Egyptian religious poetry

INTRODUCTION 55

Egyptian religious poetry is almost entirely anonymous ; only here and there are the names of the authors given. Akhenaten was possibly the writer of the great hymn to the Sun, but there is no actual evidence to that effect. Haremheb seems to have been the real author of the hymn to Thoth (p. 99), but he was a trained writer in his youth before he entered the Court of Akhenaten, and was therefore qualified to write poetry. Pentaur, the author of the poem on the exploits of Rameses II at the battle of Kadesh, appears to have been a professional poet attached to the Court. It is possible that there was an official poet at the Court of every Pharaoh, whose duty it was to hymn the praises of his royal and divine master. The little poems to Amon (p. 90) were by a scribe called Neb-Ré (“Ré is the Lord”). What little evidence there is points to the scribes as the actual authors of all Egyptian poetry, with the exception of the folk-songs, which were transmitted orally. Priests, who were also scribes, may have been responsible for some of the religious poetry ; but, seeing how important scribes always are in an illiterate community, it seems probable that the scribes were the authors of the whole body of the religious poetry of Egypt.