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Egyptian Folk Tales

You should have noticed that these stories were very different from the classical myths that we have been examining together.  These stories are later additions to Egypt's literature, and they involve mostly human protagonists rather than gods.  Thus, each of these folk tales communicates a different message to the audience: one of personal morality rather than divine worship.  This is why I asked you to find the moral lesson in each of them.

The Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor

Since the Egyptians believed that personal behaviors determined one's afterlife, their later stories often were filled with moral lessons, unlike the literature of the Mesopotamians who used their stories to understand how Nature operates around them.  Please keep in mind that the Mesopotamian literature reveals hundreds of profound messages, but very few stories of the gods rewarding the good behaviors of people.  For example, Utnapishtim receives eternal life, even though he did not do anything really great (sure, he obeyed the gods, but anyone could have been asked to build the boat).  What was Atrahasis' reward?  Adapa's?  Gilgamesh's?

Working with the Reading Guide questions, most students came to see the serpent who helps the sailor as a representation of a god.  The sailor behaves honestly by answering the serpent's questions, eventually gaining trust with a creature very different from the self.  Some students saw the great lesson of this story to be one of patience and respect.  We must treat all of God's creatures with the same reverence if we wish for them to assist us to the best of their abilities.  One student suggested that the sailor was tested mostly by having to accept a god who was not part of the official Egyptian pantheon.  The sailor would have had to treat all gods the same way, without bias or suspicion.  Perhaps by passing this test the sailor was allowed to share his adventures with his family.

The unnamed sailor immediately makes a sacrifice to the gods when he washes ashore on the island.  He could have eaten the food, but he sacrificed it instead.  This may have been his best decision, and perhaps it is the reason that the serpent treats the sailor with dignity and respect.  After all, the sailor could have easily been the serpent's lunch rather than his honored guest.

Also, these folk tales illustrate an interesting literary adaptation: the first references of the gods into one unified identity: "the God."  You may have noticed that "God," with a capital letter "G," was used more than "gods" with a lower-case "g," and no individual god was named in the story.  This literary and cultural convention illustrates changes in Egypt's government and social structure.  As Egypt became more modernized, the people came to see all forces of Nature as an extension of the same forces.  This unification of the pantheon is also seen in the ancient Hebrews, who also unified the local pagan gods into one identity: Yahweh.  Also, this use of "the God" to refer to all of the gods as likewise adapted by the ancient Greeks.  If you read The Iliad or The Odyssey (the oldest epics in Greece), you only see the gods referred to by their individual names (Athena, etc.).  However, if you read the high philosophers (Aristotle, Socrates, Plato), you will see that they too adopted this convention, referencing the forces of the universe simply as "the God."

Also, notice that the island of Punt will be "changed into waves," suggesting that the island is more of a mirage than a real place.  Perhaps this occurs so that looters and plunderers would not seek their fortunes on this island of plenty.  Clearly, the sailor does not want money and riches from this serpent, but is showered with these gifts because of his trust and obedience.  Had the sailor arrived seeking wealth, then he may have met a different fate.  By shipping the serpent's gifts back to the pharaoh, the sailor can possibly compensate for the loss of the king's ship and his crew of 150 men.  It also evokes this sense of mystery about what lies beyond the boundaries ....

The Tale of the Two Brothers

Bata, the younger brother of Anubis, acts as the servant to his brother.  This character Anubis is not the god Anubis (son of Osiris and Nephthys).  Rather, many Egyptians were named after their gods.  For example, in The Book of Thoth, Nefrekeptah's name incorporates the name Ptah.  Even today, we know that many children are named after their religion or religious figures (Adam, Noah, Ruth, Sarah, Christian, Seth, Lakshmi, etc.).

Bata tends to the cattle and even sleeps in the stable, perhaps out of respect to his brother's marriage.  Characterized as the true and faithful younger brother, Bata does everything well and with stellar moral dignity.  When he is tempted by his brother's wife, he rejects her advances and asks her to forget about the incident, promising to never speak a word of this to Anubis.  However, out of fear perhaps, she lies to Anubis and tells him that Bata made the advances to her.  Anubis then tries to kill his brother in a sneak attack, but Bata's life is saved by the communicating cattle.  You should note that the cow is always a symbol of life, and the fact that the cow speaks to Bata and not to Anubis shows the great connection to Nature displayed by Bata.  Later, Bata will question why his brother "carried your spear on the testimony of a filthy whore!"

After chasing Bata into the open country, Bata asks the gods for justice, which begins by the opening of a deep chasm between these brothers, allowing them to settle down and think rationally about their words to each other the next morning.  As a penance, Anubis slices his hand open, but Bata cuts off his phallus, which is eaten by the fish, reminiscent of what happened to Osiris.  Why does Bata do this?  Perhaps to show his brother that he is not a threat to his wife, or even as a symbol that a whole new set of adventures awaits him in different forms!  There are a lot of reasons to discuss about this.

After Bata builds a home in the Valley of the Pine, the Ennead walk by and create a wife for Bata out of their fluids.  Interestingly, Bata calls himself a "woman," mainly because he is missing his phallus.  So, I wondered in class, why did the Ennead create a woman for Bata (not a man) knowing Bata's physical limitations?  This is debatable.  Bata doesn't seem to treat her as a good husband would.  Rather, he keeps her confined to their house, and Bata repeatedly warns her not to walk close to the waves, perhaps for fear of losing her.  Metaphorically, Bata is behaving like a woman herself.  He is no longer taking the heroic adventures that men are prone to do (Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Adapa, Osiris, Horus, etc.).  Instead, he sits at home, as does this very bored and unfulfilled woman.

Apparently, Bata's wife was simply used as bait in this story, as we learn that her hair was grabbed by a tree and cast into the waters, making the pharaoh's clothes smell like a fragrant perfume when washed in the waters.  Attracted to this mysterious odor, the pharaoh is advised that this sign must be a "greeting," or an invitation for him to seek her out.  He does, but Bata kills most of the troops that the king sent to the Valley of the Pine.  After being tempted by jewelry, Bata's woman travels to Egypt to become the pharaoh's newest mistress (which illustrates how shallow she is), although I can't blame her for leaving Bata to become the wife of pharaoh.  When asked about her husband, the woman simply requested that the pine trees be cut down, mainly because Bata's heart is metaphorically resting on a pine blossom, perhaps suggesting his attachment to nature (again, a feminine concept).  Cutting down the pine will kill her husband (who never treated her as a partner anyway).  The story progresses to include several odd requests from this woman, which we will discuss in a moment.

Meanwhile, Anubis sees the signs that tell him to help his brother, which he does.  Devoting four years to finding Bata's heart, Anubis locates it and revives it in a bowl of water, which Bata consumes, bringing him back to life!  Notice that water (a feminine quality) appears to be exactly what Bata needs to resurrect.  Bata then plans a course of action with Anubis that will bring them into power in Egypt, while seeking justice on the woman who treated him so badly.  Bata will assume the form of a giant lapis bull, upon which Anubis will ride into town.  Once Anubis presents the bull as a gift to the king, then Bata can begin his vengeance (or is it justice?).

He confronts the woman in the kitchen, who becomes horrifies that Bata has taken on a new form.  She requests that the pharaoh make a great sacrifice of this bull, even though it was the king's most prized possession (which, ironically, is the best thing to sacrifice to the gods).  The pharaoh listens to the whim of this woman, and slaughters the bull.  However, a drop of blood from its neck mingles with the ground to create two giant persea trees, which become the king's next most prized possessions.  However, the woman once again finds out that the trees are Bata, so she asks the king to hew them down to create furniture out of them.  A splinter from the wood, however, enters the woman's mouth, ultimately making her become pregnant with a boy (Bata) who will ultimately seek justice against her and place the kingdom into better hands.

One question that we discussed involved why the pharaoh listened to this woman when she asked him to sacrifice his most prized possessions.  Many pinpointed the concept of lust or passion as the culprit.  The king simply found this woman to be irresistible, so he followed her words blindly.  Joseph Campbell tells us that the word "compassion" is really traced back to the words com- (meaning "with") and passion (meaning "suffering").  As we will learn in our next unit, passion = suffering.  This king's passion (or lust) has prevented him from making rational decisions.  In fact, the pharaoh seems most interested in material possessions rather than anything else.  The same can be said for Bata's woman, who was lured away from Bata by the pharaoh's jewelry.  Bata, meanwhile, never seemed to care much for the material world -- he lost his stable, his penis, his woman, his life, and his physical bodies, yet he always existed.  The Egyptians believed that mortals could communicate with the ka spirits of the dead, giving credence to the idea that the body is simply one of many possessions.  The soul or spirit cannot be possessed, however, except by lust, greed, or fear.

As Egypt became a wealthier country, while the people felt more and more entitled to an afterlife, lessons such as this were intended to make mankind think more carefully about their material things and the place they have in our lives.  Identifying one's self with money and wealth will make one lose something more valuable in the end.  On the journey to the Duat, those people who ignored the growth and development of their spirits and their moralities would be doomed to nonexistence.  No money in the universe could bribe the gods out of their decision to terminate a worthless soul!
 

The Book of Thoth

A similar message can be gleaned from The Book of Thoth, a story about an arrogant and eager prince who desires to learn about the secrets of the gods.  Although Setna is warned by many people, his desire takes him too far down a dangerous path.  In the tomb of Nefrekeptah, Setna speaks with the spirits of both Nefrekeptah and his wife Ahura, who tells the story of their demise due to Nefrekeptah's lust for Thoth's knowledge.

She explains how her husband, despite the warnings, paid a priest 100 bars of silver to divulge the location of the text, resting in the bottom of the Nile, surrounded by boxes locked inside other boxes, and guarded by serpents and scorpions.  Nefrekeptah commanded his magic rope to locate and fetch the boxes to the surface.  Cleverly thwarting the serpents, Nefrekeptah read the scrolls, copied their spells, and drank the liquid containing the ink (to literally consume the knowledge).  Nefrekeptah became the wisest man in Egypt, and he counseled people from all over the world who sought his advice on matters ranging from government business to personal issues.  After recalling the three tragedies that took the lives of her husband, son, and herself, Ahura begs Setna to turn away, but Setna's arrogance and greed are too strong.

One scene that is particularly interesting is where Nefrekeptah challenges Setna to a game of Senet, an ancient Egyptian board game, described in this web site: http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/lion/193/Senet.html.  Hoping to win the Book of Thoth back from Setna, Nefrekeptah plays this game, which punishes Setna each time he loses a piece on the game board (first he sinks into the ground to his knees, then to his waist, and then to his neck).  However, Setna's brother simply uses his magic to break free from the spells of the dead spirits.  After all, Setna had threatened to take the book by force anyway if he could not receive it by asking for it.  Essentially, Setna must learn his lesson the hard way -- through experience.

Well, as you might have guessed, Setna becomes tempted by a beautiful woman who walks into town.  Suddenly, Setna can no longer eat or sleep properly, due to the lusty thoughts of this woman.  He writes to her and is eventually allowed to meet her.  He finds out that she is a cat goddess, daughter of Bast.  He is so in lust with her that he allows her to convince him to kill his wife and to feed his children to the cats (to eliminate any jealousy or competition between families).  However, this is all a bad dream, sent to Setna to show him the folly of his ways before he does something too stupid.  He accurately understands that the dream was a warning, and he returns the book to its proper place.  After one final adventure where he helps Nefrekeptah's family to be buried together, Setna becomes absolved of his wrongdoing.

One interesting feature of this story is that Setna is not simply killed by the gods for his transgressions.  Perhaps because he is the son of a great pharaoh, or perhaps because the gods know that his intentions are good, Setna is let go after a harsh warning.  Maybe this suggests that true wisdom cannot be commanded onto another person, but rather that experience matters most.  We also learn that certain wisdom is relegated only to the gods and goddesses.  Mortals can never know the deepest secrets of the gods, lest we become gods ourselves.

The Story of the Green Jewel

This story shows the Egyptian belief in magic, which is the means of manipulating physical space with special words. In this simple tale, the pharaoh is depressed and seeks to become entertained by rowing in his boat (actually, 20 virgins are rowing for him). The pleasant afternoon is interrupted when one of the oars knocks off one of the women's earrings into the lake. She stops rowing and pleads for her earring back, but what can the pharaoh do? Luckily, the court scribe is also traveling in the boat, and he parts the lake with his magical spells. The earring is retrieved, and all is well again. Notice that the scribe is the keeper of the knowledge, as the Egyptians believed that words could act as divine tools to transform the physical world. Since the scribes were keepers of the knowledge, this seems to make sense.

Although this is a simple tale, you should obviously must begin thinking about this story as a precursor to the story of Moses parting the Red Sea as he led the Israelites from their Egyptian captivity. Although the Moses story is clearly unique in literature, we need to see the connection to its Egyptian roots. The Old Testament combines many influences from Mesopotamia and Egypt, so look for these now that you have become better versed in mythology. Very few episodes in the Old Testament involve the type of magic used to part the sea, so this scene appears to be unusual and not at all typical of Judaic textuality.

The Wax Crocodile

I could use one of these wax crocodiles, couldn't you? This tale again demonstrates the Egyptian love of magical incantations. The scribe again becomes the magic man. When informed about his wife's infidelity with an unnamed youth, he creates a wax crocodile that can spring to life at his command. He asks the butler to throw the crocodile into the water, which then becomes animated, grasping the youth and taking him away.

The scribe then visits the pharaoh to show him the evidence of the transgressions of the youth and his wife. Amazed at the evidence, the pharaoh commands the crocodile to grab the youth and send him to his death. After this, the wife is burned at the stake. Notice that the pharaoh is the character who determines the fate of these two adulterers, not the scribe. However, the scribe is the one who really owns the power, possibly suggesting that the scribes were the "right-hand men" of the kings.

I hope that you have enjoyed some of the great tales from ancient Egypt.

Announcements:

I regret that I was unable to complete any quizzes by today's class. I will get those finished and post new averages in the next few days. I reviewed each question in class today, so everyone got a nice review of the unit from top to bottom. We will review Quiz 8 on Monday just before the test, and I will return everything to you as you walk in.

Also, I have offered some time for additional office hours over the next several days. Although I am conducting conferences with my composition students, I have set aside time designated for World Lit students. These times are shaded in pink on the schedule and labeled "World Lit." These are OPEN DOOR times, so just stop by whenever you want. My office is HU 139.

The Bookstore has SOLD OUT of the coursepackets, so you will need to place a special order to receive yours. Please read the following if you have not done so already: Ordering the coursepackets.

Test 3 Study Guide

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TEST 3: Ancient Egypt

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