Amenemope (author)

Amenemope, son of Kanacht was probably an ancient Egyptian high official of the 19th Dynasty ( New Kingdom ). What little information on his identity and his private life come from his famous book "How to be a good person." His identity and existence are questioned by various researchers and pulled even in doubt.

The teachings of Amenemope

Amenemope became famous for his work " How to become a good person ," which has been preserved in demotic writing on the papyrus British Museum (BM ) and 10474 of the contemporary copies exist on other papyri, on writing boards and various ostraca. The papyrus is now in the British Museum of London, the transcripts are now each in Stockholm, Turin, Paris and Moscow.

The teachings of Amenemope addressed to his youngest son, Hor -em- ma'a - Cheru ( " Horus is confirmed " ), who was appointed in Panopolis a priest of Min, and now senior titles such as " pourers of libations of the Min- Kamutef "and" overseer leads on the terrace of Min " on the black cattle.

In just 30 chapters, which are unusually divided by numbers (instead of by Rubra ), Amenemope teaches his son how he had to live and act, so that " good person above all others" will. The lessons are characterized by profundity, subtlety and moral and include upscale metaphors that are today sometimes difficult to understand. Among other Amenemope advises in Chapter 4 to not cheat fellow men, compared with not arrogant perform them and / or to discriminate against them. Not " Laugh at the blind and not mock a dwarf: In Chapter 25 he also encourages more, not to tease the crippled, the blind and Minderwüchsige and / or to laugh at mentally handicapped people and to encourage fellow for tolerance! Not more difficult that being a cripple! Taunt not the man who (mentally handicapped) in the hand of God is ". This revealed in the teachings of Amenemope social and societal value positions that perhaps were not, of course, for its time. The teachings of Amenemope are today regarded as a masterpiece of the written prose and philosophy.

Questions about the person

According to contemporary documents Amenemope was a senior administration official. He describes himself as " overseer of the crop ", " food administrator ", " Justified in Ta - Who " and " justified in Ipu ". He was married according to own data with a lady named Tausert. This was " Sistrumspielerin of Shu and Tefnut the " and " Vorsingerin of Horus ". He seems to have had several sons, because he called Hor -em- ma'a - Cheru as his " youngest son ".

In the course of research to Amenemope person was repeatedly raised the question of whether he really existed or whether his name is a pseudonym for one or more authors was that could not divulge their identity, wanted or allowed. Background of the assumption is already the mention of an author in an ancient Egyptian written work. Usually literary works were anonymous, so that today no conclusions can be closed to any authorship in most cases. An illustrative example of anonymous works is the Papyrus Westcar (probably 13th dynasty ), although it contains fine literature, the author has not signed. Encouraged, the presumption of fictitious identity of Amenemope among other things by the fact that " Amenemope " was a very common name in the New Kingdom and not noticed. Also the name of Amenemope alleged father, Kanacht ( " strong bull" ) was very common. In addition, the Unauffindbarbleiben comes from Amenemope grave system. According to the papyrus is Amenemope in Senut, the necropolis of Panopolis, have been buried, but to date, no grave could be identified belonging to an owner named " Amenemope, son of Kanacht ".