Egypt's Light Read online

  Chapter Two: HISTORY

  SO SPEAKS legend, but our science

  Finds another birth for Egypt.

  At a time before the scribes had

  Started to record what happened,

  Humans found a fruitful river

  Flowing south to north through desert.

  Year by year, the river flooded,

  Bearing silt from distant mountains

  To deposit it at flood-time

  On the banks where river-dwellers

  Waited to begin their planting.

  Once the inundation ended,

  Farmers sowed their land with emmer —

  Wheat, as the Egyptians knew it.

  Soon, it grew so well and widely

  That it fed both slave and master;

  It piled up in well-built silos

  For lean years when floods were scanty.

  Egypt thrived on bread of emmer

  And on beer, fermented barley;

  Egypt thrived on fish and wildfowl,

  Vegetables and fruit in plenty.

  By the banks rose towns and cities

  That in time became two kingdoms:

  Upper Egypt, where the river

  Flowed straight through the southern desert,

  And, above it, Lower Egypt,

  Where the river split asunder,

  Flowing through a fan-shaped delta

  To Great Green, the sea beyond it.

  Upper Egypt, land of lotus,

  Was protected by a vulture

  With a white crown rising cone-like;

  Lower Egypt, of papyrus,

  Was protected by a cobra

  With a red crown in a circle.

  Scribes invented hieroglyphics,

  Meaning carved in stone to capture

  Words and deeds of Egypt's rulers

  So that they might live forever

  In the memories of offspring.

  It was first in Upper Egypt

  That the rulers felt ambition

  To unite the Nile's long valley

  Under one supreme lawgiver.

  Scorpion began the process

  Of the land's consolidation.

  Narmer unified the kingdoms

  And put on both crowns together;

  Narmer set his throne in Memphis

  At the Delta's fertile apex.

  Henceforth, Egypt was one kingdom

  From the Delta's northern shoreline

  To the cataracts far southward

  Where the Cushites came with trade-goods

  To buy part of Egypt's treasure.

  Houses for the dead were fashioned

  To preserve unchanged the bodies

  Of great rulers, priests, and nobles

  For a hope of resurrection.

  Rituals of word and gesture

  Brought all souls, the priests assured them,

  Passage into life eternal

  Where the dead, revived, could savor

  Life beside a pleasant river

  If the grave-goods brought by loved ones

  Were sufficient and undamaged.

  Early tombs held slaughtered servants

  Who, priests said, would serve their masters

  Faithfully beyond the sunset.

  Later, tombs would hold ushabti,

  Servants, carved from stone or timber,

  Who would come to life when masters

  Summoned them with spells to service

  In the kingdom of Osiris.

  Death was not the end, but outset,

  For the one whom gods found pleasing

  For right actions in one's lifetime

  And right offerings beyond it.

  Making mummies out of nobles

  With the guidance of Anubis,

  God of death, but life's preserver,

  Workers took from them their organs

  (Brains, as useless, were discarded)

  To be sealed in jars forever.

  Next, the workers dried the bodies

  In a bed of salt called natron,

  Wrapped the shriveled husks in linen

  Holding amulets to give them

  Life again beyond the river,

  And then sealed the finished mummies

  In sarcophagi to keep them

  Safe, one hoped, from time's destruction.

  In the afterlife, a person

  Came before the gods for judgment.

  While revived Osiris looked on,

  Hearts set down upon a balance

  Were weighed out against a feather

  Representing truth and justice.

  If one's heart outweighed the feather,

  If one's heart was filled with wrongness,

  It would make the feather rise up;

  Then a monster ate the bad heart,

  And one's life would end in darkness.

  If one's heart bore no transgressions,

  It was lighter than a feather;

  Then one pleased the god Osiris,

  And one met a happy ending.

  Egypt's king was called the Pharaoh,

  'Great house, palace,' for the building

  Where he passed both laws and judgment

  On his subjects who must serve him.

  Bearing crook and flail, the Pharaoh

  Told the subjects whom he governed

  That he was the loving shepherd

  Who protected them from strangers,

  But the whip that would chastise them

  If they strayed from Pharaoh's pastures.

  When the peasants were not farming,

  Pharaoh called them out to serve him

  In his army for his battles,

  Or to build the gods new temples.

  When the Pharaoh's lifetime ended,

  He became a new Osiris

  Reigning over Egypt's fortunes

  While his son, the living Horus,

  Ruled in life beneath Ra's heaven.

  Over time, as Egypt prospered,

  Pharaohs grew in their ambition

  To preserve their names and actions

  For their kin, yet unbegotten,

  And to reign in pomp and glory

  In the West as kings forever.

  One proud ruler, Pharaoh Djoser,

  Sought a way to climb to heaven

  And to rule the land forever

  As a star that shone upon it.

  His assistant, wise Imhotep,

  First of architects to awe us

  With the monuments of giants,

  Stacked up houses in a ladder

  Of four sides and pointed summit

  From which Djoser's soul could fly up

  To the sky to be enthroned there.

  For Imhotep's matchless wisdom

  As a doctor, scribe, and scholar,

  He became a god in Egypt,

  Which would call on him for healing.

  Later Pharaohs felt an impulse

  To outdo the feat of Djoser.

  They built ladders straight, not stair-stepped —

  "Pyramids," the Greeks would call them —

  That still dazzle Egypt's tourists

  When four thousand years have vanished

  Since the pyramid's construction.

  Not on ladders, but on sunbeams,

  Would the Pharaohs reach the heavens!

  Haughty Khufu, greatest builder,

  Raised a mountain in the desert.

  Son and grandson, aping forebear,

  Built two lesser mountains by it.

  Those who see the three great mountains

  Say that nothing else can match them.

  In the tombs, the Pharaohs' mummies

  Lay while spells in hieroglyphics

  Meant to make each organ flourish

  With new life beyond the sunset

  Failed to keep vile gangs of robbers

  From despoiling royal grave-goods.

  Pharaohs stuck on poles the robbers

  Whom they
caught, but others prospered,

  Making gold and jeweled grave-goods

  Serve the purpose of the living.

  Pride gives birth to its destruction.

  Rendered poor by endless building,

  Egypt foundered, Pharaohs falling

  Into weakness and confusion

  Till a queen became a Pharaoh

  In the place of true-born princes,

  But could not hold back the darkness.

  Minor nobles fought for kingship;

  Poverty and famine threatened

  Lives as social order weakened.

  In the time of Egypt's chaos,

  Commoners aspired to savor

  Through the blessings of Osiris

  Life eternal like the Pharaoh's.

  Over time, the chaos turned to

  Order as new Pharaohs gathered

  Back a rule that had been scattered.

  Thebes, a southern city, prospered,

  Housing Pharaohs who made Amon

  Greatest of the gods of Egypt.

  In the south, the dark god Amon

  Was the hidden one of Karnak,

  Where the world's most mighty temple

  Rose to shelter Amon's image.

  In his kingdom, writing prospered.

  Scribes recorded tales of wonder

  That had entertained the people

  In the marketplace as singers

  Told of distant lands and customs.

  Scribes recorded also proverbs

  To instruct the young and foolish

  In the way of wealth and friendship

  That would ease their earthly lifetime

  And win favor from Osiris

  When they came to him for judgment.

  No great kingdom lasts forever.

  Egypt met a second chaos

  When the Hyksos, vile invaders

  From the lands beyond the Delta,

  Conquered it and set up thrones there.

  Ruling their new realm, the Hyksos

  Changed the nature of religion:

  Seth, the killer of Osiris,

  Now became the god to worship.

  Over time, the vile invaders

  Stretched their rule to Upper Egypt

  Until Thebes, the seat of Pharaohs,

  Hosted kings with foreign features.

  Hyksos ruled, but won no love from,

  Egypt's people, who would follow

  Theban princes, serving Amon,

  In a war for liberation.

  Foremost of the Theban princes,

  Ahmose, driving Hyksos elsewhere,

  Reigned henceforth in Thebes as Pharaoh.

  Those who won, the new Egyptians,

  Called the Hyksos evildoers

  And despised them ever after.

  Still, the Hyksos brought some blessings:

  Horse and chariot first entered

  Egypt in the Hyksos' heyday;

  Lute and lyre first sang in Egypt

  When the Hyksos brought them southwards.

  Dawn arose again in Egypt

  As in Thebes a line of Pharaohs

  Born of Ahmose raised the kingdom

  To its time of greatest glory.

  In this new Egyptian kingdom,

  Pharaohs prospered, even dying:

  Theban Pharaohs sealed their bodies

  Into rock-cut tombs on cliffsides

  From which one could watch the sunrise

  Over Egypt's fruitful river

  And the temples raised at Karnak.

  Three great Pharaohs known as Thothmes

  Turned a kingdom into empire

  As they formed a mighty army

  For the safety of their borders

  And for conquests to extend them

  South to Cush to seize its gold mines,

  North to Canaan and beyond it

  To a river much like Egypt's.

  Pharaohs conquered Cush to gather

  Gold for monuments and temples

  That still awe the hearts of tourists

  When three thousand years have vanished.

  In the time of kings named Thothmes

  Came a female king, Hatshepsut.

  Daughter of the first-named Thothmes,

  She was married to her brother

  Of the same name as his father

  To preserve the godly bloodline,

  But conceived no son to claim it.

  When her husband Thothmes perished,

  Pharaoh's crown passed to a minor

  Born of concubine's conception.

  He, the third to be named Thothmes,

  Waited long to govern Egypt,

  For Hatshepsut ruled as regent,

  Then as Pharaoh in her own right.

  She, to comfort Egypt's people,

  Who mistrusted female rulers,

  Claimed descent from gods in heaven

  And put on men's clothes and whiskers

  So that Egypt's eyes could see her

  As a man in female body.

  Egypt prospered while she ruled it.

  Bringing goods from distant nations,

  She built monuments to awe us;

  She, a diplomat, not warlord,

  Kept the peace with lands around her.

  Thothmes, though, when he got older,

  Slept above a holy statue —

  Sphinx, a king with lion's body —

  Largely covered by the desert.

  Sphinx announced by dream to Thothmes

  That, if he would clean the sand off,

  He would reign alone as Pharaoh.

  How the boy replaced Hatshepsut,

  History no longer tell us

  (Illness may have claimed her body

  To her stepson’s jubilation),

  But he struck her name from statues

  To conceal that Egypt ever

  Had a woman as its Pharaoh.

  (Thothmes' efforts were imperfect,

  Else we would not know her story.)

  He, when king, went forth to conquer,

  Making Egypt's greatest empire.

  Gods and priests, though, challenged Pharaoh

  For the mastery of Egypt.

  Where titanic temples honored

  Amon as the king of heaven,

  Amon's darkness joined his nature

  To the light of Ra, the sun-god.

  Amon-Ra now reigned in heaven

  And controlled the fate of Egypt.

  Priests of Amon's shrine at Karnak

  Won great wealth and might to match it.

  Pharaohs fearing priestly power

  Sought a way to overcome it.

  As time passed, the name of Aten,

  Solar disk with hands to offer

  Life to those who sought a blessing,

  Came to challenge Karnak's power.

  Pharaoh of a peaceful kingdom,

  Amonhotep favored Aten,

  But, in fear of priests' reprisals,

  He preserved the rites of Amon.

  Amonhotep's son as Pharaoh

  Took a new name, Akhenaten,

  To tell Egypt his devotion

  To one god without an equal.

  Akhenaten, strange of feature,

  Said that just the sun-disk, Aten,

  Had a claim to praise and worship.

  With the lovely Nefertiti

  At his side in his decisions,

  Akhenaten closed the temples

  Of all gods but his dear Aten

  And removed the throne of Pharaoh

  To a new site in the desert.

  In the days of Akhenaten,

  Egypt's art defied tradition.

  Both in carvings and in paintings,

  Pharaoh, wife, and children came out

  Far from perfect in appearance,

  But showed loved ones their affection

  As they hugged and kissed each other

  While the Aten shone upon them.

  Lack of sons from a great lady<
br />
  Justly recognized for beauty

  Was a blow to Akhenaten.

  Nefertiti bore just daughters.

  When her husband died, the country

  Came to serve a prince whose parents

  No one now can name for certain.

  He was crowned as Tutankhaten,

  But, when priests of old gods rallied,

  He would change to Tutankhamon

  As restorer of tradition.

  He died young with little glory,

  But, because his tomb was hidden

  Mostly safely from vile robbers,

  Our eyes marvel at his grave-goods,

  And we know him best of Pharaohs.

  Those who followed Tutankhamon

  Tried to strike the name of Aten

  And the pharaohs who had served him

  From the monuments of Egypt.

  Noblemen who married daughters

  Of the line that Ahmose founded

  Sat upon the throne of Pharaoh

  Till a new line came from Ramses,

  Warlord who served Pharaoh wisely,

  To bring Egypt to its zenith.

  Egypt's most outstanding Pharaoh,

  Second of the kings named Ramses,

  Spread his name from Cush to Canaan.

  Living long, he built profusely,

  Though he often chipped out names of

  Pharaohs who had reigned before him,

  And replaced those with his own name.

  Living long, he moved his throne room

  From the south into the Delta

  So that he could quickly deal with

  Enemies who came from Asia.

  Living long, he fought great battles

  With a northern foe, the Hittites,

  Whom he boasted of defeating,

  But with whom he made a treaty

  Sealed with two resplendent weddings

  To king's daughters of the "vanquished."

  Living long, he married often,

  Fathering a host of children

  Who grew old beside her father

  And would hardly long outlive him.

  His successors kept the empire

  Strong until the third named Ramses

  Faced invasions from all quarters.

  Enemies of Egypt prospered —

  Cushites, Libyans, and Sea Peoples —

  And though Ramses fought them boldly

  And secured the empire's borders,

  Egypt's foes had cost it dearly

  In its gold and lives of soldiers.

  Lesser Pharaohs, though named Ramses,

  Let the kingdom fall to ruin.

  Cush and Canaan won their freedom;

  Vulture left the side of cobra

  As the kingdom re-divided.

  In the Delta reigned weak Pharaohs

  While, in Thebes, the priests of Karnak

  Ruled beneath a Pharaoh's daughter

  Who became the wife of Amon.

  When strong rule returned to Egypt,

  It was foreign hands that governed.

  Libyan Sheshonq built an empire;

  Then a Cushite king, Shabaqo,

  From a land once held in bondage,

  Ruled the seed of former masters.

  Things got worse for once-great Egypt.

  Kings came down from distant Asshur

  In the Land Between the Rivers

  To drive out the Cushite Pharaohs,

  And the wars of Cush and Asshur

  Drained the land of wealth and people.

  When great Asshur got in trouble,

  Psamtek, once a puppet Pharaoh,

  Brought in Greeks and Jews to help him

  Raise his kingdom from the ashes.

  Necho, son of Psamtek, fashioned

  A renewed Egyptian empire,

  But this empire lived in peril

  Of the hostile lands around it.

  Babylon, which conquered Asshur,

  Briefly offered Egypt freedom.

  When, though, Babylon was conquered

  By the warlike land of Persia

  Far beyond the dawn's horizon,

  Egypt faced a new oppressor

  Worse than any foe before it.

  Mad Cambyses conquered Egypt

  To bring glory to his empire

  And made Egypt just a province

  Sending wealth to Persia's heartland.

  Persians sometimes showed respect for

  Egypt's ancient laws and worship,

  But at other times were brutal,

  Making Egypt starve to send its

  Food to furnish Persian banquets.

  For twelve decades, Egypt languished

  Under Persian domination;

  Then a prince named Amyrtaios

  Forced from Egypt Persia's soldiers

  And restored Egyptian freedom.

  This was fragile, though, and short lived,

  For the Persians soon reconquered

  Egypt and restored its bondage.

  Amyrtaios' wan successor,

  Nectanebo, last of Pharaohs

  Born of Egypt's blood and culture,

  Hid in Upper Egypt till he

  Might regain his throne and empire,

  But he died, receiving neither.

  No one of Egyptian parents

  Would regain the throne of Horus.

  Persia fell, and Greeks took over

  Till the Romans forced all nations

  To obey a western empire.

  Roman laws and Grecian language

  Changed the old Egyptian customs;

  Then the Christians taught the people

  To reject the gods of Egypt

  For a Jewish God made human

  To set free all souls from judgment.

  No one studied hieroglyphics,

  And their meaning was forgotten.

  Though the monuments were standing,

  None recalled their rites of worship.

  Centuries of silence went by

  As each visitor to Egypt

  Gaped at monuments of giants

  And told stories of their making —

  Stories wrong on what had happened!

  By strange chance, invading soldiers

  Found a stone with an inscription

  In both Greek and hieroglyphics.

  From the stone, devoted scholars

  Learned to read again the legends

  And the history set down here

  To recall the proud Egyptians.

  Though their empire has departed,

  And their monuments are ruined,

  We still see the proud Egyptians

  In their paintings, where they show us

  How they lived in grace and beauty.

  We can read their hieroglyphics

  Carved in stone to tell a future

  That adores the proud Egyptians

  Of their glory and their downfall.

  For Further Reading

  If you enjoyed this epic poem, you may also enjoy my other Ancient Egyptian writings: my young-adult novella, Asenath’s Tale, and my Biblical epic, The Stars Bow. Down. Both of these works are available at Lulu. Com.

  You may also enjoy the Ancient Egyptian historical novel, Asenath, by Anna Patricio. This is available as e book or as paperback at Amazon. Com and other on-line booksellers.

  About the Author

  If you liked Egypt’s Light, you can read more of my work at:

  "Christian Writings by Alfred D. Byrd,"

  https://www.byrdthistledown.com

  I’m also the author of the following books, available from all major on-line booksellers:

  Thistledown

  Through the Gate of Horn: The First Thread of the Dhitha Tapestry

  The Ghost of Pelfrey's Bend

  On the Wings of Dream: The Second Thread of the Dhitha Tapestry

  Trinity, Canon, and Constantine: Clear Light on the Early Church

  Kabbalah for Evangelical
Christians

  and of the following books available from Lulu.com.

  Asenath’s Tale

  At the Brink of War: The Fourth Thread of the Dhitha Tapestry

  Between Two Fires

  A Convergence at Shiloh: An Epic of the American Civil War

  In the Fire of Dawn: The Third Thread of the Dhitha Tapestry

  The Light

  Perryville: An Epic of the American Civil War in Kentucky

  The Road to Bull Run: An Epic of the American Civil War

  A Song of the One

  The Stars Bow Down

  To Dream Atlantis

  To the Throne of God: The Fifth Thread of the Dhitha Tapestry