ANKH ARTICLE: N°12-13, 2003-2004 (pp. 26-47)
Women in Maxim 21 of the Instructions of Ptahhotep
by Dr. Mario Beatty
The translation and interpretation of Maxim 21 in the Instructions of Ptahhotep has historically been a very difficult passage for Egyptologists. This difficulty manifests in both problems of grammatical analysis and cultural interpretation. Dr. Beatty begins by providing a transcription and transliteration of Maxim 21 from the egyptian text. Following this, he submits his own original translation of the passage compared to the translations of other Egyptologists and then proceed to grammatical and cultural commentary. Through a close grammatical analysis of this maxim, this article shows that the image of women in this maxim is overwhelmingly positive without any traces of a negative view. The article concludes by suggesting that Ancient Egyptian women should be analyzed inside their own cultural paradigm of Maat which is fundamentally and deeply African in both essence and scope.
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