The Role Of Satire In Ancient Egypt

Introduction/Thesis Since the first recorded use of satire in Ancient Egypt it has been used by men to scorn the aspects of society that they felt were wrong. Satire itself is language that consists of mockery and derision that is used to point out the idiocy and deceitfulness of society and individuals ("Satire - Examples and Definition of Satire",2016). This paper will look at why satire has been primarily a masculine genre and how this has changed in contemporary history.

The Function of Satire Satire is used as a way to examine and criticize the attributes of society that are flawed. Satirists use literature, performance, TV and film to bring the vices of society to the attention of the general audience ("Satire - Examples and Definition

The Satire of the Trades is an Egyptian text that dates back to the 2000 BC. The general message of the work is that the duty that scribes carry out within Egyptian society is more important than that performed by other members of the society, such as farmers and builders (Lichtheim, 1973). The next culture that used satire were the Greeks. While they used techniques such as parody, scathing and perilous social and political commentary in their plays they did not actually have a name for it. (Sutton, 1993). The playwright Aristophanes was a well-known for his satirical type plays which attacked the policies of the various Greek city-states. This was usually done during the satyr play which was performed during the intermission of a tragedy. Due to his criticisms Aristophanes was often persecuted by the Greek government (Sutton, 1993). In Roman society the term satur was first used to describe the works of Lucilius by Quintilian (Kharpertian T. 1990). Satire in Ancient Roman society was different from today’s satire in that the writers did not use satire to mock or ridicule. Rather it was just highly imaginative writings. When writers like Horace/ Virgil spoke against Augustus they did so by using irony. (Sutton,