Essay for Week 4: The Bond of Brothers

The Bond of Brothers

(A Silouhette of a Family! Source: Wikipedia)

This week's reading had a lot of familial ties in it. I feel like every mythological story has a ton of familial relationships, but I noticed this week's especially. From Isis and Osiris and their family, and Nu being the father of everyone, to The Tale of King Rhampsinitus, there are encouraged and discouraged practices a plenty. 

First of all, the parental aspect of all of this was very odd to me. They encouraged revenge a ton. and even the means of revenge was horrible, mothers and fathers were encouraging murder! Especially in Ra and Hathor, Hathor killed a ton of humans and swam in their blood in pleasure! What the heck? Also, the parents encourage the drinking of beer a lot too. In celebration and in tricking others into doing what they want them to do, beer was mentioned a ton. The parents only seem to care about riches and have their family come second, especially the fathers. Like The Book of Thoth, Nefer-ka-ptah just uproots his family and moves them for his own selfish reasons. Also, while he is away searching for the book, he leaves his wife to worry and starve on the beach! The worst part is that because of the father's actions, his wife and son both die. All of these are horrible examples to set for children. On a more positive note, in doing all of these things, the children learn that they can and should stand up for themselves. That is a very good thing in life to do, but there are limits.

Now for the children, they had some bad tendencies too. Granted, the children have bad tendencies because they see their parents have given them wrongful guidance, but it's still bad. In The Tale of King Rhampsinitus, the brother kills his other brother! In an instant, without hesitating or argument! And then he was totally cool with carrying his brother's head out of the room. Then, he was calm, cool, and collected when he had to take his brother's body off of the wall. I just can't even imagine doing that to my sister. The vengeance that these children portrayed throughout this unit was very unsettling.

I cannot imagine any stories being written like this for contemporary stories. I feel like mythology was a very sadistic place and time for everyone. I wonder if real life was this way for the people that lived when these stories were created. Stories often reflect real things; it just makes a girl wonder!  

Storytelling for Week 4: Rhampsinitus Rhymes

Rhampsinitus Rhymes

Over Egypt, King Rhampsinitus once did reign,
He had so many riches, that anything he wanted, he could fain.
Next to his castle, the king built a room for all his treasure;
He needed to protect the things that brought him the most pleasure.

However, little did the king know that the people he hired,
Would construct a trick that would make his brain quite tired.
Secretly, one of the constructors made a wall nook,
So that he could come in and steal without the king knowing what he took.

After the building was complete and done,
The two sons of the constructor went out to have some fun!
Their father had fallen ill,
And told the boys about the nook so that they make take everything they willed.

So into the vault the brothers went,
Thinking of all the ways their new riches could be spent!
This went on for several nights,
Each time leaving the guards and king stumped by morning's light.

The king never could discover
Why his treasures were disappearing under night's cover.
To solve the problem, he decided to lay a trap
In order to give these robbers one good whap!

The next night, the robbers came in looking for the night's dealings,
But all of a sudden one brother was in a net at the ceiling!
"Brother!" he frantically bellowed,
"There's no way out for me,  you'll have to kill me, please don't be mellow."

The plan was for the free brother to slice off his kin's head,
Then run back out the nook, leaving the body unmarked and dead.
The free brother did as he was told
And ran away with his dead brothers head and three bags of gold.

The king awoke to the body swinging in the air
He was enraged that the other robber had gotten away, it just wasn't fair!
He had the corpse hung on the wall
To see if anyone would pass by to mourn at all.

Meanwhile, the mother of the corpse
Demanded her remaining son to retrieve the body in her remorse.
The son again did as he was told,
Went to the castle, tricked the guards with wine, and carried the corpse away, which was very bold.

Again the king was outraged that he had been fooled,
So he sent his daughter out to find this man and show him who really ruled.
The daughter found the robber and he confessed to her under false pretenses.
He managed to get away and the king almost lost his senses!

One final attempt to catch this thief,
He would hold a grand ball and if this failed he would forever angrily seethe.
The robber came and managed to schmooze them all,
So much so that the king's daughter married the robber the very next fall!

(Egyptian Bust. Source: Wikipedia)

Author's Note: This story is based off of the Egyptian Myth of the The Tale of King Rhampsinitus. This story was very ironic to me, it showed how the less fortunate are significantly more clever than the wealthy and that the wealthy can be fooled quite easily. I felt that this motif was simple that it needed to be in nursery rhyme form! And I also love to rhyme things, so that too.

Bibliography: Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, 1907.

Week 4 Reading Diary: Ancient Egyptian Myth and Stories

Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories

Creation

This is very different from the Christian Creation story I read last week. It's almost opposite in a way...The beginning was the center of the earth from the depths of water, so it worked inside out! It grew outward, not inward as the Christian story tells.

The Secret Name of Ra

Woooooow. Isis is horrible in this story and in real life.. (pun) Tricking the highest god? That is not normal. Nor anything like the Christian story. It was a very interesting read though! Isis is freaking sneaky!

Ra and Hathor

I'm confused with this story. Did Ra die? And come back to life? Or did he just abdicate his throne to fight his enemies? These humans are so bold in thinking that they can take on a god! Hathor has no problem killing man kind, she's a bit sadistic.

The Death of Osiris

 This is a very interesting story. I like it very much. I'm sad the King died, but the way he died was very creative. I think I will probably do my Storytelling this week on this story! Kind of reminds me of the Trojan Horse, being inside a wooden compartment. I'm seeing a lot of similarities between Egyptian and Greek/Roman Mythology.

King of the Dead

I love this reoccurring theme of rebirth. Death is not the end at all. There is so much revitalizing throughout this story, it maybe hints at life after death as well. I love that Osiris is able to be the Judge and King of the Dead after he is resurrected.

The Green Jewel

This reminds me of Moses parting the Red Sea while Pharaoh's Army was chasing him and the Jews. There are plenty of overlaps between cultural stories that lead me to further believe that a lot of these stories are based on some truth of occurrence and are not just fables.

The Two Brothers: Part One (Through Four)

This sounds like John Steinbeck's East of Eden, with Cal and Adam. Which means it also sounds like Cain and Able from the Bible. Again, women are portrayed as extremely manipulative.This story is also weird. Bata turned into a bull? But only after dying. I don't follow.

The Book of Thoth: Part One (Through Three)

This story is slightly extreme. This guy is going through a ton of tasks just to get to a book. A book. I don't think I value books as much as this guy. It's not worth the struggle. Dang this story ends badly. They all literally die. In an instant. It was a bit too blunt.