Drawing on a wealth of archeological evidence, author Jon Manchip White presents a remarkably accurate picture of Egyptian life throughout dynastic times from the end of the third millennium to the Greek occupation in 330 BC. Because social conditions changed little during these 3,000 years, readers get a clear idea of the roles and tasks assigned to each section of the community to the Pharaoh and his noblemen; priests and soldiers; scribes and artists; and peasants, who formed the bulk of the population. How these people spent their leisure hours, how they dressed, what they ate and drank,...

Fascinating book explores the underlying concept of the changeless as the basis of Egyptian religion, and how it unifies what scholars had believed to be an unrelated jungle of weird myths, doctrines, and practices generated by local cults. Relation of the idea of the changeless to moral and political philosophy, Egyptian government and society, literature and art. -. . . one of the finest elucidations of these materials that we have anywhere.- -- American Historical Review. Chronological Table. Index. Preface. 32 halftones.