Joseph and His Brothers, page 107
her words. She definitely has some petition in mind, he thought, and no minor matter, for otherwise she would not prepare the way for it like this. It is quite contrary to her customary manner, for she knows how important it is that I, as a special and a holy man, am left in peace and do not have to concern myself with other things. She is usually far too proud to demand anything of me, and thus her hauteur and my comfort unite in marital concord. All the same, it would surely be good and uplifting to do her a favor by which I can demonstrate my power. I am anxiously eager to hear what she wants. It would be best if it were merely to seem great to her, but be nothing to me, so that she might be delighted at no serious expense to my own comfort. There is, I see, a certain contradiction in my breast: between my own justifiable selfishness, which arises from my special and holy nature, so that I find it particularly unwelcome when someone comes too close to me or simply disrupts my peace, and, on the other hand, my desire to prove both loving and powerful to this woman. She is beautiful in her heavy garments, which she wears in my presence for the same reason that I ordered the hall made light— beautiful with those eyes like gemstones and those shadowy cheeks. I love her, to the extent my justifiable selfishness permits; but here is where the real contradiction lies, for I hate her as well, hate her continually somewhat because of the demand that she, of course, does not make of me but that is generally contained within a relationship such as ours. Yet I do not gladly hate her, but would like to be able to love her without hate. If she will now but give me a good opportunity to prove myself loving and powerful, then for once the hate would be removed from my love, and I would be happy. Which is why I am very curious to know what it is she wants, though at the same time anxious about my own comfort.
These, then, were Petepre's thoughts as he blinked, watching his slaves set the lamps ablaze and then hastily and silently retreat, still holding the torches in their crossed arms.
"You will allow me, then, to sit beside you?" he heard Eni ask with a little laugh, and, roused from his thoughts, he bent down yet again to set the cushion aright while assuring her of the pleasure it would give him. She sat down on the inscribed step at his feet.
"In truth," she said, "it all too rarely happens that one may celebrate such an hour, each offering the other her or his presence simply as a gift, without point or purpose, and 'making tongues' about this.
that, or whatever, with no object in mind—for necessity governs an object and the words centering around it, but speech with no object is cheerfully superfluous. Don't you agree?"
He spread his massive feminine arms out across the back of the gallery bench and nodded agreement. But what he thought was: Rarely happens? It never happens, for we members of a noble and holy family, parents and married children alike, live in our separate quarters of the house and avoid one another out of tender consideration, except when we break bread together; and if it is happening today, there must surely be an object and a necessity behind it, about which I remain expectantly and uneasily curious. Might I be mistaken? Might the woman have come just so that we might share our presence with one another, might her heart simply have felt a longing for this hour? I do not know what I should wish for, for indeed I do wish she might have some petition in mind that does not encroach all too greatly on my comfort. But that she might have come simply for the sake of my presence—I almost wish that even more.
But thinking this, he said, "I heartily concur. It is the poor and lowly for whom speech must serve as a means of some meager understanding about necessities. Whereas for us, the rich and noble, our portion is what is beautiful and superfluous, both in general and in the words of our mouth, for beauty and superfluity are one. It is indeed a wonder how words can occasionally ascend, in both dignity and meaning, from their typical dullness to the proud essence of their nature. Does not the pronouncement 'superfluous' imply a shrug, a chastisement, a dull disparagement? But then that word stands up and sets its royal crown upon its head and is no longer a pronouncement, but beauty itself, both in essence and in name, and it is called 'superfluity.' When sitting alone, I often ponder the secrets of words, entertaining my mind in such beautiful and unnecessary fashion."
"I know to thank my lord for allowing me to share in it," she replied. "Your mind is as bright as the lamps that you have ordered set ablaze for our meeting. Were you not Pharaoh's chamberlain, you might also easily be one of the divine scholars who dwell in the courts of temples and pursue words of wisdom."
"Quite possibly," he said. "A man might be many things other than what he has been charged to be or to represent. He is often rather amazed at the farcical role this very charge requires he play.
and the mask of life feels tight and hot to him, the way a priest may feel stifled beneath a god's mask at a festival. Do you understand what Fm saying?''
"Quite possibly."
"But perhaps not entirely," he conjectured. "Perhaps you women lack some understanding of these strictures for the simple reason that, through the kindness of the Great Mother, you have been granted a more general dispensation and may be more a woman in the likeness of the Mother and less this or that particular woman, so that you may be not so much Mut-em-enet as I am required by a stricter paternal spirit to be Petepre. Do you agree with me?"
"The hall is exceedingly bright," she said with lowered head, "from flames that burn at your manly behest. Such thoughts, it seems to me, would be easier to follow were there less light; twilight, I think, would make it easier for me to immerse myself in a wisdom that says I may be more woman, more the likeness of the Mother, than simply Mut-em-enet."
"Forgive me," he hastened to reply. "It was inept of me not to have provided an elegant, idle conversation that knows neither purpose nor object and is better suited to the illumination. I will at once turn it toward what is more in accord with the light I have deemed appropriate for this happy hour. Nor could anything be easier. For I shall provide the bridge that leads us from speaking about matters of the mind and our inner nature to matters of the comprehensible world that light places within our grasp. I know very well how to arrive at that bridge. But first, just in passing, let me take pleasure in the pretty mystery by which the world of things we comprehend is the world we can grasp. For what one can grasp with the hand is easily comprehended by the minds of women, children, and common-folk, while what cannot be grasped is comprehensible only to the stricter paternal mind. 'Grasp' is the mind's symbol and name for 'comprehend,' and yet the latter can also be represented by a symbol, for we like to say of some easily comprehended intellectual object that we grasp it, with both hands."
"Your observations and idle thoughts are most charming," she said, "and I cannot describe, my husband, how they enliven our marriage for me. You must not think I am in such haste to move from incomprehensible matters to tangible things. On the contrary, I would gladly abide with the former and listen to your superfluous
words, countering them within the Hmits of my womanly and childish mind. I meant nothing more than that one may converse more profoundly about things of our inner nature by a less glaring light."
Annoyed now, he first said nothing.
"The mistress of this house," he then remarked with a scolding shake of his head, "keeps returning to the same point, to a decision made not entirely according to her will, but according to a stronger one. That is less than lovely and is not made more lovely by its being women's usual way not to move beyond such a point, but to have to poke and prick at it again and again. Allow me to offer the reprimand that, in this regard at least, our Eni should attempt to be less a woman in general and more the special woman Mut."
"I hear and repent," she muttered.
"And if we were to reproach one another for mutual decisions and actions," he went on, giving still further vent to his annoyance, "how easily might I prick at you, my dear friend, and note with regret your having appeared for this visit in a heavily pleated robe, since it is your friend's wish and joy to be able to follow the contours of your swanlike body beneath some more amiable fabric."
"How truly this pains me!" she said, lowering her head and blushing. "I would rather die than to learn I have blundered in my attire when visiting my lord, my friend. I swear to you that I believed this garment would best serve my beauty in your presence. It is more costly and more exactingly sewn than most of my others. Kheti, the seamstress slave, made it without closing her eyes for sleep and together we shared the worry whether it would find favor in your eyes; but sharing a worry does not make it half a worry."
"Let it be, my dear," he replied. "Let it be. I did not say that I wished to chide and prick you, but rather that if you wished to do so, I could reply in kind. But I do not assume you have any such intent. Let us rather move lightly on in our conversation with no object, as if no jarring note had ever crept into it through the fault of one or the other of us. For I shall now build my bridge to matters of the comprehensible world by noting what satisfaction it gives me that the charge laid upon my life bears the stamp of pointless superfluity rather than of necessity. I said that what is superfluous is royal, and so it is both in the courts of my home and in the palace of Meri-ma't: that is, as ornament, as form with no object, as the elegant and elaborate words with which one greets the god. That is the business
I
of the courtier, and to that extent one can say that the mask a courtier wears in Hfe sits less tightly than the mask of a man who is not at court, but is stifled by so many objects—and that the courtier is closer to women, since he is allowed a more general dispensation. It is true that I am not among those counselors whose opinion Pharaoh solicits in regard to the boring of a well along the desert road to the sea, or the erection of a monument, or how many men are needed to secure a cargo of gold dust taken from the mines of wretched Kush, and it may be that at one time my self-satisfaction was wounded and I was vexed by the man Hor-em-heb, who commands the palace guards and administers the affairs assigned to the Chief High Executioner—and as good as without even asking me, though I bear the titles of these offices. But each time I have quickly overcome the temptation of that baser mood. After all, I am as different from Hor-em-heb as the honorary fan-bearer is from that necessary, but lowly man who actually carries Pharaoh's fan when he drives forth from the palace. That sort of thing is beneath me. But it is my task to stand before Pharaoh at his morning levee and, along with other bearers of titles and high dignitaries of the court, to recite in my finest voice the hymn of greeting to His Divine Majesty, which begins 'You who are as unto Re,' and to give myself over to purely elaborate embellishments such as 'Your tongue is a balance scale, O Neb-me-Re, and your lips are truer than the tongue on the scales of Thoth,' or to assure him of some truth beyond truth such as 'If you say unto the waters, "Come, rise up the mountain!" the ocean rises the moment you have spoken'—in just that beautiful fashion, which knows no object and is removed from all necessity. For my concern is pure formality and ornament without purpose, for that is what makes royalty royal. This much, then, in regard to my self-satisfaction."
"How splendidly apt," she replied, "though at the same time it serves in regard to truth as well, as is doubtless the case with all your words, my husband. Except it appears to me that, for the sake of our country's vital concerns, such courtly ornamentation and elaborate speech at morning levees serve to clothe the god's objective cares— wells and edifices and dealings in gold—in a garment of honor and awe, but that provisions made in their regard is what is truly royal about royalty."
In response to these words Petepre shut his lips tight, refraining
from any answer for a while as he played with the embroidered drawstring on his skirt.
"I would be lying," he finally said with a gentle sigh, "were I to claim, my dear, that your rejoinder to my idle conversation reveals a matchless dexterity. For, not without some skill, I have built the bridge to worldly, tangible matters by shifting the topic to Pharaoh and his court. But instead of catching the ball and asking me who it was that Pharaoh, as he was exiting the Hall of the Canopy after his morning levee today, chose to tug by the earlobe as causal proof of his favor, you wander off into tiresome matters and make observations about desert wells and mines, about which, just between us, my dear friend, you of necessity know even less than I myself."
"You are right," she replied and shook her head at her mistake. "Forgive me. My curiosity to hear whose ear Pharaoh tugged was simply too great. So I concealed it beneath inapt remarks. Please understand me rightly: I thought to delay my inquiry, for delay seems to me a lovely and essential part of any ornamental conversation. Who would blurt something out at once, thus betraying what most concerns him? But since you have now opened the way for the question: Was it not you yourself, my husband, whom the god touched as he departed?"
"No," Petepre said, "it was not I. I have often before been the one, though not today. But what you uttered sounded—I can't say quite how . . . sounded as if you are inclined to beHeve that Hor-em-heb, the acting troop commander, is greater than I both at court and in the Two Lands ..."
"In the name of the Hidden One, my spouse and friend!" she said in alarm, laying her hand on his knee, where he regarded it and its rings as if a bird had suddenly alighted there. "My mind would have to be clouded and all my senses muddled, without hope of improvement, if for even a moment I were to ..."
"But it came out sounding that way," he repeated with a regretful shrug, "even if, as seems likely, contrary to your intention. It would be more or less as if you were to suggest—what example shall I give you? As if you were to suggest a baker in Pharaoh's royal bakery, who actually bakes bread for the god and his house and sticks his head into the oven, were greater than the Grand Overseer of the Royal Bakery, Pharaoh's chief baker, whose title is Prince of Menfe.
i
Or it would be as if you were to suggest that I, who of course concern myself with nothing, were of less importance in this house than Mont-kaw, my steward or, rather, than his youthful 'mouth,' Osar-siph the Syrian, who oversees its business. These are striking comparisons ..."
Mut winced.
"Indeed their blows strike me and leave me quivering," she said. "But having seen as much, you in your benevolence will let that be my punishment. I now realize what great confusion my penchant for delay has brought to our conversation. But allay the curiosity that I hoped to conceal, stanch it as one might stanch the flow of blood, and tell me who received that caress in the throne room today."
"It was Nofer-rohu, the Overseer of Salves in the king's storeroom," he answered.
"So that was the prince!" she exclaimed. "Did everyone gather round him?"
"As is the custom at court, people gathered round to congratulate him," he replied. "He is very much in the vanguard of Pharaoh's attention at the moment, and it might well be important if he were seen at the banquet we plan to give at the next quarter moon. It might well be of decisive significance, adding luster to both the meal and my house."
"Without doubt," she confirmed. "You must have a very beautiful invitation written, one that he will truly enjoy reading because of the salutations with which you must address him, something like 'Beloved of his lord,' and 'To him whom his lord has rewarded and consecrated.' And you must select servants to bring it to his home, together with a gift. It is highly unlikely that Nofer-rohu would then refuse you."
"I believe that as well," Petepre said. "And of course the gift must be carefully selected. I shall have all sorts of things brought to me that I may inspect them, and this very evening I shall have a letter readied with salutations that he will truly enjoy reading. You must know, my child," he went on, "that I wish this banquet to be one of extraordinary beauty, so that it is the talk of the city and its fame reaches other, far more distant cities as well—a banquet with some seventy guests, replete with slaves, flowers, musicians, fine food, and
wine. I have purchased a very pretty cautionary mummy to be carried around the room this time, a fine piece, one and a half ells long—I shall show it to you if you would like to see it beforehand. The coffin is gold, but the body is of ebony, with 'Seize the day!' written across its forehead. Have you heard about the Babylonian dancers?"
"What dancers are those, my consort?"
"A traveling troupe of these foreigners who are in the city. I have had them plied with gifts so that they will make an appearance at my festive banquet. I've been told that these women are of exotic beauty and accompany their dancing with handbells and little clay hand drums. They are said to be proficient in new and impressive poses and that there is a kind of fury in their eyes as they dance and demonstrate affection. I have great hopes that they will be a sensation and a success at our festive gathering."
Eni appeared to be thinking; she did not raise her eyes.
"Do you also intend," she asked after a period of silence, "to invite Beknechons, Amun's first priest, to your banquet?"
"Unquestionably, absolutely," he replied. "Beknechons? It goes without saying. Why do you ask?"
"You regard his presence as important, it seems?"
"How could it not be? Beknechons is a great man."
"More important than these young women from Babel?"
"What sort of comparisons and choices are these, my dear?"
"The two are not reconcilable, my husband. I am merely calling to your attention that you will have to make a choice. Should you allow these young women from Babel to dance at your banquet before Amun's highest priest, it could well be that the exotic fury in their eyes would not equal that in Beknechons' heart, that he would rise up and call his servants and leave the house."
"Impossible!"
