Reading Notes: Ancient Egypt Part B
Bibliography
"The Tale of King Rhampsinitus" from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie | Read it here
This story is like a dream: it makes sense while you're in it, but as soon as you finish/wake up then the entire thing falls apart and seems crazy. It starts off seemingly normal, and introduces a king who is super rich and hires a builder to make him a chamber to store all of his treasure and wealth in.
However, the builder is sneaky and leaves a loose stone that can be removed to gain access without any of the guards or the king knowing. So, when the builder is on his death bed he tells his two sons about the loose stone.
After the builder dies, his two sons use what their father told them and they are able to temporarily remove the stone, get inside the chamber, take a bunch of treasure, and leave without anyone knowing. The king of course is very confused as to how his chamber was broken into when none of the guards saw anyone and all of the doors are still sealed and locked. The two brothers keep coming back and stealing the king's treasure, and there's nothing he can do about it.
Finally, the king decides that traps need to be set inside the chamber to try and stop whoever is stealing his treasure. So the next time the two brothers come back, one of them is caught in the trap. The one brother wants to save his brother and knows that if he is caught in the morning then they will know who he is and likely come after his brother, too. So the trapped brother has his brother cut off his head and then leave so no one will know who he is even when they find his body.
His brother apparently goes along with this, and leaves the chamber with the trapped brother's head. The king finds a headless body in his chamber and is even more confused than before, since he still has no idea how someone got in his chamber in the first place, let alone lost their head inside.
So the king leaves the body outside the chamber, hoping someone will come back for it and the guards will be able to apprehend him. The two brother's mother forces the remaining brother to retrieve the other brother's body, but the brother anticipates the guards so he brings a bunch of wine and tricks them into getting drunk and successfully retrieves the body without getting caught.
The king's next idea is to use his daughter to seduce the thief. The brother allows himself to be found by the princess and tells her that he is the one who has been breaking in, but when the princess tries to capture the brother, she grabs the dead brother's arm that the alive brother had been holding for some reason and the alive brother escapes.
At this point the king gives up and basically says "you win" and invites the alive brother to his castle for praise and a reward for being so clever. So it's a happy ending and the remaining brother marries the princess and becomes royalty because he cut off his brother's head and managed to escape being caught twice.
Like I said, it's a very strange story that while reading kind of makes sense, but as soon as you reach the end you think back and realize how weird it is. It was entertaining though!
"The Tale of King Rhampsinitus" from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie | Read it here
This story is like a dream: it makes sense while you're in it, but as soon as you finish/wake up then the entire thing falls apart and seems crazy. It starts off seemingly normal, and introduces a king who is super rich and hires a builder to make him a chamber to store all of his treasure and wealth in.
However, the builder is sneaky and leaves a loose stone that can be removed to gain access without any of the guards or the king knowing. So, when the builder is on his death bed he tells his two sons about the loose stone.
After the builder dies, his two sons use what their father told them and they are able to temporarily remove the stone, get inside the chamber, take a bunch of treasure, and leave without anyone knowing. The king of course is very confused as to how his chamber was broken into when none of the guards saw anyone and all of the doors are still sealed and locked. The two brothers keep coming back and stealing the king's treasure, and there's nothing he can do about it.
Finally, the king decides that traps need to be set inside the chamber to try and stop whoever is stealing his treasure. So the next time the two brothers come back, one of them is caught in the trap. The one brother wants to save his brother and knows that if he is caught in the morning then they will know who he is and likely come after his brother, too. So the trapped brother has his brother cut off his head and then leave so no one will know who he is even when they find his body.
His brother apparently goes along with this, and leaves the chamber with the trapped brother's head. The king finds a headless body in his chamber and is even more confused than before, since he still has no idea how someone got in his chamber in the first place, let alone lost their head inside.
So the king leaves the body outside the chamber, hoping someone will come back for it and the guards will be able to apprehend him. The two brother's mother forces the remaining brother to retrieve the other brother's body, but the brother anticipates the guards so he brings a bunch of wine and tricks them into getting drunk and successfully retrieves the body without getting caught.
The king's next idea is to use his daughter to seduce the thief. The brother allows himself to be found by the princess and tells her that he is the one who has been breaking in, but when the princess tries to capture the brother, she grabs the dead brother's arm that the alive brother had been holding for some reason and the alive brother escapes.
At this point the king gives up and basically says "you win" and invites the alive brother to his castle for praise and a reward for being so clever. So it's a happy ending and the remaining brother marries the princess and becomes royalty because he cut off his brother's head and managed to escape being caught twice.
Like I said, it's a very strange story that while reading kind of makes sense, but as soon as you reach the end you think back and realize how weird it is. It was entertaining though!
Egyptian burial treasure.
(Image source: Max Pixel)
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