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Characteristics Of Egyptian Love Songs

Decent Essays

1. Introduction
What is love? Pop culture in the 21st century provides for a generalised perception on the matter of love; one reads about illustrious love stories that can even surpass time, but what about the Egyptians? What did they perceive love to be? By relying on academic sources, this essay will analyse the characteristics of Egyptian love songs and what these love songs expressed about the Egyptian’s view point towards love.
2. Characteristics of Egyptian love songs
Sung at banquets and festivals (Creaseman & Wilkinson 2017:202), ancient Egyptian love poems, also referred to as songs, are full of desire, longing, and heartache. The characters in the love songs were women and men, or boys and girls in love, who affectionately refer …show more content…

The speakers narrate their personal experiences of longing and that something that was once to them a source of pleasure, is now being nullified by sadness, “Pomegranate wine, once sweet in my mouth is now like the gall of birds” (Fox 1985:279).
The poems also depict love-sickness experienced by the lovers, which causes one to be irrational, jealous, and results in the inability to complete mundane activities (Fox 1985:279-280). The love songs also describe how the love of one’s lover is the only effective medicine for ailments, given that love to them brings well-being and vitality, “She is more powerful for me than the Compendium” (Fox 1985:280).
In the love songs, the lovers also express that their love for one another gives each other strength, “It is her love that makes me strong. She’ll cast a water spell for me!” (Fox 1985:32). The aforementioned line is from ‘The Crossing’ and refers to a boy who expresses his love for a girl; her love gives him strength and courage to cross a river inhabited by a crocodile in order to reach his beloved (Fox 1985:32).
3. The authors of Egyptian love

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