The Egyptian by Mika Waltari

Posted by admin_akashic on Mar 4th, 2022 in Stories

Horemheb exulted at her words, and Beketamun took his hand shyly and led him to the garden with her, and the members of the court hid and fled and held their breath, horrified at what would follow, and the slaves and stable boys fled also, and the golden house was deserted. Beketamun led Horemheb to her pavilion, but when Horemheb would have seized her in his impatience, she rejected him gently and said:

“Control your manly nature for a while, Horemheb that I may tell you with what great toil I have built this pavilion. I hope you remember what I said when last you took me by force. Look carefully at these stones and know that each stone on the walls and on the floor — and they are not a few — is a memorial of my pleasure in another man’s embrace. I have built this pavilion from my own pleasure and in your honour, Horemheb — and that great white stone was brought to me by a fish gutter who was greatly enchanted with me, and that green stone was given me by an emptier of latrines in the charcoal market, and those eight brown stones set together were brought by a vegetable seller who was quite insatiable in my embrace and greatly praised my skill. Have patience, and I will tell you the story of every stone, and we have plenty of time, Horemheb. Many years lie before us, and we share the days of our old age, but I believe that whenever you want to embrace me, I will have stories left of these stones until I grow old.”

At first, Horemheb would not believe her words but took them for some mindless joke, and Beketamun’s modest demeanour deceived him. When he looked into her oval eyes, he saw there a hatred more terrible than death, and he believed her every word. Realising everything, he was overcome by mad rage and seized his Hittite knife to slay Beketamun who had so hideously insulted his manhood and vanity. But Beketamun bared her chest willingly before him and said mockingly:

“Strike, Horemheb, strike the crowns from your head, for I am a priestess of Sekhmet and of the sacred blood, and if you kill me, you will have no legal right to the throne of Pharaohs.”

Her words brought Horemheb to his senses for he had to live in peace with Beketamun as only the marriage with Beketamun made his right to Pharaohs’ crowns lawful. Thus Beketamun held him bound, and there was nothing he could do to Beketamun,

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and her revenge was complete, for he dared not even tear down her pavilion but it confronted him every day whenever he looked out from his rooms. After reflection, he saw no other course than to appear ignorant of Beketamun’s behaviour. Had he had the pavilion torn down, everyone would have noticed that he knew how Beketamun had let all Thebes spit upon his bed. Therefore he preferred laughter behind his back to open shame. But from then on, he never laid hand on Beketamun nor disturbed her, but lived alone, and to Beketamun’s credit be it said that she embarked on no more building works, but settled for her beautiful pavilion.

Such was Horemheb’s fate, and I fancy he had little joy of his crowns when the priests anointed him and set the white lotus crown of the Upper Kingdom and the red papyrus crown of the Lower Kingdom upon his head. He grew suspicious and completely trusted no one any more, believing that because of Beketamun, all laughed at him behind his back. Thus he had an eternal thorn in his flesh, and his heart knew no peace, and he could not rejoice with other women for the insult had been too severe that he might find joy in any woman any more. So he numbed his grief and bitterness with work, and he began to drive the dung out of Egypt to restore everything to how it was and to put right in the place of wrong.

I have to do justice to Horemheb and speak also of his good deeds, for the people greatly praised his name and held him to be a good ruler, and after only a few years of reigning, the people regarded him to be amongst the great Pharaohs of Egypt. He squeezed the rich and eminent, for he didn’t allow anyone to be too rich or too eminent in Egypt so that none might compete with him for power, and this greatly pleased the people. He punished unjust judges and gave the poor their rights, and he revised the tax collection, paying the tax gatherers regular salary from Pharaoh’s treasury so that they no longer had the power to extort taxes from people for their own enrichment.

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