English
Spain
HARPER’S SONGS, THE Showing the Egyptians’ positive approach to death, the Harper’s Songs illustrate an important segment of ancient Egyptian mythology. Carvings on tomb walls or a stela erected for the deceased, the Harper’s Songs were composed to help the dead resurrect in the next world and were often accompanied by a harp. Unlike ritual mortuary chants and prayers, the Harper’s Songs demonstrated much more creativity in their approaches to death and the next world. The song’s main theme was to sing the praises of the deceased’s tomb and the joys of leaving this world and entering the next. One song says “. . . O tomb you built for festivity, you were built for happiness!” But because of their freedom to express their thoughts on death, some harpers took another view and lamented the loss of life and wondered if there was an afterlife. The stela of Neb-Ankh, in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, takes the traditional approach and looks forward to eternal life in the next world:
How firm you are in your seat of eternity, Your monument of everlastingness! It is filled with offerings of food, It contains every good thing. Your ka is with you, It does not leave you, O Royal Seal-bearer, Great Steward, Neb-Ankh! Yours is the sweet breath of the north wind! So says his singer who keeps his name alive, The honorable singer Teni-o whom he loved, Who sings to his ka every day.
The musician Teni-o assures Neb-Ankh, the deceased, that all is well—his KA will not desert him,
his tomb is filled with every good thing, and his name will be kept alive.
