Egypt Facts: Ancient Egyptian Culture

Class Structure

Egyptian Society was divided into distinct classes, so that ordinarily no man could rise higher than the station in which he was born. The priestly and military classes, which included the king, princes, and all men of rank, were far above the others.

The King received the most exalted titles, and his anthority was supposed to come direct from the gods. The courtiers, on approaching him, fell prostrate, rubbing the ground with their noses ; sometimes, by his gracious consent, they were permitted to touch his sacred knee. That he might be kept pure, he was given from childhood only the choicest and most virtuous companions, and no hired servant was allowed to approach his person. His daily conduct was governed by a code of rules laid down in the sacred books, which prescribed not only the hourly order and nature of his occupations, but limited even the kind and quantity of his food. He was never suffered to forget his obligations ; and one of the offices of the High Priest at the daily sacrifice was to remind him of his duties, and, by citing the good works of his ancestors, to impress upon him the nobility of a well-ordered life. After death he was worshiped with the gods.

The Priests were the richest, the most powerful, and the only learned body of the country. They were not limited to sacred offices, and in their caste comprised all the mathematicians, scientists, lawyers, and physicians of the land. Those priests who " excelled in virtue and wisdom " were initiated into the holy mysteries, — a privilege which they shared only with the king and the prince-royal.

Among the priesthood, as in the other classes, there were marked distinctions of rank. The High Priests held the most honorable station. Chief among them was the Prophet, who offered sacrifice and libation in the temple, wearing as his insignia a leopard-skin over his robes. The king himself often performed the duties of this office. The religious observances of the priests were rigid. They had long fasts, bathed twice a day and twice in the night, and every third day were shaven from head to foot, the most devout using water which had been tasted by the sacred Ibis. Beans, pork, fish, onions, and various other articles of diet, were forbidden to them ; and on certain days, when a religious ceremony compelled every Egyptian to eat a fried fish before his door, the priests burned theirs instead. Their dress was of linen : woolen might be used for an outer, but never for an inner garment, nor could it be worn into a temple. The influence of the priests was immense, siuce they not only ruled the living, but were supposed to have power to open and shut the gates of eternal bliss to the dead. They received an ample income from the state, and had one third of the land free of tax, an inheritance which they claimed as a special gift from the goddess Isis.

The Military Class also possessed one third of the land, each soldier's share being about eight acres. The army, which numbered 410,000 men, was well disciplined and thoroughly organized. It comprised archers, spearmen, swordsmen, elubmen, and slingers. Each soldier furnished his own equipments, and held himself in constant readiness for duty. He wore a metal coat of mail and a metal or eloth helmet, and carried a large shield made of ox-hide drawn over a wooden frame. The chariots, of which great use was made in war, were sometimes richly ornamented and inlaid with gold. The king led the army, and was often accompanied by a favorite lion.

Lower Classes. All the free population not belonging to the priesthood or the military was arbitrarily elassified ; each trade or occupation having its own rank in the social scale, and inhabiting a certain quarter in the town, — a custom still observed in Cairo. Scribes and architects, whose profession gave them access to temples and palaces, and who had thus a chance to win royal favor, naturally stood highest. Swine-herds were the most despised of all men ; the Egyptian, like the Hebrew, Mohammedan, and Indian, considering the pig an unelean animal, Swine-herds were forbidden to enter a temple. As the entire land of Egypt was owned by the king, the priests, and- the soldiers, the lower classes could hold no real estate; but they had strongly marked degrees of importance, depending upon the relative rank of the trade to which they were born, and their business success. According to Herodotus, no artisan could engage in any other employment than the one to which he had been brought up. He also tells us that every man was obliged to have some regular means of subsistence, a written declaration of which was deposited periodically with the magistrate. A false account or an unlawful business was punished by
death.

Education

Education was under the control of the priesthood. Great attention was paid to mathematics and to writing, of which the Egyptians were especially fond. Geometry and mensuration were important, as the yearly inundation of the Nile produced constant disputes concerning property boundaries. In music, only those songs appointed by law were tanght, the children being carefully guarded from any of doubtful sentiment. As women were treated with great dignity and respect in Egypt, reigning as queens and serving in the holiest offices of the temple, they probably shared in the advantages of schooling. The common people had little education, except what pertained to their calling. Reading and writing were so difficult as to be considered great accomplishments.

Monuments and Art

Stupendous size and mysterious symbolism characterize all the monuments of this strange people They' built immense pyramids holding closely hidden chambers : gigantic temples 1 whose massive entrances, guarded by great stone statues, were approached by long avenues of colossal sphinxes ; vast temple-courts, areas, and halls in which were forests of carved and painted columns; and lofty obelisks, towers, and sitting statues which still endure, though desert winds and drifting sands have beaten upon them for thousands of years.

Sculpture, Painting, Statuary.

Egyptian granite is so hard that it is cut with difficulty by the best steel tools of to-day ; yet the ancient sculptures are sometimes graven to the depth of several inches, and show an exquisite iinish and accuracy of detail. Painting was usually combined with sculpture, the natural hue of the objects represented being crudely imitated. Blue, red, green, black, yellow, and white were the principal colors. Red, which typified the sun, and blue, the color of the sky reflected in the Nile, were sacred tints. Tombs, which were cut in the solid rock, had no outer ornamentation, but the interior was gayly painted with scenes from every-day life. Sarcophagi and the walls which inclosed temples were covered both inside and outside with scenes or inscriptions.

The painted scenes were sometimes taken from the " Book of the Dead " ; often they were vivid delineations of the royal conquests. The proportion, form, color, and expression of every statue were fixed by laws prescribed by the priests, the effect most sought being that of immovable repose.1 A wooden statue found at Sakkarah, and belonging to one of the earliest dynasties, is remarkable for its fine expression and evident effort at portraiture.

Mode of Drawing, Perspective.

In drawing the human form, the entire body was traced, after which the drapery was added (see cut). Several artists were employed on one picture. The first drew squares of a definite size, upon which he sketched in red an outline of the desired figure ; the next corrected and improved it in black ; the sculptor then followed with his chisel and other tools ; and finally the most important artist of all laid on the prescribed colors. The king was drawn on a much larger scale than his subjects, his dignity being suggested by his colossal size. Gods and goddesses were frequently represented with the head of an animal on a human form. There was no idea of perspective, and the general effect of an Egyptian painted scene was that of grotesque stiffness.

Practical Arts and Inventions.

We have seen how the Egyptians excelled in cutting granite. Steel was perhaps in use as early as the IVth dynasty, as pictures on the Memphite tombs seem to represent butchers sharpening their knives on a bar of that metal. Great skill was shown in alloying, casting, and soldering metals. Some of their bronze implements, though buried for ages, and since exposed to the damp of European climates, are still smooth and bright. They possessed the art of imparting elasticity to bronze or brass, and of overlaying bronze with a rich green by means of acids.

Glass bottles are represented in the earliest sculptures, and the Egyptians had their own secrets in coloring, which the best Venetian glass-makers of to-day are unable to discover. Their glass mosaics were so delicately ornamented that some of the feathers of birds and other details can be made out only with a lens, which would imply that this means of magnifying was used in Egypt. Gems and precious stones were successfully imitated in glass; and Wilkinson says, " The mock pearls found by me in Thebes were so well counterfeited that even now it is difficult with a strong lens to detect the imposition."

Goldsmiths washing and working gold are seen on monuments of the IV"1 dynasty ; and gold and silver wire were woven into cloth and used in embroidery as early as the XIIth dynasty. Gold rings, bracelets, armlets, necklaces, ear-rings, vases, and statues were common in the same age, the cups being often beautifully engraved and studded with precious stones. Objects of art were sometimes made of silver or bronze inlaid with gold, or of baser metals gilded so as to give the effect of solid gold.

Veneering was extensively practiced, and in sculptures over 3300 years old workmen are seen with glue- pot on the fire, fastening the rare woods to the common sycamore and acacia. In cabinet-work Egypt excelled, and house-furniture assumed graceful and elegant forms.

Flax and Cotton were grown, and great perfection was reached in spinning and weaving. Linen eloth of exquisite texture has been found in Memphite tombs, and the strong flax-strings used for fowling-nets were so finely spun that it was said " a man could carry nets enough to surround a whole wood."

Finally, wooden hoes, shovels, forks, and plows, toothed sickles, and drags aided the farmer in his work; the carpenter had his ax, hammer, file, adz, hand - saw, chisel, drill, plane, right angle, ruler, and plummet; the glass-worker and gem -cutter used emery powder, if not a lapidary's wheel ; the potter had his wheel upon which he worked the elay after he had kneaded it with his feet; the public weigher had stamped weights and measures, and delicate scales for balancing the gold and silver rings used as currency; musicians played on pipes, harps, flutes, guitars, lyres, tambourines, and cymbals; while drum and trumpet cheered the soldier in his march. 1 In 1889 several flutes were found in an Egyptian tomb. These instruments, which are over three thousand years old, give the exact sounds of our diatonic scale.