Egypt

Epilogue

Year 1 of the Reign of King Horemheb, Horus is in Jubilation

Thebes, Egypt

Our skiff lolled on the edges of the Great River, among the reed beds, a little way south of the city, in the dappled shade. It was a quiet afternoon. Amenmose and I lay back with our fishing rods in our hands. Thoth crouched in the prow, gazing suspiciously down his long nose at us, and glancing swiftly aside at the sudden ripples made by the fish as they snapped at insects. He hated the open water. Ducks argued and birds sang invisibly within the dense stands of papyrus; across the water we could hear the calls of other fishermen, and further off the farmers and their children at work in the fields. I offered my son some bread, which he took and chewed thoughtfully.

‘Father?’ he said, in the way he usually commenced a long enquiry into philosophical matters.

‘Son…’

‘What happens when we die?’

‘Well, it’s a long story. First our hearts must be judged in the presence of Osiris himself, and the forty-two judges.’

‘Why?’

‘To see whether we have lived a good life,’ I answered.

‘And how can they tell?’

He squinted up at me in the strong sunlight.

‘Your heart is weighed in the scales, against the feather of the truth, which belongs to the Goddess Maat, and you have to make a denial of wrongdoing,’ I said.

‘And then what?’ he insisted.

‘If your heart is heavy with evil or wrongdoing, then it will tip the scales against the feather, and it will be gobbled up by Ammut, who stands waiting by the scales; she’s a monster with the head of a crocodile and the hind legs of a hippopotamus. But, if you’re clever and quick, before she gets it, you can also ask for forgiveness,’ I said.

‘How?’ he asked, curious.

‘You have to make an offering to Osiris, because he is God of Truth. You have to say: “Oh lords of justice, put away the evil harm that is in me. Be gracious to me and remove all anger which is in your heart against me.”’

‘So next time you’re angry with me, or with any of us, we can say that?’

‘You can try…’ I said, smiling.

He was silent for a long moment.

‘So what’s it like in the Otherworld?’ he asked.

I looked around, at the wide sky and the shining waters, and the city in the distance, with its temple pylons, and its stone palaces and poor districts. I looked to the east, and the mystery of Ra’s rebirth, and to the west, the great desert, where Ra set each night in the place of the dead. I looked up at the dark, perfect shape of a falcon silently sweeping across the face of the sun. I thought about the future in which my son would live his life, under a new King, and a new dynasty. I looked down into the green waters of the Great River, ever flowing, and remembered my dead. I remembered my father, and the dead Nubian boys, and Khety, and Ankhesenamun. But their faces didn’t haunt me now. I could look them in the eye. I thought about Horemheb’s offer. Perhaps, after all, I could make a difference to the world my children would grow up in.

I looked at my young son, staring at me, waiting for a good answer.

‘It’s like this,’ I replied. ‘It’s like this moment.’

Suddenly he called out in excitement. A fish was pulling on his line. And then, to my surprise and his delight, he reeled it in with a skill he must have learned from his grandfather, on those long fishing days without me. And he stood-holding up the silver fish, as it danced and struggled on the line-laughing and grinning proudly.