Reading Notes: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories, Part B

Part B of Ancient Egyptian Myths and Stories mainly centers around two tales: The Two Brothers, and The Book of Thoth. 

The Two Brothers is about... you guessed it, two brothers. Anpu is the older, married brother, while the younger brother Bata carries the farm on his back. One day while Bata is working hard and Anpu is away, Anpu's wife makes advances on the younger brother, which he rejects before hastily returning back to work. Later in the day, when Anpu comes home, his wife tells a different story: Bata came onto her and inflicted violence on her when she refused. This enrages Anpu, who then plans to stab Bata, but an ox warns Bata so he can get away safely.

Image Source. Bata as a Bull

Bata prays to Ra, who then creates a crocodile-filled river separating the two brothers. Here, they make up once Bata cuts his own flesh and throws it into the river to demonstrate his sincerity. Later, the gods make a wife for Bata. The king of Egypt falls in love with Bata's wife, and has the acacia tree where Bata's heart lies cut down, killing Bata. With Anpu's help, Bata is eventually resurrected as a bull. In a long, twisted, confusing ending, the king and wife then eat the bulls liver to get rid of Bata, but then he is resurrected as a tree (again, kinda). The wife wants the tree cut down for furniture, but that still does not kill Bata, because the wife swallows a small piece of the wood and then later gives birth to a resurrected Bata, again. Bata finally becomes king after all.

Image source. Thoth.

The next story sees the character Nefer-ka-ptah pursue the Book of Thoth, which he learns from a priest will give him incredible powers. He slays snakes and scorpions in order to steal the book and gets the powers he was after. However, when Thoth soon learns the book was stolen; enraged, he calls on Ra for vengeance. The "Power of Ra" draws Nefer-ka-ptah's wife, and son, and then himself, to drown themselves in the water. The king, Nefer-ka-ptah's father, orders that his son be buried with the Book of Thoth.