The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

survive eternally. There is no man who is as worthy as me but I surpass all others, and for me there are no laws that I could not break but in my art I stand above all laws and am more god than man. When I create form and colour, I vie with his Aten and outdo his Aten, for all that Aten creates from himself is perishable, but what I create, is eternal.”

But when he spoke thus, he had been drinking wine already in the morning, and I forgave him his words, for torment burned in his face, and from his eyes I saw that he was profoundly unhappy.

During this time, the harvest was gathered from the fields, the flood rose and the flood fell, and it was winter; and with winter famine came to the land of Egypt, and no one could tell what new misfortune tomorrow might bring. In early winter, news came that Aziru had opened the greater number of the Syrian cities to the Hittites and that the Hittite chariots had driven across the Sinai desert, attacking Tanis and laying waste in the Lower Kingdom around Tanis, all the way to the river.

As news of these events spread, Ay arrived from Thebes and Horemheb from Memphis to take counsel with Pharaoh Akhenaten and save what might be saved. I was present at this meeting in my capacity as physician, fearing lest Pharaoh become over-excited and fall ill because of all the evil which he must hear and swallow. But Pharaoh was reserved and cold and remained master of himself throughout, listening to what Ay and Horemheb had to say.

Priest Ay said to him, “The storehouses of Pharaoh are empty, and the land of Kush has not paid taxes this year although I had set all my hopes upon those taxes. Great hunger prevails in the land, and the people are digging up water plants from the mud and eating the roots and tearing the bark from the fruit trees and eating them — and they eat locusts and beetles and frogs. Many have died, and many more will die for even with the strictest distribution, Pharaoh’s grain is insufficient for everyone, and the merchants’ grain is too expensive for the poor people to buy. The minds of all are possessed of great dread, and countrymen flee to the cities, and city people flee to the countryside, and all say,

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‘This is the curse of Amun and it is Pharaoh’s new god that has brought us this suffering.’ Therefore, Pharaoh Akhenaten, be reconciled with the priests and restore to Amun his power that the people may worship him and make sacrifice to him and be pacified. Give Amun back his land that Amun may sow his land, for the people dare not sow Amun’s land, and your land also lies unsown because the people believe it is accursed land. Be reconciled with Amun while there is yet time, or I wash my hands of the consequences.”

But Horemheb said, “Burnaburiash has bought peace from the Hittites, and Aziru has yielded to their pressure and opened his cities to them and has become their ally. The numbers of their troops in Syria are as the sands of the sea, and their chariots are as the stars in the sky — and this is the doom of Egypt, for in their cunning they have carried water in jars into the desert, because they lack a navy. They have carried infinite quantities of water in jars into the desert so that when spring comes, even a mighty army may cross the desert without succumbing to thirst. They bought in Egypt a large number of the jars, and in their greed the merchants who sold them the empty jars have dug their own graves. In their impatience, the chariots of Aziru and of the Hittites have made violent reconnaissance raids into Tanis and into Egyptian territory and have thereby broken the peace. Though these violations are minor and the damage they have done is not significant, I have anyway set tales afoot amongst people of terrible devastation and of the cruelty of the Hittites, so that the people are ripe for war. There is still time, Pharaoh Akhenaten. Let the horns sound, let the banners fly and declare war. Gather together all those able to bear arms on the training grounds, call in all the copper in the country for spears and arrowheads, and behold, your sovereignty shall be saved. I myself will save it and give to Egypt an incomparable war, and I will defeat the Hittites and reconquer Syria for you. I can do all this if all Egypt’s resources and grain are placed at the disposal of my army. Then hunger makes warriors even of cowards. Amun or Aten, it makes no difference to me, because the people will forget Amun once they get war, and at war their unrest will direct outwards, and a victorious war will establish your power ever firmly. I promise you a victorious war, Pharaoh Akhenaten, for I am Horemheb, the Son of the Falcon, and I was born to great deeds, and this is the hour that I have been waiting for all my life.”

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