Ancient Egypt [antikvár]

INTRODUCTIONFor many people ancient Egypt is a baffling phenomenon. Certainly it is impressive, with its mighty monuments, its three thousand years of history, and its reputation for vast learning and skill. On the other hand, a culture of now deserted monuments, of aloof statues, of a flat and static art and of gaping mummies never seems to pulse with good red blood. We feel no kinship to the austere King Khafre in the Cairo Museum or to Queen Hatshepsut masquerading as Osiris in the Metro-pohtan Museum. The story of ancient Egypt seems more like a fable than like human history.This is an unfortunate impression created by a people which, in seeking to find eternity, established a static and unchanging form in art and architecture and thereby obscured their little souls. Those little souls were alert, gay, noisy, romantic and artistic. The Egyptians were like their statues, in which the bland stereotype of the eternally youthful and serene noble overlies the individuality of a firm jaw or a hooked nose. One has to excavate the Egyptian from his covering.We who feel so little spiritual relation to the ancient Egyptian still use his things, as we sit on a four-legged chair at a four-legged table, writing with a pen on a piece of paper. Such legacies from Egypt and Babylonia have survived for five thousand years. In these respects we are closer to the ancients than to our children who use posture chairs, tape recorders and punch cards, and to our grandchildren, who may use a 13-month calendar. The pace of our lifetime is so fast that we are discarding a long heritage without much consideration.The Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans weremuch impressed by ancient Egypt, and some of them paid respectful credit to that culture for learning and skill. If we are closer in understanding to the Hebrews, the Greeks and the Romans, we must remember that the Egyptians established the essentials of their culture two thousand years before these later peoples. A grandfather may seem hopeless when confronting a stalled motorcar or cranky television set; yet he may have been highly skilled in dealing with horses and a cranky hand pump. Certainly the Egyptian culture must have had the stability which comes from successful adaptation to environment; otherwise the same expression could not have survived for three thousand years.To us it is a paradox that a tomb, solemnly designed for eternal bliss, should be the setting of lively and gay scenes. Should one carry into the presence of the gods a noisy gang of romping children, a mischievous ape, chattering workmen and a woman guest who has overeaten at a banquet? Should hymns to the gods be loaded with atrocious puns? Should a myth represent the supreme deity as sulking in his arbor because another god challenged his wisdom? These apparent frivolities are as much a part of this gifted people as the stunning accomplishment of the Great Pyramid.It is the great merit of Lionel Casson's treatment that he sees the Egyptians as people who really did live and love and hate and hope and suffer. He presents them honestly as people who possessed no mystic and lost lore, but who achieved great things by honest effort and, in other respects, fell short of greatnessand who are thus understandable to us in our groping days.JOHN A. WILSON Professor of Egyptology, University of Chicago