More...

Egyptian Myth and Legend Chapter 13, Fall of the Old Kingdom

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER XIII

Fall of the Old Kingdom

Nobles become Little Pharaohs--The Growth of Culture--Temple Building--Maxims of Ptah--hotep--Homely Superstitions--Charms to protect Children--Fear of the Evil Eye--Set and Red--haired Babes--Gruesome Ghosts--Feudal Lords assert Themselves--A Strong Monarch--Military Expeditions--The Promotion of Uni--Coming of the Deng--A Queen's Vengeance--Revolt of Feudal Lords--Pyramids raided.

DURING the Fifth Dynasty the power of the nobles gradually increased until they became little Pharaohs in their own provinces. Even at the Court they could make their influence felt, and when they set out on expeditions their successes received personal acknowledgment and were not recorded to the credit of an overshadowing monarch. They recognized the official religion, but fostered the local religious cult, and in their tombs related the stories of their own lives, boasting of their achievements and asserting the ethical principles which justified them before Osiris. The age thus became articulate. Education was spreading, and the accumulation of wealth promoted culture. The historic spirit had birth, and the scribes began to record the events of the past and compile lists of kings. Among the tomb pictures of everyday life were inscribed fragments of folksong, and it is evident that music was cultivated, for we find groups of harpers and flautists and singers.

The religious energies of the Pharaohs were devoted more to the building of temples than to the erection of tombs. Ra worship introduced elaborate ceremonials, and large numbers of priests were engaged at Heliopolis. At a later period we learn that over 12,000 persons were directly connected with the temples there. The Pharaohs continued to reside in the vicinity of Memphis, and the Court was maintained with great splendour; their tombs were erected at Abusir, farther south than those of the Khufu line of kings.

No wars of any consequence occurred during the Fifth Dynasty, but exploring expeditions were fitted out, and in the time of Sahura, the second monarch, the coast of Somaliland, which was called Punt, was visited, and there were large imports of gum and resins for incense in the temples, and of wood and precious metals.

The quarries in Sinai continued to be worked, and the name of Isi, the eighth monarch, is associated with the working of black granite at Wadi Hammamat. We know little or nothing regarding the personalities of the kings. They appear to have reigned with discretion and ability, for the age was one of political progress and extending culture.

In the reign of King Dedka Ra Isi--to give him his full name--that famous collection of maxims, "The Instruction of Ptah-hotep", was compiled. This production survives in the Prisse Papyrus, which was called after the French archlogist who purchased it from a native in 1847. The author was Isi's grand vizier, and he was evidently of Memphite birth and a Ptah worshipper, for his name signifies "Ptah is well pleased". He lived over a thousand years before Hammurabi, the wise king of Babylon, and long ages ere Solomon collected his Proverbs at Jerusalem.

The maxims of Ptah-hotep were for centuries copied by boys in the schools of ancient Egypt. In their papyrus "copybooks" they were wont to inscribe the following phrases:--

It is excellent for a son to obey his father.
He that obeys shall become one who is obeyed.
Carelessness to-day becomes disobedience to-morrow.
He that is greedy for pleasure will have an empty stomach.
A loose tongue causes strife.
He that rouses strife will inherit sorrow.
Good deeds are remembered after death.

The maxims afford us interesting glimpses of the life and culture of the times. Old Ptah-hotep is full of worldly wisdom, and his motto is: "Do your duty and you will be happy". He advises his son to acquire knowledge and to practise the virtues of right conduct and right living. His precepts are such as we would expect to find among a people who conceived of an Osirian Judgment Hall in the next world.

The "Instruction" is dedicated to King Isi. The vizier feels the burden of years, and laments his fate. He opens in this manner:

O King, my lord, I draw nigh to life's end,
To me the frailties of life have come
And second childhood. . . . Ah! the old lie down
Each day in suffering; the vision fails,
Ears become deaf and strength declines apace,
The mind is ill at case. . . . An old man's tongue
Has naught to say because his thoughts have fled,
And he forgets the day that has gone past. . . .
Meanwhile his body aches in every bone;
The sweet seems bitter, for all taste is lost--
Ah! such are the afflictions of old age,
Which work for evil. . . . Fitful and weak
His breath becomes, standing or lying down.

Ptah-hotep then proceeds to petition the king to be released of his duties, so that his son may succeed him. He desires to address to the young man the words of wisdom uttered by sages of old who listened when the gods spake to them.

His Majesty at once gives his consent, and expresses the hope that Ptah-hotep's son will hearken with understanding and become an example to princes. "Speak to him", adds the king, "without making him feel weary."

The "Instruction" is fairly long--over 4000 words--so that it was necessary to have it copied out. We select a few of the most representative maxims.

Do not be vain although you are well educated; speak to an illiterate man as you would to a wise one. After all, there is a limit to cleverness; no worker is perfect. Courteous speech is more uncommon than the emeralds which girl slaves find among the stones.

If you speak with an argumentative man who really knows more than you do yourself, listen respectfully to him, and do not lose your temper if he differs from you.

If, however, an argumentative man knows less than you do, correct him and show him that you are the wiser of the two; others will approve of you and give you an excellent reputation.

If a man of low rank argues without knowledge, be silent. Do not speak angrily to him. It is not very creditable to put such an one to shame.

When you become a leader, be courteous and see that your conduct is exemplary. . . . Do not tyrannize over men. . . . It is he who gives to those who are in need that prospers; not the man who makes others afraid. . . . Listen graciously to one who appeals to you. Let him speak frankly, and be ever ready to put an end to a grievance. If a man is not inclined to tell everything he knows, it is because he to whom he speaks has the reputation of not dealing fairly. A mind that is well controlled is always ready to consider. . . . See that your employees are adequately rewarded, as is proper on the part of one to whom the god has given much. It is well known that it is no easy thing to satisfy employees. One says to-day: "He is generous; I may get much", and to-morrow: "He is a mean, exacting man". There is never peace in a town where workers arc in miserable circumstances.

That man is never happy who is always engaged reckoning his accounts, but the man whose chief concern is to amuse himself does not provide for his household. . . . If you become rich after having been poor, do not bind your heart with your wealth; because you are the administrator of what the god has given you. Remember that you are not the last, and that others will become as great as you. . . . Enjoy your life, and do not occupy the entire day at your work. Wealth is no use to a worn-out man.

Love your wife; feed her and clothe her well; make her happy; do not deal sternly with her; kindness makes her more obedient than harshness; if she yearns for something which pleasures her eye, see that she gets it. . . . Do not be jealous, or despondent, or cross if you have no children. Remember that a father has his own sorrows, and that a mother has more troubles than a childless woman. . . . How beautiful is the obedience of a faithful son. The god loves obedience; he hates disobedience. A father rejoices in a son's obedience and honours him. A son who hearkens to counsel guards his tongue and conducts himself well. A disobedient son is foolish and never prospers. He blunders continually. . . . In the end he is avoided because he is a failure. . . . A father should teach wisdom to his sons and daughters, so that they may be of good repute. When others find them faithful and just, they will say: "That father has trained them well". . . . A good son is a treasure given by the god.

Ptah-hotep reminds his son that when he goes to dine with a great man he should take what is given to him. A nobleman gives the daintiest portions to those he likes best. He must not keep staring at his host, or speak until he is spoken to; then he should answer readily. . . . When he is sent with a message from one nobleman to another he should take care not to say anything which will cause strife between them. He should not repeat what a nobleman said when in a temper

"Let your heart be more generous than your speech," advises Ptah-hotep as he draws his "Instruction" to a close. He hopes that his son will prosper as well as he himself has prospered, and that he will satisfy the king by his actions. "I have lived", he adds, "for a hundred and ten years, and have received more honours from His Majesty than did any of my ancestors, because I have been just and honourable all through life."

Such was the ethical. but there was also a superstitious element in Egyptian domestic life. The people believed that the world swarmed with spirits which were continually desiring to inflict injuries upon living beings, and were abroad by day as well as by night. An amulet on which was depicted a human hand was considered to be efficacious, and the Egyptian mother suspended it from a cord which was put round the baby's neck. She tied a knot in the morning and another in the evening until there were seven knots in all. On each occasion she repeated a formula over a knot, which was to the following effect: "Isis has twisted the cord; Nepthys has smoothed it; and it will guard you, my bonnie bairn, and you will become strong and prosper. The gods and the goddesses will be good to you, and the evil ones will be thwarted, the mouths of those who utter spells against you will be closed. . . . I know all their names, and may those, whose names I know not, suffer also, and that quickly." 1

Erman, the German Egyptologist, has translated an interesting papyrus by an unknown scribe, which contains the formulused to protect children. Some children were more liable to be attacked by evil spirits than others. In Europe pretty children require special protection against the evil eye. Red-haired youngsters were disliked because the wicked god Set was red-haired) and was likely to carry them away. Their mothers, therefore, had to exercise special care with them, and there was a particular charm for their use. In Russia red-haired people are believed to have more knowledge of magic than others, and are disliked on that account.

The Egyptian ghosts, the enemies of the living, like the archaic deities, were of repulsive aspect. They came from tombs in mummy bandages with cheeks of decaying flesh, flat noses, and eyes of horror, and entered a room with averted faces, 2 which were suddenly turned on children, who at once died of fright. They killed sleeping babies by sucking their breath 3 when they kissed, or rather smelled, them, and if children were found crying they rocked them to sleep--the sleep of death.

When an infant was being hushed to sleep the Egyptian mother sang a ditty to scare away the ghosts of dead men, and then made a protecting charm with lettuce, garlic, tow, bones, and honey. The following is a rendering of one of the old "sleepy songs":--

Oh, avaunt! ye ghosts of night,
Nor do my baby harm;
Ye may come with steps so light,
But I'll thwart you with my charm.

For my babe you must not kiss,
Nor rock if she should cry--
Oh! if you did aught amiss,
My own, my dear, would die.

O ye dead men, come not near--
Now I have made the charm--
There's lettuce to prick you here,
Garlic with smell to harm;

There 's tow to bind like a spell,
The magic bones are spread;
There's honey the living love well--
'T is poison to the dead.

According to tradition, the Sixth-Dynasty kings were not descendants of Mena. Teta, the first king, may have come to the throne as a result of a harem conspiracy. He was a Ra worshipper, and probably a powerful nobleman, supported by a well-organized military force, which held the balance of power. The kingdom was in a state of political unrest. In every nome the hereditary chieftains clamoured for concessions from the royal house, and occasionally their requests were couched in the form of demands. Pepi 1, the third king of the line, who was a strong monarch, appears to have secured the stability of the throne by promoting a policy of military aggression which kept the ambitious nobles fully engaged on the northern and southern frontiers. Nubia was invaded with success, and expeditions visited the land of Punt.

The Egyptians had imagined that the edge of the world was somewhere a little beyond the first cataract, and that the intervening space was peopled by demigods, called "Manes". Now the horizon was considerably widened. The heavenly Nile was believed to descend in a cascade much farther south than had hitherto been supposed, and the region of mystery was located beyond the area occupied by the too-human and ever-aggressive Nubians.

Pepi selected capable officials of proved loyalty to hold the noblemen in check and secure the equitable distribution of water throughout the kingdom. These were liberally rewarded, and were privileged to erect elaborate tombs, like the nome governors, and in these they had their biographies inscribed.

On an Abydos tomb wall we have recorded the achievements of Uni, who rose from humble official rank to be Pharaoh's intimate confidant and counsellor. He was, he says, Pepi's "guardian of heart", and he "knew everything that happened and every secret affair". Although he was only "superintendent of irrigated lands", he exercised more influence over the kingdom than any other dignitary. Royal journeys were arranged by him and at Court ceremonies he marshalled the nobles, which was, no doubt, a delicate task. The perils which continually beset the throne are indicated in his reference to a harem conspiracy. "When one visited the palace to give secret information against the great royal wife Ametsi, His Majesty selected me to enter the harem to listen to business. No scribe was called, nor any other except me alone. I was selected because of my probity and discretion. I recorded everything."

He was only, he repeats, "superintendent of irrigated lands". It was the first occasion on which a man of his rank had listened to harem secrets. Uni tells us no more. We do not even know what fate befell the plotting queen.

When military campaigns were carried out, Uni was placed in command of the army. He tells that there were generals in it, mamelouks from Lower Egypt, friends of the king, and princes from the north and south, besides a host of officials of high rank. But they had all to obey the man who was only the superintendent of irrigated lands. Evidently the commissariat arrangements were of a simple character. Each man carried his own supply of bread. The inhabitants of the towns they passed through had to supply the soldiers with beer and "small animals".

Several campaigns were successfully conducted by Uni, and on each occasion large numbers of the enemy were slain, while "fig trees were cut down and houses burned". So firmly was peace established in the south that Merenra, the next monarch, was able to visit the first cataract, where he received the homage of the nobles.

After Uni's death, the chief of a warlike tribe at Elephantine, who was a veritable Rob Roy, came into royal favour. He made several raids into Nubia, and brought back ivory and ebony and gold. On one occasion he returned with a pygmy or "Deng". It was a great triumph, for "Dengs" belonged to the land of the "Manes" (demigods), and were able to charm even the sulky ferryman who transported the dead over the river of Hades. King Merenra had just died, and his successor, Pepi II, a young man, was greatly excited over the coming of the "Deng". Orders were sent to guard the pygmy carefully; and those who slept beside him in the boat were changed ten times each night. The little fellow was welcomed like royalty at Memphis, and he delighted the Pharaoh with his strange antics, boisterous manners, and war dances. It was the desire of everyone who watched him to be transformed into a "Deng" after death, so that the ferryman of Hades might come to the bank at once to transport the waiting soul to the other side.

These military expeditions taught the Nubians to respect the power of Egypt, and they subsequently became subjects of the Pharaohs.

The Sixth Dynasty, however, was doomed. Conspiring nobles regarded one another with suspicion, and cast ambitious eyes upon the throne. Local religious cults also gathered strength, and the political influence exercised by the priests of Heliopolis suffered decline. For about three centuries Ra had remained supreme; now his power was being suppressed. Serious revolts occurred. Merenra II--the successor of Pepi II, who is credited with a reign of over ninety years--was deposed twelve months after he ascended the throne. According to Herodotus, who is supported in this connection by Manetho, his queen immediately seized the reins of power. The Egyptian priests informed the Greek historian that Merenra was murdered, and that the queen Nitocris avenged his death in the following manner. She caused a large subterranean hall to be made for the purpose of celebrating festivals, as she pretended, and invited a number of noblemen to visit it. As the conspirators sat feasting, the waters of the Nile flooded the artificial cave through a secretly constructed canal, and the guests were all drowned. Great indignation was aroused throughout the kingdom, and the queen committed suicide by suffocation in an apartment filled with the fumes of burning wood. The story appears to be more mythical than historical.

At the close of the Sixth Dynasty the kingdom was plunged in anarchy. The nobles attempted to establish a government in which they were to hold power in rotation. It was impossible for such an arrangement to succeed, because the interests of each feudal lord were centred in his own particular nome. The Seventh Dynasty was brief. According to tradition there were "seventy kings in seventy days". Egypt was then divided into a number of small separated states, which were administrated by the hereditary owners of the soil, and we find one of them declaring, significantly enough, in his tomb inscription that he had "freed his city in a time of war from the oppression of the king".

Thus came to an end the Old Kingdom, which had existed for about 1700 years from the time of Mena. A great civilization had evolved during that period. It had grown rich in art and architecture. Indeed, the artistic achievements of the Old Kingdom were never afterwards surpassed either in technique or naturalism; the grandeur of its architectural triumphs is emphasized by the enduring Pyramids, and especially Khufu's great tomb with its finely wrought stonework, which remains unequalled to the present day.

The people, too, had prospered and made great progress. Refined and cultured faces appear in the surviving statuary; indeed many of the men and women look much like those of the present day. Agriculture flourished, the industries developed, and commerce made the people prosperous. Education appears to have been thorough within its limits, and had gradually become more widespread.

Although the power of the monarchy declined, the people as a whole did not lapse back into a state of semi-savagery. The nomes were well governed by the nobles, but a system of detached local administration was foredoomed to failure on account of the physical conditions of the country. Egypt required then, as now, a strong central government to promote the welfare of the entire country. A noble might continue to cut canals, but there was no guarantee that he would receive an equitable and regular supply of water. In an irrigated country water laws must be strictly observed, otherwise the many will suffer because of the heedlessness or selfishness of the few. When the power of the Pharaoh was shattered, the natural resources of Egypt declined, and a great proportion of the people were threatened with periodic famines.

The demands of the Court when at the height of its power may have seemed oppressive to the feudal lords. Pharaoh required a proportion of their crops and of their live stock, much free labour, and many fighting men, because he gave them water and protected them against the inroads of invaders. He had also private ambitions, and desired to erect a great tomb for himself. Yet he governed Egypt for the good of the greater number, and the conflicts between the Court and the feudal lords were really conflicts between national and local interests. The country as a whole suffered from the effects of extreme governmental decentralization- a policy inaugurated by priestly Pharaohs, who were, perhaps, too greatly concerned about promoting a national religion based upon sun worship.

The ascendancy of the nobles was impossible so long as the Pharaohs were, in a practical sense, the chief priests of each particular cult. Diplomatic rulers honoured local gods and attended to the erection and endowment of temples. They wedged themselves in between the hereditary chieftains and the priests who exercised so powerful an influence over the people. When, however, the nobles became the sole patrons of their nome cults, they were able to openly defy the Court.

So, when the throne tottered, a plague of anarchy fell upon Egypt, and the forces of reaction were let loose. Nome warred against nome and the strong prevailed over the weak. Temples were ruthlessly pillaged, and tombs were raided by robber bands; the mummies of hated kings were torn from the Pyramids; statuary was shattered and inscriptions were destroyed. Only in those provinces where good government was maintained did the old order of things remain. But Egypt was so thoroughly disorganized as a whole that several centuries had to elapse before the central government could be once again firmly established in the interests of progress and the welfare of the great mass of the people.

Occasionally a strong Pharaoh arose to compel the rival lords to make truce one with another, but such successes were only temporary. The feudal system was deeply rooted, and all a king could do was to organize a group of nobles to deal with those who threatened to grow too powerful. He could not raise or maintain a standing army, for each lord commanded all the fighting men in his own nome, and they owed allegiance to him alone; nor could the Pharaoh employ mercenaries, because the resources of the royal treasury were strictly limited.

Footnotes

1 The knotted cord was in general use throughout Europe. It is not yet uncommon in the Highlands of Scotland, where red neck cords protect children against the evil eye, while sprains. , are cured by knotted cords, a charm being repeated as each knot is tied.
2 Like Turnface in the boat of the dead.
3 Cats are credited in Europe with taking away life by sucking children's breath as they lie asleep.

• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Egyptian Myth and Legend
• Written by LC Geerts

Egyptian Myth and Legend Chapter 12, Triumph of the Sun God

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER XII

Triumph of the Sun God

Rival Cults--Ptah as a Giant--His Mountain "Seat--Paradise of Osiris--Paradise of Sun Worshippers--Ideas of Hades--The Devil Serpent--The Great Worm of the Bible--The Nine Gods of Heliopolis--Stone and Sun Worship--The Horus Cult--Various Conceptions of the God--Union with other Deities--Legend of the Winged Disk--Ra's Enemies slain--Set as the "Roaring Serpent"----Sun Worshippers as Kings--Ptah Worshippers as Grand Viziers--Unas the Eater of Gods--The Egyptian Orion.

THE rise of the sun god had both theological and political significance. Ra was elevated as the Great Father of a group of cosmic and human deities, and his high priest, who was evidently of royal descent, sat upon the throne of united Egypt. The folk tale about the prophecy of Dedi and the birth of three children who were to become kings appears to have been invented in later times to give divine origin to the revolution which abruptly terminated the succession of Khufu's descendants.

An interesting contrast is afforded by the two great rival religions of this period of transition. While the theology of Heliopolis was based upon sun worship, that of Memphis was based upon earth worship. Ptah, the creation elf of the latter city, had been united with Tanen (or Taten), the earth giant, 1 who resembles Seb. The dwarfish deity then assumed gigantic proportions, and became a "world god" or Great Father. A hymn addressed to Ptah Tanen declares that his head is in the heavens while his feet are on the earth or in Duat, the underworld. "The wind", declared the priestly poet, "issues from thy nostrils and the waters from thy mouth. Upon thy back grows the grain. The sun and the moon are thine eyes. When thou dost sleep it is dark, and when thou dost open thine eyes it is bright again."

Ptah Tanen was lauded as "a perfect god" who came forth "perfect in all his parts". At the beginning he was all alone. He built up his body and shaped his limbs ere the sky was fashioned and the world was set in order, and ere the waters issued forth. Unlike Ra, he did not rise from the primordial deep. "Thou didst discover thyself", sang the Memphite poet, "in the circumstance of one who made for himself a seat and shaped the Two Lands" (Upper and Lower Egypt). The suggestion is that, therefore, of a mountain giant with his 'seat' or 'chair' upon some lofty peak, an idea which only a hill folk could have imported.

"No father begot thee and no mother gave thee birth," the poet declared; "thou didst fashion thyself without the aid of any other being."

The further union of Ptah with Osiris is reflected in the conception of a material Paradise) where the souls of the dead were employed in much the same manner as the workers in Egypt. Ethical beliefs pervaded this religious system, as we have seen; men were judged after death; their future happiness was the reward of right conduct and good living. Thus we find men declaring in tomb inscriptions:

"I have constructed this tomb by honest means. I have never stolen from another . . . . I have never seized by force what belonged to another . . . . I was never scourged before an official (for law breaking) since I was born. My conduct was admired by all men. . . . I gave food to those who hungered, and those who were destitute I did clothe. . . . No man ever cried out to the god complaining against me as an oppressor."

Men died believing that Osiris would justify their actions. "I shall live like Osiris. He perished not when he died, neither shall I perish when I die."

These professions continued to be recorded after the rise of the sun god. The new religion was embraced mainly by the royal and aristocratic families and the Asiatic element in the population. It was infused by magical rather than ethical beliefs; a man's future happiness depended wholly on his knowledge of magical formulae and his devotion to religious rites.

The Paradise of the sun worshippers was of more spiritual character than that believed in by the cult of Ptah-Osiris. Their great hope was to find a place in the sun bark of Ra. The chosen among the dead became shining spirits, who accompanied their god on his safe journey through the perils of darkness, and they partook of his celestial food and shared his celestial drink; they became one with Ra, and yet did not suffer loss of identity.

It was taught by the priests of Heliopolis that after death the souls of mankind travelled towards the west and entered the first hour-division of the dark underworld Duat. There, in Amenti, "the hidden region", they awaited the coming of the bark of Ra. Those who could repeat the necessary magical "passwords" were permitted to enter, and they journeyed onward in the brightness diffused by the god until they reached the eastern horizon at dawn. Then they ascended the heavens and passed through happy fields. They could even visit old friends and old haunts upon earth, but they had to return to the sun bark in the evening, because evil spirits would devour them in the darkness. So they sailed each night through the underworld. They lived in eternal light.

Less fortunate souls resided in the various hour-divisions of Duat. Some were left in the first; others were allowed to enter the sun bark until they reached the particular divisions to which the power of their magical formulextended. These remained in darkness, faintly lit up by the fire which serpents spat out and the flames of the torture pools, except for one of the four-and-twenty hours, when the sun bark appeared. Then they enjoyed the blessings of sunlight and the special benefits conferred by Ra. Assembling on the river banks they adored the passing deity, and when he departed their voices were raised in lamentation. They enjoyed the privilege of having food supplied without labour.

The supernatural enemies of Ra were slain nightly by spears, which were sun rays, and knives, which were flames of fire, as well as by powerful magic spells. When the god passed on, all the demons came to life again. Ra's human enemies were those apparently who had not worshipped him upon earth. Such were consigned to torture in lakes of everlasting fire. Later Egyptian beliefs retained the memory of this ancient conception. The Copts peopled hell with demons who had the heads of serpents, crocodiles, lions, and even bears. After death these "avengers" seized the doomed man and wrenched the soul from the body with much violence. Then they stabbed and hacked it with knives, and thrust goads into its sides, and carried it to a river of fire and plunged it in. Afterwards the tortured soul was cast into outer darkness, where it gnashed its teeth in the bitter cold. It might also be consigned to a place of horror which swarmed with poisonous reptiles. But although it could be wounded and hacked to pieces it did not perish. In time the soul passed to the first hour-division of Duat. Egypt swarmed with serpents in early times, and they were greatly dreaded by the people. Even Ra feared them. He was bitten by the serpent which Isis created, and when he left the earth and ascended to heaven, after reigning over men, he spoke of them as his enemies, and provided magical spells so that they might be overcome. Serpent charmers have not yet disappeared in the land of Egypt. They had great repute in ancient days. Symbolic reference is made to their powers in the Bible. "Their poison", declared the Psalmist, "is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adder that stopped her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of charmers" (Psalm lviii, 4-5). In Jeremiah, viii, 17, we read: "I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you"; and in Ecclesiastes, xii: "Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment". Those who have watched the genuine serpent charmers at work in Egypt have testified to the efficacy of their wonderful powers. 2

In ancient Egypt serpents were believed, especially by the sun worshippers, to be incarnations of evil spirits. 3 Darkness, the enemy of light, was symbolized as the Apep serpent, which is also referred to as the Great Worm. It rose up each night in the realms of Duat to destroy the sun bark and devour Ra. Occasionally it issued forth in daylight, and appeared in darkening thunder clouds, when a dread battle was waged and lightning spears were hurled against it. At dreaded eclipse it seemed to achieve temporary triumph. In this respect the Apep serpent resembled the Chinese dragon.

When Ra was in peril the priests chanted powerful spells to assist him, and the people assembled and shouted together to scare away the monster of darkness and evil. The ordinary ritual of the sun worshippers provided magical formul which were recited to render service to the god at regular intervals. Written spells were also considered to be efficacious, and these were inscribed with green ink upon new papyrus, which was burned. Belief in sympathetic magic is reflected in the ceremony of making and destroying a green wax figure of the great serpent. At midnight, when Ra began his return journey, and the power of evil was strongest, the wax figure was placed in a fire and spat upon. As it melted, the pious worshippers of the sun god believed that the Apep serpent suffered loss of power. The ashes of the figure and of the papyrus were afterwards mixed with filth and committed to the flames a second time. It was also customary to make wax models of the serpent fiends which assisted Apep, and they were given the heads of black and white cats crocodiles, and ducks. 4 Stone knives were stuck in their backs, and they were thrown in the dust and kicked with the left foot. 5

Symbolic references are also made in the Bible to the great Egyptian serpent. In Isaiah, lxvi, 24, we read: "Their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh"; and also: "The worm shall eat them like wool" (li, 8). In Coptic literature the Apep serpent is a monster which lies in outer darkness encircling the world and clutching its tail between its jaws, like the Midgard serpent of Norse mythology. From its mouth issues forth "All ice, 6 dust, cold, disease, and sickness" (Pistis Sophia).

The idea that the sun was an incarnation of the Creator was imported from Asia, but the conception of Duat, with its lakes of fire, is of Egyptian origin. In the Babylonian Hades, to which Istar descended, eternal darkness prevailed, and doomed souls partook of filthy food and drank unclean waters; they were not tortured by flames, but by pestilent odours and by diseases.'

Ra theology developed upon Egyptian lines, and was fused with pre-existing local beliefs. The sun bark, which was called "Bark of Millions of Years", sailed upon an underworld Nile by night and a celestial Nile by day, and the seasonal changes of its course over the heavens were accounted for by the celestial inundation. Ra occupied the Maadit bark in the forenoon, and the Sekti bark in the afternoon. The change was effected at noon, when special magical formulwere chanted. 7

As the theology of the sun worshippers developed at Heliopolis, other gods, which were imported or had their origin in Egypt, were included in the divine family. The number three and its multiple had evidently magical significance. Ra, Khepera, and Tum formed the sun triad. The sun god and his children and descendants: Nut, the heavens, Shu, the air, Seb, the earth, with the lioness-headed Tefnut, "the spitter", Osiris, the deified king and corn spirit, Isis, the Delta "Great Mother", and her sister Nepthys, and the Semitic Set, formed the Ennead of Heliopolis. The group of Nine Gods varied at different periods. In one Horus displaces Set, and in another Osiris is absent and his place is occupied by Khepera, the beetle god. The inclusion of Horus probably marks the union of the Horite creed with that of Ra. Attempts were frequently made by kings and priests to absorb the Osiran cult at Heliopolis, but they were never successful. A compromise was evidently effected in time, for in Duat a "division" was allocated to Osiris, and there he judged his followers. Ultimately the two ideas of Paradise were confused rather than fused, and in the end the earlier faith achieved the victory after centuries of repression. We have already noted that Ptah was rigidly excluded from the Ennead of the sun worshippers. 8

Archaic religious beliefs also received recognition at Heliopolis. The priests of the sun were evidently prepared to recognize any god so long as Ra was acknowledged as the Great Father. They not only tolerated but perpetuated the worship of trees and wells, and of stones and sacred mounds. Reverence is still shown for the well in which Ra was wont to wash his face daily, and it is called by the Arabs "the spring of the sun". A sycamore near it is also regarded with veneration. Sacrifices were offered up on a holy sand mound, and the custom prevailed at funeral services in tombs of setting up the mummy case in erect position on a heap of sand. One of the spirits 9 of the sun god was believed to inhabit a great block of stone. Indeed On, the Egyptian name of the sacred "city of the sun", signifies "stone pillar". In the Fifth Dynasty the Ra kings erected roofless temples in which there towered great broad obelisks surmounting mastaba-like square platforms. One of these stone idols at Abusir measured 138 feet at the base, and was 111 feet high. Outside the temple was a brick sun bark over 90 feet in length.

This form of temple was discontinued after the Sixth Dynasty, when the political power of the Ra priests was undermined. The tradition of stone worship survived, however, in the custom of erecting in front of temples those shapely obelisks similar to the familiar "Cleopatra's needle" on the Thames Embankment. One still remains erect at Matarieh (Heliopolis) to mark the site of a vanished temple. It bears the name of King Senusert I of the Twelfth Dynasty.

The religion of the Horite sun worshippers, which was introduced by the Dynastic Egyptians who pressed northwards and conquered the whole land, appears to have differed from that of the Ra cult. It is not possible now to distinguish the original form of the tribal god, or to discover what particular religious rites were associated with him. There are several forms of Horus. The most familiar is the hawk, which symbolized the spirit of the sun. It protected the early kings, who were "the priests or descendants of Horus"--a royal title which continued ever afterwards in use. Like the Ra cult, the cult of Horus absorbed Egyptian beliefs, and the conception of the hawk god varied accordingly in different districts.

The two outstanding Horuses arc the elder and the younger--the Horus who was the brother of Osiris an-d the Horus child who was the son of Osiris and Isis.

Horus of Letopolis, near Memphis, was a hawk-headed man and the son of Hathor, the sky goddess. In Upper Egypt he was similarly represented, or simply as a hawk. At Edfu in particular he has the attributes of a sky god, and at Shedenu, a city in Lower Egypt, he was "Horus of the Two Eyes", the sun being one and the moon another, thus resembling the conception of Ptah Tanen. He was also Harmachis, "Horus of the Two Horizons", and in this character became one of the chief forms of Ra. As the "golden Horus" he was a dawn god, and in this character received the dead in the Judgment Hall of Osiris. The planet Saturn was "Horus the Bull", Mars was "Red Horus", and Jupiter "Horus, revealer of secrets". At Letopolis a temple was erected to "Horus of Not Seeing". In this form he is supposed to have represented the sun at solar eclipse, but he may have simply represented the firmament at night. It is possible that Hathor, as the chaos cow, was originally the Great Mother; and that the sky, sun, moon, and stars were the various forms assumed by her son Horus, or her various Horus sons.

When the child Horus became the son of Isis there may have been simply a change of mother. Isis and Hathor are similar conceptions, indeed the deities were ultimately confused. Both also resemble Nut as Great Mothers, but Nut represented Mother Heaven and Isis Mother Earth, while Hathor was the World Cow, representing fertility in that form. Nut was also represented as a cat. In her human form she gave birth to the sun daily, and the moon every month, and in another conception the sun and moon were her eyes. Ere Ra became the "Great Father" he was born of Nut.

The tribal aspect of the Osiris, Isis, and Horus myth is dealt with in a previous chapter. There is abundant evidence in Egyptian mythology that the union of deities signified the union of the tribes which worshipped them. The multiplicity of deities was due to the fact that an original conception remained in its old tribal form, and was perpetuated alongside the new conception. Two gods might be fused into one, but Egypt retained not only the new deity, but the two old deities as well, and thus instead of one god we have three. We need not be surprised, therefore, to find more than one Horus. The name alone may survive in some cases, for the process of blending varied in districts and at various periods. Egyptian religion is made up of many forms of faith.

Horus was united with Ra as Harmachis, and the sun god of Heliopolis became Ra Harmachis. The hawk god was thus symbolized as the winged sun disk. The legend which was invented to account for the change may here be summarized.

When Ra reigned as king over Egypt he sailed up the Nile towards Nubia, because his enemies were plotting against him. At Edfu Horus entered the bark of the great god and hailed him as father. Ra greeted the hawk god and entreated him to slay the rebels of Nubia. Then Horus flew up to the sun as a great winged disk, and he was afterwards called "the great god, the lord of the sky". He perceived the enemies of Ra, and went against them as a winged disk. Their eyes were blinded by his brightness, and their ears were made deaf, and in the confusion they slew one another. Not a single conspirator remained alive.

Horus returned to the bark of Ra, and from that day he became Horus, god of Edfu, in the form of a winged sun disk. Ka embraced him and said: "Thou hast made the water wine-red with blood, and my heart is glad."

Ra afterwards visited the battlefield, and, when he saw the dead bodies of his foes, he said: "Life is pleasant." The name of the place thus became Horbehti, which means "Pleasant Life".

The slain men were covered by water (at inundation) and became crocodiles and hippopotami. Then they attacked Horus as he sailed past; but his servants slew them with iron lances. Thoth rejoiced with glad heart when he beheld the enemies of Ra lying dead.

The legend continues in this strain, and relates that Horus pursued the enemies of the god Ra downstream. Apparently Egypt was full of them. We then learn that they were the followers of Set, who was driven towards the frontier. He was afterwards taken prisoner, and with manacled hands and a spear stuck in his neck he was brought before Ra. Then we find that there are two Horuses. The elder Horus is commanded by the sun god to deliver Set to Horus, son of Isis. The younger Horus cuts off the head of Set, and the slayer of Osiris becomes a roaring serpent which seeks refuge in a hole and is commanded to remain there.

Osiris is not mentioned in the legend, and Ra refers to the younger Horus as his own son. Apparently the theorists of Heliopolis desired Ra to supplant Osiris. Place names are played upon so that their origin may be ascribed to something said by the sun god, and grammatical construction is occasionally ignored with this end in view.

Horus worship never became popular in Egypt. It was absorbed by the various cults, so that, as we have indicated, its original form is confused. The religion of the sun cult at Heliopolis, which was imported by the Asiatic settlers, was the religion which received prominence at the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty. A new title was given to the Pharaoh. He became the "Son of the Sun" as well as "Priest of Horus", "Priest of Set", "lord of the north and south".

The rise of the sun god involved far-reaching political issues. Although the high priest of Ra sat upon the throne, he did not become a tyrannical dictator like a Fourth-Dynasty king. A compromise had to be effected with the powerful faction at Memphis, and the high priest of Ptah became the vizier, a post previously held by the Pharaoh's chosen successor. Nome governors were also given extended powers as administrators, as a reward probably for the share they had taken in the revolution, or at any rate to conciliate them and secure their allegiance. This decentralizing process weakened the ruling power, but Egypt appears to have prospered as a whole, and the peaceful conditions which prevailed imparted activity to its intellectual life, as we shall see. Small and roughly constructed pyramid tombs were erected by the monarchs, who could no longer command an unlimited supply of labour.

The Fifth Dynasty lasted for about a century and a quarter. It began with Userkaf, the first babe mentioned in the Dedi folk tale, and he was succeeded in turn by the other two, who were not, however, his brothers. The ninth and last king of the Dynasty was Unas. In the so-called "Pyramid Texts", in his own tomb and that of Teta, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty, the monarch was deified as a star god, and has been identified with the constellation of Orion. The conception is a remarkable one. It smacks of absolute savagery, and we seem to be confronted with a symbolic revival of pre-Dynastic cannibalistic rites which are suggested, according to Maspero, by the gnawed and disconnected bones found in certain early graves. At the original Sed festival the tribal king, as Professor Petrie suggests, appears to have been sacrificed and devoured, so that his people might derive from his flesh and blood the power and virtues which made him great. The practice was based on belief in contagious magic. Bulls and boars were eaten to give men strength and courage, deer to give fleetness of foot, and serpents to give cunning. The blood of wounded warriors was drunk so that their skill and bravery might be imparted to the drinkers. 10 King Unas similarly feasts after death on "the spirits" known at Heliopolis as "the fathers and the mothers", and on the bodies of men and gods. He swallows their spirits, souls, and names, which are contained in their hearts, livers, and entrails, and consequently becomes great and all-powerful. 11 The resemblance to the man-eating giants of Europe is very striking.

The rendering which follows of the remarkable Unas hymn is fairly close. It is cast in metrical form with endeavour to reproduce the spirit of the original.

ORION IN EGYPT 12

Now heaven rains, and trembles every star
With terror; bowmen scamper to escape;
And quakes old Aker, lion of the earth,
While all his worshippers betake to flight,
For Unas rises and in heaven appears
Like to a god who lived upon his sires
And on his mothers fed.

Unas the lord
Of wisdom is; the secret of his Name
Not e'en his mother knows. . . . His rank is high
In heaven above; his power is like to Tum's,
His sire divine. . . . Greater than Tum is he.

His shadowy doubles follow him behind
As he comes forth. The urs on his brow
Uprears; the royal serpent guides him on;
He sees his Ba 13 a flame of living fire.

The strength of Unas shields him. . . He is now
The Bull of Heaven, doing as he wills,
Feeding on what gives life unto the gods--
Their food he eats who would their bellies fill
With words of power from the pools of flame.

Against the spirits shielded by his might,
Unas arises now to take his meal--
Men he devours; he feasts upon the gods
This lord who reckons offerings: he who makes
Each one to bow his forehead, bending low.

Amkenhuu is snarer; Herthertu
Hath bound them well; and Khonsu killer is
Who cuts the throats and tears the entrails out--
'Twas he whom Unas sent to drive them in . . .
Divided by Shesemu, now behold
The portions cooking in the fiery pots.

Unas is feasting on their secret Names;
Unas devours their spirits and their souls--
At morn he eats the largest, and at eve
The ones of middle girth, the small at night:
Old bodies are the faggots for his fire.

Lo! mighty Unas makes the flames to leap
With thighs of ag ones, and into pots
Are legs of women flung that he may feast.

Unas, the Power, is the Power of Powers!
Unas, the mighty god, is god of gods!
Voraciously he feeds on what he finds,
And he is given protection more assured
Than all the mummies 'neath the western sky.

Unas is now the eldest over all--
Thousands he ate and hundreds he did burn;
He rules o'er Paradise. . . .Among the gods
His soul is rising up in highest heaven--
The Crown is he as the horizon lord.

He reckoned livers as he reckoned knots;
The hearts of gods he ate and they are his;
He swallowed up the White Crown and the Red,
And fat of entrails gulped; the secret Names
Are in his belly and he prospers well--
Lo! he devoured the mind of every god,
And so shall live for ever and endure
Eternally, to do as he desires.

The souls of gods are now in his great soul;
Their spirits in his spirit; he obtains
Food in abundance greater than the gods--
His fire has seized their bones, and lo! their souls
Are Unas's; their shades are with their forms.

Unas ascends. . . . Unas ascends with these--
Unas is hidden, is hidden 14 . . . . An One
For him hath ploughed . . . . The seat of every heart Is
Unas's among all living men.

Footnotes

1 The lion Aker was another earth god.
2 See Lane's Manners and Customs the Modern Egyptians. (Chapters xi and xx).
3 See Chapter V.
4 The duck-headed serpent recalls the fire drake of the Beowulf poem. Giants with cats' heads and dogs' heads are found in Celtic folklore.
5 King James in his Donology (Book II, Chap. v) says: "The devil teacheth how to make pictures of wax or clay, that by roasting thereof, the persons that they beat the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual sickness."
6 In the Reign of Rameses II, Khattusil, the Hittite king, visited Egypt. An inscription at Abu Simbel expresses the hope that on his journey homeward he will not be delayed by snow and ice on the mountains. Isaiah makes symbolic reference to the serpent: "In that day the Lord with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing (or stiff) serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea" (Isaiah, xxvii, 1).
7 As in the Nifel-hel of Teutonic mythology.
8 The Mohammedan noonday prayer is probably a survival of the sun worshippers' custom.
9 Gods and Pharaohs had several Kas. Ra had fourteen, and he had also seven Bas (souls).
10 In the Nibelungenlied the Burgundians drink the blood of fallen heroes and are refreshed and strengthened. See Teutonic Myth and Legend.
11 Dr. Budge is of opinion that human beings were sacrificed to the sun god. The practice was "of vital importance". Referring to the Ra obelisk in the early sun temples, he says that "the size and number of conduits to carry away blood bears evidence of the magnitude of the slaughterings" (Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection and Gods of the Egyptians).
12 Osiris, in his fusion with Ra, is addressed as "thou first great sun god", and Isis says: "There proceedeth from thee the strong Orion in heaven at evening, at the resting of every day."--The Burden of Isis ("Wisdom of the East" Series) trans. by Dennis, p. 24.
13 Soul
14 Hail, thou hidden god, Osiris in the underworld."--The Burden of Isis, p. 54.

• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Egyptian Myth and Legend
• Written by LC Geerts

Egyptian Myth and Legend Chapter 11, Folk Tales of Fifty Centuries

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER XI

Folk Tales of Fifty Centuries

A Faithless Lady--The Wax Crocodile--Pharaoh's Decree--Story of the Green Jewel--A Sad-hearted King--Boating on the Lake--How the Waters were divided--Dedi the Magician--His Magical Feats--A Prophecy --Khufu's Line must fall--Birth of the Future Kings--Goddesses as Dancing Girls--Ghostly Music and Song--Tale of a King's Treasure--Fearless Thieves--A Brother's Bravery--Pharaoh's Soldiers are tricked--How a Robber became a Prince--King visits the Underworld.

KING KHUFU sat to hear tales told by his sons regarding the wonders of other days and the doings of magicians. The Prince Khafra stood before him and related the ancient story of the wax crocodile.

Once upon a time a Pharaoh went towards the temple of the god Ptah. His counsellers and servants accompanied him. It chanced that he paid a visit to the villa of the chief scribe, behind which there was a garden with a stately summer house and a broad artificial lake. Among those who followed Pharaoh was a handsome youth, and the scribe's wife beheld him with love. Soon afterwards she sent gifts unto him, and they had secret meetings. They spent a day in the summer house, and feasted there, and in the evening the youth bathed in the lake. The chief butler then went to his master and informed him what had come to pass.

The scribe bade the servant to bring a certain magic box, and when he received it he made a small wax crocodile, over which he muttered a spell. He placed it in the hands of the butler, saying: "Cast this image into the lake behind the youth when next he bathes himself "

On another day, when the scribe dwelt with Pharaoh, the lovers were together in the summer house, and at eventide the youth went into the lake. The butler stole through the garden, and stealthily he cast into the water the wax image, which was immediately given life. It became a great crocodile that seized the youth suddenly and took him away.

Seven days passed, and then the scribe spoke to the Pharaoh regarding the wonder which had been done, and made request that His Majesty should accompany him to his villa. The Pharaoh did so, and when they both stood beside the lake in the garden the scribe spoke magic words, bidding the crocodile to appear. As he commanded, so did it do. The great reptile came out of the water carrying the youth in its jaws.

The scribe said: "Lo! it shall do whatever I command to be done."

Said the Pharaoh: "Bid the crocodile to return at once to the lake."

Ere he did that, the scribe touched it, and immediately it became a small image of wax again. The Pharaoh was filled with wonder, and the scribe related unto him all that had happened, while the youth stood waiting.

Said His Majesty unto the crocodile: "Seize the wrongdoer." The wax image was again given life, and, clutching the youth, leaped into the lake and disappeared. Nor was it ever seen after that.

Then Pharaoh gave command that the wife of the scribe should be seized. On the north side of the house she was bound to a stake and burned alive, and what remained of her was thrown into the Nile.

Such was the tale told by Khafra. Khufu was well pleased, and caused offerings of food and refreshment to be placed in the tombs of the Pharaoh and his wise servant.

Prince Khafra stood before His Majesty, and said: "I will relate a marvel which happened in the days of King Sneferu, thy father." Then he told the story of the green jewel.

Sneferu was one day disconsolate and weary. He wandered about the palace with desire to be cheered, nor was there aught to take the gloom from his mind. He caused his chief scribe to be brought before him, and said: "I would fain have entertainment, but cannot find any in this place."

The scribe said: "Thy Majesty should go boating on the lake, and let the rowers be the prettiest girls in your harem. It will delight your heart to see them splashing the water where the birds dive and to gaze upon the green shores and the flowers and trees. I myself will go with you."

The king consented, and twenty virgins who were fair to behold went into the boat, and they rowed with oars of ebony which were decorated with gold. His Majesty took pleasure in the outing, and the gloom passed from his heart as the boat went hither and thither, and the girls sang together with sweet voices.

It chanced, as they were turning round, an oar handle brushed against the hair of the girl who was steering, and shook from it a green jewel, which fell into the water. She lifted up her oar and stopped singing, and the others grew silent and ceased rowing.

Said Sneferu: "Do not pause; let us go on still farther."

The girls said: "She who steers has lifted her oar."

Said Sneferu to her: "Why have you lifted your oar?"

"Alas, I have lost my green jewel she said it has fallen into the lake."

Sneferu said: "I will give you another; let us go on."

The girl pouted and made answer: "I would rather have my own green jewel again than any other."

His Majesty said to the chief scribe: "I am given great enjoyment by this novelty; indeed my mind is much refreshed as the girls row me up and down the lake. Now one of them has lost her green jewel, which has dropped into the water, and she wants it back again and will not have another to replace it."

The chief scribe at once muttered a spell. Then by reason of his magic words the waters of the lake were divided like a lane. He went down and found the green jewel which the girl had lost, and came back with it to her. When he did that, he again uttered words of power, and the waters came together as they were before.

The king was well pleased, and when he had full enjoyment with the rowing upon the lake he returned to the palace. He gave gifts to the chief scribe, and everyone wondered at the marvel which he had accomplished.

Such was Khafra's tale of the green jewel, and King Khufu commanded that offerings should be laid in the tombs of Sneferu and his chief scribe, who was a great magician.

Next Prince Hordadef stood before the king, and he said: "Your Majesty has heard tales regarding the wonders performed by magicians in other days, but I can bring forth a worker of marvels who now lives in the kingdom."

King Khufu said: "And who is he, my son?"

"His name is Dedi," answered Prince Hordadef. "He is a very old man, for his years are a hundred and ten. Each day he eats a joint of beef and five hundred loaves of bread, and drinks a hundred jugs of beer. He can smite off the head of a living creature and restore it again; he can make a lion follow him; and he knows the secrets of the habitation of the god Thoth, which Your Majesty has desired to know so that you may design the chambers of your pyramid."

King Khufu said: "Go now and find this man for me, Hordadef."

The prince went down to the Nile, boarded a boat, and sailed southward until he reached the town called Dedsnefru, where Dedi had his dwelling. He went ashore, and was carried in his chair of state towards the magician, who was found lying at his door. When Dedi was awakened, the king's son saluted him and bade him not to rise up because of his years. The prince said: "My royal father desires to honour you, and will provide for you a tomb among your people."

Dedi blessed the prince and the king with thankfulness, and he said to Hordadef: "Greatness be thine; may your Ka have victory over the powers of evil, and may your Khu follow the path which leads to Paradise."

Hordadef assisted Dedi to rise up, and took his arm to help him towards the ship. He sailed away with the prince, and in another ship were his assistants and his magic books.

"Health and strength and plenty be thine," said Hordadef, when he again stood before his royal father King Khufu. "I have come down stream with Dedi, the great magician."

His Majesty was well pleased, and said: "Let the man be brought into my presence."

Dedi came and saluted the king, who said: "Why have I not seen you before?"

"He that is called cometh," answered the old man; "you have sent for me and I am here."

"It is told," King Khufu said, "that you can restore the head that is taken from a live creature." 1

"I can indeed, Your Majesty," answered Dedi.

The king said: "Then let a prisoner be brought forth and decapitated."

"I would rather it were not a man," said Dedi; "I do not deal even with cattle in such a manner."

A duck was brought forth and its head was cut off, and the head was thrown to the right and the body to the left. Dedi spoke magic words. Then the head and the body came together, and the duck rose up and quacked loudly. The same was done with a goose.

King Khufu then caused a cow to be brought in, and its head was cut off. Dedi restored the animal to life again, and caused it to follow him.

His Majesty then spoke to the magician and said: "It is told that you possess the secrets of the dwelling of the god Thoth."

Dedi answered: "I do not possess them, but I know where they are concealed, and that is within a temple chamber at Heliopolis. There the plans are kept in a box, but it is no insignificant person who shall bring them to Your Majesty."

"I would fain know who will deliver them unto me," King Khufu said.

Dedi prophesied that three sons would be born to Rud-dedit, wife of the chief priest of Ra. The eldest would become chief priest at Heliopolis and would possess the plans. He and his brothers would one day sit upon the throne and rule over all the land.

King Khufu's heart was filled with gloom and alarm when he heard the prophetic words of the great magician.

Dedi then said: "What are your thoughts, O King? Behold your son will reign after you, and then his son. But next one of these children will follow."

King Khufu was silent. Then he spoke and asked: "When shall these children be born?"

Dedi informed His Majesty, who said: "I will visit the temple of Ra at that time."

Dedi was honoured by His Majesty, and thereafterwards dwelt in the house of the Prince Hordadef. He was given daily for his portion an ox, a thousand loaves of bread, a hundred jugs of beer, and a hundred bunches of onions.

The day came when the sons of the woman Rud-dedit were to be born. Then the high priest of Ra, her husband, prayed unto the goddess Isis and her sister Nepthys; to Meskhent, goddess of birth; and to the frog goddess Hekt; and to the creator god Khn who gives the breath of life. These he entreated to have care of the three babes who were to become three kings of Egypt, one after the other. 2

The deities heard him. Then came the goddesses as dancing girls, who went about the land, and the god Khnfollowed them as their burden bearer. When they reached the door of the high priest's dwelling they danced before him. He entreated them to enter, and they did according to his desire, and shut themselves in the room with the woman Rud-dedit.

Isis called the first child who was born Userkaf, and said: "Let no evil be done by him". The goddess Meskhent prophesied that he would become King of Egypt. Khn the creator god, gave the child strength.

The second babe was named Sahura by the goddess Isis. Meskhent prophesied that he also would become a king. Khngave him his strength.

The third was called Kaka. Meskhent said: "He shall also be a king", and Khn gave him strength.

Ere the dancing girls took their departure the high priest gave a measure of barley to their burden bearer, and Khncarried it away upon his shoulders.

They all went upon their way, and Isis said: "Now let us work a wonder on behalf of these children, so that their father may know who hath sent us unto his house.

Royal crowns were fashioned and concealed in the measure of barley which had been given them. Then the deities caused a great storm to arise, and in the midst of it they returned to the dwelling of the high priest, and they put the barley in a cellar, and sealed it, saying they would return again and take it away.

It came to pass that after fourteen days Rud-dedit bade her servant to bring barley from the cellar so that beer might be made.

The girl said: "There is none left save the measure which was given unto the dancing girls."

"Bring that then," said Rud-dedit, "and when the dancing girls return I will give them its value."

When the servant entered the cellar she heard the low sounds of sweet music and dancing and song. She went and told her mistress of this wonder, and Rud-dedit entered the cellar, and at first could not discover whence the mysterious sounds issued forth. At length she placed her ear against the sack which contained the barley given to the dancing girls, and found that the music was within it. She at once placed the sack in a chest and locked it, and then told her husband, and they rejoiced together.

Now it happened that one day Rud-dedit was angry with her servant, and smote her heavily. The girl vowed that she would be avenged and said: "Her three children will become kings. I will inform King Khufu of this matter."

So the servant went away and visited her uncle, who was her mother's eldest brother. Unto him she told all that had happened and all she knew regarding the children of her mistress.

He was angry with her and spoke, saying: "Why come to me with this secret? I cannot consent to make it known as you desire."

Then he struck the girl, who went afterwards to draw water from the Nile. On the bank a crocodile seized her, and she was devoured.

The man then went towards the dwelling of Rud-dedit and he found her mourning with her head upon her knees. He spoke, saying: "Why is your heart full of gloom?"

Rud-dedit answered him: "Because my servant girl went away to reveal my secret."

The man bowed and said: "Behold! she came unto me and told me all things. But I struck her, and she went towards the river and was seized by a crocodile."'

So was the danger averted. Nor did King Khufu ever discover the babes regarding whom Dedi had prophesied. In time they sat upon the throne of Egypt.

A folk tale regarding the king who reigned in Egypt before Khufu was related by a priest to Herodotus, the Greek historian.

The monarch was called Rhampsinitus. He built the western portion of the temple of Ptah. He also erected two statues--one to Summer, which faced the north, and was worshipped; and the other to Winter, which faced the south, but was never honoured. The king possessed great wealth, and he caused to be constructed beside the palace a strong stone chamber in which he kept his riches. One of the builders, however, contrived to place a stone in such a manner that it could be removed from the outside.

It chanced that, after the king had deposited his treasure in the chamber, this builder was stricken with illness and knew his end was nigh. He had two sons, and he told them his secret regarding the stone, and gave them the measurements, so that they might locate it.

After the man died the sons went forth in the darkness of night, and when they found the stone they removed it. Then they entered the chamber, and carried away much treasure, and ere they departed they closed up the wall again.

The king marvelled greatly when he discovered that his riches had been plundered, for the seals of the door were unbroken, and he knew not whom to suspect. Again and again the robbers returned, and the treasure diminished greatly. At length the king caused traps to be laid in the chamber, for his guards, who kept watch at the entrances, were unable to prevent the mysterious robberies.

Soon after the brothers returned. They removed the stone, and one of them entered stealthily. He went towards the treasure, as was his custom, but was suddenly caught in a trap. In a moment he realized that escape was impossible, and he reflected that he would be put to death on the morrow, while his brother would be seized and similarly punished. So he said to himself: "I alone will die."

When he had thus resolved to save his brother, he called to him softly in the darkness, bidding him to enter cautiously. He made known his great misfortune, and said: "I cannot escape, nor dare you tarry long lest you be discovered, When they find me here I will be recognized, and they will seize you and put you to death. Cut off my head at once, so that they may not know who I am, and thus save your own life."

With a sad heart the brother did as he was desired, and carried away the head. Ere he escaped in the darkness he replaced the stone, and no man saw him.

When morning came the king was more astounded than ever to find a headless body entrapped in the treasure chamber, for the door had not been opened, and yet two men had entered and one had escaped. He commanded that the corpse should be hung on the palace wall, and stationed guards at the place, bidding them to keep strict watch, so that they might discover if anyone came to sorrow for the dead man. But no one came nigh.

Meanwhile the mother grieved in secret. Her heart was filled with anger because the body was exposed in such a manner, and she threatened to inform the king regarding all that had happened if her other son would not contrive to carry away the corpse. The young man attempted to dissuade her, but she only repeated her threat, and that firmly. He therefore made preparations to obtain possession of the corpse.

He hired several asses, and on their backs he put many skins of wine. In the evening he drove them towards the palace. When he drew near to the guards who kept watch over his brother's body he removed the stoppers of some of the skins. The wine ran forth upon the highway, and he began to lament aloud, and beat his head as if he were in sore distress. The soldiers ran towards the asses and seized them, and caught the wine in vessels, claiming it for themselves. At first the brother pretended to be angry, and abused the men; but when they had pacified him, as they thought, he spoke to them pleasantly and began to make secure the stoppers of all the skins.

In a short time he was chatting with the guards, and pretended to be much amused when they bantered him over the accident. Then he invited them to drink, and they filled their flasks readily. So they began, and the young man poured out wine until they were all made very drunk. When they fell asleep, the cunning fellow took down his brother's body, and laid it upon the back of one of the asses. Ere he went away he shaved the right cheeks of the soldiers. His mother welcomed him on his return in the darkness and was well pleased.

The king was very angry when he discovered how the robber had tricked the guards, but he was still determined to have him taken. He sent forth his daughter in disguise, and she waited for the criminal. She spoke to several men, and at length she found him, because he came to know that he was sought and desired to deal cunningly with her. So he addressed her, and she offered to be his bride if he would tell her the most artful thing and also the most wicked thing he had ever done.

He answered readily: "The most wicked thing I ever did was to cut off my brother's head when he was caught in a trap in the royal treasure chamber, and the most artful was to deceive the king's guards and carry away the body."

The princess tried to seize him, but he thrust forth his brother's arm, which he carried under his robe, and when she clutched it he made speedy escape.

Great was then the astonishment of the king at the cunning and daring of the robber. He caused a proclamation to be made, offering him a free pardon and a generous reward if he would appear at the palace before him. The man went readily, and His Majesty was so delighted with his speeches and great ingenuity that he gave him his daughter in marriage. There is no more artful people than the Egyptians, but this man had not his equal in the land.

It was told that this same king journeyed to the land of Death, where he played dice with the goddess Isis 3 and now won and now lost. She gave to him a napkin embroidered with gold, and on his return a great festival was held, and it was repeated every year thereafter. On such occasions it was customary to blindfold a priest and lead him to the temple of Isis, where he was left alone. It was believed that two wolves met him and conducted him back to the spot where he was found. The Egyptians esteemed Isis and Osiris 4 as the greatest deities of the underworld.

Footnotes

1 This trick is still performed by Egyptian conjurors.
2 The manuscript, which is part of the "Westcar Papyrus", ends here. It was purchased in Egypt by a Miss Westcar, and is now preserved in the Berlin museum. The beginning and end had been torn off. The children referred to became the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty, which marks the political ascendancy of the Ra cult.
3 Herodotus gives Demeter (Ceres).
4 Ceres and Bacchus.

• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Egyptian Myth and Legend
• Written by LC Geerts

Egyptian Myth and Legend Chapter 10, The Great Pyramid Kings

EGYPTIAN MYTH AND LEGEND

With Historical Narrative, Notes on Race Problems, Comparative Beliefs, etc.

by

Donald Mackenzie

Gresham Publishing Co., London

[1907]

CHAPTER X

The Great Pyramid Kings

Zoser and Sneferu--Their Great Tombs--Sneferu's Battles with Invaders--Mastabas of Officials--The Grand Vizier--A New Dynasty--Khufu the Tyrant King--His Great Pyramid--The World's Greatest Stone Structure--An Army of Workers--How the Pyramids were built--Rocking Machines--A Religious Revolution--The Gods of the Sun Cult--Ptah excluded--King Khafra--Menkaura the just King--The Sacred Heifer--Khufu's Line overthrown.

WHEN the great pyramids were being erected Egypt was already a land of ancient memories. Some of the royal tombs at Abydos were a thousand years old. Folk tales had gathered round the memories of notable kings; their order was confused and not a few were quite forgotten.

Zoser and Sneferu of the Third Dynasty are really the first Egyptian monarchs of whom we obtain any accurate idea. They were forceful personalities. We trace Zoser's activities in Sinai, where he continued to work the copper mines from which several of his predecessors had obtained supplies of indispensable metal. He waged war on the southern frontier, which he extended below the First Cataract, and he imposed his rule firmly over the north. That peace prevailed all over the kingdom is evident; otherwise he could not have devoted so much time to the erection of his great tomb, at which a great army of workmen were kept continuously employed.

Sneferu, whose very name suggests swiftness of decision and unswerving purpose, impressed himself on the imagination of the Egyptians for many generations. When a great national achievement was accomplished it became customary to remark that no such success had been attained "since the days of Sneferu". He battled against Asian hordes who invaded the Delta region, and erected forts, like a chain of blockhouses, across the frontier, and these were associated with his name for over ten centuries. In Sinai there was trouble regarding the copper mines. Other people had begun to work them and disputed right of possession with the Egyptians. Sneferu conducted a vigorous and successful campaign, and so firmly established his power in that region that his spirit was worshipped generations afterwards as the protecting god of the mines. His ambitions were not confined to land, for he caused great ships to be built and he traded with Crete and the Syrian coast. The cedars of Lebanon were then cut and drifted to the Nile by Egyptian mariners. In the south Nubia was dealt with firmly. We gather that thousands of prisoners were captured and taken north as slaves to be employed, apparently, at the building of temples and tombs. Two pyramids are attributed to Sneferu, the greatest of which is situated at Medum.

The power and wealth of the officials had increased greatly. Their mastabas, which surround the royal tombs, are of greater and more elaborate construction. Pharaoh was no longer hampered with the details of government. A Grand Vizier controlled the various departments of State, and he was the supreme judge to whom final appeals were made by the Courts. There were also a "Chancellor of the Exchequer" and officials who controlled the canals and secured an equitable distribution of water. There were governors of nomes and towns, and even villages had their "chief men". To secure the effective control of the frontier, always threatened by raids from Nubia, a local vizier was appointed to quell outbreaks, and troops were placed at his disposal. These high offices were usually held by princes and noblemen, but apparently it was possible for men of humble rank to attain distinction and be promoted, like Joseph, to positions of influence and responsibility. In mastaba chapels there are proud records of promotion acquired by capable and successful officials who began life as scribes and were governors ere they died.

The Fourth Dynasty begins with Khufu the Great, the Cheops of the Greeks, who erected the largest pyramid in Egypt. His relationship to Sneferu. is uncertain. He was born in the Beni Hassan district, and was probably the son of a nobleman of royal birth. Sneferu may have left no direct heir or one who was a weakling. There is no record or tradition of a revolution, and it may be that Khufu was already a prominent figure at the Court when he seized the crown. In his harem was a lady who enjoyed the confidence of his predecessor, and it is possible that matters were arranged in his interests in that quarter.

No statues of Khufu survive. These were probably destroyed when, a few centuries after his death, his tomb was raided and his mummy torn to pieces, for he was remembered as a great tyrant. So much was he hated that Herodotus was informed by the priests that he "degenerated into the extremest profligacy of conduct". He barred the avenues to every temple and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifices. He proceeded next to make them labour as slaves for himself. Some he compelled to hew stones n the quarries of the Arabian mountains and drag them to the banks of the Nile; others were selected to load vessels. . . . A hundred thousand men were employed." But the memory of ancient wrongs was perpetuated by the priests not merely in sympathy for the workers and those who had to bear the burdens of taxation. A religious revolution was imminent. The sun worshippers at Heliopolis were increasing in numbers and power, and even in Khufu's day their political influence was being felt. In fact, their ultimate ascendancy may have been due to the public revolt against the selfish and tyrannical policy of the pyramid-building kings.

We enjoy a privilege not shared by Greeks or Romans, who heard the Egyptian traditions regarding the masterful monarch. Petrie discovered an ivory statue of Khufu, which is a minute and beautiful piece of work. The features occupy only a quarter of an inch, and are yet animate with life and expression. Khufu's face suggests that of the Duke of Wellington. The nose is large and curved like an eagle's beak; the eyes have a hard and piercing look; the cheek bones are high, the cheeks drawn down to knotted jaws; the chin is firmly cut and the hard mouth has an uncompromising pout; the brows are lowering. The face is that of a thinker and man of action--an idealist and an iron-willed ruler of men--

whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that the sculptor well those passions read
Which still survive

stamped on the statuette of the greatest of the pyramid builders. There is withal an air of self-consciousness, and we seem to hear, "My name is Khufu"--

. . . King of Kings;
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.

Petrie, the great Egyptian archlogist, calculates that Khufu's vast pyramid is composed of some 2,003,000 blocks of limestone averaging about 2 tons each. It occupies an area of 13 acres. Each side of the square base originally measured 768 feet, but the removal of the coating which left the sides smooth caused a shrinkage of about 18 feet. The height is now roughly 450 feet, 30 ft. less than when it was completed.

This pyramid is the greatest pile of masonry ever erected by man. Not only is it a monument to a mighty ruler and his great architects and builders, but also to the stone workers of Memphis. Many of the great stones have been cut and dressed with amazing skill and accuracy, and so closely are they placed together that the seams have to be marked with charcoal to be traced in a photograph. Blocks of limestone weighing tons are finished with almost microscopic accuracy, "equal", says Petrie, "to optician's work of the present day".

Volumes have been written to advance theories regarding the purpose of this and other pyramids. The orientation theory has especially been keenly debated. But it no longer obtains among prominent Egyptologists. A pyramid has no astronomical significance whatsoever; the Egyptians were not star worshippers. It is simply a vast burial cairn, and an architectural development of the mastaba, which had been growing higher and higher until Zoser's architect conceived the idea of superimposing one upon the other until an effect was obtained which satisfied his sense of proportion. Geometricians decided its final shape rather than theologians.

There are several chambers in the interior of Khufu's pyramid, whose mummy reposed in a granite sarcophagus in the largest, which is 19 feet high, 34 feet in length, and 17 feet in breadth. The entrance is from the north.

Herodotus was informed by the Egyptian priests that 100,000 workers were employed, and were relieved every three months. The limestone was quarried on the eastern side of the Nile, below Cairo, and drifted on rafts across the river. The low ground was flooded, so that the high ground was made an island. We are informed that ten years were spent in constructing a causeway up which the blocks were hauled. A considerable time was also spent in preparing the rocky foundations. The pyramid itself was the work of twenty years.

When the base was completed, the same writer explains, the stones were raised by the aid of "machines" made of "short pieces of wood". Models have been found in tombs of wooden "cradles"--flat on the top and rounded off so that they could be rocked--on which boulders were evidently poised and then slewed into position by haulage and leverage. The "cradles" were raised by wedges. When the block was lifted high enough, it could be tilted and made to slide down skids into position. Herodotus says that according to one account the stones were elevated by the numerous "machines" from step to step, and to another they were lifted into position by one great contrivance. This process was continued until the summit was reached. Then a granite casing was constructed downward to the base, and it was covered over with hieroglyphics which recorded the various sums of money expended for food supplied to the workers. "Cheops (Khufu) exhausted his wealth", adds Herodotus.

The royal exchequer does not appear to have been depleted, because Khufu also erected three smaller pyramids for members of his family, and his successor afterwards undertook the construction of a vast tomb also.

Apart from his pyramid work we know little or nothing regarding the events of Khufu's reign. Sneferu's military activities had secured peace on the frontiers, and neither dusky Nubian nor bearded Asiatic dared enter the land to plunder or despoil. That the administration was firm and perfectly organized under the iron-willed monarch may be taken for granted.

But a great change was impending which could not be controlled by the will of a single man. Prolonged peace had promoted culture, and the minds of men were centred on the great problems of life and death. Among the educated classes a religious revolution was imminent. Apparently Khufu was raised to power on an early wave of insurrection. It was a period of transition. The downfall of the Ptah cult as a supreme political force was in progress, and the rival cult of Ra, at Heliopolis, was coming into prominence. Already in Sneferu's reign a sun worshipper, one Ra-hotep, occupied the influential position of Superintendent of the South. It remained for the priests of the sun to secure converts among the members of the royal family, so as to obtain political and religious ascendancy, and it can be understood that those who were educated at their temple college were likely to embrace their beliefs. If they failed in that direction, the combined influence of priests and nobles was sufficient to threaten the stability of the throne. A strong ruler might delay, but he could not thwart, the progress of the new movement.

The king's name, as we have stated, was KhnKhufu, which means: "I am guarded by the god Khnquot;. That "modeller" of the universe may have closely resembled Ptah, but the doctrines of the two sects developed separately, being subjected to different racial influences. Khnwas ultimately merged with the sun god, and his ram became "the living soul of Ra". Khnwas regarded at Heliopolis as an incarnation of Osiris, whose close association with agricultural rites perpetuated his worship among the great mass of the people. In the theological system of the sun cult, Osiris became a member of the Ra family, and succeeded to the throne of the "first king" who ruled over Egypt. But Ptah, significantly enough, was never included among the sun god's companions, and the idea that he created Ra was confined to Memphis, and evolved at a later date. The rivalry between the two powerful cults must have been bitter and pronounced.

If Ptolemaic tradition is to be relied upon, Khufu constructed a temple to the goddess Hathor, who, as we have seen, was merged with the frog goddess Hekt, the spouse of Khn Indeed Hekt came to be regarded as a form of Hathor. Sati, Khn#39;s other spouse, was also a sky and cow goddess, so that she links with Nut, and with Hathor, who displaced Nut.

King Khufu's son and successor must have come under the influence of the Ra cult, for his name, Khaf-ra, signifies "Ra is my glory" or "My brightness is Ra". The sun cult had received their first great concession from the royal house. But not until the following Dynasty did the priests of Heliopolis obtain supreme power, and compel the Pharaoh to call himself "son of the sun", a title which ever afterwards remained in use. Sun worship then became the official religion of Egypt--gradually coloured every other cult. When the Osirian religion was revived, under the Libyan monarchs, the old deified king, who was an incarnation of the corn god, was also identified with the sun.

King Khafra did not, it would appear, satisfy the ambitions of the Ra worshippers, who desired more than formal recognition. A legend which survives only in fragmentary form relates that "the gods turned away from Khufu and his house".



THE GREAT PYRAMID OF KHUFU (CHEOPS)

The two insets show front and side views of the small ivory statue of Khufu, which is now in the Cairo Museum.



KING KHAFRA (IV DYNASTY)

Who built the second Great Pyramid

From the statue in Cairo Museum

The powerful cult became impatient, and "hope deferred" made them rebels. A political revolution was fostered, and Khufu's Dynasty was doomed.

Khafra, the Chephren of Herodotus, who says Khufu was his brother, erected the second great pyramid, which is only about 30 feet lower than the other. The remains of his temple still survive. It is built of granite, and although the workmanship is less exact, as if the work were more hastily performed than in Khufu's day, the architecture is austerely sublime. Immense square pillars support massive blocks; there are great open spaces, and one is impressed by the simplicity and grandeur of the scheme.

Seven statues of Khafra were discovered by Mariette, so that his "Ka" was well provided for. The great diorite statue preserved in the Cairo museum is one of the enduring triumphs of Egyptian art. The conception is at once grand and imposing. His Majesty is seated on the throne, but he wears the wig of the great ruling judge. At the back of his head is the figure of the protecting Horus hawk. His face is calmer than Khufu's--resolution is combined with dignity and patience. He seems to be imbued with the spirit of Old Kingdom greatness.

Although cut from so hard a material as diorite, there is much muscular detail in the figure, which is that of a strong and vigorous man. His throne is straight-backed, but the stately floral design of the sides, and the lions' heads and fore paws in front are in keeping with the naked majesty of the whole statue, which was originally covered with a soft material.

Again the reign is a blank. The priests informed Herodotus that Khafra's conduct was similar to that of Khufu. "The Egyptians had to endure every species of oppression and calamity, and so greatly do they hate the memories of the two monarchs that they are unwilling to mention their names. Instead they called their pyramids by the name of the shepherd Philitis, who grazed his cattle near them."

The great Sphinx was long associated with Khafra, whose name was carved upon it during the Eighteenth Dynasty, but it is believed to be of much later date. It is fashioned out of the rock, and is over 60 feet in height. The body is a lion's, and the face was a portrait of a Pharaoh, but it has been so much disfigured by Mohammedans that it cannot be identified with certainty. Nor is there complete agreement as to the significance of the Sphinx. Centuries after its construction the Egyptians regarded it as a figure of the sun god, but more probably it was simply a symbol of royal power and greatness.

There were kindlier memories of Menkaura, the Mycernius of Herodotus, who said that this king was a son of Khufu. He erected the third great pyramid, which is but 218 feet high, and three small ones for his family. He was reputed, however, to have eased the burden of the Egyptians, and especially to have allowed the temples to be reopened, so that the people might offer sacrifices to the gods. As a just monarch he excelled all his predecessors, and his memory was long revered. Not only did he deliver equitable judgments, but was ever ready to hear appeals when complaints were made against officials, and willing to remove and redress wrongs. His statue shows us a less handsome man than either Khufu or Khafra, and the expression of the face accords with his traditional character. Indeed, it is not only unaffected, but melancholy.

A story was told to Herodotus that the king was greatly stricken by the death of his daughter. He had her body enclosed in a heifer made of wood, which was covered over with gold. It was not buried, but placed in a palace hall at Sais. Incense was burned before it daily, and at night it was illuminated. The heifer reclined on its knees. A purple robe covered the body, and between the gilded horns blazed a great golden star. Once a year, in accordance with the request of the dying princess, the image was carried outside so that she might behold the sun. The occasion was an Osirian festival, and the heifer, it is believed, represented Isis.

We know definitely that a daughter of Menkaura was given in marriage to Ptah-shepses, a high official, who became the priest of three obelisks. The appointment is full of significance, because these obelisks were erected to Ra. Sun worship was evidently gaining ground.

The mummy of the king was enclosed in a great sarcophagus of basalt, but was destroyed with the others. Mention is also made of a Fourth-Dynasty monarch named Radadef, but he cannot be placed with certainty. Khufu's line flourished for about a century and a half, and then was overthrown. A new family of kings, who were definitely Ra worshippers, sat on the throne of United Egypt. In the folk tales which follow are interesting glimpses of the life and beliefs of the times.

• September 20, 2011
• 0
• Published in Egyptian Myth and Legend
• Written by LC Geerts