Love in Ancient Egypt

By Pietro Testa

The ancient Egyptian had feelings similar to ours: hatred, love, piety, contempt, friendship, benevolence, envy, cruelty, social climbing, humility ... The concept of maat, social balance, material justice and morality which, according to indigenous sources, regulated the social gear, whose highest representative was the king, heir to the land of the gods, a good shepherd who took care of his flock, feeding and defending it.
The young Egyptians loved. Love, this unfathomable and profound feeling, was in their soul and was manifested in marriage, in the family and in the attention for the children and for the wife. The spouses loved to call themselves 'brother' and 'sister', because for the Egyptians the feeling for brotherhood was highly regarded ... and then, when you get older, your partner can be considered a brother / sister, having lived an arch of life together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harmakis Edizioni
• Release date: May 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9788831427234

Book preview

PIETRO TESTA

LOVE IN ANCIENT EGYPT

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The facts and opinions reported in this book only bind the author.

Various information may be published in the Work, however in the public domain, unless otherwise specified.

ISBN: 9788831427234

© 2020

© Layout and graphic elaboration: Leonardo Paolo Lovari

For those who left silently

towards the starry spaces of the infinite cosmos.

Preface

When we talk about ancient Egypt, we generally think of the pyramids, gods and mummies, losing sight of the most important element of this culture: the human being.

The ancient Egyptian lived in a society and a civilization defined by his way of being. A civilization that lasted over three thousand years, based on an organized system that led the country to be a focal point in the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean.

The ancient Egyptian had feelings similar to ours: hatred, love, piety, contempt, friendship, benevolence, envy, cruelty, social climbing, humility ... The concept of maat, social balance, material justice and morality which, according to indigenous sources, regulated the social gear, whose highest representative was the king, heir to the land of the gods, a good shepherd who took care of his flock, feeding and defending it.

The young Egyptians loved. Love, this unfathomable and profound feeling, was in their soul and was manifested in marriage, in the family and in the attention for the children and for the wife. The spouses loved to call themselves ‘brother’ and ‘sister’, because for the Egyptians the feeling for brotherhood was highly regarded ... and then, when you get older, your partner can be considered a brother / sister, having lived an arch of life together.

In this booklet I present the ‘love poems’ of ancient Egypt, tender and delicate compositions that express the feelings of lovers in relation to the ancient mental and material context. An attempt was made to translate these documents as closely as possible to their originality, by referring the reader wishing to study the hieroglyphic text in the appendix executed with the JSesh software by S. Rosmorduc Quando si parla dell’antico Egitto, in genere si pensa alle piramidi, agli dei e alle mummie, perdendo di vista l’elemento più importante di questa cultura: l’essere umano.

c.

Pietro