Popular Stories of Ancient Egypt [Paperback]

The tales of ancient Egypt have for centuries delighted and spurred the imagination of anyone who loves a good story, yet sadly, many of these tales have fallen into obscurity over the years. Now these stories have been brought back to life for a new generation of readers.

When first published in 1882, the folktales collected inPopular Stories of Ancient Egyptcomprised the first anthology of ancient Egyptian narratives ever to be compiled into book form. The culmination of a life's work by Gaston Maspero, a towering figure of nineteenth-century Egyptology, it presented a wealth of information on Egyptian culture, language, history, and society. Since its publication, additional texts have been discovered, deciphered, or translated into modern languages. The present collection is made up of twenty-four tales gleaned from countless ancient written sources, and from a variety of historical periods. It contains some of the most ancient folktales in existence, such asThe Tale of the Two Brothers, thought to be the oldest in the world. Other stories includeKing Khufui and the Magicians,The Lamentations of the Fellah,The Shipwrecked Sailor,TheAdventure of Satni-Khamois with the Mummies,The Doomed Prince, andThe Story of Rhampsinitus. This edition contains a new Foreword that introduces Maspero and describes his work, and provides for the first time extensive identifications of the ancient stories in terms of international tale-types and motifs.

Certain to be of interest to folklorists, this classic collection will also amuse parents, students, storytellers, and anyone who enjoys authentic folk wisdom.

These stories from Gaston Maspero's classic volume...are accompanied by extensive footnotes that detail social expectations and patterns of behavior in ancient Egyptian society, making the texts comprehensible to modern readers.... Included are important discussions of backgl3Ê