Mother Goddess Tefnut and a Morality Tale: The Lion in Search of Man

Animal fables may have been popular in Egypt since the New Kingdom, since there are illustrated papyri dated to the New Kingdom which depict animals acting in human situations, such as festivities, labors, and combats. The fable of The Lion in Search of Man is especially remarkable, because here the Egyptian stepped outside of themselves, looked at man, and found them to be evil. The final part of this fable predates a shorter and similar version in the Fables of Aesop.