Happy Ancient Egyptian New Year on August 29th!

Hello everyone –

Next Wednesday, August 29^th, is the ancient Egyptian New Year’s Day! In honor of the occasion, I have included a poem about ancient Egypt in this fortnight’s issue, along with an article about the world’s oldest known book, a collection of proverbs by Ptah-Hotep, Grand Vizier of Egypt some 4500 years ago.

“Egypt” (1882)

By Gerald Massey (1828-1907)

Egypt! How I have dwelt with you in dreams,

So long, so intimately, that it seems

As if you had borne me; though I could not know

It was so many thousand years ago!

And in my gropings darkly underground

The long-lost memory at last is found

Of motherhood – you mother of us all!

And to my fellowmen I must recall

The memory too; that common motherhood

May help to make the common brotherhood.

Egypt!  It lies there in the far-off past,

Opening with depths profound and growths as vast

As the great valley of Yosemite;

The birthplace out of darkness into day;

The shaping matrix of the human mind;

The cradle and the nursery of our kind.

This was the land created from the flood,

The land of Atum, made of the red mud,

Where Num sat in his Teba throned on high,

And saw the deluge once a year go by,

Each brimming with the blessing that it brought,

And by that waterway, in Egypt’s thought,

The gods descended; but they never hurled

The deluge that should desolate the world.

There the vast hewers of the early time

Built, as if that way they would surely climb

The heavens, and left their labors without name –

Colossal as their carelessness of fame –

Sole likeness of themselves – that heavenward

Forever look with statuesque regard,

As if some vision of the eternal grown

Petrific, was forever fixed in stone!

They watched the moon re-orb, the stars go round,

And drew the circle; thought’s primordial bound.

The heavens looked into them with living eyes

To kindle starry thoughts in other skies,

For us reflected in the image-scroll,

That night by night the stars for aye unroll.

The royal heads of language bow them down

To lay in Egypt’s lap each borrowed crown.

The glory of Greece was but the afterglow

Of her forgotten greatness lying low;

Her hieroglyphics buried dark as night,

Or coal deposits filled with future light,

Are mines of meaning; by their light we see

Through many an overshadowing mystery.

The nursing Nile is living Egypt still,

And as her lowlands with its freshness fill,

And heave with double-breasted bounteousness,

So doth the old hidden source of mind yet bless

The nations; secretly she brought to birth,

And Egypt still enriches all the earth.

“The Wisdom of the Elders: Ptah-Hotep”

By Rob Chappell, M.A., Assistant to the Honors Dean

Adapted & Condensed from the February 2014 Issue of the Secretariat’s Newsletter

            Ptah-Hotep was an Egyptian sage who flourished around 2400 BCE. He was prime minister (grand vizier) to King Isesi, a Pharaoh of Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty. Ptah-Hotep was renowned for his great learning and wisdom, along with his remarkable longevity (he lived to be 110 years old!). His chief claim to fame, however, is his authorship of the oldest known book in world history, the Maxims of Good Discourse, in which he instructs his son with wise proverbs and common-sense advice so that he can acquire good leadership qualities and achieve success and fulfillment in life.

            Here are some of the lessons that Ptah-Hotep recorded in his book and that still speak to us today, across a gulf of 44 centuries. (I have slightly modernized the spelling and grammar of this translation from 95 years ago.)

            B. Here begin the proverbs of fair speech, spoken by the hereditary chief, the holy father, beloved of the gods, the eldest son of the King, of his body, the governor of his city, the vizier, Ptah-Hotep, when instructing the ignorant in the knowledge of exactness in fair speaking; the glory of him that obeys, the shame of him that transgresses them. He said unto his son:

            5. If you are a leader, as one directing the conduct of the multitude, endeavor always to be gracious, that your own conduct may be without defect. Great is Truth, appointing a straight path; never has it been overthrown since the reign of Osiris. One that oversteps the laws shall be punished. Overstepping is by the covetous man; but degradations bear off his riches. Never has evil-doing brought its venture safe to port. … But the limits of justice are steadfast; it is that which a man repeats from his father.

            25. If you are powerful, make yourself to be honored for knowledge and for gentleness. … Exalt not your heart, that it not be brought low. Be not silent, but beware of interruption and of answering words with heat. Put it far from you; control yourself. The wrathful heart speaks fiery words; it darts out at the man of peace that approaches, stopping his path. One that reckons accounts all the day passes not a happy moment. One that gladdens his heart all the day provides not for his house. The bowman hits the mark, as the steersman reaches land, by diversity of aim. He that obeys his heart shall command.

            34. Let your face be bright what time you live. That which goes into the storehouse must come out therefrom; and bread is to be shared. … It is a man’s kindly acts that are remembered of him in the years after his life.

            D. If now you attain your position, the body shall flourish, the King shall be content in all that you do, and you shall gather years of life not fewer than I have passed upon Earth. I have gathered even 110 years of life, for the King has bestowed upon me favors more than upon my forefathers; this is because I wrought truth and justice for the King unto my old age. It is finished, from its beginning to its end, even as found in writing.

You can read the complete text of Ptah-Hotep’s Maxims of Good Discourse in Brian Brown’s classic 1923 book, The Wisdom of the Egyptians, at http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/woe.

Until next time –

Rob