The Maxims of "PtahHotep", and other Characters their wise words have been useful to us in ancient Egypt

* The Maxims of "PtahHotep"

The Maxims of "PtahHotep" provide us with the oldest texts in the literature of the whole world to express upright behavior.

"PtahHotep" retired from the position of prime vizier of King "Isesi", one of the kings of the Fifth Dynasty in the twenty-seventh century BC, when that elderly vizier felt his weakness arising from his advanced age, as he mentioned in the introduction his maxims: "I have attained one hundred and ten years of life, while the king gave to me rewards above (those of) the ancestors because I did righteousness for the king even unto the tomb (that is, even unto the death)", He asked the king to allow him to teach his son (that is, the son of the vizier) to prepare him to carry out the burdens of government duties so that he would be an assistant to his father and his successor, and the king consented, and then the old vizier began to advise his son not to misuse the wisdom that'll receive, but to follow the path of humility, saying: "Be not arrogant because of your knowledge, take counsel with the ignorant and the wise, because the end of science cannot be reached, and there is not a scientist has reached into perfection, and good speech is more hidden than the gemstone", and then followed by forty-three paragraphs containing advice of different subjects.

Even some of the paragraphs knowing us to table manners in the presence of the superior, as he says: "Take what is he gives to you when putting in front of you, but do not look at what is in front of him, and don't stare at him, and look down until he greets you, and speak only when he welcomes you, laugh when he laughs, because that brings pleasure to his heart, and what you do will be agreeable because one does not know what is in the heart".

He taught his son the realization of the fluctuations of the conditions of human life, saying: "If you become great after you were small stature, and become an owner of wealth after you were formerly in want... so be not unmindful of how you were before, and be not boastful of your wealth which has come to you as a gift of the god (that is the king), you are not greater than others of like you whom the same thing happened to them".

And he says: "Beware of the days that the future might bring".

And he says: "If you are a successful man, cement your home life, and love your wife in the house as-is fitting".

He also says: "if you are a successful man establish your house, and take to yourself a wife to be your heart's mistress".

He says: "Be not avaricious in apportionment, and ditch the greed even in your right, and be not avaricious towards your own kin because a pleasant request is more useful than strength, and the little that taking by deception breeds enmity even for one who has the soft nature (that is the patient man)".

The elderly wise man recommends his son to be fun and cheerful, saying to him: "Be cheerful as long as you are alive".

And this elderly vizier saying to his son: "If you are a governor, so be merciful when you hear the speech of the petitioner, and do not abuse him before he empties of saying what he came for it, it is a virtue, to appear the heart beauty that listens with pity".

He also says to his son: "collect the Morality... And act to spreading justice, so that your offspring will live".

 

* The other Characters whose wise words have been useful to us

 

One of these Characters was "Imhotep" who lived in the thirtieth century BC, he is a grand vizier of the third dynasty, he replaced for the first time in the history the build with milk, wood, and twigs which prevailed in his age, to build with massive stones, he created the first stone architecture in the world, and he became the first outstanding personality in human history, As to his wise and precious Maxims and his medical knowledge, it made his name circulating and famous in homes for thousands of years, and because he is a great physician became having glorification and reverence.

And there is another wise vizier called "Kagemni" who lived in the thirtieth century B.C (not long after "Imhotep") and was known to have wise commandments that he gave to his son, but it also did not reach us.

About a century later than "Imhotep", lived the wise man "Hardedef", the son of King "Khufu", the builder of the Great Pyramid of "Giza", and his wise proverbs remained in the mouths of people alongside the proverbs of "Imhotep" for more than 1500 years in ancient times.

Of all those wise men who lived in the pyramid Age, "Ptahhotep" is the only one whose Maxims has remained to the present day, which was only a small part of what was left by that great first age about the human mind.