Abstract
This chapter examines ancient Egyptian conceptions of peace within two frames: world view and cultural valuation on the one hand, and political behavior and historical reality on the other. By contrast, in the eras following the first and second intermediate periods, the authors find profound concerns with the phenomenon of civil war in literary compositions that dealt explicitly with the issue. Although an exception, a peace agreement based on parity was possible in Egyptian political reality, but it remained inconceivable in ideology and in narratives related to ideal governance and kingship. Egypt's superiority and determination to drive off menacing external forces remained a dominant concern that informed most types of cultural expression. Within the frame of this discourse, peace was neither a state of mutual acceptance nor an agreement based on nonviolence; rather, it described a situation obtained by the unconditional surrender of other peoples to the power of pharaoh.
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