Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt

by Gaston Maspero, Hasan El-Shamy

Overview

The tales of ancient Egypt have for centuries delighted and spurred the imagination of anyone who loves a good story, yet sadly, many of these tales have fallen into obscurity over the years. Now these stories have been brought back to life for a new generation of readers.

When first published in 1882, the folktales collected in Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt comprised the first anthology of ancient Egyptian narratives ever to be compiled into book form. The culmination of a life's work by Gaston Maspero, a towering figure of nineteenth-century Egyptology, it presented a wealth of information on Egyptian culture, language, history, and society. Since its publication, additional texts have been discovered, deciphered, or translated into modern languages. The present collection is made up of twenty-four tales gleaned from countless ancient written sources, and from a variety of historical periods. It contains some of the most ancient folktales in existence, such as The Tale of the Two Brothers, thought to be the oldest in the world. Other stories include King Khufui and the Magicians, The Lamentations of the Fellah, The Shipwrecked Sailor, The Adventure of Satni-Khamois with the Mummies, The Doomed Prince, and The Story of Rhampsinitus. This edition contains a new Foreword that introduces Maspero and describes his work, and provides for the first time extensive identifications of the ancient stories in terms of international tale-types and motifs.

Certain to be of interest to folklorists, this classic collection will also amuse parents, students, storytellers, and anyone who enjoys authentic folk wisdom.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195173352
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/21/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	1,069,199
Product dimensions:	9.24(w) x 6.08(h) x 1.14(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sir Gaston Maspero (1846-1916) was a leading expert on Egyptian art and the Head of the Antiquities Service in Cairo for twenty years. Hasan El-Shamy is Professor of Folklore at the University of Indiana.

Table of Contents

	Introduction to This Edition with Classification by Tale-Type and Motif	VII
	Preface to English Edition	XCI
	Introduction	XCIII
	Complete Stories
1	The Story of the Two Brothers	1
2	The King Khufui and the Magicians	17
3	The Lamentations of the Fellah	35
4	The Memoirs of Sinuhit	55
5	The Shipwrecked Sailor	81
6	How Thutiyi Took the City of Joppa	89
	The Cycle of Satni-Khamois
7	I. The Adventure of Satni-Khamois with the Mummies	95
8	II. The Veritable History of Satni-Khamois and His Son Senosiris	118
9	III. How Satni-Khamois Triumphed over the Assyrians	137
	The Cycle of Ramses II
10	I. The Daughter of the Prince of Bakhtan and the Possessing Spirit	141
11	II. The Exploits of Sesostris	147
12	III. The Exploits of Osimandyas	150
13	The Doomed Prince	153
14	The Story of Rhampsinitus	163
15	The Voyage of Unamunu to the Coasts of Syria	169
	The Cycle of Petubastis
16	I. The High Emprise for the Cuirass	181
17	II. The High Emprise for the Throne of Amon	201
	Fragments
	Introductory Note	217
18	Fragment of a Fantastic Story, Anterior to the Eighteenth Dynasty	219
19	The Quarrel of Apopi and Saqnunriya	223
20	Fragments of a Ghost Story	229
21	Story of a Mariner	233
22	The Adventure of the Sculptor Petesis and King Nectonabo	239
23	Fragments of the Theban-Coptic Version of the Romance of Alexander	243
24	Epigraph: On Those Who Caused Alexander to Drink the Death Potion	255
	Index of Proper Names	257
	Index of General Subjects	269
	About the Volume Editor	277

Editorial Reviews

"These stories from Gaston Maspero's classic volume...are accompanied by extensive footnotes that detail social expectations and patterns of behavior in ancient Egyptian society, making the texts comprehensible to modern readers.... Included are important discussions of backgrounds, research methodologies, tale types, and motifs. Each story receives its own brief introduction as well, including provenance, dating of manuscripts, thematic and content discussions, and comparison with other tales."—Library Journal

From the Publisher