Making a case for multidimensionality in Ramesside figurative language

In this contribution we consider the interplay of metaphorical language with Ramesside orthographic strategies (particularly classification) in the composition and copying of the London (L) manuscript of The Teachings of Amenemope. We argue that this text provides cases in which the classification was changed in order to mark a metaphor and that lexemes seem to have been chosen partly on the basis of their classification strategy. We thus see clusters of metaphors being tied to particular classifiers, which play out across the whole structure of the text, thus underlining the importance of metaphor analyses that consider all dimensions of meaning in a text. A final case study shows that this strategy is complementary with a broader text-based pattern, in which, beyond metaphorical language, classifiers orient themselves towards large-scale themes related to the highs and lows of human interaction.