Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 63 views

    Week 2 - Egyptian Love Poems

    Uploaded by

    thuybongin
    Ancient Egyptian love poems provide intimate glimpses of everyday life in Egypt during the New Kingdom from 1539 to 1075 BC. These poems, written in hieratic script, use metaphors and other poetic techniques to openly discuss love and romance. One poem, "The Flower Song," compares hearing a lover's voice to drinking wine and seeing them to being more satisfying than eating or drinking. These poems were likely set to music and drew from daily life, using references to nature and work to speak about love. Many were discovered in Deir el-Medina, suggesting villagers contributed to the poetic tradition alongside scribes. The poems portray women as strong voices and decision makers in love, reflecting their elevated status in Egyptian society compared

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Week 2 - Egyptian Love Poems

    Uploaded by

    thuybongin
    63 views9 pages
    Ancient Egyptian love poems provide intimate glimpses of everyday life in Egypt during the New Kingdom from 1539 to 1075 BC. These poems, written in hieratic script, use metaphors and other poetic techniques to openly discuss love and romance. One poem, "The Flower Song," compares hearing a lover's voice to drinking wine and seeing them to being more satisfying than eating or drinking. These poems were likely set to music and drew from daily life, using references to nature and work to speak about love. Many were discovered in Deir el-Medina, suggesting villagers contributed to the poetic tradition alongside scribes. The poems portray women as strong voices and decision makers in love, reflecting their elevated status in Egyptian society compared

    Original Description:

    Main features about Ancient Egyptian love poems.

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Ancient Egyptian love poems provide intimate glimpses of everyday life in Egypt during the New Kingdom from 1539 to 1075 BC. These poems, written in hieratic script, use metaphors and other poetic techniques to openly discuss love and romance. One poem, "The Flower Song," compares hearing a lover's voice to drinking wine and seeing them to being more satisfying than eating or drinking. These poems were likely set to music and drew from daily life, using references to nature and work to speak about love. Many were discovered in Deir el-Medina, suggesting villagers contributed to the poetic tradition alongside scribes. The poems portray women as strong voices and decision makers in love, reflecting their elevated status in Egyptian society compared

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    63 views9 pages

    Week 2 - Egyptian Love Poems

    Uploaded by

    thuybongin
    Ancient Egyptian love poems provide intimate glimpses of everyday life in Egypt during the New Kingdom from 1539 to 1075 BC. These poems, written in hieratic script, use metaphors and other poetic techniques to openly discuss love and romance. One poem, "The Flower Song," compares hearing a lover's voice to drinking wine and seeing them to being more satisfying than eating or drinking. These poems were likely set to music and drew from daily life, using references to nature and work to speak about love. Many were discovered in Deir el-Medina, suggesting villagers contributed to the poetic tradition alongside scribes. The poems portray women as strong voices and decision makers in love, reflecting their elevated status in Egyptian society compared

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 9

    EGYPTIAN LOVE POEMS

     Pyramids, mummies, tombs, and other icons of aristocracy and the


    afterlife dominate our images of ancient Egypt. But love poems
    composed thousands of years ago may provide a more intimate glimpse
    of the lives of everyday ancient Egyptians.
     "Poetry is perhaps the greatest forgotten treasure of ancient Egypt," 
     Written during Egypt's New Kingdom (1539-1075 B.C.) but likely
    composed much earlier, these songs are surprisingly direct about love
    and romance in ancient Egypt, using metaphors, repetition, and other
    poetic techniques familiar to poetry readers today.
     The Flower Song (Excerpt)

    To hear your voice is pomegranate wine to me:


    I draw life from hearing it.
    Could I see you with every glance,
    It would be better for me
    Than to eat or to drink.

    (Translated by M.V. Fox)


    FROM HIEROGLYPHICS TO HYMNS

     The earliest poetry in Egypt was likely part of an oral tradition. Hymns, stories, and
    prayers were passed down from speaker to speaker. It's likely that only one person out of
    every hundred could read and write.
     The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system was likely invented to help with trade, allowing
    merchants record their wares and account for their stock. Later hieroglyphic writing
    found on nobles' tombs gave biographical accounts of the tombs' occupants for passersby
    to read. Over time, longer biographies, narrative poems, and songs also began to appear.
     To read ancient Egyptian poetry and other writings is a two-step process. Much of the
    writing was done in hieratic script, a shorthand form of hieroglyphs. "When you have to
    write all of these beautiful [hieroglyphs] of birds, men, and women, it takes days to write
    a letter to your grandmother”.
     To begin deciphering the ancient texts, experts use detailed photographs of excavated
    writings, along with their own observations of actual artifacts, if possible. They then
    translates hieratic writing into hieroglyphs. From there, they gives sounds to the
    hieroglyphic consonants and pieces out words, sentences, and entire passages.
     Historical tales and hymns had been inscribed inside tomb walls, written on papyrus, and
    often scribbled onto shards of limestone pottery.
    Love Poems From the Workers' Village
     Archaeologists have discovered most of Egypt's love poetry in Deir el-Medina,
    a village of tomb builders during the New Kingdom. Here, many skilled
    artisans worked on the tombs of pharaohs such as Ramses II and
    Tutankhamun.
     Findings indicate that these villagers may have been remarkably literate for
    their time. The local community—not just the scribes and students—may have
    contributed to the poetry of Deir el-Medina.
     The love poems were likely set to music and used events from daily life and the
    natural world—growing grain, capturing birds, fishing along the Nile—as
    metaphors to talk about love.
     Women's voices were strong in Egyptian poetry—as the narrators of poems or
    as lovers making choices about their beloveds, for example. This strength
    confirms that women had a higher position in ancient Egyptian culture than in
    other societies at the time, Wilfong said. Women may even have written some
    EGYPTIAN LOVE POEMS

    The Beginning of the Song that Diverts the Heart


     Women in classical Egyptian, Indian, and Persian literature are depicted as being more than just
    one dimensional figures. They are displayed as living beings, capable of emotion and exercising
    power amongst men. Ancient history has shown that in places such as Egypt, woman had equal
    rights alongside men, in regards to legal and economic rights. At the time, rights were based on
    economic class and not gender. By having a rights system that mimicked that of men’s rights,
    Egyptian women were able to show their multi-dimensionality. This multi-dimensionality was best
    portrayed in love poems such as “The Beginning of the Song that Diverts the Heart,”

    You might also like