The Tale of Sinuhe: and Other Ancient Egyptian Poems 1940-1640 B.C.

As the seat of the soul and repository of wisdom, the heart is the most important organ and represents the human being as a whole. “A man’s heart is his life, prosperity, and health,” says the speaker in “The Teaching of the Vizier Ptahhotep,” suggesting that the heart also functions as conscience. As the entity that is weighed on the scales of Osiris at the judgment that determines whether the deceased will pass to the afterlife in the west, the heart also symbolizes a person’s moral value by determining by how well they upheld the ethical strictures of their culture.

The priest Khakheperreseneb consults with himself by addressing his heart in his discourse, regarding his heart as if it has its own intelligence and represents his inner being. The heart is also the source of emotion, as expressed in “The Tale of Sinuhe,” when Sinuhe describes his heart as being heavy with sorrow at being parted from Egypt, and gladdened when he receives the summons from his king.

In a land that is primarily desert, sources of water are particularly prized, and the Nile has historically been Egypt’s chief source of fresh water.