DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.22370#0024
20
THE TOMB OF EEKHMARA
interesting scenes in Rekhmara's tomb shows
him accompanied by courtiers receiving the
foreigners in audience.
Notwithstanding the multitudinous duties
which must have devolved on the shoulders of
the Vezir, Eekhmara found time to personally
superintend his own private estates, and several
scenes show him inspecting the work of his
fields, examining his herds of cattle, as well as
supervising the vintage in his vineyard and the
culture of plants in his garden. When the
cares of the State and his own personal affairs
permitted, he would go out into the desert and,
accompanied by his huntsmen and hounds,
divert his mind by the pleasures of the chase,
or, accompanied by his wife and children, go
out in his canoe to the swamps and amuse him-
self by harpooning great fish and hippopotami.
On the death of the sovereign whom he had
served so well the Vezir embarked on one of
the vessels of the royal fleet, and, with the
other officers of State, sailed down the river to
Hat-sekhem (Hu), where the heir of the throne
(Amenhetep II.) was at the time residing. A
very interesting scene shows the veteran states-
man going to pay his homage to the young
king, in order to present him with the royal
insignia. Very shortly after this event Rekhmara
seems either to have died or been dismissed
from his exalted office, and the royal favours
which had been so lavishly bestowed upon his
ancestors and himself were transferred to a
member of another family. Conscious of having
acted honourably during his long life, he is
proud to record that " he left no bad deeds
behind him,"1 and that accordingly, when his
acts should be weighed in the balance by the
Almighty Judge, he would be found "triumphant
before the gods." 2
1 PI. vii„ 1.18. 3 PL vii., 1. 23.
THE TOMB OF EEKHMARA
interesting scenes in Rekhmara's tomb shows
him accompanied by courtiers receiving the
foreigners in audience.
Notwithstanding the multitudinous duties
which must have devolved on the shoulders of
the Vezir, Eekhmara found time to personally
superintend his own private estates, and several
scenes show him inspecting the work of his
fields, examining his herds of cattle, as well as
supervising the vintage in his vineyard and the
culture of plants in his garden. When the
cares of the State and his own personal affairs
permitted, he would go out into the desert and,
accompanied by his huntsmen and hounds,
divert his mind by the pleasures of the chase,
or, accompanied by his wife and children, go
out in his canoe to the swamps and amuse him-
self by harpooning great fish and hippopotami.
On the death of the sovereign whom he had
served so well the Vezir embarked on one of
the vessels of the royal fleet, and, with the
other officers of State, sailed down the river to
Hat-sekhem (Hu), where the heir of the throne
(Amenhetep II.) was at the time residing. A
very interesting scene shows the veteran states-
man going to pay his homage to the young
king, in order to present him with the royal
insignia. Very shortly after this event Rekhmara
seems either to have died or been dismissed
from his exalted office, and the royal favours
which had been so lavishly bestowed upon his
ancestors and himself were transferred to a
member of another family. Conscious of having
acted honourably during his long life, he is
proud to record that " he left no bad deeds
behind him,"1 and that accordingly, when his
acts should be weighed in the balance by the
Almighty Judge, he would be found "triumphant
before the gods." 2
1 PI. vii„ 1.18. 3 PL vii., 1. 23.