Wisdom and Instruction

Egyptian wisdom literature and instruction texts on speech, justice, humility, silence, and right conduct.

Pages

  • The Instruction of AmenemopeThirty chapters of Egyptian wisdom on silence, justice, and the quiet life — composed by Amenemope son of Kanakht for his youngest son, and preserved on a single papyrus scroll now in the British Museum.
  • The Instruction of PtahhotepThe oldest surviving book of wisdom literature in human history — thirty-seven maxims on justice, humility, and right conduct, composed by the vizier Ptahhotep in the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt. Translated by Battiscombe G. Gunn, 1906.