by Mika Waltari
Pepitamon was exceedingly wroth because slaves had plundered his house and opened the doors of the cats’ cages. They had taken the cats’ milk and cream home to their children so that the beasts had starved and run wild. He also was merciless, and within two days the walls of the city were crammed with the bodies of men hung by the heels.
In jubilation the priests re-erected the image of Ammon in his temple and made very great sacrifice to him.
Eie appointed Pepitamon governor of Thebes and hastened to Akhetaton to compel Pharaoh Akhnaton to abdicate. He said to me, “Come with me, Sinuhe, for I may need the help of a physician to bow Pharaoh to my will.”
And I answered, “Certainly I will come, Eie, for I desire my pleasure to be full.”
But he did not understand what I meant.
5
Thus I sailed back to Akhetaton with Eie. Away in Tanis Horemheb had also heard of these events, and he made speed to man the warships and hasten up the river to Akhetaton. All was quiet in the cities and villages as he came; the temples were open once more, and the images of the gods had been restored to their places. He hastened to reach Akhetaton at the same time as Eie, to compete with him for power, so he pardoned all slaves who laid down their arms and punished no one who of his own free will exchanged the cross of Aton for Ammon’s horn. The people praised him for his clemency, although it did not come from his heart but rather from his desire to save fit men for the fighting.
Akhetaton was a domain accursed; priests and horns guarded all the roads leading thither and slew every fugitive from it who refused to make sacrifice to Ammon. They had also barred the river with copper chains that none might make his escape that way. I did not recognize the city when I saw it again, for a deathly silence reigned in the streets, the flowers in the parks had withered, and the green grass had turned yellow now that no one watered the gardens. No birds sang in the sun- shriveled trees, and all over the city hung the hideous odor of death. The families of high rank abandoned their houses, and their servants had been the first to flee, leaving all behind them, for no one dared to carry anything with him from the accursed city. The dogs had perished in their kennels, and the horses had starved in their stalls because the fugitive grooms had hamstrung them where they stood. Akhetaton the fair was already a dead city, breathing corruption, when I came.
But Pharaoh Akhnaton and his family lingered in the golden house. The most faithful among his servants had remained with him and also the elder members of the court, who could not conceive of a life elsewhere than with Pharaoh. They knew nothing of what had passed in Thebes because no courier had arrived in Akhetaton for a month. Provisions were running out, and by the will of Pharaoh their only food was the hard bread and the gruel of the poor. The more enterprising speared fish in the river or killed birds with their throwing sticks and ate this food in secret.
Eie the priest sent me first into the presence of Pharaoh, to tell him of all that had happened, because I was Pharaoh’s trusted friend. So I went, but all within me was frozen. I felt neither joy nor sorrow, and even to Akhnaton my heart was closed. He raised his gray, haggard face with its dead eyes and said, ‘Sinuhe, are you the only one to return? Where are all who were faithful to me? Where are those who loved me and whom I loved?”
I said to him, “The old gods rule again in Egypt, and in Thebes the priests make sacrifice to Ammon amid the rejoicing of the people. They have cursed you, Pharaoh Akhnaton, and they have cursed your city. They have cursed your name to all eternity and are already chipping it away from the inscriptions.”
He moved his hand impatiently, and suffering was kindled again in his face as he persisted, “I do not ask what has happened in Thebes. Where are my faithful ones and all whom I loved?”
I answered, “You still have your fair wife Nefertiti. Your children also are with you. Young Sekenre is spearing fish in the river, and Tut is playing at funerals with his dolls as usual. What do you care for any others?”
He answered, “Where is my friend Thothmes, who was your friend also and whom I loved? Where is he, the artist, by whose hand the very stones were imbued with eternal life?”
“He died for your sake, Pharaoh Akhnaton,” I answered. “Negroes transfixed him with a spear and cast his body into the river to be devoured by crocodiles because he was faithful to you. Though he spat on your couch, do not think of that now that the jackal howls in his empty workshop.”
Pharaoh Akhnaton raised his hand as if to brush a spider’s web from his face; then he recited the names of those he had loved. Of some I said, “He died for your sake, Pharaoh Akhnaton.” And at length, “The power of Aton has been crushed. The kingdom of Aton on earth is no more, and Ammon rules again.”
He stared before him, and with an impatient movement of his bloodless hands he said, “Yes, yes. I know. My visions have told me of it all. The eternal kingdom cannot be contained within earthly boundaries. All shall be as before, and fear, hatred, and wrong shall rule the world. Better would it have been if I had died, and best of all if I had never been born to see all the evil that is done on earth.”
His blindness so enraged me that I retorted heatedly, “You have not seen so much as the least part of the evil that has come about for your sake, Pharaoh Akhnaton! You have not seen your son’s blood run over your hands, nor has your heart been frozen by the death cry of your beloved! Therefore your talk is empty, Pharaoh Akhnaton.”
He said wearily, “Go from me then, Sinuhe, since I am evil. Go from me, and suffer no more upon my account. Go from me, for I am weary of your face-I am weary of all men’s faces, for behind them all I see the faces of beasts.”
But I sat on the floor before him and said, “Not so, Pharaoh; I will not go from you, for I will have my full measure. Eie the priest is coming, and at the northern boundary of your city the horns of Horemheb have sounded, and the copper chains that bar the river have been severed that he may sail to you.”
He smiled slightly, threw out his hands, and said, “Eie and Horemheb, crime and violence: these then are my only followers now!”
Thereafter we said no more but listened to the gentle purring of the water clock until Eie the priest and Horemheb entered the presence of Pharaoh. They had disputed violently with one another, and their faces were dark with passion. They breathed heavily, and both talked at once without respect for Pharaoh.
Eie said, “Abdicate, Pharaoh Akhnaton, if you would preserve your life. Let Sekenre rule in your stead. Let him return to Thebes and make sacrifice to Ammon, and the priests will anoint him and set the red and white crown upon his head.”
But Horemheb said, “My spear shall maintain the crown for you, Pharaoh Akhnaton, if you will return to Thebes and make sacrifice to Ammon. The priests may growl a little, but I will quiet them with my whip, and they will forget their grumbling when you declare a holy war to conquer Syria again for Egypt.”
Pharaoh Akhnaton surveyed them both with a lifeless smile.
“I will live and die as Pharaoh,” he said. “I will never submit myself to the false god, and I will never declare war and preserve my power by blood. Pharaoh has spoken.”
With this he covered his face with a corner of his garment and went, leaving us three alone in the great room with the odor of death in our nostrils.
Eie spread out his arms helplessly and looked at Horemheb. Horemheb did the same and looked at Eie. I sat on the floor, for my knees had no more strength in them, and looked at both. Suddenly Eie smiled slyly and said, “Horemheb, you hold the spear and the throne is yours. Set on your head the two crowns you desire!”
But Horemheb laughed in derision and said, “I am not such a fool. Keep the dirty crowns if you want them. You know very well that we cannot go back to the old times again, for Egypt is threatened by war and famine. If I were to take the crown now the people would blame me for all the evil that must follow, and you would find it an easy matter to depose me when the time was ripe.”
Eie said, “Sekenre, then, if he will agre
e to return to Thebes. If not he, then Tut; he will certainly comply. Their consorts are of the sacred blood. Let them bear the hatred of the people until the times improve.”
“While you rule beneath their shadow!” said Horemheb.
But Eie replied, “You forget that you have the army and must meet the Hittites. If you can do this, there is no one more powerful in the land of Kem than yourself.”
So they disputed until they perceived that they were bound to one another and could come to no solution save in alliance.
Eie said at last, “I freely admit that I have done my best to depose you, Horemheb. But now you have outgrown me, you Son of the Falcon, and I can no longer dispense with you. If the Hittites invade the country, I shall have no joy of my power, nor do I fancy that any Pepitamon could wage war against them, suitable though such may be as spillers of blood and executioners. Let this be the day of our alliance. Together we can rule the country, but divided we both fall. Without me your army is powerless, and without your army Egypt is lost. Let us swear by all the gods of Egypt that from this day forward we shall hold together. I am already an old man, Horemheb, and desire to taste the sweetness of power, but you are young and have your life before you.”
“I do not desire the crowns but rather a good war for my ruffians,” said Horemheb. “Yet I must have a pledge from you, Eie, or you will betray me at the first opportunity, so do not gainsay me. I know you!”
“What pledge would you have, Horemheb? Is not the army the only valid pledge?”
The face of Horemheb darkened as he glanced about the walls in hesitation and scraped his sandals on the stone floor as if he sought to wriggle his toes into the sand. He said at last, “I would have the Princess Baketaton to wife. Indeed, I mean to break the jar with her though heaven and earth should fall, and you cannot prevent me.”
Eie cried, “Aha! Now I see what you are after; you are more astute than I thought and worthy of my respect. She has already changed her name back to Baketamon, and the priests have nothing against her. In her veins flows the sacred blood of the great Pharaoh. If you wed her, you win a legal right to the crown and a better right than the husbands of Akhnaton’s daughters, for behind them is but the blood of the false Pharaoh. You have worked this out very cunningly, Horemheb, but I cannot approve-or at least not yet-for then I should be in your hands entirely and lack all authority over you.”
But Horemheb cried, “Keep your dirty crowns, Eie! I desire her more than crowns, and I have desired her since the first time I beheld her beauty in the golden house. I seek to mingle my blood with that of the great Pharaoh, that future kings of Egypt may be the fruit of my loins. You desire only the crown, Eie. Take it when you consider the time ripe, and my spear shall support your throne. Give me the Princess, and I will not reign while you live-not though you should live long-for I have my life before me, as you say, and time to wait.”
Eie rubbed his mouth with his hand, musing. As he mused his face brightened, for he perceived he had a bait by which he could lead
Horemheb in the ways that best pleased him. As I sat on the floor listening to their talk, I marveled at the human heart, which allowed these two to dispose of crowns while Pharaoh Akhnaton lived and breathed in the next room.
At length Eie said, “You have waited long for your princess, and may well wait a little longer, for you have first to wage a desperate war. It will take time to win the Princess’s consent; she holds you in great contempt because you were born with dung between the toes. But I and I only have the means to incline her to you, and I swear to you, Horemheb, by all the gods of Egypt, that on the day when I set the red and white crown on my head I will with my own hand break the jar between you and the Princess. More I cannot do for you, and even thus I deliver myself into your hands.”
Horemheb lacked patience to bargain further and said, “Be it so. Let us now bring this nonsense to a happy conclusion, and I do not think you will wriggle overmuch since you so earnestly desire these crowns-these playthings!”
In his excitement he had quite forgotten me, but when he caught sight of me again he said, disconcerted, “Sinuhe, are you still here? You have heard things not fit for unworthy ears, and I fear I must kill you, although unwillingly since you are my friend.”
His words tickled me as I reflected how unworthy were these two men now dividing the crown between them, while I, sitting on the floor, was perhaps the worthiest man of any: the only male heir of the great Pharaoh whose sacred blood ran in my veins. Therefore I could not contain my laughter but pressed my hand over my mouth and tittered like an old woman.
Eie was greatly irritated and said, “It is unseemly in you to laugh, Sinuhe, for these are grave matters. We will not slay you, however, although you deserve it. It was well that you heard what passed. You are our witness. You can never speak of what you have heard here today, for we need you and will bind you to us. You too understand that it is high time for Pharaoh to die. As his physician you shall open his skull this very day and see to it that your knife goes deep enough for him to depart in the decent and traditional manner.”
But Horemheb said, “I will not involve myself in this, for my hands are already dirty enough from having touched the hands of Eie. Yet what he says is true. Pharaoh Akhnaton must die if Egypt is to be saved; there is no other way.”
I giggled again, then mastering myself I said, “As a physician I may not open his skull since there is insufficient reason and I am bound by the code of my profession. But be easy. As his friend I will mix him a good medicine. When he has drunk of it, he will sleep, never to waken again, and in this manner I bind myself to you so that from me you need never fear betrayal.”
And I brought forth the fine glass vessel Hrihor had once given me and mixed its contents with wine in a golden cup; the smell of it was not unpleasant. I took the cup in my hand, and all three of us entered Pharaoh Akhnaton’s room. He had removed the crowns; he had laid aside the whip and the crook and was resting on his couch with a gray face and bloodshot eyes.
Eie went up, took crowns and whip, and weighing these in his hands he said, “Pharaoh Akhnaton, your friend Sinuhe has mixed you a good potion. Drink it, be strengthened, and tomorrow we will talk again of sorrowful things.”
Pharaoh sat up on his couch and took the cup in his hands, looking at each of us in turn, and his weary glance pierced me and sent a shiver through my spine. He said, “Men show mercy to a sick beast with a blow from a club. Have you mercy for me, Sinuhe? If so I thank you, for my disillusion is more bitter to my tongue than death, and death today is sweeter than the scent of myrrh.”
“Drink, Pharaoh Akhnaton,” I said. “Drink for Aton’s sake.”
And Horemheb said, “Drink, Akhnaton my friend. Drink that Egypt may be saved. With my shoulder cloth I will protect your weakness as once before, in the desert outside Thebes.”
Pharaoh Akhnaton drank from the goblet, but his hand shook so that wine splashed down his chin. Then he gripped the cup in both hands and emptied it, and at last he sank back and laid his neck on the wooden rest. He said no word but stared with dim, bloodshot eyes into his visions. After a time he began to shiver as with cold. Horemheb slipped off his shoulder cloth and spread it over him, but Eie took the crowns in both hands and tried the feel of them upon his head.
So passed Pharaoh Akhnaton; I gave him death to drink, and he drank it from my hand. Yet why I did it I do not know, for a man does not know his own heart. I believe I did it less for Egypt’s sake than for Merit’s and for my son Thoth’s. I did it less from love of Akhnaton than from bitterness, from hatred of all the evil he had brought about. But above all I did it because it was written in the stars that my measure should be full. When I saw him die, I believed that it was already full, but a man does not know his own heart, which is insatiable-more insatiable than a crocodile of the river.
When we had seen him die, we left the golden house, forbidding the servants to disturb him because he slept. Not until the following morning did
they find his body and raise their voices in mourning. The golden house was filled with weeping, although I believe that the minds of many were easier for his death. But Queen Nefertiti stood tearless beside his bier, and the look on her face was such as none could interpret. She was touching Pharaoh Akhnaton’s thin fingers with her beautiful hands and stroking his cheeks when I came, as my duty required, to attend his body to the House of Death. There I entrusted it to the corpse washers and embalmers, that they might preserve it for eternal life.
According to law and tradition, the young Sekenre was Pharaoh, but he was altogether beside himself with grief, and he stared about him unable to utter a sensible word, having been accustomed to take all his ideas from Pharaoh Akhnaton. Eie and Horemheb spoke to him and told him that he must now hasten to Thebes to make sacrifice to Ammon if he desired to keep the crown upon his head. But he did not believe them, being a childish boy and given to daydreaming.
He said, “I will make known the light of Aton to all people and build a temple to my father Akhnaton and worship him there as a god, for he was not like other men.”
When Eie and Horemheb saw how stupid he was, they left him. On the following day when he went to spear fish in the river, it chanced that his reed boat overturned and his body was devoured by crocodiles. So the story went, but exactly how the matter fell out I do not know. I believe it was not Horemheb who had him slain but rather Eie, who was in haste to return to Thebes and keep his hold on the reins of government.
He and Horemheb next went to young Tut, who was playing on the floor in his room. He was playing at funerals, as his custom was, and his consort Ankhsenaton played with him.