The Prophecy of Neferti is an Ancient Egyptian discourse

Discourse

Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...

 text set in the reign of the 4th dynasty Old Kingdom king Snofru (c.2550 BC), but was actually written during the early 12th dynasty (c.1991-1786 BC). The text is a pseudo-prophecy, i.e. one written after the event. It was published by Vladimir Golenishchev

Vladimir Golenishchev

Vladimir Semyonovich Golenishchev was one of the first and most accomplished Russian Egyptologists.Golenishchev came from an old noble family, of which Field Marshal Kutuzov was also a member, and was educated at the Saint Petersburg University. In 1884–85 he organized and financed excavations in...

 and stored in the Hermitage Museum

Hermitage Museum

The State Hermitage is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. One of the largest and oldest museums of the world, it was founded in 1764 by Catherine the Great and has been opened to the public since 1852. Its collections, of which only a small part is on permanent display,...

.

Content

In Neferti, King Snofru holds court and a sage is introduced to entertain him with 'choice words'. The sage, called Neferti, asks him whether he wishes to hear about the past or the future, and the king chooses the future. Neferti then goes on to describe at some length a vision of a future Egypt riven with chaos, where all social and natural norms are inverted. Towards the end of the text, Neferti predicts the advent of a future king, called Ameny, who will restore order to the country.

The text has often been interpreted as a classic piece of Egyptian royal propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

, since the saviour king 'Ameny' is generally interpreted as an oblique reference to the name of the first king of the 12th dynasty, Amenemhat I

Amenemhat I

Amenemhat I, also Amenemhet I, was the first ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty . He ruled from 1991 BC to 1962 BC...

. Amenemhat I was not closely related to his predecessor, and his reign began in unsettled conditions. The Prophecy of Neferti can therefore be read as a political justification for his new dynasty. However, the chaotic descriptions of the text are more generally related to the broader Egyptian literary tradition of pessimistic laments, such as also occur in the 'Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All'. William K. Simpson, a professor emeritus of Egyptology

Egyptology

Egyptology is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious practices in the AD 4th century. A practitioner of the discipline is an “Egyptologist”...

 at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

, states that Neferti can be classified as belonging to a "literature of pessimism" where the world is chaotic and therefore society's values are in need of restructuring, which is contrasted by the "literature of propaganda," embodied in such works as Loyalist Teaching

Loyalist Teaching

The Loyalist Teaching, or The Loyalist Instructions, is an ancient Egyptian text of the sebayt genre. It survives in part from a stela inscription of the mid Twelfth dynasty of Egypt. The whole text can be found in papyrus scrolls of the New Kingdom period...

, where the virtues of the king are extolled.

An extract from the text, predicting the arrival of a saviour king: