A God Against the Gods (41 page)

Amonemhet

I, the peasant Amon-em-het, would tell you what I saw this night as I watered my cattle some fifty miles north of Thebes upon the River Nile.

It was dusk. The river flamed to gold, then, as always, quickly faded. In the west the barren, low-lying hills that guard the length of Kemet on both sides softened from rose to purple to the start of black. My cattle lowed their thanks and went to sleep. Thoth and other night birds murmured to their young among the reeds. Hapi flowed silently, Nut claimed the earth and great stars shone. I was ready to go back to my hut, my sleeping children and my eager wife. All was at peace.

Suddenly far to the north I saw a glow of light. Someone was on the river. What fool travels at night through Hapi’s treacherous shoals? I wondered. I turned and waited while the light drew closer. Presently a sight you will not believe surprised my eyes.

It was the King’s barge, this I know, for I have seen it pass many times when he has gone up and down the river. And standing in the prow was the King himself, and beside him another I have often seen, his brother the Prince Smenkhkara. Great torches flared along the sides and fore and aft careful oarsmen with long poles probed the currents to guard against floating logs and hidden bars of sand. I shrank back among the reeds and stared in awe at the dazzling sight.

They were dressed all in gold, and as the barge moved swiftly on Hapi’s bosom I heard their voices, at first faint, then becoming louder as they came abreast of me, then still louder, then gradually becoming weaker and fading away as they passed on north. They were chanting a song of some sort, which I had never heard before. I suspect it was the King’s hymn to his god the Aten, whom he would place above Amon, though he never can, for the people will not permit it.

I suspect that is what it was, but I am not sure; because, though it is carved in many places in Kemet, even in our tiny village where no one from outside ever comes except to collect taxes, I cannot read, and so I am not sure. But I believe it was. And it was quite pretty, I thought, as they sang it while they gleamed and glittered with gold in the light of the great flaring torches dancing on Hapi’s dark bosom, in the
soft desert night.

Together, as with one voice, they chanted and I heard their many words:

“
Thou arisest fair in the horizon of Heaven, O Living Aten, Beginner of Life. When thou dawnest in the East, thou fittest every land with thy beauty. Thou art indeed comely, great, radiant and high over every land. Thy rays embrace the lands to the full extent of all that thou hast made, for thou art Ra and thou attainest their limits and subdueth them for thy beloved son, Akhenaten. Thou are remote yet thy rays are upon the earth. Thou art in the sight of men, yet thy ways are not known.…

“
The earth brightens when thou arisest in the Eastern horizon and shinest forth as Aten in the day-time. Thou drivest away the night when thou givest forth thy beams.…

“
Thou it is who causest women to conceive and maketh seed into man, who giveth life to the child in the womb of its mother.…

“
How manifold are thy works! They are hidden from the sight of men, O Sole God, like unto whom there is no other! Thou didst fashion the earth according to thy desire when thou was alone
—
all men, all cattle great and small, all that are upon the earth that run upon their feet or rise up on high flying with their wings.…

“
Thou makest the waters under the earth and thou bringest them forth as the Nile at thy pleasure to sustain the people of Kemet.…

“
All distant foreign lands, also, thou createst their life
.
…

“
Thy beams nourish every field and when thou shinest they live and grow for thee. Thou makest the seasons in order to sustain all that thou hast made, the winter to cool them, the summer heat that they may taste of thy quality. Thou hast made heaven afar off that thou mayest behold all that thou hast made when thou wast alone, appearing in thy aspect of the Living Aten, rising and shining forth. Thou makest millions of forms out of thyself, towns, villages, fields, roads, the river. All eyes behold thee before them, for thou art the Aten of the day-time, above all that thou hast created.

“
Thou art in my heart, there is none that knoweth thee save thy son Akhenaten. Thou hast made him wise in thy plans and thy power!
”

Many, many words did they sing, all the words of their song, and three times they sang it, from beginning to end, as they passed me, starting with the first moment I saw them in the twilight to the south until they faded from my sight in the darkness of the north; so that I was able to understand quite well what they were saying. It was pretty, as I say, and you would not believe the splendid sight they made, standing in their golden clothes with the great torches flaring out upon the dark water on both sides.

I swear to you this is what I saw, but I cannot say it convinced me, now that I know what the writing in our village means. I still like the old ways of Amon, myself. But it was something, to see the King and the Prince Smenkhkara, so golden and chanting in the night. I went back and told my wife about it before we fell upon one another with happy cries that finally wakened both the children, so that we had to draw the old camel’s-hide blanket over us to finish the business.

I don’t know whether she believed me or not, or whether it matters, really. We have two mouths to feed already, and likely to have a third if we keep on like this. Amon has always understood such things, we feel easy with Amon. I am not so sure the Aten does, and anyway, I do not intend to bother my head about it, or with what happens in great cities.

It was pretty, and I loved to see them pass, because of course we are far from the great ones, here. But it really doesn’t matter much to me, my wife, or anyone I know here in the village.

***