Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13

Literature -- Collections

"The entire Oryx nome served me in numerous attendances.[10]
     There was not the daughter of a poor man that I wronged, nor a
     widow that I oppressed. There was not a farmer that I
     chastised, not a herdsman whom I drove away, not a foreman of
     five whose men I took away for the works.[11] There was not a
     pauper around me, there was not a hungry man of my time. When
     there came years of famine, I arose and ploughed all the fields
     of the Oryx nome to its boundary south and north, giving life
     to its inhabitants, making its provisions. There was not a
     hungry man in it. I gave to the widow as to her that possessed
     a husband, and I favored not the elder above the younger in all
     that I gave. Thereafter great rises of the Nile took place,
     producing wheat and barley, and producing all things
     abundantly, but I did not exact the arrears of farming."

Elsewhere in his tomb there are long lists of the virtues of Amenemhat,
and from these the following may be selected both on account of
picturesqueness of expression and the appreciation of fine character
which they display.

     "Superintendent of all things which heaven gives and earth
     produces, overseer of horns, hoofs, feathers, and shells ...
     Master of the art of causing writing to speak ... Caressing of
     heart to all people, making to prosper the timid man,
     hospitable to all, escorting [travelers] up and down the river
     ... Knowing how to aid, arriving at time of need; free of
     planning evil, without greediness in his body, speaking words
     of truth....

     Unique as a mighty hunter, the abode of the heart of the
     King.... Speaking the right when he judges between suitors,
     clear of speaking fraud, knowing how to proceed in the council
     of the elders, finding the knot in the skein.... Great of
     favors in the house of the King, contenting the heart on the
     day of making division, careful of his goings to his equals,
     gaining reverence on the day of weighing words, beloved of the
     officials of the palace."

The cursive forms of writing--hieratic from the earliest times, demotic
in the latest--were those in which records were committed to papyrus.
This material has preserved to us documents of every kind, from letters
and ledgers to works of religion and philosophy. To these, again,
"literature" is a term rarely to be applied; yet the tales and poetry
occasionally met with on papyri are perhaps the most pleasing of all the
productions of the Egyptian scribe.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13

Literature -- Collections

"The entire Oryx nome served me in numerous attendances.[10]
     There was not the daughter of a poor man that I wronged, nor a
     widow that I oppressed. There was not a farmer that I
     chastised, not a herdsman whom I drove away, not a foreman of
     five whose men I took away for the works.[11] There was not a
     pauper around me, there was not a hungry man of my time. When
     there came years of famine, I arose and ploughed all the fields
     of the Oryx nome to its boundary south and north, giving life
     to its inhabitants, making its provisions. There was not a
     hungry man in it. I gave to the widow as to her that possessed
     a husband, and I favored not the elder above the younger in all
     that I gave. Thereafter great rises of the Nile took place,
     producing wheat and barley, and producing all things
     abundantly, but I did not exact the arrears of farming."

Elsewhere in his tomb there are long lists of the virtues of Amenemhat,
and from these the following may be selected both on account of
picturesqueness of expression and the appreciation of fine character
which they display.

     "Superintendent of all things which heaven gives and earth
     produces, overseer of horns, hoofs, feathers, and shells ...
     Master of the art of causing writing to speak ... Caressing of
     heart to all people, making to prosper the timid man,
     hospitable to all, escorting [travelers] up and down the river
     ... Knowing how to aid, arriving at time of need; free of
     planning evil, without greediness in his body, speaking words
     of truth....

     Unique as a mighty hunter, the abode of the heart of the
     King.... Speaking the right when he judges between suitors,
     clear of speaking fraud, knowing how to proceed in the council
     of the elders, finding the knot in the skein.... Great of
     favors in the house of the King, contenting the heart on the
     day of making division, careful of his goings to his equals,
     gaining reverence on the day of weighing words, beloved of the
     officials of the palace."

The cursive forms of writing--hieratic from the earliest times, demotic
in the latest--were those in which records were committed to papyrus.
This material has preserved to us documents of every kind, from letters
and ledgers to works of religion and philosophy. To these, again,
"literature" is a term rarely to be applied; yet the tales and poetry
occasionally met with on papyri are perhaps the most pleasing of all the
productions of the Egyptian scribe.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13

Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13

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