Lament of Ipuwer

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The Lament of Ipuwer (also, Lament of Ipuur) is an ancient Egyptian text.

The Lament of Ipuwer is preserved in a single Ramesside period scribal copy, namely Papyrus Leiden I, 344, although is dated to the late Middle Kingdom period by virtue of its Middle Egyptian grammar and vocabulary, the name of "Ipuwer" and reference to such institutions as the ḫnrt wr (or "main enclosure") which are unattested beyond that period. The text is incomplete at both its beginning and its end.

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Content and Themes

Addressing the "Lord to the Limit", an Egyptian man named Ipuwer laments the dire condition of the land of Egypt, the victim both of social disorder and class upheaval, and of foreign incursion.

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Significance

Historians of the period initially interpreted the Lament as a direct reflection of circumstances in Egypt at the start of the First Intermediate Period.

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Bibliography

  • Gardiner, Alan H., The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage, from a Hieratic Papyrus in Leiden, Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1909.

Lichtheim, AEL, 1:149-163; Erman, AEPP, 92-108; Breasted, Dawn, 193-200; R. O. Faulkner, "The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage," LAE, 210-229; John A. Wilson, "The Admonitions of Ipu-Wer," ANET, 441-444; Parkinson, TSAEP, 166-199; Nili Shupak, "The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage: The Admonitions of Ipuwer," COS 1:93-98;

  • Faulkner, R. O. [1964], "Notes on 'The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage'", JEA 50 (1964), pp.24-36
    • [1965], "The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage," JEA 51 (1965), 53-62.
  • Fecht, Gerhard [1972], Der Vorwurf an Gott in den 'Mahnworten des Ipu-wer' , Heidelberg: Carl Winter, Universitätsverlag, 1972 - offers a metrical anaylsis and German-language commentary on various portions of the text
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