Unknown Unknown

Also sometimes referred to as The Tales from the Westcar Papyrus, this papyrus is a collection of five Egyptian stories. Four survive, the first missing. The second is "The Wax Crocodile", the third "The Story of the Green Jewel", the forth "Djedi the Magician", and the fifth "The Birth of the Royal Children". The second is about a creative method to pay the price of adultery, the third is frivolous and about retrieving a jewel from a lake, the fourth is about snapping off heads and kind of dreary, and the fifth is generically about the sacred birth of future kings. The transliterations are easy to read, erasing a common barrier that makes it hard to like ancient stories. Other than the stereotypical last story, I moderately liked all of them.… (plus d'informations)

Got lost in this one. I suppose I was thinking about The Prince of Egypt when Sinuhe runs away and becomes successful in a new region with new people. Like the movie, this is only the first half of the story. Then he returns. Why? More like how. He gets invited to return, and maybe his success eventually alerted the Egyptians that their missing aristocrat was in Syria, but it seems random, especially with the degree of praise and service from the Pharaoh's children he receives for the rest of his life and afterlife. He got the fancy funeral he wanted. The second half read choppy and sometimes I thought maybe he was fantasizing rather than actually returning, and that he died in Syria. Apparently not. I mildly liked the first half of the story and didn't care for the second half.… (plus d'informations)

The Kesh Temple Hymn is the sister oldest surviving piece of literature along side The Instructions of Shuruppak, prompting my read. While the latter is a list primarily community ethics, the former embraces Sumerian religion.

I find the Hymn interesting in of itself: a passage through time and a challenge to decipher. I'm terrible at interpreting poetry and other highly symbolic language, but I like to try. Articles online suggest the text details Sumerian creation myths. I wouldn't be surprised. One deity is associated with the ocean and one with the sky. They are connected by a towering form I wasn't sure if it was meant to resemble a tree or a man-made tower. However, there was emphasis on a woman who birthed a hero, and who could be better? Nature symbolism and a humanly mother are such mainstays in creation mythology I find myself pondering other religions half the age of this text. It's amazing how far back these entwined stories go--at least 4,600 years, as of The Kesh Temple Hymn.

Even though the language is nothing special, it's moderately poetic. The passage has eight sections, and the ending to each section varies and stems from the first:

"Will anyone else bring forth something as great as Kec? Will any other mother ever give birth to someone as great as its hero Acgi? Who has ever seen anyone as great as its lady Nintud?"

Considering how drab or confusing historical texts can be, I find this read to be an enlightening experience overall. The intellectual satisfaction of reading something so old and the flowing language offsets my lack of understanding the metaphors.… (plus d'informations)