� 2001-2006 by Shiloh
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blahWriting is so capricious. Sometimes (like recently) finding the right words to express your thoughts and emotions is like pulling a well-rooted tooth, or trying to make sense out of a foreign language you've never studied before. ("It's all Greek to me!") Other times, like in this entry, words flow forth effortlessly, welling up continuously as if from a fountain that will never go dry.
I would love to partake of that fountain again--if only my personal Muse would get her tuccus back from wherever she's parked it to help lead me in the right direction, for I'm horrible with lattitude and longitude. (Just ask Heather.)
But I'm getting off-track. In my "Essays on Love" series--yes, I'm picking it back up--I last left us circa 3200 B.C.E. in Sumer. It was the beginning of the written word, therefore naturally, the records, hymns, prayers and poems and anything else recorded on clay slabs for posterity which were deemed important had oral tradition undertones--formal and repetitive language.
By 1160 B.C.E., approximately the time of Ancient Egypt's New Kingdom, the written word or I should say love poems and songs, though still formal and repetitious in their language, no longer only reflected a people's belief it was the conduits and fulfillers of its gods and goddesses' deeds. And it (the act of expressing oneself in writing) wasn't restricted to just royalty and nobility and their scribes anymore. As the types of records became more numerous, the written word began to appear amongst the middle and lower classes. The love poems and songs from this civilization--which is known for its respect for and strong belief in the After Life--now revealed a new aspect. The Ancient Egyptians had a passion, a zest for life. Below is an exerpt from a love poem found on the tomb of Inherkhawy, a supervisor of workers at the royal burial ground in the ancient city of Thebes:
The Harper's Song for InherkhawyCan't you feel how vibrantly, how full of zest this person was for life?
"So seize the day! Hold holiday!
Be unwearied, unceasing, alive
����you and your own true love;
Let not the heart be troubled during
����your sojourn on Earth,
����but seize the day as it passes!"Translated by J.L. Foster
Archaeologists have found most of Ancient Egypt's love poetry in Deir el-Medina, a village of tomb builders. These workers and skilled artisans worked on the tombs of a couple or of several pharaohs found in the Valley of the Kings. Their findings also indicate a couple more things about the Ancient Egyptians.
As I continue with or pick up my interest in love songs and poetry once again, I'm finding they reveal more about peoples and their views on life than I first thought. When I first began this endeavor I thought I would learn about love through the ages and how different cultures regarded this particular emotion. But instead I'm learning that, even though I've only done two cultures and eras thus far, love hasn't changed much in 5000 or years. I'm glad I started this and have reactivated the series.
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