Ancient Egyptian literature

The reading and writing of the main requirements to hold public office in Pharaonic Egypt,where there was a distinct social class of educated scribes do not exceed 1% and this had a high position in the community.

Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from Ancient Egypt's pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. Along with Sumerian literature, it is considered the world's earliest literature.

The majority of literary production from the writings of men, but there were some of the workof women.


Writing appeared in ancient Egypt, whether hieroglyphic or hieratic for the first time at the end of the fourth millennium BC in the late stage of pre-dynastic period.
In the Old Kingdom, including literary works, funerary texts, letters, hymns, poems andbiographies of prominent figures mind their business. And even the Middle Kingdom was not the Egyptian narrative literature has emerged.

There were "an intellectual revolution", as a result of the emergence of literary work, thelayer clerks (who are the elite force in the government and the royal court of Pharaoh, the ruler) and it became the language used in the Middle Kingdom, the language of abandonedduring the era of the modern state, when it was writing in the vernacular, but it has beenused to identify the ancient religious teachings, and has been used until the age ofPtolemaic Egypt.

Literary works and the types of ancient Egyptian literature and themes, and topics.

Classics and popular tales and stories like the story of fictional Sinuhe and farmer Alvsih.And they instilled ethical values​​, moral and necessary feature of social class scribesincluded these stories many commendable virtues of the Egyptians in that period, such aspatriotism or self-reliance

Religious Literature

Such as Pyramid Texts, and even funerary texts that are written on the walls of tombs andsarcophagi texts and the Book of the DeadFound copies of literary texts is a funeral in the royal tombs, may be developed for theentertainment for the dead by reading the stories in the Hereafter, which explains theirinterest in literature and reading.

Eulogizing speeches and dialogues
Letters and messages , poems, songs and hymns and the texts the Hereafter

Memorial inscriptions and inscriptions on the walls of temples and tombs

By the era of the modern state, decorated the memorial inscriptions commemorating thework of important figures the sacred walls of the temples and tombs, which flourished as a case unique in literature.

The development of ancient Egyptian alphabets

Hieroglyphs

Means "the holy inscription,was used in funerary texts since the era of the twelve, and they believe that these texts will guide  the spirit of the deceased the body in the afterlife .
Hieroglyphics of pictorial writing systems such as Chinese writing in its early stages. And is a collection of artistic images of small objects from nature.

Hieratic

Kind of writing Ancient Egyptian written symbols simplified hieroglyphic symbols and whatwas the original hieroglyphic writing is suitable for quick and easy way arose to write a brieffor practical purposes and record keeping is hieratic, where each solution to it, thehieroglyphic symbol of origin.Hieratic used in the literature, informal and private messages and legal documents, poems and tax records and medical texts and matters computational and educational tools andhave had two types. And written from right to left

Demotic

Alphabet is more easy to use emerged in the mid-first millennium BC
People are concerned and a line of daily transactions and can be compared to line patchfor the Arabic language. And written from right to left and recorded by ink brush on paperfrom the papyrus reeds and other ways of blogging.

Coptic alphabet
Which was a version of the Greek alphabet, and in the fourth century AD, the Coptic's language was used to write the Bible and abandoned the hieroglyphics on they thought that it pictures a pagan tradition, and are therefore not valid.

Writing implements and materials
Ancient Egyptian literature  was written on a wide variety of materials, including scrolls of papyrus and linen, plates, limestone, ceramic materials and wood panels and metal andmassive stone monuments and coffins and sarcophagus

Thanks

MR