Myth-Folklore 2019

My story begins several generations before my birth, when the Egyptian king of the time was appointing a new generation of priests. My ancestor, who had studied the religious texts dutifully from the time he was a young boy and had been taught the rituals by his father as a young man, rightfully expected to be appointed high priest. In the king's ignorance, this holy man was instead consigned to be a lowly priest of no real importance. Upon my birth, I was destined to fill the position of my father, my father's father, and my father's father's father: that of a lowly, underpaid priest with no hope for a brighter future than the one my ancestors' had had. I have never forgiven the royal family for sentencing my family and me to such an undeserved fate. The only comfort in life that I had was the secret passed down through my family for generations of the location of the Book of Thoth, a book filled with incredible power but power that can only be accessed at a grea...

For this week's reading, I chose  Ancient Egypt . Part B consisted of two long stories, one called The Book of Thoth and the other called The Two Brothers, and a shorter story called The Tale of King Rampsinitus. These tales come from  Egyptian Myth and Legend  by Donald Mackenzie (1907). My favorite of these stories was the Book of Thoth. The Book of Thoth : In this story, an Egyptian prince who loves reading ancient texts is told by a priest how to obtain the Book of Thoth which allows one to control everything on earth and in heaven and also contains a multitude of powerful spells, all in exchange for the prince paying for the priest's costly funeral expenses--rather an odd request but perhaps the priest was elderly and about to die. He clearly wanted to go out in style. Anyhow, the prince, Nefer-ka-ptah, takes his wife Ahura and son Merab with him to get the book out of the river (the Nile?). Ahura has a premonition that something bad will happen and she is co...

For this week's reading, I chose Ancient Egypt . Part A consisted of stories about creation, Ra, Hathor, Osiris, Isis, and a couple other tales involving magic. These tales come from Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907). The Secret Name of Ra : In this story, Isis desires some of Ra's power, so she uses magic to create an invisible snake which bites Ra as he is walking by, causing him to become weak from its venom. In pain, Ra cries out and Isis rushes to his side, offering him healing if he only gives her his secret name, which grants him power and was given to him by Nu, from whom Ra came. After several rounds of Isis asking for the name and Ra refusing, he finally relents and allows her access to the name. Isis then heals Ra and possesses his power. I found it interesting that this story was most likely written to reconcile Ra's worshippers and Isis' worshippers--the tale offers a way to have both Ra and Isis as superior god and goddess, as Isis ...