Autobiographical inscriptions

As Pascal Vernus emphasizes, the same ethical norms permeate autobiographical inscriptions, attested for a longer time span, from mid-third millennium to the Roman Period (Vernus 2001, 22-23). Inscribed in offering chapels and on temple monuments, the ancient Egyptian autobiography projects an idealized image of the person, written in the first person (Lichtheim 1988). As there are no direct sources for circumstances of composition and commissioning, many Egyptologists prefer to call these biographies, or to use other terms such as ego-history, to avoid the issue of unknowable authorship. The contents provide either events in a life history, often slanted toward contact with kingship and the divine, or assertions of conformity to ethical social ideals. Early examples emphasize a core series of good deeds, as in an offering-chapel inscription for one first minister, highest official in the administration, Neferseshemra Sheshi (about 2300 Bc, Saqqara; cf. Lichtheim 1988, 6):

I have gone out from my city, I have come down from my district.

I have done Right in respect of myself, for her lord,

I have made him content with what he does love.

I have spoken Right, I have done Right, I have spoken well, I have done well.

I have seized the good moment; love of me is there among people.

I judged two companions so that both were content.

I rescued the weak from the more powerful when I had authority in the case.

I gave bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked,

Ferrying to the boatless, burial to the man without a son.

I acted as the ferry for the man without a ferry.

I respected my father, pleased my mother, and nurtured their children.

In an inscription on an offering-chapel stela from the reign of Senusret I (about 1925 Bc), the self-history of Mentuhotep, governor of Armant, mingles assertions of appropriate character and obedience to the king, with record of his own decisive actions as governor, in general adherence to the same principles found in the teachings (Beylage 2003):

I am steadfast and obedient, one to whom his lord gives his love.

I am a great one of the privy chamber, attentive,

Free from trembling, not disrespectful towards a powerful man.

I am one who rears the child, who buries the old and any pauper.

I give bread to the hungry and clothing to the naked.

I am a son of Nepri (grain-god), a husband of Tayt (cloth goddess), one for whom Sekhat-Hor (milk goddess) creates cattle, a possessor of riches, with all manner of precious stones, birthing-brick of Khnum, the maker of people,

When a low flood occurred during the twenty-fifth year,

I did not let my district starve, I gave it Upper Egyptian grain and emmer. I did not let misery come to pass in it, until high floods came.

I nourished the children with my donations, I anointed the widows.

There was not a commoner miserable in my time.

I strove to cause that I was beloved, so that my name might be good and that I might be vindicated in the necropolis.

I taught my children, to speak in contentment, kindness,

Not to fight with a youth - no superior who is arrogant is beloved.

I am one well-disposed to him who would tell his troubles, and to him who would pour out his heart.

I hear his case, I remove his misery,

(for) a man should be placed according to what is right for him.

Furthermore, I am silent when (my) wish is thwarted.

I bowed to everyone, without hiding my face from the starving; the helping hand is what is beloved, for people are one stock.

I had no conflict with agent or sealer of my estate,

Saying, on the contrary: let your heart agree,

Do not block a petitioner until he has said what he has come for.

Report is made to me of the condition of commoners, and of widows and orphans likewise.

I acted for them all, to give breath to one fallen into misery.

The good character of a man is more to him than a thousand arms in action. The saying of men is heard as that phrase which is on the mouths of the great: The monument of a man is his goodness; forgotten is who is evil of character.

If it comes to pass as has been said, my name will be good and endure in my town, and my monument will never perish.