Ancient Egypt VIII: Ancient Egyptians initiate world literature II

CAIRO – 6 January 2018: Prominent archaeologist and author, Enas el-Shafie, traced the origins of Ancient Egyptian history in a TV interview with Ibrahim Hegazy, aired on state-owned TV on January 1.

El-Shafie introduced evidence to illustrate how world literature was inspired by Ancient Egyptian heritage, including the stories of Snow White and Cinderella, and narrative poems, like the Divine Comedy and the Iliad.

She initiated her talk by stressing the importance of ancient Egyptian manuscripts and how they provide archaeologists with important information about the era.

“Al-Malah El-Taaeh” or “Al-Malah El-Ghareeq” (The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor) is a Middle Kingdom story of an Ancient Egyptian voyage. “It formed the early origins of “Alf Leila Wi Leila” (One Thousand and One Nights)”, according to el-Shafie.

She explained that “One Thousand and One Nights” consists of a series of stories narrated by Scheherazade to her husband, Shahryar, with the aim of reshaping his thoughts.

Shahryar was known for his violence against women, every night he got married to a new woman and then killed her on the same night, so Scheherazade decided to marry Shahryar to set an end to his conflict against women.

El-Shafie explained, “The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor” was narrated by young sailors who wanted to ease the fear of Royal Navy Leader after his failure in one mission assigned by the king. The plot revolves around an Egyptian sailor survived from sinking after the sea threw him on an unknown inhabited island that full of trees, and plants. Shortly after, the hero faces a huge snake who predicts that the sailor will return safely to his homelands.

Its events are very similar to “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe, considered one of the earliest novels written in the English language

Shafie also referred to a highly allegorical and symbolic story named “El Aafreet” (The Ghost). It revolves around a ghost of a military leader appeared to one of the priests, and he complained that his tomb was destroyed and harmed a lot so he asked the priest to reconstruct the tomb with high quality wood, and stones. The tale can be compared with “Aladin” and his genie from the lamp. According to Shafie, the story expresses the relation between the priests and the Egyptian army in 20th Dynasty time.

One of the most interesting surprises in the episode was the relation between “Snow White and Seven Dwarfs” and ancient Egyptian history. Shafie clarified that the choice of number seven is taken from “Isis and Osiris” religious myth. One of the myth chapters is “Isis and the Seven Scorpions” She was protected and helped by seven scorpions while her attempts to survive and hide from Set.

Ancient Egyptian literature also introduced to the humanity the early spiritual journey of the soul to the other side after death, also Ancient Egyptian literature narrated many after life events such as judgment, heaven, punishment etc, which have been intrinsic parts of many religious texts and in turn inspired Dante Alighieri who composed the epic “The Divine Comedy”.