In The Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian Literature
A Reconstruction
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In The Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian Literature
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More display echoed from the sky, fire and lightning reminding all that the worst of the passover had passed. The echoes reverberated and became progressively less severe. However, the astronomers could see that the goddess would visit again, in another forty years. The next visit would not be as devastating as this visit had been, but it would be significant nonetheless.
Sinuhe traveled north with the crowd as far as Sekkim. They learned how to survive minor difficulties and to win wars. They learned how to obey military law and it’s swift punishment. They learned that their leader loved them and endured their trials with them. They had ended their visit to Midian in the early part of their migration. Toughened and familiar with harshness, they overcame many obstacles and even tried to learn how to keep their complaining to a minimum. They never quite learned how to control the complaining, but they balanced it with profuse prayers and gratitude to the One God. Sinuhe, brought his son forward and introduced him as the next king, the co-regent, Amenemhet III. Along the way Sinuhe, always preferred to choose peace rather than military engagement, and thus acquired at least six wives as peace pawns. From among them one of the wives produced his favored son, chosen as his successor. Sinuhe chose the name for his son to revere the first and second Amenemhets, thus to reconcile the factions. Amenemhet III had long and quietly attended his father as his right-hand, his scribe/vizier anticipating his requests and learning quickly from the aging general. But the father could never love his son as much as the people did. He reunited the country, a new Horus, who brought maat back, and maintained the glories started by the old controversial general. Sinuhe retreated to the mountain for meditation, and later to the palace back in Egypt. He tried to patch things up with some previous family in the south. During his expansion efforts to the south, had married the queen, Tharbis, who ruled Ethiopia. He thus became also king of Ethiopia and ruled both nations for a time, but later left the country to his Ethiopian sons there. He did have an attempted revolution, which he harshly quelled, but that was always one of the occupational hazards of kingship. He had also quashed another coup plot from among his Midian family. He extended the rule of Egypt north past Sekkim and deep into the south, and both east and west over the largest area ever ruled by an Egyptian king up to that time. Despite his collection of wives, he had rejected Meri who had once suggested that he could also consolidate his legitimacy by marrying her. He recalled her sad end and the predicament that had led her to it. However he proclaimed his own mother to be the seven times great dowager queen wife of Egypt. The people loved her as much as they loved their own mothers. “Unlike the kings, this person inspires no controversy. As one people, we love you, dear Nefery, our mother, our queen!,” the songwriters proclaimed. Many songs praised their beloved queen mother highlighting her beauty, graciousness and holy benevolence. Her death brought a wailing and mourning that lasted one year. They prayed in thanksgiving that she had survived the terror. They loved her all the more because she had stayed in her beloved Egypt and rode out the storm. “She died a holy death blessed by the gods, her ba flies above all the Horuses!” Sinuhe buried her as lavishly as anyone ever buried in Egypt. He then planned his own death and funeral. He approved the work on his monument. He ordered scribes to help him write the last half of his autobiography, the “Shipwrecked Sailor.” In it he likened his early failed coup plot to a shipwreck, that is the old murder of Amenemhet I. Then he traveled in his heart to the mysterious island of his father, the rich and wise serpent priest. There he mourned the loss of his fellow plotters who died in the attempted coup, saying, “All my shipmates perished, 125 of them, in the wreck, no fools among them.” In the tale, the serpent commiserated and likewise mourned his “75 priests, who also died when the star fell,” that is the king was killed, “and a dear daughter for who we had prayed also died.” Sinuhe allowed Sidiptu to be remembered in the historic record. He did not cover up her existence, or the great love his parents felt for her. Sinuhe had also allowed his mother’s lament for the “little girl who grew up in the House,” to remind of her existence in a different document. Her memory would live, even if her body did not survive for proper burial. Still alert and vigorous, but also tired, the old king gathered his family at the palace, and passed out his blessings. He knew that many in the country murmured over how he had treated his brother, Khuni. Some even remembered the old murder of the founder of the dynasty, another half-brother/step-father. But some remained grateful to the king for serving them during the disaster. Others said he did not do much, the disaster just ran it’s course. He allowed the record of the goddess’ visit to be sanitized a bit. He had it written that the goddess “got drunk on beer that was colored red.” He tried to cover up the terrible sin of human sacrifice, and did not want the deeds remembered in Egyptian history. But many of the people remembered what had happened. But Sinuhe’s son, Amenemhet III, finally named co-regent, pleased everyone. They knew he would be a good king, because Sinuhe had trained him himself. Then one day after the old king visited with God and meditated on a mountain, his ba exited on bird-wings. The twelve slow sedan carriers converted the chair to a litter and carried him above their heads down the rocky path. They loudly sang a mournful song. A swift runner carried the news and the wailing crowds gathered along the path to the palace. “Your father the king is dead! His soul flew easily up to heaven, his evil deeds much outweighed by his good deeds! The good god Sesostris III, humble is his ba, mighty is his ka, his name will live forever in history!” The runner bowed to Amenemhet III, his tears dripping to the floor. Amenemhet III presided over the embalming, and buried Sesostris III in a secret place. He ordered many statues carved to preserve the visage of the old warrior savior, his beloved father. He ordered the stories to be written by schoolchildren forever. He ruled forty years remembering what his father had taught him. He managed the minor revisit by the goddess Hathor with finesse capturing a city during the destruction. His people loved him greatly, greatly. |
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