Page 281 - Encyclopedia Of World History

egypt, ancient 631

Selection from Adoration of the Nile,
an Ancient Egyptian Prayer

Praise to you, O Nile, that issues from the Earth, and Your young people and your children shout for joy
comes to nourish Egypt... over you, and the people hail you as king.

That waters the meadows, he whom Re has created Your laws are unchanging . . .
to nourish all cattle.That gives drink to the desert People drink your water.
places...
You come in flood, giving water to the fields to drink
Beloved of Geb (the Earth-god), director of the and making the people strong.
grain-god...
Musicians play to you on the harp, and singers sing
That makes barley and creates wheat, so that he may to you, keeping time with their hands...
cause the temples to keep festivals.
When you flood, O Nile, offerings are made to you,
If his flood is low, breath fails, and all people are cattle are slaughtered for you, a great oblation is
impoverished; the offerings to the gods are dimin- made for you.
ished, and millions of people perish.
Birds are fattened for you, antelopes are hunted for
The whole land is in terror and great and small you in the desert...
lament...
Offering is made to every god, even as is done for
When he rises, the land is in exultation and every- the Nile, with incense, oxen, cattle, and birds
body is in joy. upon the flame...

All mouths begin to laugh and every tooth is He makes green the two riverbanks.
revealed.
You are verdant, O Nile, you are verdant.
It is he that brings victuals and is rich in food, that
He makes folk live on their cattle, and their cattle on
creates all that is good...
the meadow.
He gives herbage for the cattle that are sacrificed to
You are verdant, you are verdant, O Nile, you are
every god...
verdant.
He fills the storehouses, and makes wide the grana-
Source: Erman, A. (1971). Life in Ancient Egypt. (Modernized and abridged by J. D.
ries; he gives things to the poor. Hughes). New York: Dover. (Original work published 1894)
He makes trees to grow. . . and people have no lack
of them . . .

Hyksos control was brought to an end during the during the brief reign of Akhenaton and began a slow
New Kingdom, a period that also witnessed the recon- but inexorable decline thereafter. While the wisdom of
ceptualization of the pharaoh’s political role (he was so designating the reign of a pharaoh considered eccen-
now seen as a warrior and national savior), the religious tric at best by his successors might be questioned, the
reforms of the pharaoh Akhenaton (reigned 1379–1362 fact remains that from the Third Intermediate period
BCE), and the highly successful reigns of Ramses II onward, the extent of Egyptian political hegemony in the
(reigned 1304–1237), Merneptah (reigned 1236–1223 Nile valley and beyond was severely constricted. The
BCE), and Ramses III (reigned 1198–1166 BCE). Ram- land of the pharaohs was eventually subsumed (c. 342–
ses III’s victory over the Sea Peoples (c. 1177 BCE) 332 BCE) into the Persian empire and then made part of
spared Egypt the ignominious fate suffered by its neigh- the imperial holdings first of the Macedonians and then
bors in Syria and Anatolia to the north. Some are of the of the Ptolemies before being brought under the control
opinion that Egyptian civilization reached its zenith of Rome.