![Tale of two brothers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Tale_of_two_brothers.jpg)
The "Tale of Two Brothers" is an
ancient Egyptian story that dates from the reign of
Seti II
Seti II (or Sethos II) was the fifth pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and reigned from 1203 BC to 1197 BC. His throne name, Userkheperure Setepenre, means "Powerful are the manifestations of Re, the chosen one of Re." H ...
, who ruled from 1200 to 1194 BC during the 19th Dynasty of the
New Kingdom
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
. The story is preserved on the Papyrus D'Orbiney, which is currently held in the British Museum.
Synopsis
![Extract from the Tale of the Two Brothers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Extract_from_the_Tale_of_the_Two_Brothers.jpg)
The story centers around two brothers: Anpu (
Anubis
Anubis (; grc, Ἄνουβις), also known as Inpu, Inpw, Jnpw, or Anpu in Ancient Egyptian () is the god of death, mummification, embalming, the afterlife, cemeteries, tombs, and the Underworld, in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depict ...
), who is married, and the younger
Bata. The brothers work together, farming land and raising cattle. One day, Anpu's wife attempts to seduce Bata. When he strongly rejects her advances, the wife tells her husband that his brother attempted to seduce her and beat her when she refused. In response to this, Anpu attempts to kill Bata, who flees and prays to
Re-Harakhti to save him. The god creates a
crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to inclu ...
-infested lake between the two brothers, across which Bata is finally able to appeal to his brother and share his side of the events. To emphasize his sincerity, Bata severs his
genitalia
A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...
and throws them into the water, where a
catfish
Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...
eats them.
Bata states that he is going to the
Valley of Cedars, where he will place his heart on the top of the blossom of a cedar tree, so that if it is cut down Anpu will be able to find it and allow Bata to become alive again. Bata tells Anpu that if he is ever given a jar of beer that froths, he should know to seek out his brother. After hearing of his brother's plan, Anpu returns home and kills his wife. Meanwhile, Bata is establishing a life in the Valley of the Cedar, building a new home for himself. Bata comes upon the
Ennead
The Ennead or Great Ennead was a group of nine deities in Egyptian mythology worshipped at Heliopolis: the sun god Atum; his children Shu and Tefnut; their children Geb and Nut; and their children Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. The Ennead ...
, or the principal Egyptian deities, who take pity on him.
Khnum
Khnum or also romanised Khnemu (; egy, 𓎸𓅱𓀭 ẖnmw, grc-koi, Χνοῦβις) was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt an ...
, the god frequently depicted in Egyptian mythology as having fashioned humans on a potters' wheel, creates a wife for Bata. Because of her divine creation, Bata's wife is sought after by the pharaoh. When the pharaoh succeeds in bringing her to live with him, she tells him to cut down the tree in which Bata has put his heart. They do so, and Bata dies.
Anpu then receives a frothy jar of beer and sets off to the Valley of the Cedar. He searches for his brother's heart for more than three years, finding it at the beginning of the fourth year. He follows Bata's instructions and puts the heart in a bowl of cold water. As predicted, Bata is resurrected.
Bata then takes the form of a bull and goes to see his wife and the pharaoh. His wife, aware of his presence as a bull, asks the pharaoh if she may eat its liver. The bull is then sacrificed, and two drops of Bata's blood fall, from which grow two
Persea
''Persea'' is a genus of about 150 species of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The best-known member of the genus is the avocado, ''P. americana'', widely cultivated in subtropical regions for its large, edible fruit.
O ...
trees. Bata, now in the form of a tree, again addresses his wife, and she appeals to the pharaoh to cut down the Persea trees and use them to make furniture. As this is happening, a splinter ends up in the wife's mouth, impregnating her. She eventually gives birth to a son, whom the pharaoh ultimately makes crown prince. When the pharaoh dies, the crown prince (a resurrected Bata) becomes king, and he appoints his elder brother Anpu as crown prince. The story ends happily, with the brothers at peace with one another and in control of their country.
Context and themes
There are several themes present in the Tale of Two Brothers that are significant to ancient Egyptian culture. One of these is kingship. The second half of the tale deals largely with Egyptian ideas of kingship and the connection between divinity and the pharaoh. That Bata's wife ultimately ends up pregnant with him is a reference the duality of the role of women in pharaonic succession; the roles of wife and mother were often simultaneous. Also, the divine aspect of his wife's creation could be seen to serve as legitimacy for the kingship of Bata, especially since he was not actually the child of the pharaoh. Beyond this, Bata's closeness with the Ennead in the middle of the story also serves to legitimize his rule; the gods bestowed divine favor upon Bata in his time of need.
There are also several references to the separation of Egypt into two lands. Throughout ancient Egyptian history, even when the country is politically unified and stable, it is acknowledged that there are two areas:
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, ...
, the area in the north including the
Nile Delta
The Nile Delta ( ar, دلتا النيل, or simply , is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Po ...
, and
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
, the area to the south. In the beginning of the story, Bata is referred to as unique because there was "none like him in the entire land, for a god's virility was in him." Additionally, whenever one of the brothers becomes angry, they are said to behave like an "Upper Egyptian panther," or, in another translation, like "a cheetah of the south."
Interpretation and analysis
There are several issues to consider when analyzing ancient Egyptian literature in general, and the Tale of Two Brothers is no different. One difficulty of analyzing the literature of ancient Egypt is that "such scarcity of sources gives to the observation of any kind of historical development within Ancient Egyptian literature a highly hypothetical status and makes the reconstruction of any intertextual networks perhaps simply impossible." Loprieno notes that the
euhemeristic
Euhemerism () is an approach to the interpretation of mythology in which mythological accounts are presumed to have originated from real historical events or personages. Euhemerism supposes that historical accounts become myths as they are exagge ...
theory is often successfully employed in the analysis of ancient Egyptian literature; this the historiocentric method of analyzing literature as it pertained to political events.
With relation to the Tale of Two Brothers, Susan Tower Hollis also advocates this approach, saying that the story might "contain reflexes of an actual historical situation." Specifically, Hollis speculates that the story might have had its origins in the succession dispute following
Merneptah
Merneptah or Merenptah (reigned July or August 1213 BC – May 2, 1203 BC) was the fourth pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He ruled Egypt for almost ten years, from late July or early August 1213 BC until his death on May 2, 1 ...
's reign at the end of the 13th century BC. When Merneptah died,
Seti II
Seti II (or Sethos II) was the fifth pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and reigned from 1203 BC to 1197 BC. His throne name, Userkheperure Setepenre, means "Powerful are the manifestations of Re, the chosen one of Re." H ...
was undoubtedly the rightful heir to the throne, but he was challenged by
Amenmesse
Amenmesse (also Amenmesses or Amenmose) was the fifth pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, Nineteenth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt, possibly the son of Merneptah and Queen Takhat. Others consider him to be one of the innumerable sons of Rames ...
, who ruled for at least a few years in Upper Egypt, although Seti II ultimately ruled for six full years.
Folkloric parallels
According to folklorist
Stith Thompson
Stith Thompson (March 7, 1885 – January 10, 1976) was an American folklorist: he has been described as "America's most important folklorist".
He is the "Thompson" of the Aarne–Thompson–Uther Index, which indexes folktales by type, and the ...
, the story is the predecessor to the
Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale type ATU 318, "The Faithless Wife" or "''Batamärchen''". Czech scholar provided the "European redaction", that is, how the variants appear in European sources: the hero dies, resurrects as a horse; the horse is killed and from its blood a beautiful tree is born; the hero's unfaithful wife cuts down the tree; a woodchip remains and becomes a bird ("usually a
drake
Drake may refer to:
Animals
* A male duck
People and fictional characters
* Drake (surname), a list of people and fictional characters with the family name
* Drake (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* ...
").
Parallels have also been argued between the resurrection cycle motif and tales that appear in later literary tradition, such as ''
The Love for Three Oranges
''The Love for Three Oranges'', Op. 33, also known by its French language title ' (russian: Любовь к трём апельсинам, links=no, ''Lyubov' k tryom apel'sinam''), is a satirical opera by Sergei Prokofiev. Its French libretto ...
'' (or ''The Three Citrons''), as well as mediaeval hagiographic accounts.
Biblical parallels
Because of its Egyptian location, it is possible to detect in the biblical account of
Joseph
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
and
Potiphar's wife
Potiphar's wife is a figure in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. She was the wife of Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard in the time of Jacob and his twelve sons. According to the Book of Genesis, she falsely accused Joseph of attempted r ...
a later echo of the fable of Bata and Anpu.
Source of the text
* P. D'Orbiney (P. Brit. Mus. 10183); it is claimed that the papyrus was written towards the end of the 19th dynasty by the scribe
Ennana. It was acquired by the British Museum in 1857.
[Lewis Spence, ''An Introduction to Mythology'', Cosimo, Inc. 2004, , p.247]
See also
*
Ancient Egyptian literature
Ancient Egyptian literature was written in the Egyptian language from ancient Egypt's pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination. It represents the oldest corpus of Egyptian literature. Along with Sumerian literature, it is conside ...
References
Citations
References
*.
* .
Further reading
* Ayali-Darshan, Noga. "THE BACKGROUND OF THE CEDAR FOREST TRADITION IN THE EGYPTIAN TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS IN THE LIGHT OF WEST-ASIAN LITERATURE." In: ''Ägypten Und Levante''
gypt and the Levant27 (2017): 183-94. .
* Dundes, Alan. "Projective Inversion in the Ancient Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers"." In: ''The Journal of American Folklore'' 115, no. 457/458 (2002): 378-94. .
* Hollis, Susan Tower. "Continuing Dialogue with Alan Dundes regarding the Ancient Egyptian "Tale of Two Brothers"." In: ''The Journal of American Folklore'' 116, no. 460 (2003): 212-16. .
* Hollis, Susan Tower. Review:
eviewed Work: Die Erzählung von den beiden Brüdern. Der Papyrus d'Orbiney und die Königsideologie der Ramessiden by Wolfgang Wettengel In: ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'' 92 (2006): 290-93. .
* Horálek, Karel. "The Balkan Variants of ''Anup and Bata'': AT 315B". In: Dégh, Linda. ''Studies In East European Folk Narrative''. American Folklore Society, 1978. pp. 231-261.
* Schneider, Thomas. "INNOVATION IN LITERATURE ON BEHALF OF POLITICS: THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS, UGARIT, AND 19Th DYNASTY HISTORY." In: ''Ägypten Und Levante''
gypt and the Levant18 (2008): 315-26. .
* Spalinger, Anthony. "Transformations in Egyptian Folktales. The Royal Influence". In: ''Revue d'egyptologie'' Nº. 58, 2007. pp. 137-156. .
{{refend
External links
British Museum webpage on The Tale of Two Brothers*
The Tale of Two Brothers, a Fairy Tale of Ancient Egypt' set in hieratic type by Charles E. Moldenke (Watchung, NJ: Elsinore Press, 1898)
Egyptian papyri
Egyptian fairy tales
Male characters in fairy tales
Fictional duos
ATU 300-399