Quiz 005

Episode 5 Quiz

Welcome to the quiz for Episode 005: Beneath the Obelisks. See what you remember about Ancient Egyptian fiction by clicking “START” below!

1 / 10

The Eloquent Peasant is a particularly unique slice of Ancient Egyptian culture because:

It depicts the peasantry and a successful act of lower class dissent.

The surviving manuscripts we have of the story are written in Aramaic.

It contains a lengthy discussion of interstate diplomacy between Thebes and the Retjenu to the north.

It is a protracted call for monotheism like that practiced by the pharaoh Akhenaten.

It contains the first recorded mention of the Israelites.

2 / 10

Whom does the main character of “The Shipwrecked Sailor” meet after the titular shipwreck?

The ghost of the pharaoh Menkaure.

Set, god of disorder and storms.

Thoth, the deity of scribes and wisdom.

A tricky and double dealing hyena.

An enormous serpent.

3 / 10

This character has donkeys and a cart.

Rensi

Khunanup

Nebkaure

The Prince of Punt

Nemtynakte

4 / 10

The First Intermediate Period story “The Shipwrecked Sailor” was probably written around which year?

500 BCE

4000 BCE

1000 BCE

2000 BCE

3000 BCE

5 / 10

We have more literature from Bronze Age Mesopotamia than we do from Egypt during the same period. Which is the best explanation for why this is the case?

Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets proved more durable over time than Ancient Egyptian papyrus scrolls.

Amenhotep III issued an interdiction against non-religious writing in the 1360s in Thebes.

A famous shipwreck in the Red Sea during the reign of Akhenaten resulted in the loss of the royal library of Amarna.

Ancient Egyptians were writing almost exclusively in Akkadian cuneiform by 2000 BCE and copying Mesopotamia's stories directly.

A massive Hyksos incursion in the 1600s BCE resulted in a purge of all non-Semitic literature in the lands along the Nile.

6 / 10

The Shipwrecked Sailor involves a framing narrative in which a sailor is talking to his commander. What is the commander’s prevailing mood?

Confused and drunk.

Slimy and conspiratorial.

Chummy and jocular.

Despairing and pessimistic.

Smug and arrogant.

7 / 10

In “The Eloquent Peasant,” the main character Khunanup meets an overseer named Nemtynakte while transporting some goods. What happens when these two meet?

Khunanup seduces Nemtynakte's beautiful daughter, and later marries her.

Nemtynakte and Khunanup have a long conversation about class and social injustice.

Nemtynakte stalls Khunanup and steals his possessions under false pretenses.

Khunanup tricks Nemtynakte into giving up his field of grain.

Khunanup refuses to pay his alcohol taxes to the overseer.

8 / 10

What is the main theme of Khunanup’s long series of speeches to the landowner Rensi that make up the bulk of “The Eloquent Peasant?”

Wealthy Rensi and those like him guard their class prerogatives and let all others suffer.

The Egyptian state system cannot persist without expanding southeast into the semi-mythical land of Punt.

Khunanup himself should be able to marry the Pharaoh's daughter, with whom he shares a deep mutual love.

The northern tribes of Retjenu have become so aggressive that it is no longer possible to eke out a living anywhere north of Saqqara.

It is past time for Egyptians in the region of Abydos to forge a partnership with the Libyan tribesmen to the west of them.

9 / 10

At the end of “The Shipwrecked Sailor”‘s story-within-a-story, what happens to the sailor?

The sailor leads a company of defectors in a coup against the Pharaoh.

The sailor is given the secret of writing from the god Thoth.

The sailor crosses the Red Sea to meet the great god Ptah.

He returns to the central part of Egypt in a boat laden with fine goods.

The sailor founds a settlement on the southern side of the Nile's First Cataract.

10 / 10

What does the Shipwrecked Sailor end up acquiring during his journey?

A disease modern medicine calls Schistosomiasis.

A chest of gold and a chest of emeralds.

A talking ram with a golden fleece.

Myrrh, exotic oils, and other fine goods.

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