Egyptian Literature Description

Religious beliefs greatly influenced the thoughts and actions of early Egyptians. Although polytheists like the Greeks, they do not believe that gods mingle with men like the Greek deities but that they could feel human emotions like hatred, love, jealousy, and revenge. They regard the highest virtue to their gods and do what the gods approved. They consider Ra, as the Sun god, as their greatest god; Osiris, the god of Nile and of the underworld and Isis, his queen and goddess of the earth and vegetation. Believing in afterlife, the early Egyptians believed that the soul will not be allowed into the future life without their body so they embalmed their dead. The pharaoh is regarded as a god on earth. He is true high priest and should thus officiate in the daily ritual and periodic religious festivals although he can delegate those duties by appointing high priests who will perform the duties for him, giving him the option to just participate when necessary.

Egyptian consists of inscriptions printed or engraved on monuments or of manuscripts written on papyrus buried in the tomb or beneath the ruins of temples. These are now known as Pyramid Texts, which consist of hymns and spells who can write and make records and that secular literature rarely exists.

The most important early literature of Egypt is the “Book of the Dead”, a funeral ritual. This work consists of one hundred and sixty six chapters relating the adventure of a man after death. It also contains a collection of prayers of a magical character. This book was intended for the exercise of magic for private individuals.

The Egyptians seemed to have been fond of writing letters. About eighty letters have been found on different subjects. They tell of interesting facts about life of people.

The Egyptians developed the short story in the form of two stories almost 3,000 years before Christ. These short stories are the ”Two Brothers” and “Setna and the Magic Book”.