Historical sources on ancient Egyptian society

Extract A

"Concerning Egypt itself I shall extend my remarks to a great length, because there is no country that possesses so many wonders, nor any that has such a number of works which defy description. Not only is the climate different from that of the rest of the world, and the rivers unlike any other rivers, but the people also, in most of their manners and customs, exactly reverse the common practice of mankind. The women attend the markets and trade, while the men sit at home at the loom; and here, while the rest of the world works the woof [horizontal threads] up the warp [vertical threads], the Egyptians work it down; the women likewise carry burthens [loads] upon their shoulders, while the men carry them upon their heads. They eat their food out of doors in the streets, but retire for private purposes to their houses, giving as a reason that what is unseemly [improper], but necessary, ought to be done in secret, but what has nothing unseemly about it, should be done openly. A woman cannot serve the priestly office [job of priest], either for god or goddess, but men are priests to both; sons need not support their parents unless they choose, but daughters must, whether they choose or no." 

Extract B

"They are religious to excess, far beyond any other race of men, and use the following ceremonies:- They drink out of brazen [brass or bronze] cups, which they scour every day: there is no exception to this practice. They wear linen garments, which they are specially careful to have always fresh washed. They practise circumcision for the sake of cleanliness, considering it better to be cleanly than comely [good-looking]. The priests shave their whole body every other day, that no lice or other impure thing may adhere [stick] to them when they are engaged in the service of the gods. Their dress is entirely of linen, and their shoes of the papyrus plant: it is not lawful for them to wear either dress or shoes of any other material. They bathe twice every day in cold water, and twice each night; besides which they observe, so to speak, thousands of ceremonies." 

"Instead of a single priest, each god has the attendance of a college [group], at the head of which is a chief priest; when one of these dies, his son is appointed in his room [in his place]." 

Contextual information:

Herodotus was a Greek historian who lived from around 484 to 425 BCE. He is often called the "Father of History" because he was one of the first writers to record events in a structured and detailed way. He visited Egypt himself and interviewed Egyptian priests, then wrote his observations into Book II of his Histories, making it one of the oldest surviving accounts of ancient Egyptian society written by an outsider. 

Bibliographical reference:

Herodotus. The histories (G. Rawlinson, Trans., 1858; pp. 143–144, 150–151). John Murray. (Original work written ca. 440 BCE). 

Copyright: Public domain. 

Extract A

"And since Egypt as a whole is divided into several parts which in Greek are called nomes [regions/provinces], over each of these a nomarch [regional governor] is appointed who is charged with both the oversight and care of all its affairs. Furthermore, the entire country is divided into three parts, the first of which is held by the order of the priests, which is accorded the greatest veneration [respect] by the inhabitants both because these men have charge of the worship of the gods and because by virtue of their education they bring to bear a higher intelligence than others. With the income from these holdings of land they perform all the sacrifices throughout Egypt, maintain their assistants, and minister to their own needs; for it has always been held that the honours paid to the gods should never be changed, but should ever be performed by the same men and in the same manner, and that those who deliberate [think and decide] on behalf of all should not lack the necessities of life. For, speaking generally, the priests are the first to deliberate upon the most important matters and are always at the king's side, sometimes as his assistants, sometimes to propose measures and give instructions, and they also, by their knowledge of astrology and of divination [predicting the future from signs], forecast future events, and read to the king, out of the record of acts preserved in their sacred books, those which can be of assistance." 

Extract B

"There are three other classes of free citizens, namely, the herdsmen, the husbandmen [farmers], and the artisans [craftspeople]. Now the husbandmen rent on moderate terms the arable [suitable for farming] land held by the king and the priests and the warriors, and spend their entire time in tilling the soil; and since from very infancy they are brought up in connection with the various tasks of farming, they are far more experienced in such matters than the husbandmen of any other nation; for of all mankind they acquire the most exact knowledge of the nature of the soil, the use of water in irrigation, the times of sowing and reaping, and the harvesting of crops in general, some details of which they have learned from the observations of their ancestors and others in the school of their own experience." 

Extract C

"In the education of their sons the priests teach them two kinds of writing, that which is called 'sacred' and that which is used in the more general instruction. Geometry and arithmetic are given special attention. For the river, by changing the face of the country each year in manifold [many different] ways, gives rise to many and varied disputes between neighbours over their boundary lines, and these disputes cannot be easily tested out with any exactness unless a geometer works out the truth scientifically by the application of his experience." 

Extract D

"As to the general mass of the Egyptians, they are instructed from their childhood by their fathers or kinsmen [relatives] in the practices proper to each manner of life as previously described by us; but as for reading and writing, the Egyptians at large give their children only a superficial [shallow, not very deep] instruction in them, and not all do this, but for the most part only those who are engaged in the crafts." 

Extract E

"The Egyptians also made a law, they say, contrary to the general custom of mankind, permitting men to marry their sisters, this being due to the success attained by Isis in this respect; for she had married her brother Osiris, and upon his death, having taken a vow never to marry another man, she both avenged the murder of her husband and reigned all her days over the land with complete respect for the laws, and, in a word, became the cause of more and greater blessings to all men than any other. It is for these reasons, in fact, that it was ordained [officially decided by law] that the queen should have greater power and honour than the king and that among private persons the wife should enjoy authority over her husband, the husbands agreeing in the marriage contract that they will be obedient in all things to their wives." 

Contextual information:

Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who lived in the first century BCE and visited Egypt around 60–57 BCE. He wrote a large history of the world called Library of History, in which Book I focused entirely on Egypt. As a Greek writer, he was interested in how Egyptian customs compared to those of the Greek and Roman world. 

Bibliographical reference:

Diodorus Siculus. Library of history (C. H. Oldfather, Trans., 1933; Vol. I, pp. 45, 261–263, 279–281, 285–287). Harvard University Press. (Original work written ca. 60–30 BCE). 

Copyright: Public domain.

"The king stands out boldly in the foreground, and his tall figure towers over all else. He so completely transcends [goes beyond] his surroundings, that at first sight one may well ask if he does not represent a god rather than a man; and, as a matter of fact, he is a god to his subjects. They call him 'the good god,' 'the great god,' and connect him with Râ [the sun god] through the intervening [in-between] kings, the successors of the gods who ruled the two worlds. His father before him was 'Son of Râ,' as was also his grandfather, and his great-grandfather, and so through all his ancestors, until from 'son of Râ' to 'son of Râ' they at last reached Râ himself." 

Contextual information:

Gaston Maspero (1846–1916) was a French Egyptologist and one of the most important scholars of ancient Egypt in the nineteenth century. He served as Director General of Excavations and Antiquities in Egypt from 1881 to 1886 and again from 1899 to 1914. His multi-volume history of the ancient Near East drew on a large body of Egyptian texts and archaeological findings available to scholars at the time. 

Bibliographical reference:

Maspero, G. (1903). History of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria (M. L. McClure, Trans.; Vol. 2, p. 1). The Grolier Society. 

Copyright: Public domain.