who petitions to get his goods back through dialogue and a
lament that has a somewhat didactic undertone.
Most of Egyptian literature was anonymous. Th e empha-
sis was not placed on the author, and the texts were identifi ed
by their protagonists. Th e narratives also lacked titles; only
the wisdom texts had titles. Specifi cally in the New Kingdom,
there existed a series of literary texts that praised the scribal
profession. Th e Egyptians held the idea that the tomb could
crumble, but writing was imperishable. Th is idea was prob-
ably reinforced in society by the fact that ancient wisdom was
clearly admired and wisdom literature was cherished. Cer-
tain preserved texts patently declare that the idea of being a
scribe was a virtuous occupation. One such text states, “As
for those scribes and sages from the time which came aft er
the gods—those who would foresee what was to come, which
happened—their names endure for eternity, although they
are gone, although they completed their lifetimes and all their
people are forgotten.... Be a scribe! Put it in your heart, that
your name shall exist like theirs!” Th is text is a eulog y to dead
scribes from Papyrus Chester Beatty IV. Th e ancient Egyp-
tian scribes imagined writing as a means to immortality.
Ancient Egyptian literature was written in either hiero-
glyphic or hieratic (cursive) script. Th ere was also an inter-
mediary stage of cursive hieroglyphs. If hieroglyphic script
corresponds to our modern printing, then hieratic script
corresponds to our writing. Hieroglyphs were inscribed on
stone, plaster, or wood and could be written from left to right,
right to left , or top to bottom. Cursive hieroglyphs usually ap-
pear on wood or papyrus, and hieratic script usually appears
on papyrus or writing boards. Th e Egyptians used papyrus
as their main writing surface. Th is material came from the
papyrus plant, which was grown in the marshy delta region
in the north. Strips were cut from the plant and made into
sheets. Th e papyrus rolls were used over and over again. Some
papyri have various documents on them while others had the
original text erased and then were reused. Th ese are called
“palimpsests.” Scribes used both red and black ink. Th e red
was used for titles and headings, corrections, insertions, and
highlighting.
THE MIDDLE EAST
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Among the world’s earliest civilizations were those of the Near
East, particularly those that arose in and around the mod-
ern-day countries of Iran and Iraq. Th e people who forged
these civilizations thousands of years ago, including the Su-
merians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians, developed
advanced and sophisticated cultures, with cities, libraries,
scientifi c inquiry, legal codes, mathematical systems, trade
and commerce, and religious institutions. Th ey also gave the
world some of its earliest written literature. For this reason,
the ancient Near East, stretching from the eastern shore of
the Mediterranean Sea to the easternmost border of modern-
day Iran, has oft en been called the “Cradle of Civilization.”
Th e most common literary form that survives from an-
cient Mesopotamia is the epic. An epic is a long narrative
poem that chronicles the adventures of a heroic individual.
Th is individual was oft en thought of as partly human and
partly divine, so he was able to serve as a kind of mediator
or link between gods and humankind. Typically, an epic has
many of the characteristics of an adventure story. Historians
as well as literary critics are interested in epics because they
record myths and legends that are important to the culture
from which they arose because of their legendary, religious,
and historical signifi cance.
Like many epics, the epics that emerged from ancient
Mesopotamia were not strictly speaking “written” by one
author as authorship is understood in modern life. Rather,
these epics were compilations of stories and legends that had
been transmitted orally for hundreds of years. Accordingly,
while we sometimes have a colophon, in eff ect, the name of
the scribe who copied a particular text and sometimes a date,
at the end of a text, such names are only those of the learned
scribes involved in the transmission of a given work, not its
original composition. Mesopotamian literature was widely
transmitted in written form wherever the tradition of cunei-
form writing (a wedge-shaped script) was found. Th us, copies
of well-known works also have been found at archaeological
sites in Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon.THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
One of the world’s great epic poems is the Epic of Gilgamesh,
which was written sometime around 2000 b.c.e. Th e Epic of
Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of literature,
and its author, Shin-eqi-unninni, is the oldest writer of litera-
ture whose name is known. To call Shin-eqi-unninni the text’s
“author,” though, is a little misleading, for stories and legends
had been told about Gilgamesh for hundreds of years, and
while the epic is the main Gilgamesh text, other poems and
stories claim to record his deeds. Shin-eqi-unninni was there-
fore as much a compiler as he was an author, for he did not
make up the stories and legends. However, he gave them a form
that remains memorable, and the Epic of Gilgamesh has been
translated into virtually all the world’s major languages. It is
also a common text read in literature courses, especially those
that deal with ancient literature or the development of the epic
form. Its topic is a historical king named Gilgamesh, who ruled
the city of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia and is credited with
building its city wall, probably around 2700 b.c.e.
Th e Epic of Gilgamesh was written on 12 clay tablets in
Sumerian. Th is language has no resemblance to any other
language in the world. Th e version of the epic that survives,
though, is written in Akkadian, a Semitic language that was
related to Arabic and to Hebrew. Akkadian was the language
spoken by the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. Th e
fi rst exemplar of the Epic of Gilgamesh known to Western
scholars was found at Nineveh, near the modern-day Iraqi
city of Mosul, in the ruins of a library amassed by Ashurbani-
pal, king of Assyria from 669 to 633 b.c.e.literature: The Middle East 647