Instruction of Any
The Maxims of Ani
Ordinary domestic virtue, a quiet household, a respected wife, careful speech, matters as much as any grand career, and even received wisdom deserves to be questioned before it is accepted.
- domestic, middle-class virtue rather than courtly ambition
- the only sebayt text with the son's recorded objection
- practical advice on marriage, speech, and friendship
- wisdom presented as debated rather than simply handed down
A middle-class instruction addressed by the scribe Any to his son Khonshotep, urging modest domestic virtues, respect for one's wife, restraint in speech and drink, care in choosing friends, and quiet piety, rather than the courtly ambition of earlier instructions. Uniquely among the genre, the papyrus appends Khonshotep's own reply objecting that the advice demands more self-control than an ordinary man possesses, along with Any's further answer, making it Egypt's only surviving dialogic instruction text.
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