The Social Relationships of Ancient Egyptians
As the time changes, the way people interact with each other changes dramatically. While at one time relationships between men were considered the most important, now relationships between a man and a woman are the most important. Another thing that influences relationships is a culture. For example, in one culture, a man might cherish his relationship with his parents, while in another culture he might cherish his relationship with his friends. This last point, however, can also be due to the free thinking world we live in today. Life was not that limitless at the time the Ancient Egyptians inhabited the earth. Upon closer examination of The Literature of Ancient Egypt, I noticed that the most important, divine, and loyal relationship that an Egyptian could have had was with his pharaoh.
While reading the text, it soon became clear to me that most of the sources were written by rulers or people that worked for the rulers, and only talked about how strong and mighty the ruler was. So, I started to worry that finding a source that shows the true relationship between a man and his pharaoh might be impossible. However, soon I found some sources that were literary advices written by a father to a son, and in it I saw that most advices given tended to highlight the fact that the relationship with a pharaoh must be the most important relationship a person can have (excluding gods) in Ancient Egypt. The first example that saw of such an advice was in The Loyalist Instruction from the Sehetepibre Stela, where the author makes this point very clear to us. In this stela one of the advices a father gives to his son is “[The king] gives nourishment to those in his circle, and he feeds the one who adheres to / his path” (Sehetepibre Stela, 173). This quote shows that the Ancient Egyptians thought of their ruler as the sole reason the Egyptians were thriving. If one father has given such an advice to a son, then many more would have done the same, since their opinion was
While reading the text, it soon became clear to me that most of the sources were written by rulers or people that worked for the rulers, and only talked about how strong and mighty the ruler was. So, I started to worry that finding a source that shows the true relationship between a man and his pharaoh might be impossible. However, soon I found some sources that were literary advices written by a father to a son, and in it I saw that most advices given tended to highlight the fact that the relationship with a pharaoh must be the most important relationship a person can have (excluding gods) in Ancient Egypt. The first example that saw of such an advice was in The Loyalist Instruction from the Sehetepibre Stela, where the author makes this point very clear to us. In this stela one of the advices a father gives to his son is “[The king] gives nourishment to those in his circle, and he feeds the one who adheres to / his path” (Sehetepibre Stela, 173). This quote shows that the Ancient Egyptians thought of their ruler as the sole reason the Egyptians were thriving. If one father has given such an advice to a son, then many more would have done the same, since their opinion was