Conviviality
The at-home
(adapted from http://www.terraflex.co.il/ad/egypt/partytime/index.html)
For
most Egyptians a get-together would have been a simple affair: sitting
around a fire or lamp, telling stories, singing songs, eating sweetmeat
and drinking beer. Not so for their betters. They organized banquets on a
lavish scale. The tables were burdened with all kinds of food, the wine
was poured by shapely servants.
Traditional receptions could be full of rituals, with
people having to observe a strict etiquette, though the very fact that
they had to be reminded of it may be a hint that the rules were not as
thoroughly observed as some would have liked them to be.
If you are one among guests
At the table of one greater than you,
Take what he gives as it is set before you;
Look at what is before you,
Don't shoot many glances at him,
Molesting him offends the ka.
Don't speak to him until he summons,
One does not know what may displease;
Speak when he has addressed you,
Then your words will please the heart.
The nobleman, when he is behind food,
Behaves as his ka commands him;
He will give to him whom he favors,
It is the custom when night has come.
It is the ka that makes his hands reach out,
The great man gives to the chosen man;
Thus eating is under the counsel of god,
A fool is who complains of it.
The Maxims of Ptahhotep
Lichtheim - Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol I
Men and women sat apart, the host on a chair, the guests on stools, pillows or floor mats. Sometimes they were depicted as wearing a cone on their heads. Conventional wisdom has it that these were made of scented grease, which would melt and flow down the wig releasing the perfume. Few traces of such grease have been found and fastening grease cones to a wig without them falling off wouldn't have been easy.
These banquets seem to have been staid affairs, the worst that could happen to a guest was to become drunk (and there are pictures of that having happened) or overeat.
The entertainment consisted of storytelling, music,
above all flute, oboe and harp playing duets or trios, at times
accompanying a singer or a reciter. Dancing, some of it quite acrobatic,
with back somersaults and the like, was performed by scantily dressed
girls. Dwarfs were always popular and wrestlers were sometimes hired.
Towards the end of the evening, the guests might be reminded of the shortness of life by a singer
The bodies return to their source since the days of the god, and younger generations rise in their stead. As long as Re rises in the morning, as long as Tum goes to his resting place at Manu, the males will beget and females get pregnant, the nostrils will breathe air. But all who enter this world will return one day to their origin.or by statues of mummies
Bring upon us a gloriously beautiful day, oh priest! The most exquisite perfumes shall be given to us and pleasant scents shall enter your nose. Your shoulders shall be adorned with garlands and lilies as shall be the neck of your beloved sister sitting beside you. In your ears shall resound singing and harp playing. Do not open your heart to evil! Do not think just of your hearts desires, until the day arrives when we will have to pass the land of silence.
Bring upon us a gloriously beautiful day, Neferhotep, whose mouth utters the word of justice and truth....From the chant of Neferhotep's harpist
In the entertainments of the rich among them, when they have finished eating, a man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a coffin, made as like the reality as may be both by painting and carving, and measuring about a cubit or two cubits each way; and this he shows to each of those who are drinking together, saying: "When thou lookest upon this, drink and be merry, for thou shalt be such as this when thou art dead." Thus they do at their carousals.Herodotus, Histories II
Project Gutenberg
