Out of the Black Land - By Kerry Greenwood Page 0,54
let there come to me all those who know words of power and banish this agony from me.’
And all the gods lamented, for they knew no remedy.
I could see it all, the little serpent the colour of earth, the bite and the great god’s cry of pain. The part of the story which I liked most came next, and Khons took the scroll from me to read at an even pace, for when I was excited I always read too fast. I listened with bated breath as I always did to Isis’ clever manoeuvre.
Then came Isis with her words of power and in her mouth was the breath that is life. She said ‘What is this, Lord? Has some created thing dared to bite you? I shall overcome it.’
And the Divine One said, ‘I walked the road of this country my own Khemet to look on my own works and a serpent bit me. Can this be fire? Can this be water? I am hotter than any fire. My limbs tremble, I sweat, my eyes fail. I cannot see.’
Isis said, ‘Divine One, tell me your name, and I shall cure you.’
And Amen-Re said, ‘I am maker of mountains, I am creator of all, I am maker of waters. I have created love. I am he the gods know not; I am one who is hidden. I am he who commands and the Nile flows forth to water the land. I am the creator of hours, time, festivals and years. I am Khephri at dawn and Harakhte at noon and Temu in the evening.’
And those names were named but the poison still tormented him.
So Isis said to him, ‘Declare your real name, your hidden name, and you will be healed.’
And the poison burned in Amen-Re like a smith’s fire, and he said, ‘I will allow Isis to search my heart, and my name shall go from my body into her body, from my heart into her heart, and she shall know my name.’
Then Isis the Great Lady of Magic kissed his mouth and the Name flowed into her, and she said, ‘Flow, poison, I make you to fall upon the ground, for you are conquered, in the name of the Great God which he has told me. Re shall live and the poison shall die, for if the poison lives then Re shall die.’
These were the words which Isis spoke, the Queen of Magic, and she had knowledge of Amen-Re’s name.’
‘But what good did it do her?’ I objected.
‘She knows still the secret name,’ said Khons. ‘And secrets known to only one other make the other very powerful. The Lord Amen-Re endowed her son Horus with his two eyes, the sun and the moon, and they helped Horus in his battle with Set the Destroyer. And the Lord Amen-Re healed Isis when that same son injured her, because she let Set loose from his chains.’
‘Why did she do that?’
‘Because he was her brother,’ said Khons.
It was very hot, and we lay down in the shade to sleep. How could the Lady Isis be the sister of Set the destroyer? It was very confusing.
Ptah-hotep
I went to the King very early the next morning, as he had ordered, and sat down at his feet with my whitened board to listen as he was shaved and tended.
‘My father may he live first quarrelled with the High Priest of Amen-Re when he was minded to take the Lady Tiye as his Great Royal Wife. She was a commoner, no Princess, but there was no Great Royal Heiress for him to marry and he was sure that Tiye, my mother, would be a good queen and she was his choice.
‘That High Priest remonstrated with Amenhotep, who was a boy, thinking that he could overbear him and alter his mind, but my father was not convinced or afraid. He had already fought one battle then, and said that there should be no more wars in Egypt.’
The barber, who was trying to shave the king, stood patiently with his bronze razor in his hand waiting for a break in the conversation. I tried to provide one.
‘Lord, as it says on the scarab: I married the Great Royal Wife Tiye and made for her a lake called Lake Tiye on which I sail my barge Gleam of the Aten,’ I said, watching as one side of the royal face was oiled and scraped. He had hardly any beard but shaving is good for the skin.