[2] Perhaps this allowed the author of this composition greater freedom in describing the limits of royal authority than might have been possible in referring to kings of a unified Egypt; the Teaching for King Merykara is effectively a treatise on kingship in the form of a royal testament, the first of this genre.
Similar works were created later in the Hellenistic and Islamic world and, in the speculum regum, had a parallel in medieval Europe.
Similarly, the destruction of a sacred territory at Abydos is recorded; the king expresses remorse, as if accepting responsibility for the unthinkable that must have recurred throughout history – sacrilege in the name of the ruling king, subject to divine retribution during a judgment of the dead.
The contrast between real and ideal make the composition a reflection on power unparalleled in Ancient Egyptian writing.
They only partly complement one another and the most complete one, the Leningrad Papyrus, contains the largest number of scribal errors and omissions, making it very difficult to work with.