Alright so I’m a writer. My dream is to write, sell books, maybe run some workshops, and some mentoring. I need constant reminders that anything else is a hobby or an interest or a challenge I’d like to face and not my calling.
So I was thinking and visualizing myself in the future. I was thinking about who I am and who I want to be, I saw myself writing at a table surrounded by huge scrolls. Huge. Like from the ceiling to the floor. When I saw this image, I felt peace, solitude, and familiarity. I find our minds fascinating and I was inspired to see myself writing while also slightly disappointed by not being surrounded by piles of money.
But it got me thinking about how writers were treated much differently in ancient Egypt. They were called scribes back then and did hieroglyphs. So of course I had to do some looking into the scribe life. Here’s a few tidbits I found on Historytoday.com:
“The text known as the Satire of the Trades dates to the Middle Kingdom, the Golden Age of Egyptian literature, between 2025 and 1700 BC. It belongs to a genre known as ‘Wisdom Texts’, supposed collections of the experiences of learned and influential men to be shared with following generations as advice on behaviour, deportment and career advancement. In the Ramesside era (1300-1075 BC), the Satire of the Trades was one of the texts most frequently copied by student scribes. It compares a scribe’s work with that of other trades and crafts in an attempt to persuade the student that education will make him better off than anyone else. The introduction, supposedly written by a father for his son, reads:
I have seen many beatings – set your heart on books! I have watched those conscripted for labour – there is nothing better than books! It [scribedom] is the greatest of all callings, there is none like it in all the land.
https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/scribe-egyptian
There’s more. But I’ve lost track of time so I’ll have to continue this post for tomorrow.
Stay tuned more on Egyptian Scribes to come.
Jayne.press 