"Harper's Songs" are Ancient Egyptian texts that originated in tomb inscriptions of the Middle Kingdom (but found on papyrus texts until the Papyrus Harris 500 of the New Kingdom) which in the main praise life after death and were often used in funerary contexts. These songs display varying degrees of hope in an afterlife that range from the skeptical through to the more traditional expressions of confidence.[3] These texts are accompanied by drawings of blind harpists and are therefore thought to have been sung.[4] Thematically they have been compared with The Immortality of Writers in their expression of rational skepticism.[5]
A song from the tomb of King Intef suggests a person should enjoy the good things in life, avoid contemplation of death and expresses doubt about the reality of an afterlife.
Make holiday, don't weary of it ! Look there is no one allowed to take their things with them, and there is no one who goes away comes back again.[4]
In the case of the priest Neferhotep the three Harper's songs found in his tomb display a full range of viewpoints. In one the sceptical position is blended with the more conventional expressions of hope, the second rejects skepticism, whilst the third is a ritualistic affirmation in life after death.[3]
I have heard those songs that are in the ancient tombs,
And what they tell
Extolling life on earth and belittling the region of the dead.
Wherefore do they thus, concerning the land of eternity,
The just and the fair,
Which has no terrors?
Wrangling is its abhorrence; no man there girds himself against his fellow.
It is a land against which none can rebel.
All our kinsfolk rest within it, since the ealiest day of time;
The offspring of millions are come hither, every one.
For none may tarry in the land of Egypt,
None there is who has not passed yonder.
The span of earthly things is as a dream;
But a fair welcome is given him who has reached the West.[6]Notes
- ^ "Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs", James P. Allen, p343, Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 0521774837
- ^ "The history of special education", Margret A. Winzer", p. 463, Gallaudet University Press, 1993, ISBN 1563680181
- ^ a b "Ancient Egyptian Literature", Miriam Lichtheim, p115, University of California, 1976, ISBN 0-520-03615-8
- ^ a b "Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs", James P. Allen, p343, Cambridge University Press, 2000, ISBN 0521774837
- ^ Lichtheim p. 175-178
- ^ "Temples, Tombs and Hieroglyphs", Barbara Mertz, translation by Alan H. Gardiner,p. 117, BCA edition 1978, org pub 1964