The document provides an overview of ancient Egyptian history, culture, and society. It describes how Egypt was ruled by pharaohs for over 3,000 years and was unified around 3100 BC. Egyptian civilization depended on the fertile land along the Nile River. Egyptians also developed hieroglyphic writing, built pyramids and temples, and had religious beliefs centered around gods like Osiris and myths. Literature included poems, stories, and texts written on tombs.

1. Egypt
Professor Ms. Sharon De Los Reyes
Submitted to:
Rodylyn V. Velasquez
Submitted by:
Afro-Asian Literature

2. History of Egypt
• Cairo the capital og Egypt
• The ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for more than 300 yrs, longer than any
other c ivilization in human history. Although we are talking about a period that
begun more than 5000 yrs ago, we know a great deal about ancient Egypt.
• Egyptians believed that there was a life after death and that a dead person’s
body should be preserved and buried in a tomb with everything he would need in
the life after death.
• Egyptians were ruled by kings, and queens, who were believed to be Gods.
Many of them built temples to commemorate the important events of their
reigns.

3. Religion
• Both terms refer to systems of concepts that are of high importance to a
certain community, making statements concerning the supernatural or sacred.
• Generally, mythology is considered one component or aspect of religion.
Religion is the broader term: besides mythological aspects, it includes aspects
of ritual, morality, theology, and mystical experience. A given mythology is
almost always associated with a certain religion such as Greek mythology with
Ancient Greek religion.
• Disconnected from its religious system, a myth may lose its immediate
relevance to the community and evolve—away from sacred importance—into
a legend or folktale.

4. The River Nile
• Ancient Egypt depended on the waters of the River Nile,
which flows through harsh and arid desert. Only the land
on the banks of the Nile could be cultivated to support life.
The rest of Egypt was, and is, desert. Every year rain
further south in Africa and melting snow in the highlands
of Ethiopia caused the Nile in Egypt to flood. When the
floods went down, the rich soil which the water had brought
down from the mountainsides was left on the fields and
caused them to be extremely fertile. The Nile gave the
civilization of Egypt its life.

5. WRITING
• First people to develop a system
of writing. They believed it was
important to write down what
was happening. Egyptian-
writing
• Using hieroglyphs, a mixture of
pictures and ‘glyphs’ or
symbols.

6. Ancient Egypt
• The history of ancient Egypt lasted until the country became a Roman province in the 1st
century B.C.
• Egypt was ruled before then by thirty dynasties, or families, of kings and queens, often
called the pharaohs. This is known as Egypt’s dynastic period.
• The civilization of Ancient Egypt lasted for more than 3000 years, longer than any other
civilization known to us. From 3500 B.C. (more than 5500 years ago) there were two
kingdoms in Egypt:
• Lower Egypt in the north was the richer kingdom. The lands closer to the
Mediterranean Sea were richer and more fertile. Lower Egypt could trade with the lands
of the Mediterranean. The wood to build ships was brought from Lebanon from a very
early time.
• Upper Egypt in the south had only a very narrow strip of land which could be cultivated.
The rest of the land was dry desert. Upper Egypt, however, was closer to the land of
Nubia. The kings of Egypt sometimes traded and sometimes made war on Nubia. Nubia
was a source of rare wild animals, of gold, of animal skins, and of slaves.

7. Early Dynastic period c. 3100 to c.2680 B.C.
The two kingdoms, of Upper and Lower Egypt, were united under King Narmer.
This is really the first king whose name we definitely know, so he and his
successors are referred to as the First Dynasty (dynasty means a family who hold
power). From that time on the pharaohs are shown in paintings wearing a double
crown, white for Lower Egypt and red for Upper Egypt.
Old Kingdom, from c. 2680 to c. 2180
(3rd to 6th Dynasties)
This period is best known for the building of great pyramids, including the huge
pyramid of Giza which is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
(do you know what the other six are?) You can read more about the pyramids in
Egyptian Architecture.

8. First Intermediate period, from c.2180 to c. 2055 (7th to 11th dynasties).
• This was a time when several different kings ruled different parts of Egypt. At the end of this period
Mentuhotep II, a king of the 11th dynasty, regained control over the whole of Egypt.
• coffin text.
Middle Kingdom. 2055 – 1650 B.C. (12th – 14 dynasties).
• This was a golden age.The country was ruled by a number of strong kings who controlled not only all of Egypt but much of Nubia (the modern Sudan). The Faiyum,
a large fertile area around a lake which is fed from the Nile, was developed as a centre of agriculture. The building of the great Temple at Karnak was begun.
• Cleopatra well known pharoah
• Song about meditation
• Time of Moses

9. Second Intermediate Period c. 1650 – 1550 15th & 16th dynasties.
• This was a period when the Hyksos, a tribe from outside Egypt (we do not know
their origin) conquered much of Lower Egypt.
New Kingdom c. 1550 – 1069 B.C. (17th to 20th dynasties)
• The Hyksos were driven out and the pharaoh regained power over Lower and
Upper Egypt. During this period Egypt developed a very powerful civil service of
royal officials.
Late Period c. 1000 – 32 AD (21st to 30th dynasties).
• Egypt again was divided into two kingdoms. From around 700 B.C. Egypt was
frequently invaded, by the Nubians, who formed a new dynasty, by the
Assyrians, by the Persians, by the Greeks under Alexander the Great’s general
Ptolemy (the Ptolemaic dynasty) and finally by the Romans.

10. Heirarchy of Egyptian Culture and Society

11. Egyptian Methology
God and Godesses
Atum - First God
Children of Atum: Shu (god of air), Tefnut (goddess of moisture)
Shu + Tefnut = Ged (god of the earth), Nut (god of sky)
Ged + Nut = Osiris (king under world), Sis (god of magic), Seth (god of
evil and storm) and Neplis (god of air, mourning and death)
Osiris + Sis = Horus (King of the Asian Egyptian and killed Seth to get
the crown of his father. )

12. Egyptian mythology
• The collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the
actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the
world.
• The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of
ancient Egyptian religion. Myths appear frequently in Egyptian
writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious
material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple
decoration.
•These sources rarely contain a complete account of a myth
and often describe only brief fragments.

13. TYPES OF EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
• inscriptions on tombs, stele, obelisks, and temples; myths, stories,
and legends; religious writings; philosophical works;
autobiographies; biographies; histories; poetry; hymns; personal
essays; letters and court records.
• Egyptian literature traces its beginnings to ancient Egypt and is
some of the earliest known literature. Indeed, the Egyptians were
the first culture to develop literature as we know it today, that is,
the book.

14. Egyptian Poetry and Songs of
Love

15. My Brother Torments My Heart
My beloved torments my heart with
his voice,
He makes sickness take hold of me;
He is neighbor to my mother's house.
And I cannot go to him!
Mother is right in charging him thus:
"Give up seeing her!"
It pains my heart to think of him,
I am possessed by love of him.
Truly, he is a foolish one,
But I resemble him;
He knows not my wish to embrace
him,
Or he would write to my mother.
Beloved, I am promised to you
By the golden of women!
Come to me that I see your beauty,
Father, mother will rejoice!
My people will hail you all together,
They will hail you, O my beloved!

16. Sister Without Peer
My one, my soul without peer,
Most beautiful of all!
Rising like the morning star
At the start of a happy year.
Shining bright, fair of skin,
Lovely the look of her eyes,
Sweet the speech of her lips,
She has not a word too much.
Upright neck, shining breast,
Hair true lapis lazuli;
Arms surpassing gold,
Fingers like lotus buds.
Heavy thighs, narrow waist,
Her legs parade her beauty;
With graceful step she treads the ground,
Captures my heart by her movements.
She causes all men's necks
To turn about to see her;
Joy has he whom she embraces,
He is like the first of men!
When she steps outside she seems like that the
Sun!

17. • Come, my Soul, swim to me!
• The water is deep in my love
• Which carries me to you.
•
• We are in the midst of the stream,
• I clasp the flowers to my breast
• Which is naked and drips with water.
• But the moon makes them bloom like the lotus.
•
• I give you my flowers
• because they are beautiful,
• And you are holding my hand
• In the middle of the water.
• After J.M.Kellner Under the protection of Hathor

18. • O, my god, my lotus ...
• The north wind is blowing ...
• It is pleasant to go down to the
river
• My heart longs to enter it
• To bathe with you.
• I let you see my beauty
• in a SHIRT of finest royal linen,
• moist with balsam.
• My hair is plaited with reeds
• I enter the water to be with you
• And leave it to join you
• With a red fish.
• It is beautiful on my fingers
• I lay it down before you
• Contemplating your beauty.
• O my hero, my lover!
• Come and look at me!

19. Love songs from Ramesside Egypt
• Among ancient Egypt manuscripts, love songs survive from only one
time and place: the Ramesside Period community of elite craftsmen
working on the tomb of the king (Deir el-Medina, 13th-12th centuries
BC). The contents of the songs have been taken to indicate an even
more elite setting, the palace and court of the king: the centres of
power of Ramesside Egypt were all in the north, at Per-Ramses,
Memphis and the palace of the court women at Gurob. These may be
the places where the songs were composed and sung originally.
Although no manuscripts survive from the palace sites themselves, the
songs seem to echo the figures of singing women on late Eighteenth
Dynasty and Nineteenth Dynasty cosmetic equipment and vessels
produced for the highest level of society.

20. The Tale of Sinuhe
• The Story of Sinuhe is considered one of the finest works of Ancient Egyptian
literature.
• Narrative set in the aftermath of the death of Pharaoh Amenemhat I, founder of the 12th
dynasty of Egypt, in the early 20th century BC.
• only shortly albeit the earliest extant manuscript is from the reign of Amenemhat III, c.
1800 BC.
• Anonymous author has been described as the "Egyptian Shakespeare" whose ideas have
parallels in biblical texts. "Sinuhe" is considered to be a work written in verse and it
may also have been performed.
• Great popularity of the work is witnessed by the numerous surviving fragments.

21. Reference
• https://nova.rambler.ru/search?_openstat=ZF9pbnZsdDg4Ozs7&adult=none&l
ang=en&query=new%20kingdom%20in%20egypt
• https://images.rambler.ru/search?query=egypt%20gods%20and%20goddesses
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Egypt
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Dynasty_of_Egypt
• https://nova.rambler.ru/search?_openstat=ZF9pbnZsdDg4Ozs7&ad
ult=none&lang=en&query=mummification
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mythology
• https://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Literature/
• https://www.perankhgroup.com/Ancient%20Egyptian%20Love%20poetry.htm