DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55202#0145
THE SIXTEENTH DYNASTY
125
He said to them: ‘Let us rejoice, for I have come and I have found
the place favorable for establishing my dwelling in perpetuity.’
Whereupon the three men replied to him with one voice: ‘It is
found, the place favorable for establishing thy dwelling in per-
petuity.’ .... Then he said to them: ‘Be ready tomorrow morning
when the sun issues from the two horizons,’ and he commanded the
Lieutenant of the Temple of Amun to find lodgment for these
people.”
The searchers thus set out from Karnak, examined the site of
the tomb of ReC-hotpe, and then re-crossed the river to the Amun
Temple where they were given lodging for the night against their
return in the morning. Everything points to the Theban Necropolis.
Later Khonsu-em-hab himself is caught underground in a tomb
near which he intends to build his own, and there, lost in the dark-
ness, he meets the ghost of the inmate and listens to his story.
“The spirit said to him: ‘As for me, when I was still living on the
earth, I was the treasurer of King Ref-hotpe, L.P.H., and also his
infantry lieutenant. Then I passed before men and behind gods,
and I died in the year 14, during the months of Shomu, in the reign
of King Men-hotpu-ReC He gave me my four canopic jars and my
sarcophagus of alabaster. He had done for me all that is done for a
man of quality; he gave me offerings
A later ruler is involved here under the name of “Men-hotpu-ReC”
In that form the name is unfamiliar to us, but the ancient story
teller may have intended to write “Men-kheper-Ref” who, as
Thut-mose III, is, of course, well known. The interval between
Ref-hotpe and Thut-mose HI is a long one, but possibly the story
teller only wanted to indicate roughly the 110 years a wise man was
supposed to live,11 trusting that none of his listeners would check
his figures. If anyone had checked them, he would have found that
the story teller was a good many years out, but the chances are that
the latter was only building up his tale by putting its action in the
days of two rulers who were perfectly well known to the people of
Thebes. If this supposition has any truth in it, the name of Ref-
botpe was remembered for eight or more centuries, as the builder
of a pyramid in Thebes and as one of the last independent native
rulers before the hated Hyksos broke into Upper Egypt.
The story is purest romance, and yet a semblance of reality is
11 Pap. Anastasi IV, Pl. 4 line 4; Maspero, Rec. Trav. II, p. 112; Stories p. 30, note 3.
125
He said to them: ‘Let us rejoice, for I have come and I have found
the place favorable for establishing my dwelling in perpetuity.’
Whereupon the three men replied to him with one voice: ‘It is
found, the place favorable for establishing thy dwelling in per-
petuity.’ .... Then he said to them: ‘Be ready tomorrow morning
when the sun issues from the two horizons,’ and he commanded the
Lieutenant of the Temple of Amun to find lodgment for these
people.”
The searchers thus set out from Karnak, examined the site of
the tomb of ReC-hotpe, and then re-crossed the river to the Amun
Temple where they were given lodging for the night against their
return in the morning. Everything points to the Theban Necropolis.
Later Khonsu-em-hab himself is caught underground in a tomb
near which he intends to build his own, and there, lost in the dark-
ness, he meets the ghost of the inmate and listens to his story.
“The spirit said to him: ‘As for me, when I was still living on the
earth, I was the treasurer of King Ref-hotpe, L.P.H., and also his
infantry lieutenant. Then I passed before men and behind gods,
and I died in the year 14, during the months of Shomu, in the reign
of King Men-hotpu-ReC He gave me my four canopic jars and my
sarcophagus of alabaster. He had done for me all that is done for a
man of quality; he gave me offerings
A later ruler is involved here under the name of “Men-hotpu-ReC”
In that form the name is unfamiliar to us, but the ancient story
teller may have intended to write “Men-kheper-Ref” who, as
Thut-mose III, is, of course, well known. The interval between
Ref-hotpe and Thut-mose HI is a long one, but possibly the story
teller only wanted to indicate roughly the 110 years a wise man was
supposed to live,11 trusting that none of his listeners would check
his figures. If anyone had checked them, he would have found that
the story teller was a good many years out, but the chances are that
the latter was only building up his tale by putting its action in the
days of two rulers who were perfectly well known to the people of
Thebes. If this supposition has any truth in it, the name of Ref-
botpe was remembered for eight or more centuries, as the builder
of a pyramid in Thebes and as one of the last independent native
rulers before the hated Hyksos broke into Upper Egypt.
The story is purest romance, and yet a semblance of reality is
11 Pap. Anastasi IV, Pl. 4 line 4; Maspero, Rec. Trav. II, p. 112; Stories p. 30, note 3.