Ahura woke with a start. What a disturbing dream she had had! She wiped the tears from her eyes and immediately went to check on her child, Merab. He was sound asleep in his crib, with dark brown curls framing his red cheeks. Ahura let her heart slow down as she watched him sleep, but she could not get the sick feeling in her stomach to go away. She had dreamt of a wooden floor, and a force making her walk off of it and towards the water. Then she had drowned, but not after seeing her child floating in its depths. The dream had terrified her, and she had felt a prophecy-like quality to the dream that left her anxious. She heard footsteps behind her, and her favorite servant ran up and told her that her husband Nefer-ka-ptah was about to embark on a great journey to find the Book of Thoth, and that he wanted her and Merab to go with him. Ahura fainted.
When Ahura awoke, she was laying in the arms of the one she loved most. "My husband" she said, "please, we cannot go on this journey. I have had a dream and this trip spells ruin for you and your family!" The man replied, "Ah, my sweet Ahura, do not trouble yourself. You simply had a bad dream, and if there were any chance of harm coming to you or my son I would have also been blessed with some kind of warning as well. I will protect you both, while also gaining all the power and magic in the world. What can go wrong?"
Ahura tried to comfort herself with his words, but the knot in the pit of her stomach would not loosen. This trip would mean disaster for all of them, she just knew it.
Old Kingdom Egyptian princess Neferetiabet (dated 2590-2565 BC) from her tomb at Giza, painting on limestone, now in Louvre, France
Author's Note: This story is based on
The Book of Thoth, in which Nefer-ka-ptah stole the book of Thoth, a god, in order to learn all the magic and knowledge of the world. In response, Thoth summoned the wrath of Ra and made all three of Nefer-ka-ptah's family walk off the edge of the boat. Ahura, Nefer-ka-ptah's wife, was against the trip to get the book from the beginning, and I wanted to give a little more backstory as to why.
Bibliography: Story source:
Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).
I love this little snapshot into the larger story! I also read this collection for the week, so I'm acquainted with the story. The idea of dreams-as-prophecy seems to be really prevalent in a lot of the myths in this class, so it isn't surprising to see it here. If you wanted to expand it a bit, you could explore what happens after she and her children descend in to the land of the dead.
ReplyDeleteHey Marielle!
ReplyDeleteWhat first caught my eye was your descriptions. I like how every detail is described because it really paints a picture in the audience's head. I think that was the point of this whole story; you really wanted to go in depth as to why this happened and the events leading up to it and I think you accomplished exactly that. Nice job!
That's a really interesting start to the story. It immediately leads me to the question of "what did she dream about?" Thankfully, that gets answered really quickly! Her description of the dream and the sick feeling in the stomach is a little too relatable for me, since I've had similar feelings after my own nightmares.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad for Ahura when she fails to convince her husband not to go on the journey. It feels like a prime example of him being too arrogant or self-absorbed to admit that he wouldn't be the one warned. Maybe those words are too strong, but given that it led to their deaths, perhaps not.