Ancient Egypt

"[In the 7th century BC] the past was supreme; the priest who cherished it lived in a realm of shadows, and for the contemporary world he had no vital meaning."

"The limits of the dominion of the Egyptian gods had been fixed as the outer fringes of the Nile valley long before the outside world was familiar to the Nile-dwellers; and merely commercial intercourse with a larger world had not been able to shake the tradition. Many a merchant had seen a stone fall in distant Babylon and in Thebes alike, but it had not occurred to him, or to any man in that far-off age, that the same natural force reigned in these widely separated countries."

"It was universalism expressed in terms of imperial power which first caught the imagination of the thinking men of the Empire, and disclosed to them the universal sweep of the Sun-god’s dominion as a physical fact. Monotheism is but imperialism in religion."

"Egypt! from whose all dateless tombs arose Forgotten Pharaohs from their long repose, And shook within their pyramids to hear A new Cambyses thundering in their ear; While the dark shades of forty ages stood Like startled giants by Nile's famous flood."

"When brutes were deified, And Memnon in the sunrise sprang and cried, And love-winds smote Bubastis, and the bare Black breasts of carven Pasht received the prayer Of suppliants bearing gifts from far and wide!"

"Egypt has possessed temples far more remarkable than the Parthenon in Athens; but its heavy buildings do not impose themselves except for their size; they are decorated without sobriety and sometimes without good taste. The most significant flaw of the Egyptian temple is that it is too long in proportion to its height, and that it has too many external walls compared to the few openings. From this aspect the Egyptian temple and the Gothic church present the most absolute contrast: here, too many spaces; there, too many voids; Greek and Renaissance art were able to find the right intermediate point. (Salomon Reinach)"

"Egyptian art"

"Luxor Temple"

"Thy dawning is beautiful in the horizon of heaven, O living Aton, Beginning of life! When thou risest in the eastern horizon of heaven, Thou fillest every land with thy beauty; For thou art beautiful, great, glittering, high over the earth; Thy rays, they encompass the lands, even all thou hast made. Thou art Re, and thou hast carried them all away captive; Thou bindest them by thy love. Though thou art from afar, thy rays are on earth; Though thou art on high, thy footprints are the day."

"When Thou settest in the western horizon of heaven, The world is in darkness like the dead. They sleep in their chambers, Their heads are wrapt up, Their nostrils stopped, and none seeth the other. Stolen are all their things, that are under their heads, While they know it not. Every lion cometh forth from his den, All serpents, they sting. Darkness reigns (?), The world is in silence: He that made them has gone to rest in his horizon."

"Bright is the earth, When thou risest in the horizon, When thou shinest as Aton by day. The darkness is banished, When thou sendest forth thy rays, The Two Lands [Egypt] are in daily festivity, Awake and standing upon their feet, For thou hast raised them up. Their limbs bathed, they take their clothing: Their arms uplifted in adoration to thy dawning, Then in all the world, they do their work."

"All cattle rest upon the herbage, All trees and plants flourish, The birds flutter in their marshes, Their wings uplifted in adoration to thee. All the sheep dance upon their feet, All winged things fly, They live when thou hast shone upon them."

"The barques sail up-stream and down-stream alike. Every highway is open because thou has dawned. The fish in the river leap up before thee, And thy rays are in the midst of the great sea."

"Thou art he who createst the man-child in woman, Who makest seed in man, Who giveth life to the son in the body of his mother, Who soothest him that he may not weep, A nurse [even] in the womb. Who giveth breath to animate every one that he maketh. When he cometh forth from the body, . . . on the day of his birth, Thou openest his mouth in speech, Thou suppliest his necessities."

"When the chicklet crieth in the egg-shell, Thou givest him breath therein, to preserve him alive; When thou hast perfected him That he may pierce the egg, He cometh forth from the egg, To chirp with all his might; He runneth about upon his two feet, When he hath come forth therefrom."

"How manifold are all thy works! They are hidden before us, O Thou sole god, whose powers no other possesseth. Thou didst create the earth according to thy desire. While thou wast alone: Men, all cattle large and small, All that are upon the earth, That go about upon their feet; All that are on high, That fly with their wings. The countries of Syria and Nubia, The land of Egypt; Thou settest every man in his place, Thou suppliest their necessities. Every one has his possessions, And his days are reckoned. Their tongues are divers in speech, Their form likewise and their skins, For thou divider, hast divided the peoples."

"Thou makest the Nile in the Nether World, Thou bringest it at thy desire, to preserve the people alive. O lord of them all, when feebleness is in them, O lord of every house, who risest for them, O sun of day, the fear of every distant land, Thou makest [also] their life. Thou hast set a Nile in heaven, That it may fall for them, Making floods upon the mountains, like the great sea; And watering their fields among their towns.How excellent are thy designs, O lord of eternity! The Nile in heaven is for the strangers, And for the cattle of every land, that go upon their feet; But the Nile, it cometh from the nether world for Egypt.Thus thy rays nourish every garden, When thou risest they live, and grow by thee."

"Thou makest the seasons, in order to create all thy works: Winter bringing them coolness, And the heat [of summer likewise]. Thou hast made the distant heaven to rise therein, In order to behold all that thou didst make, While thou wast alone, Rising in thy form as living Aton, Dawning, shining afar off and returning."

"Thou makest the beauty of form, through thyself alone. Cities, towns and settlements, On highway or on river, All eyes see thee before them, For Thou art Aton of the day over the earth."

"Thou art in my heart; There is no other that knoweth thee, Save thy son Ikhnaton. Thou hast made him wise in thy designs And in thy might. The world is in thy hand, Even as thou hast made them. When thou hast risen, they live; When thou settest, they die. For thou art duration, beyond thy mere limbs, By thee man liveth, And their eyes look upon thy beauty, Until thou settest. All labour is laid aside, When thou settest in the west; When thou risest, they are made to grow . . . . . . for the king. Since thou didst establish the earth, Thou hast raised them up for thy son, Who came forth from thy limbs, The king, living in truth, The lord of the Two Lands Nefer-khepru-Re, Wan-Re, The son of Re, living in truth, lord of diadems, Ikhnaton, whose life is long; [And for] the great royal wife, his beloved, Mistress of the Two Lands, Nefer nefru aton, Nofretete, Living and flourishing for ever and ever."

"If this were a new religion, invented to satisfy our modern scientific conceptions, we could not find a flaw in the correctness of this view of the energy of the solar system. How much Akhenaten understood, we cannot say, but he certainly bounded forward in his views and symbolism to a position which we cannot logically improve upon at the present day. Not a rag of superstition or of falsity can be found clinging to this new worship evolved out of the old Aton of Heliopolis, the sole Lord of the universe."

"Either for the temple service or for personal devotions the king composed two hymns to Aton, both of which the nobles had engraved on the walls of their tomb chapels. Of all the monuments left by this unparalleled revolution, these hymns are by far the most remarkable; and from them we may gather an intimation of the doctrines which the speculative young Pharaoh had sacrificed so much to disseminate. They are regularly entitled: “Praise of Aton by king Ikhnaton and queen Nefernefruaton”; and the longer and finer of the two is worthy of being known in modern literature. The titles of the separate strophes are the addition of the present author, and in the translation no attempt has been made to do more than to furnish an accurate rendering. The one hundred and fourth Psalm of the Hebrews shows a notable similarity to our hymn both in the thought and the sequence."

"In this hymn the universalism of the empire finds full expression and the royal singer sweeps his eye from the far-off cataracts of the Nubian Nile to the remotest lands of Syria. These are not thoughts which we have been accustomed to attribute to the men of some fourteen hundred years before Christ. A new spirit has breathed upon the dry bones of traditionalism in Egypt, and he who reads these lines for the first time must be moved with involuntary admiration for the young king who in such an age found such thoughts in his heart. He grasped the idea of a world-dominator, as the creator of nature, in which the king saw revealed the creator’s beneficent purpose for all his creatures, even the meanest; for the birds fluttering about in the lily-grown Nile-marshes to him seemed to be uplifting their wings in adoration of their creator; and even the fish in the stream leaped up in praise to God. It is his voice that summons the blossoms and nourishes the chicklet or commands the mighty deluge of the Nile. He called Aton, "the father and the mother of all that he had made," and he saw in some degree the goodness of that All-Father as did he who bade us consider the lilies. He based the universal sway of God upon his fatherly care of all men alike, irrespective of race or nationality, and to the proud and exclusive Egyptian he pointed to the all-embracing bounty of the common father of humanity, even placing Syria and Nubia before Egypt in his enumeration. It is this aspect of Ikhnaton’s mind which is especially remarkable; he is the first prophet of history. While to the traditional Pharaoh the state god was only the triumphant conqueror, who crushed all peoples and drove them tribute-laden before the Pharaoh’s chariot, Ikhnaton saw in him the beneficent father of all men. It is the first time in history that a discerning eye has caught this great universal truth. Again his whole movement was but a return to nature, resulting from a spontaneous recognition of the goodness and the beauty evident in it, mingled also with a consciousness of the mystery in it all, which adds just the fitting element of mysticism in such a faith."

"Nor is Osiris seen In Memphian Grove, or Green, Trampling the unshowr’d Grasse with lowings loud: Nor can he be at rest Within his sacred chest, Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud, In vain with Timbrel’d Anthems dark The sable-stolèd Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark."

"[...] After these appear’d A crew who under Names of old Renown, Osiris, Isis, Orus and their Train With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d Fanatic Egypt and her Priests, to seek Thir wandring Gods disguis’d in brutish forms Rather then human. [...]"

"O tell me, were you standing by when Isis to Osiris knelt?"

"Pomp of Egypt’s elder day, Shade of the mighty passed away, Whose giant works still frown sublime Mid the twilight shades of Time; Fanes, of sculpture vast and rude, That strew the sandy solitude, Lo! before our startled eyes, As at a wizard’s wand, ye rise, Glimmering larger through the gloom! While on the secrets of the tomb, Rapt in other times, we gaze, The Mother Queen of ancient days, Her mystic symbol in her hand, Great Isis, seems herself to stand.From mazy vaults, high-arched and dim, Hark! heard ye not Osiris’ hymn? And saw ye not in order dread The long procession of the dead?"

"You died, believing in Horus and Pasht, Isis, Osiris, and priestly lore; And found, of course, such theories smash’d By actual fact on the heavenly shore."

"Be skillful in speech, that you may be strong; [...] it is the strength of [...] the tongue, and words are braver than all fighting; none can circumvent the clever man [...] on the mat; a wise man is a [school] for the magnates, and those who are aware of his knowledge do not attack him."

"Copy your forefathers, for [work] is carried out through knowledge; see, their words endure in writing. Open, that you may read and copy knowledge; (even) the expert will become one who is instructed. Do not be evil, for patience is good; make your lasting monument in the love of you."

"Wretched is he who has bound the land to himself [...]; a fool is he who is greedy when others possess. Life on earth passes away, it is not long; he is fortunate who has a good remembrance in it."

"Do justice, that you may live long upon earth. Calm the weeper, do not oppress the widow, do not oust a man from his father’s property, do not degrade magnates from their seats. Beware of punishing wrongfully; do not kill, for it will not profit you."

"More acceptable is the character of the straightforward man than the ox of the wrongdoer. Serve God, that He may do the like for you, with offerings for replenishing the altars and with carving; it is that which will show forth your name, and God is aware of whoever serves Him. Provide for men, the cattle of God, for He made heaven and earth at their desire. He suppressed the greed of the waters, he gave the breath of life to their noses, for they are likenesses of Him which issued from His flesh."

"Instill the love of you into all the world, for a good character is what is remembered."

"Lo, my name reeks Lo, more than carrion smell On summer days of burning sky. [...] Lo, my name reeks Lo, more than that of a wife About whom lies are told to the husband.Lo, my name reeks Lo, more than that of a sturdy child Who is said to belong to one who rejects him.Lo, my name reeks Lo, more than a king's town That utters sedition behind his back."

"To whom can I speak today? Brothers are evil And the friends of today unlovable."

"To whom can I speak today? Gentleness has perished And the violent man has come down on everyone."

"To whom can I speak today? I am heavy-laden with trouble Through lack of an intimate friend.To whom can I speak today? The wrong which roams the earth, There is no end to it."

"Death is in my sight today As when a man desires to see home When he has spent many years in captivity."

"What my ba said to me: "Now throw complaint on the [wood-pile], you my comrade, my brother! Whether you offer on the brazier, whether you bear down on life, as you say, love me here when you have set aside the West! But when it is wished that you attain the West, that your body joins the earth, I shall alight after you have become weary, and then we shall dwell together!""

"(As for) that which my ba had said to me: "Give up the complaints about the stalling of this companion, my brother, while you last upon the flame, in order to be adamant about life!" (Man:) "As you say! Like me here, after you rejected the West. Please, but like also the West, and your limbs join the earth, I shall alight, after you are weary. Therefore, let us make a harbor for the occasion.""

"R. O. Faulkner, "The Man Who Was Tired of Life", The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 42 (1956) pp. 21–40"

"H. Goedicke, The Report about the Dispute of a Man with his Ba (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970)"

"V. A. Tobin, in W. K. Simpson (ed.) The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, and Poetry (Yale UP, 1972) pp. 201–209"

"M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 1: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (U of California P, 1975) pp. 163–169"

"J. L. Foster, Echoes of Egyptian Voices: An Anthology of Ancient Egyptian Poetry (Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1992) pp. 11–18"

"R. B. Parkinson, The Tale of Sinuhe and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940–1640 BC (Oxford UP, 1997) pp. 151–165"