The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

pavilion. His desire and love made him a great artist, for he saw princess Beketamun every day, and his heart glowed and burned to ashes like a dry reed from the looks of princess’ oval eyes, and he toiled like a madman, losing weight and growing ever paler with labour and longing — and from the stones of different colours and sizes he built a pavilion such as had never before been seen.

But as he built, the stones Beketamun had amassed were soon exhausted, and she needed to get more. Therefore she had herself rowed to Thebes and collected stones in all the markets and in the Avenue of Rams, and she even collected stones in the temple gardens so that at last there was no part of Thebes where she had not gathered stones. Men who brought her stones, concealed her from the guards, but finally the priests and Pharaoh’s guards caught her and wanted to arrest her in order to bring her before the judges for the sake of her behaviour. But she held her head haughtily and said to the guards, “I am princess Beketamun, and I am keen on seeing who dares to judge me, because sacred blood flows in my veins, and I am the heir of Pharaohs’ power. I won’t however punish you for your foolishness, but instead I am glad to rejoice with you, for you are strong and handsome men, but in return each of you needs to bring me a stone from the judges’ houses or from the temples, and the bigger the stone you bring me, the more pleasure I will give you, and I won’t break my promise but do my best, and in this matter I have become quite skilled indeed.”

The guards looked at her, and the madness of other Theban men infected them too, so they went and broke big stones from the gate of the judges’ house and from the forecourts of the Temple of Amun, bringing them to her, and she fulfilled her promise generously. Yet I have to say in her defence that she never behaved impudently while she was collecting the stones, for having taken pleasure with men, she dressed bashfully and cast her eyes down and didn’t allow anyone to touch her any more. After this incident, she had to stay within the walls of pleasure houses to collect the stones in secret, and she visited numerous pleasure houses in the poor quarter, asking a stone as the price for the pleasure she offered from anyone who wanted to rejoice with her. Therefore the pleasure house masters greatly profited from her and gladly had her as their guest, but in order to avoid guards and crowds, she had to visit different pleasure house everyday.

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By this time, her doings were known by all, and the members of the court gathered in the garden to steal a glimpse of the pavilion that the building master of cattle stables was constructing. When the women of the court saw the height of the walls and the number of stones in them, great and small, they clapped their hands to their mouths and cried out in amazement. But no one dared say a word to her, and Ay, hearing about her behaviour and who with the authority of Pharaoh might have been able to curb her, was jubilant at her behaviour in the madness of his old age, since he was glad about anything that harmed Horemheb.

But Horemheb waged war in Syria, and he captured Sidon, Zemar and Byblos from the Hittites, and sent many slaves and much plunder to Egypt, and to his wife he gave many magnificent presents. Everyone in Thebes knew what was going on in the golden house, but there was no man bold enough to tell Horemheb of his consort’s behaviour, and his own men, to whom he had assigned high positions, shut their eyes to Beketamun’s behaviour, saying amongst themselves, “This is a family matter, and it is wiser to put one’s hand between the millstones than to interfere in a quarrel between husband and wife, since whoever interferes in a quarrel between husband and wife, will get both against him.” Thus Horemheb heard nothing of what was going on in Thebes while he waged war in Syria, and I believe that this was best for Egypt, for the knowledge would most certainly have distracted his thoughts from the campaign.

I have spoken much of what happened to others during Ay’s reign, but little of myself. There is a reason for this since not much remains to tell about myself. The river of my life no longer raced but ran slowly and calmly, getting stuck in shallow waters. I lived my years under Muti’s care in the old copper founder’s house which Muti had rebuilt after the fire; my feet were weary of trudging dusty roads, my eyes were weary of beholding the restlessness of the world, and my heart was weary of all the vanity that was out in the world. I stayed in my house and

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