You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
In Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry, Richard Parkinson explores how ancient Egyptian poems have been read and perceived across the ages. Presents an innovative and theoretically-informed account of how the most famous ancient Egyptian poems have been read over 4,000 years From a leading expert in the interpretation of ancient Egyptian literature Explores the original experience of ordinary Egyptians enjoying the poems as well as their interpretation during the Middle Kingdom and up to modern times Draws on recent discoveries in the British Museum archives to reconstruct the contexts of the poems
Selections include poetry from pyramid texts, morning hymns, instructions in wisdom, meditations, exhortations to schoolboys, love songs, poems to the king, and more. Also included are an outline of Egyptian history, an introduction to Egyptian literature, and extensive footnotes and commentary on the material presented.
[Poetry and Culture in Middle Kingdom Egypt] certainly represents a landmark. It is the first monograph devoted to an integral study and interpretation of the entire corpus of literature preserved from the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.'Joachim Quack, Professor of Egyptology, University of Heidelberg.
Examining carefully the Egyptian epic hexameter production from the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, especially that of the southern region (Thebaid), this study provides an image of three centuries in the history of the Graeco-Egyptian literature, in which authors and poetry are related directly to the social-economic, cultural and literary contexts from which they come. The training they could get and the books and authors they came in touch with explain that we know so many names and works, written in a language and metrics that enjoyed the greatest esteem, being considered proofs of the highest culture. Laura Miguélez Cavero demonstrates that the traditional image of a “school of Nonnos” is not justified ‐ rather, Triphiodorus, Nonnus, Musaeus, Colluthus, Cyrus of Panopolis and Christodorus of Coptos are just the tip of a literary iceberg we know only to some extent through the texts that papyri offer us.
This is the first comprehensive anthology in English of ancient Egyptian lyric poetry.
The Middle Kingdom (c.1940-1640 BC) was a golden age of Ancient Egyptian writing. This pioneering book is the first comprehensive study of this literary legacy. The status of literature is controversial in many ancient civilizations, and Middle Kingdom poems have often been regarded as propaganda for the ruling dynasty. This study radically reassesses their cultural role, drawing on recent studies of the individual texts, some by the author, and on general developments in literary criticism, to argue that they were entertainments that voiced potentially dissident views while also being integral to elite culture. The book explores literatures status as a differentiated form of discourse, suggesting what social practices made its role possible and offering an innovative model for the readers engagement with these subtle and complex ancient works. The book also surveys the social and ideological context of literature and proposes readings of the main tales, discourses, and teachings. The conclusion sets the readings in a broad context, while an appendix surveys the entire range of surviving texts.
Presents annotated translations of papyrus writings and tomb inscriptions from the middle and late periods of ancient Egypt.
Originally published in 1927, this text contains a translation of Adolf Erman’s work into English. Erman’s original intention was to bring the songs, stories and poems that have survived from ancient Egypt to the masses of the modern world. The literature of the Egyptian world provides a real insight into the day-to-day life of one of the oldest societies known to man and this translation ensures that these insights are afforded to an English audience. This title will be of interest to students of History, Classics and Literature.