Renata Landgráfová 

Czech Institute of Egyptology

Sexual and Erotic Metaphors in the Love Songs

Ancient Egyptian love songs were „songs for entertainment“, and as such they appear to be at least partially loosened from the ties of formal literature. They are highly involved and contain a lot of introspection, and we may hope to find in them reflections of the ways the Egyptians saw themselves and their surroundings, or, in our case, perceived the erotic and the sexual. The present study concentrates on metaphors as an important way of human structuring and categorising the world. 

Metaphors form a vital part of the corpus of the love songs, and many – if not most – of the metaphors we encounter in them are connected with sexual and erotic themes. We shall analyse these metaphors both formally and thematically, and explore through them the meanings the ancient Egyptians associated with their intimate life. Finally, we shall analyse the antithesis of the erotic in the parody on a love song, O. DM 1650.

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