Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 2: Seti Read online

  Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 2: Seti

  By Max Overton

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  http://www.writers-exchange.com

  Fall of the House of Ramesses, Book 2: Seti

  Copyright 2015, 2016 Max Overton

  Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  PO Box 372

  ATHERTON QLD 4883

  Cover Art by: Julie Napier

  Published by Writers Exchange E-Publishing

  http://www.writers-exchange.com

  ISBN ebook: 978-1-921314-22-3

  The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher.

  Table of Contents

  First Thoughts

  Some notes on Fall of the House of Ramesses

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Places, People, Gods & Things in Fall of the House of Ramesses

  About the Author

  A Cry of Shadows

  Adventures of a Small Game Hunter in Jamaica

  Ascension Series

  Fall of the House of Ramesses Series

  Glass Trilogy

  Haunted Trail A Tale of Wickedness & Moral Turpitude

  Scythian Trilogy

  Sequestered

  Strong is the Ma'at of Re

  The Amarnan Kings Series

  TULPA

  We Came From Konigsberg

  Blind Gods

  Dance With The Devil

  Helga's Story: A Child of NAZI Germany

  Outlaw's West

  Read Into History: A Roman Tale of 123 B. C. E.

  Strings

  The Adventures of Mycroft Holmes

  The Painted Lady

  The River Series

  The Rowland Sisters Trilogy

  Wilhelmina

  First Thoughts

  A work of historical fiction comes from the mind of the writer, but it is dependent on historical facts. When I write about relatively modern times I have not only the bare bones of history to hang my story on, but also the personal writings of the characters and their contemporaries, and a host of relevant facts and opinions to flesh out the story. The further back you go in time, the less is available to draw upon, and by the time you reach Ancient Egypt, even the facts are disputed. Egyptologists have pored through the ruins of a past civilisation, examined the colourful walls of rock tombs and their contents, studied temple hieroglyphics and self-serving inscriptions of the kings, and deciphered fragments of papyrus to paint us a picture of what society was like three thousand years ago and more. It is necessarily incomplete, for much has been lost and what has not been lost is not always understood. The history of Ancient Egypt is a work in progress.

  When I, as a writer of historical fiction, attempt to tell a tale from the distant past, I work with what is given me by serious researchers. But what am I to make of a character like Setnakhte, for instance? He was the first king of the Twentieth Dynasty, and features in my trilogy, but who was he really? The facts are scanty. He had a wife called Tiy-Merenese and a son who became King Ramesses III. His parents are unknown, but possibly he was a son or grandson of Ramesses II. He reigned for two to four years and stabilised Egypt after a period of strife, possibly by defeating the forces of his predecessor, Queen Tausret. And that's about it for Setnakhte.

  So what do I, as a writer of historical fiction, do when faced with this paucity of factual information? I invent, but I must be careful to remain within the bounds of plausibility. I cannot make Setnakhte a favourite son of Ramesses or an older son, for the immediate succession is clear. Nor can I make him the son of a later king such as Merenptah or Seti, for their sons (or lack thereof) are known. I have to come up with a reasonable way to let him rise to prominence later in the story while remaining hidden early on.

  Similarly with other characters. Messuwy may or may not be Menmire Amenmesse, depending on which school of thought you follow. I have weighed the evidence and made my decision. Tausret's parents are unknown, but some people think Merenptah was her father. She was evidently important enough to be married to Merenptah's son Seti, which makes her a royal princess. Later on, she led her army against a challenger for the throne, where did she learn her martial skills?

  And so it goes on. The bones of history make the framework of my story and I must decide which opinions will clothe the bones in flesh and skin. If I choose well, my story takes on a life of its own.

  I have researched this period extensively, and while I cannot claim to have read everything, I believe I have weighed up sufficient evidence to make an informed decision.

  My main sources have been:

  Anglim, Simon et al, 2002, Fighting Techniques of the Ancient World, Thomas Dunne Books

  Budge, EA Wallis, 1959, Egyptian Religion: Ideas of the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, University Books

  Budge, EA Wallis, 1967, The Egyptian Book of the Dead, Dover Publications

  Dodson, Aidan, 2000, Monarchs of the Nile, The American University in Cairo Press

  Dodson, Aidan, 2010, Poisoned Legacy: The Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty, The American University in Cairo Press

  Dodson, Aidan & Hilton, Dyan, 2004, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson

  Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, 2005, A History of Egypt: Vol III. From the XIXth to the XXXth Dynasties, Adamant Media Corporation

  Romer, John, 1984, Ancient Lives: The Story of the Pharaoh's Tombmakers, Guild Publishing

  Shaw, Garry J, 2012, The Pharaoh: Life at Court and on Campaign, Thames & Hudson

  Tyldesley, Joyce, 2000, Ramesses: Egypt's Greatest Pharaoh, Viking

  Wilkinson, Richard H, 2000, The Complete Temples of Ancient Egypt, Thames & Hudson

 
Wilkinson, Richard H, editor, 2012, Tausret: Forgotten Queen and Pharaoh of Egypt, Oxford University Press

  I would like to acknowledge Jim Ashton, an Egyptologist, and expert on the Ramesside dynasties, who kindly read through my manuscript, pointing out any errors and inconsistencies. Similarly, Sara Waldheim, an enthusiastic and knowledgeable reader of all things Egyptian, gave my manuscript her careful attention.

  Julie Napier was, as always, my 'First Reader' and I am indebted to her constant attention to my storytelling. She pulls no punches and once told me, 100,000 words into a previous manuscript, that the story lacked credibility. On re-reading it, I agreed, so I scrapped several months' worth of work and started again. Excellent reviews for the finished product have proven her right. I am truly grateful for her forthrightness and honesty.

  Julie Napier also comes in for thanks as my cover artist. A skilled photographer and experienced artist, she has created all of my book covers.

  I would like to thank my many readers too. Some of them wrote to me when they reached the end of my Amarnan Kings series, asking if I would write another Egyptian series. At the time, I was writing another book in a completely different genre, but I started doing some reading and eventually put my other work aside and started Fall of the House of Ramesses.

  Some notes on Fall of the House of Ramesses

  In any novel about ancient cultures and races, some of the hardest things to get used to are the names of people and places. Often these names are unfamiliar in spelling and pronunciation. It does not help that for reasons dealt with below, the spelling, and hence the pronunciation is sometimes arbitrary. To help readers keep track of the characters in this book I have included some notes on names in the ancient Egyptian language. I hope they will be useful.

  In Ancient Egypt a person's name was much more than just an identifying label. A name meant something, it was descriptive, and a part of a person's being. For instance, Merenptah means 'Beloved of Ptah', and Tausret means 'Mighty Lady'. Knowledge of the true name of something gave one power over it, and in primitive societies a person's real name is not revealed to any save the chief or immediate family. A myth tells of the creator god Atum speaking the name of a thing and it would spring fully formed into existence. Another myth says the god Re had a secret name and went to extraordinary lengths to keep it secret.

  The Egyptian language, like written Arabic and Hebrew, was without vowels. This produces some confusion when ancient Egyptian words are transliterated. The god of Waset in Egyptian reads mn, but in English this can be represented as Amen, Amon, Ammon or Amun. The form one chooses for proper names is largely arbitrary, but I have tried to keep to accepted forms where possible. King Amenmesse's birth name was possibly Messuwy, though this royal name can have various spellings depending on the author's choice. It is also sometimes seen as Amenmesses, Amenmose, Amunmesse and Amunmose. I have used the first of these spellings (Amenmesse) in Fall of the House of Ramesses, and most names that include that of the same god is spelled Amen-. The god himself I have chosen to call Amun.

  Similarly, the king known in Fall of the House of Ramesses as Merenptah is often known as Merneptah. Either spelling is acceptable.

  The names of the kings have been simplified. Egyptian pharaohs had five names, known as the Horus name, the Nebti name, the Golden Falcon name, the Prenomen and the Nomen. Only the Nomen was given at birth, the other names being coronation names. The Horus name dates from pre-dynastic times and was given to a king upon his coronation. All kings had a Horus name, but by the eighteenth dynasty it was seldom used. The Nebti name dates from the time of the unification of Egypt and shows the special relationship the king had to the vulture-goddess Nekhbet of Upper Egypt and the cobra-goddess Wadjet of Lower Egypt. The Golden Falcon name conveys the idea of eternity, as gold neither rusts nor tarnishes, and dates from the Old Kingdom. It perhaps symbolises the reconciliation of Horus and Set, rather than the victory of Horus over Set as the titles are usually non-aggressive in nature.

  By the time of the eighteenth dynasty, the prenomen, or throne name, had become the most important coronation name, replacing the Horus name in many inscriptions. Since the eleventh dynasty, the prenomen has always contained the name of Re or Ra.

  The nomen was the birth name, and this is the name by which the kings in this book are commonly known. The birth names most common in the nineteenth and twentieth dynasty were Ramesses and Seti. Successive kings with the same birth name did not use the method we use to distinguish between them, namely numbers (Ramesses I and Ramesses II). In fact, the birth name often ceased to be used once they became king and the coronation prenomen distinguished them. Ramesses I became Menpehtyre, and Ramesses II became Usermaatre, while Merenptah became Baenre, and Seti II became Userkheperure.

  Another simplification has occurred with place names and titles. In the thirteenth century B.C.E., Egypt as a name for the country did not exist. The land around the Nile Valley and Delta was called Kemet or The Black Land by its inhabitants, and the desert Deshret or The Red Land. Much later, Greeks called it Aigyptos from which we get Egypt. Other common terms for the country were The Two Lands (Upper and Lower Kemet), and the Land of Nine Bows (the nine traditional enemies). I have opted for Kemet. Likewise Lower Egypt (to the north) was known as Ta Mehu, and Upper Egypt (to the south) was known as Ta Shemau. The name 'Nile' is also from the Greek, so I have used the usual designation of the time, Great River, or Iteru.

  Similarly, the king of Egypt or Kemet was later known as 'pharaoh', but this term derives from the phrase Per-aa which originally meant the Great House or royal palace. Over the years the meaning changed to encompass the idea of the central government, and later the person of the king himself. The Greeks changed Per-Aa to Pharaoh. I have decided to remain with the ubiquitous title of 'king'.

  During the eighteenth dynasty, the kings ruled from a city known variously as Apet, No-Amun or Waset in the Fourth province or sepat of Ta Shemau, which itself was also called Waset; or just 'niwt' which meant 'city'. This capital city the Greeks called Thebes. The worship of Amun was centred here and the city was sometimes referred to as the City of Amun. I have called this great city by its old name of Waset.

  Ramesses II built a new capital city in the eastern delta and called it Per-Ramesses, meaning literally 'House of Ramesses'. Merenptah moved the capital to the ancient city of Men-nefer, known to the Greeks as Memphis, as this city belonged to the god Ptah and Merenptah was literally 'Beloved of Ptah'.

  The gods of Egypt are largely known to modern readers by their Greek names; for instance, Osiris, Thoth and Horus. I have decided to keep the names as they were originally known to the inhabitants of Kemet, Asar, Djehuti and Heru. The Greek names for unfamiliar gods can be found in the section Places, People, Gods & Things in the Fall of the House of Ramesses at the end of this book.

  Mention should be made of the incidence of writing amongst the characters in this book. It is generally accepted that no more than 1% of ancient Egyptians were literate and that knowledge of the complex hieroglyphic writing was the purview of the scribes and priests. Hieroglyphics are commonly seen in the formal inscriptions on temple and tomb walls. However, there was also another form of writing in ancient Egypt. This is called hieratic writing and is a form of cursive script used for writing administrative documents, accounts, legal texts, and letters, as well as medical, literary, and religious texts. This form of writing is commonly found on papyrus scraps, painted on wood or stone, or scratched onto pottery ostraca (shards). Thousands of these have been found, often closely associated with the lower strata of society, and it is believed that many more people were at least marginally literate than is commonly accepted. There is every reason to believe that people for whom some form of notation was essential to their everyday lives were capable of some level of writing.

  When I refer to a person writing in Fall of the House of Ramesses, it should not be assumed that the person is fully literate, but instead has knowledge of writing consistent
with their place in Egyptian society.

  Chapter 1

  Year 9 of Baenre Merenptah

  Year 1 of Userkheperure Seti

  The Royal Barge 'Wisdom of Ptah' sailed slowly upriver from Men-nefer, its great painted sail bellied out from the fresh northerly wind, its bow wave white against the deep green of the Great River. The current reduced its progress to no faster than a man could walk along the riverbank, but that did not matter as Prince Seti had given orders that the oarsmen be rested. Now, they lay back on their benches or sat looking out at the passing reed beds, without a care in the world. The captain of the barge, together with a small crew of experienced sailors, managed the course of the vessel, manoeuvring as needed to avoid other craft on the wide river, a herd of pehe-mau blowing and snorting in the shallows, or wind-ruffled water where contrary winds might impede their progress. Sun-dazzles sparkled on the waters and birds called from the reed beds, mingling with the sounds of lowing cattle in the green fields and the murmur of men's voices from the rowing benches.

  Prince Seti Meryenptah, heir to the throne of Kemet and favoured son of Baenre Merenptah, king of Ta Mehu and Ta Shemau, Son of Re, Contented with Ma'at, lounged on cushions beneath a wide awning on the foredeck next to his sister wife Lady Tausret Setepenmut, and contemplated the Great River that spread out before and around them. He yawned and stretched in the shade offered by the awning, and pointed to the great stone edifices on the plateau beyond the western shore, now slipping slowly past.

  "I shall build something as magnificent when I am king," Seti said.

  "Those ben-ben?" Tausret asked, shading her eyes. "What is magnificent about them? They look neither ornate nor grand. You will build far greater monuments to celebrate your reign. Long may that day be delayed, of course, for I would not wish ill on the king your father," she added.

  "Of course. My father is old but my grandfather was older still when he died. I am sure he will be king for many years yet. But have you never been up close to them, to the pyramids of stone?"