Harper's Songs

These songs display varying degrees of hope in an afterlife that range from the skeptical through to the more traditional expressions of confidence.

[5] Since the songs are reflections on death, rather than being part of the rituals associated with burial, freer expression of thoughts is encountered in these texts.

[5] The greater freedom, in the case Harper's Song from the Tomb of King Intef, even went so far as to doubt the reality of an afterlife, lamenting death and advising that life should be enjoyed whilst it could.

[5] Miriam Lichtheim viewed this as introducing a more skeptical strand of thought which would be reflected in works such as the Dispute between a Man and His Ba and other Harper's Songs.

[7] The song suggests a person should enjoy the good things in life, avoid contemplation of death and expresses doubt about the reality of an afterlife.

[1] Comparison have been made between the sentiments expressed in the above text with a description by Herodotus from a much later period of how a banquet for the rich in Egypt would culminate with a wooden effigy of the deceased being passed around with the saying "Look upon this!"

[9] In the case of the priest Neferhotep the three Harper's songs found in his tomb display a full range of viewpoints.

In one the sceptical position is blended with the more conventional expressions of hope, the second rejects skepticism, whilst the third is a ritualistic affirmation in life after death.