Voyage of Wenamen

The story of the Voyage of Wenamen, also called the Report of Wenamen, or the Misadventures of Wenamen, is considered one of the earliest surviving adventure tales. Unlike many of their neighboring cultures, the Egyptians did not write historical narratives, the text must have started as an autobiography of Wenamen circa 1065 BC. The one partially surviving copy appears to have been excerpted from the original autobiography, copied for one of the Meshwesh (Berber) Pharaohs that ruled the late 21ˢᵗ Dynasty after Osorkon the Elder seized the throne in 992 BC. It appears as if only the sections about Canaan were copied, which suggests the Pharaoh in question was looking for information on Canaan, likely as a prelude to an invasion.

The surviving text includes the beginning of Wenamen's voyage, but not the beginning of his biography, which would have included his titles and honors and the story of how he became a priest of Amen. The surviving text covers Wenamen's voyage from his departure from Thebes, through his stops in the Egyptian capital of Tanis, and the coastal Canaanite cities of Dor, Tyre, and Byblos, before his ship was blown off course to Cyprus, and the story abruptly ends. The section that covers the stop in Tyre is in the damaged section, in the middle of the story, and only survives in fragments. The abrupt ending of the story is clearly not the end of Wenamen's Biography as it does not include his return to Egypt, which must have taken place or his story would never have been known to the Egyptians.