Egyptian Love Poems

Vanessa Alfaro

2nd period

Mrs. Rebeske

1/13/14

Research Question: What does the poem reveal about the cultural aspects of Ancient Egypt?

Thesis: The poem reveals a strong contrast between the structured religious aspects of Ancient Egypt in comparison to a softer side never seen before that involves a tryst between two lovers.

Supporting

Quotes

Ancient Egyptian Love Poems Reveal a Lust for Life

Cameron Walker

‘The verses allow poetry lovers and Egyptophiles

alike to tap into the emotional side of Egyptian daily life. "People tend to assume all ancient Egyptian writing is religious, so the secular nature of these songs and of much other poetry continue to surprise readers," Parkinson said.’

Ancient Egyptian Society and Family Life

Douglas J Brewer and Emily Teeter

“Virginity was not a necessity for marriage; indeed, premarital sex, or any sex between unmarried people, was socially acceptable. Once married, however, couples were expected to be sexually faithful to each other.”

• This showed that it was not looked down upon for these young people to have relationships and that’s probably why they express themselves so openly in the poem.

Archaeological reflections on ancient Egyptian religion and society

Etim E. Okon

Religion had a pervasive influence in ancient Egypt. Ancient Egypt was a theocracy with Pharaoh as the God-king. Religious exigencies guided statecraft to the extent that social and public policies were dictated by religious considerations. Ancient Egyptians trusted the efficacy of indigenous beliefs and at times displayed belligerent courage in resisting any anti-religious influence in social and political terrain.

• Emphasizes how important religion was to their culture and society

Pyramids, prophets, and progress: ancient Egypt in the writings of Ali Mubarak

Darrell Dykstra

“Yet ancient Egyptian culture was exuberantly polytheistic, and in the Quran a specific motif described Pharaoh as the obdurate adversary of the early prophet Moses. Despite these obstacles, a number of medieval Muslim authors wrote positively of ancient Egypt, creating an interpretive tradition which endured for centuries.”

• This again emphasizes how powerful their religion was to their society and writing as well. They filtered the writings that they were going to uphold and represent their civilization with and glorified those who wrote positively about Egypt as the number of medieval Muslims did.

Time in the Art of Ancient Egypt: From Ideological Concept to Visual Construct*

“The Egyptians distinguished events in relation to time through grammar and syntax, and used devices, such as dates and phrases, in order to infuse the stories with a sense of time.”

• Represents rigorous structure of society

The Literature and Religion of Ancient Egypt

Amelia Ann Edwards Blanford

“The Egyptians of the first twelve dynasties, and, indeed, the bulk of the nation at all times, were a pastoral and peaceful people, well content with their lot in this life, and much occupied with preparations for the next. What the native-born Egyptian most dearly loved was to cultivate his paternal acres, to meditate on morals and religion, and to prepare a splendid tomb for his mummy when the inevitable summons should come.”

o No mention about family or relationships in book about literature and religion of Egypt

The Love Poetry Genre in the Old Testament

Lloyd Carr

“There is no readily available collection of Ancient Near Eastern Love poetry or even universal agreement on what materials really belong in this category.”

• Love poetry isn’t as important as religious texts so much that there’s not even universal agreement on what materials really belong in this category

Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines and Early Israel 1300-1100 B.C.E." Journal of Biblical Literature

William G Dever

The question of whether a specific “ethnic identification” of an ancient people can be determined on the basis of material culture remains one of the most difficult and yet urgent issues in archeology worldwide today

• This controversy can be applied to our new understanding of Egyptian literature because how can a culture be identified if the cultivators of that society purposefully emphasized the ways it wanted us to see and not the daily aspects such romance that was incorporated in the lives of their people

Works Cited

Egyptian Love Poems

Martin Puchner

“The lovers in the poems are young and often not yet free from parental supervision… Many poems imagine situations in which the lovers might meet and make themselves attractive to each other”

"I passed close by his house,

And found his door ajar.

My beloved was standing beside his mother,

And with him all his brothers and sisters.

Love of him captures the hearts

Of all who walk along the way-

• This shows how young lovers would sneak away from their daily chores and responsibilities to continue these relationships and this is the different side of ancient Egyptian literature that is referred to

Perspectives on the Song of Songs

Edited by: Anselm C. Hagedorn

“It is a fact that the Egyptian literature of the Late and Hellenistic Period undertook a rather strict selection of accepted genres and that love poetry did not belong to the spectrum of productive forms. This does not imply that during the Late period love songs were not sung in festive gatherings as we know from Herodotus and other Greek authors…”

• The strict theology of Egypt is what we usually see because it must have been filtered by the strict selection of genres but they were still shared orally with music at banquets. Egyptian love poetry shows striking parallels with love poetry of other Near Eastern traditions, such as the somewhat late Song of Songs in the Hebrew Bible.

Ancient Egyptian Love Poems

-Anonymous