Sebayt

Sebayt (Manuel de Codage transcription: sbA.yt) is the ancient Egyptian term for a genre of pharaonic literature. The word literally means 'teachings' or 'instructions' and refers to formally written ethical teachings focused on the "way of living truly".

Examples

Most Sebayt are preserved on papyrus scrolls that are copies of earlier works. Four important examples of sebayt are preserved in the Papyrus Prisse, two papyrus scrolls in the British Museum, the Insinger Papyrus and the Canarvon Tablet 1 in Cairo. This genre has much in common with sapiential literature in other cultures, and is for example comparable with the Old Testament Book of Proverbs which has in part been connected to the Instructions of Amenemopet.

Many of the earliest Sebayt claim to have been written in the third millennium BC, during the Old Kingdom, but it is now generally agreed that they were actually composed later, beginning in the Middle Kingdom (c.1991-1786 BC). This fictitious attribution to authors of a more distant past was intended to give the texts greater authority.