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the PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN
the PREFACE
In the reign of Rameses III, a
large temple was built at Thebes in honor of the Moon-god Khensu. According to
a tradition which his priests in later times inscribed on a stone stelae,
the fame of his Theban representative was so widespread that it reached a
remote country called Bekhten.
Rameses III
| A king of Egypt (probably Rameses III) was in
the country of Nehern (a portion of Western Syria near the Euphrates),
collecting tribute according to an annual custom, when the prince of
Bekhten came with the other chiefs to salute his majesty and to bring a
gift. The other chiefs brought gold, and lapis-lazuli, and turquoise, and
precious woods, but the prince of Bekhten brought with his offerings his
eldest daughter, who was exceedingly beautiful; the king accepted the
maiden, and took her to Egypt, where he made her the chief royal wife and
gave her the name of Ra-neferu i.e., the "beauties of Ra", the
Sun-god.
Some time after, in the fifteenth year of the reign of the king of
Egypt, the prince of Bekhten appeared in Thebes on the 22nd day
of the second month of summer, and when he had been led into the presence
he laid his offering at the feet of the king, and did homage to him. As
soon as he had the opportunity he explained the object of his visit to
Egypt, and said that he had come on behalf of the young sister of Queen
Ra-neferu, who was grievously sick, and he begged the king to send a
physician to see his daughter Bent-Reshet, or Bent-enth-reshet. Thereupon
the king summoned into his presence all the learned men of his court, and
called upon them to choose from among their number a skilled physician
that he might go to Bekhten and heal the Queen's young sister; the royal
scribe Tehuti-em-beb was recommended for this purpose, and the king at
once sent him off with the envoy from Bekhten to that country. In due
course he arrived there and found that the princess of Bekhten was under
the influence of some evil spirit, which he was powerless either to
exorcise or to contend with in any way successfully. When the king of
Bekhten saw that his daughter was in no way benefited by the Egyptian
scribe, he dispatched his envoy a second time to Egypt with the petition
that the king would send a god to heal his daughter, and the envoy arrived
in Thebes at the time when the king was celebrating the festival of Amon.
As soon as the king, had heard what was wanted he went into the temple
of Khensu Nefer-hetep,
and said to the god, "0 my fair Lord, I have come once again into thy
presence [to entreat] thee on behalf of the daughter of the Prince of
Bekhten"; and he entreated him to allow the god Khensu to go to
Bekhten, and said, "Grant that thy magical (or saving) power may go with
him, and let me send his divine Majesty into Bekhten to deliver the
daughter of the Prince of that land from the power of the demon."
"Bent-reshet was possessed of an
evil
spirit..."
| The king of Egypt dispatched Khensu to Bekhten,
where the god arrived after a journey of seventeen months. As soon as he
had been welcomed to the country by the Prince of Bekhten and his generals
and nobles the god went to the place where the princess was, and he found
that Bent-reshet was possessed of an evil spirit; but as soon as he had
made use of his magical power the demon left her and she was healed
straightway. Then that demon spoke to Khensu , and
acknowledged his power, and having tendered to him his unqualified
submission he offered to return to his own place; but he begged Khensu to ask the
Prince of Bekhten to make a feast at which they both might be present, and
he did so, and the god, and the demon, and the Prince spent a very happy
day together. When the feast was concluded the demon returned to his own
land, which he loved, according to his promise.
As soon as the Prince recognized the power of Khensu he planned to
keep him in Bekhten, and the god actually tarried there for three years,
four months, and five days, but at length he departed from his shrine and
returned to Egypt in the form of a hawk of gold. When the king saw what
had happened, he spoke to the priest, and declared to him his
determination to send back to Egypt the chariot of Khensu, and when he
had loaded him with gifts and offerings of every kind the Egyptians set
out from Bekhten and made the journey back to Thebes in safety. On his
return Khensu took all the
gifts which had been given to him by the Prince of Bekhten, and carried
them to the temple of Khensu Nefer-hetep,
where he laid them at the feet of the god. Such is the story which the
priests of Khensu under the New
Empire were wont to relate concerning their god "who could perform mighty"
deeds and miracles, and vanquish the demons of darkness."
Editor's Note: this myth was taken more or less directly from The
Gods of the Egyptians by E.A. Wallis Budge
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