A late Egyptian instruction organizes observations about character, fate, learning, wealth, and social conduct into numbered maxims and thematic chapters. Its world of farmers, scribes, merchants, and officials shows the ancient counsel tradition adapting to Hellenistic Egypt.
Sources for Papyrus Insinger — The Instructions of Papyrus Insinger
Papyrus Insinger — The Instructions of Papyrus Insinger in Wisdom Literature
Held in the Wisdom Literature chamber of the Babel Nexus Index.
- Maxims of Ptahhotep (Egyptian) (−2400)
- The Instructions of Shuruppak (Sumerian) (−2600)
- Instructions of Amenemhat (Egyptian) (−1900)
- Disputations or Literary Debates (Sumerian) (−2000)
- The Poem of the Righteous Sufferer (Ludlul bēl nēmeqi, Babylonian) (−1300)
- The Story of Aḥikar (Aramaic) (−500)
- Counsels of Wisdom (Babylonian) (−1000)
- Dialogue of Pessimism (Babylonian — "Nothing Is Of Value") (−1000)
- Instructions of Šūpê-amēli (Akkadian) (−1100)
- Instructions of Kagemni (Egyptian) (−2300)
- Ani — The Maxims of Ani (−1250)
- Amenemope — The Instruction of Amenemope (−1100)
- Nig-Nam Nu-Kal — "Nothing is of Value" (Sumerian) (−2000)
- Maxims of Ali ibn Abi Talib (c. 660)