Editing Epistle (section)

==Ancient Egyptian epistles==
The [[Ancient Egyptian literature|ancient Egyptians]] wrote epistles, most often for [[pedagogy|pedagogical]] reasons. [[Egyptologist]] Edward Wente (1990) speculates that the [[Fifth dynasty of Egypt|Fifth-dynasty]] Pharaoh [[Djedkare Isesi]]—in his many letters sent to his [[Vizier (Ancient Egypt)|viziers]]—was a pioneer in the epistolary genre.<ref name=wente>{{cite book|title=Letters from Ancient Egypt: Society of Biblical Literature Writing from the Ancient World Series Volume 1|year=1990|publisher=Scholars Press|location=Atlanta, GA|isbn=978-1555404734|author=Edward F. Wente|hdl=2027/heb.02262.0001.001|translator = Edmund S. Meltzer}}</ref> Its existence is firmly attested during the [[Sixth dynasty of Egypt|Sixth Dynasty]] of the [[Old Kingdom]], and is prominently featured in the educational guide ''The Book of Kemit'' written during the [[Eleventh dynasty of Egypt|Eleventh Dynasty]].<ref name=wente/> A standardized formulae for epistolary compositions existed by the time of the [[Middle Kingdom of Egypt]]. The epistolary formulae used in the [[Ramesside Period]] found its roots in the letters composed during the [[Amarna Period]] of the [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|Twentieth Dynasty]]. Wente describes the "Satirical Letter" found on the [[Papyrus Anastasi&nbsp;I]] of the [[Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt|Nineteenth Dynasty]] as an epistle which was commonly copied as a writing exercise by Egyptian schoolchildren on ceramic [[ostraca]] (over eighty examples of which have been found so far by archaeologists). Epistle letters were also written to the dead, and, by the Ramesside Period, to the [[Ancient Egyptian religion|gods]]; the latter became even more widespread during the eras of [[History of Persian Egypt|Persian]] and [[History of Ptolemaic Egypt|Greek]] domination.<ref name=wente/>