Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings. 3: The Late Period

This chapter discusses aspects of Demotic Egyptian prose narratives of the Greek and Roman periods, viewed against the background of the growing significance of reception theory in the study of ancient Egyptian literature in general. It reviews the development since the nineteenth century of ideas on the ancient audiences for Demotic literature. The problematic evidence for readers and performance is examined, to a very limited extent with reference to the nature of the finds and find-spots of manuscripts, but chiefly by paying attention to their format and their contents. As for the relationship with oral literature, it is suggested that the material essentially belonged to a written tradition, and was designed primarily for oral performance within temple communities.

Download Full-text

Ancient Egyptian Literature

Ancient Egyptian Literature ◽

10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0011 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Verena M. Lepper

Keyword(s):

Prose Poetry ◽

Vocabulary Size ◽

Religious Texts ◽

Ancient Egyptian ◽

Vocabulary Richness ◽

Egyptian Literature ◽

Middle Egyptian

This chapter discusses the genre and style of Ancient Egyptian literature. Through the application of lexicostatistics, it analyses a total of fifty texts. Having examined the vocabulary size of Middle Egyptian narratives, Late Egyptian narratives, speeches, and dialogues, the texts under investigation are grouped into genres such as ‘religious texts’, ‘artful prose’, ‘poetry’, ‘teachings’, and so on. On the basis of texts existing in several copies, it becomes apparent that a text maintains a constant vocabulary richness independent of its length. Each copy therefore facilitates the determination of the genre of a text. Furthermore, the language of a text (Middle or Late Egyptian) proves not to be decisive for the vocabulary richness of a text, but rather it is genre that is indicative. The chapter also investigates the question of the practical function of texts, which can best be detected during experimental reading.

Download Full-text

Libraries from Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt, c.800 BCE–250 CE

Libraries before Alexandria ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199655359.003.0010 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 390-472

Author(s):

Ryholt Kim

Keyword(s):

Waste Paper ◽

Literary Texts ◽

Last Millennium ◽

Late Period ◽

Ancient Egyptian ◽

Different Types ◽

Roman Egypt ◽

Egyptian Culture ◽

Rubbish Dumps ◽

House Of Life

This chapter is a survey of collections of literary texts from Late Period and Graeco-Roman Egypt, c.750 BCE–250 CE, effectively the last millennium of the ancient Egyptian culture. Examples of different forms of collections are described and discussed in detail: temple libraries and private libraries, as well as groups of literary texts found in tombs, in rubbish dumps, in waste paper collections, and re-used in cartonnage. The texts include narratives, wisdom instructions, science (esp. divination and medicine), and cultic texts (esp. ritual guidelines, religious treatises, and hymns). Additional paragraphs concern the use of master copies, different types of storage, the abduction of libraries, and the so-called House of Life.

Download Full-text