Ancient Egypt: Difference between revisions

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'''Important note:''' Names of Ancient Egyptian places are most often ''not'' what they were called in Ancient Egyptian. Most of the placenames in English are actually Greek, as the Greeks seem to have had a collective case of Egyptomania (seriously, the Pharaoh gave the Greeks ''the entire city of Naucratis'', there were so many of them) and wrote incessantly about it ([[The Histories|Herodotus]] in particular was a big fan). On the other hand, personal names tend to be modern guesses at the actual Egyptian -- a somewhat problematic endeavor, as Egyptian writing leaves out even more vowels than modern Arabic and Hebrew -- although some Greek names persist (e.g. Cheops for Khufu).

# Predynastic period (before 3150 BC): Prehistoric Egypt. Not much is known. Tradition holds that Egypt was divided into small squabbling city-states that gradually merged together into the kingdoms of Upper (southern) and Lower (northern) Egypt, which in turn were united by King Menes sometime around 3150 BC.

# Protodynastic period (much of the 32nd and 31st centuries BC): The first hieroglyphic writing is from this period, but records are very sketchy. Dynasties may or may not have existed.

# Early Dynastic Period (1st and 2nd Dynasties, c. 31st century BC-2686 BC): The capital moves from Abydos in Upper Egypt to Memphis where Upper and Lower Egypt meet (just south of modern [[Cairo]]). Writing develops and becomes more common. New technologies in copper and pottery appear, possibly arriving from the southern Levant (modern Israel/Palestine and Jordan). The state becomes increasingly centralized. [[Foreshadowing|Rich people start building ever-larger tombs]].

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# New Kingdom (18th-20th Dynasties, 1550-1069 BC): The Seventeenth Dynasty having petered out, they were succeeded by the Eighteenth without too much trouble. Finding itself in possession of all kinds of new military tech and a series of young, dynamic rulers, Egypt at this point began to expand, primarily into Canaan. As a result, the New Kingdom is often known as the Egyptian Empire. The world's first recorded peace treaty is from this era, between Egypt and the Hittite Empire. Eventually, however, Egypt's strength was sapped, and the empire retreated into splendid isolation. <br />When most people think of Ancient Egypt (besides pyramids and Cleopatra), ''this'' is what they're thinking about -- especially the Eighteenth Dynasty. Pharaoh from [[The Bible]]? Mostly New Kingdom; the ones mentioned in Exodus are all from the Eighteenth Dynasty, and one of them is probably Ramses II. The crazy king who worshiped the Sun? Akhenaten, Eighteenth Dynasty. King Tut? Akhenaten's son. Hatshepsut? Tut's great-great-great-great aunt.

# Third Intermediate Period (21st-25th Dynasties, 1069-664 BC): Yet another period of division. Several dynasties of foreigners -- chiefly from Libya to the west and Nubia to the south -- rule all or much of Egypt.

# Late Period (26th-31st Dynasties, 664-332 BC): The last gasp of Egypt, with two periods of rule by [[The Persian Empire]] known in Egyptian historiography as the Twenty-Seventh and Thirty-First Dynasties.

In 332 BC, Egypt was conquered by [[Alexander the Great]] and became part of Hellenistic civilization under the Ptolemy dynasty, the last (and arguably most famous) sovereign being Cleopatra VII Philopator. Egypt would be part of various empires until the 19th century, and would not be ruled by someone of Egyptian stock (President Muhammad Naguib) until 1953.

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* [[Guyliner]]: Eyeliner was considered androgynous and both men and women wore it to make their eyes look bigger. And because it was made out of a substance that repelled flies.

** A lot of eye make-up was also needed to reduce the glare from the sun. A group of pyramid workers even organized a strike to get more make-up.

* [[History Marches On]]: Although slavery existed in Ancient Egypt, it is generally accepted by modern historians that its crowning achievement, the Great Pyramid of Giza, was ''not'' built by slave labour, but by the equivalent of paid contractors who were mostly skilled workers (the equivalent, because the pay took the form of food and other supplies, money not having been invented yet).

** It also wasn't built by [[Ancient Astronauts]] -- the plans have been found.

* The [[Mummy]]

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== Literature ==

* In the third book of ''[[The Bartimaeus Trilogy]]'' there are parts set in Ptolemaic Egypt. They're backstory bits of Bartimaeus with his long dead, and much cared for, master...Ptolemy.

* Pretty much anything by Wilbur Smith.

* ''[[The Kane Chronicles]]'' takes place in the present day but has the Egyptian gods.

* The ''[[Vampire Chronicles|Queen of the Damned]]'' novel by [[Anne Rice]] reveals Kemet (Ancient Egypt) to be birthplace (undeathplace?) of the original vampire, Akasha, the titular queen, although Akasha herself is not originally Egyptian. A good chunk of Maharet's story takes place in Kemet or around it.

** She also wrote ''The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned'', in which Ramses the Great and Cleopatra have both been made immortal.

* Features prominently in [[The Bible]]. In ''[[Book of Genesis|Genesis]]'', Joseph ends up there after his brothers sell him to some Egyptian traders. He works his way up from slavery to prime minister. In ''[[Book of Exodus|Exodus]]'', another pharaoh has conquered and enslaved the Israelites, and Moses has to get him to let them go free. Elsewhere, Egypt is referred to, though often as a nation of godless heathens right along with the Canaanites, Assyrians, and other non-Yaweh-worshipping peoples, because of [[Values Dissonance]].

* In ''[[The Red Tent]]'', [[The Protagonist|Dinah]] starts a new life in Egypt with her [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing|mother-in-law]] after her husband is killed by her brothers.

* ''[[Discworld/Pyramids|Pyramids]]'' sends up Ancient Egypt to way past eleven. Terry Pratchett creates a country where building pyramids is all and everything and which is up to 3,000 years behind the rest of the Discworld. It takes a gifted Assassin to bring it all crumbling down.

* ''Imprisoned With the Pharaohs'', by [[H.P. Lovecraft|HP Lovecraft]], is basically Indiana Jones on a bad acid trip.

* ''Death Comes as the End'' by [[Agatha Christie]].

* [[The Histories|Herodotus]] spends a lot of time talking about Egypt in ''[[The Histories]]''.

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== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Prince of Egypt]]'', an animated movie about the story of Exodus.

* ''[[Joseph King of Dreams]]'', a prequel to the Prince of Egypt that tells the story of Joseph from the [[Book of Genesis]].

* ''[[Joseph: King of Dreams]]'', a prequel to the Prince of Egypt that tells the story of Joseph from the [[Book of Genesis]].

* ''Papyrus'', a French/Canadian animated series.

* It's supposedly set in [[Arabian Nights Days]], but ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' has the aforementioned "character makes the Sphinx's nose fall off" gag. The Sphinx would have already been covered over with sand by the medieval period, not still being worked on.