Teachings

Older wisdom literature dominates the surviving material from the Late Period (Jasnow 1999; Verhoeven 1999b; Quack 2003; Altenmuller and Bialy 2009). There are copies of the classical Egyptian Teaching of Amenemhet, the Teaching of Hardedef and the Teaching of Khety, as well as the late Egyptian Teaching of Amenemope and the Teaching of Ani. Most of these copies survive on tablets which indicate that they were used for schooling purposes.

The main addition to the older corpus is the Brooklyn Wisdom Text (sixth century BC; Jasnow 1992; Hoffmann and Quack 2007: 230-8). Like the narrative of King Sisobk and General Merire, this text, written in Hieratic, may grammatically be described as early or proto-Demotic. Structurally it resembles Demotic wisdom literature, but it is unlikely to be much older than the extant manuscript since its introduction mentions king Apries.

The two main wisdom texts of the Graeco-Roman are the Insinger Wisdom Text, named after the owner of the first published version, and the Teachings of Chashe-shonqy (survey of Demotic wisdom literature in Quack 2005a: 94-117). A third substantial wisdom text in Vienna remains to be edited. In addition to these, there are a number of smaller fragments and ostraca, including several unpublished items.

The Insinger Wisdom Text (trs. Lichtheim 1980: 184-217; Hoffmann and Quack 2007: 239-73) is attested in eight copies; the best preserved was apparently found in a tomb at Akhmim (first century bc; Lexa 1926), while six others formed part of the Tebtunis temple library (first-second century ad; Volten 1940; Pezin 1986; Quack i. p. b) and the last derives from Soknopaiou Nesos. The organization of the text in the Insinger manuscript is noteworthy; it is divided into 25 thematic sections, and each section contains a summation of the total number of sentences. Despite this attempt to create a fixed edition, other versions rearrange sections, and the best preserved version from Tebtunis (P. Carlsberg 2) is heavily abbreviated in relation to the Insinger manuscript, although the text is otherwise superior.

The Teachings of Chasheshonqy (translations Simpson 2003: 497-529; Hoffmann and Quack 2007: 273-99) is also attested in a copy from a tomb at Akhmim (first century bc; Glanville 1955; Smith 1980; Thissen 1984) and three others from Tebtunis, one of which formed part of the temple library (second century ad; Ryholt 2000), while two fragments were apparently found in a dump (unpublished, both Ptolemaic; Di Cerbo 2004: 110, 118). According to the introduction, the teachings were composed by the priest Chasheshonqy in order to educate his son after he had been imprisoned for failing to report a conspiracy against the king organized by the chief physician, his childhood friend. The manuscript from the temple library is noteworthy in so far as it contains a longer and more detailed introduction than the Akhmim version. Since it preserves no part of the teachings, and its format would have been unsuitable, it seems to represent a reworking of the introduction into a story in its own right. Other papyri from Saqqara (second century bc; Volten 1955), Magdola in the Fayum (third century bc; Pezin 1982), Thebes (second century ad; Jasnow 1991), Gebelein (second century bc; Smith 1958), and an unprovenanced text in Berlin (unpublished; Zauzich 2000: 28), as well as two ostraca from Deir el-Medina (unpublished; Devauchelle 2003: 52, n. 55) and el-Kab (Ptolemaic; Jasnow 1987: 108), all share sentences with Chasheshonqy. Apart from the el-Kab ostracon, which contains only a single line, it remains uncertain to what extent these texts represent variant editions or compilations of excerpts.