Mini Episode.
The Tale of Two Brothers is a fairytale, composed sometime in the late 18th or early 19th Dynasties (c.1350-1250 BCE). It recounts the adventures of Bata and Anubis, two siblings who suffer injustice and misfortune. From adulterous wives to the perils of fate, Anubis and Bata seek to defend themselves and find peace, but their journeys will take them from the idyllic Egyptian countryside, to distant countries, and ultimately to a showdown at pharaoh’s palace…
Bibliography
Susan T. Hollis, The Ancient Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers:” The Oldest Fairy Tale in the World, 1990.
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume II: The New Kingdom, 1976.
Thomas Schneider, “Innovation in Literature on Behalf of Politics: The Tale of the Two Brothers, Ugarit, and 19th Dynasty History,” Egypt and the Levant 18 (2008). Online.
William Kelly Simpson (ed.), The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 2003.
Pascale M. Teysseire, Portrayal of Women in the Ancient Egyptian Tale, PhD. Dissertation, 1998,
Now that was another extremely informative treat!
It turns out the scene of a wife eager “to lie” with another man who is in one way or another close to her husband and younger than the husband and upon the man’s refusal trying to denigrate him out of fear is a topos in Middle Eastern mythical literature.
Two other examples come to mind. One is of course the story of Potiphar’s wife known from the Bible (Genesis 39:5-20) and recurring in the Quran (Surah Yusuf: 22-35). The narrative is very similar.
I do not know the origin of this biblical and quranic story, but it takes place in Egypt and Potiphar is an Egyptian serving the pharaoh.
The other example comes from Iranian mythology. It is the story of Siyavash known from Ferdousi’s “Book of the Kings” but dating back much further back in time to the ancient times and ancient Iranian mythology.
The story is a long and detailed one. The fragment of relevance, here, talks of Siyavash’s stepmother who was fascinated by his youth and beauty, tries to seduce him and upon rejection guess what?
She does exactly the same thing as Anubis’s wife and as Potiphar’s wife – she lies to her husband and besmirches the reputation of the unwilling object of her lust, accusing him of rape. All this to avoid any possible blame on herself and also as a way of revenge, I presume. Of retaliation on the desired man who dared reject her advances.
In both examples the desired man is not the brother of the woman’s husband, as in the Egyptian myth from this podcast. In the biblical and quranic story he is the servant of the wife’s husband; and in the Iranian myth/legend he is the son of the husband and the woman’s step-sun.
Both cases are similar and close to the Egyptian version even in this respect, though, as in both cases the desired man is younger than the woman’s husband.
Thank you, Dominic, for sharing this interesting legend and broadening my horizons,
Ivonna