Bird in a Snare
Page 1
WayBack Press
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Bird in a Snare
Copyright © 2020 by N. L. Holmes
The Lord Hani Mysteriesₜtm 2020
All rights reserved.
Quotes from The Instructions of Any and The Instructions of Amen-em-ope from Ancient Egyptian Literature by Miriam Lichtheim, with permission.
Cover art by Streetlight Graphics. Author photo by Kipp Baker.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Dedication
Bird in a Snare (The Lord Hani Mysteries, #1)
Historical Notes and Glossary
Characters
Glossary of Gods
Glossary of Terms and Places
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
Acknowledgment
About the Author
To my husband
Historical Notes and Glossary
This story takes place during the period of Egypt’s history known as the New Kingdom, when the country had become an empire with holdings in Nubia to the south and throughout the Levant to the north. It begins around 1350 BCE, the approximate date of the death of Amenhotep III of Egypt. His son succeeded him as Amenhotep IV, later changing his name to Akhenaten as he implemented his religious reforms, replacing with the Aten the Theban gods Amen-Ra and his family and gradually the entire Egyptian pantheon. Although this new religion is sometimes called monotheistic, it was more precisely monolatrous. That is, Akhenaten didn’t deny that Amen and the other gods existed, he simply decreed that the Aten was the only god Egypt would worship henceforth. Scholars are divided over the idea of a coregency in Amenhotep III’s later years, but I have accepted that there was one and settled on a duration of five years. Since Akhenaten is known to have reigned seventeen years, this would move his death date earlier than the commonly accepted one.
The reign of Akhenaten marked a nearly unimaginable overturning of values and customs millennia old, a testimony to the absolute power of the king. But judging by the speed with which his “reforms” were reversed after his death, we must assume that relatively few people really bought into them. His reign is the first and only time that we find intolerance at work in pharaonic Egypt, a country of remarkable open-mindedness, and episodes of defacing tombs, people reporting friends and family, changing their names, etc., were real.
Lord Hani, our protagonist, was a historical person, whose travels as a royal emissary are attested by the Amarna Letters. This collection of diplomatic correspondences from the reigns of Amenhotep III and IV were found at Akhet-aten (today Tell el-Amarna), the new capital established by Akhenaten. They were mostly written in Akkadian, the diplomatic language of the period, thus deforming the Egyptian names found in them, presumably according to the Semitic pronunciation. The troubles with the hapiru and between kings which form the background to our story are described in the Letters. Likewise, all the kings and commissioners of Kharu with whom Hani deals in our story and Lords Ptah-hotep, Yanakh-amu, and Yapakh-addi are real, although the relationships and personalities given them in the book are fictitious. Many of the clues are, in fact, events attested in the Amarna Letters, but I have woven them together into a fictional connection. Scholars are undecided whether Ptah-hotep lived in the early or late part of Amen-hotep III’s reign; I have accepted the latter. The only purely fictional characters are the members of Hani’s family. I have nonetheless merged Hani with Ani, a scribe and writer of maxims who actually lived several generations before our personage. With a few exceptions, names are given in an approximately authentic Late Egyptian form, rather than passing through the Greek, as many English versions have done—for example, Djehuty rather than Thoth, Haru rather than Horus, etc. That being said, vowels are debated, and recent scholarly investigation shows that words were not always pronounced as written, so the name Akhenaten, for example, was probably closer to Ikhenyati!
It is worth noting that, for most of its history, Egypt was divided into two parts, the Upper and Lower, originally two separate kingdoms and always very different in geography and temperament. Thus there were two capital cities and two viziers, and the official crown consisted of a red and a white component representing the two kingdoms.
Kings had five formal names, including their birth name (Amen-hotep, in the case of our two kings) and a throne name, by which they were generally known to their contemporaries. All Egyptian names had meaning, often being theophoric, that is, containing the name of a god. Thus they might constitute a kind of prayer or theological statement. For example, Amen-hotep means Amen is satisfied, Baket-iset means Handmaid of Isis, etc.
Most of the upper level of the Egyptian priesthood was composed of part-time aristocratic practitioners, with a few high positions being hereditary or confined to certain families. The offices of high priest (First Prophet) and Second Prophet were political appointments. While women participated in most priestly offices in the early days, by the New Kingdom their role had been reduced mostly to that of aristocratic chantresses or musicians, with the exception of certain priesthoods held by women of the royal family. Since priests were paid in part by receiving the food offerings of the gods (after the gods had consumed their spiritual essence), the closure of the Amen temple would have had a painful impact on the god’s former servants. Temples also served as enormous economic engines, with vast lands, workshops, and networks of resources, and their shutting down would have devastated the economy and put tens of thousands of people out of work.
Women enjoyed high status in ancient Egypt, and many worked as craftsmen, ran businesses, and even served on village councils. In earlier times, they could hold exalted offices and priesthoods, but those opportunities narrowed in the New Kingdom. Generally, society was quite sexually liberated. Marriage, while usually monogamous, was nothing more than the decision to live together, with no parental permission required and no civil or religious ceremony or requirement of a formal dowry.
Characters
(Persons marked with an * are purely fictitious)
Hani’s Family
A’a*: the doorkeeper of Hani’s family.
Amen-em-hut, Nub-nefer’s brother, Third Prophet of Amen.
Amen-em-ope known as Pa-kiki* (The Monkey), Hani and Nub-nefer’s younger son.
Amen-hotep known as Hani, a diplomat.
Amen-hotep known as Aha*, Hani and Nub-nefer’s elder son. Later takes the name Hesy-en-aten.
Amen-hotep known as Anuia, Amen-em-hut’s wife, a chantress of Amen.
Amen-mose known as Maya*, Hani’s dwarf secretary and son-in-law, married to Sat-hut-haru.
Baket-iset*, Hani’s eldest daughter.
Iuty*, a gardener of Hani’s family.
Khentet-ka*, Aha’s wife.
Meret-amen*, Mery-ra’s lady friend.
Mery-ra*, Hani’s father.
Pa-ra-em-heb known as Pipi*, Hani’s brother.
Neferet*, Hani and Nub-nefer’s youngest daughter. The name means “beautiful.”
Nub-nefer*, Hani’s wife, a chantress of Amen. The name means “pure gold.”
Sat-hut-haru*, Hani and Nub-nefer’s second daughter.
The Egyptians
Amen-hotep III Heqa-en-waset (d. ca.1350), known by his throne name Neb-ma’at-ra.
Amen-hotep IV, known by his throne name Nefer-khepru-ra Wa-en-ra. Later changes his birth name to Akh-en-aten.
Aper-el, vizier of Lower Egypt.
Har-ba-ef*, commandant of Ullaza.
Har-wa*: A young boatman.
Haya known as Pa-hem-nedjer (Pahannate), sometime commissioner of Simurru.
Hotep (Hatip), son and successor of Pa-hem-nedjer.
In-her-khau*, a scribe in Hani’s entourage.
Keliya, Mitannian diplomat.
Mane, diplomat assigned to Naharin (Mitanni).
Menna* son of Ibi-aw, guardsman of Pa-wer.
Min-khaf*: Yapakh-addi’s steward.
Nakht-pa-aten, vizier of Upper Egypt.
Nefer-shesh-em-ra* called Sheshi, brother of In-her-khau.
Pa-khu-ra (Pihuri), army officer and later commandant at Simurru.
Pa-wer, commandant of troops at Simurru.
Ptah-mose, former vizier of Upper Egypt, First Prophet of Amen-Ra, and mayor of Thebes, current high commissioner of northern vassals (this last office is fictitiously ascribed to him).
Ra-mose, former vizier of Upper Egypt.
Yanakh-amu, Syro-Egyptian commissioner of Djahy and Fan-Bearer.
Yapakh-addi, Syro-Egyptian nobleman and Fan-Bearer.
The men of Kharu
Abdi-ashirta, leader of the hapiru.
Abdi-tesshub: Aziru’s younger son and eventual successor.
Ammunira, king of Beruta.
Aziru, Abdi-ashirta’s son and successor, who becomes the first king of A’amu.
Bet-ilu, eldest son of Aziru.
Ili-rapikh, brother and vizier of Rib-addi.
Khai, brother of Aziru.
Milk-addi*, eunuch slave of Rib-addi at Simurru.
Pu-ba’alu, brother of Aziru.
Rib-addi, king of Kebni.
Zimreddi, king of Siduna.
Glossary of Gods
Amen-Ra: Amen, the Hidden One, was a local god of Thebes. When a Theban dynasty came to power in Egypt, Amen became the high god of the entire country and was merged with the all- important sun god Ra.
Ammit: “The Devourer”, a monster who consumed the souls that didn’t prove worthy in the judgment that followed death.
Apep: The Chaos serpent, personification of all that is disordered, dangerous, or untrue.
Aten: The Aten was originally just the visible disk of the sun in the sky. Amen-hotep III claimed to be himself the Aten, that is, the manifestation of the sun god. His son took it a step further and worshiped his father as a kind of purely spiritual high god, not to be depicted or approached except through Akh-en-aten himself, the sole mediator.
Atum: The All; the primal, unified state of the universe before “allness” split and began to multiply into discrete divinities.
Djehuty: Thoth, the god of scribes and judge of souls, often associated with ibises or baboons.
Hapy: The god/goddess of the Nile inundation. Because he/she represented the totality of fertility, Hapy was thought of as hermaphroditic.
Haru: The solar god Horus. The king, while alive, was considered to be his avatar.
Hut-haru: Hathor, a multi-purpose feminine deity—goddess of beauty, joy, and sex, the dead, music, and the gentler aspects of the sun. Her name means “mansion of Horus.”
Inpu: Anubis, the god of embalming.
Isfet: Chaos, the primal state and antagonist of all that is ordered, civilized, and true.
Lady of Gubla: Ba’alat, the local Byblite version of Ashtart, a Canaanite goddesss of love and war.
Lady of the West: Hut-haru, who guarded the mountains of the West, where the dead were buried.
Ma’at: Both the goddess and the concept of truth, cosmic order, and right.
Montu: The god of war.
Mut: The consort of the god Amen-Ra, considered a motherly protector of the king.
Osir: The king of the underworld. The deceased king of Egypt was thought to become Osir, and eventually every dead person shared that fate, hence the reference to a dead man as an Osir.
Ptah: The creator god of Memphis.
Ra-har-akhty: Ra, Horus of the two horizons, a manifestation of the sun god later taken over by the Aten.
Sekhmet: The goddess of plague and hence of healing. She also represented the murderous power of the sun.
Serqet: The scorpion goddess who protected from poisonous stings and from illness generally.
Seshet: The goddess who personified writing.
Shapshu: The Amurrite sun goddess.
Shu and Tefnut: The male and female principles, twins and spouses, first of all the gods to split off from the primal All. They represented Air or Light and Moisture.
Sutesh: Seth, the brother and antagonist of Horus; god of the desert and of chaos.
Tesshub: The Mitannian storm god, also worshipped in Hatti.
Glossary of Terms and Places
A’amu: Called Amurru by its inhabitants, this was the area on the Mediterranean coast north of Byblos and south of Ugarit, later a kingdom called Amurru.
Akhbiriya: The Amurrite version of A’a-kheperu-ra Amenhotep II.
Akkadian: The Semitic language of Babylonia, used as a kind of international diplomatic language between kingdoms.
Arantu River: The Orontes, in inland Kharu.
Azzati: Gaza, an Egyptian stronghold in the southern Levant.
Beruta: Beirut, a city on the Phoenician coast between Sidon and Byblos.
deben: A unit of weight, equal to 91 grams.
djed pillar: A pillar erected in a summer festival and also during the heb-sed, thought to represent the spine of Osiris. It symbolized stability.
Djahy: The southern part of the Levant, more or less Roman Palestina.
doum palm: A type of palm tree bearing large edible fruit.
Duat: The afterworld, where the soul went through trials, made a confession of sinlessness, and was weighed to determine its eternal fate.
electrum: A naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver much prized by the Egyptians as white gold.
Fenkhu: The coastal Levant, later known as Phoenicia.
Field of Reeds: The pleasant land of the blessed dead.
Gem-pa-aten: One of four Theban temples to the Aten constructed by Akh-en-aten before abandoning that city as his capital.
Great Green: The Mediterranean Sea.
hapir (pl. hapiru): A group of social outcasts who existed on the edge of the Syrian desert, sometimes as bandits or highwaymen.
heb-sed: The “sed festival”, festival of the bull’s tail, a jubilee designed to renew the king’s strength after thirty years on the throne. It was often repeated at closer intervals thereafter and in some cases held well before the thirtieth year.
Ipet: “Shrine,” a Theban festival held yearly at Luxor which renewed the divine soul of the king and reaffirmed his affiliation to Amen.
Ipet-isut: The great temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes (Karnak).
ka: One of the elements of the human soul, which survived death. It is sometimes defined as the life force. The king was thought to have a divine ka, renewed annually in the Ipet Festival.
Kap: The royal nursery, where princes were brought up with the sons of local aristocrats and of vassal kings. The idea was to indoctrinate them with Egyptian culture and personal loyalty to the future king, but also to serve as hostages of a sort for their fathers’ good behavior.
Kebni: The Egyptian name for Byblos. The natives called it Gubla, a large city
on the Mediterranean coast.
Kemet: What the Egyptians called their country. It meant the Black Land, because of the rich black alluvial soil of the Nile Valley. They also referred to Egypt as the Two Lands.
Kharu: The area represented today by Syria. The name refers to the Hurrian (Mitannian) population, but most people of Kharu were Semitic speaking.
Kheta: Hatti Land, the kingdom of the Hittites, an increasingly powerful empire in Asia Minor.
khopesh: a sickle-shaped sword, popular in the New Kingdom.
lector priests (heri-hebu): These priests read out the religious ceremony as their colleagues enacted it.
Manakhbiriya: The Amurrite version of Men-kheperu-ra Djehuty-mes, Thutmose IV of Egypt, father of Amenhotep III.
Meluhha: A country of unknown location. Earlier references seem to suggest India, but later ones seem to be to the south of Egypt.
Men-nefer: The city of Memphis, capital of Lower (Northern) Egypt.
moringa: A tree bearing beans that were pressed for oil.
Naharin: An empire in inland Syria and northern Mesopotamia which had been very powerful but was falling apart at the time of our story. Also known as Mitanni.
Natanu: The River Litani in inland Lebanon. Its marshes are still famous for birds.
Nine Bows: The traditional enemies of Egypt. The exact composition of the Nine Bows varied, depending on who was a friend or an enemy at any given time.
Per-ankh: The House of Life, scribal school run by the priests of Amen-Ra at Thebes.
Per-hay: The House of Rejoicing, the palace built by Amenhotep III on the west bank of the Nile at the time of his first jubilee. Normally, the east bank was the land of the living.
(Great) River: The Nile, which had no name nor any personification as a god.
sem priest: A priest who presided at funerals, especially filling the role of the son by “opening the mouth” of the deceased to bring his senses to life.
shadouf: A bucket suspended from a pivoting fulcrum, with a counterpoise on the other side, used in antiquity and even today to raise water from a canal or pool.
shebyu necklace: A special gold necklace granted to favored servants of the king which marked an elevation of their status.