. In his monograph Barta gives a valuable survey of the history of the interpretation of the work. A later volume by H. Goedicke makes little significant progress, but offers many novel ideas with rather more eisegesis than exegesis (Goedicke, 1970). He regards the main theme as being two opposing views of the bai as immanent or transcendent.

The group of poems known as the Harper's Songs has for long been seen to contain two opposing attitudes: the orthodox view with respect to immor- tality and an attack on this belief expressing a hedonistic point of view. In three articles D. Lorton has taken issue with this thesis (Lorton, 1968; 1969/70; 1975). Rather than scepticism regarding the afterlife and the advocacy of hedonism, he finds an affirmation of faith in the hereafter and a call to moral conduct. Hence, he claims that the expression "to follow the heart" means "to follow one's conscience." This interpretation has not won acceptance and was countered by J. Assmann who insisted that it means "to live a full life" in awareness of the transitory nature of human life (Assmann, 1977). The real problem is still what attitude should be adopted towards the traditional mortuary beliefs.

In opposition to the prevailing view represented by M. Lichtheim (Lichtheim, 1945), E. Wente and H. Brunner (Wente, 1962; Brunner, 1966b) have maintained that the heterodox hedonistic attitude expressed in these poems was designed for secular banquets held in the tomb chapels, especially on the occasion of the annual Valley Feast at Thebes. This is now supported by a study made by H. Altenmiffler of scenes and




accompanying texts in Old Kingdom tombs (Alten- muller, 1978). The evidence clearly indicates a secular use. An article by F. Jesi discusses the paradoxical nature of Egyptian thought as expressed in Dispute and the Harper's Songs (Jesi, 1968).

The demotic Onchsheshonqy is unlike other Egyp- tian didactic works in that it is particularly concerned with giving advice on agricultural matters. This has led P. Walcot to the interesting and plausible conjecture that the author was influenced by Hesiod's Works and Days (Walcot, 1962).

IV. TEXTUAL CRITICISM.

The abundance of new copies, mostly inscribed on ostraca from Deir el-Medinah, has given added impetus to the text-critical study of the sapiential texts. However, this wealth of material has also increased the problem of establishing an accurate text, since all the ostraca, writing boards and even some of the papyri are schoolboy copies. Moreover, most of them are Ramesside in date and thus often many centuries later than the originals. Some works which originated in the Middle Kingdom are preserved only in copies made during the New Kingdom, by which time Middle Egyptian was archaic. As a result, much of what the pupils wrote they evidently did not understand; and this fact, together with the carelessness and incom- petence typical of schoolboys, all too frequently led to well-nigh hopeless corruptions.

An excellent account of the development of the textual criticism of Egyptian literary works was given by B. van de Walle thirty years ago (van de Walle, 1948). The foremost exponent of this area of study before the period of our survey was A. Volten in his editions of Any (Volten, 1937) and Insinger (Vo!ten, 1941: 3-73). His frequent and often daring emendations did not always meet with the approval of other scholars. He did, nevertheless, lay down certain basic principles concerning the main types of error to be encountered. These were: (1) the misreading of hieratic (or demotic) signs and the miscopying of passages, (2) mistakes arising from dictation through the confusion of words that sounded alike, (3) errors caused by copying from faulty memory, as well as (4) the usual unintentional slips due to carelessness.

A significant advance was made by G. Burkard in a careful study of the variant readings of five wisdom- texts: Ptahhotpe, Merikari, Amenemhet, Satire on Trades and Man for Son (Burkard, 1977). These works were selected because all of them were written in

Middle Egyptian, date from the late Old Kingdom through the Middle Kingdom, are of an adequate length and are supplied with sufficient duplicate texts. In this volume he analyses the nature of each variant.

As a result of his researches he takes issue with Volten's thesis that by far the majority of errors were Hdrfehler, mistakes of hearing, from which Volten had concluded that the normal procedure in the scribal schools was to copy texts from dictation. By careful attention to the original pronunciation, in so far as it can be extrapolated from such sources as Coptic and transliterations into Greek, he shows that words with the same sequence of consonants in the unvocalized script were quite differently pronounced and could not readily be confused.5

His conclusion is that the most common type of mistake, apart from simple carelessness, arose from copying directly from a written text. This led to the misreading of hieratic signs, haplography and dittog- raphy, or omissions by homeoarchon or homeo- teleuton. The next largest group of errors was caused by writing texts from memory. This procedure resulted in the omission of verses, transpositions of maxims or lines, the substitution of synonyms and on occasion the intermingling and confusion of maxims or pericopes. The least numerous group of all was that caused by the confusion of words through sound, the result of writing from dictation. Some variants, of course, were inten- tional and arose from editorial activity with which we shall deal later.

V. LITERARY CRITICISM.

This heading includes the study of style and syntax on the one hand and figures of speech and word-plays on the other. It is also concerned with the principles of prosody. Still another area which comes into consider- ation is the identification of doublets and contradictions which may prove to be significant evidence for the presence of different sources.

By the beginning of the period under discussion, the understanding of the grammar and vocabulary of the Egyptian language had developed to a point where features of style and syntax could be profitably investi- gated. The last two decades have consequently wit- nessed a growing interest in the subject, sometimes stimulated by the researches of biblical scholars. Thus it was the AIttestamentler A. Alt who first gave serious attention to the presence of doublets in Amenemope (Alt, 1955). This, together with other evidence, suggested to him that it was a composite work or, in other



6 Journal of the American Oriental Societv 101.1 (1981)

words, that the author had included other material with his own.

The outstanding pioneer in the literary critical study of Egyptian wisdom-literature, however, was S. Herr- mann, a scholar equally at home in the Hebrew and Egyptian literatures. In his doctoral dissertation he made a thorough analysis of six such works, all but one being of the type we have designated as "speculative" (Herrmann, 1957a). These were: Ipuwer, Neferty, Khakheperresonbe, Merikari, Dispute, and Peasant. Based on a stylistic analysis and with due attention paid to doublets and contradictions in the text, his conclusion was that all six works were composed of small units of disparate origin woven together by the final author. Indeed, two years earlier he had suggested the composite nature of the speeches in Peasant, explaining how they had been built up by a process of accretion (Herrmann, 1955). This, as we shall see a little later, was to lead to important further develop- ments.

Under the stimulation of Alt's earlier study, I. Grumach, in her doctoral dissertation (Grumach, 1972), sought to demonstrate that the common source from which both Amenemope and the biblical passage Prov. 22:17-24:23 drew their material was an Egyptian one. In addition to this hypothetical source, the author of Amenemope incorporated some material from Ptah- hotpe and Any, a fact which is hardly surprising. Finally, she isolated another body of material, which she called the Alte Lehre, and attempted to reconstruct it. The procedure is too subjective for easy acceptance and the net result is thus not very convincing.

A careful analysis of the formal syntactic elements of the didactic texts was made made by W. McKane, an Old Testament scholar, in the course of his com- mentary on the Book of Proverbs (McKane, 1970: 51- 150). He tabulated the frequency and distribution of imperatives, conditional clauses and motive clauses in all the major Egyptian works. He noted, for the attention of students of Hebrew literature, that the Egyptian evidence indicates that motive and purpose clauses are not later additions to imperative statements.

The well-known Egyptian fondness for plays on words has given rise to an ingenious study by G. Fecht of the literary figure known as amphiboly which occurs in Ptahhotpe (Fecht, 1958). In his slim volume, Fecht demonstrates convincingly that two passages in Ptah- hotpe lend themselves to a double interpretation, both meanings of which were present in the mind of the author. One example, taken from Ptahhotpe 90-3, is

given here in a double translation, with the rendering of the ambiguous words being italicized:

He who transgresses the laws is punished; It is what escapes the attention of the avaricious.

It is baseness that accumulates riches; Wrongdoing has never brought its venture to harbor.

He who transgresses the laws is punished; It is a distant thing as seen by the avaricious.

It is baseness that passes a lifetime; Wrongdoing has never moored (i.e., become im-

mortal).

Other instances of this figure have since been pointed out in Burkard's volume (Burkard, 1977: 249-53).

The first serious study of Egyptian prosody was made by G. Fecht in three articles which were devoted to an exposition of the metrical system of ancient Egyptian (Fecht, 1963; 1964/5). In them he developed an elaborate set of rules to indicate the accented groups of words or phrases. This is a matter of no little importance for an understanding of the basic rhythmic patterns of the spoken language. In his study it emerged that there was a clear distinction between the rules for Old Egyptian and those for Middle and Late Egyptian, a fact which may prove useful for dating texts.

Fecht believes that the accented groupings are built into lines with a stress meter and these lines, in turn, into strophes or even larger units. Such a regular structure, if it proves to be valid, could be most helpful in identifying interpolated or missing lines. Metrical analyses in accordance with this system have been made for the following wisdom-books: Dispute (Barta, 1969), Amenemope (Grumach, 1972), Ipuwer (Fecht, 1972), Man for Son (Fecht, 1978) and the second section of Loyalist (Fecht, 1978).

Another approach to the subject of Egyptian verse has been made by J. Foster who, paying strict attention to the scribal "verse-points" when they are indicated in hieratic manuscripts, analyses the syntactic form of the clauses or phrases so marked. He considers the basic element to be what he calls the "thought couplet," and has applied his system to Ptahhotpe (Foster, 1977).

There seems to be no inherent reason, however, why the two features of parallelism, basic to Near Eastern poetry and fundamental to Foster's system, and meter, as worked out by Fecht, should be mutually exclusive. Consequently, I.Shirun-Grumach has made a valuable




contribution by demonstrating how they complement one another in Amenemope (Shirun-Grumach, 1979).

VI. FORM CRITICISM

Only recently has the serious investigation of literary genres or Gattungen been undertaken for Egyptian literature, again at the instigation of scholars familiar with the methods of biblical studies. In 1966 H. Brunner asserted that we are "still far from the desired goal of sharply defined genres" (Brunner, 1966a: 29). Nor do we know whether the Egyptians themselves recognized specific genres in the way, for instance, that the Sumerians referred to contest-poems as adaman. duii.ga or used the term balag for laments.

The Egyptian word sbDyt, "teaching," "instruction," has indeed been regarded by some scholars as an indication of a literary genre. This is certainly not the case, since it is employed as a designation for texts of various kinds (Brunner, 1966a: 33). It is attested as a heading for didactic treatises, propaganda tractates, laments, tomb autobiographies, onomastica, calendars of lucky and unlucky days, schoolboy exercises and a satire on the trades. These diverse writings have no fixed literary form in common; they merely share the same purpose-that of instruction. It is also true that, as shown by Bergman, a variety of genres may be present even within a single didactic treatise, e.g., the "ideal biography" in Ptahhotpe 640-4 (Bergman, 1979: 82-3).

K. Kitchen, taking the didactic treatise to be a genre, has made an elaborate comparison of Egyptian examples with those of Western Asia (Kitchen, 1979). He examines such features as titles, prologues, subtitles, main texts and epilogues with respect to their presence or absence and the structure, length and nature of each. The main body of every work is classified according to whether it is a continuous text or divided into two or more sections. He also discusses the length of the basic poetic units. His conclusions from the tabulation of the evidence indicate a "relative consis- tency" of the basic features and their persistence throughout all periods. It is more than a little surprising to see Egyptian works of so disparate a nature as Satire on Trades, Amenemhet and the Onomasticon of Amenope included in the same genre as gnomic works like Ptahhotpe.

As we have already seen, the initial attempt to analyse the literary types within Egyptian wisdom-

literature was S. Herrmann's study of six texts (Herr- mann, 1957a). In this work he maintained that all of them were composed of smaller units of various types with different origins and purposes which were blended into a whole by the authors or final editors. This process presupposes a stage of oral transmission. A. Hermann, however, in a review of this volume (Hermann, 1959), observed that oral tradition is not as great a factor in Egyptian as in biblical literature. We may recall that Burkard also discovered that writing texts from memory in the schools was less a source of error than copying them from written exemplars and therefore that written transmission was the norm. E. Brunner-Traut has recently discussed this topic (Brunner-Traut, 1979a).

Nevertheless, P. Seibert believes that a case can be made for a stage of oral transmission and development. In a most ambitious project he proposes to study twenty-one passages taken from Ptahhotpe, Merikarj and Satire on Trades. They are all descriptions of types or groups of persons in which the latter are characterized in a satirical fashion. The twenty-one snippets of text cannot be regarded as belonging to a fixed literary type but are fixed themes in oral tradition, for Seibert believes that the influence of the spoken language can be discerned. So far only the first of five planned volumes has appeared (Seibert, 1967), and this deals only with the philological problems of the texts to be considered. We still await incontrovertible evidence for an oral stage in Egyptian literature.

J. Assmann, who has already rendered a most valuable service in studying and identifying the various types of hymns, has stressed the need for clarification of the nature of genres in Egyptian literature. In an interesting article (Assmann, 1974) he has pointed out that the problem of defining genres accurately is much more complex than is realized by most scholars. For instance, he has shown that some of the Harper's Songs belong with the "beatification" (sDhw)-texts in literary form, and indeed one is actually so named (Assmann, 1977).

M. Gdrg, another Old Testament scholar who, like S. Herrmann, is well acquainted with Egyptian, has strongly emphasized the necessity of analysing the Egyptian texts carefully in accordance with the various modes of criticism before comparing them with examples from different cultures and in different lan- guages (Gbrg, 1977). Outside the field of wisdom-texts he has given an excellent demonstration of this in a study of some Old Testament passages which have




been compared to the genre known in Egyptian literature as the Kdnigsnovelle or Royal Romance (Gdrg, 1975). A strict methodology is indispensable in at- tempting all such comparisons.

J. Assmann is responsible for a form-critical study of two contrasting types of statement (Assmann, 1979). These are: (1) a declaration of the deity's attitude or activity, towards man's attitude or activity, referred to as a reciprocal formula; and (2) the inversion of this, viz., a declaration of man's attitude or activity which leads to the deity's attitude or activity, usually (but not exclusively) expressed in the form of a beatitude. Both types are traced in texts dating from the early Eigh- teenth Dynasty down to the Graeco-Roman temple inscriptions.

Seeking for the origin of both these types, Assmann finds it in the early Middle Kingdom loyalist texts, i.e., both Loyalist and Man for Son. Not only the forms but the themes and even the vocabulary are similar. Assmann believes that it was Akhenaten who turned to these works as models for the teaching which he promulgated for very similar propaganda purposes. The subsequent reaction to the persecution and heresy of the Amarna period led to the substitution of loyalty to the deity for loyalty to the sovereign, and was one of the factors contributing to the rise of personal piety in the later Eighteenth Dynasty.

VII. REDACTION CRITICISM.

The evidence for editorial activity in ancient Egyp- tian literature appears to rest on a fairly sound basis. For a long time scholars have been aware of this as a result of their examination of the vast corpus of funerary texts. In the area of wisdom-literature the researches of S. Herrmann to which we have frequently alluded have succeeded in revealing the composite nature of some of the works, especially those we have described as speculative.

Let us begin with Ipuwer which serves as an excellent example of the new approach of scholars to the problem of editorial activity. It has been observed above that this work has long been attributed to the First Intermediate Period, since its theme is the condi- tion of the land in the time following the collapse of the Old Kingdom. This dating was assailed by J. Van Seters who argued, primarily from archaeological data, that the composition of the work, preserved in only one Nineteenth Dynasty manuscript, could not be earlier than the late Thirteenth Dynasty (Van Seters, 1964). This view is tenable only if the work is a unity,

but if Herrmann is correct, then only the finished product need be so late.

In a very important study devoted to this text, G. Fecht maintained that the bulk of the work was indeed produced during the First Intermediate Period (Fecht, 1972). According to him, it was put together from two main sources. The first half of the work (1,1- 9,8) he regards as the text referred to in line 71 of Merikari as the "Prophecy of the Court" attributed to King Khety I and composed ca. 2130 B.C. The second half (9,8-17,3) purports to be a dialogue between an official named Ipuwer and the creator-god, probably taking place in the beyond. The accusation is made against the deity that the wicked have not been punished, so that the deity is held to be ultimately responsible for the evil of the times. This section Fecht dates slightly earlier to ca. 2180-2130 B.C.

In each of the parts, however, a later editor has inserted additional material (6,5-12 and 14,4-15,5) which clearly reflects the period of the late Thirteenth Dynasty, i.e., the later seventeenth century B.C. The following year Fecht, in an article dealing with a rather obscure passage in the same work (Fecht, 1973), pointed out that his system of prosody, which reveals a difference between texts of the Old and Middle King- doms, agrees with his conclusions as to the dates of the earlier and later material.

W. Barta, building on the work of Fecht, continued the discussion on the dialogue of Ipuwer with the deity (Barta, 1974). He saw the basic theme of the section as that of theodicy, since the deity is justified in his answer. An article by S. Herrmann emphasizes the need to see the hands of editors in the creation of the work (Herrmann, 1977). He compares Peasant with Ipuwer as another example of the use of traditional material for the presentation of a particular theme, in this case social justice and its divine champion. An article by W. Barta surveys the First Intermediate Period on the basis of the literary compositions attributed to it (Barta, 1974/5).

Turning now to the instructions, we see that Ptah- hotpe shows clear evidence of two recensions. Z. Zaba, in his fine edition of the work (Zaba, 1956), rendered the three manuscripts independently, unlike his prede- cessors who had translated an eclectic text. It is obvious that the earliest manuscript, the Twelfth Dynasty Pap. Prisse, is the most reliable witness to the original text. Incidentally, the text-critical studies of Burkard indicated that it was copied at least in part from an exemplar written in vertical columns (Burkard, 1977: 15-6). They also showed that the two London




papyri, of later date, represent an edited text with a number of interpolated lines. This later version is also characterized by the substitution of current words for archaic or obsolete ones. It has, indeed, become virtually a "canonical" text for use in the schools.

A novel, but hardly convincing explanation for the two divergent editions has been offered by A. Dobrovits. He advanced the view that the later manuscripts were designed to be used together with Pap. Prisse, thus emphasizing and enlarging on the statements of the latter in the manner of an antiphonal chant (Dobrovits, 1968).

In the case of the great demotic gnomic text contained in Pap. Insinger, we now have five other papyrus duplicates, mostly fragmentary. One is earlier than Pap. Insinger, the others later. In the latter there is much variation in the order of "chapters," even though they are numbered in Pap. Insinger. The later manuscripts also have interpolated or omitted lines in many places. Unlike Ptahhotpe, there seems to have been no attempt at a "canonical" text.

VIII. DATE AND AUTHORSHIP.

It is a remarkable fact that in ancient Egypt only the wisdom-literature provides us with the names of the authors, whether actual or traditional. Certainly, as we have long been aware, Pap. Chester Beatty IV, verso (Gardiner, 1935: Vol. 1, 38-9; Vol. 2, Pls. 18-9), of Ramesside date, in a section devoted to a eulogy of the great sages of the past (2,5-3,1 1), refers in respectful terms to Hardjedef, Imhotep, Neferty, Khety, Ptahem- djehuty, Khakheperresonbe, Ptahhotpe and Kaires, who may well have been the author of Kagemni (Posener, 1949: 32-3).

This list is complemented in a most surprising way by a wall relief in a Nineteenth Dynasty tomb at Saqqarah (Yoyotte, 1952).6 In it are depicted Imhotep, Kaires, Khety and Khakheperresonbe, while Ipuwer is mentioned in the accompanying text. There is thus no doubt that learned men of the late New Kingdom accepted the traditional role of these figures as the authors of the works associated with their names, or at least with some of their contents, since in the case of Neferty it is clear that he could hardly himself have been the author of the text which portrays him as a figure of the Old Kingdom declaiming on events of the early Twelfth Dynasty (F6ti, 1976: 11).

In recent years the authorship attributed to many of these works has been regarded with a greater degree of scepticism than heretofore (Bjorkman, 1964). For in-

stance, M. Lichtheim has offered cogent reasons for regarding Hardjedef and Ptahhotpe, among others, as pseudonymous (Lichtheim, 1973: 6-7). Even A. Erman had expressed doubts about the ascription of Ptahhotpe to the vizier of King Isesi (Erman, 1923: 86).

The subject of pseudonymity in Egyptian literature is a legitimate one since a passage in Pap. Chester Beatty IV, verso (6,11-7,2), claimed the famous scribe Khety as the author of Amenemhet. Though this statement was brushed aside by A. Gardiner in his publication of the text (Gardiner, 1935: Vol. 1, 43-4) and R. Anthes has vigorously reiterated his claim that the work is not a posthumous composition (Anthes, 1977), the recent publication by Posener and L6pez of new ostraca from the conclusion of the text has confirmed the view that Amenemhet I had already succumbed to the attempt on his life when the text was written.7

I. Grumach claimed that Amenemope was a pseud- onym for the true author, but in this case her reasons seem to be somewhat inadequate (Grumach, 1972: 20- 1). It is also believed that the Satire on Trades was the creation of the famous scribe Khety, but that the name assigned pseudonymously to the work should be read Duakhety rather than Khety the son of Dwauf (Seibert, 1967: 103-4).

The long accepted dating of many works has likewise been questioned. For instance, M. Lichtheim dates Hardjedef to the Fifth Dynasty (Lichtheim, 1973: 7), but W. Helck prefers the First Intermediate Period (Helck, 1972: 17-8) as does P. Seibert also (Seibert, 1967: 70, n. 88). But an allusion to it in the Coptus decree of Pepi II proves that it must be earlier (Brunner, 1979: 118, n. 17).

Ptahhotpe is still accepted by G. Burkard as coming from the late Fifth Dynasty (Burkard, 1977: 6), whereas M. Lichtheim assigns it to the late Sixth Dynasty (Lichtheim, 1973: 7), W. Helck to the beginning of the First Intermediate Period (Helck, 1972: 17-8) and P. Seibert argues for the mid-Eleventh Dynasty (Seibert, 1967: 70).

Seibert dates Merikarj to the Twelfth Dynasty (Seibert, 1967: 88) and Burkard to the Eleventh (Burkard, 1977: 6). Admittedly the earliest manuscripts come from the Eighteenth Dynasty, but most scholars still support an origin in the Tenth Dynasty. Unfor- tunately, complete uncertainty still prevails with respect to the name of the father of Merikare (L6pez, 1973a).

The generally accepted date of the first half of the Twelfth Dynasty for Man for Son has been more




closely defined by H. Brunner as the early part of the reign of Senwosret I (Brunner, 1978). He believes that an echo of the recent assassination of Amenemhet I can be detected.

Amenemope was at first dated very late on the basis of the British Museum manuscript, which is probably from the sixth century B.C. This even led E. Drioton to seek a date for its composition in the seventh century (Drioton, 1961). He believed it to be the product of a Jewish community in Egypt where a Semitic original was maladroitly rendered into Egyptian. His reasons for this were put forth in a series of articles (Drioton, 1957; 1959; 1960). His linguistic arguments were soon disposed of (Williams, 1961; Couroyer, 1963).

The original composition is now known to be much earlier, ever since the discovery of a new papyrus copy from the Twentieth or Twenty-first Dynasty (Peterson, 1966) and four new wooden writing tablets of which one, now in the Louvre, probably dates from the Twenty-second Dynasty (Posener, 1966: 49). The lone ostracon of a probable Twenty-second Dynasty date has now at last been published (Peterson, 1974). Since these are all school texts, a more realistic date for the original would appear to be the twelfth or even thirteenth century B.C. Incidentally, it is important to emphasize the fact that the date of the earliest manuscript of any work provides us with no more than the latest possible date for the original work.

The frame-story of Peasant is set in the Heracleo- politan period. Since the oldest manuscript is of late Twelfth Dynasty date, the original may well go back to the First Intermediate Period which is the setting of the work. Because of a process of re-editing, however, S. Herrmann believes that the present text is somewhat later (Herrmann, 1977: 268).

E. Otto accepted the usual dating of Ipuwer to the end of the Old Kingdom (Otto, 1951). Nevertheless, since the sole witness to the work dates from the Nineteenth Dynasty, J. Van Seters argued on archaeological grounds for its composition in the late Thir- teenth Dynasty (Van Seters, 1964). We have seen that G. Fecht accepts this date for certain sections which he regards as later additions but views the work as a whole as a later edition of a composition from the First Intermediate Period to be dated between 2180 and 2130 B.C. (Fecht, 1972).

With respect to the Harper's Songs, the date of the Inyotef song has long been contested, since the name Inyotef was current in the Eleventh, Thirteenth and even Seventeenth Dynasties. E. Brunner-Traut believes it to have been composed by 2100 B.C. (Brunner-Traut

1979a: 39), M. Lichtheim and J. Assmann regard it as Middle Kingdom in origin (Lichtheim, 1973: 195; Assmann, 1977: 64-5), whereas H. Goedicke argues less convincingly for a later date (Goedicke, 1977).

IX. POPULARITY AND INFLUENCE.

The wealth of copies that have come to light, considering the fortuitous nature of archaeological discoveries, attests to the long popularity of many of the compositions which we have been examining. The text of Amenemhet, for example, is preserved at least in part on six papyri (one still unpublished), one unpublished leather roll, three writing boards and 194 ostraca (five of which are still unpublished). Only a scrap has survived of one of the papyri, but it is to be dated palaeographically to some time between the Twenty-sixth and Thirtieth Dynasties. All of which means that from the time of its composition during the early part of the reign of Senwosret I this work was read and copied continuously for a period of some fourteen to seventeen centuries. This is a remarkable fact when we remember that it was a pamphlet issued for purposes of political propaganda and thus might be expected to have had only an ephemeral interest.

The duplicates of all the wisdom-texts are almost entirely schoolboy copies, so it is evident that their preservation was the result of a need for suitable material for scribal instruction. The Satire on Trades, contemporary with Amenemhet, was designed specif- ically for this purpose. It is represented by four papyri, two writing boards and no less than 247 ostraca (two others are still unpublished). Again it is clear that this work was an extremely popular textbook in the cur- riculum of the schools, at least into the Ramesside period.

During the New Kingdom its original approach in exalting the scribal profession by deprecating all other occupations had inspired others to imitate it and a spate of different paragraphs on the theme was produced (van de Walle, 1947). Its influence was felt even beyond the borders of Egypt, for this genre clearly formed the inspiration for a passage in the work of the Hebrew sage and teacher Jesus ben Sira (Ecclus. 38:24- 39:11) which was composed ca. 190 B.C.

Obviously through wide use in the schools some of these works had attained the status of classics, as we know from the Ramesside encomium of the sages of old contained in Pap. Chester Beatty IV, verso (2,5- 3,11). Even the Middle Kingdom Harper's Song of Inyotef proclaims: "I have heard the words of Imhotep




and Hardjedef with whose utterances people discourse so much" (lines 6-7). How deeply imbued later generations were with the contents of these works is clear from the many allusions to them which occur in later texts.

Despite the fact that the introductory part of Hardjedef is all that can so far be reconstructed from the fragmentary witnesses to the text, even from this brief portion twelve citations taken from four different passages are known from various texts (Brunner, 1956; 1963b; Posener, 1966:65; Brunner, 1974; 1979: 112-22). The earliest comes from the reign of Pepi II and the latest from the demotic Onkhsheshonqy, while yet another demotic fragment bears a broken quotation which it attributes to Hardjedef (Tait, 1977: 34). This last-mentioned scrap of papyrus is probably to be dated as late as the second century A.D., so that it must be at least twenty-five centuries removed from the original.

Allusions to at least eight passages in Ptahhotpe seem certain (Brunner, 1979: 123-43). Two of these are found in Sinuhe (Gardiner, 1916: 62) and Loyalist (Posener, 1976: 35) which were composed in the early part of the Twelfth Dynasty. If the claims for citations in Merikarj (Fecht, 1958: 25-33; Grieshammer, 1970: 13) are valid, the date of the earliest citation would have to be pushed back to the First Intermediate Period. Echoes of two lines from Ptahhotpe appear in a series of seven identical hieratic graffiti from the Deir el-Bahari temple of Thutmose III which were scribbled down during the Ramesside period (Marciniak, 1973).

There are likewise two unmistakable references to Amenemhet on the Gebel Barkal stela of Piye from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty (Brunner, 1979: 144-9), while two certain citations from Loyalist have also been noted (Brunner, 1979: 150-64). It is likely that a maxim of Amenemope has been introduced into a much later demotic text (Brunner, 1979: 165-6). It is hardly nec- essary to refer to the close relationship which exists between the same work and the biblical passages Prov. 22:17-23:14; Jer. 17:5-8; Pss. 1 and 92:13-16.

A recent volume by G. Bryce on the topic of Amenemope and its influence on biblical literature (Bryce, 1979) has a particular concern with the process by which Egyptian material was transmitted to Hebrew literature. The author argues that this took place in three steps: (1) the adaptive stage which reproduces the original as closely as possible; (2) the assimilative stage, in which some modifications are introduced to accord with Hebrew idiom and literary usage; and (3) the integrative stage in which the original has been so

completely absorbed that its Egyptian origin is indis- tinguishable.

The survival of some of the ideas and teachings contained in the wisdom-books of the pharaonic period is revealed in demotic texts as late as the second century A.D., as we have seen. However, there is some evidence that such influences persisted as late as Coptic monastic literature (Brunner, 1961a; Lefort, 1927; Kaiser, 1966; Brunner-Traut, 1979b). Most remarkable was the purported discovery in 1864 of a wooden box in a monk's grave near Deir el-Medinah which contained, along with Coptic monastic records, two papyrus rolls. On one was written the demotic tale of Setna- Khamwese, while the other was inscribed with the hieratic text of Any (Maspero, 1911: vi)! Whether these were family heirlooms or prized antiquities we shall never know.

X. RELIGIOUS IDEAS.

The old view that Egyptian wisdom-literature was almost totally utilitarian in its attitude has happily been laid to rest for many years now. An excellent survey of the religious development as seen from these writings has been provided by H. Schmid as part of a larger study of the wisdom movement in the ancient Near East (Schmid, 1966: 8-84).

The concept of the divine in Egyptian wisdom-texts is an important and peculiar one in view of the fact that so often the term ntr, "god," is used in them with no further qualification. J. Vergote has discussed the various deities and divine powers mentioned in the texts (Vergote, 1963). He touches on the problem of the use of "god" as an anonymous term and notes how it is complicated by the fact that ntr may sometimes also refer to the king, as it does in Ptahhotpe.

The theme of the anonymous deity is dealt with by W. Barta in greater detail (Barta, 1976). The term, he believes, does not refer to any particular god usually, although on occasion it may denote the local or personal god of the individual. The godhead has the properties of omnipotence, omniscience, invisibility and righteousness. The divinity also exhibits the func- tions of creator and sustainer of all things, the sovereign lord, supreme judge and ever-present helper, in which role he is often depicted as the shepherd / herdsman of mankind (for which see Muller, 1961). Man's responsibilities towards him include worship, obedience and trust. The local deity embodies the godhead in its entirety, a fact which Barta sees as leading to a kind of monolatry or henotheism.




In an incisive article H. Brunner examines the topic of divine free-will in the wisdom-literature (Brunner, 1963a). The early texts bear witness to a close relationship between ethical conduct and reward or retribution. This implies a certain degree of determinism. However, by the Ramesside age this relationship is no longer automatic. The divine will, which has now ceased to be subject to macat, the ordained order of the cosmos, can overrule events. Inevitably this leads to a greater emphasis on rewards in the afterlife during the later period.

The subject of determinism is rather closely related to that of fate or destiny. A careful study of this concept by S. Morenz and D. Muller includes the wisdom-literature (Morenz/ Muller, 1960). Fate (S3i) is that which determines the character and nature of a person as well as his station in life. It can control events and may refer to the allotted span of life of an individual. The difference between fate (six ) and chance or fortune (shn) is clear by the Hellenistic period, as J. Quaegebeur has pointed out in his wide-ranging monograph (Quaegebeur, 1975: 141-2).

M. Lichtheim, in an article devoted to Insinger (Lichtheim, 1979: 293-300), regards the term S3i in this work as virtually synonymous with shn, both de- scribing "an unpredictable course of life governed by change" (Lichtheim, 1979: 296). This leads her to a discussion of one of the most characteristic features of Insinger: the list of paradoxes which normally con- cludes each chapter. These paradoxes are a device to express the doctrine that change is an essential part of life, an idea which she considers to be a legacy from Hellenism (Lichtheim, 1979: 305).

The morals and ethics of ancient Egypt were expressed primarily in the wisdom-literature and, to a lesser degree, in the "ideal" biographies and mortuary texts. A penetrating perusal of Egyptian texts has led F. Daumas to the conclusion that the essential elements of the humanism characteristic of classical Greece were already present in ancient Egypt (Daumas, 1962). They found expression in a concern for the welfare of mankind and a growing respect for the worth of the individual and of human life. He traces the developing concept through the literature, especially the wisdom-texts, beginning with Ptahhotpe and Merikari and concluding with its fullest expression in Any and Amenemope.

H. Brunner has addressed himself to the relationship between ethics, the temple cult and magic (Brunner, 1961/ 2). All three find their place in the gnomic texts. The cult, a community endeavor, seeks to please and

conciliate the deity so as to render him gracious to men. Ethics, on the other hand, must be the duty of individuals one to the other. Magic, which for us is the antithesis of religion, was for the ancient Egyptian inseparable from it. Indeed, according to Merikari (line 136), it was the gift of the creator-god himself.

A deeper spiritual note was struck by the Ramesside age with the flowering of "personal piety." This attitude began to permeate the wisdom-literature in the New Kingdom but, as A. Barucq has pointed out (Barucq, 1961), found its highest expression in the fourth century B.C. biographical inscriptions in the tomb of the high priest Petosiris which might well be included in the roster of wisdom-texts. By this time the priests have become sages as well.

The motivation for the good life is not merely reward in the hereafter but doing the will of god (shrw n nMr), a concept which is prominent in the texts of Petosiris. The new spirit can be clearly seen in that part of the tomb inscriptions known as the "appeal to the living." Traditionally this was a request addressed to all passers-by to read the formulae and assure offerings for the deceased. Now we find that it has become an appeal to them to read the texts for their own profit and edification, as we see from the following text (Lefebvre, 1923/4: Vol. 2, 90):

0 you who come afterwards, 0 every man who reads writing, come and read these inscriptions which are in this tomb that I may guide you to the path of life and tell you your conduct, [in order that you may moor at the harbor of the ci]ty of the generations. Should you hold firm to my sayings, you will discover their value and will thank me for them.

Another theme which has received an illuminating treatment by H. Brunner is that of the attitude to poverty found in autobiographical inscriptions and above all in wisdom-texts (Brunner, 1961b). Wealth was regarded as a divine gift but could be of temporary duration according to the god's own pleasure. From the Old Kingdom on, texts emphasize a person's duty to help the needy. In the First Intermediate Period the rights of the poor come to the fore in the demand for social justice. During the New Kingdom concern for the underprivileged increases until, in the Ramesside period, the deity is looked on as the savior and protector of the poor. Brunner stresses, however, that there is no suggestion of the later monastic concept of poverty as a virtue.




Throughout the course of Egyptian wisdom- literature, but particularly during the New Kingdom, the ideal of the gr (ma'), "(truly) silent man," is a prominent feature. E. Brunner-Traut, in the second half of a study devoted to the persistence of this ideal down into the Christian era, analyses its nature and scope in the pre-Coptic period (Brunner-Traut, 1979b: 198-213). She discusses various aspects of silence for the Egyptians, such as the attitude before a deity in the temple, good manners in the presence of another person, the avoidance of judging and harming others by rash words and the extension of the term gr to mean "self-control." This concept, as she demonstrates, did indeed become a virtue for the early Coptic hermits.

XI. FUTURE TASKS.

The search for duplicates among the huge number of still unpublished papyri and ostraca in both public and private collections must take a prominent place in the priorities of scholars concerning themselves with the religious and intellectual life of ancient Egypt. Al- though future excavations will no doubt yield up new and unexpected treasures, it is imperative that the writings which have already been retrieved should be studied before their deterioration advances to the point of illegibility. Fortunately, many such texts have been identified and their publication may be expected in due course.

In recent years the medical texts and, to a lesser extent, the Coffin Texts have been subjected to grammatical analysis with considerable profit. Surely the syntactic and lexical features peculiar to wisdom- literature merit similar attention. In addition, a detailed study of the style of these works, including modes of expression and figures of speech, would be of positive value for the appreciation of their literary qualities.

The most productive area of research in the sphere of wisdom-literature during the past score of years has been that of criticism. The excellent beginning that has been made should provide the basis and impetus for continued studies. Up to date critical editions of even some of the best known texts are still lacking. Above all, the application of stricter and more refined rules for both literary and form criticism is essential to a fuller understanding and evaluation of the works.

Finally, the penetrating insights of many scholars into the developing religious and ethical concepts of Egyptian wisdom-literature have opened up new vistas for exploration. For instance, the impact of wisdom- thought on the religiosity of the Graeco-Roman period

is a rich field for future investigation which should yield fruitful results.

ABBREVIATIONS

ADAIK Abhandlungen des Deutschen Archaologischen Instituts Kairo

Ac. Or. Acta Orientalia Ag. Abh. Agyptologische Abhandlungen Ag. For. Agyptologische Forschungen AHAW Abhandlungen der Heidelberger Akademie der

Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse AIP Annuaire de l'Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire

Orientales et Slaves An. Aeg. Analecta Aegyptiaca An. Or. Analecta Orientalia ASAW Abhandlungen der Sachsischen Akademie der

Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, phil.-hist. Klasse BFCTL Bibliotheque de la faculte catholique de theologie

de Lyon BIFAO Bulletin de l'Institut francais d'archeologie

orientale BSFE Bulletin de la Societe francaise d'egyptologie BWANT Beitrage zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen

Testament BZAW Beitrage zur Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche

Wissenschaft CdE Chronique d'Egypte CRAIBL Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Inscriptions

et Belles-Lettres GM Gottinger Miszellen JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society JARCE Journal of the American Research Center

in Egypt JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology JEOL Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch

Genootschap (Gezelschap) 'Ex Oriente Lux" JNES Journal of Near Eastern Studies MAS Munchner Agyptologische Studien MDAIK Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaologischen

Instituts Kairo OBO Orbis biblicus et orientalis OLZ Orientalistische Literaturzeitung Or. Orientalia Or. Ant. Oriens Antiquus RB Revue Biblique RdE Revue d'egyptologie SAK Studien zur altagyptischen Kultur SAOC Studies in Ancient Oriental Civilization SSEA Pub. Publications of the Society for the Study of

Egyptian Antiquities




Stud. Aeg. Studia Aegyptiaca VT Sup. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum WO Welt des Orients WZKM Wiener Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgen-

landes ZAS Zeitschrift fUr agyptische Sprache und

Altertumskunde

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Brunner, 1957; Williams, 1972.

