57 pages • 1 hour read
Sinuhe, R.B. Parkinson (Translator)The Tale of Sinuhe: and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940-1640 B.C.
Fiction | Novel/Book in Verse | Adult | BCEA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Heart
As the seat of the soul and repository of wisdom, the heart is the most important organ and represents the human being as a whole. “A man’s heart is his life, prosperity, and health,” says the speaker in “The Teaching of the Vizier Ptahhotep,” suggesting that the heart also functions as conscience. As the entity that is weighed on the scales of Osiris at the judgment that determines whether the deceased will pass to the afterlife in the west, the heart also symbolizes a person’s moral value by determining by how well they upheld the ethical strictures of their culture.
The priest Khakheperreseneb consults with himself by addressing his heart in his discourse, regarding his heart as if it has its own intelligence and represents his inner being. The heart is also the source of emotion, as expressed in “The Tale of Sinuhe,” when Sinuhe describes his heart as being heavy with sorrow at being parted from Egypt, and gladdened when he receives the summons from his king.
The River
In a land that is primarily desert, sources of water are particularly prized, and the Nile has historically been Egypt’s chief source of fresh water. The Nile was the key to Egypt’s agriculture system; the annual flood of the river would deposit silt on the riverbanks in which crops could be sowed, and the ancient Egyptians devised systems of basins and canals to make use of this occurrence. The Nile flood symbolizes the proper natural order and reflects the rule of a just king who guarantees prosperity for his people. If the king is worthy and performing his duties, the Nile will flood as expected. The Nile flood, as an ungovernable natural element, also represents the king’s absolute authority.
Oceans also play a symbolic role in “The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor.” Ancient Egypt bordered the Mediterranean and Red Seas, which is likely the sea where the sailor is shipwrecked; Parkinson identifies the mining region as located in the Sinai Peninsula. The ocean, in this tale, represents strange realms that might offer exotic discoveries, as well as potential threats from outsiders.
The Crocodile
The crocodile, which lives in the Nile, is considered a predatory animal and symbolizes a person who does wrong or preys on those weaker or lesser in status. The handmaid in “The Tale of King Cheops’ Court,” who gets taken from the riverbank by a crocodile, illustrates the danger these animals posed in daily life. The crocodile in this case also represents an intervening natural force, as this death prevents the handmaid from telling King Cheops about the magical triplets. The eloquent peasant refers to Rensi as a crocodile to accuse him of predatory behavior when he refuses to answer the peasant’s petitions.
Frequently the speakers of the discourse reference crocodiles to symbolize the disorder they claim prevails in their world. The crocodile appears again in the tale of Ubainer and his unfaithful wife in “The Tale of King Cheops’ Court,” where the magical crocodile that Ubainer conjures attacks the wife’s lover and thus enacts revenge for Ubainer. In a larger sense, the crocodile, with its ability for sudden attacks, represents the forces of chaos that, Parkinson suggests, the Egyptians felt were always posed to dismantle the orderly world.
