The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Still he said, “Tomorrow Amun is to be deposed, and I for one shall not miss him, for he has grown too fat to fit beside Pharaoh in Egypt. It is statesmanlike of Pharaoh to overthrow him, for then he can confiscate Amun’s vast possessions, which may yet prove his salvation. He can also get all other gods on his side, if he acts wisely, for the priests of other gods have been overshadowed by Amun and are greatly envious of him. Thus he could rule them by dividing Egypt between many lesser gods. But no priest loves his Aten, and it is the priests who rule the people’s hearts, and Amun’s priests especially. For this reason disaster must follow.”

“But,” said I, “Amun is a hateful god, and his priests have kept the people in darkness for too long and stifled every living thought, until no one dares say a word without Amun’s leave. Whereas Aten offers light and a life of freedom without fear, and that is a great thing, an incredibly great thing, my friend Horemheb.”

“I do not know what you mean by fear,” he said, “unless what you mean is that the people must be controlled by fear, and if the gods govern them, the throne needs no weapons to support it. In that regard, Amun has done his work well, and were he only content to be Pharaoh’s servant, he would fully deserve his place; for no nation has ever been ruled without fear, and no nation in the future either will ever be ruled without fear. That is why Aten, with his gentleness and his cross of love, is an exceedingly dangerous god.”

“He is a greater god than you believe,” I said quietly, hardly knowing why I said it to him. “Perhaps he is in you, beyond your knowledge, and in me, too, beyond my knowledge. If the people understood him, he could save them all from the power of fear and darkness. But it is possible that many must die on his account, as you say, for those things that are eternal can only be forced upon ordinary people using violence.”

Horemheb regarded me impatiently like I was an infant babbling before adults. His face darkened, and he reached for the commander’s whip on his side to lash his legs with it for the crocodile’s tail started to have its effect on him. But his hand reached only emptiness, and he said sharply, slightly embarrassed, “As long as a man is a man, as long as there is the desire to possess, to lust, to fear and hate, as long as there are different complexions, different languages and people, as long as the rich remain rich and the poor remain poor, then the strong will rule over the weak and the clever rule over the strong. But this Aten wants to

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make everyone equal so that a slave is equal to a rich man before him. Common sense tells me that this is madness, and it is such a clear and obvious thing that I do not want to argue with you at all, because it disturbs me and has a bad effect on my thoughts.”

“The Babylonians claim that according to the stars a new era is about to start,” I said weakly. “Maybe Aten takes over and his power prevails, until ravens turn white and the river waters run upstream, like his priests sing in the temple of Aten.” Thus I spoke but didn’t believe my own words.

Horemheb finished his drink and looked me pityingly, but the crocodile’s tail had refreshed him, and he regained his good humour and said, “At least we are agreed that it is time to oust Amun, but if it is to be done, it should be done secretly and suddenly and in the dark of the night and at the same time all over the country; and the priests of the highest orders should have been executed at once and the other priests sent to the mines and quarries. But Pharaoh in his madness desires to do all openly with the knowledge of the people and in the light of his god for the sun’s disk is his god, isn’t it, and there is nothing new there as such. In any case, this is all lunacy and will cost much blood, and I would not agree to its execution since I had not been told of his plans beforehand. By Seth and all devils, if I had known of the matter, I would have planned it well and overthrown Amun so swiftly that he himself could hardly have grasped what had happened. But now every street boy in Thebes knows of the plan, and the priests are rousing the people in the Temple courtyards, and men are breaking branches from trees to serve as weapons, and women go to the Temple with washing clubs hidden beneath their clothes. By my falcon, I feel like crying when I think of Pharaoh’s madness.”

He bowed his head in his hands and weeped over the suffering that was to beset Thebes, and Merit brought him the third crocodile’s tail and gazed so admiringly upon his broad back and swelling muscles that I angrily bade her be gone and leave us alone. I tried to tell Horemheb of what I had seen in Babylon and in the land of Hatti and in Crete, until I saw that the crocodile had already clouted him on the head with its tail and he was slumbering heavily with his head in his hands. He lay that night in my arms, and I held vigil over his sleeping, hearing all night the

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