The story of the two brothers
From a papyrus of the scribe Inena preserved in the British Museum (ca.1200 BC)
Anubis and Bata were two peasant brothers who lived in the same house. Anubis was married to a beautiful woman; Bata, the younger brother was still a bachelor. One day, while they were working in the fields, Anubis sends his brother to bring back more seeds. Arriving home, Bata finds his sister-in-law arranging her long hair, beautiful and desirable. He represses any disturbance, however, and, loading himself with bags of seeds, seeks in physical exertion a check. The woman, however, admired by his lankiness, offers herself to him, assuring him of silence with her husband. Bata becomes enraged and, indignant at the affront to his brother's honor, rebukes her sharply and returns to the fields.
At night, in revenge for the rejection, the woman tells her husband that Bata tried to undermine her. Enraged, Anubis wants to kill Bata and pursues him. But Bata had the power of metamorphosis: he doubles himself and, in part, becomes a crocodile-infested river that he makes appear between himself and his brother. Then, from the opposite bank, he explains to him how things really happened and, as proof of good faith, mutilates his genital organ and throws it into the river. However, given the situation, he cannot go back: he will emigrate to the Land of Pines (Lebanon?) and place his heart in the trunk of a tree. Should this be cut down, therefore, this will be his death. But Anubis will immediately learn of this because, at that time, the beer in his glass will begin to ferment and he will be able to revive it if, having found the tree, he removes its heart from the trunk and immerses it in water.
While Anubis, back home, takes revenge on his wife by killing her and feeding her to the jackals, Bata, in his new hut, is visited by the entire Ennead and, deeming him an honorable man and worthy of a mate, Ra himself orders Khnum to fashion one, beautiful, on his potter's wheel. Bata is happy, but as an honest man, he tells her his story and that his heart is in the trunk of a tree.
It then happens that, during a storm, a branch snatches from the woman a lock of her fragrant hair, which, carried by the sea, reaches Egypt, to the place where Pharaoh's launderers wash their robes. A prophecy had been made to the latter: a lock of the fragrant hair of a daughter of Ra would come from the sea and she would be his bride. Pharaoh manages to track down Bata's companion and attacks him. The latter, however, manages to repel him. Then, Pharaoh makes the woman offer clothes, jewelry, great favors, so much so that she allows herself to be bribed and abandons Bata, even telling Pharaoh the story of her husband's heart in the tree (after all, since her husband was a eunuch, one can even understand it!). Pharaoh orders the trunk to be cut down, and so Bata dies. But Anubis soon learns of this from the fermenting beer and, after three years of searching, finds the trunk, recovers the heart and immerses it in water, thus reviving his brother. The latter, seeking revenge, turns into a splendid bull and gallops to the royal palace. Here he soon becomes Pharaoh's favorite animal. But Bata, naively, reveals himself to his former companion who has him sacrificed. Two drops of his blood fall to the ground and from these, a new metamorphosis, two wonderful trees are born. Bata just can't keep quiet, however, and he makes the queen aware of his new incarnation and his intentions for revenge.
The latter then has the trees cut down to make furniture out of them, but during the workings, a splinter of wood enters her throat and is swallowed by her. The splinter fertilizes her and gives birth to a child: still Bata in new guise. Pharaoh, thinking that the unborn child is his, immediately names him his universal heir. With Pharaoh dead, Bata thus becomes the new Pharaoh, lord and master of all Egypt. He first has his ex-wife-pseudo-mother tried and punished with death, then reconciles with his brother Anubis (who will succeed him in the kingdom) and rules quietly for over thirty years. In the end, honesty is thus rewarded, order reconstituted and the bad guys (in the case: the bad girls!) punished. As we can see, even in ancient Egypt, "all psalms end in glory"!
