The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

After this, he and Horemheb went to young Tut, who was in the palace on the floor of his room playing funeral with his dolls, as his custom was, and his consort Ankhesenaten was playing with him. Horemheb said, “Hey you, Tut, it is time you rose from that filthy floor, for you are now Pharaoh.”

At once, Tut rose obediently and went to sit on the golden throne and said, “Am I Pharaoh? That does not surprise me, for I have ever felt superior to other people, and it is only right that I should be Pharaoh. With my whip I will punish all evildoers, and with my crook I will watch like a shepherd over all those who are good and pious.”

Ay said, “Let us have no nonsense, Tut. You will do all I tell you without argument. First we will arrange a joyful procession to Thebes, and in Thebes you will bow down before Amun in his great Temple and make sacrifice to Amun and the priests will anoint you and set the red and white crowns on your head. Do you understand?”

Tut reflected for a while and asked, “If I go to Thebes, will they then build me a big tomb like the tombs of all great Pharaohs, and will the priests fill my tomb with playthings and golden chairs and fine beds — for the tombs of Akhetaten are cramped and tedious, and I do not wish to have only paintings on the walls of my tomb, but I want to be accompanied with real toys — and I also want my fine blue knife, which the Hittites gave me, to come to my tomb together with me.”

“Certainly the priests shall build you a fine tomb,” assured Ay. “You are a wise lad, Tut, to think first of your tomb on becoming Pharaoh, wiser than you know. But at first you need to change your name. Tutankhaten is not acceptable to the priests of Amun. From this day forward, therefore, let your name be Tutankhamun.”

Tut made no objection at all to this but desired only to learn to write his new name, since he did not know the characters by which the name of Amun is represented. Thus the name of Amun was written in Akhetaten for the first time. But when Nefertiti learned that Tutankhamun was to be Pharaoh and that she herself had been entirely overlooked, Nefertiti arrayed herself in her loveliest dress and had her hair and body anointed with fair balms, despite her widowhood, and she went to Horemheb aboard his ship, saying, “It is a preposterous thing

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for an underage boy to become Pharaoh and my accursed father Ay to take his upbringing from my hands and to rule Egypt in his name, although I am the great queen consort and the queen mother. Moreover, men have looked on me with desire and called me a fair woman, and I have even been called the fairest in all Egypt though that is surely an exaggeration. Look at me, Horemheb, despite the sorrow that has dimmed my eyes and bent my back. Look at me, Horemheb, for time is precious and yours are the spears, and together you and I might plan many things to the advantage of Egypt. I talk thus frankly to you because I think only of Egypt’s good, and I know that my father, that accursed Ay, is a greedy and stupid man who will do Egypt much harm.”

Horemheb surveyed her, and Nefertiti let her robe fall open before him, behaving in all manners seductively and saying that the cabin was very warm. She knew nothing of Horemheb’s secret pact with Ay, and even if as a woman she may have guessed something of his desire for Beketamun, she fancied that she could easily supplant that inexperienced and haughty princess in his mind. She had grown accustomed to easy victories in the golden house when she had let strangers spit on Pharaoh’s bed.

But her beauty failed to have an effect on Horemheb, and Horemheb regarded her coldly and said, “I have defiled myself enough in this accursed city so that I am unwilling to defile myself still further with you, fair Nefertiti. I have letters to dictate concerning the war and lack the time to fool around with you.”

All this Horemheb related to me afterward, and although he must certainly have embroidered the facts, yet I believe the story was basically true. From that day forward, Nefertiti bitterly hated Horemheb and did all she could to injure him and blacken his reputation, and in Thebes she became the friend of Beketamun, whereby Horemheb suffered great injury as I later will have to relate. It would have been wiser for Horemheb not to insult her but rather to keep her friendship and show kindness to her in her sorrow. But for Pharaoh Akhenaten’s sake, Horemheb was unwilling to spit on his corpse, for strange though it may seem, Horemheb still loved Pharaoh Akhenaten even if he caused his name and image to be removed from all inscriptions and the temple

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