The Literature of the Ancient EgyptiansBudge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
History
The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians
Budge, E. A. Wallis (Ernest Alfred Wallis), Sir
Egyptian literature -- History and criticism; Egyptian literature -- Translations into English
the great joy of his mother, and Thoth went back to the Boat of Millions
of Years, which at once proceeded on its majestic course, and all the
gods from one end of heaven to the other rejoiced. Isis entreated either
Rā or Thoth that Horus might be nursed and brought up by the goddesses
of the town of Pe-Tep, or Buto, in the Delta, and at once Thoth
committed the child to their care, and instructed them about his future.
Horus grew up in Buto under their protection, and in due course fought a
duel with Set, and vanquished him, and so avenged the wrong done to his
father by Set.
THE LEGEND OF KHENSU-NEFER-HETEP
AND THE PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN
Here for convenience' sake may be inserted the story of the Possessed
Princess of Bekhten and the driving out of the evil spirit that was in
her by Khensu-Nefer-hetep. The text of the Legend is cut in hieroglyphs
on a large sandstone tablet which was discovered by J.F. Champollion in
the temple of Khensu at Thebes, and was removed by Prisse d'Avennes in
1846 to Paris, where it is now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
The form of the Legend which we have is probably the work of the priests
of Khensu, about 1000 B.C., who wished to magnify their god, but the
incidents recorded are supposed to have taken place at the end of the
fourteenth century B.C., and there may indeed be historical facts
underlying the Legend. The text states that the king of Egypt,
Usermaātrā-setepenrā Rāmeses-meri-Amen, _i.e._ Rameses II, a king of the
nineteenth dynasty about 1300 B.C., was in the country of Nehern, or
Mesopotamia, according to his yearly custom, and that the chiefs of the
country, even those of the remotest districts from Egypt, came to do
homage to him, and to bring him gifts, _i.e._ to pay tribute. Their
gifts consisted of gold, lapis-lazuli, turquoise, and costly woods from
the land of the god,[1] and each chief tried to outdo his neighbour in
the magnificence of his gifts. Among these tributary chiefs was the
Prince of Bekhten, who, in addition to his usual gift, presented to the
king his eldest daughter, and he spake words of praise to the king, and
prayed for his life. His daughter was beautiful, and the king thought
her the most beautiful maiden in the world, and he gave her the name of
Neferu-Rā and the rank of "chief royal wife," _i.e._ the chief wife of
Pharaoh. When His Majesty brought her to Egypt she was treated as the
Queen of Egypt.
[Footnote: 1: _i.e._ Southern Arabia and a portion of the east coast of
Africa near Somaliland.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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