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Sebayt
Sebayt (Egyptian '' sbꜣyt'', Coptic ⲥⲃⲱ "instruction, teaching") is the ancient Egyptian term for a genre of pharaonic literature. ''sbꜣyt'' literally means "teachings" or "instructions" and refers to formally written ethical teachings focused on the "way of living truly". Sebayt is considered an Egyptian form of wisdom literature. Examples In ''Eulogy of Dead Writers'', written during the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom, a stanza lists the names of writers famous for their great works, most of whom are authors of noted ''sebayt'' from the Middle Kingdom: Each of these authors (excepting Imhotep, none of whose works survive) including Ptahemdjehuty, can be attested as authors of various works from the Middle Kingdom. Many of the earliest ''Sebayt'' claim to have been written in the third millennium BCE, during the Old Kingdom, but it is now generally agreed that they were actually composed later, beginning in the Middle Kingdom (c.1991–1786 BCE). This fictitio ...
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Ancient Egyptian Literature
Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from ancient Egypt's pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. It represents the oldest corpus of Egyptian literature. Along with Sumerian literature, it is considered the world's earliest literature. Writing in ancient Egypt—both hieroglyphic and hieratic—first appeared in the late 4th millennium BC during the late phase of predynastic Egypt. By the Old Kingdom (26th century BC to 22nd century BC), literary works included funerary texts, epistles and letters, hymns and poems, and commemorative autobiographical texts recounting the careers of prominent administrative officials. It was not until the early Middle Kingdom (21st century BC to 17th century BC) that a narrative Egyptian literature was created. This was a "media revolution" which, according to Richard B. Parkinson, was the result of the rise of an intellectual class of scribes, new cultural sensibilities about individuality, ...
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Teaching For King Merykara
The ''Teaching for King Merykara'', alt. ''Instruction Addressed to King Merikare'', is a literary composition in Middle Egyptian, the classical phase of the Egyptian language, probably of Middle Kingdom date (2025–1700 BC). In this ''sebayt'' the author has a First Intermediate Period king of Egypt possibly named Kheti address his son, the future king Merykara, advising him on how to be a good king, and how to avoid evil. Merykara is the name of a king of the 9th or 10th Dynasty, the line or lines of kings who ruled northern Egypt during a period of division, the First Intermediate Period (about 2150–2025 BC). Perhaps this allowed the author of this composition greater freedom in describing the limits of royal authority than might have been possible in referring to kings of a unified Egypt; the ''Teaching for King Merykara'' is effectively a treatise on kingship in the form of a royal testament, the first of this genre. Similar works were created later in the Hellenistic an ...
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Prisse Papyrus
The Prisse Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian papyrus datable to the Middle Kingdom and is now in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. Inhabitants of Kurna originally found the papyrus inside the rishi coffin of pharaoh Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef of the 17th Dynasty, whose tomb was probably located in Dra' Abu el-Naga' near Thebes. The papyrus document contains the last two pages of the '' Instructions of Kagemni'', who purportedly served under pharaoh Sneferu of the 4th Dynasty, and is a compilation of moral maxims and admonitions on the practice of virtue ('' sebayt''). The conclusion of the ''Instructions of Kagemni'' is followed by the only complete surviving copy of the '' Instruction of Ptahhotep''.Battiscombe Gunn, "THE WISDOM OF THE EAST, THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAH-HOTEP AND THE INSTRUCTION OF KE'GEMNI: THE OLDEST BOOKS IN THE WORLD", LONDON, JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, 1906, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/30508/30508-h/30508-h.htm See also *List of ancient Eg ...
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Instructions Of Amenemhat
Instructions of Amenemhat (aka "Teaching of King Ammenemes I to His Son Sesostris") is a short ancient Egyptian poem of the ''sebayt'' genre written during the early Middle Kingdom. The poem takes the form of an intensely dramatic monologue delivered by the ghost of the murdered 12th Dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat I to his son Senusret I. It describes the conspiracy that killed Amenemhat, and enjoins his son to trust no-one. The poem forms a kind of apologia of the deeds of the old king's reign. It ends with an exhortation to Senusret to ascend the throne and rule wisely in Amenemhat's stead. Authorship The ''Instructions'' may have been authored at Senusret's command to eulogize his father and legitimize his claim to the throne. Several centuries later, in the New Kingdom Papyrus Chester Beatty IV, the authorship of the poem was attributed to "the foremost of scribes" Kheti. The principal source of this document comes from the Papyrus Millingen which was copied by A. Peyron in 18 ...
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Instructions Of Kagemni
The ''Instructions of Kagemni'' is an ancient Egyptian instructional text of wisdom literature which belongs to the '' sebayt'' ('teaching') genre. Although the earliest evidence of its compilation dates to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, its authorship has traditionally yet dubiously been attributed to Kagemni,Lichtheim (1996), p. 244. a vizier who served during the reign of the Pharaoh Sneferu (r. 2613–2589 BC), founder of the Fourth Dynasty (belonging to the Old Kingdom). Dating The earliest known source for the ''Instructions of Kagemni'' is the Prisse Papyrus. This text dates to the much later twelfth dynasty of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (perhaps by the reign of Amenemhat II from 1929 BC to 1895 BC, or a bit later in the twelfth dynasty). It is written in the Middle Egyptian language and in an archaic style of cursive hieratic.Parkinson (2002), pp. 46, 50, 313. Content Only the end of this teaching text has survived; on the Prisse Papyrus, it is followed ...
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The Maxims Of Ptahhotep
''The Maxims of Ptahhotep'' or ''Instruction of Ptahhotep'' is an ancient Egyptian literary composition composed by the Vizier Ptahhotep around 2375–2350 BC, during the rule of King Djedkare Isesi of the Fifth Dynasty. The text was discovered in Thebes in 1847 by Egyptologist M. Prisse d'Avennes.Simpson, W. K., ed. The Maxims of Ptahhotep. Las Vegas, Nevada: Evan Blythin, 1986. The Instructions of Ptahhotep are considered didactic wisdom literature belonging to the genre of '' sebayt''. There are four copies of the Instructions, and the only complete version, Papyrus Prisse, is located in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.Simpson, William Kelly. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. New Haven, US: Yale University Press, 2003. Accessed January 28, 2017. ProQuest ebrary. According to William Kelly Simpson, some scholars debate that the Instructions of Ptahhotep were written during the twelfth dynasty, ...
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Loyalist Teaching
The Loyalist Teaching, or The Loyalist Instructions, is an ancient Egyptian text of the '' sebayt'' ('teaching') genre. It survives in part from a stela inscription of the mid Twelfth dynasty of Egypt.Cairo CG 20538. The whole text can be found in papyrus scrolls of the New Kingdom period. Its authorship is uncertain, although it has been suggested (with no direct evidence) that it was written by the vizier Kairsu of the early Twelfth dynasty. The text emphasizes the virtues of loyalty to the ruling pharaoh and the responsibilities one must maintain for the sake of society. Sources The first half of ''The Loyalist Teaching'' is found on a Twelfth-dynasty biographical stela at Abydos made in honor of Sehetepibre, a high government official and seal-bearer who served under the Pharaohs Senusret III (r. 1878–1839 BC) and Amenemhat III (r. 1860–1814 BC; overlapping reign dates due to coregency).Simpson (1972), p. 198; Parkinson (2002), pp. 318-319. The full version of this Mid ...
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Amenemhat I
:''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.'' Amenemhat I ( Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet I, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. Amenemhat I was probably the same as the vizier named Amenemhat who led an expedition to Wadi Hammamat under his predecessor Mentuhotep IV, and possibly overthrew him from power. Scholars differ as to whether Mentuhotep IV was killed by Amenemhat I, but there is no independent evidence to suggest this and there may even have been a period of co-regency between their reigns.E. Hornung, ''History of Ancient Egypt'', 1999 p.50 Amenemhat I was not of royal lineage, born to Senusret and Nefert who were possibly related to the nomarchial family of Elephantine. The composition of some literary works (the '' Prophecy of Neferti'', the '' Instructions of Amenemhat''M. Lichtheim, ''Ancient Egyptian Literature'', 1973 ...
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Instruction Of Hardjedef
The ''Instruction of Hardjedef'', also known as the ''Teaching of Hordedef'' and ''Teaching of Djedefhor'', belongs to the didactic literature of the Egyptian Old Kingdom. It is possibly the oldest of all known Instructions, composed during the 5th Dynasty according to Miriam Lichtheim, predating ''The Instructions of Kagemni'' and ''The Maxims of Ptahhotep''. Only a few fragments from the beginning of the text have survived on a handful of New Kingdom ostraca and a Late Period wooden tablet. The first lines of the text establish Prince Djedefhor, Khufu's son, as the author of the ''Instruction'', but this has been shown to be highly improbable. In antiquity Hardjedef enjoyed a reputation for wisdom, his name appears in the Westcar Papyrus, and according to the ''Harper's lay from the tomb of King Intef'', a copy of which survives in Papyrus Harris 500, he is mentioned in the same breath as Imhotep Imhotep (; egy, ỉỉ-m-ḥtp "(the one who) comes in peace"; fl. late 27 ...
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Wisdom Literature
Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the ancient Near East. It consists of statements by sages and the wise that offer teachings about divinity and virtue. Although this genre uses techniques of traditional oral storytelling, it was disseminated in written form. The literary genre of mirrors for princes, which has a long history in Islamic and Western Renaissance literature, is a secular cognate of wisdom literature. In classical antiquity, the didactic poetry of Hesiod, particularly his '' Works and Days'', was regarded as a source of knowledge similar to the wisdom literature of Egypt, Babylonia and Israel. Pre-Islamic poetry is replete with many poems of wisdom, including the poetry of Zuhayr bin Abī Sūlmā (520–609). Ancient Mesopotamian literature The wisdom literature from Sumeria and Babylonia is among the most ancient in the world, with the Sumerian documents dating back to the third millennium BC and the Babylonian dating to the second millenn ...
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Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia, and was ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus as the first Roman emperor to the military anarchy of the 3rd century, it was a Principate with Italia as the metropole of its provinces and the city of Rome as its sole capital. The Empire was later ruled by multiple emperors who shared control over the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire. The city of Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until AD 476 when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinople following the capture of the Western capital of Ravenna by the Germanic barbarians. The adoption of Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire in AD 380 and the fall of th ...
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Twelfth Dynasty Of Egypt
The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom by Egyptologists. It often is combined with the Eleventh, Thirteenth, and Fourteenth dynasties under the group title, Middle Kingdom. Some scholars only consider the 11th and 12th dynasties to be part of the Middle Kingdom. History The chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty is the most stable of any period before the New Kingdom. The Turin Royal Canon gives 213 years (1991–1778 BC). Manetho stated that it was based in Thebes, but from contemporary records it is clear that the first king of this dynasty, Amenemhat I, moved its capital to a new city named "Amenemhat-itj-tawy" ("Amenemhat the Seizer of the Two Lands"), more simply called, Itjtawy. The location of Itjtawy has not been discovered yet, but is thought to be near the Fayyum, probably near the royal graveyards at el-Lisht. The order of its rulers of the Twelfth Dynasty is well known from several sources: two lists ...
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