Ancient Egyptian Literature

By : Ahmed Shehata

Literature is an intellectual product that constitutes the intellectual and linguistic civilization of a nation, a reflection of its culture and society.

It is a kind of high expression of the human sentiments of a society, the expression of its ideas, its views and its human experience in life. It is written in various forms, whether it is prose, poetic, or other forms of expression in literature.

"The characters, the plot, the subject, and the style used" are the most important elements of literary work. While the methods of literary therapy are: "explanation, discussion, description, narrative."

The purpose of the text is to determine the appropriate method to be chosen by the writer to communicate his idea .. What about the story of ancient Egyptian literature ..? The shape and evolution of ancient Egyptian writing ..? And of course the story of the development of literature and types ..?

In principle, we hardly know the time when the ancient Egyptian script was invented, but we can say that it was before the age of historical unity. Anyway, we have that stone tablet known as the "Narmer" plate, 

Narmer plate

where we see the writing phenomenon and we have traces indicating that it has I knew before that time ..

The origins of the word were built in the ancient Egyptian language of Swakin, whose movements do not change. In fact, they are closer to Semitic languages ​​such as Arabic, Hebrew, Babylonian, Assyrian, Phoenician, etc.

The words of the language ø  different, some of which are useful for one vote and two or more. Simple signs that represent only one voice are twenty-four letters representing the simple alphabet of this language.

The ancient Egyptian language has been written with signs that include what is in nature from man, plant, animal, bird, etc. This is what is called "hieroglyphics"

Because it was used in engraving on the walls of temples and cemeteries, especially in the recording of religious texts and were moving from right to left or from left to right or from top to bottom ..

Because of the inability to use the hieroglyphic line in public affairs, the Egyptians reduced it to a simplified type of line, known as the "Hieratic" or the "clergy" line.

This is because the priests used this line to write on papyrus and the pieces of porcelain and wood, and the most literature of the Egyptians.

In the days of the late Egyptians, they tended to use their simple dialectic language and wrote it, known as "demotic" calligraphy , 

Demotic calligraphy 

that is, the "popular line." It was used in all aspects of public life, as it was called in the demotic language.

When Christianity entered Egypt, its supporters used the ancient Egyptian language to translate the Bible because it is written in Greek letters.

It has since been called Coptic writing "Coptic language" and is still used in the Coptic churches in Egypt so far ...

Their literature came to us through their books, which were rolls of papyrus, written on it with black or red ink, using a number of inches ... besides writing on stone, metal and porcelain.

It was found in what depicts the administrative and social life and then the great ammunition of the Egyptian literature of poetry and prose and what they have of the news of wars, construction and construction and the spread of science, industries and various crafts ..

As well as the news of the Egyptian idolatry and the origin of the myths around it and all of the other portrayal of life as imagined by the ancient Egyptians .. The colors of their literature varied between the literature and polite and of course religious literature .. And to talk the rest ..