Historical Fictionistas discussion

62 views
Recommendations? > Help me find this quote!

Comments Showing 1-7 of 7 (7 new)    post a comment »
dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Libbie Hawker (new)

Libbie Hawker (L.M. Ironside) (lmironside) | 210 comments I guess this is kind of a request for a recommendation...? I wasn't sure where else to put this request.

Anyway...I'm trying to find this old quote from an ancient Egyptian lesson for scribes-in-training. It tells why it's so much more awesome to be a writer than to choose any other occupation. I used to have it saved on my cloud drive, but it seems I've deleted it by mistake, and Google is not helping me.

I figured some other history nut out there might have saved it somewhere. Does anybody know what I'm talking about? It goes something like, "Be a writer. Don't be a farmer or a merchant or somebody who has to work hard. A writer just sits around all day having fun, and the world can't function without him." Obviously I paraphrase broadly, but that's the general idea of it.


message 2: by Becky, Moddess (new)

Becky (beckyofthe19and9) | 3034 comments Mod
http://wordinfo.info/unit/2654/ip:14/...
May not be what you're looking for (and more of an anecdote than anything) but I thought it was close:
One high-ranking Egyptian official advised his son to “love letters” for through their knowledge “you may protect yourself from hard labor of any kind, and be a magistrate of high repute.”

Here's the full text on Google books search. Found in Lifelines from Our Past: A New World History By L. S. Stavrianos



message 3: by Iset (last edited Jun 11, 2015 09:14AM) (new)

Iset | 24 comments It's from the Papyrus Lansing, written by a man named Nebmarenakht, a scribe advising his apprentice to learn his letters well. Dates to the reign of Senusret III.

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~afutrell/w%...


message 4: by Becky, Moddess (new)

Becky (beckyofthe19and9) | 3034 comments Mod
Iset wrote: "It's from the Papyrus Lansing, written by a man named Nebmarenakht, a scribe advising his apprentice to learn his letters well. Dates to the reign of Senusret III."

This? http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classic...


message 5: by Becky, Moddess (new)

Becky (beckyofthe19and9) | 3034 comments Mod
Oh, I see you added a link. Thanks, Iset. :)


message 6: by Libbie Hawker (new)

Libbie Hawker (L.M. Ironside) (lmironside) | 210 comments That's the one! Thanks, Iset! (And Tracey, who messaged me with it.)

And thanks for your link, too, Becky. That's a good one as well!


message 7: by Laura (new)

Laura Gill | 116 comments Gah! I knew the papyrus you were talking about--Barbara Mertz mentions it--but didn't know the name. Thanks from me, too.


back to top