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Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths & Stories Readings A & B


  • Reading A
(Ra from Smite found on Smite Wiki)
    • "The Secret Name of Ra"
      • Ra has many names that men do not know
        • the secret name gives him power
        • given to him by his father, Nu
      • Isis, Ra's daughter is jealous of her father's power
        • wants the secret name so she may have the power
        • formed a spear made from Ra's saliva and earth
          • the spear turned into a serpent
      • Ra walks the same path every night
        • Ra was very old
        • one day while he walked the path he encountered Isis' serpent
        • the serpent bit him
        • he became very ill
        • he summoned all his children to him to "pronounce words of power" to heal him
        • All of his children came, including Isis, nothing healed him
        • Isis tells her father that the only way she can heal him is if he tells her his secret name of power
          • Eventually, he agrees
          • The power transfers from Ra to Isis
          • Isis gets the power she desires and heals her father
          • he was no longer in pain but he was without his power
    • Storytelling ideas: I am thinking about updating the story to modern times. I think it would be fun to place the elderly Ra in a nursing home and have Isis disguise herself as a nurse to poison him. I also want to turn the story around and have Isis get caught instead of getting Ra's secret name.
  • Reading B
(Treasure Chamber from The Mummy (1999))
    • "The Tale of King Rhampsinitus"
      • The king had much treasure
      • he ordered the construction of sturdy chamber to store his treasure
        • one of the builders placed an easily removable stone in the wall so that he could come back later and steal the treasure
        • but he became ill and died
          • before he died he told his two sons about the stone and how to find it
      • The builder's sons went tot he chamber at night, removed the stone and carried off some of the treasure
        • The king was astonished because the seals of the door was unbroken but some treasure was missing
        • The king had traps installed to catch the robbers
        • The builder's sons came back and removed the stone and entered the treasure chamber again
          • he knew he was caught but didn't want his brother to be caught as well
          • he told his brother to cut off his head so that they could not identify him 
          • The brother did so
          • The king was astonished again - he had the body displayed on the palace walls to try to catch someone mourning the man - no one came
          • The man's mother mourned in secret and threatened to turn in her other son if he did not find a way to get his brother's body back
        • he devised a scheme to get the guards drunk and get the body back - it worked
        • The king was again astonished and angry - he sent his daughter to find the man in disguise
          • she found him and said she would marry him if he told her the cleverest thing and the wickedest thing he had ever done
          • he told her of beheading his brother and fooling the guards
          • she tried to seize him but he had been carrying his brother's arm in his clothes which she grabbed instead and he escaped
        • The king was yet again astonished but this time he wasn't angry - he was impressed
          • he proclaimed that the man would be pardoned and given a reward if he came forth 
          • the man went willingly 
            • The king was so pleased that he gave him his daughter in marriage
        • ending: "There is no more artful people than the Egyptians, but this man had not his equal in the land."
    • Storytelling ideas: I haven't quite decided what I want to do with this story yet. This was my favorite story from Reading B and I want to use it for a storytelling assignment but I want to do more research first. 
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