African Myths of Origin (Penguin Classics)

by Stephen Belcher

  20

  EGYPTIAN STORIES

  While early Egyptian culture sprang from African roots, the question of the continuities across time and space remains a methodological challenge. For the past two or three thousand years, Egypt has been far more closely tied to the Mediterranean world than to the distant lands on the upper Nile. To identify two-thousand-year-old influences in oral tradition seems an impossible task. Nevertheless, the assertion of a continuity from ancient Egyptian culture to modern Africa is a central tenet in some visions of African history, and particularly in the Afro-centric movement derived from the works of the Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop. The following selection of stories, taken from early Egyptian literature (3000–400 bc), is offered as evidence for possible narrative parallels and thematic agreement with the stories recorded in more recent years in sub-Saharan Africa. In the Middle Ages, Egypt was an important passage for Muslim pilgrims travelling from sub-Saharan Africa to Mecca, but the dominant culture by that time was almost purely Islamic.

  THE CONTENDING OF HORUS AND SETH

  The best-known myth of the death of Osiris and his resurrection by Isis is actually a late Greek version, reported by Plutarch after the cult of Isis had become something of an international phenomenon in the Mediterranean world. The image of Osiris before that time was somewhat different. For Egyptians, judging by the surviving literature, it was the question of the succession to Osiris that mattered most – a question whose theological relevance can easily be understood in terms of the system of divine kingship: how could a divine Pharaoh die, and who then could succeed him? This version of myth is reported from the New Kingdom (c. 1000 bc), but may be older.

  The story of the death of Osiris is well known: how his brother Seth grew jealous of his power and his popularity and plotted to kill him, and so contrived a coffin made to the measure of Osiris which he produced at a feast, inviting the guests to see whom it might fit. When Osiris lay in it, Seth and his helpers fastened the lid shut and threw it into the Nile. But Isis, the wife of Osiris, searched long for her husband and found the coffin where it had come to rest near the town of Abydos. It was then that she lay with her dead husband and conceived her son Horus. But Seth later came upon them and seized the body of Osiris and scattered it in parts over all of Egypt, and he sent messengers to try to slay the infant Horus. But Isis again searched and found all the parts of her husband’s body, and later she cured her son of the poison which afflicted him. So Horus became an adult and went before the gods of Egypt to demand his father’s inheritance.

  Seth argued that he, rather than Horus, should rule Egypt, for he was the brother of the dead king; he was a man of experience and wisdom and a tried warrior who was responsible for guarding the ship of Ra as it sailed through the nightlands where monsters lay, while Horus was young and callow and had never been tested. After some discussion the gods agreed to send a message to Neith, goddess of the sky, asking her judgement. Thoth the scribe drafted and wrote out the letter. Neith’s reply was that Horus should receive the realm of his father. But Atum refused to recognize this reply as valid and refused to consent to Horus’ enthronement.

  The discussion continued, and Isis began to lose her temper. The gods decided to continue their talk in a place without her, and withdrew to an island in the Nile. But Isis, ever resourceful, changed her appearance, bribed the boatman and so came onto the island. There she took the appearance of a beautiful young woman and walked past Seth as he sat by the riverbank. Seth walked with her for a time, drawn by her beauty, and they talked. She told him she was a young widow; her husband had died, and she had a small son. But the son could not get his father’s cattle and fields, because a stranger had come into the village and claimed that those possessions were his by right.

  ‘How can a stranger claim a father’s property while the son yet lives?’ asked Seth, drawn into her story.

  ‘Indeed,’ said Isis. She resumed her own appearance and called the other gods to witness that Seth had spoken a judgement against himself. But again Seth disputed the decision and claimed that the circumstances of the two cases were entirely different.

  Finally, the gods decided that the two contenders should meet in combat. After some negotiations, Seth and Horus took the form of hippopotamuses to fight in the river. The gods assembled and watched as the two mighty beasts roared and rolled in the water, slashing with their tusks and attempting each to drown the other. Isis, meanwhile, watched anxiously, armed with a harpoon, for she was determined that her son would not lose this battle. But it was difficult to tell the two hippos apart, especially as they rolled over each other in the foaming water. One of them seemed to be winning, and although she was not certain, she thought it was Seth. The harpoon darted out and pierced the thick hide. But it was Horus, not Seth, and he bellowed in pain and reproached her as she hastily removed the harpoon and did what she could to quickly heal the wound.

  She watched closely again, and then stabbed. This time she had caught Seth. She pulled him close to her, and he turned and spoke, reminding her that she was his sister and should not be guilty of his blood. Swayed, she released him and he returned to the combat. But Horus had followed the action, and his mother’s interference had gone too far for him. He left the water, seized an axe, and chopped off her head. She later replaced it, of course, although there are also statues of the headless Isis in Egyptian temples.

  Then Horus, appalled that he had tried to kill his mother, rushed into the wilderness and fell asleep under some bushes. Seth, following his trail, came upon him as he slept and blinded him. But the next day, as Horus wandered aimlessly, unable to find his way, the sometimes-merciful Hathor came to him and poured milk in his eyes and restored his vision.

  Horus returned to the gods and resumed his suit against Seth. The gods determined that they must consult a final authority, and sent a letter to Osiris who had become the ruler of the underworld, the land of the dead. Osiris’ reply was decisive: if they did not grant the inheritance to his son, he would return from the land of the dead with his hosts of dead spirits, and there would be no peace for the living.

  So Horus became the ruler of Egypt after Osiris.

  CHEOPS AND THE MAGICIANS

  This linked set of stories (an early example of the frame-tale) was recorded around 1800 bc. On one level, it counts as popular literature: the narration of wonders associated with an earlier king whose wondrous monument surpassed all others. On another level, however, it marks a transition, for it tells how King Cheops (or Chu-fu) learned that another dynasty would supplant his own. It serves thus as an after-the-fact justification for that succession, and this sort of mechanism is widely encountered in dynastic legends of origin.

  Cheops, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, sat with his sons as they told him tales of the great wise men of old times, and he decreed cult offerings of beer and oxen and grain to the memory of those men. His son Khephren rose and said, ‘I would tell you of a wonder that occurred in the time of your predecessor, Nebka of the Third Dynasty. It shows the powers of the priest Webaoner. He was married, but his wife had taken a lover to whom she sent gifts. She would meet her lover in a garden-house on Webaoner’s estate, near the water, and before a tryst she would tell the caretaker to clean the garden-house and to prepare it for a visit. Then she would come and spend the day eating and drinking and sporting with her lover who would come through the water to meet her.

  ‘The caretaker went to Webaoner to tell him how his wife was misbehaving. Webaoner opened his chest of ebony and gold and made his preparations. He fashioned a small crocodile of wax, about fifteen centimetres long. Over it he read a spell, so that if someone bathed in the crocodile’s waters the beast would seize him. Then he gave the wax crocodile to the caretaker and told him to wait until the lover had gone into the water, and then to cast the wax figure in after him. So the caretaker returned to the gardens with the wax crocodile.

  ‘Some time later, the wife again sent to the caretaker and instruct
ed him to clean the garden-house and to prepare it for a visit. And then she came and met her lover and they spent an agreeable day. At the end of the day, the lover left his mistress and went to the water, and the caretaker threw the wax crocodile in. At once it grew twenty times as large, and it seized the lover and carried him under the water.

  ‘Webaoner stayed at his duties in the royal court with Nebka, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, for seven days, and during this time the lover was held under the waters, unable to breathe. After seven days, Webaoner approached King Nebka and bowed, and invited the king to come and behold a marvel. His Majesty accompanied Webaoner, and they went across Webaoner’s estates to the garden-house and the water near it. Webaoner called out to his crocodile, and summoned it to bring forth the lover, and the crocodile did so. And when he was laid on the banks, the lover breathed again. The king was frightened of the crocodile, but Webaoner spoke words over it, and again it became a figure of wax, fifteen centimetres long. Then Webaoner explained who this man was, and why he had set the crocodile to catch him, and the king said to Webaoner and to the crocodile: “He has done wrong. He is yours. Take what belongs to you.”

  ‘Webaoner placed the wax crocodile on the ground and spoke, and again it grew twentyfold and it seized the young man and carried him into the depths of the water. Later, Webaoner had his wife burned, and her ashes were thrown into the river.

  ‘This’, said Khephren, ‘was a marvel that occurred in the time of King Nebka.’ Cheops decreed offerings of food and drink for his forefather and for his forefather’s priest, the wise Webaoner.

  Then Baufre rose to tell of a marvel that had occurred in the time of Cheops’ father Snefru. One day, King Snefru was bored. He summoned Djadjaemonkh the learned priest to his chambers, and asked him to suggest a distraction. Djadjaemonkh told the king that he should go down to the lake in his gardens, and equip a boat with maidens chosen among the beautiful women of his palace to row it, and in this way he would find distraction.

  So the king ordered the boat to be prepared with oars of ebony and sandal-wood. He ordered twenty women, dressed in netting, to take the oars, and boarded the boat. The royal party rowed about the lake, and the words of the learned priest were fulfilled. The king found his ennui dissolved. But one of the maidens knocked her hair with an oar, and a charm of blue stone which she had been wearing, in the shape of a fish, fell from her hair into the water. In her distress at the loss she stopped rowing. The rower behind her stopped, and then all the rowers on that side and then all the rowers entirely. When the king dreamily asked why the boat had stopped, the women all looked at one another, and finally one answered that it was because one of them had stopped and then the rest followed suit. So the king asked the maiden why she had stopped rowing, and she said, ‘A blue charm shaped like a fish fell from my hair into the water, and I was distressed and so stopped rowing.’ And the king told her, ‘Be easy in your heart. I shall offer you another charm when we return to shore, and your loss shall be made good.’ But the maiden wept, and when he asked she admitted that she would not be satisfied: she must have her own charm.

  Then the king turned to the learned priest Djadjaemonkh and asked him what they should do. The priest went to the side of the boat. He recited his charms, and the waters parted, piling up on either side, and so he was able to descend to the bed of the lake, although it was twenty-four feet in depth after it had parted, and there on the lake-bottom he found the fish-shaped charm belonging to the maiden and so he returned it to her. The maiden regained her cheer, the king was pleased, and he rewarded the priest with rich things.

  ‘Such, oh king, was a marvel that occurred in the days of your father Snefru,’ said Baufre, and Cheops ordered that offerings should be made to his father and to Djadjaemonkh, and so it was done.

  Then Hardedef rose, and he told King Cheops that while these marvels of the past were all very well, there was a living man named Dedi who might match them. Dedi lived in a village, eating prodigious quantities of meat and drink. Dedi, said Hardedef, could reattach a severed head and perform other wonders. So Cheops ordered Hardedef to bring Dedi to the Pharaoh’s court, and Hardedef equipped a boat and set off on the river to the village of Dedi. He found the old man lying at home, tended by his servants. Descending from his sedan chair, Hardedef greeted Dedi politely and invited him to the palace of the king. Hardedef raised Dedi up with his own hands and led him to the boat, and so they embarked along with Dedi’s pupils, and sailed on the river to the royal palace. When they arrived, Hardedef sent a messenger to announce his return to his father King Cheops, and to inform him that the great magician had arrived.

  When they came before King Cheops, the king greeted Dedi with respect for his age and wisdom, and told him that a report had come that Dedi could reattach a severed head. And Dedi said that he could perform this action. So the king proposed that they should bring in a prisoner who had been condemned to death, as a subject for Dedi’s magic, but Dedi refused, saying the magic was not to be used in this way. So they brought in a goose and chopped off its head, and then they laid the head on one side of the throne room and the carcass on another, and Dedi stood between them. He closed his eyes and muttered his spell, and the two parts of the goose came together and the head joined onto the neck, and the goose rose and cackled and waddled through the room. Then they brought him another bird, and he did the same, and then a great ox, and again he restored the ox’s body and head and made it rise and walk.

  Then the king asked Dedi if he could help them find the hidden chamber of Thoth, where lay the magics that would ensure the stability of his reign, and Dedi reflected for some time, lost in thought. Then Dedi answered that it would not be Cheops who uncovered the chamber of Thoth, but that would be accomplished by the three sons of Redderet. And King Cheops naturally asked who Redderet might be, and he was told that she was the wife of a priest of Ra at Sakhbu. Then King Cheops became saddened at the thought that the three sons of Redderet, not his own sons, would rule after him. But he appointed a rich living for Dedi and ordered him to be taken into the household of Hardedef.

  Redderet was indeed pregnant, but when she gave birth she had a difficult labour, so that out of compassion Ra of Sakhbu ordered the birth goddesses to attend her and help her through. The goddesses, in the guise of musicians, presented themselves to Redderet’s husband, but he told them he did not want music, because his wife was in labour. Then they offered their services, claiming that they had skills in birthing. So he brought them to his wife. Isis knelt before her, Nephthys stood behind, and the other two goddesses did what they could to ease the birth. The first son came out, and Isis said that he would rule the two kingdoms. The goddesses cut his umbilical cord, wrapped him and laid him aside. A second son was born in the same way. Again Isis said that he would rule the two kingdoms, and they cut his umbilical cord, wrapped him and laid him in a bed. Then a third son was born. Again Isis foretold that he would be a king and rule over the two kingdoms, and they cut his umbilical cord.

  The goddesses left Redderet and told her husband that his wife was safe and that he had three sons. He gave them bags of grain as payment, so they might make beer, for he thought they were musicians and entertainers. They took the bag, but then thought to themselves that they must perform some marvel as a token that the three sons would be kings in their time. So they created three golden crowns and placed them in the bags of grain. Then they caused some rain to fall and they returned to Redderet’s house to ask the husband to keep the grain dry under his roof until they returned to claim it. Then they placed their seals upon the bags and departed.

  Two weeks later came a great feast day. Redderet consulted with her servants on their stores and provisions for the feast. She asked what they had to make beer, and the servants told her they had no grain except for that which the husband had given to the musicians who had helped with her childbirth. After some thought, Redderet told the servant to use that grain to make beer in preparation for the feast and th
ey could purchase more before the musicians returned to claim their grain. So the servant broke the seal on the bags, and was amazed to hear the sound of music and singing coming from the bags, such music as is played in the Pharaoh’s court to honour the ruler of the land. She reported this to Redderet, who came into the storeroom. She listened carefully in a different part of the room, but heard no music. Then she touched the bags left by the musician goddesses. The music played clearly, and Redderet realized this was a sign that her sons would be honoured as kings. She was proud and delighted and later told her husband.

  But some time later, Redderet punished the serving-woman for some misdeed, and the woman swore that she would tell the king how Redderet had borne three sons who would become kings. But on her way to Pharaoh’s house, she knelt down to drink at the water’s edge, and a crocodile burst from the river, seized her and carried her off. She never delivered the message. So King Cheops never heard of the sons of Redderet, although in time they came to rule and established the fifth dynasty of those who ruled over Egypt.

  THE TWO BROTHERS

  This old story offers many elements which are to be found later and elsewhere; the false rape accusation is widespread (see Chapter 3), and so also are the motif of the heart preserved outside the body, the hair which causes the king to fall in love, and the trickster who becomes the child of his enemy. The story seems to be based on a local myth, and echoes many of the migration legends which will be found later; the fraternal bond especially is a theme in migration legends.

  Anubis and Bata were brothers. After the death of their parents they lived together, and the elder, Anubis, cared for the younger Bata as would a father, feeding and clothing him. Bata in turn served his brother in the fields, ploughing, sowing and reaping or watching the cattle according to the seasons. Because he was dutiful and kindly, the cattle took to him. They would indicate to him where the best pasture was to be found or anything else they needed. Therefore the brothers’ herds were the finest in the region.