Story of Sinuhe

Importance.

The Story of Sinuhe survives in many manuscripts, suggesting that the Egyptians considered it among their most important literary works. The oldest manuscripts date to the Twelfth Dynasty (1938–1759 b.c.e.), also the time of the story's setting. There are also more than twenty New Kingdom (1539–1075 b.c.e.) copies and even a Late Period copy (664–332 b.c.e.). This large number of copies surviving in all major periods is due to the fact that scribe schools required scribes to copy this text as part of scribal training. Yet, the fact that so many scribes worked on copying Sinuhe suggests that it was also studied in all time periods. It is thus a work of literature that connected the Egyptian literate class for 2,000 years. The text also includes variations on many literary genres. Overall, it is structured to resemble an autobiography and is narrated in the first person. Unlike a tomb autobiography, however, Sinuhe's life goes astray rather than meeting the ideal as in the standard biography. It also includes songs, monologues, and even a …