“I suffer from a headache that makes me sleepless at night,” he said touching his forehead with his hand. “A terrible headache takes over me often when something happens against my will, and my doctors are unable to help me. They can numb my pain with drugs but I do not want drugs because my thoughts must be clear like water for the sake of my god, and I am also weary of the doctors of the accursed god. Horemheb, the son of falcon, has told me about your skill, Sinuhe. Maybe you can help me. Do you know Aten?”
This was a difficult question to me, and I weighed my words carefully before I answered in front of Pharaoh, “I know Aten if it is him who is that something in me and beyond my knowledge, beyond and above all human knowledge. In any other way I do not know him.”
He got excited, and his face started glowing, and he said enthusiastically, “You talk about Aten like my best students for a man can know Aten only in his heart, not with his reason. Only I know him with my reason for I am his son, and in the brightness of my visions I have seen him face to face, even if his essence is facelessness. There is no other god than Aten, and the gods erected by men are illusions before him. The other gods are only shadows before him, and that is why I deposed the accursed god for his shadow prevented the light from shining to my people’s hearts. Sinuhe, if you want, I give you the cross of life.”
I said to him, “Last night I saw men crush the head of a wounded man with stones for the sake of your cross of life, and women around him were jumping and crying Aten’s name. I also saw women rejoicing with black men and praising Aten.”
His face became grim, and he frowned, and the bony reddish cheeks rose ever higher in his thin face. Lamenting, he touched his head, a grey film covered his eyes, and he shouted, “Also you, Sinuhe, make my head ever more pained by telling me things that do not please me.”
I said to him, “You have proclaimed that you live by the truth, Pharaoh Akhenaten. Therefore I tell you the truth although I understand well that for the sake of your sickness the courtiers and Aten worshippers wrap the truth from you in soft fabrics and seal it in leather. For truth is an exposed knife in a man’s hand which can turn against its carrier. The truth will turn against you, Pharaoh Akhenaten, and cause you pain. I can cure you easily, if only you want to close your ears from truth.”
393
He approached me and grabbed my arm tightly and squeezed it and said passionately, “No, no, Sinuhe. Akhenaten lives only by the truth, and that is the purpose of his life. But it is not a crime if an Egyptian woman finds delight in a black man in the name of Aten for all people and complexions are equal before Aten.”
Horemheb spat and wiped the spit to the floor with his foot, then he sniffed his golden whip with a disgusted look on his face. Pharaoh looked at him offended, and I realised Pharaoh lacked ability to smile and laugh. He was a person of truth, but he did not know how to laugh, and that made him an unhappy person who caused misfortunes around him. I said to him:
“Truth does not make a man happy. Recently, I opened the skull of an old woman who believed she was Queen Hatshepsut, but once cured, she was just a poor old wife and not as happy when she believed she was Queen Hatshepsut.”
Akhenaten asked, “Could you really cure me by opening my skull?”
I contemplated a long time but finally said, “You know that I am familiar with your holy sickness, Pharaoh Akhenaten, and I have seen you having a seizure when you were still a youth. Sometimes these seizures do not recur if the patient’s skull is opened, but sometimes they do. I think this depends on if the sickness is due to an external damage or to nature — for a natural sickness cannot be cured by opening the skull. However, your recurring headaches signal a damage in your head, and I note how your cheeks and arms twitch when you talk. Therefore, I think that opening your skull might relieve your ailment if any doctor would dare perform it. You have to remember that if a doctor opens your skull and his skill cures you, you probably lose the gift of your visions and what your heart regards as truth. As a doctor, I may say that your god Aten is created by your sick head, but this does not diminish the greatness of your idea when I think of it as a man.”
394
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384