Brugsch, Heinrich: Egypt under the pharaohs: a history derived entirely from the monuments (London, 1891)

Dm xix. SET-NEKHT 321

part of the priestly guild of Thebes. Eoi, the high-
priest of the god Amen, was friendly to the king, as
was also his son and successor in office, Eoma. Both
were declared adherents of the king, whose affection
for the pious fathers of Amen shows itself also in other
forms in the extant papyri. It was for him, while he
was still crown prince, that a temple-scribe composed
that wonderful tale of ' The Two Brothers,' the trans-
lation of which we owe to M. Le Page Benouf.1

The sepulchre of this king, in the rocky valley of
Biban-el-Moluk, is really princelike and magnificent. In
it also we have a new proof of the priestly recognition
of his sovereignty over the land of Egypt.

After his death the sovereignty passed in regular
succession to his son,

TJser-kha-Ba-sotep-en-Ba. Set-nekht. CIR. B.C. 1233.

AU that we are able to say of him can be condensed
into a few words; he was the father of a great king,
and he lived in times full of disturbance and trouble.
As his father had, in all probability, been opposed by a
rival king, Amen-messu, so had the son of the latter,
Meneptah Siptah, become a dangerous successor against
Setnekht. Siptah, the husband of that Queen Ta-user
whose grave obtained a distinguished position in the
valley of the kings at Thebes, seems to have been
favoured by a number of adherents in the city of
Amen, and to have owed his elevation to the throne to
the help of an Egyptian noble, named Bi. This latter
held the office of confidential servant of the king; he
declares on his own behalf that ' he put away falsehood
and gave honour to the truth, inasmuch as he set the
king upon his father's throne—he, the great keeper of
the seal for all the land, Ba-messu-kha-em-neteru-Bi.'

1 Part of this tale is given on p. ] 23 et seq.

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