The Penguin Book of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt by Tyldesley Joyce

Author:Tyldesley, Joyce [Tyldesley, Joyce]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781846143694
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2010-08-05T00:00:00+00:00

THE DOOMED PRINCE

Hathor could be one, but she could also be seven. As the sum of three (plurality) and four (totality), seven was itself a significant number. The Seven Hathors were seven aspects of Hathor’s personality who, at the birth of a child, could look into the future and see the timing and manner of that child’s death. Their work ran alongside that of the other fate-determining goddesses, Meskhenet who determined status and Renenutet who determined material wealth. The 6th Dynasty Instructions of Ptahhotep make it clear that fate, once foretold, could not be averted: ‘His time does not fail to come: one cannot escape what has been decided.’ This theme is repeated in the Story of Sinuhe when the eponymous hero attempts to explain to Senwosret I his precipitous flight as an uncontrollable impulse inflicted upon him by an unknown god.

Yet the predictions made by the Hathors were not always accurate and it was sometimes possible, with careful planning, bravery and sheer good luck, for an innocent person to prolong a seemingly blighted life. The Tale of the Doomed Prince is an 18th or 19th Dynasty fantasy which includes some elements familiar from our modern fairy stories, so that we can recognize parts of Sleeping Beauty (the bad fairy at the christening; although here the Seven Hathors are the innocent bearers of bad news, rather than its cause), Cinderella (the evil stepmother: a perennial fairy-tale favourite) and Rapunzel (the princess isolated from the world in a high tower), while the magical talking animals are a feature of many modern stories. The Egyptian audience would, perhaps, have recognized the use of strong drink to deflect a destroyer as a key plot element in The Destruction of Mankind. The Doomed Prince tells of the fates which haunt a young man who has done nothing to arouse the enmity of the gods and who is, as far as we can tell, the child of equally blameless parents. As it is strongly plot-driven, with few detailed descriptive passages, the story grips the reader’s attention. It is therefore unfortunate that it is preserved on just one papyrus and that the end of the tale is missing, leaving us wondering whether the prince did indeed, as we might suspect, escape his fate.74

Once upon a time there lived a king who had everything that a man could desire except a son. The king prayed to his gods that he might be granted a son, and they decided that his wish should be granted. That night the king visited his wife in her bedchamber, and she conceived a child. And nine months later her son was born.

The Seven Hathors came to decide the baby’s fate. Their words were not comforting: ‘He will meet his death through a dog, or through a snake, or through a crocodile.’

The nursemaids rushed straight to the king, and told him of the prophecy. And the king was instantly plunged into a deep sorrow. Determined to protect his son from his fate, the king had a stone house built for him in the desert.

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