Neferneferuaten:
Glorious is the Splendour
of the Sun
By Robin Gordon
Auksford 2024
©
Copyright
Robin Gordon, 2024
PART
I:
THE GODS OF KEMET
5. The
final judgment
Faced
with this determination bold
Re
decided that he’d better hold
a
council to decide once and for all
who
should rule the Earth, and so he’d call
the
gods together on an island, where
they’d
ratify his verdict. He took care
that
Iset from the island should be barred,
and
thus he thought it would not be too hard
to
get his way, and finally to bring
about
a vote that Set’kh should be King.
By
decree of Re the only way
for
any person on that council day
was
to cross by ferry, and he told
the
ferryman to look out for the bold
goddess
Iset, for he thought that she
would
not give up her claim and let it be.
The
ferryman stuck gamely to his task.
Then
came a sweet old lady who did ask
the
man to ferry her across to bring
her
husband’s lunch. She offered him a ring,
a
jewel of great beauty, set in gold.
By
bribes, it seems, are humans bought or sold.
“For
such a ring, of course I’ll carry you
across,”
he said. “My job. It’s what I
do,”
Now
Set’kh, on the island, kept his eye
peeled
for the goddess, and he did espy
a
movement down beside the landing stage,
and
so he hurried there, prepared to rage
and
storm at Iset and drive her away,
but
she transformed herself, as bright as day,
and
Set’kh found a beautiful young maid
of
such attraction that he quickly stayed
his
anger, for he found himself on fire
with
raging, burning, sexual desire.
The
handsome god, now sporting an erection,
found
that he was met with cold rejection.
It’s
not the sort of thing that gods will find
often
on their travels, for their kind
always
are adored by humans, and
the
women that they take all think it grand
to
be made pregnant by some great divine
visitor
from heaven. It’s just fine.
The
beauteous one now sadly wept and said,
“My
husband was a farmer. He is dead.
One
son we had to tend his father’s flock.
and
all was well, until – oh dreadful shock –
a
stranger came, a man most cruel and bad.
He
seized my son, and said this to the lad:
This
flock of yours, that you so greatly love,
I’ll
take from you, I swear by heaven above.
I’ll
beat you hard until you’re all but dead
and
throw you out to go and beg your bread
where’er
you may, for I shall take your land.
I
need to find someone who’ll understand
this
wickedness, and who’ll defend my boy,
for
only then will I find any joy.”
Now
Set’kh, still consumed with burning lust,
thought
that, if he called this crime unjust
and
promised her support, then he would win
the
beauteous girl. He’d find his luck was in
and
so enjoy with her the heights of bliss.
Without
a second thought he then said this:
“I
think, in justice, anyone would find
this
crime outrageous. Why, you must be blind
if
you could overlook such wickedness.
Justice?
Order? Maat?
No! Chaos, mess!
Now
while this lad, his father’s son, still lives
a
wicked judge is he whoe’er forgives.
This
crime offends me to my very soul,
and
I’ll do all I can to make things whole.
Punishment
I’ll bring down on this thief
who’s
caused your son and you such dreadful grief.
It’s
clear such wickedness cannot be left
unpunished
and your darling son bereft.
I
call upon the gods to give you aid.
They’ll
all agree. You need not be afraid.”
Instantly,
before his very eyes,
the
girl he’d thought of as his sexual prize
transformed
herself into a kite and flew
up
high and called out loudly, “Set’kh, you
have
now condemned yourself by your own words!”
He
saw at once this noisiest of birds
was
Iset, and he recognised that she,
by
playing on his lust, had won, and he
must
now accept that Hor would rule the Earth,
the
fertile land. His share would be but dearth.
Now
comes the time when Re will make his choice:
who
shall be King? Re said, “With your own voice,
dear
Set’kh, you’ve condemned yourself, it seems.
Eternal
Kingship? Only in your dreams!
The
Red Land, Deshret, that shall be your place,
and
Hor shall rule in Kemet by my grace.”
Thus
was the rule of Earth by Re decided,
and
Kemet was to Hor at last confided.
The
Kings of Men now rule upon the Earth.
The
Kings of Kemet all proclaim their birth
as
sons of Re, the god who rules the Sun
and
who renews our life while ages run.
The
Kings of Kemet, too, are one with Hor
while
on this Earth they live. They leave its shore
and
soar up high to join the barque of Re
and
sail with him across the sky by day.
When
darkness comes they sail the Underworld
and
into many perils they are hurled.
Each
King has bounden duty to be done
defending
from its death the glorious Sun
and
bringing back from danger to new day
the
glorious Creator Sun-God Re.
The
people of the land along the River
thus
worship every King, for he’s the giver
of
life, along with Re. He is a god.
When
they appear before him they’re not shod
but
barefoot in his presence, and they bow
deeply
to the ground, for that is how
they
show, not just respect, but adoration.
His
spirit is the spirit of the nation.
