Emergence of New Kingdom Literature

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Emergence of New
Kingdom Literature

Puzzle.

Egyptian literature of the New Kingdom (1539–1075 b.c.e.) presents a puzzle for scholars. Looking at the evidence that survives, no original narrative fiction or teachings date to the first historical division of the New Kingdom, called the Eighteenth Dynasty (1539–1292 b.c.e.). Most of the texts copied at this time seem to have been composed in the Twelfth Dynasty hundreds of years earlier. Historical narratives on temple walls might be an innovation of this time. There is also meager evidence of poetry. The second part of the New Kingdom (Dynasties Nineteen and Twenty, 1292–1075 b.c.e.), in contrast, seems to abound with new literary genres including narratives in a new colloquial dialect, love poetry, and new manuals of advice in the old tradition. Egyptologists question whether the surviving evidence that creates the picture outlined here is truly indicative of how events occurred. They note in connection with this situation the enormous creativity found in the visual arts during the Eighteenth Dynasty. They question whether scribes of the Eighteenth Dynasty ceased to create new fiction and composed only historical texts and hymns. Perhaps the accidents of discovery have created a false picture of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Historical Background.

The golden age of Egyptian literature coincided with the end of the Twelfth Dynasty in 1759 b.c.e. when the reign of Queen Sobeknefru came to a close. The Thirteenth Dynasty ushered in a time of conflict that had split the country in two by 1630 b.c.e. The divided nation was ruled by Semitic-speaking foreigners called the Hyksos in the north and Theban princes in the south until 1539 b.c.e. when Theban princes drove the Hyksos out of Egypt. The Theban prince Ahmose (1539–1514 b.c.e.) founded the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom, the period of greatest geographical power of the ancient Egyptian state. The New Kingdom included three dynasties—the Eighteenth (1539–1292 b.c.e.), led by descendants of Ahmose; the Nineteenth (1292–1190 b.c.e.), ruled by descendants of a certain General Ramesses which included Ramesses the Great; and the Twentieth (1190–1075 b.c.e.), led by a new family which continued to use the Ramesses name even though they were probably unrelated. Although Egypt was again unified, this period of Egyptian history was not without its share of upheaval; in the Eighteenth Dynasty, King Akhenaten (1352–1336 b.c.e.) introduced religious reforms in a period known to modern scholarship as the "Amarna Period," in which he proclaimed a new religion that excluded the traditional gods. His successor, King Tutankhamun, restored the traditional gods about four years after Akhenaten died, and subsequent Nineteenth- and Twentieth-dynasty kings continued in this old tradition. These historical events perhaps were a major influence on the composition of literature during the New Kingdom. In the early years of this period, scribes reached back to the historical precedents of the Middle Kingdom for an authentically Egyptian mode of expression after years of foreign domination. However, as the New Kingdom kings provided a more stable state over the course of time, authors expressed a new Egyptian self-confidence through creating new forms of literature.

Copied from the Middle Kingdom.

The Middle Kingdom's literary achievements in prose and verse narrative fiction were not duplicated in the Eighteenth Dynasty, and scholars question whether scribes from this dynasty composed new works of literature of the type and intent of those written in the Middle Kingdom. Many surviving texts from this dynasty are generally copies of works from the Middle Kingdom, acknowledged even then to be Egypt's classical age of literature. At least one Eighteenth-dynasty copy of The Story of Sinuhe, the great epic poem composed in the Twelfth Dynasty, is known. The earliest preserved manuscripts of the Twelfth Dynasty works The Teachings for Merykare, The Prophecy of Neferty, The Teachings of Amenemhet, and The Instruction of Khety also date to the Eighteenth Dynasty.

Original Compositions.

Scholars have proposed three possible genres where Eighteenth-dynasty scribes could have broken new ground: historical texts, love poetry, and advice. The earliest preserved historical narratives date to this period. These works include The Kamose Stele, The Annals of Thutmose III, and The Gebel Barkal Stele. It is unclear whether there were Twelfth-dynasty texts of this type. Love poetry is well known from the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. One text from the Eighteenth Dynasty might anticipate the later work, though it is a description of the city of Thebes. Finally, two manuals of advice might date to the Eighteenth Dynasty, though the only manuscripts date to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. These texts are known as The Teachings of Any and The Teachings of Amenemope.

Historical Writing.

Eighteenth-dynasty scribes produced historical narratives that might represent an original literary genre. The Kamose Stele is considered to be a work of literature because it narrates a story, but this text has a stronger affinity with historical literature than with classical, fictional narrative. This text, though, certainly dates to the early Eighteenth Dynasty because it is preserved on a dated stela (an upright, inscribed slab of stone). It tells the story of Kamose's war to expel the Hyksos from Egypt. This was the first stage of driving these foreign rulers out of the country. Scribes working for Hatshepsut (1478–1458 b.c.e.) produced narrative inscriptions that described her birth and also the expedition to the land of Punt (modern Ethiopia) that she commissioned. They are found along with sculptural relief at her temple in Deir el Bahri. The Annals of Thutmose III, carved on the walls of the Karnak Temple, present a narrative of battles, tactics, and booty that seems to be a new kind of writing. Some scholars suggest that there was a Middle Kingdom tradition for such texts, though the evidence is meager. There is a fragmentary Twelfth-dynasty inscription from Memphis published in the reign of Amenemhet II (1876–1842 b.c.e.) that might represent the precedent for Thutmose III's inscription. There is also an Eighteenth-dynasty manuscript called The Berlin Leather Roll (because it is written on leather and preserved in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin) that might be a New Kingdom copy of an historical inscription written in the Twelfth Dynasty during the reign of Senwosret I (1919–1875 b.c.e.). Some scholars, however, have argued that this text was an Eighteenth-dynasty forgery, designed to serve as a precedent for similar New Kingdom texts. This argument assumes that scribes were not free to invent new forms in the Eighteenth Dynasty and had to create a precedent from the age of the classics in order to write new kinds of works.

Autobiographies.

Eighteenth-dynasty autobiographies have not been closely studied, but they seem to be less central to the literature of the Eighteenth Dynasty than they were in the Old and Middle Kingdoms. Nobles published these autobiographies in their tombs, as was done in the Old Kingdom, and on statues, which was an innovation. There are no autobiographies on stelae, a practice typical in the Middle Kingdom. The personal subject matter in these autobiographies often concentrates on military exploits or on religious subjects. Later in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties the autobiographies are entirely religious rather than narratives of personal experience. For some unknown reason, officials no longer considered these personal experiences to be important.

Hymns.

Hymns were also a new creation in the New Kingdom. They were published mostly in tombs of nobles and bureaucrats, two of the social classes that could afford elaborate Egyptian burials. Most of the hymns are unique copies, suggesting that perhaps the tomb owner composed them for his own use. Hymns seem to be the literary form used to develop religious debates in writing. The Great Hymn to Osiris, for example, recorded on the Stela of Amenmose, gives the most complete account in Egyptian of the myth of Osiris. It helps establish the cities where the god had temples, describes Osiris' relationship with other gods, and associates the deceased king with the god. The Hymns to the Sun God, recorded on the stela of Suti and Hor, argues through its multiple stanzas the primacy of the sun as a god. It lists the sun's multiple names such as Amun, Harakhti, Re, Khepri, and Aten. It makes the argument that all of these gods are the equivalent of Amun. It was only during the Amarna Period of the Eighteenth Dynasty (1352–1332 b.c.e.), a period of tremendous religious upheaval, that hymns utilized the language of common everyday speech, a dialect called Late Egyptian. Late Egyptian represented the spoken language as it had evolved during the hundreds of years since the end of the Middle Kingdom. The classical texts of the Twelfth Dynasty were written in Middle Egyptian, the spoken language of that period. Now once again scribes were using everyday speech to create new works of literature. Some scholars suggest that Akhenaten understood the use of the colloquial language as a way to conform with maat or right conduct. The Egyptians themselves provide no explanation for this change.

Two Languages.

Whether or not Eighteenth-dynasty scribes created new literature, they were familiar with both the classical language of Middle Egyptian and the spoken language called Late Egyptian. In the historical work The Annals of Thutmose III, the author wrote in Middle Egyptian, though there are clues in certain word choices and grammatical forms that he was a Late Egyptian speaker. By the Nineteenth Dynasty, at least one scribe living in Deir el-Medina in Upper Egypt owned a library that contained texts in both Middle and Late Egyptian. Numerous examples of Nineteenth-dynasty student copies of classics such as Sinuhe demonstrate that students used copying as one way to learn the older language. From the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Dynasty, highly literate scribes must have known how to read the classical and the modern language.

Innovation.

The preserved record of New Kingdom literature certainly creates the impression that the early Nineteenth Dynasty witnessed a sudden literary revolution. New forms including love poetry, narrative fiction, and occasional pieces appear, written in Late Egyptian. Scribes also wrote works following older forms such as teachings, but composed in everyday speech rather than the classical Middle Egyptian dialect. Still, it remains difficult to know whether there really was a revolution or if such texts existed in the Eighteenth Dynasty but did not survive into modern times.

HYMN TO THE SUN GOD

introduction: Hymns comprise the best known new literary form during the first half of the New Kingdom (Eighteenth Dynasty, 1539–1292 b.c.e.). Egyptians used hymns as the literary form that explored religious debates in writing. The Great Hymn to Osiris, for example, recorded on the Stela of Amenmose, gives the most complete account in Egyptian of the myth of Osiris. It helps establish the cities where the god had temples, describes Osiris's relationship with other gods, and associates the deceased king with the god.

I

Turn your face gentle upon us, Osiris!
Lord of the life eternal, king of the gods,

Unnumbered the names of his protean nature,
Holy his manifold visible forms,
hidden his rites in the temples.

First in Busiris is he, that noble spirit,
Splendid his wealth in Letopolis,

Hailed in the ancestral home of Andjeti,
Finely provided in Heliopolis;

God who remembers still
Down in the halls where men must speak true,

Heart of the inexpressible mystery,
Lord of regions under the earth,

Worshipped in the white-walled Memphis, power that raises the sun,
Whose earthly form rests in Heracleopolis;

Long echo his chants in the Pomegranate nome
Where the sacred tree sprang, a perch for his soul;

Who dwells in the high Hermopolitan temple,
Most awful god in Hypselis,

Lord of forever, first in Abydos,
Yet far off his throne in the red land of death.

His tale endures in the mouths of men;
God of the elder time,

Belonging to all mankind—
He gave earth food,

Finest of the Great Nine,
Most fruitful among the divinities.

II

It was for him chaos poured forth its waters
And the north wind drove upstream;

Sky would make breeze for his nostrils
That thereby his heart might find peace;

For his sake green things grew, and the
Good earth would bring forth its riches.

Sky and its stars obeyed him,
For him the great gates of heaven stood open;

Praise of him thundered down southern skies,
He was adored under northern heavens;

The circling, unfaltering stars
Wheeled near his watchful eye,

And the weary ones, who sink below seeing—
With them was his very dwelling.

III

And he went forth in peace
Bearing the mace of Earth, his father,
And the Nine Great Gods gave worship;

Those in the underdark kissed ground,
Grateful dead in the desert bowed,

Gone generations joyed when they saw him,
Those seated Beyond stood in awe,

And the Two Lands united worshipped him,
Welcomed the advent of majesty.

Lordly leader, first of the eminent,
Whose kingdom endures to eternity—

His rule made kingship distinguished;
Power for good of the godhead,

Gracious and kind,
Whom to see is to love.

He made the nations revere him, that mankind might
Lift up his name before all they offered him;

Rememberer of whatever was, whether in heaven or earth,
His mind entire in the land of forgetting;

Unending the shouts and the dancing at festival—rites for him of rejoicing
done by Two Lands with one will.

IV

First-ranked of his brothers, the gods,
Noblest of the Great Nine,

He made order the length of the Riverbank,
Set a son at last on his throne,

Pride of his father, Geb,
Beloved of Nut, his mother.

With strength of the leopard he threw down the rebel,
With powerful arm slew his opponent,
Put fear on his fallen enemy,

Reached the far borders of evil, uprooted,
Unflinching, set foot on his foe.

He inherited earth from his father,
Earned the Two Lands as their king.

V

For when Geb saw how perfect he was, he gave over his throne,
Gave him to guide the world to good fortune;

And this earth he delivered into his care—
Its waters, its air, its pastures and forage,

All of its walking creatures,
What leaps into flight or flutters down,

Its creepers and crawlers,
And the wild desert things—

All given as his to the son of Sky;
And the Two Lands approved the succession.

VI

And he rose splendid, ascended the seat of his father in glory,
Like Rê when he shines from horizon;

He put dawn on the blank face of darkness,
Igniting the sun with his double plume;

And he flooded the Two Lands with well-being
Like the Sun-disk rising at day.

His gleaming crown pierced heaven,
Became a brother to stars.

And he lived and ruled, a pattern for deity—
Good king governing well—

Praised and admired by greatest gods
While lesser divinities loved.

VII

His sister served as shield and defender,
Beat off the enemies,

Ended unspeakable mischief by power of her spell,
Golden-tongued goddess
(her voice shall not fail),

Skilled to command,
Beneficent Isis,
Who rescued her brother.

Who searched for him
And would not surrender to weariness,

Wandered this earth bent with anguish,
Restless until she had found him.

And she made him shade with her feathers,
Brought air by fanning her wings,

Performed the rites of his resurrection,
Moored, married, made breathe her brother,

Put life in the slackened limbs
Of the good god whose heart had grown weary.

And she took to herself his seed, grew big with the heritor,
Suckled and taught the child apart
(his refuge not to be known),

Presented him, with his arm grown hardy,
At Court in the broad hall of Geb.

VIII

And the Nine Great Gods were glad:
"Welcome, Horus, son of Osiris!

Whose heart shall endure, whose cry shall find justice,
Son of Isis and heir of Osiris!"

Assembled for him the Tribunal of Truth—
Nine Gods and the Lord of the Universe—

Oh, the Lords of Truth, they gathered within there,
the Untempted by Evil took seats in Geb's hall

To offer the legacy to its just owner
And the kingship to whom it belonged.

And they found it was Horus, his voice spoke true:
And they gave him the realm of his father.

IX

And he went forth bearing the mace of Geb;
And he took the scepter of the Two Banks;
And the crown stood firm on his head.

Allotted to him was earth, to be his possession,
Heaven and earth alike put under his care;

Entrusted to him mankind—
Nobles, and commons, and Sunfolk;

And the dear land of Egypt,
The islands set in the northern sea,

Whatever the sun's disk circles—
All these were given his governing—

And the good north wind, and the River, the flood,
The plants men eat, and all that grows green.

And Nepri, Lord of the Risen Grain, he helped him
To nurture fruits of the vital earth

So that Horus might bring on abundance,
Give it as gift to the nations.

And all mankind grew happy, hearts warmed,
Thoughts danced, and each face saw joy.

X

And they all gave thanks for his kindness:
"How sweet is the love of him, way we;

His charm, it has ravished the heart.
Great is the love for him in every person!"

And they offered this song for the son of Isis:

His antagonist is down for his wrongdoing,
Since evil injures the mischief maker;

He who was hot to cause trouble,
His deed recoils upon him

As Horus, son of Isis,
Who for him rescued his father:
Hallowed be, and exalted, his name!

Majesty, it has taken its throne,
Egypt's splendor is sure under law;

The highroad is safe, bypaths lie beckoning—
How ordered the banks of the River!

Wrongdoing, it weakens,
Injustice shall all pass away!

Earth lives in peace under its Lord,
Ma'at, Lady Truth, stands firm for her master,
Man turns his back upon evil.

XI

Hale be your heart, Osiris,
You who were truly good,
For the son of Isis has taken the crown!

Adjudged to him is his father's kingdom
Down in the broad hall of Geb.

Rê it was uttered this; Thoth wrote it down:
And the Grand Tribunal concurred.

Osiris, your father decreed in your favor!
All he said has been faithfully done.

source: "Hymn to Osiris," in Ancient Egyptian Literature. Trans. John L. Foster (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001): 103–109.

Political Fiction.

At least two stories written in the Nineteenth Dynasty are set in the reign of the Eighteenth-dynasty king Thutmose III (1479–1425 b.c.e.), at least 200 years before the time of composition. The Taking of Joppa and The Story of a Military Expedition of Thutmosis III into Syria both assume this period was a golden age of Egyptian military prowess. In The Taking of Joppa, Egyptian soldiers sneak over the town walls using baskets, a theme anticipating the Greek story of the Trojan Horse and tales of Ali Baba and the forty thieves. Such stories suggest the Nineteenth-dynasty policy that restored values associated with Egypt's rulers before the time of Akhenaten and the Amarna period. Military values which had received less attention during the Amarna period once again rank high in authors' estimation.

Other Narratives.

Other narratives in Late Egyptian occur outside of time, when the gods still walked the earth. The Contendings of Horus and Seth recounts a series of struggles between these gods as they compete to follow Osiris as rightful king of the living. Horus, Osiris' son, faces many difficulties in his fight against his uncle Seth, brother of Osiris. Horus eventually triumphs with the aid of his mother Isis, the goddess of magic. The Doomed Prince also contains elements associated with the myth of Osiris and does not occur in a recognizable historical period. It also considers questions of the nature of fate. Because the papyrus lacks an ending, it is not clear whether or not the prince is able to escape the doom mentioned in the story's modern title. The Story of Two Brothers contains an episode strongly reminiscent of the biblical story of Potiphar's wife found in Genesis of the Bible. In both stories, a handsome young man suffers for refusing to betray his master with the master's wife. The wife turns on the young man, accusing him of rape. This episode serves as the mechanism for subsequent adventures in the story. All of these stories exist in unique manuscripts on papyrus. This circumstance raises questions of how widely known such literature was among Egyptians. Some scholars have suggested that this literature also circulated orally and that it is the manuscripts that are exceptional.

Love Poetry.

About fifty love poems composed during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties represent a unique aspect of New Kingdom literature. Though an Eighteenth-dynasty poem about the author's love of the city of Thebes might represent a precedent for these poems, they otherwise seem the sole examples of personal lyric. They are unusual in the ancient world because they are completely secular. While Twelfth- and Eighteenth-dynasty authors had composed verse hymns and prayers or praise of the king, these love songs concern the affairs of ordinary men and women. The songs are usually twenty to thirty lines long. The translator John L. Foster has described the broad range of emotion they summon, including tenderness, romance, and joy. They hint at both elevated, pure love and at physical passion. They also capture familiar situations: the young woman surprised at meeting her lover unexpectedly, or a young couple sitting together in the garden. They include a young lover cataloging his girlfriend's charms and a young woman trying to sleep but distracted by thoughts of her boyfriend. Both male and female voices speak in the poems, but it is not clear that there were both male and female authors. The love poems represent a rare window into the emotions of ancient people.

Classical Allusions.

One Twentieth-dynasty teaching, a form known from the Twelfth Dynasty, contains quotations from much older texts. The Instruction of Menna for his Son quotes the Twelfth-dynasty texts The Shipwrecked Sailor and Eloquent Peasant. Though the text is written in Late Egyptian, the author must have believed his audience could appreciate such an elevated literary technique.

Fictional Non-fiction.

The last two known Late Egyptian stories take a non-fictional genre—the government report and the letter—and use it as a basis for telling a fictional story. The Report of Wenamun and the Tale of Woe both were composed late in the Twentieth Dynasty, based on the language used and the setting the author describes. Yet they are known in unique manuscripts of the Twenty-second Dynasty (945–712 b.c.e.). The language in both documents is the most colloquial Late Egyptian found in any narrative. It most closely reproduces everyday speech and avoids any literary flourishes. Both stories recount unhappy experiences and reflect the government's failures as the New Kingdom collapsed and central government once again retreated. Both stories, however, reflect a cultural vibrancy that demonstrates that political strength and flourishing artistic movements do not always overlap.

Remaining Questions.

This picture of New Kingdom literature remains unconvincing for many Egyptologists. Most scholars would expect that Eighteenth-dynasty writers would both copy Twelfth-dynasty predecessors and create new literature in that tradition. Yet there is no evidence that Eighteenth-dynasty authors wrote in the traditional genres of their predecessors. There is no Eighteenth-dynasty equivalent of Old Kingdom tomb biographies, Middle Kingdom stela, fictional narratives such as The Shipwrecked Sailor and Sinuhe, pessimistic studies of chaos, or even advice manuals. In a tradition-bound culture like ancient Egypt, it seems impossible that these genres were not carried forward. Yet the evidence that does survive hints that Eighteenth-dynasty authors developed a new historical literature and created new hymns as a literary genre. This picture is even less convincing because of the hypothetical rebirth of narrative fiction in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. These later writers created many variations on fictional writing that discussed politics, the gods, and used bureaucratic genres to create fictional non-fiction. Only the discovery of new manuscripts can solve the mystery of this gap in Egyptian literary history.

sources

Giuseppe Botti, "A Fragment of the Story of a Military Expedition of Thutmosis III," in Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 41 (1955): 64–71.

John B. Baines, "Classicism and Modernism in the New Kingdom," in Ancient Egyptian Literature: History and Forms. Ed. Antonio Loprieno (Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1996): 157–174.

Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature II: The New Kingdom (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976).

Edward F. Wente Jr., "The Capture of Joppa," in The Literature of Ancient Egypt. Ed. William Kelly Simpson (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1973): 81–84.

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