Chapter I - Introduction

For many centuries past and until recently the civilised world was accustomed to regard the ancient Egyptians as a people leading a monotonous and j'03'lcss life, unripplcd by any passing breeze of ordinary human pleasure, and with minds entirely absorbed in meditations on death or in deep religious and philosophical speculations. It was indebted for this picture in the first place to the allusions made by Greek authors to the wisdom of the Egyptians, while the austerity of Egyptian plastic representations of gods and men, and the vital significance ascribed by this people to all rites and worship connected with the dead, pointed to the same conclusion. This view of the matter was confirmed by the tone of the pompous royal inscriptions and almost exclusively religious texts which were the earliest results of the deciphering of Egyptian writing.

Great interest was therefore excited when, in 1852, Emmanuel de Rouge discovered that a papyrus lent to him in Paris by an English lady (Elizabeth d’Orbiney) contained a story. The new fact met with but tardy recognition in scientific circles, and attempts were made to prove that the subject of the text was not a simple narrative, but a religious myth, retold in a popular form. The legend of Osiris was the original first suggested, but the details of the papyrus showed this to be an unsatisfactory explanation. The next hypothesis was that threads of the traditions prevailing in Asia Minor regarding Atys, Adonis and other divinities had been interwoven with the fabric of the Egyptian myth. This solution likewise proving inadequate, scholars gradually became reconciled to the idea that in the Nile Valley, as elsewhere, men and women had taken delight in romance and song; and before long the discovery of new texts removed every doubt.

In the year 1864 a wooden chest was discovered at Thebes, not far from the temple of Deir el Bahari. Besides many Coptic documents, it contained several literary papyri belonging to the later period of ancient Egypt, the most, important of which was a demotic text containing the story of Prince Setna, a tale of magic and enchantment. From this time onward find followed find, and now the variety of such remains is so grat as to justify the assumption that the secular literature of ancient Kgypt may well have been equal in bulk to its religious literature. If in number the works preserved to us scarcely seem to bear out this conclusion, it must be remembered that the principal monuments which still subsist in the Nile Valley are essentially temples and tombs, and that such places were not likely to be used as storehouses for lighter literature.

Fairy tales and legends have, indeed, been occasionally discovered in burial-places, but such exceptions may be explained by the Egyptian idea that life after death was as nearly as possible a continuation of life on earth. The occupant of the tomb may well have wished not to be deprived in the next world of the reading which had given him pleasure during his lifetime. Other remains of lighter literature have been unearthed from the dust and rubbish heaps of ancient cities, where they had been cast away in their time as waste papyrus. In such cases they are, of course, much decayed and injured by worms and insects.

Lastly, it sometimes occurs that inscriptions on tombs, stelæ, and other monuments reveal traces of this popular literature, though such breaks in the verbose uniformity of official inscriptions are unfortunately but few in number. For the most part we possess mere fragments of these works, very few having been preserved intact. They are enough, however, to give us some insight into the romantic side of Egyptian life and thought, and they are in themselves sufficiently interesting to justify us in giving here a brief outline of their contents and significance.

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Papyru, Death, Monotonous life, Ancient Egypt, Philosophical speculation, Religious literature, Ancient cities, Burial place, Life on earth, Human pleasure, Ancient Egyptian, Life after death, Royal inscription, Fairy-tale, Religious text, Worms and insects, Popular literature, Vital significance, Civilised world, Nile Valley, Egyptian writing, Asia Minor, Wisdom of the Egyptians, Thebe, Egyptian myth, Legend of Osiris, Wooden chest, Egyptian life, Egyptian thought.