Blood vs Blood.

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 Egyptian countryside to lands far, far away. Ultimately, events climax in a showdown at pharaoh’s palace.

Author: The scribe who copied this text down bore the name Inanna. Inanna is another name for “Ishtar,” the famous Babylonian Goddess; so, it’s possible that this scribe (perhaps a woman) came from Near Eastern heritage. Other scribes are referenced, and they may be the original composers of the story – it’s unclear. All that we can say for certain is that the story emerged sometime in the late 18^th or early 19^th Dynasty; and it was copied onto other papyri later.

Sources: Today, at least two sizable copies of the Tale of Two Brothers survive, allowing scholars to compare the two versions and their differences. It has been called the world’s oldest fairytale and it may be one of the original tales of its kind. Of course, we’ve already seen the Contendings of Horus and Seth, way back in Episode 3; but even that text was only written down during the 19^th and 20^th Dynasties. So, it’s possible that the Tale of Two Brothers technically comes first, making it the oldest story of its kind in Egypt. Whether that’s true or not, it is a fascinating story – an adventure, a morality tale and a drama of royal intrigue – all wrapped in one.

Our “heroes:” The Two Brothers are called Anubis (Inpw) and Bata (Biti).  Anubis, of course, is the famous jackal deity, lord of embalming and protector of the dead. Bata, meanwhile, is a provincial god, lord of the town called Saka in southern Egypt. So, Anubis and Bata are both fictional characters in the story and real gods, who were worshipped in different communities in Egypt.

Anubis’ wife: The “unfaithful” wife is part of a long Egyptian tradition of condemning women who practice adultery. In religious literature and in educational texts, Egyptian scribes warn their readers against women who stray outside their marriage. The Book of the Dead, for example, includes a section where the deceased must confirm that, in life, “I did not have sex with a married woman.”[1] Great sages like Ptahhotep said that sex with a married woman was “a short moment that is like a dream, but death comes from having known her;” and the scribe Ani says that a woman away from her husband is “like a deep water whose course is unknown.”[2] In other words, conservative writers concerned with morality castigated the woman who has sex outside of her marriage. It’s a recurring motif in courtly, “elite” literature of the time.

Bata’s flight: After the brothers wait on each side of the river: Bata flees and almost falls to Anubis’ wrath; but the great god, Ra Horakhty, intervenes and protects the younger brother. Ra waves his hand and creates a river between the two. Forced to wait it out, Anubis and Bata watch each other across the river. Bata knows that he must prove his loyalty; and he does so with a dramatic gesture. Bata cuts off his own penis and throws it into the river, where a fish swallows it. This is probably a reference to the myth of Osiris, whose own penis disappeared in the Nile, following Seth’s cruel betrayal. Bata, fortunately, escapes the tragedy of Osiris and is able to prove to his brother that his loyalty is beyond reproach. Nevertheless, Anubis is distraught; and in his rage, returns home to do justice on his unfaithful wife. 

Valley of the Pine: Bata now leaves Egypt, travelling to a far-away place called “The Valley of the Pine.” The Pine (or aS) is generally associated with Lebanon and the great city of Byblos, which traded high quality timber with Egyptians ever since the Old Kingdom. Moving to Lebanon, Bata follows the tradition of great heroes like Sinuhe, or even Osiris, both of whom wound up in this part of the world. Bata and Sinuhe have something in common: both are fugitives, looking to start anew, far away from the troubles they found in Egypt. And just as Sinuhe settled, then established a new household, Bata will do the same. Only this time, the gods themselves are willing to help.

Bata and his wife live together for a while, and Bata is (once again) a loyal and helpful man. He brings the food, he builds the house, he supplies almost everything that a lady might need. But, there is one thing he can’t provide: because Bata cut off his penis, back in Egypt, he is no longer a “man” in the traditional sense. This doesn’t seem to be an immediate problem, but it may have a hand in what happens next.

Bata’s wife goes for a walk in the countryside, and soon finds herself near the sea. Magically, the sea itself rises up, desiring the Wife; and it pursues her. She escapes, but not before the sea gets hold of a lock of her hair. This hair floats all the way to Egypt, where the intoxicating scent of its perfume comes to the attention of pharaoh himself. Full of desire, the King of Egypt commands his men to go forth and find this woman, who smells like every good thing.

The Wife’s Hair is almost certainly magical. Since the gods themselves made the Wife, and she contains a little bit of all their essences, she is essentially an avatar of desirability. It’s a shame Bata can’t perform his manly duties with her, because this woman seems to be operating on “Hathor” levels of desirability. It’s like… did you ever read the book Perfume? It’s like that: the essence of beauty has been distilled down into this lady’s scent, so completely, that it fills everyone with desire to possess her. So, naturally, the pharaoh’s warriors and agents are on the hunt for the Wife of Bata.

The agents of pharaoh cut down Bata’s pine tree, killing him. This monstrous act seems to be yet another injustice done to Bata, the second of three which will happen in the story. Fortunately, like the best soap operas, Bata’s death is temporary. He returns to life, thanks to his brother’s help; Anubis (who remember is associated with protection of the dead) assists Bata in his moment of crisis. And the audience would probably understand the connection going on here: as a god of the dead helps a soul return to life and thus undo a great crime.

The reunification of Bata and Anubis marks the end of Part Two, in the three-act cycle. The brothers are challenged in part one, and fall out; in part two, they are brought back together and their bond is stronger than ever. Now, with Bata once again facing great difficulty, they must overcome falsehood and restore justice. Fortunately, they can now work together – and their powers are greater than ever.

In Pharaoh’s Palace: Bata shapeshifts, turning himself into a bull. We’ve seen this idea before, when the duelling gods Horus and Seth went to war for the Kingship. In a competition, Horus and Seth transformed themselves into hippopotami. Well, Bata does the same: but he becomes a Bull, one of the traditional symbols of Egyptian kingship. Naturally, the pharaoh recognises the value of this symbol and welcomes Bull-Bata into his household. For the next wee while, things seem quite pleasant in the story. At least, until treachery struck once again.

The wicked wife cajoles pharaoh, into slaughtering the bull (Bata) as a sacrifice. The King of Upper and Lower Egypt complies, and for a moment the wife may think she has escaped her justice. But Bata, ever cunning, adapts to the situation: as his bloody carcass is carried into the palace, two drops fall from his neck and stain the soil. Where the blood lands, two trees grow by magic. These are persea trees: a symbol of royalty in New Kingdom Egypt. During the reign of Ramesses II, we see statues of the King decorated with persea trees, where each leaf bears a cartouche of the King’s name.[3] The persea may have played a role in the coronation rites; or at least been a symbol of the King’s longevity (every leaf being an extension of his reign on earth – something like that). So Bata, the Bull, becomes Bata the Persea Tree: he transitions from one symbol of Kingship to another, and the story builds towards its climax.

As the King’s agents cut down the Persea Tree (which is Bata in another form) a splinter accidentally enters the Wife’s mouth and she swallows it. She becomes pregnant with her husband’s seed, and pretty soon gives birth to a child. That child is, well, it’s Bata, transformed from a man to a Bull to a tree to a Baby. In a convoluted sense, Bata is his own father; his wife is his own mother.

The Mother’s Bull: The idea at play here is what Egyptologists call the Ka mutef or “Bull of his Mother” principle. It’s an idea that Egyptian pharaohs used to explain how every King was Horus, in an ongoing succession. Since the Horus was eternal, every child he produced was, in a way, another manifestation of himself. So any woman who bore a King’s Son was simultaneously a Wife and a Mother to Horus. In other words: the King impregnated his wife, the wife gave birth to a child, and that child became King in his own right. In other words “the being who is reborn is the incarnation of the one who is dead.”[4] The Horus father becomes the Horus son, and the whole lineage continues, for ever and ever.

Anyway, Bata emerges as a baby, who is the Crown Prince of the Land. He is now destined to inherit the kingship; and as the story comes to its close, he is ready to take his throne.

After Bata becomes King he passes sentence on his false wife. By “judging” her, we should understand that the King condemned the woman to death. Thus, the prophecy which was made at her birth comes true: at the start of Part Two, the Seven Hathors foretold that the wife would die by execution. Now, Bata carries out that fate – and the adulterous wife, child of the gods but unfaithful woman – dies by royal decree.

The story comes to its end and justice is done. Bata, who suffered injustice at the hands of false women, turns the tables on those women and winds up becoming pharaoh. Anubis, who lost his wife for her treachery, becomes King afterwards; and two brothers, who experienced great loss from falsehood or injustice, become the protectors of ma’at in Egypt. It all comes to a happy conclusion; and the audience can leave, satisfied that justice has been done. Sad story, happy end – all is well with the world.

[1] Teysseire 1998: 86-87, cf. Spell 125.

[2] Ptahhotep 287-88.

[3] Matthiew 1930: A Note on the Coronation Rites in Ancient Egypt on JSTOR

[4] Hollis, 1990: 37, n.138.

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,