Prophecy of Neferti

The Prophecy of Neferti is one of the few surviving literary texts from ancient Egypt. The story is set in the Old Kingdom, under the reign of King Snefru. However, the text should be attributed to an individual named Neferyt, who most likely composed it at the beginning of the Twelfth Dynasty. The nature of the literary text is argued upon. There are a number of different theories stating that the literature is a historical romance in pseudo-prophetic form, political literature, religious motivation as well as a literary text created to change and improve the situation in Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty.

The Prophecies of Neferti is set in the fictional court of King Snefru (c.2575-2551), who ruled Egypt during the Fourth Dynasty. The sage Neferti is summoned to the court so that he can entertain the King with fine speeches. He is asked to speak of the future rather than the past, the sage prophesies the downfall of the Egyptian nation by civil war; Leading to the eventual atonement of the nation through the rise of a great king. According to Neferti this king, “Ameny”, will redeem the chaos, banish enemies, and set all right.

“The transliteration follows Helck 1970b, using the copy on Papyrus Hermitage 1116B as principal source. The section divisions are those of Helck 1970b: after each section number are given the corresponding line-numbers in Papyrus Hermitage 1116B.”

13 (Papyrus Hermitage 1116B, lines 57 to 61)

“nswt pw r iyt n rsy imny mAa xrw rn.f sA Hmt pw n tA sty ms pw n Xn nxn iw.f r Ssp HDt iw.f r wTs dSrt iw.f smA sxmty iw.f r sHtp nbwy m mrt.sn pXr iHy m xfa wsr m nwd

There is a king who will come from the south Ameny true of voice is his name. He is the son of a woman of the Land of the Bow, he is a child of the Heartland of Nekhen. He will take up the White Crown, he will raise up the Red Crown, he will unite the Two Mighty Goddesses, he will appease the Two Lord Gods, with what they desire. The field circuit is in his grasp, the oar in the jump.”

Amenemhat I, who is theorized to be “Ameny” in “The Prophecies of Neferti”, was the first ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty. He “inherited territorial unification, but faced a formidable political task. Kingship had become discredited and locally independent power had become strong. Internal reorganization around a strong central government was the task” (Wilson 275). The history of the Twelfth Dynasty leads scholars to believe that “The Prophecy of Neferti” was written as political propaganda, in order to show Amenemhat I’s claim to kingship.

“What survives of the secular literature of ancient Egypt is a small number of texts. It is impossible to establish conclusively whether they are indicative of the scope of the literary production or whether they are the incidental survivors of the adversaries of the time and men. Among the surviving literary texts from ancient Egypt is, “The Prophecy of Neferti”. It has only one complete version, which is portrayed on two writing tablets (Cairo 25224 and BM 5647) from the Eighteenth Dynasty. This complete version is held at the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad. Although there is only one complete version, there are numerous Ramesside partial copies of the work, over twenty, which is much higher than other well known Egyptian literature works. The work is theorized to originally date to the Twelfth Dynasty under the reign of King Amenemhat I. Hans Goedicke argues that this literary work was undoubtedly written for cotemporaries, who were fully familiar with the current events and in no way for readers of the distant future.

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