Teti and Kagemni: Dynasty VI
Unas has passed to the afterlife with gusto. His daughter marries an outsider, Teti, who becomes the new King of Upper and Lower Egypt. For historians, this kind of shift in lineage is a good point to mark the beginning of the Sixth Dynasty.
A new literary genre also reaches maturation: Didactic Literature conveys teachings and instructions for future generations.
Two classic works emerge in quick succession, the Maxims of the Vizier Ptah-hotep and the Instructions for the Vizer Kagemni.
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Bibliography
- Naguib Kanawait (et al.) The Teti Cemetery at Saqqara, Multiple Volumes.
- Naguib Kanawati, Conspiracies in the Egyptian Palace, 2011.
- Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms, 1973 (2006 paperback edition).
- Nigel Strudwick, Texts from the Pyramid Age, 2005 (Google Books).
- William Kelly Simpson (editor), The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 2003.
I really like this Ptah-hotep, but at some point I started thinking…
All this wonderful wisdom, it was from and for the elites.
The commoners had access to all this thinking? All these values were also shared by the broad society? It was encouraged, they followed?
Hi Panino,
We’re not sure. Realistically, this stuff would have spread. Anyone memorising the maxims could share them around, and “elite” are not necessarily consumed *only* by elites. Some of this was clearly directed at “up-and-comers.” So…maybe?
Hi! I’m REALLY enjoying your podcast, which I just discovered – I have been binge listening for the last four days! Just a thought … the “Maxims of the Vizier Ptah-hotep” put me in mind of the “Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation” copied out by George Washington…
Dear Dominic,
Thanks for this great episode. I am wondering about one thing though. How sure can we be that these texts were actually written by the people they are attributed to? I have read elsewhere that the ancient Egyptians (and other peoples) were quite happy to attribute new texts to famous figures from the past to benefit from their prestige. What is your view on this?
Hi Michael, thanks for your question. The trend of attributing decrees / texts to earlier figure (e.g. the Famine Stela for Djoser and Inventory Stela for Khufu) comes in much later, during the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. That’s one reason it is unlikely these are later. Additionally, the grammar of these texts matches that of the Old Kingdom (what linguists call Old Egyptian). So, any forger would have to be extremely skilled in that language to avoid significant mistakes. Finally, many of these 5th Dynasty Kings were noteworthy but not “top tier” in the historical legacy. So, the benefits of claiming legitimacy from them are dubious. In short, while it is *possible* that Fifth Dynasty texts actually come from later eras, it is unlikely.
Hi Michael, I may have misunderstood your question. For the *Didactic Literature,* we have only weak bases for assuming the texts come from these authors personally. In some cases, the preserved copies were clearly made later (with Middle Egyptian grammar etc). But that could be a result of transmission / copying over time. For the authors themselves… it is really just ancient tradition /cultural memory. You could make the same claim on many ancient authors, indeed. So, for the literary texts… sure, it is reasonably likely they come from other people (Historical Texts are less likely, per my other comment)