Ancient Evenings

by Norman Mailer

  “And did you anoint yourself in My view?”

  “I do not know. I did not hide what I was doing, but You may not have looked. We stared into each other’s eyes until we could have wept, just so much did I love You on that day. Your eyes aroused me more than the strength of other men.”

  In those days, He was thinking, He had left His seed in the hands of many women. It was said, He knew, that the palms of women were closer to Him than their mouths. Such gossip must have been common. So, now, she could be lying. Yet He did not know. It could be the truth. Of course, she had the will to keep a truth (that did not exist) in her head. When He looked for what was in her thoughts, He could see nothing but my face. Then she whispered, “He is Your Son. He has Your beauty, and His mind inhabits Your mind.”

  My Pharaoh thought of those years when He left Himself in the palms of women. What He next said to Himself, I heard clearly from the mouth of Menenhetet: “He is My Son, you say?”

  “He was conceived in my heart,” she said, and she rubbed His palm against her breast.

  Now, Nef-khep-aukhem started out of his misery. The fierce snoring that came from his throat was broken. Lying there between my great-grandfather and myself, he cried out in his sleep, “You have all. I have nothing. You have taken my treasure.”

  An oppression came over me. I knew the weight of a coffin lid. Such weight was upon me so heavily I could not move, or I would have touched Nef-khep-aukhem and looked to soothe him. His pain was not to be ignored. I felt this with all the wisdom I possessed much more than from any gathering of love for the man who had been my father in the first six years of my life, and now might be no more than my uncle, my mother’s brother! I knew a kindness for him, but it came as much from fear as from any sweet measure of my heart. Let me say, I was afraid of the Gods to Whom he might appeal. It was my new Father I wished to protect more than the old.

  Yet, even as I lay there, unable to move, I felt again the full force of my Pharaoh’s thoughts. They were of me. I was His son. He would accept me as His son. I felt a strength in His breast, and it was different from the gloom of His former thoughts. If He had chosen to become my Father, I was in no doubt of the reason. He was now, by way of my mother, nearer indeed now to all that Menenhetet might know, nearer, therefore, to what He desired the most—which was to dwell in the heart of Usermare. To live in the voice of the great Pharaoh was to gain the power to become more like the great Pharaoh from Whom His own flesh descended. When He spoke, therefore, out of Menenhetet’s throat, it was in the tone of a Court Crier announcing the entrance of a Pharaoh. It was, however, not only a large and sonorous voice but startling in its declaration. He said:

  “By way of the descendant, Hathfertiti, of the Goddess Nefertiri, I, Ramses Ninth, choose to enter the thoughts of the God, Her husband, Usermare-Setpenere, on the first day of His Great Festival. It was that Third Festival, His Godly Triumph, which renewed the power of His coronation in the Year Thirty-Five of His Reign, which, after all the years of His Reign, would be the greatest Festival He ever held.

  “By way of Hathfertiti, the descendant of Menenhetet who becomes in this hour like My left arm, and by the blood of My right arm that flows directly from Usermare-Setpenere to Me, I seek to enter the breast of the Good and Great God Ramses the Second in the dawn of the first morning of His Festival of Festivals.”

  So I listened to my Father’s voice. If my blood was His (and now, not even I could be certain my mother had told a lie) then my blood came from a God. I came from the Pharaoh, Ramses the Ninth, Who was, with all else, a God. So He was not only my father but of greater eminence, my Father, the Good and Great God, a man and a God. Now I heard all that was divine in His voice, and knew He was seeking to raise Himself to an eminence where He could enter the domain of His ancestor, and live in the power to rule of the great Usermare. Out of the throat of my great-grandfather came the voice of my Father, and Ptah-nem-hotep said: “His Majesty Horus enters. The Strong Bull, Beloved of Maat, His Majesty Horus, Lord of the Diadem, now enters. Egypt is protected and the barbarians are subdued. O Golden Horus, great in victories, King of Upper Egypt, King of Lower Egypt, enter!” Even as He spoke, I felt a coursing of the blood in my own limbs, and a greater strength came into me, as if I were truly the Prince of my new Father, and I was with Him as He felt Himself entering the knowledge of His ancestor Usermare, dead for sixty or more years before my Father was even born. Yes, the wisdom of my great-grandfather together with the wealth of my mother’s flesh—and ancestry!—had brought the wings of Horus to our own Pharaoh. Now, He could partake of the five days of this Festival of Festivals one hundred and thirty years ago when Usermare-Setpenere would look again for the Strength-to-Rule.

  It was for this great power that my new Father, my own Ptah-nem-hotep, Ramses the Ninth, now sent all of His new-found knowledge, gained breath by breath from my great-grandfather in the course of this night (and much aided in this last hour by my mother) out into the most vertiginous effort of His unhappy Reign. For He wished to leave the burdens of His own throne, and ascend into the exaltation of His ancestor. Toward the fulfillment of this desire had He led Menenhetet on this night. And that purpose, I could now comprehend, for I learned it in the moment He became my Father.

  If there were three ways to increase His knowledge, the first being the lessons of His life, and the second deriving from the favor of the Gods (and the proper use of Their Ceremonies) the third was the greatest. Indeed, the first and second were no more than a preparation for the third—since that was the godly power to rule Egypt. Not even the secrets of the dead were equal to such godly power which could come only from the heart of a great King. So I traveled with my new-found Father into the divine and exalted breast of the Mighty-Justice-of-Ra, the Chosen-of-Ra, User-Maat-Ra, Setep-en-Ra, His own Usermare, and I was with my Father in the hour He entered into Ramses the Second as the great King awoke on the first morning of His Festival of Festivals, and stirred in His bed before walking across the marble of His courtyard to bathe in the dawn by His sacred pool near that place where He had fallen head first from the palanquin to the stone, the curse of Nefertiri on His back.

  TWO

  On this first morning, Usermare awakened in the dark and entered the caves of Himself that lived within. There, embraced in the heavy arms of His fear, He felt near the force of all-that-did-not-move. He lay in a stillness upon His limbs, in a darkness which abhorred the light, in the place where cold chilled all that was warm, and knew awe before the great force of Atum. The First God, Atum, had been able to rise against all that was dark and inert when He ordered the powers of lifelessness to descend into the Land of the Dead. So the living could begin to breathe. Now, too, did Usermare order away from Himself all powers of lifelessness.

  Thereby, awake, and able to feel the vigor of His body, Usermare stood in the Sacred Pool whose waters were as calm as the balance of Maat (even as the pool was named the Eye of Maat) and prepared to adore the sun at its rising, the pool spreading out before Him to the East. There, Usermare waited for the golden face of the sun to rise out of the water, aflame from the fires of the Duad.

  For each morning of the five days of preparation before the five days of this Festival would commence, He had arisen out of the same darkness to bathe in the dawn, and had waited for the shoulders and limbs of the God to come up behind the crown of fire, even as the head of Ra lifted above the horizon.

  Each of these five mornings, He had bathed in the dawn, and when He was done, had stood in the silver light, the last of the Kings who had come before Him, and the first of the Kings to follow, and knew the sun could not rise in the East on this first day of the Festival without His consent. So, His breathing was troubled as He stared at the Eastern sky. For when the fires of the Duad showed on the dark horizon, then He could feel Himself pass through the ages of the Pharaohs, and all the dead Kings stirred, and He saw the first day of creation and knew how the First Hill rose from the waters when there had been no land, eve
n as that First Hill could now be seen forever in the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

  Usermare contemplated the millions of men and the infinity of stones which had been moved, and lo! all had the same thought as the Pharaoh Khufu: A pyramid as large as the First Hill must be built. Now, all the temples of Egypt were blessed by a handful of earth from the ground near the Great Pyramid, laid in their foundations with the blood of a ram, and Usermare held His breath as the blood-red head of Ra was crowned upon the horizon, and light gave the first of its warmth to the silver water and all the birds speaking to the Gods. Usermare saw the sun rise as on the first day of creation, and Atum was the name given to Ra for that first light of the sun before men had been born to see it. Then, Usermare closed His eyes as the sun rose in its revealing and showed so red on the horizon that He knew His own warmth, and the Pharaoh passed from the Good God Who had awakened, to the Great God Who stood in the waters of the Sacred Pool, and He spoke His own name to the rising sun and said, “I am life to the Horus, and King to the Two Ladies. I am the Adored of She Who is the Cobra of Lower Egypt, and the Beloved of the One Who is the Vulture of Upper Egypt. I am the Horus of Gold. I am He who belongs to the Sedge and the Bee. I am the Son of Ra!” And He knew the blood of the first Pharaohs in all His limbs, and what belonged to Menes was in His arms, and the power of Namer was in His legs, while Khufu the Great lived in His throat, even as Unas, Who could devour many Gods in the Land of the Dead, took up a place in His heart. He said a verse to Unas.

  “O, Horus takes dead King Unas to His side.

  “He cleanses Unas in the Lake of the Fox,

  “He purifies Unas in the Lake of the Dawn,

  “He soothes the flesh of the Ka of Unas.”

  Standing in the pool, the warmth of the sun upon His breast like the fires of Kadesh upon His heart, He said to Himself the names of each of the Gods Who came from Atum, beginning with Shu and Tefnut Who were the children of Atum, and the parents of Ra, and that was so because Ra was the grandson of Atum even though Ra was Atum. It was true. The God begets the God Who will be His father. For the Gods live in the time that has passed, and the time that is to come.

  So did Usermare stand in the great gold of the sun that lifted free of the horizon, and He contemplated the reflection of its fires which hovered like an Isle of flames in the Eye of Maat. And Usermare-Setpenere thought of the small pyramid of gold on top of the great obelisk of Hat-shep-sut in the Temple at Karnak and that gleamed like a drop of the golden seed of Atum which gave birth to the First Hill.

  It was then that a bird flew between Him and the sun, and Usermare-Setpenere remembered the hour when the palanquin fell. The whisper of a breeze came to Him across the stillness of the Eye of Maat. The fire in the isle of flames quivered. So, then, did He also think of the stillness of the river in the year, thirty-five years ago, when He first ascended the throne. The water in that year had been low.

  Now in the Thirty-Fifth Year of His Reign, the Nile was full and the abatement of the waters had begun. Today, the first day of the Godly Triumph, was the first day of the first month of the Season of Coming Forth, and all of the flood was risen and the land sat in the communions of the high water. The birds were quiet. The flood was in. The pure waters were long in, all the young waters that came from the sweat of the hands of Osiris and the tears of Isis, and all the liquids that had run from His dead body to carry away the putrefactions of the land. Usermare stood in the sweet heat of the early rising of the sun and a warmth was within His head and within His chest, and His arms extended to the golden heat in the red heart of the sun, and He meditated on its radiance.

  “I came,” said Usermare-Setpenere across the water of the Eye of Maat, His words lifting into the breath of the birds, “I came to My throne as Horus, and on My death I join Osiris. I will become Osiris. Each Ka of My Fourteen will go to each of the fourteen parts of the body of Osiris, and I will live in Him,” and the breath of Usermare-Setpenere came with less weight and He knew less fear of death, and stepped out of the water.

  The Washer of the Pharaoh and the Superintendent of the Clothes of the King came forward and dried Him with linens, and He left the pool and passed through His gardens. By the sycamores and date-palms, the mulberries, the persias, the fig trees, by the tamarisks and pomegranates, He walked in the dawn. And the smell of smoke was everywhere from the fires of the night before. Through all of the five holy days of preparation to make ready for the Godly Triumph that would commence today for five days to come, so had the Lighting of the Flame taken place, and through every village and city of the Two-Lands, at every crossing of every avenue in Thebes, and before many a shop and home, had torches been lit for the five days of the year that would be like no other festival from the Thirty-Five Years of His Reign.

  Now, Usermare walked through the Court of the Great Ones, and the sun came high enough to shine on the courtyard, and all silver left the face of the marble and it was white, and Usermare approached the steps of the Hall of King Unas that He had built in this last year with stones from the mortuary of Seti and Thutmose the Great, and each of these new walls caused a terrible stirring of His bowels as if the Ka of the stones had been disturbed.

  He stood on the steps before the Great Door of the Hall of King Unas and it opened and a priest came forward from the depth of an interior which was as dark as the night, and the priest spoke.

  “His Majesty Horus enters, His Majesty Horus, Strong Bull, Beloved of Maat.” Now the priest kissed the left foot of Ramses the Second for Amon, and the right foot for Ra, then he bowed seven times for Geb and Nut and Isis and Osiris and Set and Nephthys and for Horus the brother, and the priest said: “He is Ra, Strong in Truth and Chosen of Ra. He is the Son of Ra. He is Ra-meses the Beloved of Amon. He is Horus. He is the throne of the Two-Countries. He sits in His Double-Throne among men while Ra, His Father, sits in the heavens.”

  The sun was lifting up the steps even as Usermare listened to this greeting. From the depths, from the dark interior of the Hall of King Unas came a column of light as the sun rose high enough to shine through the square hole in the center of the roof. Through the open door, the light could be seen and Usermare was blinded by the radiance of Ra and bowed His head before the Great Mouth of Gold.

  “He is,” said the priest, “the beautiful Silver Hawk of the Two-Lands, and with His wings gives shade to mankind. Horus and Set live in the balance of His wings. Amon said, ‘I made Him. I seeded the truth in its place.’ O Great Pharaoh, at the sound of Your name, gold comes out of the mountains. Your name is famous in all countries. All know of the victories Your arms have won. King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Great Pharaoh Who is strong in truth and has come from the loins of Ra, Lord of Crowns, You are our Horus Who is Ramses the Beloved of Amon.”

  He passed through the door, and His strength quivered through the room, and He knew all who saw Him would tremble. The Monarch Who could support the Double-Crown of Egypt entered the Throne Room, and it was a great room, fifty long steps by thirty. Before He could even see, the odor of incense also greeted Him, and He breathed it deep.

  THREE

  In the Throne Room, light came through the opening in the roof, and lay upon a golden table. Now, as the sun lifted, so did the light also move and the priests shifted the golden table in order that the light continue to shine upon the Crown of Lower Egypt and the Crown of Upper Egypt set next to one another, side by side, and the Double-Crown offered such a force as He came near that He was again a youth approaching His Father, the Pharaoh Seti, and the long high White Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Crown of Lower Egypt were alive to Him and like two creatures. Now, as He placed the White Crown of Upper Egypt within the Red Crown, so did He feel how the Two-Lands had been apart through the night and full of chaos in the dark. Now they were brought together, and a calm came over Egypt as He lifted His White Crown and His Red Crown, thereby making Them His Double-Crown of the Two Ladies: of the Vulture who was Nekhbet, and the Cobra who was Wadjet; and He prepared to
place Them upon His head. And He said:

  “Let there be terror of Me like the terror of Thee,

  “Let there be fear of Me like the fear of Thee,

  “Let there be awe of Me like the awe of Thee,

  “Let there be love of Me like the love of Thee,

  “Let Me be powerful and a leader of spirits.”

  * * *

  The High Priest put the Double-Crown upon His head and the courtiers and priests who stood beside Him embraced the ground. The power He had known while bathing in the dawn came to Him again and was much increased. For, even as He had absorbed the light of Ra in its rising, so had the Double-Crown been steeped in the power of the Cobra and the Vulture through the night, and They stirred in Their power and were alive upon His head.

  He walked to the Robing Room at the rear of the Hall of King Unas, and it was a great and crowded chamber with many smaller rooms and cubicles. Courtiers came forward and surrounded Him, and He greeted them by the special and ancient titles He had bestowed for these five days: the Superintendent of the Clothes of the King was one, and another was the Special Custodian of the Sandals—here to recite hymns to Geb for all that touched Usermare’s foot. There was the Washer of the Pharaoh (who had accompanied Him to the Eye of Maat) and all the Overseers of the Wigs, and the Underdress, the Short Skirt, the Overdress, were also in the Robing Room, and the Custodians of the Headdresses—all the sons of Nomarchs. And the son of the Vizier was there to be Keeper of the Diadem of the Gods, and he laid on and took off the great Headdress of the Horns of Khnum with its two cobras, and two great feathers and disc, and other Lords: the Chief Bleacher who must oversee the cleanliness of all that was worn and remove every stain from the linen, the Chief Artist of the Royal Jewels and others, a crowd of men in the Robing Room, and next to each noble with his special title was a skilled servant to perform the task. On each day of these five days that were yet to come, Usermare would pass into the Robing Room and out again for each of the separate ceremonies in which He would participate at different shrines of the Court of the Great Ones outside the Hall of King Unas. On the shelves and tables, therefore, and within the cubicles were war helmets and ointment boxes, wine cups and incense burners, crooks, whips, crowns, ceremonial helmets and flails, lions of gold in many sizes, amulets, necklaces, breastplates, bracelets, sandals, dresses, overdresses, short skirts, underdresses, loincloths, wigs, jars, vases, standards and great and little feathers, and all the Overseers and their servants for the bowls of alabaster, diorite and serpentine, the bowls of porphyry, black and white and purple porphyry, even an Overseer of all the bowls of rock crystal.