A cock crowed loudly, as the bark of Re appeared over the horizon, waking Neferma'atre from the deep sleep he had been in. His wife, Ankhesenma'at, was already awake, getting dressed. She wore a plain white linen skirt and a necklace of turtle-shell beads. Today promised to be very hot, and she had much work to do. As did Nefermaatre. They would have a breakfast of chickpeas and barley bread with their son, Amunemsekhemef, and their daughter, Merenaset. Soon Neferma'atre would be off to work, and his family would not see him until dark.1
Neferma'atre gathered up his brushes and pallete, and left for the temple. He and his work-gang were painting the beautiful structure, the last step before it would be dedicated to Aset, the goddess of fertility.2
Already the sacred writings and images had been chiseled into the walls and pillars. now color would liven up the goddess's new home. Neferma'atre took great pride in his work, as did all who had such a calling, not for his own glory, which was nothing compared to Pharaoh, but for the satisfation that he was giving beauty to the house of a goddess, and in so doing, securing a blessing for himself and his family. 3
When he arrived at the temple, Neferma'atre saw a young boy bringing a basket of eggs and a bucket of water. they would be used by the painters to mix the paints that would soon adorn the temple walls. Powdered charcoal, sand, mud and leaves were mixed with egg whites and water to make the colors for the temple walls. Soon the artists loaded their palletes, and clambered up the network of scaffolds to begin work.4
Every step of the process was supervised by a priest, who directed which color went on each part of each carving. Neferma'atre, who was good at faces, was chosen to work on a stella of the goddess herself.5
With meticulous detail Neferma'atre took his best care not to drip any paint, lest he mar the beauty of Aset in her own temple. with each stroke he muttered a quiet prayer to Ptah, to steady his hand. Neferma'atre followed the priests' instructions closely, but but could not restrain himself from adding his own subtle touches to the image of Aset, which he felt was too plain and simple. If the priest noticed the changes, he must have approved, for he said nothing.6
At length the stella of Aset was finished, and now followed the heiroglyphs around the image. Neferma'atre, being an artist, was literate- to an extent. He could read heiratic fairly well, but heiroglyphs were more of a challenge, as they were the domain of the priesthood, and not usually used by commoners. Neferma'atre knew enough to figure out the gist of the sacred text, but did not know all the glyphs. It mattered not. Even if he knew none of them , his job was to paint as the priests directed, and so he did.7
As the day wore on, boys and servants brought beer and bread to the working painters, who stopped occasionaly to allow the paint to dry.8
During these breaks Neferma'atre rubbed his sore fingers and aching feet.9
He imagined his wife doing the same thing after long hours of carrying water, gathering food, cooking, and supervising two boisterous children who had a talent for mischief and the curiousity of a miw cat.10
At long last Re began his journey to the Duat, and the priest called out the end of the working day. Neferma'atre climbed down the scaffold, and for the first time saw the work he had done. Aset, in all her beauty, looked very much like Ankhesenma'at. A tear welled up in Neferma'atre's eye, for at that moment, he saw Aset's eye looking down on him, and a smile appeared on her face, as if thanking him for his work.11
Author notes
bark of Re- the ship which carries the sun god through the sky.
Neferma'atre- good is the truth of Re (man's name)
Ankhesenma'at_ she lives in truth (woman's name)
Amunemsekhemef- Amun is his body (mans name)
Merenaset- beloved of Aset (womans name)
Aset- Isis
Duat- underworld, ruled by Apep (Apophis)
What did you think? Please comment!
Comments
1 - 15 of 15
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;_; First and foremost, you created your own characters, but they also weren't Gods. I thank you so much for that. It was exciting to have something different. In every inch of this piece you're giving little tidbits of their culture out for the reader which is nice. A good example of that was when you quite briefly explained what they were to eat at breakfast or what they mix into the paints. I'm very glad you decided to do it on a ordinary man and lifestyle, because you're the only entrant in this contest to do so. I also like the briefness of the detail in everything. I'm not one for astounding detail, so you hit another good point. One draw back of this piece is that here and there your choice of words or your sentence structure could have been better, along with some menial grammar errors. I also didn't like the line describing what his wife was wearing because it just seemed so out with how you describe the rest of the work. Fantastic write. Good luck. Sorry I've taken so long with this contest.
Edited on May 31, 3:51 p.m. because ''. -
Just a note to say, my friend here from Egypt loved the story especially the ending she said.
Hugs and bites, Lady Raven -
Thank you
.... but you wont need to send it to me. To save a background, we just need to right click on it and select save background from the drop down menu. Then save it to our picture folder on our computer.
Dee
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I am a stickler for proper egyptian names, and i happen to know that Aset was not called Isis until the greco-roman period, when Herodotus wrote his history of egypt. herodotus gave many Egyptian gods names that were actually greek mispronunciations
such as osirus for Ausar, Thoth for Tahuti. Hathor for Het-hert, etc. today most egyptian gods are more commonly known by their greek names.
You are right about the duat, tho.. i changed that part
I had to re-read my religious texts. re does NOt go into the land of the dead, as i thought, he goes into a sort of underworld, where his loyal gods and goddesses defend him from Apep, the destroyer, who tries to stop his journey back to the land of the living. -
Hi. No, I mean Bark, if I mean something else then I would have said it, and NO the Duat is not the land of the dead as such,the dead pass through the Duat,if they know the words to defeat monsters etc they go on, it is very complex the meaning of the Duat, you talk of the goddess Aset I gather you are talking of Isis??? the name Aset is rarely used, why did you use it? just a curiousity of mine,of course then you have Aset the daughter of Rameses4th, she was nominated as wife of Amun,gods were absorbed into other gods in ancient Egypt so it gets very complex,as Isis was wife of Osiris and then you find her mentioned as the female conterpart to Amun,I think perhaps if we stick to the more known names of the gods we make a complex subject a little less confussing for our readers,and I say a little less lol.all the best, Di
Edited on May 27, 11:39 p.m. because 'correction'. -
This is a realisitc story of a worker's family in ancient Egypt!You have painstakingly "painted" a picture of an ordinary family, the love of family, and the pride the worker took in doing his job!And at the end , his progress reminded him of his lovely wife and the Goddess smiled down on him in spirit!Bravo!!!!!FYI..the best seasoning for salad dressings comes from Egypt and is called Egyptian sumac. It is so subtle and really adds a marvelous flavor to any salad. My friend, who goes there every year, has to smuggle it out. And she always brings me a bag!Best of luck in this contest. This story is very real!
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Linda
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applause
This is still awesome and I love that graphic. So I applaud this. -
Well done
This sure was an incredible write and sometimes when you click on a story it is dull but not this one. So I shall come back and bookmark it because this one is indeed worth the second look. Well done and I applaud you. -
sure. how do i send it to you?
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You've woven an interesting story and mostly pertinent to the era and country during ancient Egypt. I love Egypt and I'm fascinated by her ancient history. I was fortunate enough to spend about a month there a few years ago and enjoyed every moment of my visit.
Your story has some misspellings and some grammar errors, which could easily be edited out. Just read and re-read, you'll see them.
I like your background, too ... may I borrow it sometime?
Good luck in the contest
Dee
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wow. i really like this story, especially the ending.
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by "bark" i think you mean "barque", and it's the same thing as a barge in this case..
also, isn't "Duat' the land of the dead, or am I mistaken? -
If I am not careful I may scare everyone at work with my scream of joy. Youhave to know I enjoyed this piece. I have a co-worker here from Egypt and I am gonna send her the link as well. This was awesome and I loved the ending. They all smile down upon us all as we look up into there beautiful faces.
Hugs and bites, Lady Raven -
Hi pretty write, normally it is said the bark of Re, and he would pass through the Duat at the end of the day, this is one of the times where Seth will be in the bark of Re to protect the great god.a slightly romantic look at ancient Egypt, but pleasant to read, all the best in the comp, Di. ps Like you Thoth background.
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wonderful, brilliant! great!!! all i can say !! xxxx
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